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False Claims about Flu Vaccines

False Claims about Flu Vaccines

Claims made by the Pharmaceutical industry sponsored National Influenza Strategy Group that "Latest research confirms influenza can trigger heart attacks" is totally false and misleading.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE0706/S00062.htm

"Another claim, by the Waikato District Health Board that, 'New research has confirmed having the vaccination can reduce the risk of heart attacks,' is nothing short of a lie," says Risk & Policy Analyst, Ron Law.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE0706/S00068.htm

The research paper referred to makes no such finding. "To say or even imply that it did is nothing short of scientific fraud," said Ron Law.

The accompanying editorial in the European Heart Journal (May 2007) stated, "The association may not, of course, be causal. Ambient cold temperatures are likely to have been closely associated with levels of influenza, and could well have contributed to the effect on coronary death observed, particularly given the setting of northern Russia."
http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/28/10/1178

Is it any wonder that influenza vaccination rates are declining when officials and de facto spokespersons of pharmaceutical companies use scaremongering and false information to hawke their sponsors' products?

ENDS

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