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.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/rr/rr5004.pdf is 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.

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.

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.

This is this years pick: 

• A/Moscow/10/99(H3N2)-like virus

• A/New Caledonia/20/99(H1N1)-like virus

• B/Hongkong/330/01

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

It gets worse.  I will explain how the vaccine is made. It is grown in chicken eggs. This is done by injecting a microscopic droplet of the flu virus 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.  

 Instead of being an effective prevention, evidence indicates that flu shots are useless. 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.

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.

 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.  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.

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