Facts About Influenza -- The Disease and the Vaccine -- What is Influenza? Infection with influenza (flu) virus may be severe and occasionally fatal. Typical influenza illness includes fever and respiratory symptoms, such as cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, as well as headache, muscle aches, and often extreme fatigue. Although most people who get the flu recover completely within 1-2 weeks, some people may develop serious medical complications such as pneumonia. ~ Maine Lung Association. See archive of original page at http://www.vaclib.org/basic/flu/archive-flu_intro.htm. How Safe Are Flu Vaccines? A mercury derivative, the preservative thimerosal, is a component of more than 90 percent of U.S. Flu Vaccines in 2004-05. Unless specified to be thimerosal preservative-free, a .5 mL dose contains 25 micrograms of mercury, five times the maximum amount judged safe by the CDC for a 110 lb. person. In a controversal move, the flu vaccine is now recommended for children above age 6 months by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices as of April 1, 2004. The CDC recommends that close contacts of healthy children 0-23 months also be vaccinated for everyone’s protection. Flu vaccines are cultured in chicken embryo. This means that people who are allergic to egg and/or chicken can become seriously ill. All viral vaccines contain not only the particular virus but they also contain traces of leukemia virus and other cancer-associated viruses. These are not completely removable. They exist in the chicken from which these eggs are taken and although it is claimed to be 98% purified, 2% of several billion viruses is still an awful lot of cancer and leukemia dangers. ~Dr. Eva Snead in an interview by Gary Null. See http://www.whale.to/vaccines/snead1.html. According to Dr. J. Seal, of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: “Any and all flu vaccines are capable of causing Guillain-Barre.” In the Swine flu vaccine disaster of 1976, over 500 people in the U.S. were paralyzed by the disease, with 30 dying after being injected with the vaccine, which is concocted from material taken from influenza victims and then cultivated on mashed chick embryos. Other problems associated with flu shots are paralysis, memory loss, itchy rashes, and chronic fatigue. ~ See Vaccination - Assault on the Species by Pat Rattigan, ND at http://whale.to/vaccine/rattigan2.html#influenza In 2004, Chiron, announced it would delay the delivery of some doses of influenza vaccine because of production problems related to sterility in its manufacturing plant in Liverpool, England. British pharmaceutical company Medeva's Liverpool plant was found by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be producing vaccines in filthy conditions. The FDA report found that Medeva neither maintained nor cleaned its equipment. Furthermore, Medeva was unable to prove that its vaccines were not contaminated with bacteria or fungi. Certain fungi provide the medium in which the prion protein crystal that causes bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or “mad cow” disease) to proliferate. Because it exports flu vaccine to America, Medeva got a “warning” from the FDA to clean up its act. However, in a report dated October 22, 2000, The London Observer noted that the FDA had not re-inspected the Medeva facility since it sent the warning letter and gave the company the green light to sell an estimated 20,000,000 doses of its “Fluvirin” vaccine in the U.S. during the 2000 cold and flu season. ~ “FDA approves potentially contaminated Medeva flu vaccine for use in U.S.” by Virginia Winston, The Idaho Observer, December 2000. www.proliberty.com/observer/20001208.htm Will the flu vaccine protect one from “catching” the flu? "There is no evidence that any influenza vaccine thus far developed is effective in preventing or mitigating any attack of influenza. The producers of these vaccines know that they are worthless, but they go on selling them anyway." ~Dr. J. Anthony Morris (distinguished virologist and formerly Chief Vaccine Control Officer at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.) See http://www.whale.to/vaccines/morris_h.html "In a 1993 Dutch article on a nursing home for the elderly, 50% of the vaccinated population caught the illness compared to 48% unvaccinated." ~See The Flu Vaccine: Is It Really Safe and Effective? at http://www.vaclib.org/basic/flu_safe.htm Large scale studies of compulsory flu vaccination in Japan of school aged children showed the vaccine to be ineffective and conducive to lawsuits due to adverse side effects. Two large studies, one in 1980 and the other in 1985, involving four cities with vaccination rates between 1% and 90% showed little difference in flu incidence. In 1987, the Japanese government changed the flu vaccine from compulsory to voluntary. By 1989, even though only 20% of the population took the flu vaccine, the incidence of influenza did not increase. ~ “Why the Japanese government had to cease compulsory vaccinations” –a presentation by Dr. Yamamoto, Naples, Italy, June 1997 http://www.whale.to/vaccines/flu7.html "Over the past twenty years, age specific death rates for pneumonia and influenza have increased in the older adult populations [over age 65]…" However, since 1987, while death rates from influenza in the over 65 age group have been increasing, flu vaccination rates also increased from 33% to 65%. ~ The Maine (U.S.) Lung Association, statistics for U.S.A. See graph at: http://www.vaclib.org/sites/fluG2.html In Great Britain, the post office dropped its influenza vaccine program after it showed no improvement in absenteeism. In Birmingham, six hundred elderly vaccinated people showed over double the incidence of respiratory disease as compared to a non-vaccinated group. ~Sunday Express, 12/17/89 Even vaccine proponents admit that unvaccinated individuals are 80-90% immune to the Influenza like Illnesses of which only 10 to 15 percent are actual flu. Some seasons the flu vaccine is admitted to be useless due to the guesswork involved in determining what virus to put in each year’s flu vaccine. However, even vaccines with correct serotypes, followed by 'adequate' antibody levels, fail to produce immunity to the flu. In an October 9, 1997 Associated Press article, a survey was cited revealing that only 30 percent of doctors, nurses and attendants annually get flu shots. ~ Study: Health workers major sources of flu in old-age homes by Paul Recer http://www.s-t.com/daily/10-97/10-09-97/a06wn032.htm Is it influenza? Or is it pesticide/chemical poisoning? The symptoms of the flu are also synonymous with the symptoms experienced when one is exposed to toxic levels of such poisons as pesticides, herbicides and fluoride. Granville Knight, MD, stated under oath at a Congressional Hearing in the 60s that “waves of so-called ‘Virus-X’ and similar diseases …are caused by exposure to such agricultural chemicals; [and] that it is impossible for doctors to diagnose the difference between London flu, virus conditions and pesticide poisoning.” ~Immunization: The Reality Behind the Myth by Walene James, pp. 118-119 See http://www.vaclib.org/basic/fluindex.htm for more information. Or write to: Vaccination Liberation, P.O. Box 457, Spirit Lake, Idaho 83869-0457