Wikipedia tells us that the flu virus results in “about 250,000 to 500,000 yearly deaths” worldwide. The CDC says that at least 36,000 people die from the flu in the U.S. each year. And every year this is the season when the media encourages everyone, including infants, pregnant women and elderly, to get a flu shot. We are told to disbelieve or ignore the fact that people who receive yearly flu vaccines can show reduced protection,1 and that flu vaccination may actually increase the risk of influenza infection,1 and that the shot is estimated to be only 20% effective,2 and that what little effectiveness the shot does have diminishes quickly,3 and that the influenza vaccine may be one of the riskier vaccines we use regularly.4
For more than a decade, the CDC has been claiming that there are more than 200,000 estimated hospitalizations and at least 36,000 deaths contributed to influenza every year in the United States.5 Now the CDC is saying that 80,000 Americans died of the flu in 2017. This would exceed the causes of death by car accidents or cancer or all of the other most likely causes of deaths in the United States. That averages out to 219 people dying every day from the flu, but since influenza is most prevalent in October and November we would be seeing about 450 to 500 deaths a day within the flu season.
Related: How To Heal Your Gut
These numbers are radically inaccurate. Huffington Post in Canada reports:
According to the National Vital Statistics System in the U.S., for example, annual flu deaths in 2010 amounted to just 500 per year — fewer than deaths from ulcers (2,977), hernias (1,832) and pregnancy and childbirth (825), and a far cry from the big killers such as heart disease (597,689) and cancers (574,743). The story is similar in Canada, where unlikely killers likewise dwarf Statistics Canada’s count of flu deaths.
“Even that 500 figure for the U.S. could be too high, according to analyses in authoritative journals such as the American Journal of Public Health and the British Medical Journal. Only about 15-20 per cent of people who come down with flu-like symptoms have the influenza virus — the other 80-85 per cent actually caught rhinovirus or other germs that are indistinguishable from the true flu without laboratory tests, which are rarely done. In 2001, a year in which death certificates listed 257 Americans as having died of flu, only 18 were positively identified as true flus. The other 239 were simply assumed to be flus and most likely had few true flus among them.
The British Medical Journal stated in 2005 that, “U.S. data on influenza deaths are a mess.” 6
Related: How To Detoxify and Heal From Vaccinations – For Adults and Children
The CDC is counting all deaths caused by pneumonia as likely influenza-related deaths. Pneumonia has more than 30 different causes. Influenza is just one of them.7 The CDC’s statistics on hospitalizations are extremely flawed too:
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has claimed that over 200,000 Americans are hospitalized and 36,000 die from the flu each year. However, Dr. Joseph Mercola’s investigation of inflated flu shot statistics revealed that the hospitalization estimate includes not just those who are hospitalized with flu, but for pneumonia, respiratory, and even heart conditions.
The CDC’s annual hospitalization statistic is untrustworthy for another startling reason. The CDC’s 2012 to 2013 season analysis states that it determines its flu-associated hospitalization rates from the data provided by the Emerging Infections Program (EIP). However, the EIP only reports hospitalizations for which a laboratory test confirms a flu diagnosis. The CDC then calls this underreporting, and “adjusts” for it by applying a “hospitalization underreporting multiplier” of 2.7. This means for every real, documented case of influenza, the CDC multiplies it by nearly three.” – Alliance for Natural Health
The CDC is using the media to scare the public into getting flu shots they do not need to create demand and profit. In 2015 it was reported to be a 1.61 billion dollar business.8 The CDC gets much of its funding from pharmaceutical companies and owns more than 50 different vaccine patents.9
If you want to stay well during the flu season, we recommend avoiding sugar and other refined foods and make sure your gut is healthy (see How To Heal Your Gut). That should be enough. If you want to be extra cautious, take some vitamin C and sip on this Root Cider daily (read our review here). I also recommend having the following in your supplement cabinet in case you do begin to come down with something or if you eat some of those unhealthy holiday foods:
If you feel yourself coming down with something, eat salads (like these), sip on the aforementioned root cider every hour, and get on the supplements listed above.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHrtxhgB5sQ
Excerpt from article by Barbara Loe Fisher on Dr. Mercola’s site:
Recorded Influenza Deaths Dropping in the 21st Century
Here is what I found: Since 1940, the highest number of influenza deaths recorded in a single year was 21,047 deaths in 1941. In fact, the mortality rate from influenza was NOT rising in the late 20th century – as the CDC employees have alleged – it was dropping.
There were only between 600 and 750 influenza deaths recorded annually between 1995 and 1997.34 The most influenza deaths recorded in a single year since 1979 was about 2,900 deaths and that was in 2009, the H1N1 swine flu pandemic year!
CDC Expanding the Flu Vaccine Market Between 2000-2010
But that didn’t stop CDC policymakers, along with drug company and medical trade association lobbyists ever present at the policymaking table, from using inflated influenza hospitalization and mortality estimates to justify expanding the influenza vaccine market:
- In 2000, CDC policymakers voted to expand flu shot recommendations to all healthy Americans over age 50.35 Out of a population of 300 million, there were 1,765 recorded influenza deaths that year.
- In 2002, CDC voted to add all healthy babies from six to 23 months.36 There were 727 recorded influenza deaths that year.
- In 2006, CDC voted to recommend flu shots for all healthy children up to five years old as well as all healthy pregnant women in any trimester.37 There were 849 recorded influenza deaths that year.
- In 2007, CDC voted to add all healthy children up to eight years old.38 There were 411 recorded influenza deaths that year.
- In 2008, CDC voted to recommend annual flu shots for all healthy children up to age 18 years.39 There were 1,722 recorded influenza deaths that year.
- In 2009, the Secretaries of Health and Homeland Security declared a national emergency because they said pandemic H1N1 swine flu was sweeping the country and tens of thousands of people could die. Liability free drug companies were told to rush an experimental swine flu vaccine to the market.40
- In 2010, a year when there were 494 recorded influenza deaths, the CDC officials finally reached the ultimate goal of their long game: they told doctors to give annual flu shots to every American, healthy or not, from the year of birth to the year of death.41
Sources:
- Flu vaccine paradox adds to public health debate – CBC News
- Study predicts 2018 flu vaccine will likely have 20 percent efficacy – Science Daily
- Study: Flu vaccine protection starts to wane within weeks – Center For Infectious Disease Research and Policy
- Influenza Vaccine – A Comprehensive Overview of the Potential Dangers and Effectiveness of the Flu Shot
- Reinberg S. Flu Season Off to A Very Late Start: CDC. HealthDay – U.S. News. Feb. 23, 2012
- Are U.S. flu death figures more PR than science? – British Medical Journal
- Learn About Pneumonia – American Lung Association
- The $1.6 billion business of flu – CNBC
- The CDC Is A For-Profit Corporation, Owning More Than 50 Different Vaccine Patents – March Against Monsanto