WHO defends its swine flu warning

I think it's concerning how easily and how many people on this earth are so easily swayed to inject or injest new drugs into their bodies and their children's bodies. Where is our questioning, our waiting, our observing, our protecting of ourselves and our bodies, our minds? This report is not a surprise to me - it's exactly what I said this "pandemic" was about when it started - money for the drug companies and it seemed so obvious to me. The WHO declares a pandemic, creating fear across the world population and money is immediately funded from the government to the pharmaceutical companies to rapidly create this new vaccine. Bans on mercury in vaccines are lifted - because it's a pandemic and they must get it out! Ads are run in the media, creating fear over the "flu" in general - something that happens every year. Children have been injected with the mercury laden vaccines, which effects will not show up in them for years to come. I feel frustration at things that to me appear to be common sense. Yet, we allow ourselves and our children (which we have no right...) to be guinea pigs to these companies who's only interest is their own testing, their own pockets and we are collateral damage in their free experimental lab. The large organizations (and governments) in this world are about profit - and it shouldn't be a secret that the drug companies are one of the largest. From nybooks.com:

"Americans now spend a staggering $200 billion a year on prescription drugs, and that figure is growing at a rate of about 12 percent a year (down from a high of 18 percent in 1999)"

When money is driving the reason, we should all stand back and question what's being shoved down our throats or pushed into our bloodstream. Money is donated to the legislators from those companies. We know how it works. They all sleep together.

This is in the same line as the irresponsibility of the medical world and it's release of highly addictive pain killers that has created it's own "pandemic" of addictions across this nation over the last 8 years, the question about the safety of vaccines - the reports that you will never see an actual scientific report indicating vaccines are dangerous because there is too much money wrapped up in the "facts" that they are necessary. The report or question as to why no one has started a class action lawsuit yet for the pain killers that are pushed with no supervision from most of the medical world, that are creating addicts and who's deaths have now superceded moter vehicle deaths in this nation. We must question those that tell us it's necessary for our own good or our children's own good. Those that "control" have their own interests at heart and I do not want myself or my family to be "expendable", as the Clone Troopers on Star Wars :) (thank you Ryan!).

More from that article:

"What does the eight-hundred-pound gorilla do? Anything it wants to. ...but from 1980 to 2000, they tripled. They now stand at more than $200 billion a year. The claim that drugs are a $200 billion industry is an understatement. According to government sources, that is roughly how much Americans spent on prescription drugs in 2002. That figure refers to direct consumer purchases at drugstores and mail-order pharmacies (whether paid for out of pocket or not), and it includes the nearly 25 percent markup for wholesalers, pharmacists, and other middlemen and retailers. But it does not include the large amounts spent for drugs administered in hospitals, nursing homes, or doctors' offices (as is the case for many cancer drugs).. But they do not include the revenues of middlemen and retailers.

Perhaps the most quoted source of statistics on the pharmaceutical industry, IMS Health, estimated total worldwide sales for prescription drugs to be about $400 billion in 2002. About half were in the United States. So the $200 billion colossus is really a $400 billion megacolossus.

No flu or swine flu shots in our house this year.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8481211.stm

The World Health Organization (WHO) has defended its handling of the swine flu pandemic last year, after the Council of Europe cast doubt on its actions.

Countries rushed to order thousands of vaccine doses when the pandemic was declared in June, but the virus proved to be relatively mild.

The WHO's links to drug companies were questioned at a hearing by the Council of Europe's health committee.

A WHO flu expert denied there had been improper influence from drug firms.

The WHO's Keiji Fukuda told a hearing in Strasbourg: "Let me state clearly for the record - the influenza pandemic policies and responses recommended and taken by WHO were not improperly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry."

When a pandemic was declared last June most European countries changed their health priorities to accommodate thousands of expected patients, including spending millions of euros on vaccines for H1N1.
“ We feel we should move quickly. Our purpose is to try to provide guidance, to try to reduce harm ”
Keiji Fukuda WHO flu expert

A number of European governments signed contracts with drug companies to buy vaccines.

But it has since become clear that although 14,000 people worldwide died from swine flu, and millions more were infected, it is a mild flu with a lower mortality than seasonal influenza.

Allegations from politicians and media about links with drug companies have prompted an internal review at the WHO and the Council of Europe hearings.

Dr Fukuda rejected comparisons between seasonal flu and swine flu - describing them as like comparing oranges to apples.

Seasonal flu figures were based on statistical models, whereas every swine flu death had been confirmed in a laboratory, he said.

He said the WHO response had not been perfect, but a range of experts - including some in the private sector - had been consulted and there had been safeguards to prevent a conflict of interest.

"We are under no illusions that this response was the perfect response," Dr Fukuda said.

"But we do not wait until [these global virus outbreaks] have developed and we see that lots of people are dying. What we try and do is take preventive actions. If we are successful no-one will die, no-one will notice anything," he added.

"We feel we should move quickly. Our purpose is to try to provide guidance, to try to reduce harm," he said.

Part of the WHO review would examine if there was a better way to define outbreaks and severity, Dr Fukuda said.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/8481211.stm

Swine Flu bologna

I almost divorced Matt yesterday. He almost gave in to the need for the flu shot. I looked him squarely in the eye, put my maternal back up and said "if you want to put that in to your own body, go ahead. But this is one area I feel VERY strongly about when it comes to the kids. We don't have a right to put thimeresol in to them and it's not worth it. They aren't going to die from getting the flu and I'm not giving in". He, being a good and smart husband, smiled & let it go.

Now McKenna is sick. With some Swine Flu symptoms. And some regular flu symptoms. So I reluctantly looked up the symptoms of Swine Flu this morning. And?

"Most U.S. swine flu patients have made a full recovery without antiviral drugs." My point exactly.

When the Swine Flu thing hit, I wondered what all the hubub was about. Sure, some people died, but we get the flu, a different strain, every year. And people die every year from the flu. Usually because they have other contributing factors.

And every year we hear about how the flu vaccine may not be the one for the exact type of flu you get. So what's the point of the shot? We stopped getting the flu shot years ago and we make it through every winter.

The Swine Flu quickly gets labeled a pandemic by the WHO (who?), which quickly gets funding from the government to the pharmaceutical companies (who are our friends right? - I mean they have not interest in profit...) to come up with a vaccine.

The media combines with the government to create a panic or "deep concern" among the general population so that we are ready to line up when the vaccination is released.

Then the testing begins... I shudder to think of using myself or my child as a test subject (knowingly) for a new vaccine.

2 weeks ago I hear an ad on the radio about the "flu" and what you can do, blah blah blah - never have I heard so much attention paid to this annual event. I go home and mention it to Matt and then I say to him "ahhhhh, the Swine Flu vaccine is going to be released I bet and they are ramping up the "cause" so people will be "ready" with fear to be injected".

Sure enough, the very next day (maybe it was two), the news report is released that the Swine Flu Vaccine is coming to Seattle.

So for 6 months they will inject this in to people, something that is still at question to serious adverse effects. Just this morning I woke to a news report about 600 kids have been used for testing the vaccine and it'll be years before we know what adverse effects will come of it. Shame on us for allowing the medical industry to use our children as guinea pigs.

Do we really think the pharmaceutical companies will EVER allow a link to be made between vaccines and mental disorders? Do we have any idea how much money they make off of their product? This is probably just as big an issue as the Tobacco companies hiding for years the fact their product was made to be addictive, to ensure their financial survival. The same with the pain killer addiction epidemic that has overtaken our country and teenagers, as pain killers are made readily available for any condition and prescribed and pushed by doctors and the pharmaceutical companies without accountability or responsibility, because it is a revenue generating industry.

So below is a Seattle Times report on the vaccination, followed by a very interesting reader's response.

My family will be staying put. It'll be interesting to see if this "pandemic" of epic proportions creates the need to force citizens to line up anyway.

State lifts limit on mercury preservative in swine-flu shots
By Sandi Doughton

Seattle Times science reporter

In preparation for swine-flu vaccinations next month, Washington's Health Department on Thursday temporarily suspended a rule that limits the amount of a mercury preservative in vaccines given to pregnant women and children under the age of 3.

The preservative, thimerosal, has never been linked to any health problems, said Secretary of Health Mary Selecky. But a vocal minority believes the compound could be linked to autism. The state Legislature adopted the limit in 2006.

Thimerosal has been eliminated from most vaccines in the United States, but it will be added to the bulk of the swine-flu vaccine being produced to stem a pandemic that health officials estimate could sicken more than a third of the state's residents.

Pregnant women and young children are considered at high risk for swine flu, and lifting the mercury limits will give them quicker access to the vaccine, Selecky said.

"It's vital that everyone in a high-risk group has the choice to be vaccinated when swine-flu vaccine becomes available," she said.

About 15 percent of the vaccine supply will be mercury-free, but people may have to wait longer for it to become available.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Thursday that 6 million to 7 million doses of the vaccine will be available the first week in October, mainly in the form of a nasal spray called FluMist.

About 40 million flu shots should be ready by the middle of October, with an additional 10 million to 20 million doses rolling off the assembly lines every week after that for a total of 250 million doses.

"We will have enough vaccine to immunize every American who wants to be immunized," Sebelius said in a briefing. "But it won't all be available at the same time."

The vaccine itself will be free, Sebelius said, but health-care providers can charge to administer it.

Thimerosal will be added to the vaccine because it is being produced in vials that contain enough medication for 10 shots. The mercury compound kills bacteria, lowering the risk that the drug will be contaminated by needles used to withdraw separate doses.

"Every time you introduce a needle, you run a risk of introducing a potential contaminant," said Dr. Tony Marfin, state epidemiologist for infectious disease.

Mercury-free vaccine will be produced in single-dose vials. Nasal sprays do not contain mercury but are not recommended for children under the age of 2 and pregnant women, because they contain live, weakened virus.

An analysis published Thursday also found that the nasal spray is less effective than shots in adults under 50.

Selecky said the law limiting the mercury preservative will be suspended for six months and applies only to the swine-flu vaccines.

Once common in vaccines, thimerosal has been largely phased out in most wealthy nations. Children's vaccines in the United States are almost exclusively mercury-free, single-dose injections.

However, numerous studies have found no link between thimerosal and disorders in children.

Early results with the new vaccine against swine flu, technically known as H1N1, show it quickly induces a strong immune response, and most people over the age of 10 will require only a single dose.

The rate of side effects also appears to be low. Out of nearly 44,000 people inoculated in China, 14 "adverse events" have been reported, all very mild, said Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, director of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Initiative for Vaccine Research.

WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will carefully monitor side effects, she said.

After 1976's mass vaccination against a different swine-flu strain, about 500 people developed a neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), and some died.

Scientists still haven't figured out why, but there has never again been a connection between flu vaccine and GBS, Marfin said.

Americans are often blasé about flu, with less than half of people — including health-care workers — bothering to get annual shots.

One reason may be that flu shots are not as effective as many other vaccines, offering about 60 to 70 percent protection against the seasonal virus. That's largely because scientists have to guess which strains will be circulating each year.

With swine flu, they know exactly which strain is involved, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, chief health officer for the CDC's H1N1 response. "We would expect the vaccine to be very effective against the disease we are seeing."

But will it be ready in time?

"Right now we're in a race with the virus and the vaccine," she said.

Flu usually peaks in Washington in February and March, but the new swine-flu strain is already hitting the region. Both Washington State University and the University of Washington have reported outbreaks, and absenteeism exceeds 10 percent at some local schools.

The state is working with clinics, doctors, hospitals and others to set up inoculation programs — and bracing for crowds.

"We are expecting high interest," Selecky said.

Sandi Doughton: 206-464-2491 or sdoughton@seattletimes.com

Readers Comment (not mine):

"I don't know. The whole thimerosal-autism issue smells bad to me. It's curious to me how everyone in the media and politics is very careful not to mention the stakes involved for the pharmaceutical companies if it was determined that their vaccines were causing autism and the lengths they might go to to protect themselves.

Before 1989 children routinely received only 3 vaccines before first grade. In 1989 the rate of autism was 1 in 2,500 children.

Ten years later in 1999, after much lobbying from the drug companies, the CDC started recommending 22 vaccines before the first grade. By 2003, with the dramatically increased rates of vaccinations, 1 in 166 children were inflicted with autism. It should have been a national crisis.

The CDC and their partner research communities denied the link between vaccines and autism and at first produced a study in 2001 that said the link could be neither accepted or rejected. By 2004, they managed to come up with another test that said evidence seemed to "favor" a rejection of a link.

Even though they were are continuing to strongly claim that thimerosal is harmless, the CDC and the drug companies decided that they should remove thimerosal from vaccines "just in case."

http://www.autismcoach.com/Autism%20Declines%20When%20Mercur

So there *might* be some evidence that after thimerosal was removed or discouraged in child vaccines that the rate of autism dropped by 35%.

I don't know if this is true or not, or if proper scientific research methods were use. What is fishy to me is how swift and vigorous the CDC and the medical establishment is to smear researchers who find anything suggesting a link between thimerosal and autism. It is also fishy that the data is being guarded so closely and denied to the research community.

Did the autism rate in fact drop significantly after thimerosal was removed? This is a very important question. It can't be that hard to get a rough but scientifically valid measure of the autism rate. We are talking about a 35% drop...that should be easy to accept or reject.

The CDC, who owns the data, remains silent. This is fishy.

Instead of finding the truth and real answers, the efforts appear to be applied to building walls around the data and destroying researchers who suggest any kind of a link.

I don't really know one way or the other, but from my remote vantage point, there is something very disingenuous going on.

And now, years after removing thimerosal from vaccines, they are approving it for swine flu vaccinations? For children as well?"