Do antivirals and the flu-vaccine even work?

Oh, please.

http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2009/10/journalists_si...

If I could give your comment more points, I would.

The tone of this article is far more shrill than the Atlantic article. Dr. Thomas Jefferson is demanding evidence for assertions - that's "methodolotry"? He's betraying the original ideas of evidence-based medicine by demanding that medicine be based on evidence? For shame.

In this case his evidence base isn't even relevant, because we aren't dealing with seasonal flu but pandemic flu.

Ah, but the epidemiology to back this statement has mostly come from very dubious and biased statistics - specifically, the way that, in Mexico where epidemic originated, the only people they found with the disease were those on the edge of death because of the tendency there to only go to the doctor when you are on the edge of death. Despite the pandemic declaration, we haven't seen death rates above the normal rates of flu season yet (though a slightly different group is dying..). We might see high death rates but ... perhaps ... we should look at evidence before making grand declarations that this like nothing seen before.

Note, the original article is a not screaming endorsement of Jefferson's view, just a summary of debate:

The most vocal—and undoubtedly most vexing—critic of the gospel of flu vaccine is the Cochrane Collaboration’s Jefferson, who’s also an epidemiologist trained at the famed London School of Tropical Hygiene, and who, in Lisa Jackson’s view, makes other skeptics seem “moderate by comparison.” Among his fellow flu researchers, Jefferson’s outspokenness has made him something of a pariah.

I'll let you know. Neither I or my kids are vaccinated.

If you aren't vaccinated, then nothing that happens to you says anything about the effectiveness or the lack thereof of the vaccine.