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by Evelyn Pringle
health freedom writer
October 2009
from
NaturalNews Website
Part 1
October 21, 2009
The pharmaceutical industry, with public health officials and the
mainstream media acting as a mass marketing team, is about to pull
off the biggest profiteering scheme in the history of the world. The
swine flu hoax, perpetrated on a global level, will generate unheard
of profits from a non-existent pandemic.
The Obama administration declared the spread of swine flu a public
health emergency on April 26, 2009. The Associated Press reported
that,
"Swine flu is now formally a pandemic, a declaration by U.N.
health officials that will speed vaccine production and spur
government spending to combat the first global flu epidemic in 41
years," on June 11, 2009.
"WHO chief Dr.
Margaret Chan made the long-awaited declaration after
the U.N. agency held an emergency meeting with flu experts and said
she was moving to phase 6 - the agency's highest alert level -
which means a pandemic is under way," the AP advised.
Since the "highest alert" warning was issued, the only estimation
that has turned out to be true is that the drug companies are
experiencing a windfall of tax dollars pouring into their coffers.
The US government,
"has committed $1.8 billion to companies to make a
swine flu vaccine," Reuters reported on September 30, 2009, in an
article with the headline, "Big pharma jumps back into flu
business."
"Three big U.S. pharmaceutical companies announced vaccine deals
this week," Reuters noted, for companies that included Johnson &
Johnson, Abbott Laboratories and Merck.
"Abbott Labs bought a Belgian drug business, along with its flu
vaccine facilities, for $6.6 billion. Johnson & Johnson invested
$444 million in a Dutch biotech firm (Crucell) that makes and
develops flu vaccines. Merck which already makes vaccines for
shingles and other diseases, struck a deal to distribute flu shots
made by Australian CSL," ABC News reported on October 14, 2009
"Smaller biotechs are also angling for a slice of the action, making
vaccines one of the fastest-growing areas of research in the biotech
industry," ABC noted.
Dr Robert Belshe, director of Saint Louis University's Center for
Vaccine Development, told Reuters that the US is on the verge of
recommending that all citizens get a flu shot.
"We're at 270 million
people who should get vaccinated. It's a big market. I think
manufacturers are just now catching up," he said.
"The vaccine market is booming. It's an enormous growth area for
pharmaceuticals at a time when other areas are not doing so well,"
Bruce Carlson, a spokesperson for the market research firm Kalorama,
told ABC News.
On October 1, 2009, under the headline,
"Vical shares soar on Navy's
H1N1 contract," Fierce Vaccines advised that: "Anyone doubting just
how hot H1N1 news is right now should check out Vical's stock price
this morning."
"The developer announced a modest $1.3 million contract with the
Navy to fund the manufacturing and testing of its swine flu vaccine
and the company's stock shot up 22 percent," the report said.
On September 29, 2009, Reuters noted that the H1N1 flu pandemic is
not,
"the first flu outbreak to have lifted the shares of small
vaccine makers."
"The H5N1 bird flu scare that began in 2005 fueled a similar rise,"
the reports said. "And the media statements issued by companies then
are similar to many of those issued today."
"In May 2006, Vical, for example, announced that its bird flu
vaccine protected mice and ferrets against H5N1," Reuters recalled.
"This year, it said its H1N1 pandemic flu vaccine protected rabbits
and mice. The news sent its shares soaring," the report noted.
Vaccine Makers Fund Studies
On September 10, 2009, MedPage Today ran the headline:
"H1N1
Vaccines Safe, Immunogenic in Single Dose".
"Two investigational vaccines against the pandemic H1N1 flu appear
to be safe and to yield a robust immune response with a single
dose," MedPage reported.
"Those findings," it said, "contained in two preliminary reports
published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine - are
reassuring, experts said."
The first report is from an Australian study supported by CSL and
the Department of Health and Aging of the Australian government.
"All authors report being employees of CSL and several report having
an equity interest in the company," according to MedPage.
The second report is from a British study supported by University
Hospitals Leicester and Novartis. Study leader, Dr Iain Stephenson,
"reported financial links with Novartis Vaccines, Sanofi Pasteur,
Baxter Vaccines, Hoffmann–La Roche, and GlaxoSmithKline," MedPage
noted.
Profits Galore
On September 21, 2009, Reuters reported that the United States had
ordered 222 million doses of H1N1 vaccine from five drug makers that
include,
CSL has contracts to supply $180 million worth of bulk antigen to
the US. Sanofi-Pasteur is providing more than 100 million doses to
the US, in a $690 million order.
On September 25, 2009, MedImmune said it has,
"received a federal
order for 29 million more doses of its nasal H1N1 flu vaccine,
bringing its total order to more than 40 million doses, with a value
of about $453 million," according to Gazette.net.
Seeking Alpha reported on August 24, 2009, that the,
"Swiss company
Novartis received an order for $346 million for antigen and $343.8
million for adjuvant totaling $690 million in July."
The most recent estimates have GlaxoSmithKline,
"reaping some $4.8
billion from the pandemic, between its Pandemrix vaccine, its
Relenza antiviral drug, and other products such as antiviral face
masks and flu diagnostics," Fierce Pharma reported on October 9,
2009.
On June 11, 2009, Kalorama Information issued a press release with
the headline,
"New Report Forecasts More Than Doubling of Vaccine
Sales by 2013."
The new report titled,
"Vaccines 2009: World Market Analysis, Key
Players, and Critical Trends in a Fast-Changing Industry," forecasts
the market "to more than double by 2013 due to a strong pipeline of
new products and rising usage of current products around the world," Kalorama wrote.
In the press release, Kalorama described 2008 as another,
"stellar
year for the world vaccine market," in which sales "grew 21.5% since
2007 to reach $19.2 billion."
"Few areas of pharmaceuticals have seen the fast-moving developments
in the marketplace that the vaccine market has," Kalorama noted.
Antiviral Drug Hype
On October 15, 2009, the Financial Times ran the headline:
"Tamiflu
boosts Roche sales figures," and reported that sales figures "were
boosted by bumper demand for Tamiflu amid persistent fears about a
global flu pandemic."
Tamiflu sales of $1.9 billion in the first nine months were more
than four times ahead of the same period last year and third quarter
sales figures were "nearly 10 times more than in the same period
last year."
On July 22, 2009, Business Week reported that GlaxoSmithKline,
"expects to increase annual production of its inhalable anti-viral
flu treatment Relenza threefold, to 190 million doses, by year end."
"Relenza sales for the three months ended June 30 were $99 million,
up from just $5 million in the second quarter of 2008," the report
noted.
The price of Tamiflu at a middle dose at
DrugStore.com on August 26,
2009, was $93 for a packet of ten 75mg capsules. One inhaler of
Relenza costs $64 at DrugStore.com.
Any good that will come from the swine flu propaganda campaign will
accumulate solely with the profits of pharmaceutical industry.
Part 2
October 22, 2009
Back on May 9, 2009, Robin Robinson, a director at the Department of
Health and Human Services who oversees pandemic responses, told the
Washington Post that even as officials take steps to develop a swine
flu vaccine with sufficient doses for every "man, woman and child,"
those plans would be dialed back if the pandemic "fizzles out."
The pandemic has fizzled out but the gravy train toward vaccine
profits is still rolling. On September 16, 2009, Reuters reported
that the death rate from the pandemic H1N1 swine flu was likely
lower than earlier estimates.
"Barring any changes in the virus, I think we can say we are in a
category 1 pandemic. This has not become clear until fairly
recently," said Dr Marc Lipsitch of Harvard, an expert in infectious
diseases, told a meeting of flu experts convened by the US Institute
of Medicine.
"The news is certainly better than it was in May and even better
than it was at the beginning of August," he noted.
The US government's Pandemic Severity Index has five categories,
with a category 1 comparable to a seasonal flu epidemic. Seasonal
flu has a death rate of less than 0.1 percent, Reuters reports.
A
category 5 would compare to the 1918 flu pandemic, which had an
estimated death rate of 2% or more.
Lipsitch gathered information on how many people had reported
influenza-like illness around the world, which may or may not
actually be influenza; government reports of actual hospitalizations
and confirmed deaths, and "came up with a range of mortality from
swine flu from 0.007 percent to 0.045 percent," Reuters advises.
Having new information about how many people were infected and did
not become severely ill or die makes the pandemic look very mild,
Lipsitch said.
Minimal Swine Flu Deaths
The
CIA World Factbook
estimates the world population to be close to 6. 8 billion and the
US population a little over 307 million.
At the beginning of the
swine flu propaganda campaign, it was predicted that the strength of
the pandemic could be measured by watching statistics from the
Southern Hemisphere, where flu season runs from May to September,
the southern autumn and winter months.
The Southern Hemisphere holds between 10 and 12% of the world's
population, meaning the Southern Hemisphere population would be
roughly 760 million people, at 11% of the world's total.
According to population numbers for 2008 from
NationMaster.com, and
statistics from the
FluCount.org website, the total number of swine
flu deaths, as of September 30, 2009, was only 2,386, for thirteen
countries in the Southern Hemisphere, and three countries that are
mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a total population of 628.3
million people who would have received no vaccine against the swine
flu.
India's population of approximately 1.17 billion people amounts to
about one-sixth of the world's population, according to the World Factbook. As of October 11, 2009, India's swine flu death toll was a
mere 385, according to the Times of India.
On October 6, 2009, the Associated Press reported that the,
"CDC
doesn't have an exact count of swine flu deaths and
hospitalizations, but existing reports suggest the infection has
caused more than 600 deaths and more than 9,000 hospitalizations
since the virus was first identified in April."
But yet the article further notes that,
"U.S. health authorities hope
to give swine flu vaccinations to more than half the 300
million-plus population in just a few months."
The first swine death in the army, the largest military branch with
552,425 soldiers, did not occur until September 10, 2009, according
to the Associated Press on October 1, 2009. It was reported to be
the only death among the 1.4 million men and women in uniform at
that time.
Yet all military personnel are required to receive the new swine flu
vaccine.
"The Pentagon has bought 2.7 million doses of vaccine, and
1.4 million of those will go to active-duty military personnel," the
AP reported on September 29, 2009.
"National Guard troops on active duty are also required to receive
the vaccine, as are civilian Defense Department employees who are in
critical jobs," the article noted.
In 2007, people under 20 years of age made up 27.6% of the US
population, according to the US Census Bureau, meaning roughly 82.8
million people were under 20. At the end of September, the CDC was
reporting only 76 deaths from swine flu among children in the US.
Dr Anne Schuchat, director of the agency's National Center for
Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters that the
number of pediatric deaths ranged from 46 to 88 during the past
three flu seasons, which is hard to reckon with the fact that the
CDC is always claiming that 36,000 people die of the seasonal flu
each year in the US.
But then experts say the CDC's 36,000 flu death statistic, echoed by
the media each year, is greatly distorted.
In a 2006 paper in the,
"Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Dr
David Ayoub and Dr
F Edward Yazbak report that a review of the mortality data from the
CDC's National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) reveals "these
estimates are grossly exaggerated."
The
NVSS reports preliminary mortality statistics and distinguishes
between influenza-related deaths and pneumonia-related mortality,
they explain.
"When the final report is issued, influenza mortalities are combined
with the far more frequent pneumonia deaths, yielding an exaggerated
representation of "influenza" deaths," they report.
"Pneumonia related mortality due to immuno-suppression, AIDS,
malnutrition, and a variety of other predisposing medical conditions
is therefore combined with seasonal influenza deaths," the doctors
point out.
"The actual influenza related deaths for the years 1997 to 2002
ranged from 257 to 1,765 annually," they advise.
"These values are further overestimated by combining deaths from
laboratory-confirmed influenza infections with cases lacking
laboratory confirmation," they say. "There were fewer than 100
annual cases of viral-confirmed deaths during this same period."
"Deaths occurring in women of reproductive ages were rare,
approximately one per year," they note.
On the CDC's main flu page they state that about 36,000 people die
from the flu in the US each year. But if you search a little harder,
he says, you find the actual number of people who died from the flu
in 2005 was 1,805, the most recent data available.
"In 2004, there were just 1,100 actual flu deaths," Dr Mercola
reports on his website.
"The statistics the CDC gives are skewed partly because they
classify those dying from pneumonia as dying from the flu, which is
inaccurate," he says.
As of October 2, 2009, the World Health Organization was reporting
only 4,108 swine flue deaths globally, five months into the
pandemic, without any vaccines.
To put these numbers in perspective, consider that in 2005, more
than 43,000 people died in motor vehicle accidents in the US,
according to the Department of Transportation's National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration.
Risks Outweigh Benefits
Studies also show flu vaccines do not work, and especially with
children.
On May 19, 2009, researchers at the International
Conference of the American Thoracic Society in San Diego, presented
a study that found children who received the trivalent inactivated
influenza vaccine [TIV] had a three times greater risk of
hospitalization for the flu than kids who were not vaccinated.
To determine whether the flu vaccine was effective in reducing the
number of hospitalizations over consecutive flu seasons for 8 years,
the researchers conducted a study of 263 children between the ages
of 6 months and 18, evaluated at the Mayo Clinic between 1996 and
2006, with laboratory-confirmed influenza and reviewed records to
determine which kids had received a flu shot before the illness and
hospitalization.
According to the study, not only did the vaccine not prevent the
flu, the children who received it got sicker than those who did not.
Which means that for the 8 year period studied, health insurance
companies, government programs and parents paid the cost of useless
vaccines, doctors office calls and three times more flu-related
hospitalizations, with the children suffering the harshest
consequences.
On the "Healthy Skepticism" website, in a September 21, 2009 paper
titled,
"In the Face of Swine Flu, Common Sense and Science," Juan Gérvas, Honorary Professor, Public Health, School of Medicine,
Autonomous University, in Madrid, Spain, reports that the "seasonal
flu vaccine is relatively ineffective in children and adolescents,
with a success rate of 33%, and is absolutely useless for children
under 2 years."
"There are doubts about how effective it is in preventing flu in
adults and the elderly," he added.
"We don't know anything about the effectiveness and safety of the
swine flu vaccine which is ready to be marketed," Professor Gervas
points out.
On April 29, 2008,
Psychorg.com ran the headline,
"Flu shot does not
reduce risk of death," and reported that the "widely-held perception
that the influenza vaccination reduces overall mortality risk in the
elderly does not withstand careful scrutiny," according to
researchers in Alberta, Canada.
The study, published in the September, 2008,
American Journal of
Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, a publication of the
American Thoracic Society, included more than 700 matched elderly
subjects, half of whom had taken the vaccine and half of whom had
not.
"After controlling for a wealth of variables that were largely not
considered or simply not available in previous studies that reported
the mortality benefit, the researchers concluded that any such
benefit 'if present at all, was very small and statistically
non-significant and may simply be a healthy-user artifact that they
were unable to identify.'," the report said.
"Over the last two decades in the United Sates, even while
vaccination rates among the elderly have increased from 15 to 65
percent, there has been no commensurate decrease in hospital
admissions or all-cause mortality," said Dean Eurich, PhD, clinical
epidemiologist and assistant professor at the School of Public
Health at the University of Alberta.
"Further, only about 10 percent of winter-time deaths in the United
States are attributable to influenza, thus to suggest that the
vaccine can reduce 50 percent of deaths from all causes is
implausible in our opinion," he advised.
On May 2, 2006, the National Post reported that,
"Canada's first
experiment in universal, free flu vaccine has cost Ontario taxpayers
more than $200-million, but appears to have done nothing to cut the
spread of influenza," a new study suggests.
"The Ontario initiative, the world's first universal flu campaign,
distributes about five million vaccine doses a year at a current
cost of $50- to $55-million, including promotion," the Post said,
citing the Health Ministry.
The highly publicized offer of free flu shots to all 12 million
Ontarians was launched in 2000 to try to ease pressure on emergency
wards from flu patients, and cut the incidence and severity of the
illness, the Post noted.
"Per-capita flu rates in the province have not fallen at all since
the program was introduced in 2000, concluded the University of
Ottawa research, published in the journal Vaccine," the Post
reported.
"In fact," the Post said, "the average monthly incidence of the
virus jumped over the first five years of the program, though
researchers say it is too early to say that numbers are really on
the rise."
"All we do know is rates haven't decreased, and there has been a lot
of money spent," said Dianne Groll, the University of Ottawa
professor who led the study. "The program was designed to reduce the
incidence of flu, and this hasn't yet happened."
Dr Groll looked at the number of cases of laboratory-diagnosed flu
reported to Health Canada between 1990 and 2005, and found that the
rate between 1990 and 2000, when the program started, was 109 per
100,000 Ontarians. Since the launch of the campaign, "it jumped to
164." the Post said.
It's worth noting that the study also found the Ontario flu rates
did not change relative to other provinces.
Part 3
October 23, 2009
Public health officials now say they have quit keeping tabs on swine
flu deaths because it is too difficult.
A more likely explanation is
that fear mongering would be impossible if they continued to
announce the low rates of swine flu deaths and vaccine profits would
take a nose dive.
"It's absurd to panic about swine flu, especially since it won't
cause severe disease in many people," says Juan Gérvas, Honorary
Professor, Public Health, School of Medicine, Autonomous University
in Madrid, Spain, in the September 21, 2009 paper titled, "In the
Face of Swine Flu, Common Sense and Science," on the Healthy
Skepticism website.
"The current WHO messages, which are increasing fear of swine flu is
a form of disease mongering," he warns.
"We need a health policy of common sense and self-control,"
Professor Gérvas advises.
"The present messages by Governments, the WHO and the media focusing
on the worst case scenario and the detailed description of each
death is the completely wrong approach," he says.
On July 21, 2009, Spiegel Online interviewed epidemiologist, Dr Tom
Jefferson, who has worked for the Cochrane Collaboration, an
international team of scientists, for 15 years.
"Sometimes you get the feeling that there is whole industry almost
waiting for a pandemic to occur," Jefferson said.
He then listed the WHO, public health officials, virologists and the
pharmaceutical companies.
"They've built this machine around the
impending pandemic," he said. "And there's a lot of money involved,
and influence, and careers, and entire institutions!"
"And all it took was one of these influenza viruses to mutate to
start the machine grinding," Jefferson pointed out.
"It's true that influenza viruses are unpredictable, so it does call
for a certain degree of caution," he advised.
"But one of the extraordinary features of this influenza
- and the
whole influenza saga," he said, "is that there are some people who
make predictions year after year, and they get worse and worse."
"None of them so far have come about, and these people are still
there making these predictions," he pointed out.
"For example," he asked, "what happened with the bird flu, which was
supposed to kill us all?"
"Nothing," he said. "But that doesn't stop these people from always
making their predictions."
Big Pharma Bonanza
On August 13, 2009, Dr Joseph Mercola, author of "The Great Bird Flu
Hoax," explained how swine flu vaccine makers were set to profit by
$50 billion.
"According to Margaret Chan,
Director-General of the World Health
Organization (WHO), vaccine makers could produce nearly FIVE BILLION
pandemic flu shots per year in the best-case scenario," he wrote.
"And according to Business Week, wealthier countries like the U.S.
and the U.K. will pay just under $10 per dose, while developing
countries would pay less," he said. "If these facts hold true, Big
Pharma stands to gain up to $49 billion a year on the swine flu
vaccine alone."
As of 2009,
"there has been no funding of a compensation program for
children or adults injured or killed by vaccines or drugs used under
an EUA (Emergency Use Authorization)," according to the National
Vaccine Information Center.
In March 2008, Roche and Glaxo added new labels to Tamiflu and
Relenza to warn of abnormal psychiatric behavior in some patients.
The drug makers said the revisions reflected recommendations made in
November 2007 by an FDA advisory panel that reviewed the cases,
which have been seen mostly in Japan.
"At that meeting, FDA staff described reports of about 700 cases of
psychiatric adverse events for both drugs and 25 pediatric deaths
from various causes in patients taking Tamiflu, reported to the
agency through May 2007. No fatalities were reported for Relenza,"
the Guardian reported on March 4, 2008.
On August 10, 2009, the Financial Times reported that the,
"medicine
now being widely handed out by the government for treating pandemic
flu offers only modest benefit in children and adults in seasonal
outbreaks of the virus," according to British researchers.
In an article in the British Medical Journal, a group led by
Matthew
Thompson at Oxford University said use in children under 13 of Tamiflu or Relenza reduced the duration of flu symptoms by an
average of 12 to 36 hours with no decline in asthma or the need for
antibiotics.
The authors concluded that the drugs,
"provide a small benefit by
shortening the duration of illness in children with seasonal
influenza and reducing household transmission".
"The findings came after a separate article published last week in
Lancet Infectious Diseases, by researchers led by Jane Burch at the
University of York, concluded that otherwise healthy adults showed a
reduction in symptoms of just over half a day earlier when taking
the drugs," the Gardian pointed out.
On August 20, 2009, The Indepedent reported that the Oxford
researchers said children should not be given Tamiflu or Releza to
combat swine flu.
They warned that Tamiflu could cause vomiting in some children,
which could lead to dehydration and the need for hospital treatment.
Overall,
"the researchers said, children who were otherwise healthy
could suffer more harm than benefit from taking Tamiflu or another
anti-viral, Relenza," the Independent advised.
Study co-author, Dr Carl Heneghan, a clinical lecturer at Oxford,
said the current policy of giving Tamiflu for mild illness was an
"inappropriate strategy".
Dr Heneghan said the only benefit found in the study was that
children were back to normal half a day to one day earlier if taking
Tamiflu or Relenza.
"The downside of the harms outweigh the one-day reduction in
symptomatic benefits," he advised
"And he warned that widespread use of Tamiflu could result in the
flu becoming resistant to the drug," the Independent reported.
Although the children in the studies analyzed were being treated for
normal seasonal flu, Dr Thompson said the findings would extend to
the current swine flu pandemic.
"I don't think we have got any reason to think our results would be
any different," he told the Independent.
"The current swine flu is generally a mild flu illness...it does not
seem that different from current seasonal flu," he said. "We would
be happy to say our results apply to the current swine flu strain."
The research published in the BMJ,
"follows two recent studies which
found that more than half of children taking Tamiflu suffered
side-effects such as nausea, insomnia and nightmares," the
Independent reported.
Tamiflu was banned by the Japanese ministry in 2007 for use with 10-
to 19-year-olds.
1976 Swine Flu Replay
As a kick-off to the 1976 swine flu propaganda campaign, Salon
Magazine reports that in February 1976, F. David Mathews, Secretary
of Health, Education, and Welfare told Americans:
"There is evidence there will be a major flu epidemic this coming
fall. The indication is that we will see a return of the 1918 flu
virus that is the most virulent form of the flu. In 1918 a half
million Americans died. The projections are that this virus will
kill one million Americans in 1976."
On March 24, 1976, President Gerald Ford asked Congress to
appropriate $135 million,
"for the production of sufficient vaccine
to inoculate every man, woman, and child in the United States."
"I am directing the Secretary of HEW David Mathews, and Assistant
Secretary, Dr. Cooper, to develop plans that would make this vaccine
available to all Americans during the 3-month period from September
to November of this year," he said.
"I am asking each and every American to make certain he or she
receives an inoculation this fall," Ford added.
"The reaction to the shot, I am told, may mean a few sore arms for a
day or two--a very small price to pay for this vital protection," he
advised.
The swine flu vaccination program began on October 1, 1976. Ten
weeks later, after more than 40 million people were vaccinated, the
government halted the program on December 16, 1976, due to the high
number of severe adverse events occurring with the vaccine.
"The federal government ultimately reached court settlements and
paid more than $90 million to hundreds of victims who said the 1976
vaccine caused neurological problems," according to a May 9, 2009
report in the Washington Post.
This time around, the Department of Health and Human Services,
"plans
to eventually vaccinate at least 160 million people by December,
with pregnant women, healthcare workers, children and young adults
at the front of the line," Reuters reported on August 24, 2009.
Part 4
October 27, 2009
Those in control of the mainstream media have joined together with
public health officials to provide the pharmaceutical industry with
the best swine flu promotional campaign that money can buy.
In an October 7, 2009, OpEd News article titled, "The Centers for
Disease Control: The Best Vaccination PR Firm Taxes Can Buy," the
makers of the documentaries, "Vaccine Nation," and "Autism
- Made in the USA," Richard Gale and Dr Gary Null wrote:
"If the flu season goes according to schedule, the vaccine
industrial complex will be poised to join Wall Street for record
year rip-off profits. We will also likely witness huge Pharma
executive bonuses and perhaps gold-plated toilets.
"Even if the CDC statisticians' crystal ball used to forecast
rampant swine flu infections turns into a complete bust - which
would only be one more added to many other failed flu predictions
back to 1976 - it will nevertheless be a very profitable failure as
was the economic collapse for the banking cartel."
"In the US, such profits could never be accomplished without a
dynamic, marketing initiative to convince Americans that vaccines
will keep them protected and alive," they point out.
"And what better public relations machine for the vaccine complex,
and all its supporters in health insurance and professional medical
institutions, than our very own Centers for Disease Control and the
Department of Health and Human Services?" they wrote.
The CDC is,
"formulating a $4.8 million multimedia campaign to
encourage people to get vaccinated and help alleviate concerns and
confusion, including radio and television public service
announcements, print ads, and messages delivered via Twitter, RSS
feeds and video podcasts on YouTube," according to the August 22,
2009 Washington Post.
Government health officials,
"are mobilizing to launch a massive
swine flu vaccination campaign this fall that is unprecedented in
its scope - and in the potential for complications," the Post
reported. "The campaign aims to vaccinate at least half the
country's population within months."
The federal government,
"has spent close to $2 billion to buy up to
195 million doses of vaccine and adjuvant," according to the Post.
"The government is prepared to buy enough to vaccinate every person
- 600 million doses all together - if the pandemic or demand
warrants it," the report said. "That could increase the cost to $5
billion for the vaccine alone."
"It would cost at least $9 billion to administer the vaccine to the
entire population, according to the Association of State and
Territorial Health Officials," the Post advised.
There is nothing free about the flu vaccination campaigns in the US.
Americans will end up footing the bill in one way or another, along
with the medical care for persons injured by the vaccine.
"As always with pandemic flus, taxpayers are footing the $1.5
billion check for the 250 million swine flu vaccines that the
government has ordered so far and will be distributing free to
doctors, pharmacies and schools," ABC News pointed out on October
14, 2009.
"In addition," the report said, "Congress has set aside more than
$10 billion this year to research flu viruses, monitor H1N1's
progress and educate the public about prevention."
On October 5, 2009, the Associated Press advised that the H1N1
vaccine itself is free because the government bought it with your
tax dollars.
"But providers can charge a small fee for administering
it, usually about $20. Regular flu shots tend to cost up to $35,"
the AP said.
Doctors are also set to profit
greatly from administering the
vaccines. The American Medical Association, which publishes
Current
Procedural Terminology (CPT), has even revised one CPT code and
issued another for use in billing for H1N1 vaccines.
The changes,
"will streamline the reporting and reimbursement
procedure for physicians and healthcare providers who are expected
to administer nearly 200 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine in the
U.S.," the AMA said in a statement.
Media as a PR Firm
"In too many ways, the
mainstream media has become little more than a corporate mouthpiece,
whoring itself out to the highest bidder/advertiser," warns Mike
Adams, in the September 18, 2009, Natural News report titled, "Ten
Swine Flu Lies Told by the Mainstream Media."
The "distorted reporting on the swine flu vaccine has been one of
the greatest media frauds ever perpetrated," he says.
"The media has in every way contributed to the widespread ignorance
of the American people on the subject of vitamin D and natural
immune-boosting defenses that could reduce swine flu fatalities,"
Adams points out.
"Rather than informing readers," he says, "the MSM has made it a
point to keep the people stupid, and in doing so, the media has
failed its only mission and betrayed the very audience it claims to
serve."
Vested Interest in Spreading Swine Flu
Propaganda
The media moguls controlling the MSM world-wide have a vested
interest in hyping the swine flu epidemic to boost sales of vaccines
and funding for the vaccine research industry.
Rupert Murdoch is a major shareholder, chairman and managing
director of News Corporation. News Corp was the world's second
largest media conglomerate, behind
Walt Disney Company, as of 2008,
and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, according
to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.
In late 2003, Murdoch acquired a 34 percent stake in Hughes
Electronics, the operator of Direct TV, the largest American
satellite TV system. In 2004, Murdoch announced that he was moving
News Corp's headquarters from Australia to the US.
According to the Columbia Journalism Review, News Corp owns Fox
Broadcasting Company and 27 Fox Television Stations in major cities
all over the country, in addition to many cable channels, including
the Fox News channel, and 20th Century Fox film companies and
studios. News Corp also owns the New York Post, the Wall Street
Journal and Dow Jones.
On February 2, 2009, GlaxoSmithKline announced the appointment of
James Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, as a non-executive
director. Murdoch joined the company on May 20, 2009 and will also
be a member of Glaxo's Corporate Responsibility Committee.
Murdoch is Chairman and Chief Executive of News Corporation, Europe
and Asia, and,
"has direct responsibility for the strategic and
operational development of News Corporation's television, newspaper
and related digital assets in Europe, Asia and the Middle East," Glaxo noted.
Murdoch is in charge of,
"News International, owner of four British
newspapers - the Times, Sunday Times, Sun and News of the World,"
according to an article titled, "The Invisible Mogul: Meeting James
Murdoch," by Sophie Barker, in the spring 2009 issue of "Intelligent
Life Magazine."
"His TV channels reach 200m people across 60-odd countries," Barker
reports.
The Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) is the largest
research Institute in Australia specializing in child and adolescent
health.
"Located on the campus of the Royal Children's Hospital,
Melbourne, it is affiliated with the University of Melbourne," its
website states.
Rupert Murdoch's mother, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, is the widow of
Australian newspaper publisher, Sir Keith Murdoch. She married Keith
Murdoch, 23 years her senior, in 1928 and inherited the bulk of his
fortune when he died in 1952.
She was appointed a Dame Commander of
the Order of the British Empire in 1963.
"It was through seed funding provided by Dame Elisabeth" in 1984,
that the MCRI went on "to become the largest and most prestigious
child health research centre in Australia," according to the
February 7, 2009, Frankston Standard Leader.
Elisabeth is a life-governor of the Royal Women's Hospital and a
Patron of the
Murdoch Children's Research Institute, according to
the Australian Women's Register.
In 2009, MCRI has "over 1100 researchers," the Leader reports.
Rupert Murdoch's daughter-in-law, Sarah Murdoch, has been the
ambassador for the MCRI and a member of the development board since
2000.
The MCRI has six research themes, including one for,
"Infection,
immunity and environment," with research conducted at the "Centre
for Clinical Research Excellence in Child and Adolescent
Immunization."
The CCRE is a joint MCRI, Melbourne University, and Menzies School
of Health Research collaboration whose secretariat is located in the
Department of General Medicine at the Royal Children's Hospital
campus.
"Research focuses on clinical trials of new vaccines in healthy
infants, children and adolescents, the epidemiology of vaccine
preventable diseases (VPDs) and evaluation of the impact of
population-delivered vaccine programs, and mathematical modeling of
vaccine-preventable diseases," the MCRI website advises.
Under "Collaborations," the site lists:
"Promotion of collaborations
with Australian and overseas immunization researchers,
policy-makers, service providers and the vaccine industry."
Under a heading titled, "Commercialization," the website states:
"The Murdoch Children's Research Institute invites interested
parties to take up the opportunity to invest in its wide portfolio
of commercial biotechnologies."
In a July 27, 2009 press release, MCRI announced that children,
"are
being recruited for a pandemic H1N1 swine flu vaccine trial set to
begin in Melbourne next week."
"About 100 Victorian children aged between 6 months to eight years
are needed for the study, which will be run by the Murdoch Childrens
Research Institute and the University of Melbourne from as early as
next week," the press release stated.
"They will be among 400 children recruited across five states for
the Federal Government required trials of the vaccine, produced by
Australian biopharmaceutical company CSL," it advised.
Four years ago, on October 4, 2005, the
Murdoch Childrens Research
Institute issued a similar press release stating:
"Bird flu vaccine
trial to begin."
"TRIALS of a bird flu vaccine are set to begin in Melbourne this
week as researchers prepare against the threat of an influenza
pandemic," MCRI advised.
"The study, a collaborative project between the Murdoch Childrens
Research Institute and University of Melbourne, is being sponsored
by Australian pharmaceutical company CSL Limited," the press release
stated.
Media mogul, Mortimer Zuckerman, also has a research center named
after him.
On May 10, 2009, the New York Times reported that
Zuckerman had,
"pledged $100 million to Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center, the largest donation in the hospital's history and
one of the largest ever given to an American medical center."
"Sloan-Kettering will name its new research center on the Upper East
Side for Mr. Zuckerman, the real estate developer and owner of The
Daily News and U.S. News & World Report," the Times noted.
"Zuckerman advances vaccine research and development at the Mortimer
B. Zuckerman Research Center in association with the Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Rockefeller University," according
to Dr Leonard Horowitz, a Harvard-trained authority in vaccinations
and emerging diseases with a masters degree in public health, in a
September 30, 2009, report by Sherri Kane.
Zuckerman is also a leading financier of the
American Lyme Disease
Foundation that heavily promoted GlaxoSmithKline's disastrous Lymerix vaccine, Horowitz says.
"This vaccine was pulled from the market following
hundreds-of-thousands of reported cases of recipients suffering
post-vaccination symptoms of Lyme disease," he reports.
The great bird flu hoax serves as an excellent example of use of the
MSM to pump out fear mongering propaganda.
On June 20, 2005,
Zuckerman wrote a commentary in US News and World Report titled, "A
Nightmare Scenario - H5N1 Pandemic," and stated:
"Should it develop certain genetic changes, international health
experts warn, bird flu could spark a global pandemic, infecting as
much of a quarter of the world's population and killing as many as
180 million to 360 million people - at least seven times the number
of AIDS deaths, all within a matter of weeks."
"In the worst previous catastrophic pandemic, in 1918, more than 20
million died from the Spanish flu," Zuckerman wrote.
"We must prioritize research money to develop a vaccine, expand the
production of flu vaccine, and stockpile antiviral medications," he
advised.
On December 8, 2005, Bloomberg ran an article with the headline,
"Bird Flu Pandemic May Cost U.S. Economy $675 Billion," in which
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was quoted as saying, "A pandemic
of bird flu in humans may cost the U.S. economy $675 billion,
including lost work time and disruptions in supply chains."
This time around, on October 14, 2009, ABC News reported that,
"the
Trust for America's Health, a Washington-based non-profit
organization, estimates that a severe pandemic could push down GDP
by more than 5 percent and cost Americans $683 billion."
"We're not seeing a pandemic that's this severe," says Jeff Levi,
director of the group. "We've dodged a lot of bullets."
Last but not least, Thomas H. Glocer is the Chief Executive Officer
of the Thomson Reuters Corporation.
On November 26, 2007, Merck
announced that Thomas Glocer, Chief Executive Officer, Reuters Group
PLC,
"will join the Company's Board of Directors effective Nov. 27."
"Merck currently discovers, develops, manufactures and markets
vaccines and medicines to address unmet medical needs," the press
release stated.
As shown above, the mainstream media cannot be objective when
reporting on the swine flu because it is riddled with conflicts of
interest involving the vaccine industry.
Part
5
October 30, 2009
In the video commentary titled, Mild Swine Flu & Over-Hyped
Vaccine, on the website for the National Vaccine Information
Center, the group's co-founder and president, Barbara Loe Fisher,
reports:
"We are witnessing a roll-out of the
largest, most expensive mass vaccination campaign in the history
of our nation. A rollout that is bigger than even the polio
vaccine campaigns of the 1950's."
"If you or your child are injured from getting a flu swine flu
shot, you are on your own," Fisher warns.
"Because Congress shielded the vaccine manufacturers and any
person giving swine flu shots from lawsuits if people get hurt,"
she says. "There is no funded government vaccine injury
compensation program for swine flu vaccine."
"Doctors are telling some children under 10 years old to get 3
to 4 flu shots this year - 2 shots for seasonal flu and one or
two more for swine flu," Fisher points out.
"We have never given young children 3 to 4 flu shots in a single
year and there is no information about how safe it is to do
that," she advises.
On October 18, 2009, the Wall Street
Journal advised that:
"Children ages six months to nine
years who have never received a flu vaccine before are
recommended to receive two doses of both the H1N1 and
seasonal-flu vaccine about a month apart," citing Paul Offit,
chief of infectious disease at the Children's Hospital of
Philadelphia, as the source, without letting readers know how
rich he has become profiting off the vaccine industry.
Eight months ago, on February 16, 2009,
"Age of Autism" published a report titled, "Voting
Himself Rich: CDC Vaccine Adviser Made $29 Million Or More After
Using Role to Create Market," by Dan Olmsted and
Mark Blaxil, for an investigation that found:
"Dr. Paul Offit of the Children's
Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) took home a fortune of at least
$29 million as part of a $182 million sale by CHOP of its
worldwide royalty interest in the Merck Rotateq vaccine to
Royalty Pharma in April of last year."
"Based on an analysis of current CHOP administrative policies,
the amount of income distributed to Offit could be as high as
$46 million," the report noted.
"In a Moody's report dated June 2008, CHOP reported net proceeds
from the Rotateq transaction of $153 million, a deal basis that
would put the value of Offit's 30% share at $45.9 million," the
authors wrote.
"Unlike most other patented products, the market for mandated
childhood vaccines is created not by consumer demand, but by the
recommendation of an appointed body called the Advisory
Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)," the AoA report
states.
"In a single vote, ACIP can create a commercial market
for a new vaccine that is worth hundreds of millions of dollars
in a matter of months.
"For example, after ACIP approved the addition of Merck's (and
Offit's) Rotateq vaccine to the childhood vaccination schedule,
Merck's Rotateq revenue rose from zero in the beginning of 2006
to $655 million in fiscal year 2008," the authors explain.
"When one multiplies a price of close to $200 per three dose
series of Rotateq by a mandated market of four million children
per year, it's not hard to see the commercial value to Merck of
favorable ACIP votes," the authors point out.
From 1998 to 2003, Offit served as a
member of ACIP.
As a member of the ACIP, Offit,
"voted to include the rotavirus
vaccine in the Vaccines for Children program, which ultimately
made his Rotateq product worth hundreds of millions of dollars
to Merck," the National Autism Association reports.
Offit also holds a "$1.5 million dollar
research chair at Children's Hospital, funded by Merck," according
to a July 25, 2008 report by CBS News titled, "How Independent Are
Vaccine Defenders?"
Calling them "the most trusted voices in the defense of vaccine
safety," CBS reports that the American Academy of Pediatrics,
Every Child By Two, and pediatrician Dr Paul Offit, have
something else in common,
"strong financial ties to the
industry whose products they promote and defend."
"The vaccine industry gives millions to the Academy of
Pediatrics for conferences, grants, medical education classes
and even helped build their headquarters," CBS found. Totals
were secret, but documents cited by CBS reveal the following:
-
A $342,000 payment from Wyeth,
maker of the pneumococcal vaccine - which makes $2 billion a
year in sales
-
$433,000 from Merck, the same
year the academy endorsed Merck's Gardasil vaccine - which
made $1.5 billion a year in sales
Another top donor was Sanofi Aventis,
maker of 17 vaccines and a new five-in-one combo shot added to the
childhood vaccine schedule in June 2008, CBS said.
"Every Child By Two, a group that
promotes early immunization for all children, admits the group
takes money from the vaccine industry, too - but wouldn't tell
us how much," CBS investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson
reports.
In April 2009, the AAP even filed a
friend of the court brief (amicus) with the US Supreme Court in
support of a petition for a writ of certiorari from vaccine makers
Wyeth and GlaxoSmithKline to overturn a unanimous ruling by the
Georgia Supreme Court that decided a civil lawsuit filed by
Marcelo and Carolyn Ferrari on behalf of their autistic son was
not barred by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensation
Act.
The Georgia decision noted that recognizing presumptive preemption
would,
"have the perverse effect of
granting complete tort immunity from design defect liability to
an entire industry."
The Ferrari family alleges that the
vaccine makers could have manufactured safer childhood vaccines
without the mercury-based,
thimerosal, that caused their son's
autism. The Georgia court's ruling would allow a jury to decide the
case.
On September 9, 2009, the National Autism Association issued
a press release with a headline:
"Offit's Failure to Disclose
Jeopardizes Swine Flu Vaccine Program," referring to his recent
appearance on a segment of NBC's Dateline.
"As autumn approaches and millions of Americans consider taking
an H1N1 Swine Flu vaccination, the integrity of all vaccine
developers has been called into question by the financial
relationship of a leading vaccine advocate and a pharmaceutical
manufacturer," NAA advised.
"If people are to have confidence in the integrity of the Swine
Flu vaccination program this fall then we need full disclosure
of all financial relationships between proponents and
manufacturers on every vaccine on the market," said Jim Moody,
attorney for the NAA, in the press release.
"Who has an objective opinion about a company that has made them
rich?" he said.
"Offit has zero credibility in matters of vaccine safety," says
Wendy Fournier, president of the NAA. "Not only does he advance
the absurd suggestion that children could safety get 100,000
vaccines at a time, he opposes any studies of the comparative
health of unvaccinated children that could shed light on the
extent and nature of vaccine-caused injuries, leading to their
prevention."
Beyond Offit's financial conflicts,
autism advocates are also dismayed about his credibility on speaking
about autism in general, as he does not treat patients with autism.
"It's a mystery how such an
inexperienced and financially conflicted man has become the
go-to guy for information on autism," Ms Fournier says. "Here's
a man with no real knowledge about autism that again and again
appears in media coverage."
"Not only is he completely unqualified to address autism from a
medical standpoint, his financial conflicts of interest
disqualify him as a credible source for vaccine safety
commentary as well," she points out.
Too many shots
"Today's immunization schedule now
calls for kids to get 55 doses of vaccines by age 6," according
to the CBS News report.
The four flu shots recommended this year
will be in addition to all the other vaccines children receive in
complying with the mandatory childhood vaccine schedule.
On the "Age
of Autism" website, Mary Podlesak warns that the
flu vaccines still contain mercury.
"I was reading the package inserts
for the H1N1 vaccines from Novartis, Sanofi Pasteur and CSL last
night," she said. "All three state the vaccine contains 25mcg of
mercury - not 25mcg of thimerosal - 25mcg of mercury."
"When I checked the package inserts for the seasonal flu
vaccine, they read the same as the H1N1 description," Podlesak
wrote.
The package insert states:
"The 5-mL multidose vial formulation
contains thimerosal, a mercury derivative, added as a
preservative. Each 0.5-mL dose from the multidose vial contains
25 mcg mercury."
Smaller amounts of thimerosal also
remain in some other vaccines, even those marketed as
"preservative-free," according to Age of Autism.
The
H1N1 vaccine insert also states:
"Pregnancy Category C: Animal
reproduction studies have not been conducted with Influenza A".
"(H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine or
AFLURIA. It is also not known whether these vaccines can cause
fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman or can affect
reproduction capacity. Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent
Vaccine should be given to a pregnant woman only if clearly
needed. "
Back on May 20, 2003, after a three year
investigation of pediatric vaccine safety, initiated in the US
House Committee on Government Reform, the "Mercury
in Medicine Report," was placed in the Congressional
record.
"Thimerosal used as a preservative
in vaccines in likely related to the autism epidemic," the
report concluded.
"This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or
curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the switch regarding
the lack of safety data regarding injected thimerosal and the
sharp rise of infant exposure to this known neurotoxin," the
Committee advised.
"The FDA and the CDC failed in their duty to be vigilant as new
vaccines containing thimerosal were approved and added to the
immunization schedule," the report pointed out.
"At the same time that the incidence of autism was growing," the
Committee said, "the number of childhood vaccines containing
thimerosal was growing, increasing the amount of ethylmercury to
which infants were exposed threefold."
Vaccine makers and conflicted public
health officials are always claiming that studies show vaccines did
not cause the autism epidemic.
In a February 24, 2009
Huffington Post article, Robert
F Kennedy, Jr, pointed out,
"that for sixty years the tobacco
industry successfully defended a product that was killing one
out of every five of its customers against thousands of legal
actions brought by its victims and their families."
"Big tobacco prevailed for six decades," he said, "even without
the help of supportive government agencies deliberately
suppressing real science and research."
"In that sense vaccine victims must leap a much higher hurdle,"
he added.
Part
6
October 31, 2009
Most American are unaware that flu vaccines still contain
thimerosal and that to avoid
mercury, they have to ask for mercury-free shots. On November 13,
2007, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran the headline:
"Most flu shots contain mercury, but few know it."
Thimerosal consists of 49.6% ethyl mercury.
The Environmental Protection Agency
and Food (EPA)
and Drug Administration (FDA)
have not set an exposure limit for ethyl mercury.
"The federal agencies have, however,
set exposure limits for another organic and closely related form
of mercury, methyl mercury - the type that comes from coal-fired
power plants and is found in fish," the Journal said. "They use
that standard when estimating the safety of ethyl mercury."
"A typical 0.5 milliliter flu shot contains 25 micrograms - or
50,000 parts per billion - of mercury," the Journal reported.
"The EPA classifies a liquid with 200 parts per billion of
mercury as hazardous waste," it advised. "The limit for drinking
water is 2 parts per billion."
Using the standards set for methyl
mercury consumption,
"an average 130-pound person getting
the flu shot would exceed the daily limit by more than four
times," the Journal reported.
"A 22-pound baby would get more than 25 times the amount
of mercury considered safe," it said.
"Mercury is among the most toxic heavy metals and is known to
poison the central nervous system, liver, gastrointestinal tract
and other systems in the body," the Journal reported.
When the
influenza vaccines,
"are injected into pregnant woman
and infants as young as six months, those vaccines contain
50,000 ppb mercury," warns Deirdre Imus in a November 19, 2007,
Huffington Post article titled, "Over Medicated and
Over-Vaccinated: The Unintended Consequence of Medicines Meant
to Protect."
This amount of mercury is 250 times
higher than hazardous waste, she notes, and, according to EPA
guidelines, this amount can only be considered safe if a person
weighs 550 pounds.
"Even trace amounts of mercury in
vaccines can be anywhere from 600 to 2000 ppb," she advises.
People need to ask for a thimerosal-free
vaccine if they want it, health officials told the Journal.
"But many people aren't aware that
mercury is in the flu shot," the Journal found.
"I didn't know," said Kate Strzok, a 23-year-old Oak Creek
woman, as she walked out of the Piggly Wiggly where she had just
gotten the flu shot. "Interesting that they don't tell you."
PutChildrenFirst.org, a parent-led
organization advocating for vaccine safety, announced the results of
a survey on November 13, 2006, conducted during October 27-30, 2006,
by Zogby International of over 9,000 Americans, to learn
their plans for getting flu shots, their knowledge of its
ingredients, and who they held responsible for making sure vaccines
are safe.
The survey showed that an overwhelming majority of Americans were
unaware that most flu shots contained mercury.
After learning that mercury was an
ingredient, 74% of those polled said they were less likely to get a
flu shot and 86% of parents said they were less likely to allow
their children to get a shot.
"The survey reveals that Americans
are overwhelmingly in the dark about what is in most flu shots,"
said Lyn Redwood, RN, MSN, president of SafeMinds, a nonprofit
organization committed to ending mercury-induced neurological
disorders, in a press release.
"They do not want a known neurotoxin injected into their
children, and they believe Congress and medical professionals
must be more vigilant about keeping vaccines safe and
mercury-free," she advised.
"With everything we know about the dangers of mercury and the
havoc it can wreak on young, developing brains," she said,
"there is no excuse for any vaccine to contain mercury."
Lisa Handley is a founding parent
of PutChildrenFirst whose son had an adverse reaction to a flu shot
with mercury in 2003.
"I know firsthand how life-changing
a flu shot with mercury can be, since our son began his
regression into autism after his flu shot," she stated in the
press release.
Damning Reports
On October 5, 2009, the Maternal &
Child Health Bureau of Health Resources and Services Administration,
US Department of Health and Human Services released a study
evaluating the number of children in the US who currently have a
Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis, titled, "The
Prevalence of Parent-Reported Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder
among Children in the United States, 2007."
The study evaluated data from a national Survey of Children's Health
and found that 1 in 91 children between the ages of 3 and 17
currently carry an ASD diagnosis.
"Even more alarming, for the subset
of children between ages 6 and 14 immunized during the 1990's
the prevalence is actually 1 in 71 children with an autism
diagnosis," Age of Autism reports.
"This age group represents children in the U.S. with the highest
exposure to thimerosal, the mercury preservative routinely used
until CDC, AAP and industry recommended its removal "as soon as
possible" from all childhood vaccines," AoA advises.
"We are especially alarmed by these findings because the
seasonal influenza and H1N1 vaccines contain mercury well in
excess of EPA safe exposure guidelines," said Theresa Wrangham,
president of SafeMinds, in a statement to President
Obama calling for a ban on
mercury in vaccines given to pregnant women and young children.
Another new study found that giving
Hepatitis B vaccine to newborn boys may triple the risk of
developing an autism spectrum disorder.
An abstract of the study was published
in the September, 2009 "Annals of Epidemiology" journal.
"Boys who received the hepatitis B
vaccine during the first month of life had 2.94 greater odds for
ASD compared to later - or unvaccinated boys," wrote Carolyn
Gallagher and Melody Goodman of the graduate program in public
health at Stony Brook University Medical Center in New York.
On September 30, 2009,
Age of Autism Editor-at-Large,
Mark Blaxill, reported on a new study in the journal "Neurotoxicology,"
by a research team led by scientists from the University of
Pittsburgh and Thoughtful House, that found exposure to a birth dose
of a hepatitis B vaccine that included thimerosal caused significant
delays in the development of several survival reflexes in male
rhesus macaque monkeys.
"In the first safety study of its
kind of the hepatitis vaccine birth dose, the researchers showed
that male macaques vaccinated at birth with a hepatitis B
vaccine (HBV) took more than twice as long as unexposed macaques
to acquire three standardized skills typically used to measure
infant brain development," Blaxill wrote.
The study showed vaccinated monkeys
learned more slowly to,
-
turn their head in response to a
brush on the cheek (root reflex)
-
open their mouth in response to
a brush on the forehead (snout reflex)
-
suck on a nipple placed in their
mouth (suck reflex)
The researchers found the unvaccinated
monkeys developed normally. The study is part of a larger research
program looking at the safety of the vaccine schedule in children
from birth to age four.
Dr Andrew Wakefield, Executive Director of Thoughtful
House, and a co-investigator of the project, told Age of
Autism that he found it particularly concerning,
"that in spite of the recommendation
to remove thimerosal from vaccines a decade ago, millions of
people, many of them children and pregnant mothers, are about to
get mercury in their shots."
A 2006 study in the "Journal of American
Physicians and Surgeons," by Dr David Ayoub and Dr F
Edward Yazback, titled, Influenza Vaccinations During
Pregnancy: A Critical Assessment of the Recommendations of the
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), states:
"The ACIP policy recommendation of
routinely administering influenza vaccine during pregnancy is
ill-advised and unsupported by current scientific literature,
and it should be withdrawn. Use of thimerosal during pregnancy
should be contraindicated."
"Because the benefits of influenza vaccination during pregnancy
appear lacking, a safety-benefit analysis should not tolerate
any risk to vaccine recipients or their offspring, even at a
theoretical level," the doctors conclude.
Back on February 28, 2005, the
Associated Press reported that,
"lower IQ levels linked to mercury
exposure in the womb costs the United States $8.7 billion a year
in lost earnings potential," citing a study by researchers at
New York's Mount Sinai hospital published in the journal,
"Environmental Health Perspectives."
The Mount Sinai Center for Children's
Health and the Environment combined a number of previous studies
to determine hundreds of thousands of babies are born every year
with lower IQ associated with mercury exposure.
Lead researcher and pediatrician, Leonard Trasande, reported
that annually between 316,588 and 637,233 infants are born with
umbilical cord blood mercury levels linked to IQ loss.
As an example, Dr Trasande said, each year about 4% of babies are
with blood mercury levels between 7.13 and 15 micrograms per liter.
That level of mercury causes an IQ loss of 1.6 points, the
researchers concluded.
A 1.6 point drop could cost a person more than $31,000 in potential
earnings over a lifetime due to missed educational opportunities or
jobs, the study calculated.
The researchers found the IQ losses
linked to mercury ranged from one-fifth of an IQ point to as
much as 24 points.
"The Environmental Protection Agency
estimates that about 8 percent of American women of childbearing
age have enough mercury in their blood to put a fetus at risk,"
the Associated Press noted.
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