Influenza
- "a human respiratory infection of undetermined cause" according
to Webster's dictionary. Most people have at some stage in their
lives felt its effects, and while the normal human virus is not
lethal to humans there exists the possibility that lethal "mutated"
strains can develop.
Each winter the flu virus
makes its expected appearance, commonly known as the "Flu season".
The standard government response is to commission the large
pharmaceutical companies to manufacture vast amounts of a
vaccine.
The vaccine is essentially
a dose containing several, either dead, or alive but weakened, flu
virus strains (among other things as we shall see). When introduced
into the body these supposedly immunise us against those particular
strains. However the vaccine does not cover all the possible Flu
virus strains and if the predominant flu virus in any given season
is not contained in the vaccine then naturally no protection will
be afforded by the vaccine. Interestingly, this was the case this
2003/4 season, yet it did not stop the government from urging the
public to "get immunised!"
While initially being
recommended for the elderly and young, now it is advised that
everyone who wants to avoid the flu should receive the shot. The
question is, how much do you trust your government, and how much of
that trust is warranted. As we shall see, there is cause to be
highly suspicious of government advice. In regards to this years
flu virus the Government
Center for Disease Control has said:
"It is not possible to
accurately predict in advance what type of flu season we are going
to have. However, current surveillance data show that people in the
United States are getting sick with flu earlier in the year than
usual. Also, in laboratory tests from across the country, a greater
proportion of specimens testing positive for influenza are type A
(H3N2). Historically, A (H3N2) viruses have been associated with
more-severe flu seasons during which higher numbers of
influenza-related hospitalizations and deaths have
occurred."
2004 Flu spreads to
all 50 US states
Half are considered
"hit hard" by the epidemic...
2004 Flu Outbreak Now Widespread
in 24 States
By ANGIE
WAGNER, Associated Press Writers
December 12, 2003
LAS VEGAS
- With the flu now spread to all 50 states and nearly half of those
considered hit hard, the government is scrambling to ship 100,000
vaccine doses to combat shortages, hoping to head off what could
become one of the worst outbreaks in years.
The
number of states with widespread infections nearly doubled to 24 in
the past week, and the season has not yet peaked nationally, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said
Thursday.
Worried
parents are rushing to find shots even though many local health
departments and doctor's offices are either out or about to run out
of the vaccine. [...]
She found
300 people waiting to get the vaccine at her daughters'
pediatrician's office Saturday, but couldn't endure the three-hour
line. She later got the vaccine from her mother, who is a nurse.
[...]
Comment: Ah,
hysteria... Worried parents are stampeding to get their children
injected with a dangerous vaccine that offers no protection against
the latest strain spreading across the country.
Flu forces public school
to close
Associated
Press December 11,
2003
COLCHESTER, Conn. -- A public
high school closed Thursday afternoon because of an apparent
outbreak of the flu.
Bacon
Academy in Colchester sent students home
at 12:30
p.m.
School
officials said about 300 students, more than one-third of the
student body, and 17 faculty members called in sick Thursday with
flu-like symptoms. That was up from 175 student absences Wednesday.
Officials said the school will be closed Friday as well.
[...]
Scientists Predict Worldwide Flu
Outbreak
By
MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer
Sat Dec 13, 4:48 PM ET
NEW YORK
- As bad as this year's flu season is, it hasn't brought the
worldwide outbreak known as a pandemic. But experts warn that a
pandemic is coming, it's just a question of when. "It's going to
happen," said Dr. Greg Poland of the Mayo Clinic. "For the American
public in particular, I think it will
be horrific." [...]
Panel reluctantly
backed flu vaccine to FDA
Saturday, December 13, 2003 Posted: 10:52 PM EST (0352
GMT)
(CNN) -- Members of an advisory panel that backed this year's
flu vaccine expressed doubts about its potential effectiveness
before recommending it for the Food and Drug Administration's
approval.
Some
said they were concerned the vaccine would not provide as much
protection against the Fujian strain of flu that was thought most
likely to dominate this year's flu season, according to a
transcript of the group's deliberations.
The
Fujian strain, which emerged in the Far East, is now responsible
for 75 percent of U.S. flu cases, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention said.
But
drug makers could not culture the Fujian strain in a way to meet
FDA standards, forcing the advisory committee to make this year's
flu vaccine the same as it was last year.
The
committee's decision in March has come under a microscope now
because the flu is reaching near epidemic proportions in the United
States.
Experts cast bet on flu vaccine -
Imperfect shield beat delivery delay
By
SARAH AVERY, Staff Writer
November 29, 2003
Despite evidence that a flu
bug had mutated and was defying the current vaccine, health
officials around the world took a calculated risk not to change the
formula for this year's flu shots.
Part
of the reason was that the new strain was difficult to grow in the
lab. That could have delayed the vaccine's development and, thus,
its availability.
About 10 percent to 20
percent of U.S. residents will get influenza each year. Most will
recover in one to two weeks, but some will develop life-threatening
complications. An average of about 36,000 people per year in the
United States die from influenza, and 114,000 per year are admitted
to a hospital. People age 65 and older, people of any age with
chronic medical conditions and very young children are more likely
to get complications such as pneumonia, bronchitis, and sinus and
ear infections. The flu also can exacerbate chronic health problems
such as asthma and congestive heart failure.
Given two options
-- a late but better vaccine or a timely but flawed shot -- health
officials chose the latter.
"Obviously, the hope was
that the current vaccine would provide enough degree of
protection," said Dr. Samuel L. Katz, a professor emeritus at Duke
University and member of the advisory panel that recommends the
nation's flu vaccine.
Whether that hope
was valid is not yet known.
Study shows flu
vaccine was ineffective
Friday, January 16, 2004
ATLANTA,Georgia (CNN) --
This year's flu vaccine had little or no effectiveness against
influenza-like illnesses, according to a preliminary study released
Thursday.
The study, published by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, looked at
workers at Children's Hospital in Denver, Colorado.
Of
the 1,000 people who got the vaccine before November 1, 149 went on
to develop influenza-like illness (14.9 percent). Of the 402 people
who did not get the vaccine, 68 got an influenza-like illness (16.9
percent), the study said.
This
year's outbreak started early and more severely than usual,
sparking a run on vaccine by people eager to protect themselves.
That depleted supplies.
But
the vaccine did not contain the Fujian A virus that proved to be
the predominant strain this year. Despite public health
authorities' hopes that there was enough overlap with the vaccine's
other strains that some protection would be conferred, that does
not appear to be the case.
The
preliminary findings "demonstrated no or very low effectiveness,"
against flu or flu-like illnesses, the report stated. But officials said the vaccine is not designed to
combat flu-like illnesses.
This is an important point.
There are many temporary illnesses that cause symptoms similar to
that of the flu but which are not in fact caused by the flu virus.
Despite this, due to the ramping up of the fear factor, the first
sign of a sniffle or ache is enough to send people running for the
flu vaccine.
Flu Outbreak Strains Demand for Test
Kits
By
JOHN NOLAN, Associated Press Writer
CINCINNATI - Manufacturers
of tests used to determine if a patient has the flu say the current
outbreak has strained their ability to meet demand from hospitals,
medical laboratories and doctors' offices.
Jack
Kraeutler, president of test kit distributor based Meridian
Bioscience Inc., said the company is running about a week behind in
filling orders.
"I don't think that there's a manufacturer or a health
professional who hasn't been overwhelmed with how quickly it's
moved," Kraeutler said.
The
number of states hit hard by the flu has doubled to 24 over the
past week and now includes most of the western half of the country.
Nationwide, at least 20 children have
died in what could become the worst flu season in
years.
"Political tags - such as
royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal,
conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human
race divides politically into those who want people to be
controlled and those who have no such desire."
- Robert Heinlein
US 'wants British flu vaccine'
US
health officials are considering buying thousands of doses of flu
vaccine from Britain because it is running short of
supplies.
Parts of the US have been affected by the Fujian flu strain,
which has also hit the UK.
[...] Last year, flu-vaccine manufacturers in America
overproduced and had to scrap 12 million doses of the
vaccine.
But
this year, a combination of more cases of flu and an increase in
the numbers choosing to have the flu jab has led to the shortage,
experts said.
Madison closed until Monday
(Ohio)
By J.
Ameer Rasheed, Journal Staff Writer
12.11.03
After
three days with 30 percent of the student body missing school,
largely because of the
flu, Madison Jr./Sr. High School officials decided
to close school doors until Monday.
The 70
percent attendance rate is 25 percent lower than the school’s
average daily attendance rate, according to school Principal Curtis
Philpot. Madison Primary and Madison Intermediate are not affected
by the cancellations. [...]
Of course, we are not
surprised that the fear factor was used to ensure that the
popoulation scrambled to get the shot, vaccines have less to do
with protecting the public and more to do with making
money...
MedImmune Seeks Help In
Relaunching FluMist
New Plan to Be Rolled Out in January
By Michael Barbaro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
MedImmune Inc. hired a consultant to discover why its
needle-free flu vaccine FluMist disappointed sales expectations
this fall and is considering emphasizing what it says is FluMist's
safety as well as its convenience, said an analyst who spoke to the
Gaithersburg drug company's managers.
Mark
Schoenebaum of Minneapolis investment bankers U.S. Bancorp Piper
Jaffray Inc. said MedImmune executives were surprised to learn that
doctors and patients say they believe
FluMist, which contains a live but weakened
form of the influenza virus, might give them the
flu. The company told
him "many physicians are actually advising against FluMist,"
Schoenebaum said. [...]
Comment:
And lo and behold, the "help" to MedImmune is provided, despite the
fact that even the corrupt FDA has "health concerns" about the
vaccine.
Flu Shot Shortage Could Help
FluMist
By STEPHEN MANNING
ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 09, 2003
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) -
Shortages of flu shots could boost
disappointing sales of the needle-free vaccine FluMist this
winter, but analysts say the drug's long term
outlook is dogged by a high price and limits on who can use
it.
The
news last Friday that the nation's two producers of traditional flu
vaccine injections have run out of stock and won't be able to
produce more this season has led some health agencies and consumers
to turn to FluMist.
There is plenty of the
nasal spray vaccine available - only 400,000 doses out of the
roughly 4 million doses made by Gaithersburg-based MedImmune and
its partner, Wyeth, have been distributed to pharmacies and flu
vaccine sites.
State health
agencies are recommending that healthy people between the ages of 5
and 49 use FluMist and save what remains of the traditional vaccine
for others.
Until last week, MedImmune
had a hard time selling FluMist. Its wholesale price of $46 per
dose is much higher than the cost of flu shots. And the drug -
originally billed as a painless alternative for those scared of
needles - hasn't been approved for
use by toddlers and seniors.
At
pharmacies in 33 Giant Food grocery stores in Virginia, FluMist
sales tripled last week over the previous week, company spokesman
Jamie Miller said. FluMist sells for $59.95 at Giant, while a flu
shot is $20, he said.
"FluMist will probably be
the last place to turn," said Philip Nadeau, an analyst with SG
Cowen Securities. "I think most physicians would think that FluMist
is better than nothing."
MedImmune spokeswoman Jamie
Lacey said it was too early to tell how the vaccine shortage would
affect FluMist sales.
FluMist, which contains a
live but weakened flu virus, is meant to be a painless alternative
to the traditional flu injection, which is made from a dead flu
virus.
MedImmune hoped FluMist
would be a blockbuster drug, much like its childhood respiratory
drug Synagis that had $668 million in sales last year. The company
pumped $25 million into an ad campaign touting the drug to
consumers and another $25 million pitching it to
pharmacies.
But
the drug's introduction was hampered by several factors.
Citing safety
concerns, the Food and Drug Administration did not approve FluMist
for children under 5 years and those above 50, the two groups at
the greatest risk for the flu. [...]
Two Flu Shot Makers Run Out of
Vaccine
Dec 5 2003
By DANIEL Q. HANEY
The
two makers of flu shots in the United States said Friday they have
run out of vaccine and will not be able to meet a surge in demand
resulting from fears of a particularly bad flu season.
Nevertheless, the companies
said people who have put off getting their shots may still be able
to find them, since distributors and doctors' offices may still
have some left.
The
companies, Chiron and Aventis Pasteur, together made about 80
million doses of the injected vaccine, which ordinarily would be
enough to take care of U.S. demand.
"Because of the recent
outbreak, we've seen an unprecedented surge of vaccine orders late
in the season," said Len Lavenda, an Aventis spokesman. "As a
result, we have now shipped all our available supplies."
"It's all been shipped
out," said Chiron's John Gallagher. "We began shipping in August.
It's all gone at this point."
The
companies said they cannot make more vaccine this year, because the
process takes four months. By that time, the flu season would be
over.
Another alternative is the FluMist, the more expensive
inhaled version of the vaccine. Its maker,
MedImmune Vaccines, made between 4 million and 5 million doses this
year. Spokeswoman Jamie Lacey said that as of Nov. 18, the company
had sold 400,000 doses, and "there is still a wide supply
available."
Revealed: how drug firms 'hoodwink' medical
journals
Pharmaceutical giants hire ghostwriters to produce
articles - then put doctors' names on them [...]
Glaxosmithkline
chief: Our drugs do not work on most
patients
08
December 2003
A
senior executive with Britain's biggest drugs company has admitted
that most prescription medicines do not work on most people who
take them.
Flu shot, anyone?
By
John McCaslin
The Washington Times
Gotten your flu shot yet?
Whether you have or not, one leading congressman's warning might
frighten you more than the needle.
If
your doctor hasn't told you, Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana Republican,
feels it is his duty to inform Americans about the "contents" of
their influenza vaccines.
"As
we approach the flu season, many of you will visit the doctor's
office and receive an annual influenza vaccine. This might prevent
the flu, but what else will it do?" Mr. Burton said. "You should be
aware that the vaccine you are about to receive contains thimerosal
— a mercury-laden preservative."
Mr.
Burton says scientific evidence "continues to accumulate" regarding
a biologically plausible connection between the preservative and
certain neurological disorders. Some scientists have attributed the
growth in Alzheimer's disease and autism to mercury found in
certain vaccines.
During his chairmanship of
the Government Reform Committee, Mr. Burton held numerous hearings
on possible adverse effects of thimerosal.
As
for a second opinion, we call upon Senate Majority Leader Bill
Frist of Tennessee — a doctor in real life — who
actually reminded friends in his Christmas cards last year: "Don't
forget your shots: flu shot annually."
Comment: Notice how
this Moonie-owned, Bush, Sr. backed rag manages to belittle Rep.
Dan Burton. It is interesting that Bill Frist,
[...] authored a bill
intended to protect vaccine makers, such as Eli Lilly & Co,
from lawsuits regarding thimerosal found in vaccines and argued is
linked to autism in children. While Frist denies having any role in
the provision that was slipped into the homeland security bill passed in November
2002 protecting Eli Lilly from legal matters for their thimerosal
containing vaccines, Frist is hoping to pass his original bill,
which will have liability protection regarding vaccines. [...]
[
Tennessee Senator hoping to protect vaccine makers from
legal problems]
See the
Toxic Exposure Study Trust Foundation for more
information.
It is clear that a healthy,
happy, unafraid population does not make for good profits in the
pharmaceutical industry, which in turn means less money in
"contributions" to political parties.
But hang on to your hats,
the intrigue does not stop there...
In fact, a more
appropriate title for this supplement may be The Flu
Vaccine Threat. As we shall see, there is more to
the vaccine than a mere dose of dead viri.
Should you get the Flu
shot?
By
Dr Sherri Tenpenny
www.nmaseminars.com
News
reports have been flooding us with articles warning that the
impending flu season may be the worst in years.Even though it is difficult to separate the facts
from the hype, a close evaluation of the flu vaccine will reveal
that serious questions must be raised about the recommendations
that are routinely touted, namely high efficacy with little
risk. Anyone considering
a flu shot should become informed about the substances coming
through that needle, and should be determined to investigate the safety and
efficacy issues that are still
unresolved.
What's in a flu
shot?
The influenza virus is grown in "specific pathogen-free"
(SPF) eggs. Eggs are tested for a variety of agents usually between
23 and 31-to confirm the absence of those specific pathogens.
Laboratories limit the number of agents that are screened due to
the shear abundance of potential viruses and/or bacteria to choose
from. In addition, screening for every potential agent would be
cost prohibitive. If none of the tested agents are detected, the
vaccine is reported as "pathogen free.
However, it should be
understood that there is a distinct difference between "pathogen
free and "specific pathogen-free. In its July 1996 report, the
Institute of Medicine acknowledged that "although it is not
possible to produce a completely uncontaminated animal, it is
possible to produce an animal [or egg] certified to be free of
specific pathogens. Viruses that are harmless to their animal host,
however, may be potentially harmful to
humans.
During the manufacturing
process, antibiotics (neomycin, polymyxin B and gentamicin) are
added to eliminate stray bacteria found in the mixture.
The final solution can contain the
following additives in any combination: Triton X-100 (a detergent);
polysorbate 80 (a potential carcinogen); gelatin; formaldehyde; and
residual egg proteins. In addition, many of the influenza vaccines
still contain thimerosal as a preservative. Thimerosal (mercury) is
being investigated for its link to brain injury and autoimmune
disease.
Does
the flu shot protect?
There are no guarantees
that the influenza viruses selected for the vaccine will be the
identical strains circulating during a given flu season.
In fact, it has recently been
announced that this year's flu vaccine does not include the strain
that is being reported by doctors in the community called the "A
Fujian strain. Outbreaks have been reported in
Texas, Colorado and elsewhere that involve strains that do not
match the current flu vaccine. CDC tests have confirmed that more
than 80 per cent of the 55 strains of influenza virus isolated thus
far are the A Fujian strain. Even so, the CDC still maintains that
the current vaccine could provide cross-protection against the new
variant, but the fact is, no one
knows for sure.
Moreover, the majority of
illnesses characterized by fever, fatigue, cough and aching muscles
are not caused by the influenza virus. Non-influenza viruses (e.g.,
rhinoviruses respiratory syncytial virus [RSV], adenoviruses, and
parainfluenza viruses) can cause symptoms referred to as
influenza-like illnesses. Certain bacteria, such as Legionella
spp., Chlamydia pneumoniae, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and
Streptococcus pneumoniae, have been documented as the causes of
ILI.
Notably, these microbes are
not part of the flu vaccine. Unless
an organism's antigen is contained within the vaccine, there is no
protection conferred by the vaccine.
Targeting the
elderly
The
flu vaccine is generally recommended for persons aged 65 and older,
and those with medical conditions who could experience serious
complications from the flu. Medical journals report broad
differences in effectiveness for the elderly, ranging from 0 to
85%.
The
CDC states that 90% of deaths from influenza occur among the
elderly. Considering that nearly 65% of all deaths (from any cause)
occur in this age group, it is nearly impossible to prove that flu
shots significantly increase life expectancy in this group. The
truth is that most people-young and old-will weather a bout of the
flu without hospitalization or complications.
A
serious concern: Alzheimer's Disesase
Hugh
Fudenberg, MD, an immunogeneticist and biologist with nearly 850
papers published in peer review journals, has reported that if an
individual had five consecutive flu shots between 1970 and 1980
(the years studied), his/her chances of getting Alzheimer's Disease
is ten times higher than if they had zero, one, or two
shots.
Dr.
Boyd Haley, Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry at
the University of Kentucky, Lexington has done extensive research
in the area of mercury toxicity and the brain. Haley‚s
research has established a likely connection between mercury
toxicity and Alzheimer‚s disease.In a paper published in collaboration with
researchers at University of Calgary, Haley stated that "seven of
the characteristic markers that we look for to distinguish
Alzheimer's disease can be produced in normal brain tissues, or
cultures of neurons, by the addition of extremely low levels of
mercury."
Does
this prove that the mercury contained in the influenza shot can be
directly linked to Alzheimer's? No, absolutely not. But further
research in this area is critically needed because the absence of
proof is not the "proof of absence."
Flu
vaccine now for children
The
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) adopted a
resolution effective March 1, 2003 that expanded the use of the
influenza vaccine to include children aged 6-23 months. The
recommendations also included vaccinating those aged 2 to 18 years
who live in households containing children younger than 2 years of
age.
The
flu vaccine most commonly given to children is Fluzone, a trivalent
vaccine grown in chicken eggs. Harvested with formaldehyde and
containing the recommended ratio of 15 ug of each of the three
prototype viral strains, each dose of Fluzone also contains 25 ug
of mercury. The new CDC recommendations include giving the
influenza vaccine to children beginning at six months of age and
then annually, for the rest of their lives. Children less than age
9 receiving their first flu shot, two doses of vaccine are
recommended, with a minimum interval of one month between the two
doses. However, the CDC does not provide a direct reference to
substantiate this recommendation.
On
June 17, 2003, the FDA approved an intranasal influenza vaccine for
use in healthy persons aged 5 - 49 years. Flumist is a live-virus
vaccine that can cause a litany of problems.
Alternatives?
If
you choose not to receive the flu shot, have a discussion with your
doctor regarding other options. However, some simple and possibly
quite effective things you can do for yourself to prevent the flu
include: 1) avoid white sugar;[xiv] 2) exercise regularly; 3) get
adequate sleep; 4) eat a healthy diet, omitting trans-fats; 5)
drink plenty of purified water daily and 6) wash your hands. A
common way people contract viral illnesses is by rubbing their nose
or their eyes after their hands have been contaminated with a
virus. The CDC states, "the most important thing you can do to keep
from getting sick is to wash your hands.
We
are so used to taking medications-for prevention and treatment-that
it is difficult to comprehend that these modest recommendations are
really the most powerful ways to minimize the likelihood of getting
the flu.
"Kim Collins
talks to her son, Nick Collins, 9, both of Texarkana, Texas, as he opens
his eyes briefly in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Arkansas Children's
Hospital in Little Rock, Ark., Monday, Dec. 8, 2003. Nick, who arrived
at the hospital on Nov.10, needs four chest tubes to drain air and fluid
from three holes in his lungs caused by bacterial pneumonia. Doctors are
trying to prevent a blood clot from killing him. He%27s also developed
a drug-resistant bacteria infection, a worrisome find thatdoctors are
starting to see in other flu cases. Doctors are reporting unusual and
frightening complications with this year's flu outbreak, particularly
among young patients."
Unusual and frightening complications
with Flu outbreak
At
left: Kim Collins talks to her son, Nick Collins, 9, both of
Texarkana, Texas, as he opens his eyes briefly in the Pediatric
Intensive Care Unit at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock,
Ark., Monday, Dec. 8, 2003. Nick, who arrived at the hospital on
Nov.10, needs four chest tubes to drain air and fluid from three
holes in his lungs caused by bacterial pneumonia.
Doctors are trying to
prevent a blood clot from killing him. He's also developed a
drug-resistant bacteria infection, a worrisome find thatdoctors are
starting to see in other flu cases. Doctors are reporting unusual and frightening
complications with this year's flu outbreak, particularly among
young patients.
Comment: Essentially
then, in the "flu shot" you are getting a host of deadly chemicals along
with supposedly a small dose of the actual dead or live flu virus. Leaving
aside the mercury (extremely poisonous to humans) and formaldehyde (the
main ingredient in rat poison), how are any of us to know just what virus
the Pentagon has chosen to introduce into our bodies? Ask yourself, would
you be happy to rely on the moral integrity of someone like Donald Rumsfeld
to safeguard your own life and the lives of your children? You may be
thinking, "they wouldn't do that!", if so, we recommend that you read
on.
Few people alive today are
old enough to remember the Spanish Flu outbreak of
1918
"The effect of the
influenza epidemic was so severe that the average life span in the
US was depressed by 10 years. The influenza virus had a profound
virulence, with a mortality rate at 2.5% compared to the previous
influenza epidemics, which were less than 0.1%. The death rate for
15 to 34-year-olds of influenza and pneumonia were 20 times higher
in 1918 than in previous years (Taubenberger). People were struck
with illness on the street and died rapid deaths. One anectode
shared of 1918 was of four women playing bridge together late into
the night. Overnight, three of the women died from influenza
(Hoagg). Others told stories of people on their way to work
suddenly developing the flu and dying within hours (Henig). One
physician writes that patients with seemingly ordinary influenza
would rapidly "develop the most viscous type of pneumonia that has
ever been seen" and later when cyanosis appeared in the patients,
"it is simply a struggle for air until they suffocate," (Grist,
1979). Another physician recalls that the influenza patients "died
struggling to clear their airways of a blood-tinged froth that
sometimes gushed from their nose and mouth," (Starr, 1976). The
physicians of the time were helpless against this powerful agent of
influenza.
The influenza pandemic
circled the globe. Most of humanity felt the effects of this strain
of the influenza virus. It spread following the path of its human
carriers, along trade routes and shipping lines. Outbreaks swept
through North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Brazil and the South
Pacific (Taubenberger). In India the mortality rate was extremely
high at around 50 deaths from influenza per 1,000 people (Brown).
The Great War, with its mass movements of men in armies and aboard
ships, probably aided in its rapid diffusion and attack. The
origins of the deadly flu disease were unknown but widely
speculated upon. Some of the allies thought of the epidemic as a
biological warfare tool of the Germans. Many thought it was a
result of the trench warfare, the use of mustard gases and the
generated "smoke and fumes" of the war. A national campaign began
using the ready rhetoric of war to fight the new enemy of
microscopic proportions. A study attempted to reason why the
disease had been so devastating in certain localized regions,
looking at the climate, the weather and the racial composition of
cities. They found humidity to be linked with more severe epidemics
as it "fosters the dissemination of the bacteria," (Committee on
Atmosphere and Man, 1923). Meanwhile the new sciences of the
infectious agents and immunology were racing to come up with a
vaccine or therapy to stop the epidemics.
The origins of this
influenza variant is not precisely known. It is thought to have
originated in China in a rare genetic shift of the influenza virus.
The recombination of its surface proteins created a virus novel to
almost everyone and a loss of herd immunity. Recently the virus has
been reconstructed from the tissue of a dead soldier and is now
being genetically characterized. The name of Spanish Flu
came from the early affliction and large mortalities in Spain where
it allegedly killed 8 million in May. However, a first wave of influenza appeared early in the
spring of 1918 in Kansas and in military camps throughout the
US.
Few noticed the
epidemic in the midst of the war.
Wilson had just given his
14 point address. There was virtually no response or acknowledgment
to the epidemics in March and April in the military camps. It was
unfortunate that no steps were taken to prepare for the usual
recrudescence of the virulent influenza strain in the winter. The
lack of action was later criticized when the epidemic could not be
ignored in the winter of 1918 (BMJ, 1918). These first epidemics at
training camps were a sign of what was coming in greater magnitude
in the fall and winter of 1918 to the entire world."
The "Spanish" Flu of 1918
was a pandemic of massive proportions, and one that we certainly
would not want to see ever happen again. Well, perhaps we are
speaking only for ourselves when we say this. It would appear that
people in high places are very interested in the specific strain
that appeared with such devastating results in 1918.
US Army scientists create
"Spanish Flu" virus in laboratory
-
medical benefit questionable [...]
Biosafety Irregularity in Spanish Flu
Experiments
Highlights the Need to Strengthen Biodefense
Transparency
The
Sunshine Project
News Release
21 October 2003
(Austin and Hamburg) -
Genetic experiments to recreate one
of the most devastating viruses of the past century were not
reviewed or approved by a biosafety committee. The
University of Georgia claims that it was too troublesome to convene
its Institutional Biosafety Committee to review research to
genetically reconstruct the Spanish flu. Instead, the University
signed off on the experiments based on ad hoc talks between only
four members of its biosafety committee. As a result, no minutes
were taken to describe safety review of the experiments.
In fact, by not convening its
committee, Georgia's actions ensured that there was no timely
opportunity to raise concerns at all.
The
case demonstrates a severe weakness in the public disclosure
provisions of federal research rules (the NIH Guidelines) and
underscores the need for mandatory committee-level (or higher)
review of research projects with disease agents. By approving the
experiments with an ad hoc subcommittee, requirements for public
disclosure were avoided. The existence of the experiments only came
to light through journal articles. According to Edward Hammond of
the Sunshine Project, "Genetic engineering of bioweapons agents has
national and international implications for health, biosafety, and
security. But Georgia shied away from
these and simply rubber-stamped the Pentagon-led project to
recreate the Spanish flu."
In
1918-19, the Spanish flu killed 20-40 million people worldwide. In
the US, deaths from the flu strain resulted in a 10 year drop in
life expectancy. Recreating the
deadly flu may create international unease, in particular because
of the leadership of the US military in the
project.
The
Spanish flu reconstruction began at a University of Georgia
biosafety level three (BSL-3) facility in 1999. Researchers from US
universities, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, and the US
Department of Agriculture (USDA) are involved. The lab specializes in
diseases of poultry, including avian
influenza. The
Sunshine Project has confirmed - and reconfirmed - under the
Freedom of Information Act that USDA has no biosafety committee
minutes related to the experiments. The Project also directly
contacted the University of Georgia and requested Institutional
Biosafety Committee meeting minutes that are required by the NIH
Guidelines for Recombinant DNA Research. Georgia's Biosafety
Officer stated that no minutes exist.
Scientists have recently
begun to accept the need to reinforce the Institutional Biosafety
Committee system established under the NIH Guidelines for
Recombinant DNA Research. But the
discussion, including that in a recent report on biosafety by the
National Academies of Science, is out of balance because it is
taking place almostly exclusively between scientists, government
regulators, and the Pentagon. "There is a need to
make more room at the table. The public has a right to help
determine if, and under what conditions, risky research proceeds."
says Hammond, "Biosafety review must be a matter of law, and public
access provisions of federal research rules must be strengthened.
Otherwise, risky experiments such as this one will take place with
little or no transparency, and that will decrease international
security and create environmental and health risks."
Spanish Flu - Why is
the US government interested?
A recent commentary in the Journal of the Royal Society
of Medicine (Madjid et al. 2003) noted that influenza is readily
transmissible by aerosol and that a small number of viruses can
cause a full-blown infection. The authors
continued:"the possibility for
genetic engineering and aerosol transmission [of influenza]
suggests an enormous potential for bioterrorism"
The possible hostile abuse of influenza virus is seen as a very
real threat by public health officials in the USA. Just two weeks
ago, $15 million was granted by the US National Institutes of
Health to Stanford University to study how to guard against the flu
virus "if it were to be unleashed as
an agent of bioterrorism".
US
scientists led by a Pentagon pathologist recently began to
genetically reconstruct this specifically dangerous 1918 influenza
strain. In one experiment a partially reconstructed 1918 virus
killed mice, while virus constructs with genes from a contemporary
flu virus had hardly any effect.
Attempts to recover the Spanish flu virus date to the 1950s,
when scientists unsuccessfully tried to revive the virus from
victims buried in the permafrost of Alaska. In the mid 1990s, Dr
Jeffrey Taubenberger from the US Armed Forces Institute of
Pathology started to screen preserved tissue samples from 1918
influenza victims. It appears that
this work was not triggered by a search for flu
treatments, or the search for a new biowarfare
agent, but by a rather simple motivation: Taubenberger and his team
were just able to do it. In previous experiments they had developed
a new technique to analyse DNA in old, preserved tissues and for
now looking for new applications: "The 1918 flu was by far and away
the most interesting thing we could think of" explained
Taubenberger the reason why he started to unravel the secrets of
one of most deadliest viruses known to humankind.
We do not doubt that a
deadly form of the flu virus could be used as "an agent
bioterrorism", but the question is, which group of terrorists would
be behind it? Are we really expected to believe that with the US
military looking over his shoulder, it is a mere coincidence that
Taubenberger chose "one of deadliest viruses known to humankind" as
a test subject? It is no secret that the US and other governments
have a keen interest in biological weapons, indeed, it seems that
one of the standing orders for government scientists is to
find the most efficient way of killing the most people with the
least effort.
Study: Influenza May Be Next Bioterror
Weapon
Mon June
30, 2003 07:49 PM ET
LONDON
(Reuters) - Forget anthrax and
smallpox. Influenza could easily be turned into the next weapon of
mass destruction, scientists said on Tuesday. They sounded their
warning as researchers come close to completing the blueprint for
the virus of the 1918 'flu epidemic that killed up to 40 million
people globally.
"Taken
together with the fact that influenza virus is readily accessible
and may be causing more deaths than previously suspected, the
possibility for genetic engineering and aerosol transmission
suggests an enormous potential for bioterrorism," the University of
Texas scientists said.
Writing
in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the team led by Dr
Mohammed Madjid noted that last century a series of 'flu epidemics
from Spain to Russia and Hong Kong had killed millions of people as
the virus naturally mutated.
They
pointed out that sequencing of the genome of the 1918 Spanish 'flu
epidemic was nearly complete, opening the door to unscrupulous
scientists to build an even more potent virus. [...]
It is stated clearly, "influenza
could be the next bioterror weapon", and who is making strenuous
efforts to develop the killer virus? The Pentagon!! In an
interesting yet unsurprising twist, we also discover reports that
it may well have been the government vaccine that
was administered in response to the 1918 Flu that caused
the massive death toll.
Vaccine not virus responsible for Spanish
flu
Ryle
Dwyer writes on the horror of the 1918-20 pandemic which the
propaganda says was caused by Spanish flu
Irish Examiner, May 1 2003
How
did they know it was the virus of Spanish flu that killed millions
of civilians and soldiers? This disaster occurred when viruses were
unknown to medical science. It took a British science team to
identify the first virus in man in 1933.
As
regards the origin of the outbreak, he relates that a senior US
army officer suggested that the Germans might have been responsible
for the bug as part of their war effort, by spreading it in
theatres or where large numbers of people assembled.
Did
they also spread it among their own people, killing 400,000 as
reported? Ryle would have us believe that all those American
soldiers who died from non-combatant causes may have died from
Spanish flu.
But US Army records show that seven men dropped dead
after being vaccinated.
A report from US Secretary of War
Henry L Stimson not only verified these deaths but also stated that
there had been 63 deaths and 28,585 cases of hepatitis as a direct
result of yellow fever vaccination during only six months of the
war.
That
was only one of the 14 to 25 shots given to recruits.
Army
records also reveal that after vaccination became compulsory in the
US Army in 1911, not only did typhoid increase rapidly but all
other vaccinal diseases increased at an alarming rate.
After America entered the war in 1917, the death rate from
typhoid vaccination rose to the highest point in the history of the
US Army.
The
deaths occurred after the shots were given in sanitary American
hospitals and well-supervised army camps in France, where
sanitation had been practised for years.
The
report of the Surgeon-General of the US Army shows that during 1917
there were admitted into the army hospitals 19,608 men suffering
from anti-typhoid inoculation and vaccinia.
This
takes no account of those whose vaccine diseases were attributed to
other causes.
The
army doctors knew all these cases of disease and death were due to
vaccination and were honest enough to admit it in their medical
reports.
When
army doctors tried to suppress the symptoms of typhoid with a
stronger vaccine, it caused a worse form of typhoid
paratyphoid.
But
when they concocted an even stronger vaccine to suppress that one,
they created an even worse disease Spanish flu.
After the war, this was one
of the vaccines used to protect a panic-stricken world from the
soldiers returning from WWI battlefronts infected with dangerous
diseases.
I was an on-the-spot
observer of the 1918 influenza epidemic
All the doctors and people
who were living at the time of the 1918 Spanish Influenza epidemic
say it was the most terrible disease the world has ever
had. Strong men, hale and
hearty, one day would be dead the next. The disease had the
characteristics of the black death added to typhoid, diphtheria,
pneumonia, smallpox, paralysis and all the diseases the people had
been vaccinated with immediately following World War 1. Practically
the entire population had been injected "seeded" with a dozen or
more diseases — or toxic serums. When all those doctor-made
diseases started breaking out all at once it was tragic.
That
pandemic dragged on for two years, kept alive with the addition of
more poison drugs administered by the doctors who tried to suppress
the symptoms. As far as I could find out, the flu hit only the
vaccinated. Those who had refused the shots escaped the flu. My
family had refused all the vaccinations so we remained well all the
time. We knew from the health teachings of Graham, Trail, Tilden
and others, that people cannot contaminate the body with poisons
without causing disease.
When
the flu was at its peak, all the stores were closed as well as the
schools, businesses — even the hospital, as the
doctors and nurses had been vaccinated too and were down with the
flu. No one was on the streets. It was like a ghost town.
We seemed to be the only family which didn’t get the flu; so
my parents went from house to house doing what they could to look
after the sick, as it was impossible to get a doctor then. If it
were possible for germs, bacteria, virus, or bacilli to cause
disease, they had plenty of opportunity to attack my parents when
they were spending many hours a day in the sick rooms. But they
didn’t get the flu and they didn’t bring any germs home
to attack us children and cause anything. None of our family had
the flu — not even a sniffle— and it was in the winter
with deep snow on the ground.
When
I see people cringe when someone near them sneezes or coughs, I
wonder how long it will take them to find out that they can’t
catch it — whatever it is. The only way they can get a
disease is to develop it themselves by wrong eating, drinking,
smoking or doing some other things which cause internal poisoning
and lowered vitality. All diseases are preventable and most of them
are cureable with the right methods, not known to medical doctors,
and not all drugless doctors know them either.
It has been said
that the 1918 flu epidemic killed 20,000,000 people throughout the
world. But, actually, the doctors killed them with their crude and
deadly treatments and drugs. This is a harsh accusation
but it is nevertheless true, judging by the success of the drugless
doctors in comparison with that of the medical doctors.
While the medical men and
medical hospitals were losing 33% of their flu cases, the
non-medical hospitals such as BATTLE CREEK, KELLOGG and
MACFADDEN’S HEALTH-RESTORIUM were getting almost 100%
healings with their water cure, baths, enemas, etc., fasting and
certain other simple healing methods, followed by carefully worked
out diets of natural foods. One health doctor didn’t lose a
patient in eight years. The very successful health treatment of one
of those drugless doctors who didn’t lose any patients will
be given in the other part of this book, titled VACCINATION
CONDEMNED, to be published a little later.
If
the medical doctors had been as advanced as the drugless doctors,
there would not have been those 20 million deaths from the medical
flu treatment.
There was seven
times more disease among the vaccinated soldiers than among the
unvaccinated civilians, and the diseases were those they
had been vaccinated against. One soldier who had returned from
overseas in 1912 told me that the army hospitals were filled with
cases of infantile paralysis and he wondered why grown men should
have an infant disease. Now, we know that paralysis is a common
after-effect of vaccine poisoning. Those at home didn’t get
the paralysis until after the world-wide vaccination campaign in
1918.
Comment:
So the evidence suggests that it was the addition of the
vaccine that caused the virus to mutate,
making it much more deadly. Of course, this provides the perfect
cover. There is a real flu virus that many will contract, either
before or after taking the vaccine. If contracted before, the
symptoms will manifest and people will rush to take the vaccine,
thereby causing the mutation and death, with claims that it was
"too late". If contracted after taking the vaccine, the same thing
will happen with the claim perhaps being that the vaccine simply
did not work since the virus had mutated. What they will
fail to tell people is that the vaccine is what caused the virus to
mutate!
The groundwork has already
been laid for this scenario with the announcement in the above
article, "Experts cast bet on flu vaccine..." that the current
vaccine may not work.
Consider now this report in
the New Scientist of Feb 2004
Superflu is being brewed in
the lab
February 04
Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition
After the worldwide alarm triggered by 2003's SARS outbreak, it
might seem reckless to set about creating a potentially far more
devastating virus in the lab. But that is what is being attempted
by some researchers, who argue that the dangers of doing nothing
are even greater.
We
already know that the H5N1 bird flu virus ravaging poultry farms in
Asia can be lethal on the rare occasions when it infects people.
Now a team is tinkering with its genes to see if it can
turn into a strain capable of spreading from human to human. If
they manage this, they will have created a virus that could kill
tens of millions if it got out of the lab.
Comment:
Like it or not, there are people on this planet who have a vested
interest in ensuring that such a virus actually does "get out of
the lab"
Many
researchers say experiments like this are needed to answer crucial
questions. Why can a few animal flu viruses infect humans? What
makes the viruses deadly? And what changes, if any, would enable
them to spread from person to person and cause pandemics that might
prove far worse than that of 1918? Once we know this, they argue,
we will be better prepared for whatever nature throws at
us.
Others disagree. It is not
clear how much we can learn from such work, they argue. And they
point out that it is already possible to create a vaccine by other
means. The work is simply too
dangerous, they say.
"I'm
getting bombarded from both sides," says Ronald Atlas, head of the
Center for Deterrence of Biowarfare and Bioterrorism at the
University of Louisville in Kentucky. "Some say that this sort of
research is dangerous because of the risk of the virus escaping or
being using in bioterrorism, and others that it's good
science."
Rodents and
monkeys
Some
researchers refuse to discuss their plans. But Jacqueline Katz at
the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, told
New Scientist her team is already tweaking the genes of the H5N1
bird flu virus that killed several people in Hong Kong in 1997, and
those of the human flu virus H3N2.
She
is testing the ability of the new viruses to spread by air and
cause disease in ferrets, whose susceptibility to flu appears to be
remarkably similar to ours.
Albert Osterhaus of Erasmus
University in Rotterdam in the Netherlands plans to test altered
viruses on rodents and macaque monkeys. Other groups are also
considering similar experiments, he says.
If such work were
to show that H5N1 could cause a human pandemic, everything that is
happening in Asia would be even more alarming, Osterhaus
argues. If, on the other hand, it failed to transform H5N1
into a highly contagious human virus, we could relax. "It becomes a
veterinary health problem, not a public health problem. That would
be an enormous relief."
Cell
cultures
But
Wendy Barclay of the University of Reading in the UK, who "thought
long and hard" about trying to create a pandemic flu virus before
abandoning the idea, disagrees. "If you get a negative, how
can you be sure that you have tested every option?" she
says. Health authorities would still have to take the precaution of
creating H5N1 vaccines.
Barclay concedes, however,
that creating a virus that spreads in people might tell us how real
the threat is. For instance, do you need one mutation for H5N1 to
adapt to humans, or dozens?
Osterhaus is more
optimistic. "Within the next decade, the whole thing will be
solved," he says. "We will know the rules." In other words, once
experts understand what the genetic sequence of any flu virus
means, they could predict which animals it can infect, how severe
it will be, and how easily it will spread.
Yet
any new viruses could only be tested in human cell cultures or in
animals, not on people. None of these methods exactly
reflects how flu behaves in humans. This has led some flu
experts to argue that attempts to create a pandemic virus should be
put on hold until there is agreement on the best way of testing
it.
Mix
flu genes
And
there is an even more fundamental objection to such experiments:
the processes used to create the viruses may be too artificial.
Researchers who want to see if H5N1 can be pandemic can take two
approaches.
One
is to tinker with the genome of the bird flu virus to mimic
mutations that might occur naturally. This can be done precisely
using a technique called reverse genetics. The other approach is to mix bird flu genes with
those of human flu viruses, either using reverse genetics or
through random re-assortment in cells infected with both
types.
Although re-assortment
sounds more natural, there is a problem. "Re-assortments can be
made very easily in the lab using cells or animals," says flu
expert Graeme Laver, formerly at the Australian National University
in Canberra. "But one of the big mysteries is that [human] viruses
that appear by reassortment are extremely rare in nature.
There is something else involved that
we don't understand."
Comment:
Unethical scientists, funded by an unethical government, tampering
with a virus which, by their own admission, they do not fully
understand. Feel safer yet?
Then
there is the question of safety. The
worst-case scenario is that researchers might end up engineering
extremely dangerous viruses that would never have evolved
naturally.
Masks or hoods
In
2001, for instance, Australian researchers created a mousepox virus
far more virulent than any wild strains. This scenario is unlikely,
but not impossible, says virologist Earl Brown of the University of
Ottawa, Canada. "You could create something that is right out of
whack, but I'd be surprised."
For
those reasons, several prominent flu researchers told New Scientist
that the H5N1 experiments must be done at the highest level of
containment: Biosafety Level 4, or BSL-4. But the CDC work is being
done at BSL-3Ag, an intermediate level between BSL-3 and BSL-4.
Workers wear half-suits with masks or hoods to prevent infection,
for instance, rather than full-body suits as in BSL-4.
"US
Department of Agriculture guidelines specify that work with highly
pathogenic avian strains be done in BSL-3+ (also known as BSL-3Ag)
laboratories," a CDC spokeswomen says.
One
of the reasons is that the H5N1 virus is regarded as a
non-contagious, treatable disease in humans. But this is not
necessarily true of all of the genetically engineered strains that
might be created. And drug supplies would quickly run out if an
escaped virus triggered a major epidemic.
New
Variants
A recent report by the US National Academy of Sciences recommends a
series of checks be put in place to control such research. It says
a panel of leading scientists and security experts should be set up
to regulate it.
"Some public representation
is another option," says Atlas, who helped draw up the report. At
the moment, however, such experiments can be carried out without
any special consultation.
Methods like reverse
genetics might also be used to create new variants of other
diseases. "You can make some pretty unusual things new
viruses that would never have existed in nature," says
Barclay. "It's not just an issue for
flu."
Once all of the above has
been digested, consider an article from the Signs page on
November 21st. On that day we reported on a story
about how the US Congress had recently proposed an amendment that
would enable it to elect its own members in the event of all or
most of congress somehow being rendered unable to fulfill their
civic duty. There is even a well-established "
Continuity of Government Commission" that will take
over in the event of that happening. The above articles on the
upcoming possible "flu epidemic" certainly give us an answer to the
question as to how congress might suddenly be made to
disappear.
Spanish Flu -
genetically specific?
[...] Not only was the
Spanish Flu strikingly virulent, but it displayed an unusual
preference in its choice of victims -- tending to select young
healthy adults over those with weakened immune systems, as in the
very young, the very old, and the infirm. The normal age
distribution for flu mortality was completely reversed, and had the
effect of gouging from society's infrastructure the bulk of those
responsible for its day to day maintenance. No wonder people
thought the social order was breaking down. It very nearly
did.
But
at the close of the First World War, when Spanish Flu appeared, the
world was a very different place. Since then, outstanding advances
in our knowledge of the germ world have been made, adding
dramatically to our repertoire of medical wizardry. Surely what
happened back then couldn't happen again.
Or
could it?
During the 1918-1919 fall
period the number of Americans who died from influenza is estimated
at 675,000. Of those, almost 200,000 deaths were recorded in the
month of October 1918 alone. Worldwide, the mortality figure for
the full pandemic is believed to stand somewhere between 30 to 40
million. So, with the world population today having more than
tripled in the intervening years, what is to stop a modern flu
pandemic from claiming upwards of 100 million lives? The answer, it
seems, is nothing at all. [...]
We understand that a
reasonable argument is that the human flu virus is in fact not
lethal to humans, yes it causes severe discomfort, but deadly? No.
Short of the government releasing the revived "Spanish" Flu virus
there is little chance that the normal human flu could cause a
worldwide and deadly pandemic.
Enter Bird
Flu.
At the time of writing (Feb
2004) bird flu has killed 16 people in Asia and is of great
concern, it is of course not a new discovery but this most recent
outbreak is being called the "worst in history" wth reports
beginning as far back as April 2003.
"Bird Flu is a form of the
influenza virus is an infectious disease of birds caused by type A
strains of the influenza virus. The disease, which was first
identified in Italy more than 100 years ago, occurs
worldwide.
All birds are thought to be
susceptible to infection with avian influenza, though some species
are more resistant to infection than others. Infection causes a
wide spectrum of symptoms in birds, ranging from mild illness to a
highly contagious and rapidly fatal disease resulting in severe
epidemics. The latter is known as “highly pathogenic avian
influenza”. This form is characterized by sudden onset,
severe illness, and rapid death, with a mortality that can approach
100%.
Fifteen subtypes of
influenza virus are known to infect birds, thus providing an
extensive reservoir of influenza viruses potentially circulating in
bird populations. To date, all outbreaks of the highly pathogenic
form have been caused by influenza A viruses of subtypes H5 and
H7." (source: WHO)
Bird flu epidemic is 'worst
in history'
26 January 04
NewScientist.com news service
Indonesia has become the latest country to admit that a massive
outbreak of bird flu has been ravaging its chicken farms for
months. The disease has now led to the death of many millions of
birds across south-east Asia, and at least seven people.
The
scale of the epidemic is unprecedented, says Klaus Stöhr, a
senior virologist at the World Health Organization. "Never in
history have we seen such outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian
influenza over such a wide area, simultaneously," he told New
Scientist.
Stöhr warns that if a
person becomes infected simultaneously with both bird and ordinary
human flu, the viruses could hybridise to cause a deadly global
pandemic.
With
no end to the spread of the avian virus in sight, that risk will
continue to rise. So on Tuesday, health authorities and drug
companies will meet in Geneva, Switzerland, to tackle the daunting
task of agreeing and implementing protective measures.
[...]
Bird Flu Spreads in Europe,
Human Health Concerns
Fri
Apr 18 2003
LONDON (Reuters) - A severe
Dutch outbreak of bird flu is seen spreading across Europe, mildly
infecting humans and prompting fears that a mutated version of the
virus could spark a flu epidemic in people, authorities said on
Thursday.
The
Dutch Agriculture Ministry, grappling to contain a month-long
outbreak that has spilled into Belgium and is nearing the German
border, said there was a danger that bird and human flu could mix
in pigs and produce a mutation that humans have no resistance
against.
"It
is possible. Up to now avian flu has never acquired the ability to
transmit from one person to another -- if it does ... it could
cause a large number of infections," World Health Organisation
spokesman Iain Simpson told Reuters...
While the WHO said it was
possible that the disease could turn into a serious human epidemic,
international food and animal health authorities dismissed the
idea...
Nerves are jangling in
Germany, as bird flu approached to within 1.5 kilometers of its
border on Thursday. French, British, Portuguese and Spanish
authorities were less concerned, despite worries that migrating
wild birds could spread the disease. The chief form of
transmission, however, is consumption of infected materials or
feces.
"The
situation is extremely precarious," German Junior Agriculture
Minister Alexander Mueller said in a statement on
Thursday.
In
the Netherlands, 15 million out of more than 100 million birds have
been slaughtered as authorities battle to suppress its
spread.
Bird flu virus hits
Japan
12/01/2004
A
highly contagious bird flu has killed thousands of chickens in
southern Japan, an official said today.
By
last night, about 6,000 chickens had died of the disease at a
poultry farm in the town of Ato in Yamaguchi, about 500 miles
south-west of Tokyo.
Tests found the virus was a
strain of the H5 virus, the same category as the H5N1 virus that
spread in South Korea last year said. Authorities are still
investigating whether it is the deadly H5N1-97 strain which killed
six people in Hong Kong in 1997.
Avian flu generally infects
only birds, although it has spread to people in a few isolated
cases.
Eggs
which have been shipped to market from the Yamaguchi farm were
recalled, and the farm’s remaining 28,600 birds will be all
destroyed and buried within days, the official added. He said
chicken from the farm is not for export.
Bird
flu was last found in Japan 79 years ago, officials
said.
Fears grow over bird flu outbreak
The
European Union has joined Japan in banning imports of Thai poultry
amid growing international alarm over the spread of bird
flu.
Thailand has confirmed its
first two cases of avian flu in humans, and a Thai man tested for
the virus has died.
Bird
flu has affected poultry in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea - and also
Vietnam, where it has killed five people.
The
World Health Organisation warned that the latest outbreak could
mutate and become more dangerous to humans.
Sixth bird flu
death in Vietnam
A
13-year-old boy has become Vietnam's sixth victim of avian flu, the
World Health Organization (WHO) has said.
Five
Vietnamese children and one adult have now died from the virus,
which has also crossed from birds to humans in Thailand.
The
WHO has warned that the outbreak could mutate and become more
dangerous.
Japan confirms bird
flu outbreak
Japan has confirmed its
second outbreak of bird flu, dashing hopes that the country was now
free of the virus.
The
farm ministry said chickens at a farm in Oita prefecture on
southern Kyushu island had died from avian flu.
It
is not yet known if they died from the H5N1 virus - the strain that
has killed 20 people in Asia.
So the situation at this
stage is that we have had a fairly serious human flu outbreak
worldwide, followed closely by an outbreak of Bird Flu. We have
learned that bird flu can be lethal to humans, but while humans can
contract it directly from an infected bird, it is not transmissable
from human to human. For it to become transmissable between humans
it would have to come in contact with human flu produced a mutated
offspring that could cause a lethal human pandemic. the WHO (World
Health Organisation) makes this clear:
"Influenza viruses have a
second characteristic of great public health concern: influenza A
viruses, including subtypes from different species, can swap or
“reassort” genetic materials and merge. This
reassortment process, known as antigenic “shift”,
results in a novel subtype different from both parent viruses. As
populations will have no immunity to the new subtype, and as no
existing vaccines can confer protection, antigenic shift has
historically resulted in highly lethal pandemics. For this to
happen, the novel subtype needs to have genes from human influenza
viruses that make it readily transmissible from person to person
for a sustainable period."
Conditions
favourable for the emergence of antigenic shift have long been
thought to involve humans living in close proximity to domestic
poultry and pigs. Because pigs are susceptible to infection with
both avian and mammalian viruses, including human strains, they can
serve as a “mixing vessel” for the scrambling of
genetic material from human and avian viruses, resulting in the
emergence of a novel subtype. Recent events, however, have
identified a second possible mechanism. Evidence is mounting that, for at least some of the 15
avian influenza virus subtypes circulating in bird populations,
humans themselves can serve as the “mixing
vessel”.
Humans as "mixing vessels"
for a deadly form of Flu. Every year a lot of people get the Flu,
perhaps 10-20% of the entire population. Those are decent odds.
There is one way however to increase the odds that you will get the
flu to 100% - take the flu vaccine. Once you have done that, simply
wait until the fear is ramped up over bird flu and rush to your
nearest pharmacy to get the avian flu vaccine - et voila! You have
just ingested a lethal cocktail, courtesy of your
government.
Indeed, the threat of the
deadly avian flu spreading among the population need not be as a
result of the "fortuitous" combination of a human flu strain and a
bird flu strain within humans take the vaccine and you might just
be getting two in one! A recent article on the perils of the human
flu vaccine "FluMist" states:
Risks of FluMist
Vaccine
An
Investigation By RFD Columnist, Dr. Sherri Tenpenny
[...] An ever greater
concern about FluMist is the contents within the vaccine. Each
0.5ml of the formula contains 10 6.5-7.5 particles of live,
attenuated influenza virus. That means that between 10 million and
100 million viral particles will be forcefully injected into the
nostrils when administered. The viral strain was developed by
serial passage through "specific pathogen-free primary chick kidney
cells" and then grown in "specific pathogen-free eggs." That means
that the culture media was free of pathogens that were specifically
tested for, but not a culture that was necessarily "pathogen-free."
The risk that the vaccine may contain
contaminant avian retroviruses still remains. In
addition, a stabilizing buffer containing potassium phosphate,
sucrose (table sugar) and nearly 0.5 mg of monosodium glutamate
(MSG) is added to each dose. [...]
In a revealing update
scientists have just recently (Feb 2004) declared that the Spanish
Flu of 1918 was probably a version of bird flu similar to the one
that recently made it's appearance:
1918 flu victim may hold
clues to outbreak
JOHN
VON RADOWITZ
The Scotsman.co.uk
A VICTIM of the world’s worst flu epidemic is to be
exhumed to help scientists trying to avert the spread of bird
flu, it was revealed yesterday.
Scientists plan to remove
lung samples from the body of 20-year-old Phyllis Burn, who was
buried 85 years ago.
The
army officer’s daughter, from Strawberry Hill, London, was
one of 50 million people killed by a devastating strain of
influenza that swept across the world in 1918.
Evidence points to
the 1918 virus being a type of bird flu similar to the one which is
now claiming human lives in Asia.
Scientists are desperate to
know more about what caused the pandemic, in order to avoid another
disaster on a similar scale. [...]
So what is the conclusion?
What is all of this pointing to? Let us venture a theory that is
certainly backed up by all that we have just read.
The agencies within the US
government (possibly in league with agencies from other countries)
having revived the deadly Flu virus of 1918, have recently arranged
for it to be released in Asia. This was a test and designed to
acclimatise the public to the fact that bird flu is "on the loose".
21 people have so far (17/02/04) contracted it and 14 have died.
Soon there will be a larger scale disbursement causing the virus to
spread across the globe. It has only just begun..
In order to facilitate the
largest possible infection rate, a second form of infection has
also been planned.
Governments have prepped
the public by using scare tactics to encourage millions to get the
normal human flu vaccine shot. Once the more recent bird flu scare
has reached the sufficent levels governments will use the same
scare tactics to urge millions to get the bird flu vaccine also.
This vaccine ( naturally containing the bird flu virus) will then
combine and mutate with the previously taken human flu vaccine
(containing the human flu virus) within the human "mixing vessel",
thereby creating the deadly strain of human transmissable bird
flu.
At this point, can we
discount the
Haig-Kissinger plan for depopulation? Were
these men joking? Is it reasonable to suggest that they would go to
the bother of proposing this theory without formulating a plan to
implement it in some way? The people that hold a controlling stake
in our world use deception as their standard operating
procedure.
If depopulation were a
concept that was being studied and actively pursued, how might it
be achieved? Naturally it would unfold by way of deception since in
this way chances of success are optimised. What the people do not
know will not hurt them until it is too late to do anything about
it.
What better way then to
effect depopulation than to engineer it by way of something as
commonly accepted as "normal" and as seemingly random as the common
Flu...
To surmise. It does not
look good. The US and other world governments may well be planning
to introduce a flu virus that will decimate the human race. Of
course it will be called "a deadly strain of flu", but in reality
how would the public know that it was not deliberately introduced?
The only argument that we have to fall back on is the popular,
"They wouldn't do that". But as we look objectively at current and
past world events, are we really in a position to make such an
assertion? If the US government were happy to allow Pearl Harbor to
happen in order to justify entry to WWII, if they planned to blow
up a US passenger plane and blame it on Cuba as justification to
invade that country; if they were willing to stage attacks killing
over 3,000 of their own citizens on 9/11 to justify a worldwide
campaign of further murder, how can anyone have faith in what they
"would not do". Surely an assertion such as this is based more in
wishful thinking than in objective reality, and as someone wise
once said, "Wishful thinking will get you every time".
Other stories that point to
the fact that we are in the "test phase" prior to a worldwide
pandemic have also been appearing in the press.
Stomach virus
sickens dozens on Carnival cruise ship
11/29/2003
FORT
LAUDERDALE (AP) — Dozens of passengers came down with a
stomach illness during an eight-day cruise on the Carnival Cruise
Lines ship Legend, which returned to port Saturday, the company and
the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
said.
The
illness was believed to have been caused by a Norovirus, a family
of highly contagious viruses, Carnival said in a
statement.
Noroviruses are among the
most common causes of stomach ailments, infecting 23 million people
every year, health officials say. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting
and diarrhea, typically lasting one to three days.
A
cruise ship makes a great test environment. It is isolated,
controlled... Some scientists, it seems, have found themselves in
the unfortunate position of knowing a little too
much.
Another Biologist
Assassinated
Houston
Chronicle
Police have released a
composite drawing of a motorist who sped away after his van jumped
the curb and killed a chemist walking on a sidewalk in the Texas
Medical Center.
Robert Leslie Burghoff, 45,
of The Woodlands was killed in the 1600 block of South Braeswood on
Nov. 20. He was studying the virus
plaguing cruise ships, police said.
[...]
Well,
the original title in the Chronicle was "Composite released in
fatal hit-and-run". His death coinciding with the recent outbreak
of the flu, and the most recent outbreak of a virus on a cruise
ship inspired us to rewrite perhaps a bit more appropriate title.
The only other mention we could find so far
on the web of Dr. Burghoff was his work
involved in forensic science and gene mapping. This lumps him in
with the roster of dead microbiologists. Two dead microbiologists a
conspiracy does not make, 14 ... probably.
See the
Dead
Scientists blog for regular updates on this topic:
Dr
David Kelly's death in July 2003 has been put down as "suicide".
This blog investigates whether or not this suicide is, in actual
fact, murder dressed up as suicide. In recent months, a string of
scientists across the world have also died unexpectedly and in
mysterious circumstances. This blog also investigates the reason
for their fate.
We have our own research:
Ethnic Specific Weapons. We are all being set
up.
Yet we must realise that
governments have been using the citizenry as "mixing vessels" for
the testing of new and ever more deadly viruses for a long time,
and it is not limited to influenza..
CDC vaccines study slammed
as cover-up
Data linking mercury exposure, neurodevelopment said
'manipulated'
Dec.
9, 2003
Rep. Weldon points out that the autism rate began to
skyrocket as the number of required childhood vaccinations
increased.
Canned tuna or canned poison? That was the teaser for a CBS 2 News
"HealthWatch" Report of Nov. 22 that focused on high levels of
mercury found in tuna and the possible health risks associated with
them.
CBS 2 News reporter Paul Moniz quoted a number of physicians, who
observed of the toxic substance that, "Once it gets into our
bodies, a substantial part of it will end up in our nervous system,
in our brains, and it's there that it causes a variety of
symptoms." A pediatrician is quoted as saying, "We know that high
levels of mercury can impair the cognitive development as well as
the growth and development of a young child." What the report
appears to be revealing is that while overweight Americans may flee
to fish to lose unwanted pounds, too much of that tasty tuna could
reduce the IQ more than the waistline.
What the critics of mercury in vaccines find
provocative about this report is the acknowledgement by physicians
that the high levels of mercury ingested from canned tuna can cause
severe health risks. One such critic, the mother of an autistic
child, wonders "why everyone gets up
in arms over ingesting small amounts of mercury from fish or from
breaking a thermometer but finds it acceptable to inject an even
more toxic form of mercury directly into the bloodstream of
infants. The evidence is overwhelming that hundreds of thousands of
children were damaged by gross overexposure to mercury through
vaccines [containing thimerosal] and millions more were and
continue to be put at risk, yet network news has not addressed this
in any significant way. The public needs and
deserves to know the truth - not only about the biggest medical
bungling in our history, but also about the extraordinary efforts of both the pharmaceutical
industry and government agencies to cover it
up."
A pharmaceutical and government cover-up? It is a familiar enough
accusation, and this time the fuse was lit by yet another study
from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
this one titled Safety of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines: A
Two-Phased Study of Computerized Health Maintenance Organization
Databases. The report concluded that "no consistent significant
associations were found between TCVs [thimerosal-containing
vaccines] and neurodevelopment outcomes." Critics scoff at such a
conclusion. "Sure," laughs one, "they
say you can't eat tuna because the level of mercury you ingest
isn't good for you, but there's no health risk associated with
injecting high levels of mercury directly into a newborn
baby?"
The CDC study, released in the November 2003 issue of Pediatrics,
seemed to puzzle news media, with most who took note of it making
at least a mention of the fact that the lead author, Thomas
Verstraeten, was an employee of GlaxoSmithKline, the
pharmaceutical giant and vaccine manufacturer, when he submitted
the study for publication.
The first part of the two-phase study to determine whether there is
a connection between thimerosal-containing vaccines and
neurodevelopment disorders began in 1999 and involved the review of
data from Seattle's Group Health Cooperative and Northern
California Kaiser, both large health-maintenance organizations
(HMOs). The data used in this first
phase actually revealed a significant association between TCVs
administered to infants and later developmental abnormalities such
as speech and language delays and neurodevelopment problems in
general, such as tics and the alleged hyperactivity symptoms of
attention-deficit disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity
disorder.
However, this conclusion
was not included in the final draft; it was only made public
afterward when Verstraeten's notes were revealed in another forum,
according to specialists. The notes, not published with the CDC
study, showed that the "relative risk" for autism was 2.48 times
higher for children who received 62.5 micrograms or more of mercury
from TCVs by 3 months of age. [...]
One
of the few physicians in Congress, Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.),
immediately saw the problems associated with the CDC study and
notified CDC Director Julie Gerberding. Weldon wrote, "I have
serious reservations about the four-year evolution and conclusions
of this study. A review of these
documents leaves me very concerned that rather than seeking to
understand whether or not some children were exposed to harmful
levels of mercury in childhood vaccines in the 1990s, there may
have been a selective use of the data to make the associations in
the earliest study disappear."
Weldon's letter to Gerberding goes on to observe that "the first
version of the study, produced in February 2000, found a
significant association between exposure to thimerosal-containing
vaccines and autism and neurological developmental delays. A June
2000 version of the study applied various data manipulations to
reduce the autism association to 1.69, and the authors went outside
the VSD [Vaccine Safety Datalink] database to secure data from a
Massachusetts HMO [Harvard Pilgrim] in order to counter the
association found between TCVs and speech delays." Clear
enough.
[...] Then you consider that the lead
author is working for a drug company, didn't disclose this fact and
also that it is one of the drug companies being sued over this
mercury issue. I'm just very concerned that we're
not going to get answers as long as there are careers at stake. You
know there are people at the CDC who have been involved in the
vaccine program who didn't recognize the amount of mercury they
were giving kids, and now they're in the process of investigating
themselves. Meanwhile a lot of these investigators bounce to and
from the drug companies. I think it all is very, very murky and
very suspicious."
Weldon summarizes: "The CDC produced an article by Dr. Verstraeten,
published on Nov. 3 in Pediatrics. Dr. Verstraeten is a former CDC
employee. Since 2001 he has worked for GlaxoSmithKline - a vaccine
manufacturer. While working for the CDC in 2000, the first version
of Dr. Verstraeten's unpublished study found an association between
higher thimerosal exposures and neurodevelopment disorders,
including autism. Between 2000 and 2003, Dr. Verstraeten and
coauthors manipulated and stratified the data so much that each of
these associations magically
disappeared. I don't know if it was deliberate, but
that is nonetheless what happened. This study has done nothing in
my mind to put these concerns to rest, but only serves to raise
suspicions."
This veteran member of Congress puts it plainly: "We're not going
to get answers to these questions until Congress or some outside
group starts poring through this information. But it's very coincidental that they added the
hepatitis vaccine, the HiB vaccine and the chicken-pox vaccine -
they added all these additional childhood vaccines around the time
when the autism rate started to skyrocket. Then
when you actually sit down and do the calculations, according to
the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], they were giving these kids very toxic levels of
mercury. I mean as a
150- to 200-pound adult the EPA says you're not supposed to take in
more than one microgram per day. They were taking little seven- and
10-pound babies and pumping 50 and 75 micrograms of mercury into
them in one shot. That's like giving an adult
1,000 micrograms. And, on top of that, the World Health
Organization says mercury is 10 times more toxic in children than
it is in adults. It's horrifying."
Mark Geier says, "Believe us, there is no scientific issue here.
This is fraud. The CDC and the FDA [Food and Drug Administration]
know what is happening. They just can't admit it because it is one
of the worst things ever to have happened to this United
States.If a terrorist had done this,
we wouldn't attack them, we'd nuke them.
We're talking about
one in eight children in the U.S. that currently are in special
education, and that number is going
to change to about one in five. What
percentage of our young population can we destroy before we realize
how serious this is?"
Lyn Redwood, a registered nurse, mother of an autistic child and
president and cofounder of www.SafeMinds.org (Sensible Action for
Ending Mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders), a nonprofit
organization dedicated to ending devastation caused by the needless
use of mercury in medicines, tells Insight that "there are so many
problems with the study, but over time you can see how all the
manipulations of the data slowly bring down the signals for
neurological disorders. I think they were trying to get lower
numbers. It must be very hard to admit that a program that was
designed to eradicate infectious disease has resulted in an
epidemic of a whole new kind of disease.But to think that we weren't given a choice when
the regulators and manufacturers knew these products contained
mercury is inconceivable."
[...] They need to just get the thimerosal out. It's
barbaric."
Tuna - the perfect cover.
The FDA in America has on various occasions warned about the
dangers to pregnant women and small children of mercury in tuna,
and even included the population in general depending on how much
they eat. Why do almost all vaccines contain mercury? It is not
essential to the effective working of the vaccine yet it is used as
a base ingredient. That Mercury is toxic to the human organism is
beyond doubt so why would the government seek to inject it into as
many citizens as possible? Perhaps it stems from a desire to simply
weaken the population, mind, body and soul, for some
particular purpose.
Parents denied access to
new autism reports
By
Sarah-Kate Templeton Health Editor
STUDIES quoted by
the government as evidence that vaccines containing mercury –
linked to autism in children – are safe, are being withheld
from the public.
“Factsheets”
issued by the Committee on Safety of Medicines to those concerned
about research which suggests that vaccines containing mercury can
trigger autism in some children claim that two new studies prove
that the jabs are safe.
But
these studies have not been scrutinised by independent experts as
part of the peer review process which all scientific studies must
go through to be considered valid.
Autism campaigners have
accused the government of arrogance for telling parents to
“just take their word”that the jabs are safe.
The diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping
cough vaccine (DTwP), which contains thiomersal, a mercury-based
preservative, is given to hundreds of thousands of babies aged
between two and four months every year.
Following research suggesting that mercury can cause
autism in children, the Scottish Executive announced that parents
would be allowed to choose mercury-free jabs for their babies. But
parents have complained that they struggle to persuade doctors to
administer the alternative jabs. The mercury-free vaccine,
Infanrix, is more expensive.
The
Executive has ruled out a ban on vaccines containing mercury. Dr
Andrew Fraser, deputy chief medical officer, said the Executive was
committed to finding mercury-free alternatives but that the
government was still waiting for what it considered to be a
“licensed, equally effective alternative” to become
available, before banning vaccines containing
thiomersal.
Now why would they make a
claim that can supposedly be backed up by a study but then withhold
the study? Take your time, no rush...just think
logically.
CDC DATA LEADS
SCIENTISTS TO SHOCKING DISCOVERY
February 9, 2004
Lori McIlwain, National Autism Association, (919)
272-8192
CHILDREN 27-TIMES MORE
LIKELY TO DEVELOP AUTISM WITH EXPOSURE TO MERCURY-CONTAINING
VACCINES, FINDINGS REVIEWED AT TODAY'S IOM MEETING IN DC
Washington, DC- Today, the
Institute of Medicine will hold a one-day meeting to review
important new research on the link between thimerosal, a
mercury-based preservative in vaccines, and neurodevelopmental
disorders such as autism. One of the larger studies under review
comes from the CDC's own Vaccine Safety Datalink. Under independent
investigation, CDC's data concludes children are 27-times more
likely to develop autism after exposure to three
thimerosal-containing vaccines (TCVs), than those who receive
thimerosal-free versions.
Mercury's risk in tuna
debated
By
Katrina Woznicki
UPI Science News
6/27/2003
WASHINGTON, June 27 (UPI)
-- Tuna fish, that ubiquitous ingredient in school lunches and
household casseroles across America, could contain higher levels of
dangerous mercury than previously thought. But despite new
warnings, some scientists still dispute whether traces of the
silvery metal pose any genuine health risk to the general
population.
Methyl mercury is the
organic form mercury takes in fish, usually large fish that reside
higher up in the aquatic food chain. Mercury pollution comes from
several sources, including the burning of fossil fuels in
coal-fired electric power plants, disposal of mercury-containing
products in incinerators and landfills, and industrial processes
such as chlorine production.
The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta cites mercury
as a potent toxin that can be harmful to fetuses, infants and young
children. The CDC estimates one in 12 women of childbearing age has
unsafe mercury levels in her blood, which could place 300,000
babies at risk for mercury poisoning every year. Swordfish and
shark, popular entrees in restaurants, also are high in mercury,
although they are not as widely consumed as tuna. [...]
Based on MPP's
calculations, one out of every 20 cans of white albacore tuna
should be recalled as unsafe for human consumption. Of the 48 tuna
samples, over three were found to contain mercury levels higher
than the Food and Drug Administration's one-part-per-million safety
threshold. On average, the white albacore tuna had mercury levels
four times higher than the 12 cans of light tuna tested.
"If
a 22-pound toddler ate only two ounces of white tuna with that
level of mercury, they would exceed the Environmental Protection
Agency's virtual safe dose, called the reference dose, by four
times," Michael Bender, MPP's director, told UPI. If a 132-pound
woman ate two cans of tuna per week, she would exceed the EPA's
limit by four times, he added.
The
issue of mercury in fish is not just an American problem -- it is a
global problem..
"The
seat of the blame right now is really on the FDA because they are
in charge of our food supply," Greer said. "We are so far behind
the ball with the FDA. They're really asleep at the switch. They're
shying away from declaring a problem that they would need to
solve." [...]
An
FDA spokeswoman told UPI: "We have a consumer advisory and that
advisory is targeted for a certain segment of the population, which
is mainly pregnant women and women of childbearing age. As of now,
we are standing by our consumer advisory on methyl mercury in fish.
Based upon comments we've received from the food advisory
committee, (the FDA is) looking into addressing the tuna issue
further." [...]
In
fact, little data exist on the neurological consequences of mercury
poisoning from fish consumption in the United States, Rutchik
explained. "I have not seen ever, or I don't know anyone who has
seen, a patient with a tremor that's related to mercury or from
consumption of fish." Although individuals have varying
susceptibilities to mercury, most people can "tolerate a little
mercury in their blood," he said. "We're not talking about all of a
sudden the child becomes retarded." [...]
Another study on tuna and
mercury appeared in the May 16 issue of the British journal The
Lancet. The research was headed by Dr. Gary Myers, a professor of
neurology and pediatrics and the University of Rochester,
N.Y.
This
study, an update on the Seychelles study, named after the islands
in the Indian Ocean, looked at 643 children living there from
before birth to age 9 who had been repeatedly exposed to ocean
seafood consumption whether through their mothers or on their own.
The children were born to mothers who ate an average of 12 meals of
ocean fish per week -- about 10 times greater than the average
American. Results showed no detectable risk from low levels of
mercury. The children, born in 1989 and 1990, have been evaluated
five times over the years since their birth.
"The
only cases of poisoning of methyl mercury from the consumption of
fish that have ever been reported are from Japan and they're from
1960s," Dr. Myers told UPI. The Seychelles study is "one of the
largest epidemiological studies to look at this issue. We have not
been able to find adverse effects."
Hightower said there is
overwhelming evidence to counter the Seychelles study findings.
"The Seychelles was one study," she said. "One study does not
negate all the other studies."
So perhaps "normal" tuna
does not pose a threat, tuna that have fed in polluted waters is
another story. There is obviously a lot more to the story than
might first appear. One would have to understand where the fish
come from that are eaten etc. The point is that the "mercury in
tuna" debate is possibly a smokescreen and an alibi for the
government allowing it to inject mercury, aluminium and
formaldehyde (and god knows what else) directly into the
blood streams of millions of people. From childhood vaccinations to
smallpox vaccinations to the new and improved flu shots, the
government has a plan for each and every one of its "dearly beloved
citizens".
Tuna Mercury levels Not
Harmful According To FSA UK
May
14, 02
Britain's Food Standards
Agency (FSA) Friday advised pregnant women, women intending to
become pregnant and children under 16 years of age to avoid eating
swordfish, shark, and marlin because of high mercury
levels.
The
elevated levels of mercury in these large predators, in the form of
methylmercury, can affect the developing nervous system and might
hamper children's later ability to learn, the agency
said.
Tuna, which showed the
fourth highest level, had mercury levels at just one third of the
others and canned tuna, which uses younger fish and squeezes out
oil, is lower still.
The
larger predatory fish accumulate higher mercury levels both because
they live longer than other fish and because they eat fish that
also have mercury deposits.
Mercury mostly occurs
naturally, issuing as vapor from the earth's crust, while coal
combustion for power is the largest man-made industrial producer.
The FSA said large fish would already have had high mercury levels
200 years ago.
The
interim advice was issued as the World Health Organization (WHO)
researches whether fetuses and children may be a greater risk from
mercury than the general population.
The
FSA stressed that fish is important to the diet and plays a key
role in reducing the risk of heart attacks
Flashback:
Smallpox plans sent to
states
Federal officials sent states detailed
guidelines yesterday for rapidly vaccinating their entire
populations against smallpox should the deadly disease
return through an act of terrorism.
The smallpox vaccine may be
more harmful than beneficial
The American public is being prepared to accept and want the
smallpox vaccine. The Center for Disease Control has been telling
us that it is “when” not “if” a smallpox
outbreak will occur. There are many unanswered questions that the
government health agencies refuse to address. This is written to
assist you in knowing more about the vaccine and its dangers, the
smallpox disease and some of the misinformation. If you are a
thinking person, we challenge you to do more research and check out
this information, your very life and your family’s life may
be in the balance. We are only asking you to consider the following
information before deciding to take the smallpox vaccine.
[...]
Volunteers Key to Smallpox Vaccine
Plan
1.3 Million Might Be Needed for Emergency Federal
Program
A
federal emergency response plan for vaccinating the entire U.S.
population against a smallpox attack envisions recruiting at least
1.3 million volunteers to staff health clinics 16 hours a day for a
full week. [...]
Medicaid rule changes require child
immunizations
Medicaid recipients who don't get
their children immunized, keep them in school or
take them to the doctor and dentist risk losing federal benefits under new state
rules that took effect Tuesday.
Get the vaccine or else!
Some might say that people are being coerced in this way in order
to protect the population, since obviously there are some
irresponsible people that would jeopardise their own lives and
those of their children. Perhaps, but have you ever read
Machiavelli?
In our
Supplement on ethnic specific weapons we have
made the case for the likelihood that "the powers that be" have for
many years been testing and refining genetically specific "weapons"
designed to kill as many people as possible, while at the same time
sparing one select group, perhaps. Of course it is possible that
left to her own devices mother nature could come up with a virus
that would "naturally" kill the entire human race, but it seems
that she simply would never get the chance. Those that have
appointed themselves "directors" of human evolution make a point of
always being "on first". It has become clear that there is no one
looking out for the human race, there are no benevolent governments
or groups that have our best interest at heart. If we are to wake
up and see things as they really are, we must admit that there is
no scope for the oft-used protestation, "They wouldn't do that!"
The facts point to the reality that they WOULD, and indeed it seems
they have been for many years, and plan to very soon.
Let it not be the case that
any of us are caught out through ignorance and wishful
thinking.
See our research in
the related topic of
Ethnic
Specific Weapons
Check out the
Signs of the Times Archives
Send
your comments and article suggestions to us.
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