Tuesday, May 26, 2009
I was interested in the knowing just how many people die from the flu each year. So I went to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website to find out. I picked a recent year, 2006-2007 just to get an idea. In that year, according to the CDC, there were
9 flu related deaths in the 2006-2007 flu season in children ages 3 months to 14 years. These of course are not just statistics. These are nine personal tragedies for the families involved.
It then occurred to me to wonder just how many children during the same time may have died from vaccination itself rather than from the disease that it was supposed to prevent? Fortunately, the United States Government has set up a reporting system for people who after receiving an inoculation experience an “adverse” effect. Death of course being the most adverse effect possible one would suppose. When one visits the
VAERS website they have one agree that he understands that this is a passive reporting system before access to the data is granted. They provide this caveat:
When evaluating data from VAERS, it is important to note that for any
reported event, no cause and effect relationship has been established. VAERS is
interested in all potential associations between vaccines and adverse events.
Therefore, VAERS collects data on any adverse event following vaccination, be it
coincidental or truly caused by a vaccine. The report of an adverse event to
VAERS is not documentation that a vaccine caused the event.
Fine.
I entered the parameters of children less than six months to 17 years old who reported death as the adverse event related to receiving a flu vaccination. I queried the database and retrieved this report:
VAERS Results Form
http://wonder.cdc.gov/controller/datarequest/D8
| Age |
Serious |
Count |
Percent (of 108) |
| < 6 Months |
Serious |
81 |
75.00% |
| Total |
81 |
75.00% |
| 6-11 Months |
Serious |
16 |
14.81% |
| Total |
16 |
14.81% |
| 1-2 Years |
Serious |
10 |
9.26% |
| Total |
10 |
9.26% |
| 6-17 Years |
Serious |
3 |
2.78% |
| Total |
3 |
2.78% |
| Total |
Suppressed |
Suppressed |
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This chart shows that in 2007 there were 108 VAERS reported deaths following a flu shot. Now, lets say half of the reports were wrong. Lets say only 54 teenagers and children (75% were younger than 6 months) died from the vaccine. Another problem with trying to compare data is that one set of data is for 2006-2007 and the other is for 2007. So let’s say that half of those deaths were for the first part of 2007. That would still be 27. Being very conservative with the reported figures, that would mean that it one would be 3 times more likely to die from the flu shot as from the flu itself. All other things being equal, I think that I will take my chances with the flu and not risk death or paralysis from a vaccine.