The Rest of the Story

The following claim has been going around the crackpot-American community:

A review of 51 studies involving 260,000 kids age 6 to 23 months found no evidence that the flu vaccine is any more effective than a placebo

When we try looking for the study in question, we see:

From RCTs, live vaccines showed an efficacy of 82% (95% confidence interval (CI) 71% to 89%) and an effectiveness of 33% (95% CI 28% to 38%) in children older than two compared with placebo or no intervention. Inactivated vaccines had a lower efficacy of 59% (95% CI 41% to 71%) than live vaccines but similar effectiveness: 36% (95% CI 24% to 46%). In children under two, the efficacy of inactivated vaccine was similar to placebo.

In other words, the same study they're citing shows that the vaccines are beneficial for children older than two … but they don't mention that, for some reason.