Showing posts with label swine flu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label swine flu. Show all posts

10/28/09

Pandemic puts

Peacenik has been concentrated on the health effect of the swine flu pandemic, whether or not the funeral industry is able to handle a surge in flu related fatalities (it can't), whether or not there will be mass burials (there will be), etc. Peacenik hasn't been thinking about the economic, financial impact. But Garth Turner has.

By Garth Turner

swine

Lining up for flu shots



On a highway not too far from the bunker is a yard where a local bus company keeps its rigs. These guys make their money in the charter business. You know, hauling old ladies to the casino, providing transportation for conventions, trucking tourists from the airport to Niagara Falls.

In the yard are tie-ups for about 30 buses.

One summer day in 2003 I was driving by, and noticed that every slot has a bus sitting idle. Then I heard that most drivers had been laid off. If bus rentals were a measure of economic activity, we were in trouble.

Read on...

10/20/09

Why CDC says this year's flu season is "very sobering"

Peacenik drove Peacenik's son, Peacenik Jr. to Peacenik Jr.'s music lesson last night. On the way there Peacenik Jr. declared that Peacenik Jr. thought that...cough.....cough....Peacenik Jr. had the swine flu. Peacenik Jr.looked up swine flu....cough...cough...symptoms on the Internet.

Peacenik Jr. had all the symptoms save two. According to some sources that is pretty conclusive. Peacenik hopes Peacenik Jr. doesn't have swine flu. Peacenik thinks Peacenik Jr. didn't seem sick enough. Does Peacenik Jr. have the swine flu? Has Peacenik been exposed in a closed vehicle to a coughing swine flu victim? Will the swine flu vaccine be available soon enough? Should Peacenik isolate Peacenik's self?

Posted on: October 19, 2009 6:08 AM, by revere

Monday morning, start of week three of the official flu season (which began October 4). CDC's scientific spokeswoman on the flu, Dr. Anne Schuchat has said we are seeing "unprecedented" flu activity for this time of year, including an unusual toll in the pediatric age group. What does "unprecedented" mean? It's not very specific on what precedents are included, but if we confine ourselves to the three years before this one, we can get a good idea of just how unusual this flu season is. This week CDC unveiled a new graphic for their Emerging Infections Program (EIP) (I liked the old one better; this one is not very legible), the component of the surveillance system that tracks laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated hospitalizations in children and adults. It collects data in 60 counties covering 12 metropolitan areas of 10 states (San Francisco CA, Denver CO, New Haven CT, Atlanta GA, Baltimore MD, Minneapolis/St. Paul MN, Albuquerque NM, Las Cruces, NM, Albany NY, Rochester NY, Portland OR, and Nashville TN). It appears CDC has added six new sites (in IA, ID, MI, ND, OK and SD), but the data here are for the original 10 so comparisons can be made. This is a passive surveillance system that reviews hospital laboratory, admissions and infection logs at sites chosen to allow calculation of rates per population in the hospital catchment areas. Here is what the graphic looks like as of last Friday:

Read on...

10/11/09

Vaccines’ Dark Inferno

punditman says...Do you always trust politicians? Do you always trust the police? Do you always trust your school board? Do you always trust the military? Do you always trust corporations? Some of the same people whose answer would be a resounding NO to all of the above, for some reason then put great faith in Big Pharma, in public health, the CDC, the FDA, Health Canada, the WHO., etc. Why? These are just institutions made up of human beings just like the others mentioned above. Punditman does not understand why any rational, educated person would put any more trust in these institutions than in any other ones. Are they bloody God just because they are involved in healthcare? Punditman doesn't even trust that his own doctor knows what he is talking about half the time. Not because Punditman doesn't like his doctor but because after the average five-minute appointment, Punditman knows that his doctor has not always been right. Maybe some people just need to believe in something and the healthcare industry is the last bastion of true faith.

If you wonder why punditman is skeptical about the vaccine industrial complex, read the article below. Punditman is amazed that by raising these issues, he stands accused by some of doing a disservice to the public. So if you've already made up your mind in the other direction, then just go get your damn flu shot, swine flu shot and whatever else is in the works shots. Punditman is getting *sick* of this debate.


What is not on insert labels?


The vast majority of scientists, physicians, nurses and public health educators’ trust that the ingredients in a vaccine have been individually and synergistically proven safe and effective. The public believes these vaccines, aside from their specified virus(es), are sterile solutions, free from undesirable contaminants not listed on the manufacturer’s package inserts. When the pediatrician injects a vaccine into the muscle of a child, the public has unquestioning faith that this is the case. In other words, we want to believe that vaccines have been generated under perfect conditions for the safety of children and ourselves.


Our investigation shows that most people do not know what is actually in a vaccine: the active ingredients listed on product labels, inert ingredients, and, most important, the hidden ingredients. Even more remote is taking the time to actually study the subject matter, review the scientific literature and discover the truth for oneself. To our amazement, that truth was easy to find. But it is a truth that will scare the hell out of you.


Similar to eating veal parmesan, what would happen if a video were placed on your table and used as a living reality recipe instead of the actual meal. This video unfolds before your eyes every step in that little creature’s life, from the veal’s birth to the parmesan on your plate. You witness how this veal was starved of its natural nutrients, kept in a tiny stall, grossly malnourished and deformed, filled with drugs—antibiotics—diseased and suffering complete privations until finally slaughtered, sliced, cooked and served on your plate. Would your appetite be the same? Would you still desire the parmesan? Conveniently we rarely ask the questions, where does our food come from? How and where was it grown? What was sprayed on it prior to our consumption? Therefore, we are going to re-record something that even most top health educators and opinion leaders on vaccines are unaware of. That is, what goes into the making of vaccines and what is hidden from you that should give you a moment’s of pause? Then ask yourself, do you want vaccines in your body?


To give us the most in depth, honest, scholarly and objective examination about the methods by which vaccines and their hidden ingredients are prepared we turn to the award-winning British investigative medical journalist, Janine Roberts, who paints an entirely different picture about the darker inferno in vaccines that do not appear on product labels. This is the same Janine Roberts who brought to the world’s attention blood diamonds, genocide in the Congo and the destruction of aboriginal cultures by the Australian government.


Roberts’ account of conversations between high level members from the World Health Organizatioin (WHO), federal health agencies, and expert vaccine scientists, who determine whether or not a certain vaccine will be approved or not, is horrid. Her investigations are based on official meeting documents and her attendance at emergency vaccine meetings, and confirm that our world’s vaccine and health experts agree there is no solution in sight to resolve the potential and uncertain threats posed by these hidden ingredients.(1)


The story begins with the vaccine industrial complex’s attempt to reduce vaccine manufacturing costs by seeking government approval to use cancerous cell lines in the development of vaccines. Vaccine industry’s rationale is that cancerous cells are “immortal.” Current vaccine methodology relies on animal cells, such as fertilized hen embryos and monkey kidneys, that die quickly in culture. Using cancerous cell lines are also much cheaper than relying on the purchase of animals, especially monkeys, that need to be sacrificed for vaccine substrates.

Keep Reading...

9/25/09

Once more on the vaccine question

Peacenik found this post to be persuasive.

Posted on: September 25, 2009 6:56 AM, by revere

There's hopeful news about the possibility of an effective HIV/AIDS vaccine and a weird story from Canada about "preliminary results" saying that you are more at risk from swine flu if you get the seasonal flu vaccine. With flu, anything is possible, but that is more than a little counterintuitive and strikes me as unlikely. Nowhere else has reported a similar experience. Since we don't know the methods or the data or the limitations or much of anything else that could allow us to consider how much to weigh this as evidence I won't say any more about it.

While we do write about vaccines here because it's a topic in the flu world, vaccines are not one of our obsessions. We'd much rather see the hopes and efforts of managing the consequences of an influenza pandemic invested in public health's infrastructure, not redundant efforts to make a buck on a single target vaccine by multiple companies. Influenza vaccine is a public good and should not be in the market system. But that's another topic. Since all kinds of vaccines are the topic du jour, we will, for a change, muse a bit about vaccines ourselves. Because some of what we say might be interpreted as mixed or ambivalent and seized upon by a growing movement of poorly informed or misinformed anti-vaccination zealots, we should be clear at the outset about our convictions: we believe strongly that all children should be vaccinated against childhood diseases with the currently available recommended vaccines and that most adults should also be vaccinated with the currently available recommended vaccines. We believe this because it's the most rational choice given the evidence we have. I also believe it should be essentially mandatory for children and almost never mandatory for competent adults. We'll discuss the one exception we currently see, shortly.

Read on...

9/23/09

Seasonal flu shot may increase H1N1 risk

punditman says...This is freaking hilarious. Run out and get your seasonal flu shot everyone! It's so good for you that it makes it more likely that you will get H1N1! So better run out and get that shot too! Undoubtedly, it's so good for you that it will make it more likely that you will get...bird flu (or some such malady). Watch Big Pharma/Big Gov't try to bury this one. There's too much $ involved.

Preliminary research suggests the seasonal flu shot may put people at greater risk for getting swine flu, CBC News has learned.

"This is some evidence that has been floated. It hasn't been validated yet, it's very preliminary," cautioned Dr. Don Low, microbiologist-in-chief at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

"This is obviously important data to help guide policy decisions. How can we best protect people against influenza?"

It's important to validate the information to make sure it's not just a fluke, and that the observation is confirmed elsewhere such as in the Southern Hemisphere, which just completed its seasonal flu season, Low added.

Four Canadian studies involved about 2,000 people in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta, sources told CBC News. Researchers found people who had received the seasonal flu vaccine in the past were more likely to get sick with the H1N1 virus.

Researchers know that, theoretically, when people are exposed to bacteria or a virus, it can stimulate the immune system to create antibodies that facilitate the entry of another strain of the virus. Dengue fever is one example, Low said.

Keep Reading...

9/21/09

Swine Flu: Behind the Hype

punditman says...

Punditman doesn't have time to go into exquisite detail about his concerns regarding the swine flu vaccine or the origins of the virus, (which he has done many times already in this space), so Punditman will be brief.

There is certainly a lot to be concerned about when it comes to Swine Flu. But not necessarily for the reasons that we are being told. Thankfully, not everyone is buying into all the fear and hype. Many healthcare workers are refusing the shot. According to Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, which represents 20,000 hospital workers,"If there is an attempt to make it mandatory, I think you would see civil disobedience." Good on them, and good for Hurley for standing up for the rights of his union members.

Punditman saw Hurley interviewed on the CBC on the weekend and was pleasantly surprised at his candid assessment of what is really wrong with this picture. I am not quoting him, but paraphrasing: namely, hospitals are underfunded, overcrowded and germ-infested and rather than government putting all their energies into a vaccine with dubious efficacy and possibly dangerous effects, (especially for pregnant women workers), they should fix the hospital crisis! That would be the best strategy to contain a pandemic.

Speaking of the vaccine, rather than lining up for a shot of GlaxoSmithKline's squalene-laced vaccine, (linked to Gulf War Syndrome), perhaps folks should redirect their concerns? A good place to start is here or here. Those links oughta scare you a helluva lot more than the virus itself.

8/27/09

Thoughts on Swine Flu: Again!

punditman says...
Punditman has posted extensively about what he thinks of the swine flu threat and the mass distraction/mass vaccination/mass profit that he suspects is underway. Punditman doesn't understand why folks don't take a more skeptical view of this issue. Perhaps it is still early days.

Or perhaps the truth is too ugly to face. Maybe even uglier than lying about war or economic crises. Maybe people can't get their heads around the idea that global and national government health agencies don't always know what they're talking about, that their data is unreliable or manipulated, that the lack of debate and the near complete blackout of critical viewpoints concerning swine flu is actually a natural occurrance; as with other issues it is part of a bureacratic and media groupthink reminiscent of the herd mentaility in the lead up to the war in Iraq. Moreover, perhaps it is too scary to consider that authorities could put at risk the health of millions through possibly unsafe vaccines while shady corporations with horrible track records make massive profits?

It's no wonder people would rather think otherwise. After all, it is much easier to believe that governments and Big Pharma are putting forth a heroic effort to combat a dangerous pandemic, that their vaccine is necessary and safe, that everything they say and do is in the interest of protecting humanity. And that only wingnut conspiracy theorists would question the way this whole thing has unfolded.

Is swine flu an example of a very big lie? Punditman doesn't know for sure. But read this. Then decide for yourself.

8/26/09

Company Cleared To Test Swine Flu Vaccine Fighting Off Liquidation

Peacenik is not anti flu vaccine. Peacenik has gotten the regular flu vaccine for years. But Peacenik really will ponder whether to take a swine flu vaccine, if there is one. The company is in bankruptcy? That inspires confidence. Plus the timeline in this story suggests this vaccine will miss this flu season in any case. Of course regulators can always cut corners. Why not. To much regulation stiffles innovation, and progress, and crime, and the rip-off of the public. Will there be a flu vaccine this fall for swine flu? Will it be properly tested? Do you trust the government to protect your interests? Will you take the vaccine if there is one? Will Peacenik? Will Punditman?

By Jacqueline Palank

As a new White House report raises the possibility that up to 50% of the U.S. population could contract swine flu this season, one drug maker has come a step closer to distributing a vaccine. That is, if the involuntary bankruptcy filing against it doesn’t get in the way.

Protein Sciences Corp., of Meriden, Conn., is a privately held vaccine maker that last week won federal approval to kick off clinical trials of its vaccine for the H1N1, or swine flu, virus, the Hartford Courant reported. That means Protein Sciences’ PanBlok vaccine will be tested on humans as soon as the next few weeks. Such trials have already started in Australia, where winter - and flu season - are underway.

Read on...

8/4/09

Tamiflu causes sickness and nightmares in children, study finds

punditman says...There are tons of media reports on the internet saying that Tamiflu will not work against Swine Flu, and furthermore, that even regular seasonal flu strains are becoming resistant to it. And yet governments have stockpiled billions of dollars worth of it. What a freaking waste of everyone's money (in less of case you own stock in it). Furthermore, Tamiflu may be very bad for you! In 2007, the FDA finally began investigating some 1,800 adverse event reports related to the anti-viral drug. Serious symptoms included convulsions, delirium or delusions, and 14 deaths in children and teens as a result of neuropsychiatric problems and brain infections (which led Japan to ban Tamiflu for children in 2007). And yet they are handing it out to children like candy. What a crime.

-your friendly neighbourhood wingnut.

by David Rose

Children report a range of side-effects, but the official advice is that Tamiflu is safe.

More than half of children taking the swine flu drug Tamiflu experience side-effects such as nausea and nightmares, research suggests.

An estimated 150,000 people with flu symptoms were prescribed the drug through a new hotline and website last week, according to figures revealed yesterday.

Studies of children attending three schools in London and one in the South West showed that 51-53 per cent had one or more side-effects from the medication, which is offered to everyone in England with swine flu symptoms.

The research by the Health Protection Agency emerged as Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer for England, said that swine flu infections “may have reached a plateau”.

Releasing the latest figures, Sir Liam said that an estimated 110,000 new cases of the H1N1 virus were diagnosed by doctors in the week to Sunday. That did not include those using the new National Pandemic Flu Service for England to obtain antiviral drugs without seeing their GP.

Keep Reading...

7/31/09

H1N1 Pandemic: Pentagon Planning Deployment of Troops in Support of Nationwide Vaccination

The epidemic that never was: Policy-making and the swine flu scare

According to CNN, the Pentagon is "to establish regional teams of military personnel to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, according to Defense Department officials."
"The proposal is awaiting final approval from Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
The officials would not be identified because the proposal from U.S. Northern Command's Gen. Victor Renuart has not been approved by the secretary.
The plan calls for military task forces to work in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There is no final decision on how the military effort would be manned, but one source said it would likely include personnel from all branches of the military.
It has yet to be determined how many troops would be needed and whether they would come from the active duty or the National Guard and Reserve forces.
Civilian authorities would lead any relief efforts in the event of a major outbreak, the official said. The military, as they would for a natural disaster or other significant emergency situation, could provide support and fulfill any tasks that civilian authorities could not, such as air transport or testing of large numbers of viral samples from infected patients.
As a first step, Gates is being asked to sign a so-called "execution order" that would authorize the military to begin to conduct the detailed planning to execute the proposed plan.
Orders to deploy actual forces would be reviewed later, depending on how much of a health threat the flu poses this fall, the officials said." (CNN, Military planning for possible H1N1 outbreak, July 2009, emphasis added)
The implications are far-reaching.

The decision points towards the militarization of civilian instituions, including law enforcement and public health. The Pentagon is already planning on the number of troops to be deployed in the case of a pandemic. A nationwide vaccination program is already planned for the Fall. The pharmaceutical industry is slated to deliver 160 million vaccine doses by the Fall, enough doses to vaccinate more than half of America's population.

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7/27/09

Government Swine Flu Advisor On Vaccine Maker Payroll

punditman says...
It is merely coincidental I am sure that the UK government’s top advisor on swine flu, Professor Sir Roy Anderson, just happens to be a sitting board member of GlaxoSmithKline to the tune of £116,000-a-year. But never mind, sheeple. Hurry and line up to get your squalene-flavoured shot! Squalene is linked to a host of serious health disorders, including Gulf War syndrome, but once again, never mind that.
-your friendly neighbourhood wingnut.

by Paul Joseph Watson

Many people seem genuinely baffled that western governments are hyping the arrival of a swine flu pandemic as if it’s the greatest threat to humanity since the bubonic plague, despite the relatively low number of deaths from the virus, unaware that the pharmaceutical industry has been intimately joined at the hip with the state for decades.

Another illustration of that fact is the revelation that one of the UK government’s top advisors on swine flu also happens to be a sitting board member of GlaxoSmithKline, the company selling dangerous and untested swine flu vaccines, as well as anti-viral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza, to the NHS.

“Professor Sir Roy Anderson sits on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), a 20-strong task force drawing up the action plan for the virus. Yet he also holds a £116,000-a-year post on the board of GlaxoSmithKline,” reports the Daily Mail.

We also learn that Anderson was “one of the first UK experts to call the outbreak a pandemic,” and has been busy on radio and TV pushing the effectiveness of anti-virals to fight swine flu, without telling listeners that he was on the GSK payroll.

Anderson was also a key government advisor during the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak in Britain which led to the slaughter of over 6 million animals and the complete decimation of the farming industry.

Batches of swine flu vaccine destined for Europe are being fast-tracked through safety procedures and there will be no testing on humans whatsoever before millions of people, starting with children and pregnant women, are inoculated as part of mass vaccination programs.

Keep Reading...

7/23/09

Deadly Immunity

punditman says...
Yep, dear reader, you may have noticed that Peacenik is absent from the blog these past few days. You would be correct. He's off at his summer cottage preparing for whatever it is you prepare for at your summer cottage. Personally I drink beer and prepare for nothing when I am on vacation, but I expect a full report in the near future from Peacenik's survivalist compound.
He does have lots of beer, so I assume Peacenik is in a fine mood as he prepares for the end of whatever it is that is ending.

In the meantime, Punditman says that Punditman has noticed yet another article about the dangers of vaccines and yet another Big Pharma/government cover-up. This 2005 article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shows the depth of collusion between Big Parma and the US government. Punditman thinks this is highly relevant because of the current "debate" on the swine flu virus, plans to develop a vaccine and make you and your loved ones get jabbed either through mandatory vaccinations under emergency powers or through intense social pressure. Yep, that's what I predict at this juncture. Actually, I've noticed that there's no debate at all going on in the mainstream media. All is well in the corporate-media-medical matrix. It's just online wingnuts like me that are raising eyebrows and sounding alarms.

When your views run contrary to accepted wisdom, the usual progression goes something like this: First, skeptics and critics are ignored. That's the pure censorship phase and this is where we are currently with swine flu. Contrary opinion is 100% absent from mainstream discourse. It is sort of how punditman feels when he mentions the 1976 swine flu vaccine fiasco that led to crippling disease and death for thousands and ensuing lawsuits. He gets that "eyes glazed over" look from unaware, frivolous-TV-viewing folk who pass themselves off as thinking monkeys. Then, if we skeptics get louder, we'll be labeled wingnuts. That's the next step.
Then, with enough pressure, perhaps the powers that be will listen to our legitimate concerns. I think.

Of course by then it could be too late and the damage could be done, with untold numbers maimed by an unsafe vaccine for a threat that may have originated in a lab.

And of course, punditman could be completly wrong too.


Robert F. Kennedy Jr. investigates the government cover-up of a mercury/autism scandal


ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.
(June 20, 2005)

In June 2000, a group of top government scientists and health officials gathered for a meeting at the isolated Simpsonwood conference center in Norcross, Georgia. Convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the meeting was held at this Methodist retreat center, nestled in wooded farmland next to the Chattahoochee River, to ensure complete secrecy. The agency had issued no public announcement of the session -- only private invitations to fifty-two attendees. There were high-level officials from the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration, the top vaccine specialist from the World Health Organization in Geneva and representatives of every major vaccine manufacturer, including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Wyeth and Aventis Pasteur. All of the scientific data under discussion, CDC officials repeatedly reminded the participants, was strictly "embargoed." There would be no making photocopies of documents, no taking papers with them when they left.

The federal officials and industry representatives had assembled to discuss a disturbing new study that raised alarming questions about the safety of a host of common childhood vaccines administered to infants and young children. According to a CDC epidemiologist named Tom Verstraeten, who had analyzed the agency's massive database containing the medical records of 100,000 children, a mercury-based preservative in the vaccines -- thimerosal -- appeared to be responsible for a dramatic increase in autism and a host of other neurological disorders among children. "I was actually stunned by what I saw," Verstraeten told those assembled at Simpsonwood, citing the staggering number of earlier studies that indicate a link between thimerosal and speech delays, attention-deficit disorder, hyperactivity and autism. Since 1991, when the CDC and the FDA had recommended that three additional vaccines laced with the preservative be given to extremely young infants -- in one case, within hours of birth -- the estimated number of cases of autism had increased fifteenfold, from one in every 2,500 children to one in 166 children.

Even for scientists and doctors accustomed to confronting issues of life and death, the findings were frightening. "You can play with this all you want," Dr. Bill Weil, a consultant for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the group. The results "are statistically significant." Dr. Richard Johnston, an immunologist and pediatrician from the University of Colorado whose grandson had been born early on the morning of the meeting's first day, was even more alarmed. "My gut feeling?" he said. "Forgive this personal comment -- I do not want my grandson to get a thimerosal-containing vaccine until we know better what is going on."

But instead of taking immediate steps to alert the public and rid the vaccine supply of thimerosal, the officials and executives at Simpsonwood spent most of the next two days discussing how to cover up the damaging data. According to transcripts obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, many at the meeting were concerned about how the damaging revelations about thimerosal would affect the vaccine industry's bottom line. "We are in a bad position from the standpoint of defending any lawsuits," said Dr. Robert Brent, a pediatrician at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware. "This will be a resource to our very busy plaintiff attorneys in this country." Dr. Bob Chen, head of vaccine safety for the CDC, expressed relief that "given the sensitivity of the information, we have been able to keep it out of the hands of, let's say, less responsible hands." Dr. John Clements, vaccines advisor at the World Health Organization, declared that "perhaps this study should not have been done at all." He added that "the research results have to be handled," warning that the study "will be taken by others and will be used in other ways beyond the control of this group."

In fact, the government has proved to be far more adept at handling the damage than at protecting children's health. The CDC paid the Institute of Medicine to conduct a new study to whitewash the risks of thimerosal, ordering researchers to "rule out" the chemical's link to autism. It withheld Verstraeten's findings, even though they had been slated for immediate publication, and told other scientists that his original data had been "lost" and could not be replicated. And to thwart the Freedom of Information Act, it handed its giant database of vaccine records over to a private company, declaring it off-limits to researchers. By the time Verstraeten finally published his study in 2003, he had gone to work for GlaxoSmithKline and reworked his data to bury the link between thimerosal and autism.

Keep Reading...

7/20/09

Now Legal Immunity for Swine flu Vaccine Makers

punditman says...Punditman is amazed at the cavalier attitude that many of his acquaintances and friends have concerning the issue of vaccine safety and the trustworthiness of Big Pharma. When confronted with evidence against the track record of certain vaccines, or the abysmyl safety record of many of these corporations, such as Baxter, they say, "that can happen with any immunization." Precisely. So perhaps there is a better approach to our health, in particular when it comes to something like Swine Flu.

What's more, according to the article below, the first vaccines will be given to the public before full data on safety and effectiveness become available. Our kids of course will be the first guinnea pigs. Wonderful. Punditman predicts that of course the authorities will tell you that everything is safe and will imply that those who refuse vaccines for themselves or their families are wackjobs. You heard it here first.

Punditman says this is going to play out in interesting ways, because he thinks there are millions of people who have read the same articles as he has and share his skepticism. And all are not wackjobs.

So now we learn that these companies will get total legal immunity from any lawsuits resulting from the swine flu vaccine? Punditman says that if you don't smell a rat over this one, then you are obviously already ill. Get help!

by F. William Engdahl

The US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, has just signed a decree granting vaccine makers total legal immunity from any lawsuits that result from any new “Swine Flu” vaccine. Moreover, the $7 billion US Government fast-track program to rush vaccines onto the market in time for the Autumn flu season is being done without even normal safety testing. Is there another agenda at work in the official WHO hysteria campaign to declare so-called H1N1 virus—which has yet to be rigorously scientifically isolated, characterized and photographed with an electron microscope—the scientifically accepted procedure—a global “pandemic” threat?

The current official panic campaign over alleged Swine Flu danger is rapidly taking on the dimensions of a George Orwell science fiction novel. The document signed by Sebelius grants immunity to those making a swine flu vaccine, under the provisions of a 2006 law for public health emergencies.

Not so sage SAGE

That is once the WHO in Geneva, on recommendation of the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group on Immunizations, declared H1N1 to be Phase 6 or Pandemic, automatic emergency health response programs could be activated even in countries such as Germany where reported outbreaks of even “suspected” H1N1 can be counted to date on the fingers of slightly more than one hand.

The WHO’s SAGE is also worth scrutiny. Its Chairman since 2005 has been the UK Director of Immunization at the British Department of Health, Dr David Salisbury. In the 1980’s Salisbury reportedly drew major fire for backing a massive vaccination of children with a multiple MMR vaccine manufactured by the predecessor company of GlaxoSmithKline. That vaccine was pulled off the market in Japan after significant numbers of children developed adverse reactions to the vaccine and the Japanese government was forced to pay significant compensation to the victims. In Sweden the MMR vaccine of GlaxoSmithKline was removed after scientists linked it to outbreaks of Crohn’s disease. Apparently that had little impact on WHO SAGE chairman Salisbury.

According to one independent UK investigator, Alan Golding, who obtained Freedom of Information documents on the case, in “1986 Trivirix, an MMR compound containing the Mumps Urabe strain AM-9, was introduced in Canada to replace MMR I. Concerns regarding the introduction of MMR in the UK are recorded in the minutes of the Joint Working Party of the British Paediatric Association and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) Liaison Group on June 26th of that year. Such concerns were soon to prove well grounded, as reports began to come in of an increased incidence of aseptic meningitis in vaccinated individuals. Ultimately, all MMR vaccines containing the Urabe strain of mumps were withdrawn in Canada in early 1988. This was before Urabe containing vaccines were licenced by the Department of Health for use in the UK…”

Keep Reading...

7/17/09

Canada will have enough flu vaccines to share

This morning someone from the Ontario Campers' Association was on the news saying that summer camps were safe for campers. Peacenik thought for a moment that he was watching a rerun of Jaws when the mayor of Amity refuses to close the public beach for fear of ruining the town's tourist industry.

The summer camps are a warning of what will happen when schools reopen in the fall, just when the fall flu season arrives. Will the teacher even show up for work? Do school boards have a plan? Will bus drivers show up for work? Will a vaccine be ready? Will it work? Will anyone take it? So many questions. And Peacenik has no sense that society will be ready for a new and improved swine flu pandemic tomorrow, or in the fall.



Gloria Galloway

Ottawa — From Friday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Friday, Jul. 17, 2009 09:08AM EDT

Canadians will have a better chance of getting vaccinated against the pandemic influenza than people in many other countries, including the United States and Britain, thanks to nearly a decade of planning for the disease's arrival.

“We're actually in a fairly unique position of having domestic capacity, of having planned for that in Canada now for many years,” David Butler-Jones, Canada's chief public health officer, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail Thursday.

In 2001, the federal government began a 10-year agreement with a drug company that was eventually sold to GlaxoSmithKline. That contract obligates the giant pharmaceutical manufacturer to provide vaccine to every Canadian who wants it in the event of a pandemic.

Read on...

7/15/09

Doctors to issue 'fast track' death certificates for swine flu

When Peacenik first started monitoring the bird flu there were fear mongering stories that the funeral industry would not be able to keep up with a surge of flu pandemic fatalities. There would not be enough caskets. There would not be enough funeral homes. There would be mass graves. Looks like doctors, in the early stages of the swine flu pandemic, can't even cope with regular death certificates. This does not bode well. Peacenik doesn't want to be buried casketless in a mass grave.

Doctors to issue 'fast track' death certificates for swine flu

A nurse wearing protective clothing, as advised for dealing with potential swine flu patients


Doctors are to be allowed to issue "fast-track" death certificates under Government plans to help the health system cope with the workload at the height of the swine flu pandemic.

Sir Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer for England, confirmed the planned move in an interview on BBC's Newsnight.

"We want to try and reduce as much as possible the burden of work on doctors and we're considering all sorts of things which wil help with that," he said. "It's one of a number of things that we hope at the height of the pandemic - which we may see in the autumn and winter - will reduce the burden of paperwork for doctors."

Read on...

7/14/09

WHO warns of worldwide vaccine shortfall for coming flu season

Peacenik knows not everyone is a big fan of vaccines, and not everyone is a big fan of hoarding, and not everyone thinks swine flu is going to be a big problem. But this story in the Globe and Mail and similar stories in other papers are ramping up a sense of concern. School closures this fall are almost a given. And who gets the vaccine if it is available is a huge issue. A couple of weeks ago there was concern about compulsory mass innoculations. Today there is a concern about vaccine availability. If the vaccine is available. And if Peacenik had access to it. Would Peacenik take the vaccine. Peacenik doesn't like needles. But Peacenik would get innoculated. Would you?

A nurse fills needles with flu vaccine at a clinic in Victoria. The Canadian Press

A nurse fills needles with flu vaccine at a clinic in Victoria.

Caroline Alphonso and Gloria Galloway

Toronto and Ottawa — From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Tuesday, Jul. 14, 2009 05:38AM EDT

The worldwide supply of a pandemic influenza vaccine will take twice as long to manufacture and countries could have barely half of what they need for the fall's flu season if current production problems persist, the World Health Organization revealed Monday.

Canadian health authorities admitted that not everyone will receive the vaccine at the start of the flu season, as they scrambled to prioritize which groups would move to the head of the queue. Pharmaceutical manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline Inc. is under contract to produce enough vaccine for all Canadians who wish to receive it, but it's unclear how quickly the vaccine will be rolled out and even if most will be vaccinated in the event the virus returns with a vengeance this fall.

Read on...

7/10/09

Swine flu deaths in UK double as country now has third highest number of cases in the world

Peacenik was just reading about influenza sudden death syndrome when Peacenik came across this story from England. Peacenik finds it worrisome that the swine flu continues to spread throughout the summer, before the fall flu season arrives. Peacenik finds it worrisome that healthy people are literally dropping dead soon after getting swine flu. So while many experts thought the swine flu would burn itself out for a while, the swine flu seems to be strengthening and becoming more dangerous. Peacenik doesn't get any sense that Canada is properly prepared for a huge uptick in swine flu this fall. Peacenik says don't count on the government. Start prepping and planning. Now.

By Daniel Martin
Last updated at 9:51 AM on 10th July 2009

The number of Britons who have died after contracting swine flu has almost doubled in two days to 14, officials said yesterday.

London is days away from an epidemic with the West Midlands not far behind.

Britain has the third highest number of confirmed cases of the virus in the world, just behind Mexico - where the outbreak began.
Swine flu vaccine being prepared in a laboratory in Brisbane, Australia

Swine flu vaccine being prepared in a laboratory in Brisbane, Australia Swine flu vaccine being prepared in a laboratory in Brisbane, Australia, will arrive in Britain in August. But the country already has more than 9,700 cases

As the shocking figures were released a leaked internal memo warned last night that the NHS is not ready to deal with a swine flu epidemic because of 'muddled' emergency plans and time-wasting bureaucracy.

A senior trust executive condemned some crisis measures as 'contradictory' and 'a complete waste of time'.

Read on...

7/3/09

Swine Flu Vaccine: The Race Is On

Peacenik has been reading a couple of interesting articles lately. This one by Robert Rapier asks the question: What if I'm wrong? This got Peacenik thinking about lots of what ifs. What if Peacenik is wrong about financial and societal collapse? (7 more banks were closed in the U.S. yesterday). What if Peacenik is wrong about Peak Oil? (Rapier's article discusses this possibility). What if Peacenik is wrong about swine flu?

It seems that swine flu will get more serious in the fall. It is a huge problem in Argentina right now. It is winter in Argentina. 40 percent of hospital workers are refusing to go to work right now for fear of catching the flu. And there are discussions about mass innoculations in the U.S. They are racing to make a vaccine that works. They may not have time to test it. What if Peacenik is wrong? Peacenik will put away his medical masks, and hand sanitizers, and aspirin, and Peacenik will be ready for the next pandemic. No harm done. Are you ready for swine flu? What if you are wrong?

By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News

June 26, 2009 -- The United States is racing to make huge supplies of swine flu vaccine -- and trying to figure out who needs it most -- even as the pandemic sweeps the globe.

At least one of the five vaccine makers supplying U.S. swine flu vaccine already has bulk vaccine coming off the production line. The others soon will follow.

Clinical tests will begin within days as researchers struggle to answer basic questions about whether the vaccine works, how big a dose is needed, whether protection will take one shot or two, and whether the vaccine seems safe.

Read on...

6/11/09

Lethality of H1N1 Influenza Virus Increasing According to Latest Analysis of Virus Peptide Genomic Data

My,my,my. What will be the consequences of WHO declaring a pandemic later today? Peacenik and many informed scientists have been calling it a pandemic for a while. And the lethality is apparently going up. Will you change your plans because of a swine flu pandemic? If you are travelling, do you have out-of-country health insurance? Can the world economy withstand the economic impact of a pandemic? Can someone make an effective vaccine? Will you take the vaccine? Peacenik says it is time to start really thinking seriously about the swine flu. And getting prepared. And hoping that is burns itself out. Soon.
Check out www.fluwikie.com.

Update: Here is a good link to a pandemic family preparedness site.


Lethality of H1N1 Influenza Virus Increasing According to Latest Analysis of Virus Peptide Genomic Data

Boston Biotech Firm Reports First Rise in 76 Years of Replikin Count* of H1N1 Lethality Gene

BOSTON, June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- An analysis of the latest peptide genomic data for the H1N1 influenza virus indicates that the current global outbreak of H1N1 is increasing in its capacity for lethality. The new sequence data on PubMed of the past two weeks through June 10, 2009 showed an increase in the Replikin Count* of the Replikin Lethality Gene in the pB1 genomic area from a mean of 2+/-0.2 in 2008 to a mean of 3.2+/-3.7 in 2009 (p<0.001).

Read on...

6/9/09

Sarkozy’s Secret Plan for Mandatory Swine Flu Vaccination

punditman says...There are those who post or comment here or who read this blog who may disagree with Punditman on this one. There are those who may disagree with Punditman for even posting this article. That is fine. Punditman invites lively discussion about things for which nobody really has a definitive answer. The motto of this blog is to cut through fog, expose lies and help unravel the Media-Industrial-Military-Financial Complex. Punditman would like to add to that, the medical -pharmaceutical complex.

The article below questions the orthodoxy of Big Pharma, along with vaccinations of both animals and people and the recent panics surrounding Mad Cow, Bird Flu, and yes, Swine Flu. Is swine flu really a pandemic? Punditman says No. Does Punditman think the author, F. William Engdahl, is a nutbar? No reason to think so. Are mandatory vaccinations a good idea? Are they safe? What do you think? Punditman doesn't feel safe.


by F. William Engdahl

The French Government is developing secret plans to impose mandatory vaccination of the entire French population, allegedly against possible Swine Flu disease according to reports leaked in a French newspaper. The plan is without precedent and even defies recommended public health advice. Pharmaceutical giants benefit from the move, as the Swine Flu increases the trend towards the militarization of public health and use of needless population panic to advance the agenda.

According to a report in the May 30 edition of the French newspaper, Le Journal du Dimanche, the Sarkozy government has authorized spending of an estimated €1 billion to buy vaccines allegedly to combat or protect against H1N1 Swine Flu virus. The only problem is that to date neither the WHO nor the US Government’s Center for Diseases Control (CDC) have succeeded to isolate, photograph with an electron microscope and chemically classify the H1N1 Influenza A virus. There is no scientifically published evidence that French virologists have done so either. To mandate drugs for a putative disease that has not even been characterized is dubious to say the least.


Even more bizarre is the admission by the US Government’s Food & Drug Administration, an agency responsible for health and safety of its citizens, that the ‘test’ is approved for premature release to test for H1N1 is not even a proven test. More to the point, there is no forensic evidence in any of the deaths reported to date that has been presented that proves scientifically that any single death being attributed to H1N1 Swine Flu virus was indeed caused by such a virus. European epidemiologists believe the deaths reported to date are ‘coincidental’ or what are called opportunistic infections.


What we know conclusively is that the people who died often had prior respiratory complications of an undisclosed nature. People die every day with respiratory diseases. In the USA alone some 36,000 flu-related deaths are recorded yearly with no undue panic or alarm. Most are elderly or patients with lung diseases. To date in all France, 24 people have been identified by health authorities as even having ‘symptoms’ of H1N1. It is worth noting that the WHO and CDC list the symptoms of H1N1: temperature, coughing, headache, runny nose. Hmmmmm. Do you know anyone with such Swine Flu symptoms? Also worth noting is that in the counting of the more than 15,000 ‘confirmed’ H1N1 Swine Flu cases worldwide the vast majority made miraculous recovery within three to seven days, just as in the case of a bad cold.


The goal: Militarization of Public Health


Increasingly it is becoming clear that the successive waves of mass panic created in recent years by CDC, WHO and leading government agencies has an ulterior motive. We have been hit with mass panic over eating beef when cattle in the UK and elsewhere developed fatal illness that was called BSE or ‘Mad Cow’ disease. Later evidence emerged that BSE was the result of vaccination of the cows to kill harmless insects that got under the animal’s skin. More recently, after reports of incidence of what is called ‘Blue Tongue’ disease in cows, sheep and goats in Belgium and Holland in 2006, animal veterinary authorities in Germany, Switzerland and Austria imposed mandatory vaccination or treatment with drugs allegedly to protect the animals from bites by insects allegedly carrying the usually harmless illness.

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