H1N1 Squalene Very Damaging to Immune System

Squalene still used, author says
http://www.delawareonline.com Oct 25 2004
The military is still conducting illegal experiments on troops at Dover Air Force Base and elsewhere - and has done so for more than a decade - according to the author of a book published this week.
In his book, "Vaccine A," published by Basic Books, Gary Matsumoto says the government since 1987 has injected soldiers with an anthrax vaccine containing squalene to increase its potency.
Some scientists say that injecting even trace amounts of squalene into the body can cause serious illness. Pentagon spokesman Jim Turner on Friday denied the military has ever added squalene to the vaccine.
Matsumoto worked with immunologist Pam Asa, who conducted research on squalene and edited the scientific portions of the book. They said Air Force personnel getting shots today at Dover, and other bases around the nation, are risking their lives by doing so.
Key to their conclusions is Asa's finding that troops who receive the vaccine develop antibodies to squalene in their blood. Asa said that strongly indicates the vaccine contains squalene. Squalene is a fat-like substance that occurs naturally in the body. But Asa and other scientists contend that squalene injections suppress the immune system.
Asa, a visiting professor at Tulane University in New Orleans, sampled the blood of about 35 patients as recently as March - including six from Dover Air Force Base. In June she received results of tests that determined that 18 of them had antibodies to squalene.
Based on their shot records and illnesses, she concluded that recently manufactured anthrax vaccine lots 073, 048, 066, 068, 070 and 071 contained squalene. Although the military has not revealed the destination of all the lots, Asa said vaccines from Lot 071 were sent to Dover. This is the first evidence that recently produced lots of the vaccine may contain squalene.
"People who received that lot number had autoimmune disease," she said. "And they had antibodies in their blood to squalene. Those were my tip-offs."
Asa said the patients who tested positive suffered from severe joint and muscle pain, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. She already has published two studies during the last four years that show antibodies to squalene in troops who received the anthrax vaccine.
The second study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Experiment and Molecular Pathology in August 2002, tested four patients for antibodies to squalene before they received the shots in May and June 1999. One of the patients was from Dover Air Force Base. None of these patients had antibodies to squalene before they had the shots. After they received the shots, they did.
Asa noted that her findings only indicate the presence of squalene antibodies. She said the only way to determine for certain the vaccine contains it is to test the actual vaccine, something the military has refused to do for the past five years.
The Food and Drug Administration found squalene in samples of specific lots that were sent to Dover in June of 1999 but didn't announce their findings until September 2000. The military has said on its anthrax vaccine Web site that the squalene was a result of faulty lab testing by the FDA. The FDA has declined comment on the issue.
On Thursday, the Defense Department said in an official letter that the anthrax vaccine is safe and that no troops were subjected to medical experiments. The letter was a response to Delaware's congressional delegation for an investigation into whether troops at Dover Air Force Base received experimental anthrax vaccine in 1999. The letter consisted of a copy of a question-and-answer page from the Defense Department's anthrax information Web site, which has been criticized by civilian scientists for its unattributed statements and lack of signed articles.
The delegation requested the investigations after The News Journal reported earlier this month that troops at the Dover base in 1999 received anthrax vaccine that may have contained squalene. The newspaper interviewed dozens of current and former pilots and crews who said they became ill after receiving squalene-tainted vaccine.
"This whole issue would be resolved if they would allow a neutral agency to pull vials off the clinic shelves and test them," said retired Lt. Col. Jay Lacklen, who has tested positive for squalene after he received shots at Dover in 1999. "But the DOD [Department of Defense] won't let anyone test them. Those vials are locked down like a top-secret memo."
Interactive graphic showing how squalene affects the body
Video From Delawareonline.com: -
VICTIMS Robert Melchionda, Hans Reigle, Barbara Welsh-Rosenblum
Watch as Lt. Gen. Charles Roadman assures Air Force pilots in Dover on May 11, 1999, that there is no squalene in the anthrax vaccinization.
VICTIMS Robert Melchionda, Hans Reigle, Barbara Welsh-Rosenblum
Watch as Lt. Gen. Charles Roadman assures Air Force pilots in Dover on May 11, 1999, that there is no squalene in the anthrax vaccinization.