Leverage In Action News: October 2009

Sunday, July 26th, 2009 - For Immediate Release:

Swine Flu Fact Sheet:
The only way to conquer fear is with information

Governments around the world are scrambling to find a solution to the potential problems that may be caused by the current H1N1 'swine flu' pandemic. From its origins in Mexico in April of this year, the panic caused by this virus - a hybrid of viral DNA from pigs, birds and humans - has grown to the point where logic and science have been forgotten in a mad race to do 'something' about this situation.

There is an adage that states, those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. In an effort to keep us from making the same mistakes we have in the past - mistakes which have been extremely costly in terms of financial burden and lives lost or health damaged - the Australian Vaccination Network has tried to gather together information to help you to ask the questions you need to find answers to and the knowledge necessary to make intelligent decisions about the swine flu vaccine. It is also an excellent idea to download the flyer from Pandemic Flu online. This web site is a great resource of constantly updated information on this topic.

History:
Between 1918 and 1920, immediately after World War I, it is estimated that as many as 50 million people around the world may have died from Swine Flu. Most of those whose deaths were attributed to influenza - 95% and more - did not die from the flu but were victims of bacterial pneumonia - an easily treatable illness for which antibiotics are very effective.(1) Had this outbreak occurred today rather than almost 100 years ago, the mortality and morbidity statistics would have been very different.

In addition, the strain of flu which was in circulation at that time was completely different to the strain we are seeing now.

In 1976, a soldier at Fort Dix NJ (USA), Private Lewis, left his sick bed to go on a forced march - and collapsed and died from what was diagnosed at the time as swine flu. Initially, it was thought that up to 500 other soldiers at Fort Dix had also contracted the disease. That figure was revised down to 4 confirmed cases with no other deaths. In fact, there were no other cases reported anywhere else in the world.(2)

Only one person died of swine flu in 1976, but more than 4,000 were seriously injured by the vaccine with 25 confirmed deaths. That vaccine, like the current shot, was rushed through without proper testing. The result was more than $3.5 billion in compensation claims in the US - and this is for a vaccination campaign which was cut short only 10 weeks after it started which was meant to protect against an outbreak which never occurred. The only outcome to this vaccination campaign was a large number of permanently injured citizens and an enduring distrust of influenza vaccinations.(3,4)

The story today
Prior to April of this year, nobody had heard of the H1N1 swine flu. Having gone through several scares over the past decade with other influenza viruses which were claimed to have the potential to kill or seriously injure millions around the world (SARS and Avian Influenza), the world's populations could have been excused for greeting this new outbreak with more then a touch of scepticism.

In fact, if there is a pandemic of this virus, it is very possible - some think even likely - that it is a man-made pandemic. Australian researcher, Adrian Gibbs, one of the researchers who created the influenza drug, Tamiflu, has stated that his investigations have indicated that this is a laboratory-created virus which has escaped into the population.(5) This hypothesis is of interest since the initial outbreak in Mexico City started in close proximity to Baxter Labs' vaccine facility.(6)

Baxter is now infamous for shipping batches of human influenza vaccines which had been contaminated with live Avian influenza (bird flu) virus to 18 European countries.(7) It was only due to the excellent due diligence of a lab in the Czech republic that this contamination was discovered prior to the vaccine being administered to millions of people. Had that occurred, we might now be looking at a pandemic of bird flu rather than swine flu.

How many cases - how many deaths?

Despite a very low mortality rate (to date, there have been less than 500 confirmed H1N1 deaths worldwide compared with between 500,000 to 1,000,000 deaths each year (8) which human influenza is credited with causing) and evidence suggesting that H1N1 causes very mild illness, the World Health Organisation raised the pandemic risk level to its highest possible point - level 6 - and governments around the world are pledging tens of billions of dollars to rush through an untested vaccine.

The tests being used to diagnose H1N1 are giving far too many false positive results (9) and what's worse, doctors are not submitting samples to laboratories for testing. Anyone with flu-like symptoms is now assumed to have H1N1 swine flu - a decision which has increased the number of cases exponentially.(10,11)

Swine flu vaccination - a shot in the dark
Influenza vaccines are among the most ineffective shots in the vaccine armoury. In healthy adults, the estimates of effectiveness range from a low of 0% to a high of 96% - depending on the study. In the elderly and immune-suppressed, the figures seem to hover at between 21 and 25% effective. In addition, some influenza vaccines still contain mercury in the form of thiomersal while the new swine flu vaccines are being made with novel, oil-based adjuvants which have been linked in the past with severe long-term neurological and other adverse health effects.

These vaccines are not being properly tested and in fact, the vaccine manufacturers have been indemnified against litigation so even if you or your child has a bad reaction, the company that made and profited from the shots will not be held responsibly - morally, ethically or financially.(12)

Despite the lack of information about these vaccine's safety or effectiveness, it is planned that every man, woman and child will be vaccinated - both here in Australia and overseas. In fact, the first targets for these needles will be pregnant women and children.

This vaccine - like all vaccines - has never been evaluated for its effect on developing foetuses. In addition, if we follow the lead of the United States, when this vaccine is administered to children, it will mean 4 additional shots in one year for kids - 2 of the human influenza vaccine - 2 of the swine flu. Our children will now be facing in excess of 60 vaccines before they reach school age if 4 annual flu shots are added to the childhood vaccination schedule.

Will it be compulsory?
On July 14th, the Rudd Government ordered 21 million doses of the totally untested swine flu vaccine - enough for everyone currently living in Australia.(13) It is the contention of the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) that the only reason they would buy this many vaccines is because it is their intention for all of them to be used. That would mean making the vaccination compulsory.

While we support everyone's right to choose vaccination should they wish to - we firmly believe that no medical procedure - least of all one which has such a long track record of ineffectiveness and risk - should ever be mandated. People must be able to choose not to get the vaccine if that is their wish. Should the government require it, we do not object to mandatory home quarantine in the event of a true epidemic breaking out.

It will be up to each of us to ensure that our rights and the rights of our children and loved ones are protected and that no vaccination is ever made compulsory. For further information about actions you can take to protect your rights and to stay informed about the current swine flu situation, please visit the AVN's web page on pandemic influenza - http://avn.org.au/library/index.php/table/pandemic-influenza/ or subscribe to our blog - http://nocompulsoryvaccination.blogspot.com/

References:

1-Children's hospital study links deaths to post-flu issues - http://tinyurl.com/lrc8kz
2-Swine Flu Vaccine Warning - CBS News, 60 Minutes - Part 1; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lcJt4jX1Vo - Part 2; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4c9Is1T3z4&feature=related
3-The Flawed 1976 National "Swine Flu" Influenza Immunisation Program by the Suburban Emergency Management Project - http://tinyurl.com/nwlz4q
4-Swine Flu debacle of 1976 is recalled - the Los Angeles Times - http://tinyurl.com/nxq2d5
5- Swine Flu May Be Lab Error: Aussie Researcher; The Age newspaper; http://tinyurl.com/r5n5xk
6-Baxter Pharmaceutical Plant in Mexico- Ground Zero for Flu Outbreak - http://tinyurl.com/mjcxpx
7-Baxter Sent Bird Flu Virus to European Labs by Error - Bloomberg News http://tinyurl.com/cady7h
8-Science, Vol 293, 7 September 2001 p 1729
9-Unreliable Swine Flu Test Leaves Doubt - The Melbourne Age - http://tinyurl.com/n8mckd
10-Swine flu fears rise as death toll grows in Britain - The Australian Newspaper - http://tinyurl.com/lxwh6p
11-Swine Flu: Alert; not yet alarmed - Armidale Express - http://tinyurl.com/m7nnk6
12-Legal immunity set for swine flu vaccine makers - http://tinyurl.com/mjp4x3
13-Officials Order 21 Million Vaccine Doses - Prime News - http://tinyurl.com/m7gsuu

About Australian Vaccination Network, Inc.

The AVN is a non-profit, volunteer-run charitable association. Since 1994, the AVN has provided information and support to the general community who are trying to make informed choices about vaccination and health. Their lobbying in Federal Parliament has ensured that compulsory vaccination for children has not come to pass and they are the major reporters of vaccine adverse reactions to ADRAC (The Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee).

Extracted in it's entirety from a media release I received today.

Once upon a time, there was a country whose government had decided in all its wisdom that it was going to be good at making cars. It designed precisely one model and started producing it. And it kept building this car for three decades. There was so much demand for the car that people added their children’s names to the waiting lists at birth. Or was it just that production was so inefficient?

The car in question was, of course, the infamous East German Trabant. Notoriously unreliable, uncomfortable, and hopelessly out of date even at the time it was introduced, it became the clearest demonstration that governments should stay out of the car industry.

The sort of communism that brought the world cars like the Trabant has long gone, the Soviet bloc has disappeared, but we still have politicians who think they are the better car managers.

The latest politician is none other than US President Barack Obama.

This week the US government announced its support for little-known car manufacturer Fisker. The company will receive more than half a billion US dollars in subsidised loans to build a hybrid sports car.

Never mind that at a retail price of US$89,000 the car will be out of reach of most consumers. Ignore the fact that sports cars are not really green cars. And forget that Fisker does not have much experience in building cars anyway.

What matters more than a viable business plan in these days of reborn socialism are your political connections. Or was it just a strange coincidence that one of Fisker’s top investors is former US Vice President Al Gore? It doesn’t hurt that his quest to save the world from climate change is incidentally helping fill his coffers with taxpayer cash.

The socialism of times past we have buried, but its flawed ideas are still haunting us from its grave.