Do flu shots have a day-zero kill record?

In an interview with Brian Hooker, Steve Kirsch, inventor of the optical mouse, claims that the flu shot kills older people on the same day they get it.

This is another example of picking through data to find numbers that seem to support a claim. The database that anti-vaccine groups often use for this is VAERS.

VAERS lets doctors, patients, and family members report health problems that happen after vaccination. But a VAERS report does not prove that the vaccine caused the problem. It only means the problem happened sometime after the vaccine.

We also need to look at what happens to older people who get vaccinated. One study found that older people who got a flu vaccine were less likely to die. In that study, 20.9% of vaccinated people died, compared with 23.9% of unvaccinated people.

It is very important to remember that anyone can report something to VAERS, even if the vaccine did not cause it. The VAERS website explains this. One doctor even reported that the flu vaccine turned him into the Incredible Hulk.

VAERS is useful because it helps experts watch for possible vaccine safety problems. But just because something is reported to VAERS does not mean the vaccine caused it. Doctors are still encouraged to report serious health problems after vaccination, even when they are not sure what caused them.

The most important warning on the VAERS website helps explain why these claims can be misleading: “VAERS reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable. Reports to VAERS can also be biased. As a result, there are limitations on how the data can be used scientifically. Data from VAERS reports should always be interpreted with these limitations in mind.”