Highlights:
- Influenza study as evidence for flu shots for elders: Evidence of efficacy lacking.
- mRNA vaccines get a clean chit by mainstream medical professionals.
- UHO seconds call for suspension of Israeli Medical Association from World Body.
Website: https://uho.org.in
By Dr. Amitav Banerjee, Chairperson of the Universal Health Organisation (UHO)
Influenza study as evidence for flu shots for elders: Evidence of efficacy lacking.
A report in the ET Healthworld interprets a preliminary government sponsored study led by AIIMS New Delhi as evidence for recommending flu vaccines for elders. It has gone a step forward and stated that it would be cost effective to roll out the vaccine for all seniors 60 years and above.
According to the report, the cost of vaccinating all senior citizens would be 1,514 crores per year and restricting it to the high risk group among the elders would be Rs 817 crore a year.
The UHO view is that the study is too preliminary to launch such a program at huge expenditure of public funds.
This study is huge, multi-centric, covering and laudable. However it is a first step and we have miles to go before we can establish both the efficacy and cost-effective of such a program. The study has identified the burden of influenza among the elderly (70 – 80% of respiratory infections were caused by the Influenza A virus), but not the evidence of efficacy of the influenza vaccines.
Influenza viruses constantly mutate because they are RNA viruses with genomes that lack a built-in proofreading mechanism to correct replication errors. This rapid mutation rate allows the virus to evade prior immunity, requiring the medical community to update and administer vaccines annually. Updating flu jabs to the rapidly changing strains is like chasing a cheetah. Even the developed countries find this difficulty. This may perhaps explain the disappointing results from a large study which found the influenza vaccines for the elderly did not reduce hospitalization or deaths among the elderly in spite of higher uptakes of the jabs.
Keeping these uncertainties the government should be cautious in rolling out mass vaccination campaigns funded by public money which could be better utilized for improving overall public health infrastructure in the country.
mRNA vaccines get a clean chit by mainstream medical professionals.
Notwithstanding the serious adverse effects of the mRNA vaccines being unfolded at the senate hearings in the USA, leading scientists and journals continue to proclaim the mRNA vaccines as completely safe and highly effective with potential for scaling them up for developing vaccines for other infectious diseases besides Covid-19.
According to a, report in the ET Healthworld a new review has identified billions of doses of mRNA vaccines and confirmed that they protect against infectious diseases. It cites a review published in The Lancet, which affirms that the mRNA vaccines are safe and a highly effective platform which has potential to expand to newer areas of medicine. These areas include vaccines for influenza, respiratory syncytial viruses (RSV) and others.
It should be of interest to note that the authors of study are affiliated to the institutions such as University of British Columbia, Canada, School of Tropical Medicine, UK, Imperial College London, University of Washington and others which are heavily funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
On the other hand, leading experts without any conflicts of interests have testified in the recent senate hearings about the concerns of serious adverse effects such as cancers, myocarditis and sudden deaths due to the mRNA vaccines and testified that their research was retracted or suppressed.
- Angus Dalgleish, Professor Emeritus of Oncology at City St. George’s, University of London, called for an outright ban: “Its use for future vaccines should be banned, and the COVID ones stopped now.”
- Wafik El-Deiry, Director of the Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown University, framed the issue as one of scientific freedom: “Scientists deserve the freedom to investigate legitimate scientific concerns.”
- Sabine Hazan, CEO of ProgenaBiome, described a series of her published studies being retracted, including a 2021 paper on COVID in patient feces, a 2022 paper on ivermectin-based therapy, and a 2024 paper on cardiac safety of hydroxychloroquine. She argued the retractions were politically motivated: “If there was a treatment, vaccines would not have passed.”
- Saskia Mostert, a Dutch researcher, described the institutional response to her team’s 2024 BMJ Public Health study on excess mortality across 47 Western countries as “blind fury,” and said that while the study found no plagiarism or falsification, her institution still sought retraction.
- Aseem Malhotra, a British cardiologist at the HUM2N Clinic in London, described himself as “a grieving vaccine injured doctor” and accused multinational pharmaceutical corporations of meeting the criteria for psychopathy as defined by forensic psychologists.
UHO is concerned that the issue around the Covid-19 is still polarized and continues around the mRNA vaccines an offshoot of the pandemic. These vaccines are poised to enter into development of vaccines for other infectious diseases.
Against this background, the previous study which is advocating for roll out of mass flu jabs among the elderly in India should be viewed with caution.
We should wait and watch till the controversies against the mRNA vaccines are resolved. This is likely to take long given the heavy conflicts of interests of authors and researchers who are promoting the mRNA vaccines.
UHO seconds call for suspension of Israeli Medical Association from World Body.
Under the Geneva Conventions medical personnel, paramedical personnel, patients and hospitals are not supposed to be attacked during war. These conventions were violated by Israel during the attack on Gaza strip.
Israel must face the consequences of its campaign to undermine the legal framework for the protection of civilians in armed conflicts, a group of independent human rights experts said today, as the full-scale armed assault on Gaza and forced displacement of its population continues unabated.
A network of healthcare professionals from India has sought the Indian Medical Association (IMA)’s support petitioning for the suspension of Israeli Medical Association from the World Medical Association (WMA). Over 1,150 persons have signed the petition to be placed before the WMA in its general assembly meeting in Rotterdam in October this year. The petition asks for taking a principled stand in defence of medical ethics and international humanitarian laws, by supporting disciplinary action, including the suspension of the Israeli Medial Association from the World Medical Association until it fulfils its ethical obligations regarding the ongoing attacks on health care workers in the occupied Palestine territory. The petition brought to notice the Israeli Medical Association’s silence on the destruction of Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure and reported killings, detention and mistreatment of Palestinian medical personnel. The petition has also been supported by various international organizations.
UHO seconds the call for action against the Israeli Medical Association.
The weekly newsletters bring the updates on the science, battered and bruised during the pandemic, legal updates and impact of activism for a just society, across the world. These are small steps to promote Transparency, Empowerment and Accountability – the ethos of the UHO.
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Universal Health Organisation (UHO) Weekly Newsletter – 26 JUNE 2026