The Alarming Reason Some People Die From the Flu

By Dr. Mercola

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the 2017-2018 flu season appears particularly virulent. Influenza activity increased significantly in December, with influenza A(H3N2) viruses predominating, and in a December 27 notice, the agency noted that “In the past, A(H3N2) virus-predominant influenza seasons have been associated with more hospitalizations and deaths in persons aged 65 years and older and young children …”¹

While influenza can indeed be deadly in rare cases, what most health experts fail to tell you is that these deaths are typically the result of secondary infections, not the flu virus itself. Importantly, research has highlighted the link between influenza and severe sepsis — a progressive disease process initiated by an aggressive, dysfunctional immune response to an infection in the bloodstream (which is why it’s sometimes referred to as blood poisoning).

Symptoms of sepsis are often overlooked, even by health professionals, and without prompt treatment, the condition can be deadly. Unfortunately, conventional treatments often fail, and most hospitals have yet to embrace the use of intravenous (IV) vitamin C, hydrocortisone and thiamine,² which has been shown to reduce sepsis mortality from 40 to a mere 8.5 percent.^3,4

How Influenza May Cause Lethal Sepsis

Flu Vaccine Likely Raises Your Risk of Illness

The fact that flu vaccines offer negligible protection against the flu is bad enough, but evidence suggests the vaccine may even make you more susceptible to the disease. For example, Canadian researchers found that annual flu vaccination appears to increase your risk of pandemic illness, and cause more serious bouts of illness.

Data collected from Canada and Hong Kong during 2009-2010 showed that people who received the seasonal flu vaccine in 2008 had twice the risk of getting the H1N1 “swine flu,” compared to those who had not received a flu shot.²³

A well-publicized ferret study²⁴ confirmed these results. Research²⁵ published in 2011 also warned the seasonal flu vaccine appears to weaken children’s immune systems and increases their chances of getting sick from influenza viruses not included in the vaccine. Some health experts claim flu vaccination will help you develop resistance against strains that are not included in the vaccine, but research has actually shown the complete opposite to be true.

When blood samples from healthy, unvaccinated children and children who had received an annual flu shot were compared, the former unvaccinated group had naturally built up more antibodies across a wider variety of influenza strains compared to the latter vaccinated group.²⁶ Flu vaccines are also associated with debilitating and potentially lifelong side effects such as Guillain–Barré syndrome and chronic shoulder injury related to vaccine administration (SIRVA).

But what about the claim that you might contract influenza from your flu shot? There are many anecdotal reports of people developing the worst bout of influenza they’ve ever had, following a routine flu vaccination, and indeed, a Chinese study²⁷ published in 2012 appears to support such claims, finding that children had a 4.4 higher chance of contracting a viral upper respiratory infection following seasonal flu vaccine administration.

It’s also worth noting that double-blind, placebo controlled trials for vaccines are not done. Instead, all a vaccine trial needs to demonstrate in order for the vaccine to be licensed is an antibody response.²⁸

Researchers have also highlighted the influence of bias in studies looking at influenza vaccine effectiveness. As noted in one 2010 study,²⁹ ”Forgoing vaccination predicted death in those who had received vaccinations in the previous five years, but it predicted survival in patients who had never before received a vaccination. We conclude that bias is inherent in studies of influenza vaccination and death among elderly patients.”

Beware: Tamiflu Can Trigger Psychosis

Should you or your child come down with the flu and your doctor or pediatrician recommends Tamiflu,³⁰ you should know this antiviral drug has been shown to shorten the duration of flu symptoms by less than 17 hours.^31,32 It also does not reduce viral transmission and does not lower your risk of complications from the flu, such as pneumonia.^33,34 Scientist have also warned that the risks far outweigh the benefits.³⁵

These risks include convulsions, brain infections, psychosis and other neuropsychiatric problems. Tamiflu made recent headlines after a 6-year-old girl started hallucinating and attempted to jump out a second story window.³⁶ “I don’t think the 16 hours of symptom relief from the flu is worth the possible side effects that we went through,” the girl’s father told ABC7 News.³⁷

Indeed, a number of studies have observed that Tamiflu may cause psychiatric symptoms. Research³⁸ published in 2015 reported the case of a 22-year-old man who “complained of mood swings, suicidal feelings, auditory hallucinations, memory deterioration and insomnia” after taking the drug. Other studies³⁹ have found more than half of all children taking Tamiflu suffer side effects from the drug.⁴⁰

Dangerous Lies Told by the CDC

Prior to the global H1N1 scare, the U.S. government stockpiled $1.5 billion of this basically useless antiviral — money that could have been spent in far better ways than merely enriching Roche’s company pockets. As noted in an article about Tamiflu by The Atlantic, “The only people helped by the proven-to-be-ineffective drug are its manufacturers.”⁴¹

A 2013 Forbes article⁴² also spelled out a number of flaws in the science behind Tamiflu, and how benefits were overstated. Despite all of this overwhelming evidence, the CDC to this day continues to recommend both flu vaccines and antiviral drugs like Tamiflu.⁴³ They even continue to claim antiviral drugs “may prevent serious flu complications” — though the evidence clearly shows Tamiflu does no such thing.

The take-home message here is to do your homework, and not blindly follow public health recommendations. Also avoid falling prey to unreasonable fears. All deaths are tragic, but people die from influenza with and without flu vaccines. People also die without certain drugs, and from drugs.

Remember, optimizing your vitamin D to a level of 60 to 80 ng/mL may be one of the most effective flu prevention strategies out there. Also familiarize yourself with the signs and symptoms of sepsis, and urge your doctor to administer Marik’s IV vitamin C protocol should you or a loved one be diagnosed with sepsis. It just might save your life.

Sources and References

• ¹ Emergency.cdc.gov December 27, 2017
• ² Elsevier June 26, 2017
• ³ NPR March 23, 2017
• ⁴ Chest June 2017; 151(6): 1229-1238
• ⁵ Virulence January 1, 2014; 5(1): 137–142
• ⁶ Mayo Clinic January 13, 2015
• ⁷ Epidemic Influenza and Vitamin September 15, 2006
• ⁸ Epidemiology and Infection 2006 Dec;134(6):1129-40
• ⁹ Virology Journal 2008; 5:29
• ¹⁰ Archives of Internal Medicine 2009;169(4):384-390
• ¹¹ BMJ 2017; 356:i6583
• ¹² NPR February 16, 2017
• ¹³ New England Journal of Medicine January 4, 2018; 378:7-9
• ¹⁴ Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 1999 Oct;22(8):530-3
• ¹⁵ NPR March 23, 2017
• ¹⁶ Chest June 2017; 151(6): 1229-1238
• ¹⁷ Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, January 28, 2017
• ^18, 19 NIH.gov Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency
• ²⁰ lohud.com January 16, 2018
• ²¹ MMWR January 16, 2015; 64(01): 10-15
• ²² CDC, December 21, 2015 Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness: How Well Does the Flu Vaccine Work?
• ²³ ABC News March 4, 2011
• ²⁴ PLOS One 2014; 9(1): e86555
• ^25, 26 Journal of Virology 2011 Nov;85(22):11995-2000
• ²⁷ Clinical Infectious Diseases 2012 Jun 15; 54(12): 1778–1783
• ²⁸ CDC Flu Vaccine Effectiveness
• ²⁹ Journal of Infectious Diseases January 15, 2010; 201(2): 186-189
• ³⁰ Tenpennyimc.com Tamiflu
• ^31, 33 BMJ 2014;348:g2545
• ³² Forbes April 10, 2014
• ³⁴ The Guardian April 10, 2014
• ³⁵ Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2014, Issue 4. Art. No.: CD008965.
• ³⁶ Newsweek January 15, 2018
• ³⁷ ABC7.com January 16, 2018
• ³⁸ Clin Psychopharmacol Neurosci. 2015 Aug; 13(2): 209–211
• ³⁹ Eurosurveillance July 2009; 14(30)
• ⁴⁰ The Guardian July 31, 2009
• ⁴¹ The Atlantic February 19, 2013
• ⁴² Forbes January 8, 2013
• ⁴³ CDC.gov Seasonal Flu Preventive Steps

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