“The flu shot was effective 59.3 percent of the time at preventing influenza A or B, observed via common flu symptoms and confirmed in laboratory tests. And when researchers looked at how the flu shot worked at fending off harsher cases of sickness, such as pneumonia, brain swelling and seizures, they found an efficacy rate of 74.2 percent”.

“Influenza vaccine has the potential to prevent death, even if it isn’t as good at preventing mild disease,” said Kenneth Bromberg, director of the Vaccine Research Center and chairman of pediatrics at The Brooklyn Hospital Center. Read GSK “spin”

VLA Comment:  These are great soundbites taken out of context of their propaganda spin.  The two studies cited below show that getting the flu shot gives you a higher chance of getting respiratory infections such as pneumonia.

On the other hand-apparently contradictory:

Two Studies: Flu shot increase risk for other respiratory infections:
The evidence is clear that getting an influenza vaccination greatly increases your risk of getting the “flu” by not truly protecting against your contracting influenza and, worse, increasing the vaccinated person’s risk of a non-influenza viral respiratory infection by more than a factor of 4 when compared in a double-blind, true-placebo-controlled (gold-standard) study with extended follow-up conducted in a group of the “healthiest” of humans, children 6 to 15 years of age. Read Dr. Paul G. KIng’s analysis of two studies