The CDC's Wisdom

After reading this you can just imagine how surprised I was when I found at the CDC’s website devoted to the influenza vaccine, a recommendation for the vaccine in the second trimester of pregnancy. Click on pregnancy and read this very reveling article by Dawn Richardson. This link below will take you to the CDC's actual recommendations. When you have time go read it. It is 63 pages!

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/rr/rr5004.pdf This vaccine contains 25 micrograms of ethyl Mercury in one dose. The CDC has studied 2000 pregnant women and no adverse fetal effects were found.  They state additional studies are ongoing as data is limited with regard to the effects of low dose or intermittent exposures. They also explain federal guidelines were not designed for intermittent or bolus exposures. The CDC believes that the average 110-pound woman is allowed to have 5 micrograms per day without adverse reactions. If she were to get a flu shot and have a tuna fish sandwich for lunch she would have just received 42 micrograms of Mercury, eight times the safe level.  The package inserts published by the flu vaccine manufacturers state that "Animal reproduction studies have not been conducted with influenza virus vaccine.” It is also not known whether influenza virus vaccine can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman. If you look at the MSDS for  Thimerosal, it says, "Exposure to mercury in utero and in children can cause mild to severe  mental retardation and mild to severe motor coordination impairment."  Eli Lilly MSDS June 13, 1991.

Eli Lilly is the manufacturer of thimerosal. There have been no safety studies done on thimerosal since 1929 and that study was done by K.C.Smithburn on patients dying from meningitis! Rhogam shots are another way the fetus is subjected to mercury. In 2002 this shot was "encouraged" for 6--23 month old children and continues to be encouraged. Vaccination of children aged 6 months and older who have certain medical conditions also continues to be strongly recommended. Maybe this isn't such a good idea.. Read here for some articles that might make you think twice before doing so. Flu shots and children. Children with chronic conditions such as cystic fibrosis are often given the flu shot in hopes they will not come down with the flu.  In a recent Cochrane study, the reviewers' conclusions were as follows:  There is currently no evidence from randomized studies that influenza vaccine given to patients with CF is of benefit to them.

Here is a few excepts from an excellent article you shouldn't miss reading. It explains how damaging mercury can be in the developing fetus.
This is the web address for the complete article.

: http://www.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden2

Don't miss it!

In a decades-long mercury poisoning disaster in Minamata, Japan that began in the 1950s, some babies born to women who ate mercury-polluted seafood died within days of birth, while their mothers were free of symptoms. Autopsies revealed that in adults, mercury induced lesions that were concentrated in a few areas of the brain. In the fetus, however, mercury spawned lesions over nearly the entire brain cortex. In the decades following Minamata, scientists have developed a much fuller understanding of children's vulnerability to chemicals, discovering links between a host of health problems — including asthma, childhood cancer, and brain damage — and such common contaminants as solvents, pesticides, PCBs, and lead (Trasande and Landrigan, 2004). A recent National Academy of Sciences study suggests that environmental factors contribute to at least 28 percent of childhood developmental disabilities (NAS 2000a).

The latest research investigates not only relationships between disease and exposures, but the root causes of chemically-induced disease with in utero origins. This research pinpoints traits of a fetus that contribute to vulnerability: low levels of some chemical-binding proteins in the blood, immature excretion pathways, and an immature blood brain barrier, for instance, which combine to increase the transfer of chemicals from the blood to the aptly named "target organs" that may ultimately bear the harm. In the article I found some really good reasons not to get a flu shot while pregnant:

Here is an excerpt from an email on how thimerosal is disposed of....."A large portion of these vaccines contain a chemical called "Thymerasol," a mercury based preservative, as an ingredient.  Because of this mercury content, the returned material must be disposed of as hazardous waste. The current method of disposal consists of throwing the individual vials of vaccine, container and all, into 55-gallon drums which are in turn taken off-site by a haz. waste disposal firm (this waste stream totalled 9,600 gallons in 1996, at a cost of $600/55-gallon drum)."  The rest of the letter is here....disposal

It is interesting how the CDC personnel attempt to predict which viruses will infect people in the United States. They decide based on a large amount of guesswork, which influenza viruses are distributed to vaccine manufacturers early in the year for influenza vaccine production for administration that autumn. Flu shot history is replete with examples of poor matches between influenza viruses in the vaccine and those actually infecting people.  Results for the 1989-1990 season were described as, "mixed at best" with "Medicare payments significantly higher for those who had been vaccinated," according to Kidder and Schmitz in the 1993 report Options for the Control of Influenza II. Read this article for next years shot info.

Flu Vaccine 2006-2007 Strains To Be Determined By Advisory Cmte. Feb. 17 (Today is Jan 26, 2006)

Influenza virus strains to be included in the vaccine for the 2006-2007 flu season will be discussed by FDA’s Vaccines & Related Biological Products Advisory Committee Feb. 17. During last February’s deliberations for the 2005-2006 flu season, the committee recommended retaining the previous flu season’s A/New Caledonia/20/99 (H1N1)-like strain and switching to an A/California/7/2004 (H3N2)-like strain from the previous A/Fujian/411/2002-like strain.

The committee also recommended keeping the same influenza B strain, the Yamagata lineage B/Shanghai/361/2002-like strain. The committee also suggested the development of a bivalent B strain vaccine for pediatric patients, who do not get cross protection from a single B strain. Since last year’s advisory committee meeting, two companies have entered the U.S. influenza vaccine market.

GlaxoSmithKline could launch two vaccines for the 2006-2007 season. FDA approved GSK’s flu vaccine Fluarix in August. A month later, the firm announced plans to buy Fluviral maker ID Biomedical; the company has said it hopes to have the vaccine approved by the 2007 flu season.

Novartis also entered the flu vaccine market with its acquisition of U.K.-based Chiron, which manufactures the flu vaccine Fluvirin. Fluvirin manufacturing was halted in 2004 due to good manufacturing practice deviations at its Liverpool facility. (Some nice words for sloppy manufacturing) Chiron was cleared to recommence manufacture of the vaccine in September. Other flu vaccines include Sanofi Pasteur’s Fluzone and Medimmune’s intranasal FluMist.

 

To give you an idea of how the flu virus is decided I will give you a little background information. Virologists believe the whole thing starts with birds. Waterfowl to be exact. They are what virologists call the "reservoir" for influenza. They carry nearly all known types of influenza, with no ill effects, and willingly share them with the rest of the animal kingdom through their feces. All animals that get the flu, horses, ferrets, seals, pigs, and human beings probably get it originally from birds.  Viruses can only infect and take over a cell if the proper "receptor" is present, and as far as we know human beings do not have a receptor for avian or bird flu. What's needed for human infection is another species that has both human and avian flu receptors. In other words, the pig. Having both human and avian receptors sets the pig up for all sorts of wonderful influenza possibilities. The process can be as simple as a flu-contaminated duck dropping feces into the dirt a pig is rolling around in, thus infecting the pig who, in turn, passes the virus on to a farmer. It is possible for a pig to be infected with one kind of flu, say a human flu, only to contract another avian flu. Now the poor pig has two different types of flues simultaneously. When it proceeds to re-infect a human being, it passes on a pig-bird-human influenza.

Since the flu virus is always mutating, necessitating a new vaccine each year, the World Health Organization (WHO) has set up a vast international flu surveillance network. Around the world, Technicians affiliated with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) collect influenza viruses from pigs and people in foreign lands, e.g., China and take nose and throat cultures from patients suffering from the flu. These samples are sent off to laboratories to be tested. Suspect and interesting cases are forwarded to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) or to the closest National Influenza Center for full analysis. There are many such centers throughout the world. CDC personnel then attempt to predict which viruses will infect people in the United States the following year. Predicting which influenza viruses from China, for instance, will infect people in Dayton, Ohio, a year later involves a great deal of guesswork.

Analysis has shown that there are three main families of the influenza virus; A, B, and C. Within each of these families there are many viral strains. Both the A and B families contain strains that cause illness, although the influenza A family has more virulent strains than the B family. These families are further categorized by the two types of proteins that make up the outer protective coating of the virus. These proteins are known as hemagglutinin (h), and neuraminidase (n). Viruses are named according to the type of proteins they carry. Since there are at least fifteen varieties of h, and nine varieties of n that can combine with each other in any way to create a different strain, it is practically impossible for anyone to predict what might happen with any kind of accuracy. Unless of course you are the CDC using your crystal ball. Good explanation here by Jocelyn Kaiser in her article  A One-Size-Fits-All Flu Vaccine?

This is this years pick: 2002-2003

Reading across starting with the A. A stands for the virus in the A family Strain, the most virulent. Moscow is the city or the name of the place where they were first isolated. The 10 stands for the sample number of flu isolated from the people infected. And the 99 stands for the year the virus was isolated. The H3N2 is the No. 3 hemagglutinin, No. 2 neuraminidase. The types of proteins that make up the outer protective coating of the virus.  So, to sum this up quickly, the mucus from the throat of ten Moscow citizens in 1999 will make up the vaccine that will save you in whatever city you might live in 2002 from the flu. I guess they had a lot left over from last year because only the Hong Kong portion is new. Flu package insert

From the FDA's Website:

Influenza Virus Vaccine 2003-2004

The trivalent influenza vaccine prepared for the 2003-2004 season will include A/New Caledonia/20/99 (H1N1); A/Panama/2007/99 (H3N2), which is an A/Moscow/10/99-like virus; and B/Hong Kong/330/2001-like virus. (The actual influenza B virus being used in vaccines is either B/Hong Kong/330/2001 or B/Hong Kong/1434/02.) These viruses are the same as the viruses used for production of vaccine for the 2002-2003 season. Vaccine produced for the 2002-2003 season is now past its expiration date. It is recommended that vaccine not be used beyond its labeled expiration date.

More than 95 million vaccine doses were available although more than 15 million were never used.

This just in from the CDC:

Experts are also concerned about antigenic drift. According to a notice sent out on the CDC's Health Alert Network, about a third of influenza A viruses isolated worldwide have changed  genetically from the current strain in the vaccine, although it is unclear whether this will have a clinical impact. (Uh oh wrong strain) Fujian Strain

It gets worse.  I will explain how the vaccine is made. It is grown in chicken eggs. (New: some manufacturers have started using caterpillar cells ) This is done by injecting a microscopic droplet of the flu virus scraped from the throats of infected pigs, birds or humans, into the air sack above the embryo and the yolk. In two to three days time the original droplet has become a tablespoon full. The tops of the eggs are lopped off and the virus is suctioned out. The largest vaccine makers may use up to one hundred fifty thousand eggs at once from which they extract two hundred and fifty gallons of pure virus. This is added to a huge vat that then must be kept free of bacteria. Mercury as well as the other toxic ingredients I have already mentioned are added to keep this witch's brew stable. To produce adequate supplies of the vaccine, the drug companies growing the virus must repeat this process dozens of times, using millions of eggs. All of this takes at least 6 months.  

"Richard Compans, a virologist and chairman of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Emory University School of Medicine, said the current egg-based vaccine technology has been used at least since the 1950s.

"It involves inoculating large numbers of fertilized chicken eggs with a virus preparation, and harvesting the fluid from these infected eggs and putting the vaccine through a purification procedure," he said. "There is potential for introducing contaminants, particularly at the stage of inoculating eggs and harvesting material from the eggs."

Contents of the Flu Vaccine 2004-2005

Both the inactivated and live, attenuated vaccines prepared for the 2004–05 season will include A/Fujian/411/2002 (H3N2)-like, A/New Caledonia/20/99 (H1N1)-like, and B/Shanghai/361/2002-like antigens. For the A/Fujian/411/2002 (H3N2)-like antigen, manufacturers may use the antigenically equivalent A/Wyoming/3/2003 (H3N2) virus, and for the B/Shanghai/361/2002-like antigen, manufacturers may use the antigenically equivalent B/Jilin/20/2003 virus or B/Jiangsu/10/2003 virus.  Influenza viruses for both the inactivated and live attenuated influenza vaccines are initially grown in embryonated hens' eggs. Thus, both vaccines might contain limited amounts of residual egg protein.

On October 5, 2004, CDC was notified by Chiron Corporation that none of its influenza vaccine (Fluvirin®) would be available for distribution in the United States for the 2004-05 influenza season. The company indicated that the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the United Kingdom, where Chiron's Fluvirin vaccine is produced, has suspended the company's license to manufacture Fluvirin vaccine in its Liverpool facility for 3 months. Guess why? The vaccine supply was contaminated with a bacteria serratia marcescens. Guess what else? It is not the first time. Why would our FDA contract with this company? Read about this same company with a different name at the time here: Medeva. Take a look at this article. Seattle's Virginia Mason Medical Center is insisting their doctors and nurses be injected with the flu shot or else! They have until Jan. 1 to get the shot, or get fired! Forced vaccinations

UH OH! Wrong strain again!

 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/10/24/FLU.TMP
San Francisco Chronicle

Scarce flu vaccine not designed for new strain
New Zealand variety worries officials

Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
Sunday, October 24, 2004

To read the CDC's "Recipe" For Fostering Public Interest and High Vaccine Demand", go to:
http://www.iom.edu/Object.File/Master/21/674/0.pdf  commentary on the "Recipe" here

 According to Hugh Fudenberg, MD., the worlds leading immunogeneticist and 13th most quoted biologist of our times (nearly 850 papers in peer review journals), if an individual has had five consecutive flu shots between 1970 and 1980 (the years studied), his/her chances of getting Alzheimer's Disease is ten times higher than if they had one, two or no shots. (1) Dr. Fudenberg said that it was due to the mercury that is in every flu shot (and many childhood shots). The gradual mercury buildup in the brain causes cognitive dysfunction. Is that why Alzheimer's is expected to quadruple? (2) 

(1) Dr. Fudenberg at the NVIC International Vaccine Conference, Arlngton, VA September 1997.

(2) John's Hopkins Newsletter Nov. 1998.

On December 6, 2000 at the Fourth National Immunization Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Dr. Eleni Galanis of Health Canada reported that almost 1000 Canadians have suffered adverse reactions to the flu vaccine since October, 2000. That's nearly 80 times as many as for the same period last year. The side effects for the flu vaccine include

 
You should not get the flu vaccine if you have ever had a severe allergic reaction to eggs or to a previous flu shot or have a history of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS).

 GBS may be triggered by an infection. The infection that most commonly precedes GBS is caused by a bacterium called Campylobacter jejuni. Other respiratory or intestinal illnesses and other triggers may also precede an episode of GBS. In 1976, vaccination with the swine flu vaccine was associated with getting GBS.  One possible cause is that flu vaccine contains Campylobacter, said Dr. Chen CDC's immunisation safety branch. He said that the vaccine is made in chicken eggs and that 40-50% of chickens are infected with Campylobacter, which is difficult to eradicate.

Instead of being an effective prevention, evidence indicates that flu shots are useless and can be dangerous. Although endorsed and funded by federal and state governments the shots seem only to benefit the companies that make them, public health bureaucrats who promote them, and medical personnel who administer them. The CDC feels the benefit of the influenza vaccine outweighs the potential risks for Mercury exposure. How would you like to be forced to have a flu shot? Click on 'forced' and take a look at this hospital requirement for employment.

 Since July of 1999, the FDA has "encouraged" manufacturers to remove thimerosal from vaccines. Some have done it, others have not. Today, most vaccines that are being manufactured do not contain thimerosal, or they only contain a "trace amount" 0.5 micrograms. Unfortunately we do not know how many of the old thimerosal products are still on the shelf.

Take a look at this chart from the CDC. Does it look like the flu or pneumonia vaccine is helping?

The CDC says flu kills about 36,000 people every year in the United States. But is this statement true? Read here for the facts. The Flu Scare Game

.  http://www.vaccinesafety.edu/thi-table.htm. Here is what will be taking thimerosal's place.

2-Phenoxyethanol

Are preservatives like thimerosal necessary in vaccines? The FDA regulations require preservatives in multi-dose vials of most vaccines (with the exception of certain live viral vaccines) to protect against inadvertent contamination from repeated puncture of the seal. thimerosal does not prevent all bacterial contamination, as evidenced by clusters of disease from group A Streptococcus infections traced to multi-dose Diphtheria toxoid, Tetanus toxoid, and Pertussis (DTP) vaccine vials that were contaminated after opening.

"Straining to Find a Cure"
Financial Times (www.ft.com) (05/02/03) P. 14; Firn, David

Following analysis of the influenza virus in London, Melbourne, Tokyo, Atlanta, Congo, and Madagascar, experts sent the most active and dangerous strains to vaccine manufacturers in order to prepare for the next influenza season.  Fertilized hens eggs are used to create vaccines, which means creating new mutations of the virus is a slow process.  Researchers at Solvay Healthcare in the United Kingdom are attempting to speed up the process by using canine kidney cells grown in tissue culture to produce the flu virus, which could cut production from six months to just six weeks.

Scientists are launching a research study to check the effectiveness of a new type of flu vaccine that is made differently than the conventional vaccine, which is grown in eggs. The experimental vaccine instead relies on a cell line drawn from insects known as silk moths, which are better known for their role as pests attacking crops such as corn, cotton, barley and alfalfa. Producing biological products in insect cell lines is common; the hepatitis B vaccine, for instance, is produced by human cell lines, and scientists from Rochester have developed an experimental vaccine against human papilloma virus using an insect cell line.

To read the whole article click on the Moth. I wonder what kinds of problems will be associated with moth RNA and DNA injected into the human body.

Flu shots are also contraindicated when you are taking certain other drugs. Check out this article to see the drugs. Interactions with flu shot

This just in...they have decided on next years vaccine.

The 2005-06 trivalent vaccine virus strains are  A/California/7/2004 (H3N2)-like, A/New Caledonia/20/99 (H1N1)-like, and B/Shanghai/361/2002-like antigens.

For the A/California/7/2004 (H3N2)-like antigen, manufacturers may use  the antigenically equivalent A/New York/55/2004 virus, and for the B/Shanghai/361/2002-like antigen, manufacturers may use  the antigenically equivalent B/Jilin/20/2003 virus or
  B/Jiangsu/10/2003 virus.

Guess they called the physic hotline to get the strains!

Here is what Dr Tom Jefferson had to say about the vaccine: "The vaccine doesn't work very well at all," said study author Dr. Tom Jefferson, an epidemiologist with the Cochrane Vaccines Field in Rome. "Vaccines are being used as an ideological weapon. What you see every year as the flu is caused by 200 or 300 different agents with a vaccine against two of them. That is simply nonsense." The Cochrane Review Group also found that the vaccine is only 28% effective when given to people over 65.

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0905/262242.html
.."The findings are similar to those of a study done by U.S. National Institutes of Health that found flu shots for the elderly in the United States had not saved lives.

However, the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the findings, published Thursday on the Web site of the Lancet medical journal, do not change their recommendation that elderly people get the shots."

HUH?

Here is the rest of the article: Study Sheds Doubt on Usefulness of Flu Vaccine

On this website the ingredients are listed:

http://medguides.medicines.org.uk/displaypage.aspx?t=medicine&i=53

Good news about the flu

Read this article for a good understanding of the live virus vaccines. This is an experiment with the avian flu going on right now at John Hopkins.

New flumist

If you are still thinking you want a flu shot watch this video!

The name to click on is "Eye on the flu"