The swine flu hoax II

Again and again... Flu here, flu there, diseased people here., diseased people there!
This is the approximate translation from a text I found quite interesting.

Written by Teresa Forcades i Vila on the 11th of October of 2009:

The 2 first cases of the new flu (virus A/H1N1, strain S-OIV) were diagnosed in California (USA) on the 17th of April of 2009 [1].

The new flu is not new because is of the type A, neither because the subtype is H1N1. The epidemic flu that occurred in 1918 was from this particular strain and since 1977 that H1N1 viruses belong to the annual flues [2]. The only thin new here is the strain S-OIV [3] [4].

About 66% of elderly people over 60 years of age appear to have immunity against this type of virus of the new flu [5].

Since it started till 15th of September of 2009, 137 people died from this disease in Europe and 3,559 in all over the world [6] [today this number ascends to 8000]. Note that between 40,000 and 220,000 people die every year in Europe due to the seasonal flu.

As many famous health professionals - Dr. Bernard Debré (member of the National Council of Ethics in France) and Dr. Juan José Rodriguez Sendim (president of the Association of Medical Colleges in Spain) - the data from this season, among which the countries from the South hemisphere are included, demonstrates that the mortality and complications rates of this new flu are lower than the ones of the seasonal flu [8].

Irregularities must be explained.

At the end of January 2009, the Austrian filial of the American pharmaceutical company Baxter, distributed to 16 laboratories in Austria, Germany, Czech Republic and Slovenia, 72kg of material to prepare the vaccines against the seasonal flu. The vaccines would have to be administered to the population of this countries between February and March. Before the administration of any of these vaccines, a technician from the BioTest laboratory in Czech Republic decided, by its own, to experiment these vaccines in Ferrets [Portuguese = Furões], which are the animals used since 1918 to study the flu vaccine. All of them died!

Further investigations to the material sent by Baxter, demonstrated that the contained live viruses from the avian flu (virus A/H5N1) combined with live viruses from the seasonal flu (A/H3N2). If this contamination would not be found in time, the pandemics that, without a true background, the WHO and other national entities are announcing, would be now an amazing reality! The combination of these live viruses could be particularly lethal because it combines a live virus with a mortality rate of 60% but not so contagious (the avian flu virus) with other highly contagious but with a mortality rate much lower (the seasonal flu virus) [9].

On the 29th of April of 2009, when only 12 days passed since the first cases of the new flu, Dr. Margaret Chan, general-director of WHO, declared that the alert level for a pandemic was in phase 5 and ordered to all governments, members of the WHO group, the activation of emergency plans and maximal level of alertness. A month later, Dr. Chan declared that in the world we had already a pandemic (phase 6) caused by the A/H1N1 S-OIV virus. How could she made such statements when, according to the scientific data above, the new flu is, in fact more benign than the seasonal flu, which is not a new virus and to which part of the population is immune?

She could do it because during May, the WHO changed the definition of Pandemic: before May 2009 a pandemic to be declared would have to involve and infectious agent that caused a significant proportion of deaths among the population. This requirement - which is the unique giving a clinical concept to the associated political measures - was eliminated from the new definition on May 2009 [11], after the USA declared themselves in a "national emergency status", when in the whole country there were only 20 people infected, among each none death [12].

Polical consequences of the statement of pandemics:

In the context of a pandemics, it is possible to declare the vaccination obligatory to certain groups of professionals or even some group of citizens [13].

What can happen if a person refuses to be vaccinated? Until it is not declared obligatory, nothing can happen. But if we arrive to a situation in which the vaccination would be obligatory, the governments would have to make the people to comply with the law. Who would refuse would have to pay a fine or go to prison (in Massachussetts the fine can reach 1000€ per each day that passes without the individual being vaccinated)[14].

According to this, some people might decide "ok... i will vaccinated myself when it is compulsory". The problem is, like the seasonal vaccines, there are no shots for everyone.

We must know that there are 3 differences comparing the new vaccine with the seasonal flu vaccine. The first is that the majority of the laboratories are designing the vaccine in order to one injection will be not enough and we will need 2 doses. The WHO also recommends that who takes the new vaccine should not take the seasonal flu one because it increases by 3 times the risk of adverse effects, which are not even known yet since there were no trials. The second news is that the responsible labs for the fabrication of the vaccine, added 2 co-adjuvants that are stronger than the ones used nowadays for the seasonal flu. Co-adjuvants are substances added to stimulate the immune system. For example the vaccine being produced by Glaxo-Smith-Kline, has an adjuvant, AS03, a combination that multiplies by 10 the immune response. The problem is that no one can ensure that the usage of these substances will not cause, on a long-term basis, autoimmune diseases such as the Guillain-Barré syndrome [15]. The third innovation is that the pharmaceutical companies that are producing the vaccine are requiring/demanding that the countries sign agreements that confer impunity to the companies, in case there are further adverse effects than the expected ones (for example, it is predicted that Guillain-Barré syndrome will develop in 10 people among 1 million of vaccinations. The USA already sign such an agreement that guarantee to the pharmaceuticals and also to the politicians, full immunity (no responsibility) for the possible adverse effects of the vaccine [16].

References:

[1] Zimmer SM, Burke, DS. Historical Perspective: Emergence of Influenza A (H1N1) viruses.. NEJM, Julio 16, 2009. p. 279
[2] 'The reemergence was probably an accidental release from a laboratory source in the setting of waning population immunity to H1 and N1 antigens', Zimmer, Burke, op. cit., p. 282
[3] Zimmer, Bunker, op. cit., p. 279
[4] Doshi, Peter. Calibrated response to emerging infections. BMJ 2009;339:b3471
[5] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Serum cross-reactive antibody response to a novel influenza A (H1N1) virus after vaccination with seasonal influenza vaccine. MMWR 2009; 58: 521-4.
[6] Dados oficiais do Centro Europeu para o controlo e prevenção de doenças (www.ecdc.europa.eu).
[7] Dados oficiais do Centro Europeu para o controlo e prevenção de doenças (www.ecdc.europa.eu)
[8] Cf. Le Journal du Dimanche (25 juliol '09): Debré: 'Cette grippe n'est pas dangereuse'; cf. La Razón (4 septiembre '09): Rodríguez Sendín: Cordura frente el alarmismo en la prevención de la gripe A
[9] Cf. Virus mix-up by lab could have resulted in pandemic. The Times of India, sección de ciencia, 6 marzo 2009.
[10] http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2009
[11] Cohen E. When a pandemic isn't a pandemic. CNN, 4 de mayo'09. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/05/04/swine.flu.pandemic/index.html
[12] Doshi Peter Calibrated response to emerging infections VMJ 2009;339:b3471
[13] Falkiner, Keith. Get the rushed flu jab or be jailed. Irish Star Sunday, 13 septiembre '09.
[14] Senate Bill n. 2028: An act relative to pandemic and disaster preparation and response in the commonwealth. 4 agosto '09. Cf. Moore, RT. Critics rage as state prepares for flu pandemic. 11 septiembre '09. WBUR Boston.
[15] Cf. Vaccination H1N1: méfiance des infirmières. www.syndicat-infirmier.com/Vaccination-H1N1-mefiance-des.htlm
[16] Stobbe, Mark. Legal immunity set for swine flu vaccine makers. Associated Press, 17 Julio '09.


Teresa Forcades i Vila is a Benedict monk in the San Benedict Monastaire in Montserrat, Barcelona; she has doctorate in Public Health and specialization in Internal Medicine from New York University. She is the writer of many books among which "Los crimines de las grandes companias farmaceuticas" [the crimes of the big pharmaceutical companies].



Comment please!

Swine flu vaccination II

News from Sweden:

"There are reports from Sweden of possible deaths linked to the H1N1 vaccine";
"An unconfirmed source says Swedish news sources are reporting at least 350 adverse reactions to the vaccine";
"Hungary has reported one death associated with the H1N1 vaccine";
"Glaxo-Smith-Kline (...) expects to make one billion pounds from the H1N1 vaccine alone"

And news from Ireland:

"The teenager fell seriously ill after receiving the injection, along with thousands of other pupils across Northern Ireland last Friday".


Whether or not these are just some sporadic cases of adverse reactions of this new vaccine, as expected (because it did not followed the normal clinical trials), one fact is pure true: pharmaceutical companies are going to become, not just richer, they are going to be even more powerful entities achieving a dangerous position on the health system that will end up to limit the action of the other professional health staff.

Hopefully we will eradicate this new strain of virus but is it worthful? Do the expenses compensate the results? What about the other more epidemic diseases that do not affect the small minority of developed nations?

What about on the future? Are people going to have to take the vaccine even against their willing?! After all this is a rapid contagious disease despite the mild symptoms associated with it on the normal healthy population. And, who says H1N1 vaccine says also any other vaccination... How are the legal rights of a mother to deny the vaccination of her son because of the fear of adverse reactions?!

We are focusing on the wrong problems and because of that a group of few companies will become so rich but so rich that negligent judicial processes will be covered really easy and the company will proceed as richer as never on the detriment of the health conditions and the patient's rights.

The swine flu hoax

Conspiracy theory for the swine flu!
Let the discussion begin!

Produced by Dr. Ron Paul, an American physician and a Republican Congressman for the state of Texas.

You can watch one more interesting video by clicking here
Dr. Rauni_Lenna Luukanen-Kilde is the former chief of medical officer of the Lappland province in Finland and she is known by trying to take a deeper look in some questions by exposing her conspiracy theories.

The swine flu vaccination

The swine flu vaccine is almost ready! Millions of shots will be ready soon and millions of people are going to receive it. The pandemic flu will be controlled. There will be less outbreaks and the strain of this H1N1 virus will almost disappear. Everything sounds perfect! However more and more people are questioning, not just the efficacy of this flash-done vaccine but also the origin of the disease itself (which, despite the controversy, should not be questioned). While the common citizen is completely afraid of this infection, tenths of companies are enriching! Roche pharmaceutical company has the registration for Tamiflu (almost nobody knows that the active substance is Oseltamivir and there are other companies producing it). Millions of hand disinfectant containers are now available in the most crowdie places, face masks are being used everyday especially in Asiatic countries, making these companies richer than they ever imagine.

These prevention measures are showing to be quite effective to avoid the spreading of this new virus. But, do all these means justify the ends?! Is this infection as bad as the media tells us?! Since the first case in Portugal, 9600 people were infected. This number ascends to more than 15000 in Germany. In both countries there were no deads yet. 20000 are infected in Hong Kong and there were only 13 deceased people making a 0,065% mortality rate (and I did not forget to multiply by 100 to obtain percentage). More, most of the people die from previous conditions that complicate the H1N1 infection. Aren’t there much more lethal diseases in the world? Are the diseases that kill millions per year (tuberculosis, AIDS, malaria, pneumonia, dysentery) starting to be forgotten?

The new vaccine is being made in a record time in order to control this pandemic. Normally a new drug needs more than 7 years of strict trials before it is approved. Is this going to reduce its safety for the population? Even more, the priority groups (children and pregnant women) should be the ones to which a new drug is available later, after several studies proving its effectiveness and safety.

According to the newspaper The Mail (USA), the Health Protection Agency sent a letter to senior neurologists to evaluate the connection between the shot and the Guillain-Barré syndrome that develops within few days after the injection. It is not new that vaccine against the seasonal Influenza can cause this ascending paralyzing syndrome, but the percentage is really low and the condition has, normally, a benign course with a complete recovery in 80% of cases. 20% of people die, do not regain movement or become dependent on breathing machines. This percentage can be higher in this new vaccine. There are no studies yet.

What exactly should we be worried about?
Are we making some few people millionaires to save ‘nothing’ while others really die elsewhere in the world?
Is this new vaccine safe and should it be commercialized without following the normal clinical trials?
Is this a truth pandemic or no more than a different strain of a flu virus slightly more contagious than seasonal ones?

Some curiosities about the Human body

- The brain needs 10W of energy to work (the sum of the small pieces making a computer needs more than 300W and just the motherboard needs 20-30W);
- Each single neuron responsible for memory has a storage capacity that is equivalent to 5 British Encyclopaedias;
- 80% of the brain is made of water and it uses 20% of the total oxygen body consumption;
- After decapitation the consciousness is preserved for 15-20sec (morbid!!);

- During the whole life we produce enough saliva to fulfil 2 swimming pools;
- By the age of 60 we lost already more than half of the gustatory papillae;
- A sneeze can achieve 160km/h and travel 300m;
- The liver has more than 500 known functions;

- The human heart creates enough pressure to project the blood 10m away;
- Women’s heart beats faster than men’s;
- Monday is the day with higher risk to have a myocardial infarction;
- We have around 96,500km of blood vessels in our body, twice the Earth’s circumference;

- It is impossible for a person to tickle him/herself;
- Each hair follicle can support a weight of 110g;
- The hand’s middle finger nail grows faster than the others;
- Feet can produce up to 500mL of sweat per day;

- The smallest and the biggest human cells are the ones that originate life, the spermatozoa and the egg, respectively;
- Most of men have erections during sleep every hour or hour and a half;
- Each day there are around 100million sexual relationships on Earth which makes 4,17million per minute;

Adapted from Sábado

Hannah Clark

She is a 16 year old girl whose story travelled around the world. During early childhood she had a cardiomyopathy and to overcome this situation a heart transplant was necessary. At the time, doctors decided to perform it using the “piggy-back” technique. This means, like in a kidney transplant, that the original organ(s) stays inside the body. For the kidneys it is really convenient because a retroperitoneal operation, which is extremely difficult, is avoided. However, in the case of the heart, the original diseased organ is normally removed and replaced by the donor’s one. Well, after transplantation she needed immunosuppressant therapy for life to avoid the rejection of the new organ. The drugs depressed her immune system and eventually she got lymphoma. Doctors had now a new challenge. To treat the tumor, chemotherapy was needed but for that, the immunosuppressant drugs had to be stopped leading to the rejection of the donor’s heart by Hannah´s immune system. Luckily she still had her original heart, which recovered from the cardiomyopahty through all these 14 years after transplantation. The chemotherapy solved the lymphoma, the donor’s heart was removed and Hannah has now a completely normal life without needing of almost any medication. Doctors were not expecting such a recovering from her heart. This opens new thoughts for the future heart transplants in children!

O Testamento Vital

Não percebo muito sobre o “Testamento Vital”. Não fazia ideia do que se tratava até pesquisar um pouco mais. Fiquei surpreendido ao constatar que muitos países Europeus terem adoptado um documento semelhante, antecipando-se, como sempre, às mudanças em Portugal. Foi proposto pela primeira vez por Louis Kutner em 1969, nos Estados Unidos. Trata-se de um documento que pode ser assinado quando uma pessoa se encontra em perfeita lucidez mental e que visa expressar a sua vontade de limitar as intervenções médicas em caso de uma doença incurável; determina “quais os cuidados de saúde que deseja ou não receber no futuro, no caso de, por qualquer causa, se encontrar incapaz de prestar o consentimento informado de forma autónoma". Assim, ao ser assinado o documento limita as actividades médicas à manutenção do conforto do doente e controlo da dor. Desta forma, depois de se confirmar que a doença é incurável e irreversível, o paciente evita intervenções invasivas que poderiam ou não melhorar o seu estado de saúde geral. No entanto, é direito do doente a defesa da sua dignidade, pelo que o documento, depois de devidamente analisado e avaliado deve ser adoptado, mesmo tendo como consequência a limitação do acto médico. Consta então que a proposta apresentada pelo Governo não reunia todas as condições para a sua adopção, tendo sido reprovado pelo Conselho Nacional de Ética para as Ciências da Vida. Este diploma tinha já sido aprovado em Assembleia da República pelo PS e PCP, com a abstenção do BE e votos contra do PSD e CDS. O Governo decidiu então não levar o diploma a Belém com receio de um veto do Presidente da República. Com tantas dúvidas pelo meio torna-se evidente que o documento deve ser revisto o mais depressa possível de modo a ser aprovado e dignificar os doentes em Portugal. Caso curioso segue-se a estas múltiplas encruzilhadas... O Prof. João Lobo Antunes foi afastado do Conselho Nacional de Ética para as Ciências da Vida por razões ainda por esclarecer o que, segundo o semanário SOL deixou o Presidente da República “estupefacto”. Muitas confusões que só prejudicam e atrasam um documento simples, tornado em mais um caso de burocracia e política com desacatos entre o Governo e um orgão independente (que muitos dizem pretender controlar). No final, a mesma conclusão de sempre, trocam-se as pessoas nas diferentes instituições da maneira que vais convém aos governantes e não de forma a trabalhar e lutar por um País melhor, mais transparente e menos burocrático.

Farmacêuticos vs 'Delivery boys'

Elisabete Mota Faria, Presidente da Ordem dos Farmacêuticos propõe um novo estatuto para os inúmeros farmacêuticos em Portugal. Depois de 5 anos de estudos no Ensino Superior, muitos outros como licenciados, os farmacêuticos recebem agora a sugestão de fazer o acompanhamento de qualquer medicamento que saia de uma farmácia hospitalar até chegar ao doente. Apesar da medida parecer sensata, já que aumenta a segurança neste trajecto (isto depois dos recentes casos de cegueira por explicar no Hospital de Santa Maria, em Lisboa), há que relembrar que existem Auxilares de Saúde, Voluntários e outros que poderiam assegurar o correcto itinerário de qualquer medicamento dentro de um hospital. Será mesmo necessário colocar os próprios farmacêuticos, que já têm de se preocupar com muito, a fazer de ‘delivery boys’?!