Posted on 10/28/2009 5:27:33 AM PDT by Jenny Hatch
You Tube Video: Germany begins controversial swine flu vaccination
Spiegel: Germans Unhappy with Alternative Swine Flu Vaccine for Politicians
"Damage control is the name of the game in Berlin on Monday as politicians rush to deny that they are receiving a better, safer swine flu vaccine than ordinary Germans. The first of 50 million doses arrived in Germany on Monday.
One might think that the arrival in Germany of the first of 50 million doses of swine flu vaccine on Monday might be cause for celebration. But with news breaking over the weekend that top government officials in Berlin will be injected with an alternative vaccine -- one widely seen as safer -- a debate about an alleged two-class medical system has erupted.
SPIEGEL over the weekend reported that Chancellor Angela Merkel, a number of her ministers and other government officials would receive a vaccine manufactured by the pharmaceutical company Baxter -- the same vaccine that the German military opted for, as was reported last week.
The mass-circulation tabloid Bild on Monday plastered the story on its front page on Monday, assuring its readers that "experts are accusing the government" of serving up "second class medicine" to ordinary Germans.
Fevers and Headaches
The controversy centers on an additive included in the vaccine manufactured by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. The additive includes an inactive strain of the entire flu virus as opposed to virus fragments. Critics say the additive can increase the risk of side effects from the flu vaccine such as fevers and headaches.
Supporters counter that the additive is safe, and its use allows the drug manufacturer to quickly produce more doses of the vaccine. The SPIEGEL story mentioned that the GlaxoSmithKline vaccine, with the additive, has undergone more testing than the Baxter version.
An Interior Ministry spokesman told SPIEGEL that the Baxter vaccine had been ordered for all ministries and other agencies as well as for the employees of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, the authority responsible for approving vaccines.
Merkel's spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm on Monday denied that Merkel was taking a different vaccine than the one available to ordinary Germans. He said that the Baxter vaccine had been ordered four months ago as part of a deal hammered out one year ago and has nothing to do with recent concerns surrounding the GlaxoSmithKline vaccine."
...The weekend scandal has drowned out a second debate which has been raging in recent weeks in the US and which has also found resonance here in Germany: whether such a massive vaccination program is necessary in the first place.
Wolf-Dieter Ludwig, chairman of the Drug Commission of the German Medical Association, has called the planned vaccination campaign a "scandal." "The health authorities have fallen for a campaign from the pharmaceutical companies, who simply want to earn money with an alleged threat," he told SPIEGEL.'
TIME Magazine: In Germany, a Better Vaccine for Politicians?
"Critics are calling it a two-tier health system — one for the politically well connected, another for the hoi polloi. As Germany launched its mass-vaccination program against the H1N1 flu virus on Monday, the government found itself fending off accusations of favoritism because it was offering one vaccine believed to have fewer side effects to civil servants, politicians and soldiers, and another, potentially riskier vaccine to everyone else. The government had hoped that Germans would rush to health clinics to receive vaccinations against the rapidly spreading disease, but now rising anger over the different drugs may cause many people to shy away.
Amid growing fears of a possible global flu pandemic, the German government prepared for its mass-vaccination campaign earlier this year by ordering 50 million doses of the Pandemrix vaccine, enough for a double dose for 25 million people, about a third of the population. The vaccine, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, contains an immunity-enhancing chemical compound, known as an adjuvant, whose side effects are not yet entirely known. Then, after a report was leaked to the German media last week, the Interior Ministry confirmed that it had ordered a different vaccine, Celvapan, for government officials and the military. Celvapan, which is made by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Baxter, does not contain an adjuvant and is believed to have fewer side effects than Pandemrix. (See how not to get the H1N1 flu.)
Note from Jenny: The side effects from the adjuvent Squalene have been completely researched, studied, and reported for sixty years. Massive amounts of death, disability, and auto immune dysfunction are going to be the side effects from taking this vaccine. Squalene toxicity is DEFINED by a purplish hue to the skin on cheeks and the chest just before death. Watch for it. When people start to die with that purple rash on their skin, you will know they have died from Squalene poisoning. I am anticipating the health authorities saying that the virus has "mutated" when this happens and then declaring that everyone has to get the shot.
Anger at the news was widespread in Germany. "If mass vaccination is considered to be necessary, then everyone should be treated the same way," says Birgitt Bender, health spokeswoman for the Green Party. Ulrike Mascher, head of the VdK social-welfare association, says giving government officials a vaccine that's different from that given to the rest of the population sent the "wrong signal" and gives many people "the impression that they are second-class patients." A story on the front page of the mass-circulation Bild newspaper accused the government of giving "second-class medicine" to regular Germans.
Doctors and medical experts are divided over the safety of Pandemrix. While some say it's the best vaccine available, others have serious misgivings about it. "The Pandemrix vaccine can't be recommended for pregnant women or young children because it has an increased risk of side effects. Pandemrix has an adjuvant which hasn't been tested sufficiently up until now," Alexander Kekulé, a virologist at the University of Halle, tells TIME. "Celvapan is a whole-virus vaccine, which has fewer side effects than Pandemrix, but it leads more often to fever or local swelling when compared with the normal seasonal-flu vaccine," he adds. Although Kekulé calls the government's handling of the vaccination program a "scandal," he says government officials and soldiers are not necessarily getting a better deal with Celvapan. "Neither Celvapan nor Pandemrix are ideal," he says. (See what you need to know about the H1N1 vaccine.)
The Interior Ministry hit back at suggestions of preferential treatment, saying it had ordered about 200,000 doses of the Celvapan vaccine from Baxter before the differences between the two vaccines were documented, and the government was bound by the terms of its contract. The government also points out that both Pandemrix and Celvapan have been approved by the European Union and that other countries, such as Britain and Sweden, are using the Pandemrix vaccine. In an attempt to put a lid on the simmering controversy, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Ulrich Wilhelm, said the German leader would consult with her doctor in the next few days, and if she decided to receive a jab, it would be Pandemrix. (See pictures of thermal scanners hunting for swine flu.)
At least 26,000 people have been infected with swine flu in Germany, resulting in three deaths. Although the majority of patients have experienced only mild flulike symptoms, a steady increase in the number of cases of H1N1 in recent months has raised alarm across the nation. In its latest report, the Robert Koch Institute, the federal agency for infectious diseases, said new cases in Germany have jumped to about 1,600 each week, double the 700 to 800 weekly cases reported in early autumn. With the onset of winter, when seasonal-flu infections typically peak, many experts are concerned that H1N1 infections will spike dramatically. Klaus Osterrieder, a virologist at the Free University of Berlin, now fears that with the worries over the possible risks associated with Pandemrix, many people will avoid getting a vaccine altogether. According to a survey conducted on Oct. 23 by the Emnid Institute, only 13% of Germans said they wanted to receive a swine-flu vaccine this winter. (Read "Child-Care Centers and Parents Brace for Flu Season.")
"The public debate is bad because it raises questions about the whole vaccination program," Osterrieder says. If the government doesn't find some way to remedy the current public relations disaster and clear up the confusion over the different swine-flu vaccines, it could be faced with an even greater emergency, especially if the country's hospital wards start overflowing with flu patients in the coming months."
National emergency declaration in USA allows use of squalene
The decision by President Barack Obama to declare a National Emergency over the swine flu pandemic will allow vaccines and drugs such as the adjuvant squalene which have not been approved by the FDA to be used by doctors, hospitals and vaccine clinics.
There is a large body of scientific evidence that shows that squalene in the anthrax vaccine was responsible for causing the Gulf War Syndrome and other diseases in US and UK soldiers.
The swine flu jab vaccine contains up to a million times more squalene than the anthrax vaccines, which afflicted an estimated 25 % of all soldiers who got the jab.
Squalene is illegal in the USA and UK, but emergency regulations allow the government to use drugs that have not been proven for safety."
Any word on the First Family getting the shots?
The exact same shots as the proles?
the elitists can never admit they have access to any healthcare they choose whenever they choose, when shortages of vaccine for the little people and panic ensure, and children and pregnant women are dying of the flu
frankly, it would be highly irresponsible of the National Command Authority and their immediate families in their household to NOT be vaccinated. Why really buys this obama-martyr schtick anyway?
The other good "social experiment" example is in making a "live virus" nasal spray and a "dead virus" shot and "selectively" distributing it.
They get the vaccine, everyone else gets the virus. This is bleeping Rainbow Six.
I read long ago that after the "struggles" of the great advocates of freedom, Trotsky and Lenin...after they had killed millions of people, and "freed" the poor and downtrodden of Russia so that all would be "equal" and have equal access to the riches of Russia...the first thing they decided to do was get a facility where they could be alone to relax and plan...out of the eyes of the public.
...damned politicians....someday they will find out what happens at the most populous intersection of the town at high noon.
They can take whatever they want. I will not take any version of the vaccine. That goes for the regular flu vaccine as well.
“Any word on the First Family getting the shots?”
I personally think a nice visual would be for some of our Squalene damaged vets to be given the privledge of jabbing Mr. Obama and his wife as well as Kathleen Sebelius with a confirmed Squalene adjuvenated H1N1 Vaccine.
Kind of fun. Don’t you think? To let everyone on camera watch them start to twitch and groan and break out in a rash.
Karma is a such a nasty thing.
Jen
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