Dotting the I in Influenza

Some possible explanations for the prominence of influenza vaccines.

In this last post of the dots series, we shall try to explain why influenza vaccines have played a prominent role in the previous two decades.

None of them are sure, just probable or possible. What is certain is that the role of influenza has been massively overplayed to the benefit of certain sectors of “the industry”: public health, big pharma, and mainstream media. Politicians have also benefited from the public's distraction.

First, influenza vaccine trials funded by industry are more prominent than those not sponsored by industry.  This has nothing to do with methodological quality or study size.  By “prominent”, we mean being published in journals with the highest impact factor.  We will return to this aspect, but first, let us explain how we know this.

In 2009, Tom and his then-Cochrane group looked at 259 randomised and observational influenza vaccine studies of all designs. The included studies that tested the effects of influenza vaccines against placebo, symptomatic interventi…