No dry statistics here. Here's my personal experience with flu shots (after all the proof of the pudding IS in the eating).
When I was a child, like many people in America, I got all the recommended shots from my pediatrician, including annual flu shots. I was told that getting a flu shot would keep me from getting the flu. So I was rather stumped by the fact that I got the flu every single year! "What gives?" I wondered. I also got several colds each year. Well, I thought, maybe they're more effective some years than others. But then why do I get the flu every single year without fail? Hmmmmm... Several years passed and when I was in high school, I was absent due to illness so many days that I'm surprised I wasn't held back (30-40 days each year), some of my classmates weren't even sure that I was still in their class at all! I told my parents, "I really don't think these shots are working." They agreed and I stopped getting the shots. I filled out the vaccination exemption form that the school provided. The last time I got a flu shot was in 1997, guess when was the last year I had the flu... 1997!
My dad has always been the kind of person who never misses work. He had a sprained ankle once and went to work on crutches (he cleans houses!). He's also the kind of person who just doesn't trust doctors in general and he almost never gets sick with anything! One year someone talked him into getting a flu shot, within about 2 days, he was stuck in bed with the worst flu he'd ever had. He missed 1 full week of work. He said, "I'm never doing that again!" That was the last time he had a flu shot. It was also the last time he had the flu! He's been his normal strong healthy self since.
My mom seemed to be sick almost perpetually when I was growing up, just minor things, colds, flu, etc. When she stopped getting shots, she stopped getting sick. It was just that simple. My family used to be the one that missed out on a lot of fun stuff because one of us was nearly always sick. Now everyone is amazed by the fact that this family who NEVER get shots, work closely with kids, and are exposed to infections illness many times a year, virtually never get sick... while our vaccine-taking friends always get something at least once a year.
Now, the medical industry will tell you that "you can't possibly catch the flu from a flu shot because the virus in the shot is a killed virus and so cannot infect you." Two things, first, they thought that the polio vaccine was completely sterile when doctors first started using it, then a few years ago, Harvard Medical School looked at samples of that same vaccine with todays more advanced microscopes and found that it contained 149 different LIVE viruses. They also said that one of those viruses, which they called the SV40 virus, has been found in every cancer tumor they have ever examined! Is the flu shot sterile? Maybe yes, maybe no; maybe we'll find out in 50 years when science advances even further.
Second, whether you actually get the infection from the vaccine is irrelevant. Try this scenario on for size - It's flu season, when you're almost certain to encounter the flu virus (unless, of course you happen to live in a bubble); you go and get a shot (which contains toxic chemicals like formaldehyde - a known carcinogen, common allergens like egg protein, and other substances that are sure to be a big burden on your immune system, not to mention your liver and kidneys), your resistance is down for a while after you get the shot (and the theoretical immunity you're supposed to get from the shot doesn't kick in immediately anyway), you are exposed to a sniffling co-worker or a snotty-nosed kid, or perhaps your spouse is a carrier and doesn't even realize it; the virus sees a living germ-buffet (you) with a weakened immune system, being served up to it on a silver platter and decides to stay for dinner and dessert! Not a hard scenario to imagine, in fact it happens every day!
There's also the problem of strains. Each year the flu shot is made for specific strains of the flu virus, most of which are not the ones circulating that year.
In his book, "Vaccines: Are They Really Safe and Effective?" Author Niel Z. Miller says that in 1976, more than 500 people who got flu shots were paralyzed with Guillain-Barre syndrome. 30 died from it. That same year there was twice the occurrence of Guillain-Barre among vaccinated US Army personnel as there was among UN-vaccinated civilians. Dr. John Seal of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease believes that "Any and all flu vaccines are capable of causing Guillain-Barre."
Many doctors are against flu shots as well. In a recent study, half of all senior citizens who asked for flu shots were discouraged against it by their doctors!
So, are flu shots effective? You decide.