There is serious danger that an ingredient of the vaccine called squalene which is used as an adjuvant,

Is swine flu pandemic'Ukiah Daily Journal Staff
Updated: 09/09/2009 08:21:03 AM PDT


To the Editor:

The H1N1 pandemic seems to have taken on a life of its own ­ while the actual evidence of a serious and life-threatening epidemic has not at all supported the hysteria we hear in the main stream media and in the Ukiah Daily Journal. The news media and the World Health Organization have continued to pump out stories suggesting that we are just a few months away from Armageddon ­ and the mass inoculation of just about everyone with this still-untested vaccine is the only solution. Mark Horton, director of the California Dept. of Public Health announced that "millions of Californians, possibly one in four, may be affected by the coming H1N1 swine flu' virus". Dr. Marvin Trotter, Mendocino County's public heath officer "fears a perfect storm' scenario could lead to the rapid and potentially deadly spread of what the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) calls a novel virus.' The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology warned that "swine flu poses a serious threat: half the population could come down with the strain and 90,000 could die this season." US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius warns that "this is not the flu we're used to."

While the virus is not innocuous and seems to particularly attack the lung tissue which can lead to viral pneumonia, the panic mode that is being encouraged in the media is really overdone. Consider these facts:

First: The H1N1 vaccine is acceptable to the Food and Drug Administration if


it creates a protective antibody level in 30 percent of recipients. For those over 65, this figure drops to 18 percent. In other words, the vaccine is likely to be ineffective in 70 percent of recipients under age 65 and ineffective in 82 percent of the seniors. This does not seem like much of a cure.
Second: As with past flu vaccines, there is a considerable risk of contracting the very flu you are trying to avoid.

Third: The symptoms are almost identical with our normal seasonal flu. The H1N1 swine flu is actually quite mild and is usually over in a week without medication.

Fourth: Normally, medical practice is to conduct clinical trials on a small group of people and then assess the results to determine size of the dosage, and the number of dosages required. This has been bypassed with first shipments of the untested vaccine due to be sent out Oct. 15.

Fifth: The supposedly pandemic has resulted in the suspected deaths on only 552 in the U.S. during the past five months and a total of only 2185 worldwide, less than normally die from the "seasonal flu" we experience regularly each spring.

Sixth: There is serious danger that an ingredient of the vaccine called squalene which is used as an adjuvant, can result in a serious paralysis called Guillain-Barre Syndrome, for which there is no known treatment.

Many independent doctors and researchers have already objected to the speed with which this untested vaccine is being marketed:

Nigel Dimmock, professor of biological sciences at Warwick University (UK) says "The scale and speed of the planned vaccination program is insane given that the overwhelming majority of those who have contracted the virus have had very mild symptoms."

"This is over reaction" said Barbara Lee Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center: "There is no national security threat here, why are we operating like this? This is not polio, this is not smallpox."

In Germany, Health Minister Ulla Schmidt admitted on TV on August 25th that "the swine flu vaccination campaign was a hoax and the largest ever inoculation experiment in history." The Chair of the Health Committee in the German Parliament, Dr. Wolfgang Wogarg, warned about potential swine flu vaccine safety. "Novartis' vaccine contained cancerous animal cells. It is a great business for the pharmaceutical industry" he told Neuten Presse on August 22nd..."

"I fear that a rush towards vaccinating the population without completing trials risks leading to the harmful outcome that we witnessed during the 1976 swine flu scare" wrote Dr. A. Afkhami of George Washington University. He warns that "we must learn from lessons of the past and be mindful of not jumping from the proverbial frying pan into the fire by putting people's health at risk without adequate safety monitoring of the vaccines".

The pharmaceutical industry stands to make an enormous profit from this pandemic. Secretary Sibelius just signed an order relieving them of any liability for injury to those who trustingly take this untested vaccine.

All in all, given the low level of protection the vaccine offers, the relatively mild nature of the swine flu illness itself, and considering the risks of more serious complications, shouldn't we all step back and wait a bit. Let the results of the clinical trials be carefully evaluated first. Let's not start rushing to the hospitals at the first sneeze.

James F. Houle

Redwood Valley