(Mercola.com) -- It is a well-kept secret of the medical establishment -- particularly the CDC – that the Cochrane Database Review, which is the gold standard within the evidence-based medical model for assessing the effectiveness of common medical interventions, does not lend clear scientific support to the heavily toted concept that flu vaccines are safe and effective.

To the contrary, the Cochrane Database Review reveals that there is a stunning lack of evidence to support the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine in healthy adults, the elderly, and healthcare workers who care for the elderly. Disturbingly, most of these aforementioned groups compromise the demographic to which the CDC aggressively recommends the seasonal flu shot.

Even more concerning is the fact that the flu vaccine may be most detrimental to the health of your children. According to the Cochrane Database Review, only one unbiased safety study on inactivated flu vaccines has ever been performed in children under two -- the very population that is most susceptible to adverse reactions.

And this study did not prove with any certainty that they are safe.

Despite the lack of evidence showing the safety of the vaccine on this age group, the current guidelines in United States and Canada recommend the vaccination of healthy children from as young as six months old. As if incessant government coercion were not enough, the PBS Kids cartoon series -- Sid the Science Kid -- is being used as propaganda to circumvent parental authority and directly brainwash kids into getting the flu vaccine.

What is perhaps most disturbing of all is that receiving the H1N1-loaded seasonal flu shot can actually increase your risk of developing H1N1 flu. The finding surfaced after the global pandemic declared by the World Health Organization in 2009, proving the ineffectiveness of the flu vaccine at preventing the flu. Researchers found that after receiving the seasonal flu vaccine, Canadian participants actually had an increased risk of developing H1N1. As it turns out, vaccines may actually decrease your resistance to viral infection through suppressing and/or imbalancing your immune system.

Not only is there a shocking lack of evidence supporting the use of the flu vaccine, but a number of studies have actually confirmed the danger and ineffectiveness of the shots.

One major study determined that the best the flu vaccine could do during a season where, in the rare case, the vaccine actually matched the wild-type strains in circulation, was to reduce the risk of influenza infection by a paltry one percent relative to unvaccinated controls. This means that despite receiving the shot – riddled, as it is, with side effects such as the debilitating and potentially deadly nerve disease Guillain-Barre Syndrome -- there is still an overwhelming likelihood that you will not be protected from the flu as a result of receiving the vaccine.

The reason for this has to do with how flu strains work. Along with the faulty science behind the creation of the vaccine, the act of determining which flu strains will affect your area is pretty much a guessing game. Mainstream medical officials urge you to receive the shot, but health officials are fully aware that it is truly impossible to know for sure which strain to vaccinate against.

With such a wide selection of strains (hundreds, if not thousands), it is very rare for officials to actually pick the correct strains – the best case scenario is that an appropriate match will occur 10 percent of the time, according to the study.

The findings of the study do not stop there. The researchers also highlighted other findings about the flu vaccine, which topple the mainstream concept of their safety and effectiveness:

-- "Vaccination had…no effect on hospital admissions or complication rates."

-- "Vaccine use did not affect the number of people hospitalized or working days lost."

-- "The analysis showed that reliable evidence on influenza vaccines is thin but there is evidence of widespread manipulation of conclusions…"

-- "There is no evidence that [influenza vaccines] affect complications, such as pneumonia, or transmission." — Meaning vaccines do not affect transmission of disease, what they are designed for.

-- "In average conditions (partially matching vaccine) 100 people need to be vaccinated to avoid one set of influenza symptoms."

As you can see, flu shots are virtually ineffective, and come with a heavy price.

Even government officials have admitted the link between flu shots and Guillain-Barre Syndrome. A government agency known as The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued a warning over the connection following the phoney swine flu pandemic. The news came after mainstream media reported on the fact that even 50 percent of doctors were refusing the H1N1 vaccine over health concerns.

With all of the negative evidence coming out, how can the public still believe that the flu shot is still a viable option?