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Branswell On The Canadian Flu Shot Controversy

 

 

 

# 3763

 

While we look to science to explain and demystify the universe we live in, sometimes new scientific data confuses more than it clarifies.

 

Over time, with additional analysis and further study, things generally become more clear . . . but in the meantime . .

 

Over the past 24 hours or so the `big flu story’ surrounds an as-yet-unpublished Canadian study that links getting the seasonal flu vaccine to a greater propensity for infection from the H1N1 pandemic virus.

 

For now, there is very little publicly available information about this study, although the CDC, WHO and Public Health Agency of Canada are scrambling to assess its impact.

 

This appears to be a relatively small study, and other scientists will need to review their data once published, and see if they can duplicate the results in other populations.

 

Helen Branswell of the Canadian Press brings us details on what we know so far.

 

 

Flu shots increase risk of H1N1: Unpublished study

September 24, 2009

Helen Branswell
The Canadian Press


Unpublished Canadian data are raising concerns about whether it's a good idea to get a seasonal flu shot this season.


Drawn from a series of studies from British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario, the data appear to suggest that people who got a seasonal flu shot last year are about twice as likely to catch swine flu as people who didn't.

 

A scientific paper has been submitted to a journal and the lead authors – Dr. Danuta Skowronski of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and Dr. Gaston De Serres of Laval University – won't speak to the media. Journals bar would-be authors from discussing their results publicly before they go through peer review.

 

While few people appear to have actually seen or read the study, the puzzling findings have been a poorly kept secret and many in the public health community in Canada have heard about them.

 

In fact, concern about the unconfirmed findings is playing into calls from Quebec and possibly other jurisdictions to delay or even cancel this year's seasonal flu shot campaigns across the country.

(Continue . . . )

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Pandemic
Vaccine
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