What is in your vaccine?

What is in your vaccine?

“The studies underlying the policy are often of low quality and do not substantiate officials’ claims. The vaccine might be less beneficial and less safe than has been claimed, and the threat of influenza appears overstated.”

by Mary Budinger — 

When you buy food or supplements, there is a label that tells you something about what is in there. But normally the person who injects you with a vaccine or flu shot does not hand you the list of ingredients.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) publishes an updated list of ingredients in all vaccines sold in the United States called the “Pink Book.” You can see a simplified list at cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/ pinkbook/downloads/appendices/b/excipient-table-2.pdf.

You will need to know, for example, that mercury is called thimerosal. Want to know how much mercury is in a flu shot? Then you have to go to a different web address: cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/vaxsupply.htm. This chart also identifies the ovalbumin content in flu vaccines, meaning if you are allergic to egg protein, this vaccine could provoke an allergic reaction. Vaccines such as influenza, measles, mumps, rubella, rabies and yellow fever are created on egg media.

A 2013 study published in the British Medical Journal found that although influenza vaccines are one of the most visible and aggressive public health policies today, the vaccines offer more hype than protection. It states, “The studies underlying the policy are often of low quality and do not substantiate officials’ claims. The vaccine might be less beneficial and less safe than has been claimed, and the threat of influenza appears overstated.”

A U.S. government study released in February 2013 found that the flu shot was only nine percent effective in protecting seniors against the 2012-2013 season’s most virulent influenza bug. According to the CDC, the vaccine’s effectiveness was moderate, just 56 percent for all age groups.

Source: Doshi P. Influenza: marketing vaccine by marketing disease. BMJ, May 2013.

Mary Budinger is an Emmy award-winning journalist who writes about nutrition and integrative medicine. 602-494-1999.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 33, Number 6, December 2014/January 2015.