BMJ  2006;333:1020-1021 (11 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.39024.370116.1F

Letters

Influenza vaccination: policy versus evidence

Policy is in the lead

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In his review of the available literature, Jefferson finds a large gap between influenza vaccination policy and what the data tell us.¹ What the data tell us, he writes, is that the inactivated vaccines have little or no effect on the effects measured, and the comparative evidence is insufficient to demonstrate the vaccines are safe.

Jefferson's results are consistent with previous epidemiological reviews of the effects of influenza vaccination. A 2005 US National Institutes of Health review of over 30 influenza seasons could not correlate increasing vaccination coverage after 1980 with declining mortality rates in any age group and concluded that observational studies substantially overestimate vaccination benefit.²

Annually, public health agencies in the United States and United Kingdom launch massive campaigns aimed at convincing doctors of the importance of influenza vaccination. Is this necessary? Safe and effective interventions for diseases that truly pose a threat to morbidity and mortality are . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA pnd@mit.edu

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