We’re rerunning this blog today in light of the recent release of a new video at the Autism Media Channel with some very damning quotes about the effect of the mercury in flu shots when administered to pregnant women.
“You know, in the United States, the only vaccine it’s (Thimerosal) still in is for pregnant women. I can say confidently I do think Thimerosal causes tics. So I don’t know why they still give it to pregnant women. Like, that’s the last person I would give mercury to. Thimerosal from vaccines cause tics. You start a campaign, and just make that your mantra. Do you think a pregnant mother would want to take a vaccine that they knew caused tics? Absolutely not! I would never give my wife a vaccine that I thought caused tics. I can say tics are four times more prevalent in kids with autism. There is biologic plausibility right now to say that Thimerosal causes autism-like features.”
There’s a bite in the air, houses are bright with holiday lights, and the malls are playing Christmas carols incessantly. Yes, it’s that time of year again: flu season. It seems you can’t go anywhere without seeing a sign telling you to get your flu shot right here! Every pharmacy out there just can’t wait to shoot you up.
When I was younger, most people got their flu shots at clinics sponsored by their employers, when they dragged a nurse and a few thousand needles in once a year. When did that change? New York, my home state, changed the rules to allow pharmacists to dispense flu shots in 2008, but apparently we were behind the curve because 47 other states had already adopted similar laws!
Wondering whether pharmacists receive any kind of special training in order to be able to dispense vaccinations? Well, according to Walgreens’ website , yes, their pharmacists are “experts” because they “go through an extensive training program.” What kind of training, you ask? (Well, I did anyway, because I’m that sort of person.) Turns out that to qualify to be an “immunizing pharmacist” you have to take a four-hour class and have one hour of practical experience.
That’s it.
When you walk into your local Walgreens (or, to be a bit more New York, Duane Reade) your pharmacist may have had only one hour of practice before giving you your shot. Not exactly reassuring when it comes to the possibility of “adverse events,” is it?
Speaking of adverse events, we’re constantly being assured of the safety of the flu vaccine (Anyone else hear Nancy Snyderman’s smug voice in your head? “Just get your damn vaccines!”), and that “serious adverse events” are rare.
Lisa Marks Smith walked into a flu-shot clinic at her local CVS back in October of 2005 (Vaccine Epidemic, edited by Louise Kuo Habakus and Mary Holland, chapter 16). Within days she was feeling unwell. By the following Monday, she felt like she was going to die. She was rushed to the hospital and discharged with a diagnosis of pneumonia. She returned the following week with spreading paralysis. The nurses asked her immediately if she’d had a flu shot as Guillain-Barre syndrome is a known “side effect” of the flu shot. The paralysis was spreading, and, as Marks got sicker and sicker, a nurse told her to “get your affairs in order.” The neurologist, however, told her that her illness was psychogenic and ordered a pneumonia vaccine. Fortunately, Marks was able to transfer to another, more competent, hospital and she received a diagnosis: postinfectious myositis due to the flu vaccine. She lived, but it took four grueling years to recover from that shot.
Another heart-breaking example of a “serious adverse event” is that of seven-year-old Kaylynne Matten , who was a vibrant, healthy little girl before receiving a flu shot at her pediatrician’s office on Friday, December 2, 2011. She had a headache and fever on Saturday. On Sunday it rose to 102.3, and she started vomiting and became disoriented. Her pediatrician expressed no alarm and ordered Motrin and Tylenol (as you probably know if you come here often, Tylenol is a REALLY bad idea post-vaccination). Tuesday morning she woke up with purple hands and legs. She was rushed to the hospital but stopped breathing along the way. According to the medical examiner “a virus” attacked her heart. Which virus? Influenza A?
The medical examiner claims that the flu vaccine is not to blame because extreme reactions are “rare” — which in logic circles is called a circular argument. And how many healthy seven-year-olds die so suddenly and in such bizarre circumstances? The only seemingly healthy children (who were not infants) I’ve heard of who died so suddenly had serious metabolic disorders, or cancer that was supposed to be in remission but returned with a vengeance. Neither was the case for this little girl.
Clearly flu shots are big business if every pharmacist in the land is so desirous of poking every customer that walks through the door. People may be able to convince themselves (against all evidence to the contrary) that vaccine manufacturers and dispensing physicians aren’t making any money on other vaccines, but you have to know no pharmacy in the land would be pushing flu shots like they are if there weren’t big money involved.
Sanofi Pasteur, maker of the Fluzone line of vaccines ,marketed primarily to the United States, dispensed over 200,000,000 flu vaccines last year. Assuming an average of $30/vaccine (price I saw in my local pharmacy), that adds up to approximately $3 billion for Sanofi Pasteur and another $3 billion for their retail partners. I assume the estimate is a bit high, since they claim that their total vaccine sales last year were almost 3.5 billion euros (approximately $4.6 billion), and I found some wholesale prices of about $11-12/vaccine rather than the $15 I assumed, but any way you slice it we’re talking about huge amounts of money.
And the CDC has been so helpful in this regard! In 2002, they advocated flu shots (two) for every child between six and twenty-three months of age.
But wait! There’s more!
They added a recommendation soon after that all pregnant women get vaccinated because they are at particular risk of complications from the flu. There are contraindications if you dig deep, but you aren’t hearing about those, are you?
They’ve also begun recommending an annual flu shot for every child over six months. And now, because recent studies have shown that the “regular” flu shot doesn’t really change the death statistics in the most vulnerable population, they’re recommending the “high-dose” shot for all adults over 65.
Whew! That’s a heck of a lot of flu shots.
According to the CDC, Fluzone, made by Sanofi Pasteur, is the “regular” flu vaccine. The package insert (a delightful little 24-page document), gives some interesting information. Page 12, Article 8.1 reads:
Pregnancy Category C: Animal reproduction studies have not been conducted with Fluzone. It is also not known whether Fluzone can cause fetal harm when given to a pregnant woman or can affect reproduction capacity. Fluzone should be given to a pregnant woman only if clearly needed (emphasis mine).
Does anyone else notice a problem here? The flu shot should be given to all pregnant women, but the company that makes the flu shots says that it “should be given to a pregnant woman only if clearly needed.” If it’s “clearly needed” for all pregnant women, why even print the warning?
And no animal reproductive studies were done on this drug they want to give to all pregnant women? They have no information on whether or not it will harm your baby or make you incapable of making further babies? I stopped taking a prescription antihistamine once because the package insert included a section on a study of its effects on the reproduction of mice. Based on that I decided not to take the drug. The manufacturer did reproductive studies on this drug I’d never heard of, but no one’sdone them on a drug recommended to all pregnant women? How is that not extreme negligence?
Maybe the regular flu shot isn’t the one they give to pregnant women; maybe they give FluMist, the live-virus nasal spray. This is what the CDC has to say about that: “Nasal spray “LAIV” (live attenuated influenza vaccine) approved for use in healthy people 2 through 49 who are not pregnant (emphasis mine).” Nope. They’re not even allowed to give you that one when you’re pregnant. Giving that one would constitute legal negligence, not just moral.
Sidenote on LAIV: It seems that very few people, outside of the kind of people who read our blogs anyway, know that the viruses contained in FluMist are live, and live-virus vaccines shed. This means that people other than the intended recipient are subject to complications from them. One should stay away from immune-compromised people, like, oh, say, most of the kids with autism in your local school, for up to two weeks after receiving the vaccine because you could give them the flu! Anyone ever actually heard a doctor or nurse tell someone this, or even ask the recipient if they had any immune-compromised people or people at “high risk of complications from the flu” at home? Many of my friends dread the flu clinic days at their local schools for this reason. Their children’s classmates get FluMist, and the next thing you know their kids have a nice case of the flu. Gee, thanks!
To be fair, there isn’t a whole lot of evidence that the regular flu shot causes miscarriage. Miscarriage, however, is not the sum total of damage a drug can do to a fetus, as we well know. Thalidomide didn’t cause miscarriages either, but it did cause serious birth defects. The VAERS database, however, does contain some very disturbing evidence with respect to the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine, dispensed during the 2009/2010 pandemic.
There was a huge spike in the number of miscarriages reported following vaccination with the H1N1 vaccine. Specifically, the miscarriages were associated with the H1N1 vaccine, but whether they were due to that vaccine alone or to the fact that doctors were vaccinating women with both the H1N1 and the regular seasonal flu vaccine that year is not clear. Exactly what is so different about the H1N1 vaccine that it would kill so many fetuses? Was it just that those women received a double dose of Thimerosal, the mercury-based preservative in many flu vaccines? If all it takes is a doubling of a dose to kill a fetus, it’s a pretty good bet that a single dose is doing some harm. If I had received that double vaccination during pregnancy, you’d better believe I’d be monitoring my child even more closely than I am already.
The package insert for Fluzone tells the doctor or nurse to “inform the patient or guardian that Fluzone contains killed viruses and cannot cause influenza.” That’s a pretty misleading statement, you know why? Because it can cause fever, malaise and “shivering.” It strikes me as splitting hairs to say you can’t get the flu from something, but you can get all the symptoms of flu.
I know this because the insert includes the results of the few safety studies they conducted. Three percent of adults 18-64 had some fever, six percent some shivering, thirty percent some myalgia, and thirty percent some headache. Longer, more significant, symptoms were experienced by about five percent of test subjects, and about one percent experienced symptoms that were described as “incapacitating, unable to perform usual activities.”
Now to put this in context, the Cochrane Collaboration, an international network of 28,000 people in 100 countries, recently did an evaluation of the studies on the effectiveness of the flu vaccine.
One thing to keep in mind when discussing effectiveness is that every year is something of a crapshoot, because the flu vaccine is made up of what the World Health Organization believes to be the three most likely flu strains to predominate that year. They can be wrong about one, two, or all three of the selected strains. In addition there are over 200 viruses that can produce “flu-like illness.”
So what’s the Cochrane Collaboration have to say? Best case scenario, perfect match of vaccine strains and circulating strains, one case of symptoms is prevented for every 33 shots given. In the average year it takes 100 flu vaccines dispensed to prevent one case of symptoms. So you have a one percent chance of developing incapacitating symptoms of flu from the vaccine, and a one percent chance of preventing a case of flu from getting the vaccine. Hmmmm . . . in my book, those are not great odds.
So exactly why is it that a vaccine with so little payoff is so highly recommended by the CDC? My own personal answer is, of course, that there’s a huge profit potential, and the staff at the CDC all own shares in Sanofi Pasteur — the medical equivalent of insider trading. However, what we’re told by people like Julie Gerberding (ex-head of the CDC now in charge of the vaccine division at Merck), is that “CDC scientists estimate that an average of 36,000 people die from influenza-related complications each year in the United States.” That’s a big number that gets thrown around a lot (a recent article on Discovery News said 35,000), and of course, if true, we’d like to reduce it significantly, but how much could universal flu vaccination really affect this number?
First you have to understand that there is no count of influenza-related deaths anywhere, so any number quoted is actually an estimate. How do they arrive at the estimate? Well, essentially they are taking the spike of respiratory-illness-related deaths that happen in winter, when influenza viruses are likely to be circulating, and assuming they are influenza-influenced deaths. There will be some that happened in summer that are not counted that way, but there are also winter deaths that will not actually be due to influenza viruses.
So perhaps it’s a decent first draft, except that only 7-15% of the “flu-like illness” that may be the instigator in these deaths (the vast majority of which are attributed to pneumonia) are actually caused by an influenza virus. And, of those, an even smaller percentage can be attributed to the three strains contained in the flu shot. Fifteen percent of 36,000 is 5,400. So in an “average” year, the maximum number of deaths that could be affected by the flu vaccine is 5,400. Now that, of course, assumes a perfect match between vaccine strains and circulating viruses, when in reality the match is usually more like one or two of three, reducing the average year’s maximum to about a third to two-thirds of that, or 1,800–3,600. This is all assuming 100% effectiveness of the vaccine. We know that is not the case. According to the Cochrane Collaboration, at best the effectiveness is about 60%, cutting the potentially avoided deaths even further to: 1,080-2,160.
Now the next important thing to consider is that influenza-related deaths spike in association with a very specific, somewhat more deadly strain of virus: H3N2. So you’re really only likely to see significant reductions in flu-related deaths due to flu shots in years where the H3N2 is widely circulated and the vaccine contains that strain. Keep in mind that in an average year you’re going to have to vaccinate 100 people for every case of flu avoided, and that deaths from flu occur in only a small fraction of the number of people who actually get the flu.
The usual flu epidemic mortality rate is about 0.1%, which means that you would have to vaccinate approximately 100,000 people to avoid one death. At a cost of $30/vaccine that’s, $3,000,000 spent to avoid one death. Not exactly cost-effective is it? (Especially when you take into account that washing your hands frequently and supplementing with vitamin D work about as well.)
But you say you don’t care about the cost? Every potential life saved is worth whatever it costs? Okay, fine. But what about the other non-monetary costs, those “serious adverse events”? Or even the not-quite-as-serious adverse events? Multi-dose vials of Fluzone contain Thimerosal, dispensing a 25 mcg dose.
Despite the CDC’s prevarication on the subject, there is a mountain of evidence to show that Thimerosal causes neurological damage, especially in people who have trouble detoxifying. A study run by Paul Verstraeten of the CDC — who eventually published extremely watered-down numbers — obtained by a FOIA request, showed that children who received more than 25 mcg of mercury from Thimerosal-containing vaccines in the first month of life had a relative risk for autism of 7.62 (Evidence of Harm, by David Kirby, Chapter 13). That means a child who received that dosage of Thimerosal was nearly eight times as likely to have autism as a child who had zero in the first month. (Note: a relative risk of two is generally considered evidence of causation in a court of law.)
Remember, this vaccine is “recommended” for all pregnant women and all children over six months of age.
Oh, and the mercury is even more toxic when combined with aluminum, which is also neurotoxic and is used in salt forms in a number of adult and children’s vaccines (administered at the same time as the flu vaccine at a “well-baby” visit) as an adjuvant. An adjuvant is a substance that is added to the vaccine to stimulate a stronger immune response. Aluminum has been linked to Alzheimer’s, though no one has yet proven a causation.
I was actually pleasantly surprised to find that the seasonal flu vaccine does not contain any adjuvants at this time. (Though the H1N1 swine flu scare of 2009-2010 brought up the possibility of adding them in the future to reduce the amount of antigen necessary to produce an immune response.) I find that a little encouraging, as the ability of a number of adjuvants to cause autoimmune conditions (including rheumatoid arthritis and Gulf War Syndrome) is well-known, and the prevalence of autoimmune conditions in autism families is also well-known. However, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a well-known adverse event associated with the flu vaccine, is an autoimmune disease. So, despite the lack of adjuvants, the flu vaccine is clearly capable of inducing autoimmune illness.
The main reason I was interested in this question is that it is frequently stressed how important it is for people with asthma (an autoimmune illness) to get flu shots every year. I suspect that vaccines are largely responsible for the genesis of asthma, so it seems counter-intuitive to encourage people with autoimmune conditions to get more vaccines. I’ve had asthma for 39 years, have never had the flu vaccine and rarely get the flu (maybe three times in my life), so perhaps I’m not a good test case. To be scrupulously fair, I do know people with asthma who swear by flu shots. (Note: As this blog was being prepared I found a 2009 study that shows a three times higher risk of hospitalization for complications of influenza in children with asthma who have received the flu vaccine over those who have not. The article claims that this does not show that the shots cause the hospitalization, but logically and statistically it’s unlikely that they don’t cause the hospitalizations.)
So there you have it. The long and short of the flu vaccine: If we vaccinate everyone, we might be able to save the lives up to 2,000 people per year at a cost of $3,000,000 per person, with significant long-term health risk to nearly 100,000 people per life saved.
Personally, I’d rather spend our healthcare dollars on interventions much more likely to improve the national health. But that’s me.
~ Professor
Hello.
I need to understand who you are and your sources.
I have had four pregnancies.
The only thing I did different last time is have the flu jab.
My twins are autistic.
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My grandmother suffered with Guillaume Barre after a flu shot sometime in the 70’s. I would never get one myself or for any member of our family. The hospital had several cases and the doctor confirmed it was the flu shot. Where is the AAP on all this CDC scandal???? Aren’t there any Peds with integrity?
Thank you for posting this. Last year my brother’s healthy co-worker died from the flu vaccine. It was a reminder that vaccine injury can strike anyone regardless of age or how healthy someone is. So many people write off vaccine injury like it is no big deal. I am sure they would not feel that way if their loved one died from a vaccine.
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This is brilliant. Thanks so much for all the work it took to put this together. I hope you keep writing. I would love to see another one on the flu shot and if possible just a bit shorter for those of our friends who have a short attention span and don’t have the stamina for such a long read. I am also interested in ways we can approach local pharmacies to help make the individuals involved more aware of the dangers of what they are offering. It is hard to fight the giant industry, but maybe we can have an impact on one person at a time. I’d love to hear what others are doing. I drive down the road and see five to ten signs proudly proclaiming they are the purveyors of this destructive “flu jab” and I find it so offensive. I want the public and the purveyor to know more about what they are dealing with. The very fact that there are so many advertisements for it with such colorful good feeling colors and font, and even in my weekly trip to the grocery store repulses me and makes me fear for those who don’t think too deeply and for children – the subtle impression it is making on them.
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Type A flu virus is constantly changing and is generally responsible for the large flu epidemics. The influenza A2 virus (and other variants of influenza) is spread by people who are already infected. The most common flu hot spots are those surfaces that an infected person has touched and rooms where he has been recently, especially areas where he has been sneezing.’….-
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Thank you for this article. Very well written. Another point about the influenza vaccines is that in 2009 the H1N1 vaccine was fast tracked as a result of WHO declaration of a pandemic. So in 2009, DHHS, Secretary Sebelius announced that there was not enough H1N1 available and that they therefore needed to fast track the use of adjuvants (squalene) in order to stretch the supply of virus. Adjuvants are vaccine ingredients which affect other agents in the vaccine – aka, they juke up the immune system so that they can use less of the virus in each injection. This particular adjuvant was used in the military prior to H1N1 and had many documented adverse events. Many soldiers were compensated after adverse events that left them permanently damaged where they could not return to service.
The problem with fast tracking is that the H1N1 vaccine did not have to go through the more vigorous testing process that typically happens. I attended the meetings in D.C. that year when all of this was rolling along and the fear of pandemic was tremendous throughout the government health sector. Fear – a common denominator when we have lost many of our freedoms in the past. Fear of anthrax. Fear of terrorists leading to fewer freedoms for Americans. Look at TSA as an example.
The CDC recommendation for flu vaccines for pregnant mothers is criminal. More on that later … an atrocity by injection.
An increase in Autism rates.
Another interesting thing that most Americans do not realize is that under a declared pandemic, the laws from the Homeland Security Act go into effect. And the way it is written is that the government can require quarantine and forced vaccination, including allowance for coming into your home and vaccinating. There is no exemption and under this heightened state of emergency you cannot refuse if the government enforces this. Every sheriff should know about this as they may have some say in how this goes. Under the law, the Sheriff may have jurisdiction over federal enforcement.
A comprehensive petition has been started at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/a-universal-declaration-of-resistance-to-mandatory-vaccinations/
The 2009 pandemic was a farce, created to allow for fast-tracking of vaccines and the novel use of adjuvants. There was no pandemic. The vaccines were not tested properly. The Homeland Security Act was tested out/ PREP. And vaccines were approved for use in pregnant mothers.
Since 2009, we have seen a 90% increase in spontaneous miscarriage pursuant to the combined seasonal and H1N1 vaccination. For those families, I am very sorry. For the rest of us… does the government serve us or control us in this set of concerns? What is important to you? How will you prepare to take a stand for your right to informed consent and say what goes into your body?
I watched with the horror the fast tracking of the H1N1 vaccine. In the United States they did NOT end up using squalene, which is good because it has a ridiculously poor safety record. They thought they had trouble with the swine flu vaccine of 1976. Putting squalene in the H1N1 vaccine would have led to a horrible uptick in the number of autoimmune illnesses.
I just couldn’t stand by and let some pharma shill try to say the vaccine market isn’t profitable. In fact, it is a growing profit pig, with a projected global market to exceed sales worth $ 44 billion by 2017. Here’s the link to the proof: http://www.prlog.org/12033061-global-vaccine-logistics-services-market-experiencing-robust-growth.html
And then there’s all the guaranteed sales through mandatory children’s vaccines, and now adults. So don’t let anybody try to keep selling that worn-out urban legend lie about vaccines not making money.
Yep. Don’t let anyone try to fool you. Vaccines are VERY big business. You have only to LOOK at a pharmacy’s flu vaccine ads to know that. Logic will tell you that no large business is going to spend as much time and money (couldn’t find any numbers on how much money they spend, unfortunately) as they do on advertising and pushing vaccines if they weren’t making a tidy bundle on them.
It’s a sort of “Urban Legend” that vaccines produce significant profits for the pharmaceutical industry in comparison to their other products. I have a college friend who now works in the industry and she relates that the majority of vaccines are sold at significant discounts in bulk to the military services and state/county public health agencies who then distribute to hospitals and clinics. The real cash products are the newest patented medicines.
I’m sure that quite a few are sold to military and public health agencies at lower cost, but that doesn’t mean that the overall numbers are not quite large. In addition, many, many flu vaccines are being administered through pharmacies. Those are not coming from military or public health agencies. Neither are the ones that you receive at your physician’s office. No matter what your college friend says, $4.6 billion in sales for ONE vaccine manufacturer makes it clear that there is very big money to be made in vaccines. Those sales figures are not “urban legend.”
Should I be the first to mention that the “newest patented Meds” are the answers to the chronic illness caused by vaccines. Customer for life!
SO they may not be “making a killing” off of vaccines (i quote because i doubt it), but hey, they sure are then making a killing off of the meds created to treat all those rising chronic illnesses.
Loved your post and I have posted it on various pages for others to read as well.
Here is a great flu shot story published in 2009, but still bears repeating each year. It is rather lengthy, but worth the read. Definitely supports your point of view.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/11/does-the-vaccine-matter/307723/
In terms of laboratory strains being circulated. I believe that is accurate. During the H1N1 Flu scare of 2009, I recall reading online the Patent Application for the H1N1 flu vaccine because it was the only place where ingredients of the shot were available. (I was searching for Squalene.) Anyway, I noticed that the application for the patent was dated PRIOR to the “discovery” of the H1N1 flu in Mexico. The patent I believe was applied for in Feburary of 2009 and the flu was first noted in Mexico in May or June of 2009. So there you have it. Definitely being circulated. Not sure how….my research didn’t lead me to any answers. You can draw your own conclusions.
Interesting Lotuslady. Where did you find the patent application? The article was very interesting. Thank you.
thank you for spreading the word about the flu shot. As you say in the article, I was told to get my affairs in order. Do you know how hard it was to tell my kids that I would never leave them on purpose but I was being told this might kill me. I will never forget the look in their eyes at that moment. And for any skeptics, the Vaccine Court conceded my case and settled with me.
Lisa, thank you so much for commenting. Your story was one of the hardest things I’ve ever read. I can indeed imagine having to tell my children. I’m so glad you were able to write about it, though, because you have already affected so many lives. Thank you for all you’ve already done.
Lisa… what is your story?
Lisa is the woman mentioned in the blog who got the flu vaccine and got so sick she was told to put her affairs in order.
I have to wonder about if folks who see those “Get a flu shot and save 20% on your shopping” signs at the drugstore, and go get flu shots at multiple places just to get a discount. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were many thrifty folks out there who are all about getting a great deal at a big-box drugstore, and think that if one shot is good, more must be better. Since these poorly trained pharmacists don’t share vaccine information among each other, what’s to stop someone from getting vaccines all over town just for a discount on stuff?
As someone who is living with the aftermath of a vaccine injury and the ordeal of Vaccine Court – I shudder to think how often this occurs.
That’s a horrifying thought. If it’s going to cost them $30 to get that 20% discount, though, I don’t think it’s likely people will be doing it “all over town.” At least I sincerely hope not.
Do you have any blogs about the reality of the money involved? I ask because many provaxers argue that Phram is actually saving themselves and us money because of vaccines. that it costs more to treat people who contracted these diseases then it does to give vaccines.
I am curious about the stats on this..
my flu shot cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars when you add in the hospital, physical therapy bills and treatments to recover
That’s exactly my argument when it comes to the entire childhood vaccine schedule. “They” think they’re saving so much money by having fewer cases of measles and chicken pox, when in reality they are bankrupting the country.
Just about the time that they were finally removing thimerosal from pediatric vaccines, the CDC decided that children from six months old up had to have (at least) annual flu vaccines with thimerosal. It seemed to me at the time that it was a transparent effort to prevent any epidemiological statistics that would show a decrease in the rates of autism and other results of the mercury in the pediatric vaccines. How many times have you heard them say this didn’t happen? Guess why it didn’t?
Thimerosal is listed as a preservative in flu vaccines, but if I am not mistaken it is also expected to have an adjuvant effect.
My family is genetically sensitive to mercury just like the lupus-prone mice are. It causes me to develop a positive high titer ANA (anti-nuclear antibodies–as in lupus). If only people with certain genetic backgrounds are vulnerable, epidemiological studies are going to be extremely weak in detecting the effects of mercury-containing vaccines.
And for anybody who thinks that the “thimerosal issue has been settled,” the article in Pediatrics on the pharmacology of organic mercury was seriously flawed. It failed to consider that mercury in the blood and in the brain are two separate compartments; and it misquoted (backwards!) an animal study on the differences between ethyl and methyl mercury retention in the body and brain.
Peace,
Kathleen Eickwort, PhD
Kathleen,
Thanks for your comments! I agree with the point about the flu recommendations probably being made in an effort to mask any effects from the reduction of thimerosal in children’s vaccines, and the point about genetically sensitive subgroups being difficult to find in a large epidemiological study. If they really wanted to know what was going on, they would study the population that has proven to be vulnerable.
I haven’t read the article in Pediatrics, but I have read nothing so far that convinces me that thimerosal is exonerated in the genesis of neurological and other dysfunctions of the human body.
I have never heard of mercury having an adjuvant effect. Can you elaborate further?
I’m a pharmacist and here’s the thing – you have your beliefs and I have mine. Ours is a great country where we can live copacetically with differing opinions, it would never occur to me to put you in a position of having to defend your beliefs. The only thing I do ask is that you be more careful and less offensive when discussing our training. I think you will find that our training is as extensive if not more than that undertaken by other immunizers; especially considering we walk in to it with a profound understanding of medications and how they work in the body. To be certified as an immunization pharmacist we must complete an 8 hour class (with extensive required reading beforehand), have minimal hands-on experience (more than a newly diagnosed diabetic who is sent home with insulin and needles), CPR certification, OSHA training and varying amounts of continuing education requirements for the duration of our certification period. You ask how we are able to ‘dispense vaccines’ – which I assume you mean ‘administer’ – but every medical governing body in every state thinks that we dolt pharmacists can probably muster up the smarts to jab a needle in some poor unsuspecting slobs arm…
Good points, Karen. I’d also like to point out that my experience has been that pharmacists know more about drug interactions than doctors.
Karen,
What state do you live in? The certification requirements I found were on a board for pharmacists, so they seemed quite likely to be accurate. (And, by the way, this information is NOT easy to find. Most of what I found was along the lines of the Walgreens’ vague “extensive training.”) If you had to take an eight-hour class, then I’m suspecting that the difference is a state one. I was not intending to INSULT pharmacists. I agree with Taximom that they do tend to know MUCH more about drugs and their interactions than prescribing physicians do. The point was more that there is such a drive to get the possible income derived from administering flu vaccines that now they are available virtually everywhere, and I’m not at all sure that was thought through properly. You say that your training is “as extensive” as that of other immunizers, but is it really? Someone who went to medical school, or even nursing school has gone through many hours working in a hospital and dealing with people having medical reactions to all sorts of things. They are more likely to see what anaphylaxis or a Stephens-Johnson reaction looks like, and therefore more likely to recognize it. (Personally, I don’t think even people with medical degrees know nearly enough about vaccine reactions to be administering them remotely close to safely.) Pharmacists simply don’t have that experience. That is no reflection WHATSOEVER on the pharmacists themselves. Those “medical governing bodies,” however…
In our local area, there’s a drive-up flu shot “clinic.” People drive through a private lane where they roll down their windows, get the shot and drive away. Heaven help anyone who has a problem because they’re operating a ton of metal.
I live in PA but I’m sure state to state the requirements differ. Please look to apha.org – this is the organization that is most well known for delivering immunization training. My drive to give flu shots is solely due to the fact that the flu kills people – the shot may not always prevent outbreaks but often can minimize the severity. There is no way to statistically account for the effectiveness of the flu shot – it’s not possible to know who may have been subjected to it but didn’t present with symptoms. Trust me, I am not giving shots just to make a buck – I’m trying to help people. Unfortunately, people have reactions, albeit rarely, but anytime you choose to put a synthetic moiety into your body you run the risk of adverse reaction. Penicillin causes anaphylaxis but people walk out of my pharmacy with it every day. How does the average person know that their child is reacting to peanut butter? After a shot they must remain with me for 20 minutes. I’ve had a number of phone calls in my career with family members describing anaphylaxis – you see, I’m the one they call first and I make an educated recommendation. As a medical professional I am qualified to make decisions during a medication crisis. I get it that you are not being offensive to the profession of pharmacy but I also don’t think you are viewing us as medical professionals. I understand your wariness concering vaccinations but again – there’s no way to quantify the good that they do – you can only quantify the damage and, sadly, there will always be bad outcomes….
Thanks for responding, Karen. I will definitely check alpha.org. When I went back to look for my original source, I didn’t find it, but I think that it WAS from an organization for delivering training as well. I wish I could find more info on the different requirements from state to state.
I’ve heard lots of medical professionals say that about the “lessening of severity” of flu, but I haven’t heard it from people who have gotten the shot. Most of the people that I know who have gotten the shot and got the flu, complain as bitterly of the symptoms as those who have not. And that study indicating a three-fold risk in hospitalization for children with asthma who HAVE had the vaccine, would tend to indicate the reverse. I’d have to see some hard numbers on that one to be convinced.
I agree that things like penicillin also cause anaphylaxis and that people walk away from the pharmacy with it every day. I think there is a great deal of awareness around that as a possibility for penicillin, though. Every doctor I’ve ever had has asked “Are you allergic to penicillin?” before prescribing an antibiotic. That’s one of the few drug safety questions I’ve ever had.
Overall, I think our fundamental disagreement isn’t whether or not pharmacists are medical professionals, as indeed I think they are, but whether ANY medical professionals are as schooled in adverse effects as they should be. I don’t think it is possible for them to be schooled in adverse effects, because medical schools are still denying that many of those adverse effects are actually DUE to the medications received, especially vaccines and antibiotics. (My nephew had a Stephens-Johnson reaction to his medication in a HOSPITAL and the staff took so long to recognize it, he almost died. When his reaction was described to me, I realized that that was the reaction I had had to codeine. Fortunately, I’ve only ever had a dose and a half in my entire life, so I didn’t get nearly as sick.)
You say there is no way to quantify the good that vaccines do, but I don’t agree. It may not be terribly EASY, but actually comparing numbers of cases and numbers of deaths connected to vaccine use is certainly not impossible. It would have to be tracked over a number of years to be really accurate as flu mortality fluctuates from year to year, but a trend should be easily noticeable. The fact that the numbers we hear have NOT changed despite widespread flu vaccination makes me even more skeptical of the usefulness of this vaccine. If they were truly effective, we would see the evidence trumpeted far and wide, but the Cochrane Collaboration makes it very clear that the evidence is very thin indeed.
Karen, I want to thank you for your detailed and thoughtful explanations, and for taking the time to do so.
I would also like to repeat that I consider pharmacists to be, in general, more knowledgeable about drug interactions and adverse reactions than physicians. When I have questions about a medication, I don’t ask my physician; I call my pharmacist.
I do want to address your last point (” I understand your wariness concering vaccinations but again – there’s no way to quantify the good that they do – you can only quantify the damage and, sadly, there will always be bad outcomes….”)
The problem is, the bad outcomes often (maybe even usually) go unrecognized and unreported, so “there will always be bad outcomes” is really “there will be far more bad outcomes than we know or understand.”
There is increasing evidence of autoimmune disorders–many of them severe–being caused or triggered by vaccines. Those kinds of reactions aren’t going to be evident in the 20 minutes the patient remains with you post-vaccination (though anaphylactic reactions likely will be caught at that time). Neither will seizure reactions, or systemic reactions that manifest as severe rashes, or things like severe joint pain.
On the flip side, we have the Cochrane Review looking at all past studies of the flu shot and concluding that there is very little evidence that it prevents influenza. There is the hope that it lessens severity of symptoms–but no clear evidence that it does so; moreover, how do you weigh the lessening of severity of influenza symptoms with increased severity of autoimmune symptoms?
NONE of us, on either side of the issue, wants to see anyone suffer unnecessarily, whether it be from influenza or from vaccine reactions. I take influenza and other viruses seriously; nobody these days can afford 2 weeks off of work to care for a sick child or spouse or parent. On the other hand, nobody these days can afford a lifetime of care for self or family member disabled by a flu shot-triggered autoimmune reaction.
People walk out of your pharmacy with penicillin, hopefully because it’s necessary to treat an infection that they already have. Isn’t it different to inject HEALTHY people with something that we hope might help avoid symptoms, and we hope might not harm them, but we don’t actually know which might be the outcome? And isn’t our understanding of the possible outcome skewed because it’s A) not as effective as was originally promised and B) more likely to cause serious reactions than originally promised?
I’m all for pharmaceuticals to treat illnesses when necessary. It’s the idea of playing Russian Roulette with a questionable product that upsets me.
At what point can we admit, “it’s not worth harming a few to help a few?”
And why, in our society, is it only those who have been harmed who say it’s not worth it, even if it might help many? Who should get to make that kind of decision, anyway?
Full disclosure: my children and I have ALL had severe reactions to various vaccines. In each case, we were told first that “vaccines don’t do that,” and then “all right, yes, it was the vaccine, but it was a one-in-a-million flukey reaction.” And each time, the reaction was completely different (seizure/encephalopathy, several days of extreme somnolence, severe rashes that lasted for months, severe upper respiratory problems, etc.).
And none of those reactions occurred in the first 20 minutes.
If it sounds like I’m being argumentative, I apologize. I am not trying to be argumentative; I don’t see this as an “I’m right/you’re wrong” kind of conversation. I’m just trying to present my perspective.
“jab a needle in some poor unsuspecting slobs arm”? Is this kind of attitude something they taught you in all those classes? I mean, this is a medical procedure, plain and simple, and the patient needs to be respected. In the old days, pharmacists could not fulfill a prescription unless they had a doctor’s order. Is there a universal prescription for everyone to get any immunization from a pharmacy? How would you give someone a med without a doctor’s order? How do you give a vaccine without one? I am glad you have training, but how do you know the patient history other than what they give you? This is all worrisome for Thinkers…
oh Blaze, please – I’ve had this attitude all my life – no time in class to try and develop sarcastic personalities. I own my own pharmacy and I can assure you my patients know they are respected – I am very well respected and liked in my community and highly regarded as a medical professional. Many states have laws in place that give the pharmacist the authority to prescribe – my state isn’t one of them and I’m not unhappy about that. There are many different routes to a pharmacist giving a vaccination – a specific Dr order (a prescription), standing orders (Dr. X said we can give all of her patient’s a flu shot) or a protocol (Dr. X has signed on as a collaborating physician and we may give a shot to anybody). We are trained how to determine which patients are not ‘elligible’ for certain immunizations. We transmit the immunization record to the doctor – so no, we are not all on our own giving shots – very similar to a physician assistant (in this specific case). How does a Dr know a history other than what the patient tells her? We don’t just run around willy-nilly waving a needle in the air – we are medical professionals and we have access to records the same as the Dr. Protocols and standing orders are signed by physicians and basically they say – I, as a physician, recognize your training and capabilities and I trust your medical judgement to act as I would in this situation.
my vaccine records were not transmitted from the pharmacy to to my doctors office. It was one of the problems I encountered when going through vaccine court. They told me there were no records of me having the shot. And I was too busy trying not to die to worry about where I put the receipt.
Lisa, I had forgotten about that part of the story. That’s extremely depressing to me.
This is going to make fr a great addition to my Facebook group! Reposting on “Vaccine for Flu Should be Avoided”. I know, odd name. I needed to make it pop up if flu or vaccine were searched.
Thanks, David’s Dad.
Google co-founder Larry Page is funding FREE FLU SHOTS.
https://plus.google.com/+LarryPage/posts/32xY3Z1zckL
Doesn’t he know how to Google “Thimerosal” “neurotoxin” “lack of efficacy”?
*sigh* You would think, right? On the plus side, my boyfriend’s cousin is the head of HR for Google and her parents read the blog from time to time, so maybe we’ll get to him eventually. 😉
Another word of CAUTION… for those with known or suspected mitochondrial disease…
the FLUMIST package insert states: http://www.medimmune.com/pdf/products/flumist_pi.pdf
“6.2 Postmarketing Experience
The following events have been spontaneously reported during post approval use of FluMist.
Congenital, familial, and genetic disorders: Exacerbation of symptoms of mitochondrial encephalomyopathy (Leigh syndrome)”
Thanks VERY much for the input, babyfoodsteps. That’s an EXTREMELY important point for many people who read this blog.
Great article! I am currently 15 weeks pregnant and my employer keeps e mailing me to tell me I need to get my flu shot. I have signed the refusal paper 2 months ago, and they just sent me another e-mail today. I am so glad I read this article!
Thanks, Brittany! We’re glad to be helpful.
Great article! I was debating the flu vaccine recently with a friend. Her claim was, “Yes, thimerasol is in multi-flu vials but they OFFER the single-dose to young children and pregnant women.” Is there anything to refute this? I could not find anything specific but cannot imagine this is happening. Thanks!
I don’t think it’s a standard offer. I think you’d have to REQUEST it. (They actually cost more that way.) But anyone who’s had an actual experience in this regard should chime in.
A few years back, I took studies into my OB/GYN and he got hold of thimerosal free flu vax for his office. The next year, he tried to, but he couldn’t get any. And at the time he was Chief of Staff of a hospital!
Grrrrr! That’s disgraceful! But good work, Blaze! You’re always Thinking. 😉
Some inaccuracies in your article:
1. It is incorrect to state that influenza viruses are more likely to be circulating during winter. Viruses are not fruits, they don’t grow according to the sun. People in temperate countries are more likely to get the flu during winter due to reduced sunshine (lack of Vitamin D). Then they cover up from head to toe, preventing what little sun there is from reaching any skin at all. The air is also drier, causing the nasal passages to dry up and less able to trap viruses before they are inhaled into the lungs.
2. It is impossible to predict which virus is coming. Coming from where? They are around all the time. They didn’t go anywhere. They didn’t come from over there. The same ones are being passed around all year round. They don’t travel like birds migrate and then come back in the winter. They do not follow the sun. You just see more cases of flu because people are weaker in the winter.
3. Flu viruses are highly mutable. They can mutate into any shape anytime. There is no way to predict what shape they are going to morph into, and if you had a virus in your petri dish, there is no way you can make it morph into some shape that you want it to, so there is no way you can produce a vaccine containing a shape that it is going to take in the future. You make something, and then when people buy it next year and shed it to others, the other people will catch it and then you can say “Told you this strain was coming!”
4. The viruses contained in flu vaccines do not exist in nature. They are genetically engineered. Two strains of flu viruses are combined in a host (chicken egg) and allowed to swap genes. Scientists then choose one of the new resultant strains and put that into a vaccine. You will never encounter this virus in nature because in order for this to happen, a chicken would have to catch two strains of the flu simultaneously, have the two strains combine into a new virus, then you go and catch that new virus from the sick chicken. This was how the H1N1 virus was made – by combining human flu, pig flu and bird flu strains in chicken eggs. Antibodies are specific to a particular strain. If you develop antibodies to this strain, it doesn’t protect you from any of the regular strains out there, and you don’t need protection from a strain that you can’t catch from anywhere else either, except from lab eggs and others who are shedding the virus from the same vaccine that you took.
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/flu/research/basic/pages/reassortmentillustration.aspx
Thanks very much for your input Health Bites.
1. I never actually said viruses were more likely to be circulating in winter, but it is a fact that many more cases (and, therefore, deaths) are reported in the winter months than the summer months. That’s why the winter is considered “flu season.” I’m certain that a good deal of it is due to the drop in vitamin D levels for the average person.
2. They’re not trying to predict which viruses are “coming.” They are trying to predict which viruses will cause the greatest number of cases during a particular “flu season.”
3. Flu viruses are indeed highly mutable. I would be surprised if circulating strains DIDN’T include laboratory-made strains that have been used in vaccines.
4. Very interesting information in that link, it’s the first I’ve seen it. Thank you. But it’s not clear from that link if that process is done for ALL the strains in a particular vaccine, or just ONE. This sentence is ambiguous: “This new reassortant flu strain and two other flu strains will make up next year’s vaccine.” I would also think that flu vaccine researchers are well aware of the need for specific antibodies. I believe that they believe this process creates strains that create the appropriate antibodies. All of this discussion, of course, presupposes that vaccination in order to stimulate the production of antibodies in the absence of illness is a good idea. At this point in my life, I am not at all convinced of that.
I am living proof of a flu vaccine injury. It took me 3 years to recover and I’m still not completely recovered. Within 12 hours of receiving the shot, symptoms started. Before it was all over, I was unable to use my legs for a short period and had insane neurological symptoms. I saw several Nueros before anyone could come up with anything — and indeed, it was confirmed: neurological injuryfrom flu vaccine. Was that good enough for VAERS, though? HECK, NO! Because I didn’t have proof that I was “OK” before the shot, then how could I prove that the shot made me “not OK”. My gosh. I have so many things I could say. Instead, I’ll just say that I loved this article. So informative and explanatory in a way that anyone could understand. THANKS!
Carrie, you may report your injury to VAERS yourself. Unfortunately, there is a huge bias within the medical community about what constitutes a vaccine reaction and what doesn’t. That keeps the numbers in the VAERS database artificially quite low. So sorry to hear of your injury, but thank you so much for reporting your experience here.
Actually, my Neuro did report it because he was adamant that it was related to the vaccine. When VAERS called him for more information, though, they (VAERS) were all wishy-washy about it, acting as though they did not believe him. ARGH.
ARGH, is right! Because so many reports from neurologists are made for people WITHOUT vaccine injury. /end sarcasm
I reported my own reaction. 2 hospitals, too many doctors to count and only one doctor ever mentioned VAERS to me. Where I live in Ohio it is mandatory that doctors report dog bites and they can be fined if they do not report them. They are suppose to report vaccine reactions but there is no penalty if they do not.
Since my husband stopped taking the flu shot about 8 years ago, his asthma has almost disappeared. I can’t remember the last time he used an inhaler. He was one of the ones who would take the shot and end up getting sick every time, have to love those “coincidences” 😉
I do believe “coincidence” is one of my favorite overused words. Right up there with “anecdote.” 😉
Great informative article! My oldest had a flu shot as a toddler and she has never been as sick as she was following that shot. She required breathing treatments for 6 months. My middle child had a severe neurological reaction to her second set of vaxes at 6 months. After that i started researching. I ve done hundreds of hours of research. My youngest is vax free and my family will never receive any more vaccinations! My older kiddos have a mix of ADHD, ODD, anxiety, sensory issues and the middle is on the edge of having Aspergers. I know without a doubt vaxes caused them to be high needs.
So glad you seem to have stopped the cycle! Your experience is so valuable in helping others to avoid similar injury.
Thank you for such a compelling report. As a Renegade Registered Nurse, (R2N), I take advantage of, and am grateful for, all of the research you Warrior Ladies are doing. More and more of my clients are benefiting from the information you share; you are all making a difference.
Wouldn’t it be nice if CDC and their ilk, began to teach that “Flu Season” is also “Sugar Season”, when, beginning with Halloween, and going right through New Year’s, our national proclivity to celebrate using sweet ‘foods’, is much more relevant to our being at risk of ‘catching’ whatever they deem is the pervading flu ‘strain’- (give me a break; yes, the analogy of Insider Trading is plausible here), than our trying to ‘protect’ ourselves using their officially endorsed poisons.
God bless you all, and do not grow weary keeping up the Good Fight.
Yes! Thank you! I’ve been banging the drum my entire adult life about the dangers of sugar, especially for people with inflammatory illnesses like asthma. What a great point to make.
Way to break it down, Prof! You are amazing!
Thanks, Blaze! 🙂
Excellent blog, Professor! Logical and thorough, as always.
Thanks, sweetie! Pass it on to your dad. 😉
Great article! Thanks! I wish the author’s name was included
Janet, you may use my real name if you wish. It’s Zoey O’Toole.
Great article!
A couple of points:
1)
“A study run by Paul Verstraeten of the CDC — who eventually published extremely watered-down numbers — obtained by a FOIA request, showed that children who received more than 25mcg of mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines in the first month of life had a relative risk for autism of 7.62 (Evidence of Harm, by David Kirby, Chapter 13). That means a child who received that dosage of thimerosal was nearly eight times as likely to have autism as a child who had zero in the first month. (Note: a relative risk of two is generally considered evidence of causation in a court of law.) Remember, this vaccine is “recommended” for all pregnant women and all children over six months of age. ” This needs to be reposted everywhere. People today are too lazy to read more than one paragraph at a time, which is why they are so predisposed to believing every word of the pharma-propaganda.
2) I remember seeing studies of vaccine-induced asthma (rushing off to work right now, so can’t look’em up). I came away with the distinct impression that vaccines not only trigger asthma, but cause it. Seems like we need to delve more deeply into this issue before the studies proving this get buried, as usually happens. I’m thinking that even with FOI, things will either be hidden so well that nobody could find them even with FOI, or they will get changed outright, so when you do find them, they’ve been altered.
3) When Guilliane-Barre was first known to be associated with flu vaccine, were those particular flu vaccines adjuvanted? And with what?
And is it possible that they are getting away with adding an adjuvant and not listing it? I mean, the flu vaccines use a weakened or attenuated virus, right? Aren’t those always adjuvanted in order to provoke the desired immune response? And don’t they have a history of NOT listing ingredients (like peanut oil)? Please correct me if I’m wrong.
I make point 1 wherever I can. I was horrified to read that. It made decide to chelate my daughter, who is 13 years old and had ADHD. She got the full dose of thimerosal that first year of her life.
2) I plan to do a blog in the future on autoimmunity in general. I’ve been reading more and more on the topic. I think it is extremely important with respect to autism and other neurological conditions.
3) I know that there was a big spike in GBS during the 1976 swine flu vaccination campaign. I don’t know if it was the “first” connection of flu vaccine and GBS, but it is certainly the strongest. I can’t find anything on the ingredients of that particular shot, but I did find this on adjuvants:
“Why is aluminum in some vaccines?
Aluminum salts are incorporated into some vaccine formulations as an adjuvant to enhance the immune response in the vaccinated individual. The aluminum salts in some U.S. licensed vaccines are aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate, alum (potassium aluminum sulfate), or mixed aluminum salts. For example: aluminum salts are used in DTaP vaccines, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, and hepatitis B vaccines.
Aluminum adjuvant containing vaccines have a demonstrated safety profile of over six decades of use and have only uncommonly been associated with severe local reactions. Of note, the most common source of exposure to aluminum is from eating food or drinking water.
Are other adjuvants used in US vaccines?
Yes, there is one other adjuvant used in one U.S. licensed vaccine. Cervarix, a vaccine licensed by FDA on October 16, 2009, to prevent cervical cancer caused by human papillomavirus types 16 and 18, includes AS04 in its formulation. AS04 is a combination of aluminum hydroxide and monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL). MPL is a purified fat-like substance. ”
(http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/VaccineSafety/ucm187810.htm)
Those are the ONLY adjuvants approved by the FDA so far. It seems that if the vaccine contains these ingredients, they must be listed. So, no, it seems that they could not have inserted adjuvants into the flu vaccines. However, I have seen things about that 1976 swine flu vaccine that speculate that its toxicity stems from it being an egg-based vaccine (as are all flu vaccines), because eggs can be contaminated with mycoplasmas which have been implicated in the etiology of autoimmune illnesses. It seems to me that could be true of other cases of GBS that are caused by flu vaccines.
I believe you are correct in that substances generally recognized as safe (GRAS), like peanut oil, may be included in vaccine formulations without being listed.
So how is it that they are able to use an inactivated flu virus WITHOUT adjuvant in the flu shot, while adjuvants are needed to provoke an adequate immune response in all the other inactivated vaccines?
10 years ago, it would never have occurred to me to question. I would have trusted that the pharmaceutical industry certainly knew what it was doing, and that of course it had our health and safety in mind.
Now, I question everything. And sadly, I’ve learned that the pharmaceutical industry’s area of greatest expertise is marketing, not health.
Taximom,
They claim that the adjuvants are only needed if there is not enough of the active ingredient, forgetting the term for the moment… They say that adjuvants would allow them to use much less of the flu viruses to get the same response. They were concerned about being able to produce “enough” H1N1 vaccine when they were assuming major global pandemic. Using adjuvants would have made that easier. And, yeah, I know what you mean about questioning everything these days.
You go, Girl! I have never, ever read a more thorough, convincing explanation of the perfect worthlessness and harms of these shots. People should be printing copies of this and passing them out in front of flu clinics, or leaving them on door knobs in neighborhoods and in doctors’ offices’ waiting rooms.
Thanks, Cindy! I aimed to be thorough. 🙂