Free Republic

Moldovan soldiers has been issued with an extra ration of onions and garlic to ward off swine flu, the defence ministry's chief doctor said Thursday. "We have introduced an extra 25 grams (one ounce) of onion and 15 grams of garlic in their daily ration," Sergiu Vasilita told AFP. So far, 24 soldiers have completed treatment for swine flu, while 19 are in hospital with acute respiratory infections, he said.

A U.S.-based group representing people who portray Santa Claus during the Christmas season wants its members to be designated a priority group to receive the swine flu vaccine. Over the next few weeks, Father Christmases will come into contact with thousands of children at shopping malls and Santa Claus parades. The Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas, a fraternal organization that provides training and resources for people who work or volunteer as Santa Clauses, said the health of its roughly 700 members is a real concern. "Yes, we should be given the needle," said Nicholas Trolli, the organization's president. "Many...

VIDEO posted on THE SCHIFFER REPORT website exposing the Obama Administration's attempts to use children to spread propaganda for the swine flu vaccine

November 19, 2009, 4:00 a.m. Cobbling Together a CrisisEven as the swine-flu epidemic has peaked. By Michael Fumento ‘Swine flu has killed 540 kids, sickened 22 million Americans,� screams USA Today’s page-one headline, with a sub-head proclaiming, “CDC: Cases, Deaths are Unprecedented.� “Swine flu cases in the U.S. are rising at the fastest pace for influenza in four decades,� breathlessly declares the lede of a Bloomberg News article. Another article’s title refers to a “national swine flu spike.� Scary stuff — but it’s phony. It’s actually a desperate effort to distract from an alarmist media world’s greatest nightmare: that...

Health Ministry: Flu, respiratory diseases claim 344 lives in Ukraine Yesterday at 20:36 | Interfax-Ukraine The current flu epidemic and other acute respiratory diseases in Ukraine has claimed 344 lives by Wednesday evening, the Health Ministry said. It said 18 people had died of such diseases in the previous 24 hours. The ministry said 1.502 million people had contracted such illnesses since the epidemic broke out and that 44,781 had fallen ill in the past 24 hours. A total of 83,904 people have been hospitalized since the start of the epidemic, and 54,407 of them have been discharged from the...

Abstract The epidemiology of influenza swarms with incongruities, incongruities exhaustively detailed by the late British epidemiologist...propose a parsimonious theory explaining why influenza is, ..."seemingly unmindful of traditional infectious disease behavioral patterns." Recent discoveries indicate vitamin D upregulates the endogenous antibiotics of innate immunity and suggest that the incongruities explored by Hope-Simpson may be secondary to the epidemiology of vitamin D deficiency. We identify – and attempt to explain – nine influenza conundrums: (1) Why is influenza both seasonal and ubiquitous and where is the virus between epidemics? (2) Why are the epidemics so explosive? (3) Why do they end so...

CONCORD, N.H. – Forget cookies and milk. Santa wants the swine flu vaccine. Many of the nation's Santas want to be given priority for the vaccine and not just because of those runny-nosed kids. There's also the not-so-little matter of that round belly. Research has suggested obesity could be a risk factor. Swine flu has become such a concern that the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas featured a seminar on the illness at a recent conference in Philadelphia. The group also urged its members to use hand sanitizer and take vitamins to boost their immune systems. The president...

Nov 17, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – Making paid sick leave a national standard is crucial to controlling the H1N1 pandemic and future epidemics, public health and business experts told Congress Tuesday. But others cautioned that forcing businesses to follow federal mandates will make them pay extra costs in a recession and could depress future hiring and investment. The experts made their remarks at a hearing of the US House of Representatives' Education and Labor Committee. The committee's chairman, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., 2 weeks ago introduced the Emergency Influenza Containment Act (HR 3991), which would guarantee any worker who is...

WHAT: A new study shows that molecular similarities exist between the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus and other strains of seasonal H1N1 virus that have been circulating in the population since 1988. These results suggest that healthy adults may have a level of protective immune memory that can blunt the severity of infection caused by the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus. The study team was led by Bjoern Peters, Ph.D., and Alessandro Sette, Ph.D., of La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, Calif., grantees of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The...

OTTAWA — Despite the recent surge in H1N1 deaths, the nation's chief public health officer says the pandemic virus appears no deadlier than regular seasonal influenza and that there could actually be substantially fewer flu deaths than normal this season. Although H1N1 is disproportionately infecting more children and otherwise healthy young adults, "the mortality rate from this (H1N1) is no worse than seasonal flu," Dr. David Butler-Jones said. "The individual risk of severe disease or dying if you happen to get the flu is very similar today as it was back in June. It's just that we're starting to see...

County officials have begun airing public service announcements urging at-risk Latinos, including people who are in the country illegally, to get vaccinated against the swine flu, also known as H1N1. Local health officials said their priority is public safety, not politics. "When it comes to public health, it doesn't matter who you are," said Dr. Dean Sidelinger, San Diego County's deputy public health officer. "We are going to take the same necessary precautions to protect the public's health." Giving illegal immigrants swine flu vaccines has drawn relatively little controversy. Officials from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to...

Sunday, November 15, 2009 Summary of current theories in alternative/supplemental treatments for H1N1 I originally posted the following on the FluTrackers forum on July 18, 2009 (I have not found a better summary of these issues online, but if I do I'll post them here): As far as I'm concerned, the gold standard for information on evidence based treatment alternatives for pandemic influenza characterized by cytokinemia (cytokine storm) is Dr. Fedson's paper in the 12 Jun 2009 edition of the journal Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses titled Confronting the next influenza pandemic with anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory agents: why they are...

The FDA's website lists the Swine Flu H1n1 vaccines ingredients which include mercury, squalene and formaldehyde. Research the ingredients for yourself. Click here to find out what scientists have discovered about damaging effects of mercury on the brain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSKvDQ9OkNM Although Dystonia is a less prevalant disorder, autism rates in America's children have skyrocketed. 1 in 150 children in America are diagnosed with autism. Mercury has been proven to cause nonsocial and uncontrollable behavior in primates. Scientific studies has proven mercury poisoning causes neurological damage... Dystonia is a neurological movement disorder in which sustained muscle contractions cause twisting and repetitive movements...

CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a panel made up of medical and public health experts, met July 29, 2009, to make recommendations on who should receive the 2009 H1N1 vaccine While some issues are still unknown, such as how severe the flu season, the ACIP considered several factors, including current disease patterns, populations most at-risk for severe illness based on current trends in illness, hospitalizations and deaths, how much vaccine is expected to be available, and the timing of vaccine availability. The groups recommended to receive the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine include: Pregnant Women because they are at...

A 14-year-old Virginia boy is weak and struggling to walk after coming down with a reported case of Guillain-Barre syndrome within hours after receiving the H1N1 vaccine for swine flu. Jordan McFarland, a high school athlete from Alexandria, Va., left Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children Tuesday night in a wheelchair nearly a week after developing severe headaches, muscle spasms and weakness in his legs following a swine flu shot. He will likely need the assistance of a walker for four to six weeks, plus extensive physical therapy. “The doctor said I’ll recover fully, but it’s going to take some time,”...

Ukraine WHO And The Geopolitics Of Swine Flu Panic Politics / Global Pandemic Nov 13, 2009 - 03:30 AM By: F_William_Engdahl Latest reports of what is being called a deadly Swine Flu outbreak in Ukraine according to on sight reports appear to be a political concoction by a threatened government to avoid election defeat and possibly declare martial law. The details indicate how convenient the current WHO “Swine Flu” H1N1 “pandemic” scare is for regimes in trouble. Worldwide media reports in recent days have painted a picture of Ukraine as being under the Black Plague or worse. One of the...

Student refused; was held down for vaccination. It took the strength of two sheriff's deputies to keep a middle schooler still enough to receive a shot of the swine flu, or H1N1, vaccine at a recent clinic. During a regular Wheeling-Ohio County Health Board meeting Tuesday, health department Administrator Howard Gamble told board members about the student's attempt to flee Wheeling Middle School during a vaccination clinic held there last Friday. He noted the boy's mother could not bear to watch the scene and left the gymnasium. "He tried to run. I looked over and saw two sheriff's deputies holding...

Dear fellow citizens! I address you in performance of my constitutional duty under the Article 106 of the Basic Law of the state. The reason is the emergency epidemic situation in the country. Infections of viral origin, including the A/H1N1 flu, are rapidly spreading across Ukraine. The emergency is evident in the scale of the epidemic: the speed and the geography of its spreading, rapid progress of the illness and the exceptional number of deaths. People are dying. The epidemic is killing doctors. This is absolutely unprecedented and inconceivable in the XXI century. All the limits have been exceeded -...

Many are conflicted - to get the H1N1 (Swine Flu) shot or not. Regardless of what you decide for you and your family members, everyone would be wise to work at preventing the flu. Your best defense against the virus or any other infection is to strengthen your immune system. My naturopathic recommendation is to work on a strong, healthy body, and worry less about the outside bugs. Fear is not a good defense or offense, but just one more stress that we place on ourselves that will not only not protect us from getting the virus - but will...

BELGRADE, Serbia — Belgrade's open-air markets were a welter of busy customers on Friday, pushing and shoving to buy one item — garlic. In Serbia, garlic has long been regarded as a good luck charm and a guard against many ailments. As far as the public is concerned, that includes the swine flu pandemic, which recently has spread in Serbia and triggered near panic among the local population. That is now evident in Belgrade's produce markets, where the price of garlic has shot up, thanks to a sudden increase in demand. The smell of the little white cloves also has...

We have known about the H1N1 (Swine Flu), risk for many months now. We knew that last spring's outbreak would turn into a more virulent strain by this fall. That is all basic science. Concerned for our citizens, the government recognized the need to produce substantial volumes of vaccine. We have spent more than $2.2B for H1N1 Swine flu. To date, only a minor amount of this vaccine has been delivered, but concern seems muted. Despite new vaccine manufacturing technologies, we persist in using outdated methods and to spend huge sums of money in a wasteful manner. Why?

Swine Flu Forces Changes In Church TraditionsNov 11, 2009 11:26 pm US/Eastern SACRAMENTO (CBS) - The swine flu outbreak has forced local Catholic churches to revamp some rituals in hopes of slowing the spread of the disease, CBS station KOVR-TV reported. The bishop of Sacramento ordered Catholic churches to make changes during mass, so parishioners will no longer drink from the cup, hold hands during the Lord's Prayer or shake hands as a sign of peace. The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament is also changing the holy water regularly and wiping down the bowl, and is asking sick church members...

G.'s young son was recently ill with H1N1, but no pharmacy in the city where he lives had liquid Tamiflu in stock. (Even the federal government released its stockpile not long ago.) He writes that nearly every pharmacy he called turned him down. Then he learned that the liquid can be made from Tamiflu capsules by pharmacists, or even by parents at home. Why didn't the pharmacy staff, or his doctor, tell him this? He writes: When his H1N1-induced fever spiked at 104, I brought my 16-month-old son to the pediatrician, who promptly prescribed Tamiflu.When I arrived at CVS, I...

H1N1 swine flu killed an estimated 3,900 Americans from April to October, U.S. health officials said Thursday. Better estimates show that the pandemic of flu has infected an estimated 22 million Americans and put 98,000 in the hospital, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Of these totals, children account for 8 million of the infected, 36,000 of those in hospital and 540 deaths.

The CDC is stating that 4,000 Americans are dead because of swine flu. That’s an attention grabbing headline. Follow that up with the CDC saying that is 4x more than they were estimating, and you have a panic formula in full effect. Most people reading that will be scared into running out, and finding the closest H1N1 vaccine so they don’t die. But what does 4,000 deaths mean? Is it really a lot of people given the circumstances? In a nutshell … HELL NO! While the CDC attempts to institute widespread panic about a mere 4,000 deaths, in April CNN...

Russian crime gangs are making millions by selling counterfeit Tamiflu online to Britons woried about swine flu, an internet security firm has claimed. Anxious residents who fear they may not be able to obtain the drug through the NHS could be funding organised crime abroad as well as putting themselves at risk of identity fraud when they buy the potentially useless drugs.

thousands of nurses and other front-line healthcare workers are fighting mandatory flu immunization policies being put in place by some U.S. hospitals. The H1N1 pandemic, which has killed about 3,900 Americans so far, has stoked tensions over the best way to safeguard medical caregivers and their patients from flu. Nurses unions have won some early battles against compulsory vaccination. data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that only about 40 percent of U.S. healthcare workers ever get shots for seasonal influenza. mandating that healthcare workers get vaccines is misguided, ineffective and ultimately counterproductive. "There is no...

It's emblazoned across the front page of USA Today, just underneath a subhead declaring Michael Jackson was, indeed, killed by a drug overdose: "Flu could infect half of USA." The article goes on to describe the predicted number of deaths expected in the U.S. (30,000 - 90,000 Americans) as well as the actions being taken by the government to protect Americans from the coming swine flu pandemic. That advice reads sort of like a comic book of health care advice for kindergarteners: Wash your hands, cover your mouth if you cough and let "the grownups" take care of the rest...

ATLANTA – Federal health officials now say that 4,000 or more Americans likely have died from swine flu — about four times the estimate they've been using.

But underwriters are breaking down H1N1 applicants into three categories: those who currently have the flu, those who had a mild case and recovered, and those who were hospitalized. Those who have it now won't be considered for coverage until they get better, he says, while those who have recovered from a mild case have to wait two to three months. Those unlucky enough to be hospitalized may not qualify for life insurance for a full year.Marr's assessment is based on feedback from insurance industry underwriters. But when contacted by MoneySense, several insurance companies denied having such rules. One spokesperson...

The Associated Press and the Wall Street Journal report that Wall Street giants Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have been issued the swine flu vaccine for their "at risk" employees despite the fact that there are massive shortages of the vaccine nationwide. The rarity of the vaccine has made it a hot commodity, one in which movers, shakers, traders, and bailout recipients now have jumped to the front of the line when it comes to what President Obama declared to be a National Emergency in late October. Reaction to the news has been swift, fierce, and angry. Senator Chris Dodd of...

Health Officials in Ukraine say the death toll from a suspected swine flu outbreak has reached 144. Almost a million people are thought to be infected, mostly in the west of the country. ~ Over a hundred have died since the outbreak of the virus last week. But it's still unclear exactly what killed those Ukranians. Only some are confirmed as a result of AH1N1, the rest are blamed on respiratory diseases. Even so, talks over imposing a state of emergency in the country are surfacing from the highest levels. Should that happen, the upcoming presidential vote could be shifted...

<p>ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Suspected swine flu is sweeping a traditional Eskimo whaling village on a remote Alaska island — prompting an urgent medical mission to deliver help.</p> <p>"Diomede is probably the most isolated place in the United States right now," said David Head, a doctor involved in the effort. "We thought it would be better to go out there and just vaccinate people."</p>

> "That is one of the great advantages of the British health system," said Dr. Steve Field, president of the Royal College of General Physicians. "We have a list of all the names of patients who qualify to be vaccinated." >

Thousands of people filling the sidewalks and spilling onto Tully Road had arrived early Saturday morning to receive one of 5,500 doses of coveted swine flu vaccine. "There's no way there's enough," said George Reis, who was helping with crowd control. "They keep coming."

Ukrainian News Agency "Fraza" reported that, according to informed sources, "it has been confirmed 100 % Pneumonic Plague in Ukraine". The Agency asserts that "the head physician of the medical institutions has sent out an informal disposal - not to sow panic, to refute the information about the plague, and to speak only of swine influenza".

Wall Street bankers once again are the target of populist outrage, this time over the news that Goldman Sachs (GS), Citigroup (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and others are receiving limited doses of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine

The government, which ordered 250 million doses, has recommended that the limited supply go first to high-risk groups: children and young people through age 24, people caring for infants under 6 months, pregnant women and health care workers.

Vets in the US state of Iowa said Wednesday that a household cat had tested positive for swine flu -- the first known case in the world of the new pandemic strain spreading to the feline population. The domestic shorthair, a 13-year-old castrated male, apparently caught A(H1N1) off its owners -- two of the three members of the family had previously contracted the deadly virus. "This is the first cat that we are aware of with the pandemic H1N1," said Brett Sponseller, an assistant professor of veterinarian microbiology who helped treat the pet at Iowa State University's College of Veterinary...

Dallas County's first mass distribution of the swine flu vaccine Wednesday tested the patience of thousands of adults and children, who stood outdoors for hours to snag a scarce shot. SONYA N. HEBERT/DMN Rony Velazquez, 4, waited while his mother, Blanca Medrano (left), and his sister Diana Velazquez were screened before getting their H1N1 shots at the Dallas County Health and Human Services building on Wednesday.But in the end, there was a lot of praise for how well the county dispensed the vaccine. Despite chilly weather before dawn and intense sun by late morning, almost no one in the line...

New York City health officials scrambled to explain themselves Thursday following outraged media reports about bankers who got scarce H1N1 flu vaccines through their employers. Although there is a longstanding arrangement for employers to provide seasonal flu shots to workers, the city health department was bombarded with calls and television reports about Wall Street workers jumping the line ahead of pregnant women and children. "It's bad enough that Wall Street crashed our economy and is back to paying out platinum bonuses after taking trillions in taxpayer-funded bailouts and backstops," Service Employees International Union Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger said in a statement....

To the list of hundreds of schools, hospitals, and community health centers that have received limited allocations of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine, you can now add some of New York's largest employers. In the past week or so 13 companies, including Citigroup (C) and Goldman Sachs (GS), have begun receiving small quantities of the vaccine, according to city health authorities.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that pigs in a commercial herd in Indiana have tested positive for swine flu, making it the first time the virus has been found in such hogs. The USDA said it discovered four tissue samples that tested positive for the virus using its swine surveillance program. The sample was collected in late October, and the USDA said the pigs as well as the people caring for the animals have recovered. Last month, tests confirmed that several show pigs at the Minnesota State Fair contracted swine flu, also known as the H1N1...

Swine flu has hit an isolated tribe of Indians in the Amazon jungle, with seven dying in the last two weeks, Survival International said on Wednesday. A further 1,000 members of the Yanomami tribe in Venezuela are believed to have caught the flu, the indigenous peoples rights group said. It is feared the flu could sweep through the area and kill many more Yanomami as the Indians have little resistance to introduced diseases. About 32,000 Yanomami live in the Venezuela-Brazil border region and form the largest relatively isolated tribe in the Amazon. Survival director Stephen Corry said the situation was...

Long lines at public flu clinics -- initially intended to primarily serve the uninsured -- are now commonplace nationwide as doses of the vaccine remain scarce. Many clinics report seeing large numbers of people who have insurance but have been unable to get H1N1 vaccines from private doctors, who say they have either already run out or have yet to get any. The line at the Glendale clinic, the first to be held in that city since Los Angeles County received doses late last month, was the longest yet, county Department of Public Health officials said. And the stakes were...

Pregnant women are considered at high risk for suffering complications or death from the new H1N1 pandemic swine flu. So they’re near the top of the list for getting vaccinated. A new international study calculates that up to 400 out of every million pregnant women who receive such swine-flu shots will experience a miscarriage within 24 hours.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House says detainees at Guantanamo Bay are not receiving vaccinations against the swine flu vaccine. Robert Gibbs on Tuesday said concern that terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base in Cuba were receiving vaccines was misplaced. Gibbs says no vaccines are at the naval base and none are on the way

With flu vaccination season in full swing, research from the University of Rochester Medical Center cautions that use of many common pain killers – Advil, Tylenol, aspirin – at the time of injection may blunt the effect of the shot and have a negative effect on the immune system. Richard P. Phipps, Ph.D., professor of Environmental Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology, and of Pediatrics, has been studying this issue for years and recently presented his latest findings to an international conference on inflammatory diseases. (http://bioactivelipidsconf.wayne.edu/) “What we’ve been saying all along, and continue to stress, is that it’s probably not a...

Swine Flu Vaccine Strikes Children at School While you are at work; without your permission… by Jim Turner It seems Mr. Obama and his henchmen have finally crossed the line. While your children are at school and you are hard at work trying to get though this nightmarish economy, the Obama followers are using all their power to undermine your parental authority by injecting your children with the Swine Flu Vaccine without your permission. Injecting vaccine into children that have prior medical condition; an injection that ended up putting a child into the hospital. Yet, the school claims that this...

After a rough spring that saw as many as 20 to 40 percent of New Yorkers exposed to H1N1, subway riders have resorted to defending themselves with their fists. Violence struck on a southbound D train Monday morning after two women got into an argument over one's refusal to cover her mouth while coughing. It ended with her spitting on the other, a punch, and the second woman dragging the first to the floor of the car by her hair. Here's the play-by-play account, as witnessed firsthand by The Business Insider's Lawrence Delevingne: "No one got the conductor --...