Today Thomas R. Frieden, head of CDC appeared before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to testify on H1N1 and in a response to a question from Congressman Darrell Issa, said that the CDC would like to create federal mandates forcing vaccines on the public.
Issa asked about the "push back" from the New York medical professionals to the states mandate that they receive the H1N1 and seasonal flu shot and the case that the state has for forcing the vaccines. Frieden expressed the opinion that he believed that the state mandate is warranted, and that he thinks such mandates should take place at a federal level, although not this year.
This echos Julie Gerberding's comments to the New York Times last week in regard to the NY manndate that CDC wanted to implement forced vaccines while she was there.
"The unions do not oppose vaccination “but we oppose a mandatory program,” he said. “This is: ‘You don’t get the shot, you’re fired.’ ”
Some prominent health experts, however, were delighted.
Dr. Julie Gerberding, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called New York’s move “a big deal.”
She had pushed for years for mandatory vaccinations — not just to protect health care workers, she explained, but to protect their patients, who are often aged, have weakened immune systems or are bedridden after surgery, which increases pneumonia risks.
“We tried to market the idea, to push people, to educate,” she said. “But looking back, broadly speaking, we failed. It’s time to look at a more aggressive approach.”
By contrast, her successor, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, said last month that even though he expected a surge in swine flu deaths this winter and even though C.D.C. guidelines give health care workers first priority for the new vaccine, he would not push to make vaccinations mandatory."
Apparently the NYT was only partially right that Frieden wouldn't push for forced vaccinations. He wants to force them, just not this year.
Video can be found here, Issa/Frieden discussion starts at 43:20.
UPDATE: Listening to Frieden again, I can't tell if he is talking about mandating vaccines for health care workers or for the general public. Not that either are acceptable. But I don't think that a mandate for health professionals would be anything but a precedent for mass forced vaccination.
Remember all those talking heads on TV that keep saying that mercury is gone from vaccines and won't be in the H1N1 flu shot? They are misinforming you.
Does the Swine Flu shot have mercury in it? The answer is yes... some of them.
If you decide to get the shot, INSIST on seeing the vaccine package insert. If you are offered a shot that is drawn from a vial, that will be a mercury containing vaccine.
Keep in mind that many parents of children with autism reported that their child received a shot from a multi-dose vial, and then saw the nurse throw the bottle away. Mercury is a heavy metal, and if the nurses who use that vial do not "shake vigorously before use" then the mercury settles at the bottom and the last person to get a shot drawn from that vial gets a "hot shot" with all the mercury in it.
This week the FDA released the vaccine package inserts for the upcoming H1N1 vaccines:
____________________________________________________________________
The H1N1 Sanofi Vaccine Package Insert:
"Sanofi Pasteur 449/454 Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine" 10 September 2009_v0.3
FULL DOSE MERCURY VACCINE - 25mcg
EPA says that safety limits are .1mcg per kg of weight per day, which makes th...is vaccine safe for anyone who weights 550 lbs!
Do you weight 550 lbs?
____________________________________________________________________
The H1N1 CSL Vaccine Package Insert - Version 2.0
"Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine, a sterile suspension for intramuscular injection, is supplied in two presentations:
• 0.5 mL preservative-free, single-dose, pre-filled syringe.
• 5 mL multi-dose vial containing ten doses. Thimerosal, a mercury derivative, is added as a preservative; each 0.5 mL dose contains 24.5 micrograms (mcg) of mercury."
MERCURY VACCINE - 2mcgEPA says that safety limits are .1mcg per kg of weight per day, which makes this vaccine safe for anyone who weights 550 lbs!
Do you weight 550 lbs?
IF you are getting the shot, read the packaging, make sure it is Hg free. And think twice about getting this shot.
____________________________________________________________________ Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Limited BLA 1750 September 2009 Influenza A (H1N1) Vaccine
"Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine, a sterile suspension for intramuscular injection, is supplied in two presentations:
• Prefilled single dose syringe, 0.5-mL. Thimerosal, a mercury derivative used during manufacture, is removed by subsequent purification steps to a trace amount (≤ 1 mcg mercury per 0.5-mL dose) (3, 11)
• Multidose vial, 5-mL. Contains thimerosal, a mercury derivative (25 mcg mercury per 0.5-mL dose). Thimerosal is added as preservative."
"a trace amount" - Mercury at nanomolar amounts can cause mitochondrial damage so severe that it causes cells to self destruct.
MERCURY VACCINE - 2mcgEPA says that safety limits are .1mcg per kg of weight
per day, which makes this vaccine safe for anyone who weights 550 lbs!
Do you weight 550 lbs?
____________________________________________________________________
Pay close attention to Section 17.2 where they discuss that patients are CONTAGIOUS after getting the nasal form of this vaccine.
This can actually ...spread the disease that the CDC is supposedly trying to prevent.
Note that the adverse reactions section reports that a side effect of the H1N1 flu shot in about ten percent of recipients is..... the flu itself.
___________________________________________________________________
IF you are getting the shot, read the packaging, make sure it is Hg free. And think twice about getting this shot.
I have heard it reported that that mercury in vaccines has been proven safe... this is absolutely false.
A reminder of what mercury does to brain cells:
I will update this page as information is made available
A participant in the german H1N1 vaccine trials reports serious adverse reactions, including coughing up blood, but the lead researcher blows it off. Yet another story of problems in vaccine safety studies that are ignored.
Why test a vaccine exactly, if you already have decided what the outcomes can or cannot be? Apparently Heir Doctor will only accept 'redness and swelling at the injection site' as a side effect.
The article does not say which version of the vaccine he got. Wish there was more information on this case.
A swine flu vaccine test subject from Munich complains about horror side-effects – researchers deny allegations
Munich – A harmless prick – and thereby possibly save thousands of people. This is what several hundreds of volunteers thought, who each collected a payment of 250 Euro for their participation in the study of the swine flu vaccine trial at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University.
One of them has now quit the trial: The Diploma-businessman Axel Sch. (40). He claims : "The vaccination has made me ill! – the test is irresponsible.” He says that within a few hours after the vaccination, on August 10, he had sweat on his forehead. "I felt totally beat. On the third day, my kidneys and head were aching and I got a fever. I then had a coughing fit - and the wash basin was suddenly red - it was blood!“
LMU-medical researcher Frank von Sonnenburg, who is in charge of the country-wide study, doesn’t consider these accounts credible. He says that such side-effects cannot be related to the vaccine. He does not deny that, as with other flu-vaccinations, flu-like symptoms may occur as a reaction to the vaccination. "Additionally, there may be light pain, redness or swelling at the injection site."
"Obviously many of the test subjects would have side-effects. We do such a study precisely because we want to find out any possible side-effects. If flu cases were to become more severe and we had not done any tests, – there would be a big outcry by everyone."
Was the vaccine admitted too quickly to the study? The fact is that in this composition, the vaccine has not yet been applied to humans. The Federal Health Minister Ulla Schmidt explained on Wednesday that she had felt put under pressure by the pharmaceutical industry from the beginning. Criticism is being voiced with increasing frequency. The Paul-Ehrlich-Institute points out that side-effects to this vaccine are to be more expected than in connection with a normal flu-vaccine. The Paediatric Association points to a possibly increased number of unknown side-effects.
Probably because of this, the USA only test vaccines without so-called adjuvants. These lead to greater side-effects, explains study leader Frank von Sonnenburg. "The adjuvants produce more anti-bodies, which is why the body’s defensive reaction is also greater." Kidney pains and bloody cough of the kind Axel Sch. Experienced were however not to be expected, even with this adjuvant. "We conduct a clean study."
Axel Sch. however insists that his complaints were a result of the vaccination. "Surely it is no coincidence that they occurred directly after the vaccination." He criticizes the university, saying that he was not properly informed prior to the study. He said that for three days he was flat on his back during this heat. "When I phoned the LMU, they simply asked me the question needed to fill in their form and told me to see my doctor." He now wants the medical costs and loss of earnings compensated by the medical insurance covering the trial.
Axel Sch. has participated in medical trials even when he was a student. He had also had good experiences with an LMU flu-vaccine study. "This is the reason why I immediately consented when they asked me if I would test the new vaccine."
Now his trust in research is gone, he is quitting the vaccine trial. In October he will fly to Latin America for professional reasons. He had looked forward to traveling unconcerned – by then he would have received the second of three vaccinations. "I’m not fearful just the same – I don’t belong to an at risk group. Also, the swine flu can’t possibly be as bad as the side-effects of the vaccine."
As I previously mentioned, my dear husband has started a new company called Maine Bunk Beds. Non-Toxic, safer beds for kids. Yesterday we came up with a simple three step plan to become wealthy beyond our imaginations.
1. Get the government excluded Maine Bunk Beds from any product liability.
2. Get the government to not allow kids to attend school if they didn't buy the recommended number of Maine Bunk Beds.
3. Get the government to stage PR campaigns where mock riots were held with people resorting to violence if they couldn't get their hands on a Maine Bunk Bed.
On April 26, a national public health emergency was declared by officials in the U.S. Departments of Health and Homeland Security. 1,2 We were told it was necessary to declare a national emergency because people were getting sick from a new swine flu virus that began in Mexico and might cause a deadly influenza pandemic.
So far, the vast majority of people who get sick with swine flu have symptoms that are no worse than the regular flu and recover completely. 3,4,5, 6
Three Week Testing of Swine Flu Vaccines
The declaration of a national public health emergency last spring set a chain of events in motion: some schools were closed, 7 some people were quarantined 8, 9 and drug companies were given billons of tax dollars to create experimental swine flu vaccines. 10 These new vaccines are being fast tracked by the FDA. We are being told they will only be tested for a few weeks on a few hundred children and adults 11 before being given to children in schools in October.
Liability Protection for Vaccine Injuries & Deaths
Under federal legislation passed by Congress since 2001, an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) 12,13,14 allows drug companies, health officials and anyone who gives experimental vaccines to Americans during a declared public health emergency, to be protected from liability if people get hurt.
Safety and Informed Consent At Risk in Schools
The National Vaccine Information Center has been a vaccine safety watchdog since 1982. We are questioning the need to turn schools into medical clinics this fall where swine flu vaccines being rushed to market will be given to children first. We are calling on the Obama Administration and state Governors to provide solid evidence to parents that it is necessary to give children experimental swine flu vaccines in schools.
Are the states prepared to obey vaccine safety provisions in the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act,15 which include:
1. Giving parents written information about vaccine benefits and risks before children are vaccinated; 16
2. Keeping a record of which vaccines the children get, including the manufacturer’s name and lot number;
3. Recording which vaccines were given in the child’s medical record;
4. Recording serious health problems that develop after vaccination in the child’s medical record and immediately making a report to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) 17
Will States Compensate Vaccine Injured Children?
And there are more questions that need to be answered: Are the states prepared to provide financial compensation to children harmed by swine flu vaccines given in schools? Are parents going to be given complete, truthful information about swine flu vaccine risks and have the right to say “YES” or “NO” before their children are lined up and vaccinated in the school setting?
Vaccines are pharmaceutical products that carry a risk of injury or death and those risks are greater for some than others. 1 in 6 children in America is learning disabled18. 1 in 9 has asthma 1 in 150 develops autism. 1 in 450 has diabetes and millions more suffer with allergies and autoimmune disorders. Will the swine flu vaccine be safe for them?
Although it is a good idea for health officials to prepare for a worst case scenario and stockpile vaccines, it is a bad idea to turn schools into medical clinics and basically test experimental swine flu vaccines on children first. Especially when nobody has any liability. That has the potential to hurt children instead of keeping them well.
NVIC Oct. 2-4 Conference Addresses Vaccine Risks
This Oct. 2-4, 2009 in Washington, D.C., parents concerned about the lack of vaccine safety and informed consent protections in the vaccination system will gather with doctors, scientists, bioethicists, legal experts, journalists, and consumer advocates at the Fourth International Public Conference on Vaccination to talk about the science, policy, law and ethics of vaccination.
Register now
– Special Early Bird registration ends on July 31.
Click here for more information about swine flu, swine flu vaccines, public health laws that govern you and you family, and how you can be better prepared to make well informed decisions during the declared national public health emergency.
Endnotes:
1 U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Press Briefing on Swine Influenza with Dept. of Homeland Security, Centers for Disease Control and White House. April 26, 2009.
2 U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Determination That A Public Health Emergency Exists. April 26, 2009.
3 Gale J. Bloomberg News. Swine Flu May Be Less Lethal Than Earlier Estimated, Study Says. July 6, 2009.
4 Schmid RE. The Seattle Times. Study: New flu inefficient in attacking people. July 2, 2009.
5 Centers for Disease Control. FluView. 2008-2009 Influenza Season Week 27 Ending July 11, 2009.
6 Food and Drug Administration, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Office of Vaccine Research and Review. Regulatory Considerations Regarding the Use of Novel Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Vaccines. July 23, 2009.
7 US Department of Education. H1N1 Flu & U.S. Schools: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions. May 5, 2009.
8 NBC. Marine Tests Positive for Swine Flu. April 29, 2009.
9 CBS. DHS Sets Guidelines for Possible Swine Flu Quarantines. April 28, 2009.
10 The Independent. Obama earmarks emergency funding to fight swine flu. July 16, 2009.
11 Food and Drug Administration, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Office of Vaccine Research and Review. Regulatory Considerations Regarding the Use of Novel Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Vaccines. July 23, 2009.
12 Project Bioshield Act of 2004 (PL 108-276)
13 The Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act of 2006 (PL 109-417).
14 Nightingale SL, Prasher JM, Simonson S. Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to Enable Use of Needed Products in Civilian and Military Emergencies, United States. Emerging Infectious Diseases Vo. 13, No.7: July 2007.
15 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 (PL99-660)
16 CDC. Fact Sheet for Vaccine Information Statements.
17 MedAlerts. Online Access to the U.S. VAERS Database.
18 Fisher BL. Vaccine Safety Research Priorities: Engaging the Public. National Vaccine Advisory Committee. April 11, 2008.
Just one more product that they can make, that even when used correctly can kill someone, or many someones, and they have no responsibility what so ever.
The article does not state whether or not the shots will be covered under the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund, but I will assume for the time being that they are unless I find out otherwise.
But it is of little comfort as the VICP is not known for speedy justice. If one gets justice at all, it can take years (or decades in the case of Hannah poling who was injured almost ten years ago, got a judgment in her favor in November of 2007, still has not seen dime one, and whose parents don't anticipate seeing the first payments until at least 2010). Then that "justice" is doled out one scoop at a time by the court, whom you have to go to and ask for said cash for expenditure X and they say yes or no. My favorite story was of a child who was in a wheelchair and grew out of that wheelchair and petitioned the court to get some of her money to buy a new wheelchair and the court said "no, we already bought you a wheelchair" which was the wheelchair that she had just grown out of.
I guess the court cannot be too careful with all those crafty crippled tweeners running their little "street wheelchair" rackets.
Keep in mind, that the plan as of now is to dispense tens of thousands of doses of vaccine in September BEFORE THE SAFETY TESTING IS IN, and then go back and reformulated the next round according to the safety testing.
If you get the shot before mid October, you are assured of getting one that has no studies to back it up, and for which the people making it hold NO liability.
This for a disease which is killing around 1 in 400,000 people who catch it, and probably less than that.
(Just a reminder that the autism rate reported by the DOD of their dependents is 1 in 88. I believe that the government is spending 8.5 billion on Swine Flu this year. Proportional response?)
Legal immunity set for swine flu vaccine makers
By MIKE STOBBE, Ap Medical Writer – Fri Jul 17, 8:15 pm ET
ATLANTA – The last time the government embarked on a major vaccine campaign against a new swine flu, thousands filed claims contending they suffered side effects from the shots. This time, the government has already taken steps to head that off.
Vaccine makers and federal officials will be immune from lawsuits that result from any new swine flu vaccine, under a document signed by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, government health officials said Friday.
Since the 1980s, the government has protected vaccine makers against lawsuits over the use of childhood vaccines. Instead, a federal court handles claims and decides who will be paid from a special fund.
The document signed by Sebelius last month grants immunity to those making a swine flu vaccine, under the provisions of a 2006 law for public health emergencies. It allows for a compensation fund, if needed.
The government takes such steps to encourage drug companies to make vaccines, and it's worked. Federal officials have contracted with five manufacturers to make a swine flu vaccine. First identified in April, swine flu has so far caused about 263 deaths, according to numbers released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday.
The CDC said more than 40,000 Americans have had confirmed or probable cases, but those are people who sought health care. It's likely that more than 1 million Americans have been sickened by the flu, many with mild cases.
The virus hits younger people harder that seasonal flu, but so far hasn't been much more deadly than the strains seen every fall and winter. But health officials believe the virus could mutate to a more dangerous form, or at least contribute to a potentially heavier flu season than usual.
"We do expect there to be an increase in influenza this fall," with a bump in cases perhaps beginning earlier than normal, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration approved the regular winter flu vaccine, a final step before shipments to clinics and other vaccination sites could begin.
The last time the government faced a new swine flu virus was in 1976. Cases of swine flu in soldiers at Fort Dix, N.J., including one death, made health officials worried they might be facing a deadly pandemic like the one that killed millions around the world in 1918 and 1919.
Federal officials vaccinated 40 million Americans during a national campaign. A pandemic never materialized, but thousands who got the shots filed injury claims, saying they suffered a paralyzing condition called Guillain-Barre Syndrome or other side effects.
"The government paid out quite a bit of money," said Stephen Sugarman, a law professor who specializes in product liability at the University of California at Berkeley.
Vaccines aren't as profitable as other drugs for manufacturers, and without protection against lawsuits "they're saying, 'Do we need this?'" Sugarman said.
The move to protect makers of a swine flu didn't go over well with Paul Pennock, a prominent New York plaintiffs attorney on medical liability cases. The government will likely call on millions of Americans to get the vaccinations to prevent the disease from spreading, he noted.
"If you're going to ask people to do this for the common good, then let's make sure for the common good that these people will be taken care of if something goes wrong," Pennock said.
___
AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard contributed to this report from Washington.
Your favorite CDC director and mine, Julie Gerberding, is back to help ABC news scare you into vaccinating with the rushed and poorly tested H1N1 flu shot by using the now tried and true, "On no... there's gonna be a vaccine shortage, get yours now", offense in their piece:
(UPDATE: After getting some criticism for scare mongering, ABC changed the title of the piece to, "CDC Downplays Swine Flu Vaccine Fears: Goverment Health Officials Say U.S. Preparations Should Preclude Risk of Shortage")
A few years back, there was an actual seasonal flu shot shortage because of a failure in manufacturing, and the news reported on it. To everyone's surprise, people RAN to get shots, even waiting in long lines. More people got flu shots that year than ever.
So now, they do it every year just before the fall. Get your flu shots before they run out! So of course the are using this tactic with swine flu (FYI, I listened in on the HHS National Biodefense Science Board meeting today on the Swine Flu and they are expecting to have tens of millions of vaccines available by September 15th [or sooner] and more than 190 million available by October, that is most of the US just in the first two months of flu season)
After the scare piece, Dr. Gerberding is introduced to us for a short interview thusly:
"Joining us now from Atlanta, the former head of the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Julie Gerberding. ... do you have an update on when that vaccine might be available?
Dr. Gerberding shares with us:
Well if everything goes well, we should have vaccine early in the fall. But we've never had the luxury of being able to count on vaccine as the magic bullet in the early months. We know there is not going to be enough globally, and it will be many months before we can even cover our own population under the best scenario...
I am sure the public feels reassured about the vaccine by seeing the familiar face of a public health official talking about "magic" vaccines.
Except that Dr. Gerberding is not a public health official any more. She is now a PR consultant.
Gerberding left CDC in January at the request of the Obama administration and subsequently went to work for the global giant PR firm Edelman as an "adviser on global health strategy".
And Edelman represents PHARMA. And AstraZeneca, Novartis, Pfizer, Abbott Laboratories, and Johnson & Johnson.
"The PR genius behind all stages of Merck's HPV and Gardasil campaigns is the PR giant Edelman. The world's largest independent PR firm, Edelman boasts more than 2,100 employees working in 46 wholly owned offices worldwide, plus the additional resources of more than 50 affiliates. They report $299 million in revenues for FY 2006. In addition to Merck, Edelman works on behalf of the industry lobby group PhRMA, as well as some of the largest pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, Novartis, Pfizer, Abbott Laboratories, and Johnson & Johnson. They proudly promote their health-related expertise as being adept in pioneering "health relationships with health care companies, advocacy organizations, foundations, NGOs and academic institutions." Co-optation, anyone?"
Edelman has made a name for itself outside of the pharmaceutical realm as well. A key chapter in Edelman's long and sordid history is their work on behalf of Big Tobacco. For example, in 1978, Edelman, working on behalf of R.J. Reynolds, produced a document titled Taking the Initiative on the Smoking Issue: A Total Program. The introduction states "The public mind-set against cigarettes is so firm that one cannot conscientiously promise miracles from the campaign suggested here. But we believe this program, executed effectively, can begin to slow or reverse the growing negative trends in public opinion regarding smoking; can stimulate a more balanced media coverage of smoking; and can generate a more congenial dialogue between smokers and non-smokers.... (Read that whole article.)"
Nice eh?
(Especially considering Gerberding was trying to end smoking at CDC, but then went to work for a PR firm that promotes smoking.)
In fact Richard Edelman, Dr. Gerberding's boss, is quite open about the fact that he makes his living by lying to the public creative truthing.
“In this era of exploding media technologies there is no truth except the truth you create for yourself.” – Richard Edelman
Edelman put his skills to work in praising Gerberding:
"Just prior to Dr. Julie Gerberding’s January 2009 resignation as Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, advertising industry mogul Richard Edelman praised her as a “selfless crusader, a throw-back to a time when public service was the highest calling.” Edelman cited Gerberding’s ability in “humanizing communications” and “the need to tell stories to buttress traditional CDC reliance on science and facts.”
So there you have it. Today Dr. Gerberding has come full circle from a public health official making ridiculous statements that shilled for PHARMA, to a PHARMA shill posing as a public health official.
Same schtick, just someone else signing a bigger check to her.
Watching this again, how could we have not just assumed that she would go into public relations.
UPDATE: Apparently the good doctor has begun making the rounds offering up a 'live healthy' message, that begins with slipping in a subtle message that is in the interests of PHARMA.
The day after the ABC interview, this opinion piece surfaced:
Robert Reich reported that Pharma was trying to kill part of the health reform bill that would drive down drug prices.
Julie is as entitled to her opinion as I am to mine, however she is not disclosing her conflicts of interest.
What are my conflicts of interest, you ask? Well in five years of blogging I have received about $1,850 in donations from individuals and ad sales from Lee Silsby (I discontinued ads cause I don't wanna mess with it). That works out to about $1.71 per blog post, as I have written 1082 of them.
My child is not in the Vaccine Injury Compensation pipeline and we are not suing anyone over anything.
Another Update: Another day, another new Gerberding article. Nothing since she left CDC in January, and now three in three days.
This one is her in Forbes praising NYC for its trans-fat ban.
I didn't see any conflicts of interest there. But I thought surely they woman would not just be talking about good health for the sake of her health.
Then tonight I realized that her successor at CDC, Thomas R. Frieden, was the NYC Health Commissioner who put the trans-fat ban in place. Well no conflict of interest there, just praising her successor.
But then I did another search on Edelman and Source Watch says that Edelman has some government PR contracts. I wonder if CDC is one of those government contracts.
Edelman and Gerberding met working together at a CDC Foundation where he was on the board. I wonder if that won him a contract.
I wonder if Edelman and co. were responsible for her "Pretty in Pink" makeover for the CNN interview? The change in her look was dramatic.
I will see if I can find out if there is a formal relationship between CDC and Edelman PR.
Update: On January 25th 2010, after a legally mandated one year waiting period, Julie Gerberding took her new position as the head of the vaccine division of Merck.
Recently I watched the BBC Documentary, "The Century of the Self", which details how Sigmund Freud's theories on the human psyche were used by his nephew to give birth to the PR industry. It was truly astonishing to see how we have been abused for a hundred years.
I am tacking it on to the end of this post as it is relevant.
Take the time to watch this four hour series. It is quite the wake up call to start thinking for yourself.
I have considered my self psych and media savvy, but I had no idea how many of my decisions had been made for me.
“We must shift America from a needs to a desires culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things even before the old have been entirely consumed. We must shape a new mentality in America. Man’s desires must over shadow his needs.”
- Paul Mazer, Public Relations, Lehman Brothers in the 1930’s
Wait... I thought that H1N1 was such a huge threat that we needed to rush out a vaccine to everyone on the planet with as little as five days of safety testing, and that HHS "anticipated" being voluntary, but could be made mandatory for everyone.
But apparently is it also so small a threat that we don't even need to track how big the threat is any more.
You have got to be kidding me.
Apparently they mentioned this little tidbit under their breath as they were leaving a room or something, because their official spokesman was baffled when someone asked him about it.
I try very hard not to become cynical on vaccine issues and rush to blame over zealous vaccination policies on motives of financial gain, but I don't know how not to go there when the agency calling for world wide swine flu uptake stops measuring the need for such uptake.
As soon as they stop counting, no one can make the arguement that this vaccine will be necessary because we won't know how many people are actually dying from it. Which is fewer and fewer, now that the number of people infected is actually in the millions.
So we are just supposed to take WHO's advice to take a minimally tested vaccine, with out knowing if it really is necessary? Knowing full well that THEY don't even know if it is necessary?
When will health policy makers begin acting in good faith with the people who are supposed to be following their polices? Because now they know that we know that they don't even know if this shot is necessary?
I just we are just supposed to turn off our brains, not think for ourselves, have no desire to make informed health decisions and hand over our cash (via taxes, insurance premiums or actual cash) and get a shot because some people we don't know with letters after their names said so.
Come to think of it, who is the WHO anyway? Who are they accountable to, what do they know about me and my family, and why do I care what they think? If they are wrong in their recommendations and policies, or even criminal, what recourse do I have? Writing a strongly worded letter?
...becoming cynical...
W.H.O. Says It Plans to Stop Tracking Swine Flu Cases New York Times
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Published: July 16, 2009
In a move that caught many public health experts by surprise, the World Health Organization quietly announced Thursday that it would stop tracking swine flu cases and deaths around the world.
Skip to next paragraph
Related
Times Topics: Swine Flu (AH1N1 Virus) | World Health Organization
The announcement, made in a “briefing note” posted on the organization’s Web site late in the day, perplexed some experts, and even baffled a W.H.O. spokesman, Gregory Hartl, who said in an e-mail message, “I don’t have reliable info” about what his agency would track instead.
Only a little earlier in the day, Mr. Hartl had confirmed that Argentina, with 137 swine flu deaths since June, had surpassed Mexico, where the epidemic began in February, as the country with second largest number of swine flu deaths. Mexico has 121, and the United States, with a much larger population, has 211.
The last W.H.O. update, issued on July 6, showed 94,512 confirmed cases in 122 countries, with 429 deaths.
Many epidemiologists have pointed out that, in reality, millions of people have had swine flu, usually in a mild form, so the numbers of laboratory-confirmed cases were actually meaningless. And performing the tests has overwhelmed many national laboratories.
The briefing note said countries would still be asked to report their first few confirmed cases. It also said countries should watch for clusters of fatalities, which could indicate that the virus had mutated to a more lethal form. Other “signals to be vigilant for,” it said, were spikes in school absenteeism and surges in hospital visits.
In London, the Sunday Times is reporting that "When the new vaccine for swine flu arrives in Britain, regulators said this weekend, it could be approved for use in just five days."
No word yet on how long the trials for the H1N1 shots will last in the US.
I have spoken to an official at the Maine health department who is reporting that the vaccine delivered here will be one that comes in multidose vials, therefore will be a mercury containing vaccine.
Last week, HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that HHS was "anticipating a voluntary" H1N1 vaccine program this fall, which leaves room for the possibility that HHS could change their minds and make it mandatory.
I would encourage everyone to keep an eye on this story as it develops, as hastily manufactured, tested and delivered vaccines that are not held up to the same scrutiny that is standard during FDA licensure certainly would have a greater potential for adverse reactions when introduced to the general public.
Swine flu vaccine to be cleared after five-day trial
July 12, 2009 The Sunday Times
byJon Ungoed-Thomas
The path of a popular medicine from the laboratory to the chemist or doctor’s surgery can involve years of clinical trials on a select group of patients.
When the new vaccine for swine flu arrives in Britain, regulators said this weekend, it could be approved for use in just five days.
Regulators at the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) said the fast-tracked procedure has involved clinical trials of a “mock-up” vaccine similar to the one that will be used for the biggest mass vaccination programme in generations. It will be introduced into the general population while regulators continue to carry out simultaneous clinical trials.
However, regulators said fast-tracking would not be at the expense of patient safety. “The vaccines are authorised with a detailed risk management plan,” the EMEA said. “There is quite a body of evidence regarding safety on the trials of the mock-up, and the actual vaccine could be assessed in five days.”
The UK government has ordered enough vaccine to cover the entire population. GPs are being told to prepare for a nationwide vaccination campaign.
Dr Peter Holden, the British Medical Association’s lead negotiator on swine flu, who has been attending Department of Health meetings on the outbreak, said GPs’ surgeries were prepared for one of the biggest vaccination campaigns in almost 50 years.
He said although swine flu was not causing serious illness in patients, health officials were eager to start a mass vaccination campaign, starting first on priority groups. First, the jabs would reduce the chances of a shortage of hospital beds because of people suffering from swine flu. Second, it would reduce the effect on the economy by ensuring workers were protected from the virus.
“The high-risk groups will be done at GPs’ surgeries. People are still making decisions over this, but we want to get cracking before we get a second wave, which is traditionally far more virulent.”
Holden said it was likely the elderly would be given their seasonal flu jab as well as the swine flu vaccination. The new vaccine is likely to require two doses.
Details of the inoculation plans emerged after the death of a patient, reportedly a middle-aged man, at a hospital in the Basildon area of Essex. The victim had no underlying health problems, but officials say there is no evidence the swine flu virus had mutated into a more dangerous strain.
Holden said it would be the biggest campaign in response to an outbreak since mass vaccination against smallpox in 1962. He said surgeries would be aiming to inoculate about 30 people an hour in a “military-style operation”.
The Department of Health said it had still not finalised which groups would be vaccinated first, but children, frontline health workers, people with underlying illnesses and the elderly are likely to take priority.
The European Commission is also identifying population groups which it believes should get priority. It is keen to ensure that countries such as the UK, which had ordered supplies of the vaccine in advance, do not cause inequities in treatment elsewhere in Europe.
It warned health ministers in a note circulated last month that if the vaccines were more readily available in some countries it could cause “vaccine tourism/shopping in other member states”.
About 15 people have died of swine flu in Britain, but most of those infected get only mild symptoms. According to the latest figures from the Health Protection Agency, the UK has had 9,718 confirmed cases of the disease.
The Federal Government has begun the push of the swine flu vaccine, even before the vaccine has been completed.
It is more than a bit disconcerting to hear that the government is recommending a vaccine, and has decided to administer it in schools, before it has even been completed much less tested. The mantra of CDC on vaccines has always been, "the benefits outweigh the risks". Yet we have no vaccine or test upon which to base a risk/benefit analysis. This for a virus that appears to be less dangerous than the seasonal flu.
In 1976 CDC decided to launch a similar campaign. It was a disaster. Swine flu never came to fruition, and 4,000 people were permanently injured or killed by the shot.
In 1979, 60 Minutes did a story on the damage. It aired only once, but resurfaced last month on the internet.
It is obvious why it only aired once.
It is REMARKABLE how closely this story parallels our own. 30 years later, the CDC seems to have learned nothing about anticipating and dealing properly with vaccine injury. You could have taken these exact same quotes out of this story and put them in an autism story.
So did this exchange happen in 1979 or in 2009?:
Interviewer: "Why does this report from your own agency list neurological complications as a possibility?"
Director of CDC: "I think the consensus of the scientific community was that the evidence relating neurologic disorders to immunizations was such that they did not feel that this association was a real one."
The ads encouraging my parents to get the swine flu shot back then were not PSA's that took seriously their right to informed consent and educated them on the risks and benifits of getting the vaccine, they were PR pieces (including scare tactics, "...but Dotty had a heart condition and she died") put together by Madison Avenue.
Not only has HHS not learned to treat the public respectfully and be straight with them on this vaccine, they have lowered the bar on their PR push... all the way. This advertising push will be brought to you not by reasoned physicians upholding their ethical obligations by offering a comprehensive overview of risks and benifits, it will not even be brought to you by the professional ad men who sell you cars and beer, it will be brought to you by you:
Create a Flu Video & Be Eligible to Win $2500
So now you can not only be entertained by Fred Figglehorn, you can also get your medical advice from him.
HHS gets around these sticky ethical delemma's of being honest with the public and not trading on emotions or fears, by letting the public scare and cajole themselves into getting the shot.
As much as CDC claims that it wants to gain back credibility on vaccine issues, moves like this say different.
Not conclusive, so let's not let this story get a head of itself, but a story we need to keep an eye on.
Swine Flu May Be Human Error; WHO Investigates Claim
By Jason Gale and Simeon Bennett Bloomberg.com
May 13 (Bloomberg) -- The World Health Organization is investigating a claim by an Australian researcher that the swine flu virus circling the globe may have been created as a result of human error.
Adrian Gibbs, 75, who collaborated on research that led to the development of Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu drug, said in an interview that he intends to publish a report suggesting the new strain may have accidentally evolved in eggs scientists use to grow viruses and drugmakers use to make vaccines. Gibbs said he came to his conclusion as part of an effort to trace the virus’s origins by analyzing its genetic blueprint.
“One of the simplest explanations is that it’s a laboratory escape,” Gibbs said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. “But there are lots of others.”
The World Health Organization received the study last weekend and is reviewing it, Keiji Fukuda, the agency’s assistant director-general of health security and environment, said in an interview May 11. Gibbs, who has studied germ evolution for four decades, is one of the first scientists to analyze the genetic makeup of the virus that was identified three weeks ago in Mexico and threatens to touch off the first flu pandemic since 1968.
A virus that resulted from lab experimentation or vaccine production may indicate a greater need for security, Fukuda said. By pinpointing the source of the virus, scientists also may better understand the microbe’s potential for spreading and causing illness, Gibbs said.
Possible Mistake
“The sooner we get to grips with where it’s come from, the safer things might become,” Gibbs said by phone from Canberra yesterday. “It could be a mistake” that occurred at a vaccine production facility or the virus could have jumped from a pig to another mammal or a bird before reaching humans, he said.
Gibbs and two colleagues analyzed the publicly available sequences of hundreds of amino acids coded by each of the flu virus’s eight genes. He said he aims to submit his three-page paper today for publication in a medical journal.
“You really want a very sober assessment” of the science behind the claim, Fukuda said May 11 at the WHO’s Geneva headquarters.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has received the report and has decided there is no evidence to support Gibbs’s conclusion, said Nancy Cox, director of the agency’s influenza division. She said since researchers don’t have samples of swine flu viruses from South America and Africa, where the new strain may have evolved, those regions can’t be ruled out as natural sources for the new flu.
No Evidence
“We are interested in the origins of this new influenza virus,” Cox said. “But contrary to what the author has found, when we do the comparisons that are most relevant, there is no evidence that this virus was derived by passage in eggs.”
The WHO’s collaborative influenza research centers, which includes the CDC, and sites in Memphis, Melbourne, London and Tokyo, were asked by the international health agency to review the study over the weekend, Fukuda said. The request was extended to scientists at the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, the World Organization for Animal Health in Paris, as well as the WHO’s influenza network, he said.
“My guess is that the picture should be a lot clearer over the next few days,” Fukuda said. “We have asked a lot of people to look at this.”
Virus Expert
Gibbs wrote or co-authored more than 250 scientific publications on viruses during his 39-year career at the Australian National University in Canberra, according to biographical information on the university’s Web site.
Swine flu has infected 5,251 people in 30 countries so far, killing 61, according to WHO data. Scientists are trying to determine whether the virus will mutate and become more deadly if it spreads to the Southern Hemisphere and back. Flu pandemics occur when a strain of the disease to which few people have immunity evolves and spreads.
Gibbs said his analysis supports research by scientists including Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, who found the new strain is the product of two distinct lineages of influenza that have circulated among swine in North America and Europe for more than a decade.
In addition, Gibbs said his research found the rate of genetic mutation in the new virus was about three times faster than that of the most closely related viruses found in pigs, suggesting it evolved outside of swine.
Gene Evolution
“Whatever speeded up the evolution of these genes happened at least seven or eight years ago, so one wonders, why hasn’t it been found?” Gibbs said today.
Some scientists have speculated that the 1977 Russian flu, the most recent global outbreak, began when a virus escaped from a laboratory.
Identifying the source of new flu viruses is difficult without finding the exact strain in an animal or bird “reservoir,” said Jennifer McKimm-Breschkin, a virologist at the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization in Melbourne.
“If you can’t find an exact match, the best you can do is compare sequences,” she said. “Similarities may give an indication of a possible source, but this remains theoretical.”
The World Organization for Animal Health, which represents chief veterinary officers from 174 countries, received the Gibbs paper and is working with the WHO on an assessment, said Maria Zampaglione, a spokeswoman.
Genetic Patterns
The WHO wants to know whether any evidence that the virus may have been developed in a laboratory can be corroborated and whether there are other explanations for its particular genetic patterns, according to Fukuda.
“These things have to be dealt with straight on,” he said. “If someone makes a hypothesis, then you test it and you let scientific process take its course.”
Gibbs said he has no evidence that the swine-derived virus was a deliberate, man-made product.
“I don’t think it could be a malignant thing,” he said. “It’s much more likely that some random thing has put these two viruses together.”
Gibbs, who spent most of his academic career studying plant viruses, said his major contribution to the study of influenza occurred in 1975, while collaborating with scientists Graeme Laver and Robert Webster in research that led to the development of the anti-flu medicines Tamiflu and Relenza, made by GlaxoSmithKline Plc.
Bird Poo
“We were out on one of the Barrier Reef islands, off Australia, catching birds for the flu in them, and I happened to be the guy who caught the best,” Gibbs said. The bird he got “yielded the poo from which was isolated the influenza isolate strain from which all the work on Tamiflu and Relenza started.”
Gibbs, who says he studies the evolution of flu viruses as a “retirement hobby,” expects his research to be challenged by other scientists.
“This is how science progresses,” he said. “Somebody comes up with a wild idea, and then they all pounce on it and kick you to death, and then you start off on another silly idea.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Jason Gale in Geneva at j.gale@bloomberg.net; Simeon Bennett in Singapore atsbennett9@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: May 13, 2009 01:36 EDT
