The Quebec National Health Institute is going to put the annual influenza vaccination campaign under the microscope.
Institute scientists have launched a study to look at the entire program.
The National Director of Public Health, Dr. Horacio Arruda wrote in an editorial last week that given efficacy rates of the annual vaccine that run from zero to 60%, the medical community should ask whether universal vaccination is the most efficient way to protect the population.
Arruda says some studies indicate that repeated vaccination may even have negative health effects in some people.
A member of the panel that will study the program Dr. Gaston De Serres tells the newspaper that "sometimes it (vaccination) increases protection, sometimes it diminishes, and sometimes it changes nothing."
The results of the study will be released next summer.