My health insurer sends out a print newsletter periodically, and naturally each issue encourages patients to get vaccinated.
One I got says to get your flu shot because it "will help you avoid getting the flu this year."
Another one tells pregnant women, "A flu shot is the best protection from illness for mother and baby".
Then it encourages women to get Merck's Gardasil HPV vaccine, claiming it can "reduce your chance of getting cervical cancer."
Then it advises people to follow the USDA's recommend diet including 50% carbohydrates and 5% junk food (the pie chart graphic featured shows a hamburger, hot dog, ice cream cone, and glazed donuts).
And then it repeats its usual flu shot recommendation on the grounds it "will help you avoid getting the flu this year."
Well, if you've read the first two installments of my multi-part influenza vaccine exposé, you're already immunized against this kind of flu shot propaganda from health insurance companies.
You'd think they were trying to make people sick telling them to follow the USDA's high-carb diet. When you think carbs, think sugar! Because that's what your body turns carbs into. And when you think sugar, think fat and inflammation.
Regarding their claim about the HPV vaccine, the fact is that the number of studies that have shown that it is effective at reducing cervical cancer is zero.
And coming back to the influenza vaccine, if you've read my series, you know that the odds that this year's shot "will help you avoid getting the flu" were particularly low, as the vaccine was not well matched to the dominant circulating strain (H3N2).
You also know that the number of randomized controlled trials assessing the safety and effectiveness of the influenza vaccine for pregnant women and their unborn babies is zero.
And as I'll show in the forthcoming third installment, a study funded by the CDC and conducted by CDC researchers found the flu vaccine to be associated with as much as a sevenfold greater risk of having a miscarriage.
Part three will also explain how getting an annual flu shot can actually increase your risk of illness.
And what's this nonsense from my insurance company about the vaccine being "the best" way to avoid getting the flu? Where is the science showing that vaccination is more effective than, say, healthy lifestyle habits that include a healthful diet and maintaining sufficiency of vitamin C and especially vitamin D during winter months when your body isn't making enough of it from sun exposure?
In fact, as I'll go into in part four of my series, science suggests that simple healthy lifestyle choices are a far safer and more effective strategy.
You can't trust your doctor or pediatrician to tell you the information you need to know in order to make an informed choice whether to get the flu shot or not.
You can't trust the CDC to tell you.
You can't trust your insurance company to tell you.
You can't trust the establishment media to tell you.
It's up to us to educate ourselves and share our knowledge with others. That's why I'm writing this series of articles that is comprehensive in scope and illuminates the bigger picture, yet is quickly and easily consumable by busy readers.
If you missed the first two installments, be sure to read and share them:
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claims that its recommendation that everyone aged six months and up should get an annual flu shot is firmly grounded in science. The medical literature tells us something else entirely.
P.S. -- There is also a fourth installment I intend to write. Part three will dive more deeply into the question of vaccine safety, while part four will discuss the importance of naturally acquired immunity and strategies to avoid the flu that don't involve injecting potentially harmful chemical concoctions into your body.
Once I've completed all four parts, I also intend to adapt and compile them into an e-book. Everyone who's donated to help make it happen will of course get a free copy!
