The Flu Vaccine�a Shot in the Dark?

The Flu Vaccine�a Shot in the Dark?: "Recently doctors at the prestigious Cochrane Collaboration, a respected, international organisation that conducts and publishes systematic reviews into the effectiveness of medical treatments, set out to find the answer to a simple question: how effective are flu vaccines for healthy people under the age of 60? They reviewed 25 good quality, clinical trials, published in medical journals between 1969 and 2002, in which healthy people between the ages of 14 and 60 years had been randomly given either an actual or placebo vaccine. Their conclusion? Only six per cent fewer vaccinated people got flu, compared to the unvaccinated people. In addition, the influenza vaccine did not reduce the number of working days lost, nor did it reduce the incidence of flu-related complications, deaths or hospitalisations."