John Kerry tried to make a campaign issue out of the flu vaccine shortage. It didn’t work, but he tried. So did other senior Democrats.

Today we learn that flu shots may not prolong lives among the elderly.

Led by National Institutes of Health researchers, the study challenges standard government dogma and is bound to confuse senior citizens. During last fall’s flu vaccine shortage, thousands of older Americans, heeding the government’s public health message, stood in long lines to get their shots.

“Government dogma.” What a sweet phrase. But this study isn’t enough for the government to change its dogma. (It’s dogma, after all.)

[T]he U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta plans no change in its advice on who should get flu shots, saying the NIH research isn’t enough to shift gears.

Of course not. Just as evidence that second hand smoke poses no threat to nonsmokers, that DDT posed no threat to anything but malaria, mere science doesn’t change government policy. Only rash emotionalism does.

Michelle Malkin has more, including sharing some information from a reader who has been questioning flu shot efficacy for some time.