In Ian Shtulman's Monday letter to the editor, most of Shtulman's "evidence" grows out of the mass anti-vaccine rage following an October 2006 article by Tom Jefferson that was full of speculation. The rest of the scientific community, in virtual unanimity, has agreed that the flu vaccine is both safe and effective.
A wealth of research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, scientific journals and numerous independent agencies indicates the flu vaccine is 70 to 90 percent effective every year at preventing flu infection in people under 65, and it's 80 percent effective at preventing flu-related deaths of the elderly.
The flu vaccine doesn't induce "toxic stress," as Shtulman states. It alerts your immune system and establishes a preemptive barrier against disease.
Perhaps this "stress" comes from the ethylene glycol (antifreeze) supposedly found in the vaccine. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Vaccine Safety's Web site indicates that none of the commonly used flu vaccines contain ethylene glycol, nor do they contain fetuses, as alluded to in Shtulman's letter - only chicken egg protein. Some vaccines aren't vegan, but they're no more barbaric than the veggie omelet I made for breakfast.
Formaldehyde used in the vaccine is orders of magnitude lower than recognized toxic doses. Every beer you drink produces formaldehyde as well, and your body is more than well equipped with enzymes to neutralize that. Jefferson's institute, the Cochran Vaccines Field, repeatedly showed that the aluminum salts in the vaccine are both entirely safe and are vital to vaccine efficacy.
I appreciate Shtulman's efforts to inform the public, but next time, check the facts, not the propaganda.
