Lesson we apparently didn’t learn from the Swine Flu Fiasco of 1976
This “60-Minutes”video from 1979 is a video you must watch. The 2009 H1N1Swine Flu Vaccine is being rushed through production so fast that it will not be tested by sufficient numbers or given sufficient time to determine whether or not the vaccine is even safe or effective. This new vaccine could kill more people than the Swine Flu itself, just like the Swine Flu fiasco of 1976, in which the Swine Flu only killed 1 person, but the vaccine killed or injured thousands of Americans and led to billions of dollars in claims of damages for Guillain-Barré syndrome, a paralyzing neuromuscular disorders that left thousands injured or paralyzed for life.
What Questions Need to be Answered Before Anyone gets Vaccinated?
How severe is the 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu compared to the typical seasonal flu? It may be very contagious but may not be very harmful. How virulent is this Swine Flu?
What’s in the Vaccine? Is the Vaccine safe?
Does the vaccine contain mercury (Thimerosal)? How much mercury does it contain? What other toxic chemicals are in the vaccine? Does it contain formaldehyde, formalin, antibiotics, egg proteins, green monkey kidney cells, insect cell culture remnants, adjuvants like squalene that have been linked to the Gulf War Syndrome from the Anthrax vaccine?
How long does it take for neruological damage or Guillain-Barré syndrome to show up after the vaccine?
Does the Vaccine work? The clinical trials were specifically limited to a very small (100+) number of patients per group for a very short time. Were these studies sufficient to prove safety and effectiveness?
Which will cause a higher percentage of serious harm: the vaccine or the Swine flu?
We Deserve to Know these Answers
What was disturbing in 1976 and today is the speed by which the H1N1 vaccine was developed and rushed to market. The lack of a detailed public explanation is not inspiring confidence. As a result a Consumer Reports poll shows that only 35% will surely get the H1N1 flu shot.
The Food and Drug Administration has formally approved all of the 250 million doses of the Swine flu vaccine purchased by the U.S. Government before studies required to prove their safety or effectiveness have been completed under the cover of The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act).
What are the Results of the Clinical Trials of the Vaccines?
So far, top U.S. health officials have given only vague details about the results of the clinical trials underway to test the safety and effectiveness of the Swine flu vaccine. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is giving only guarded answers.
Vague explanations like the following should make us all ask a lot more questions.
“A single dose of vaccine could be enough to immunize adults against swine flu, Fauci said.”
“Preliminary data from our trials indicate that a single 15-microgram dose of … vaccine is well tolerated and induces an immune response in most healthy adults, said Fauci.”
Among children 10 to 17 years old, 76 percent had a “robust” immune response to the vaccine. For children 3 to 9 years old, 36 percent had a robust response. Among children 6 months to 36 months, the immune response rate was 25 percent, Fauci said.
Results of NIH-sponsored clinical trials which began last month showed that a swine flu vaccine produced by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Pasteur produced “a robust immune response” in 96 percent of adults aged 18 to 64 after “the rather short time point of eight to 10 days after vaccination,” Fauci said.
This is all only “preliminary data.” How many individuals were involved in the “preliminary” clinical trials? Only about 100 per study. When will we get the proven final data? The formal clinical trials will not be completed until sometime next year between March and October of 2010.
What is a “robust immune response?” This is intentionally vague and not quantifiable. No one really knows or at least know one is willing to tell the American public. The preliminary clinical trials have not been published and the top U.S. officials are not being frank or forthcoming.
What s “well tolerated mean?”
We Need More Answers!
Fortunately for now the Swine Flu vaccine is not mandatory. However, a declaration of a pandemic by the World Health Organization gives them the authority to make the vaccines manditory and to declare marshal law to enforce them at any time.
Why are the Vaccine Manufacturers Immune from Liability Lawsuits?
Vaccine makers and all federal officials have been granted total legal immunity from any and all lawsuits that may result from the new swine flu vaccine, under a document signed by U.S. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Kathleen Sebelius, in June 2009.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, has granted vaccine makers total legal immunity from any and all lawsuits that may result from any new swine flu vaccine, because if the governement did not grant them this immunity they would not have made the vaccines.
It turns out that DHHS Secretary Sibelius has not only given immunity to the manufactures of swine flu vaccines, but also the makers of Tamiflu and Relenza for injuries stemming from their use against swine flu. She also granted immunity to future swine flu vaccines and “any associated adjuvants.” The order was published in the June 25, 2009 Federal Register.
Since the 1980s, the government has protected vaccine makers against lawsuits over the use of childhood vaccines. A federal court handles all vaccine injury claims and decides who will be paid from a special fund. Thousands of parents whose otherwise perfectly healthy children developed autism after getting a vaccine are still waiting for compensation. Most have been frankly denied.
The document signed by Secretary Sebelius grants immunity to federal officials and drug manufacturers under the provisions of The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREPA), a 2006 law for public health emergencies.
Vaccine Rush Sacrifices Safety for Profits of Vaccine Manufactures
“Here is the problem,” according to Dr. Meryl Nass, M.D., vaccine expert and board member of the Alliance for Human Research Protection (AHRP):
“Once the PREP Act is invoked to shield manufacturers from liability, the pharmaceutical firms have no financial incentive to make the safest product, and have a negative incentive to test it for safety. As long as they do not deliberately harm consumers of the product, they will not be liable for damages.
Are you following this argument closely? In order to avoid having prior knowledge of possible harm to users of the product, for which they could be found liable, it is in the manufacturers’ best interest to know as little as possible about adverse reactions caused by their product.
Thus manufacturers can be expected to perform minimal testing, as they have been incentivized by PREPA to avoid learning of potential harms related to their product. Thus the speed at which the product will be distributed serves two purposes: it provides the needed excuse to avoid adequate testing, as well as providing rapid vaccine availability.”
Will There Be Enough Vaccine Soon Enough for Everyone?
The vaccine manufacturers are having difficulty producing sufficient quantities of the Swine flu vaccine.
The U.S. government has purchased 250 million doses of the Swine Flu vaccine for $10 Billion dollars. Approximately only 45 million doses will be available by the middle of October. The five pharmaceutical companies making the vaccine for the US hope that they will be able to collectively provide an additional 20 million doses per week from mid October through December. This would deliver approximately 240 million doses.
Since two shots will be required for all of the approximately 20 million children ages 6 months to 9 years, that leaves only 200 million doses for the remaining 285 million Americans. Any possible immunity from the vaccine is not expected to occur for 30 days after the vaccine This would make it the middle of November before the first Americans vaccinated can expect any possible immune protection from the vaccine. If the virus comes a little early, any vaccine may be too late.