SWINE FLU, SWINE
INDUSTRY, SWINE GOVERNMENT
By A. Kronstadt
An Anticlimactic Pandemic
[July 30, 2009] On June 6, 2009, the World
Health Organization issued its "phase 6 pandemic alert", signaling that
human-to-human transmission of the H1N1 influenza virus, otherwise
known as the "swine flu", had spread it to multiple countries in
several widely-distributed regions of the world, thereby fulfilling the
criterion for a "pandemic." Although there have been about 130,000
diagnosed cases of the disease worldwide as of this writing (mid-July
2009), these have produced approximately 700 confirmed fatalities, for
a death rate of less than one percent.
When one considers that the seasonal outbreaks of influenza that occur
each winter typically kill 36,000 people in the U.S. alone, there does
not seem to be much occasion for hysteria, and the media hype is now
having much less effect on the public consciousness. The research
journal Science reported on July 3 that the receptor responsible for
binding of this H1N1 strain to cells of the human respiratory system
was weak in comparison to other strains of the flu and that, although
the virus shows a genetic relationship with the virus that caused the
great "Spanish flu" epidemic of 1918-1920, it is not nearly as
virulent.
Pork Barrel for the Drug Peddlers
However, the viral hysteria continues on the
part of the government and "Big Pharma", which is a major supplier of
the government and military, just like the aerospace and weapons
industries. The swine flu pandemic has already become an enormous pork
barrel for Sanofi Pasteur, MedImmune, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis,
from which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has
purchased $884,000,000 worth of bulk H1N1 virus antigen and the "oil
and water" adjuvant, which are two ingredients of a vaccine. The
government would have to extensively process this material in order to
actually use it for immunizations, and the intention seems to be to
simply hoard as a kind of strategic reserve.
Funding has also been handed out to these companies to develop the
"swine flu" vaccine itself. MedImmune, a Gaithersburg, Maryland
subsidiary of AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish pharma conglomerate,
received $60,000,000 to test and develop an anti-H1N1 version of its
FluMist vaccine, which is administered nasally and differs from
conventional vaccines in that it contains a live, weakened version of
the flu virus.
Throughout 2007 and 2008, MedImmune was having numerous technical
problems with its seasonal flu version of FluMist, which were seriously
affecting AstraZeneca's shares and leading to criticism on the part of
financial pundits that AstraZeneca had paid too much to acquire
MedImmune. The technical problems with the vaccine still exist, but
AstraZeneca's shares have shot up from $30 in March of this year,
before the government contracts were announced, to $48 per share on
July 23. That is an amazing performance in times like these.
Vaccines: Iffy, Dangerous, Too Little and Too Late
A flu vaccine works by exposing the vaccinated
person to one of the proteins that make up the flu virus. The patient's
immune system then secretes an antibody against that specific protein
which will react with it when it is detected in the body and thereby
kill the virus. A healthy immune system is a pre-requisite for fighting
off any disease, vaccine or no vaccine. Viruses from the outside world
are constantly invading our bodies and establishing a foothold in our
cells, and our immune systems are constantly detecting infected cells
and destroying them. One might say that a healthy diet and a rational
way of living that avoids stress and self-destructive behavior are
better than any vaccine, because they improve the general performance
of the immune system in battling invading organisms generally, without
leaving us dependent on products of the pharmaceutical industry that
are generated for profit and whose composition and even short-term
effects, not to mention long-term effects, are a "black box" for the
consumer.
Flu vaccines take a long time to develop. As of the end of July, only
one of the abovementioned companies, Novartis, has actually come up
with a first batch of vaccine, which started clinical trials in July.
The other companies are expected to move into clinical trials in
September and October. When the flu season begins in winter, the virus,
which is already showing mutational variations, will recombine with
seasonal flu strains and its proteins may change in such a way that the
vaccine will no longer be effective in preventing infection. This is
expected because the antibodies that the vaccine elicits in the
vaccinated patient will no longer react with the now-mutated viral
proteins. The pharmaceutical companies are therefore trying to hit a
moving target, and even the more conventional vaccines are an iffy
proposition.
An additional issue is that If the swine flu spreads further through
Europe, there is a chance that the governments of Britain, Sweden,
Switzerland, and other countries where the vaccine is being
manufactured under contract to the U.S. may actually stop the vaccine
from being shipped here, and keep it in their own countries to deal
with a health emergency. While the government may be putting its faith
in mass vaccinations to stop the spread of swine flu, for individuals
concerned about their own health, reliance on either the government or
the pharmaceutical companies to protect them is a mistake.
The side effects of influenza vaccines are well established. A certain
percentage of people who are vaccinated experience flu-like symptoms
after being injected with vaccines that contain material derived from
the flu virus itself, even though it is supposed to have been killed or
weakened. These symptoms are especially dangerous in the populations
that are routinely subjected to flu vaccination, including the elderly
and patients with lung ailments. Flu viruses often contain adjuvants,
which are chemicals like aluminum salts and certain plant oils that
cause an inflammation at the site of injection, believed to enhance the
production of antibodies against the virus. The site of this
artificially-induced inflammation in some cases transforms into a
tumor-like growth called a granuloma, that has a calculated risk of
becoming malignant. In addition, flu vaccines contain mercury
compounds, including thimerosal, implicated in neurological damage even
at low doses.
Tamiflu: Rumsfeld's Magic Bullet Coming At Us
The U.S..government is also placing a great
deal of faith in antiviral drugs that are purported to lessen the
severity of flu infections, in particular, Tamiflu, a compound
manufactured by Roche under license from Gilead Sciences. Gilead is a
venture capital research firm in which former Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, a former top executive of the firm, holds between 5 and 25
million dollars worth of shares, according to his own disclosure
statements.
Tamiflu is by no means a magic bullet that decisively wipes out the flu
virus the way penicillin wipes out a strep infection. Tamiflu partially
prevents cell-to-cell transmission of the virus by inhibiting
neuraminidase, a protein that the flu virus causes the patient's own
cells to produce and which then becomes part of new virus particles.
Viruses differ from bacteria and other disease-causing parasites in
that they are not totally separate organisms from the host, but go
through a stage where they are part of the patient's own DNA. When
drugs like Tamiflu work, they are attacking the virus but also
attacking the patient's own cells at least to some extent, hence the
many side effects associated with them. Like the antiviral drugs used
to treat HIV/AIDS, Tamiflu often causes severe digestive disturbances,
hepatitis-like liver symptoms, allergic reactions, and neurological
reactions including hallucinations, delerium, and abnormal behavior
such as jumps from buildings and walking into traffic.
A Japanese study concluded that children treated with Tamiflu were 54%
more likely to show the latter, brain-related symptoms than those not
taking the drug. During Rumsfeld's tenure as Defense Secretary, the
Defense Department ordered 58 billion dollars worth of Tamiflu as a
stockpile for U.S. troops around the world, and the concomitant
increase in the value of Rumsfeld's stock is estimated to have netted
him a million dollars. There have already been three reported cases of
Tamiflu resistance in patients infected with the H1N1 or "swine flu"
virus.
Since Tamiflu only partially prevents the spread of the influenza virus
between the cells of an individual patient, there is a natural
selection process going on in which virus particles with certain
mutations in their neuraminidase protein can escape the effects of
Tamiflu; hence the population of viruses as a whole evolves a
resistance to the drug. Even though Rumsfeld is no longer in
government, the Obama administration continues to stockpile Tamiflu and
a related antiviral, Relenza, for both military and civilian use. Are
the billions being spent on these harsh medications merely an
investment in a stronger virus?
Let's Think for Ourselves and Stay Healthy
There have been a number of influenza
pandemics over the course of the twentieth century. The great "Spanish
flu" epidemic of 1918-1920 spread from farms in the midwestern United
States to World War I military recruits who were then sent to fight in
Europe. The disease took advantage of the overcrowding in military
hospitals and the displacement and homelessness wrought by the war, and
cut a swath through Europe and Asia, even as it continued to claim
victims in the U.S., resulting ultimately in up to 20 million
fatalities. The Hong Kong Flu of 1968-1969 reached the U.S. as a result
of troop movements during the Vietnam War, and hit the war-ravaged
people of Southeast Asia especially hard, claiming hundreds of
thousands of lives in that region of the world. Real pandemics usually
occur on the margins of war and social dislocations, situations that
render vaccines and drugs largely irrelevant in the absence of needed
food and shelter.
There have also been pandemics that turned out to be false alarms, but
that nevertheless served to give a "shot in the arm" to Big Pharma.
Some of us may remember that there was another "swine flu" scare in
1976 after an army recruit at Fort Dix, New Jersey, died from a strain
of influenza virus identified as H1N1, the strain associated with the
deadly 1918 pandemic, and with the present-day swine flu scare.
President Gerald Ford urged all Americans to be vaccinated in an
attempt to head off the spread of the disease, and 40 million shots
were administered to nearly 24% of the population before it was
realized that this version of the flu was not spreading beyond the
gates of Fort Dix. Twenty-five fatalities were confirmed as resulting
from side-effects of the vaccine, mostly Guillain-Barre syndrome, a
reaction to egg proteins employed in vaccine production. Historically,
this mass-vaccination is referred to as the "Swine Flu Fiasco of 1976"
and is considered a low point in U.S. public health administration.
Still, the 40 million flu shots were paid for by taxpayers and the
pharmaceutical industry walked away with its profits.
Taking responsibility for our own health often involves ignoring the
advice of authority figures. It is the government itself that spreads
disease by starting wars and laying the groundwork for homelessness and
overcrowded housing conditions that destroy people's resistance and
soften them up as hosts for micro-organisms. We need to stay out of
institutions that the government sets up for poor people, including the
shelters and jails -- a prime focus of the H1N1 outbreak in New York
City has been Bloomberg's concentration camp on Riker's Island, where
everyone wallows in everyone else's filth. And, although each person
needs to make his or her own decision on the subject of vaccination, to
sum up what we have said here, these vaccines (1) may not be available
at all; (2) may not immunize against the viruses that we are actually
being exposed to; and (3) may give us mercury poisoning,
adjuvant-related tumors, bad reactions to foreign proteins, or even the
flu itself.
Maybe the best way to stimulate the immune system against the flu is to
stimulate the immune system in general by improving our diets,
improving our lives, and not letting the system grind us down.
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