The current flu season is raging and heading toward epidemic levels, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention admits that the current vaccine isn't well-matched to the most predominate strain. Still, the CDC and doctors continue to urge people to get a flu shot, claiming it will offer at least partial immunity. But how effective is the flu shot even under the best of circumstances?
"The flu shot isn't very effective and a new study published by the CDC proves it," says holistic family physician Dr. David Brownstein.
The study, which slipped under the radar of most of the national press, was of a flu outbreak in a group of vaccinated people in a shared environment. It found that many people who had taken a flu shot still caught the flu.
The research involved the USS Ardent, a U.S. Navy minesweeper. Of 102 crew members, 99 had received a flu shot, but during a single three-day period, 25 of 102 crew members required medical attention for a flu-like illness. All of the men were young — aged 21 to 44 years — and all were otherwise healthy. Only one man who reported flu did not receive the vaccine, and the 24 other flu victims had taken a recent flu shot.
"Think about that," Dr. Brownstein tells Newsmax Health. "Of those who contracted the flu, 96 percent were vaccinated for it."
In addition, unlike the current 2014-2015 flu vaccine, which has mutated since it was developed, the 2013-14 shot was well-matched to the predominant strain of flu that was circulating at the time. "Laboratory testing indicated that 20 sailors had a strain which matched last-year's flu vaccine," says Dr. Brownstein, pointing out the fact that if the vaccine was as effective as its proponents claim, it should have been highly effective at preventing flu. "But it wasn't," he said.
"This flu vaccine which matched the strain that was circulating, failed to protect many men in a population of young, healthy people," he said. "How on Earth could anyone ever expect it to work in old and sick people whose immune systems aren't functioning very well to begin with?
"This year’s flu vaccine missed the most common circulating strain, yet the 'Powers That Be' keep telling us to get the flu vaccine," he says.
"I guess I could encourage people to get vaccinated if the flu vaccine actually worked and did not contain toxic additives," says Dr. Brownstein. "However, the opposite is true: It doesn’t work, and it contains mercury and formaldehyde. The toxicity of the flu vaccine is reason enough in and of itself to avoid it."
© 2025 NewsmaxHealth. All rights reserved.