Re: ‘Best flu protection' (The Weekend Sun, July 3).

Medical Officer of Health Phil Shoemack continues to trot out the Bay of Plenty District Health Board claims that vaccination is the saviour of civilization and our only hope of good health.

His claim 'there are no remedies, pills or lotions which will make any difference to your chance of getting influenza” is 100 per cent scientifically unproven.

Phil's claim of 75 per cent effectiveness of the flu vaccine is unsustainable by double blind, placebo referenced surveys.

Furthermore, all studies on the safety and efficacy of these drugs are not done independently nor transparently, but by the manufacturer.

Drug giants, like one of this vaccine's producers, GlaxoSmithKline, was convicted and fined $3 billion for fraud on a monstrous scale by United States Department of Justice in 2012.

If you don't believe the extent of their criminal activity a quick Google search of (name of manufacturer) plus ‘department of justice' will be illuminating.

More ominously, the claims that people like Dr Phil trundle out with increasing stridency are attempting to take us down the same path as California which last week approved the mandatory vaccination of all children – look up SB277.

Has anyone stopped to question these DHB scaremongers? Why are unvaccinated children such a threat to the health of the other kids in class that they should be banned, yet immunity is said to be provided by these vaccinations?

Murray Maunder, Otumoetai