Popular Flu Vaccines Not Effective: Who Dropped the Ball?

By: Zach McCormick
4/14/14

Last night as I sat reading the evening news via my twitter feed, this headline by Forbes contributor Paul Rodgers caught my eye. It read, "Tamiflu Is No Better Than Tylenol At Fighting Flu". It referred to a recent study by the Cochrane Collaboration which indicated that the popular flu vaccines 'Tamiflu' and 'Relenza' are not only far less effective than originally thought, but in some cases more harmful than beneficial.
The Cochrane piece also described the struggle to get access to the results of the Tamiflu and Relenza drug trials and then, once finally obtained, discovered that the drugs are probably next to useless.

I was quite startled by this assertion because I have heard for years that these drugs were the best way to avoid getting and spreading the flu. In fact, billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on massive stockpiles of these drugs. It now appears to have been a giant waste.

Of course if, as a result of a colossal regulatory failure, people were actually hurt by these drugs, then the pain of money lost would pale in comparison to the to horror of knowing that something intended for good actually caused harm to innocent people.

I accept that there are many factors involved with how the FDA goes about doing its job. Yet, assuming the Cochrane study is accurate which is highly probable, 'the thing speaks for itself' as to how badly someone screwed up on this one.

 I wonder how this scandal will influence the way drugs are "checked" in this country going forward.