The flu season has yet to reach its peak. It's still not too late to get flu shots.

Flu shots are bogus -- just a piece of product from Big Pharma fraudsters.

Flu shots are bogus -- just a piece of product from Big Pharma fraudsters.

Please show me your evidence, numbers, statistics, comparisons. If not, I think is smarter to trust those that not only work for a living fighting the flu AND can give support to their recommendations by providing that evidence instead of a random person on internet talking about world conspiracies.

chikv: "Please show me your evidence, numbers, statistics, comparisons."

Everyone I know who has come down with the flu has had a flu shot, without exceptions. And vice-versa, along with SOME who got flu shots and have not contracted it, most of the people I know who have not caught the flu never bother with the shots, and never catch it.

" I think is smarter to trust those that not only work for a living fighting the flu"

And don't forget in many cases those people are profiting from sales of flu vaccine and the research to come up with new vaccines and medicines like Tamiflu to combat the stronger strains that are a DIRECT result of abuse of unneeded medicines.

The shots are completely unnecessary.

Everyone I know who has come down with the flu has had a flu shot, without exceptions. And vice-versa, along with SOME who got flu shots and have not contracted it, most of the people I know who have not caught the flu never bother with the shots, and never catch it.

But still, when studies with hundreds of participants are followed there is very strong protective effect visible (conceding that this changes every year). There are many factors on why someone get or not the flu so you have to control for them in order to see if one specific factor have an effect. Its very easy for example for a teacher to get examples of people with the flu even with vaccines (since they are exposed to multiple types during a single season including other infections that are easily confused with the flu) and instead someone with friends that won't work with many people will not get exposure so don't get the disease, even without the vaccine. Personal examples are not a substitute for well categorized and described cases, they are a much less reliable source of information than a single well prepared study even with less participants. We have many studies with thousands of cases that say that the vaccine have a real positive effect, so objectively the shots are very necessary.

And don't forget in many cases those people are profiting from sales of flu vaccine and the research to come up with new vaccines and medicines like Tamiflu to combat the stronger strains that are a DIRECT result of abuse of unneeded medicines.

That is what post publication peer review and the declaration of conflic of interest is for. Also, resistance to an antivirus is not the same as "stronger" strains, especially in the case of influenza where the virulence and the transmissibility of the virus depend on different genes (and the resistant to antivirals even to another one). Abuse of antivirals does not lead to harder or easier to get flu, it only leads to difficulty to treat it with that kind of antivirus. So at much you get back to square one.

The "profit" argument only works if you are willing to believe that all the professionals in all the countries are somehow in a conspiracy to sell vaccines so they falsify their studies every year to keep the lie, even at the cost of lives (including their friends and family that are susceptible to allergies or other complications). This means doctors, nurses, epidemiologist, scientists, experts in bioinformatics, public health officials, etc etc. Thinking practically this is not believable, specially when those same people are ready to recognize that some years the vaccine efficacy is not exactly high thanks to unexpected changes in the predominant strains.

So do you have the numbers? or you really think that your personal experience can replace that huge amount of evidence?