Key opinion leaders: working for pharma or public health?

Or maybe both or neither

On the 14^th of March 2018, we wrote a letter to a British Member of Parliament (MP) chairing Westminster’s Science and Technology Committee. This is a powerful crossbench Parliamentary body with a remit to scrutinise what it says on the tin.

The letter is here. It was written in response to evidence of the performance and future roles of influenza vaccines given by three important figures in the British public health establishment. These three made statements that were not based on any solid evidence. 

An example of one such statement regarded the adjuvanted influenza vaccine, recommended for the forthcoming “season” (2018-19).

One of them claimed that the vaccine would be a “game changer” (see excerpts of the transcript at the end of our letter). 

Because we knew these powerful people's backgrounds and track records, and Tom has been working on a suite of Cochrane reviews on influenza vaccines since the 1990s, we asked the chair to pass on five straightforward questions to the three offi…