Posted on 11/22/2009 11:11:43 AM PST by autumnraine
Shaw wasn’t always skeptical about vaccines. The neuroscientist at the University of British Columbia had his teenage son vaccinated with most of the recommended shots. But then he started studying some of the ingredients commonly found in vaccines.
What he discovered caused him to go cold turkey on all shots for his six-year-old daughter. And that includes the vaccine for the H1N1 flu.
“I am not convinced H1N1 is sufficiently hazardous to most people to risk the potential downside of the vaccine,” Shaw said over the phone from his office in the research pavilion at the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority.
Shaw isn’t an easily dismissed vaccine conspiracy theorist. He is a leading expert on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease) and Parkinson’s disease. While investigating unusually high rates of ALS and other neurological disorders among veterans who have Gulf War syndrome, he found evidence that the cause may have been aluminum salt, an ingredient in the cocktail of vaccines given to soldiers before deployment.
Although aluminum salt isn’t present in the H1N1 vaccine, Shaw’s discovery made him concerned about other vaccines, including the swine-flu shot. He isn’t alone in his thoughts.
Despite a full frontal assault of news about the dangers of the flu and the importance of vaccination, a survey in late October revealed that only 36 percent of Canadians said they would get the shot. Lack of trust in the vaccine was cited as the main reason for vaccine opposition. Another poll in November found that 65 percent of Canadians believe the media has overreacted to the threat of swine flu.
Even many health workers aren’t convinced. In two separate surveys, in the U.K. (Pulse) and Hong Kong (British Medical Journal), published in August, half of health-care professionals said they didn’t intend to get the vaccine.
(Excerpt) Read more at straight.com ...
DON’T GET IT!
Excerpts:
First, the disease.
Swine flu had killed 161 Canadians as of November 12. T
hat works out to one death per 200,000 Canadians in the past six-and-a-half months.
Over the same period of time, major
cardiovascular diseases typically claim 240 times more Canadian lives (about 39,000),
cancer claims 230 times more (37,000 deaths),
pneumonia kills 18 times more (2,800), and
accidental falls claim eight times more (1,260),
according to calculations based on 2005 Statistics Canada figures.
...
H1N1 has about the same death rate as hernias. But we don’t see scary front-page headlines for months on end about hernias, pneumonia, or falling down.
...
Schabas said H1N1 “has ultimately turned out to be, from a pandemic perspective, a dud”.
...
This result could be a concern, Shaw said, because Canadian authorities are telling pregnant women to get the nonadjuvanted H1N1 vaccine since the adjuvanted version hasn’t ever been tested on pregnant women. Shaw also said the animal-study information in the leaflet lacks many important details and would be “unpublishable” as presented. “Any [medical-journal] referee would kick this out the window.”
...
Although these reactions are minor, the leaflet also says four of 253 people studied experienced “severe adverse reactions”. Three of the four were deemed to be unrelated to the vaccine, but one case of hypersensitivity (which can mean anything from an allergic reaction to autoimmune disease) was determined “to be related to vaccination”.
That one serious reaction might not sound like a lot, but it actually translates into a rate of 395 cases per 100,000 people. That’s more than 50 times the rate of hospitalization due to H1N1 itself: 7.3 per 100,000 Canadians.
...
Speaking by phone from his office, Bhakdi cited the higher rate of heart problems when 1.4 million U.S. soldiers were vaccinated for smallpox before the 2003 Iraq war.
Soldiers who received the vaccine had almost 7.5 times the rate of heart inflammation of nonvaccinated personnel, according to a study by U.S. military medical researchers in 2004 in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
“Unexpected serious adverse effects thus may follow in the wake of a general vaccination program,” Bhakdi’s paper said.
Yet health authorities and doctors are urging people with heart problems to get the H1N1 vaccine on a priority basis and do not appear to be monitoring them for possibly elevated risks, he said.
...
What especially worries Shaw is the possibility of longer-term side effects from the vaccine. Most vaccine safety studies monitor patients for a few days or, at most, several months.
That isn’t enough, Shaw says. With some vaccines, the most serious reactions have taken years to surface. “Neurological problems don’t happen overnight,” he said. “It took five to 10 years to see the bulk of the Gulf War–syndrome outcomes.”
One of the best examples involves a controversial ingredient present in the H1N1 vaccine: thimerosal. Thimerosal is a form of mercury used in some vaccines as a preservative. Drug makers agreed to phase it out of most vaccines after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found in 1999 that mercury levels in children who had gotten multiple shots often exceeded safety levels set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Nonetheless, thimerosal still remains in many flu vaccines.
Controversy has raged for years about whether or not thimerosal is behind soaring childhood autism rates. While that debate continues, a 2008 study in the U.K. journal Toxicological and Environmental Chemistry found that boys who were given a vaccine containing thimerosal were nine times more likely to have developmental problems than unvaccinated boys.
...
Debate has raged for years about whether or not squalene is responsible for Gulf War syndrome. Most research suggests that’s not the case, but in recent years much more solid evidence has found squalene can cause autoimmune diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis in animals.
Still other questions have been raised about polysorbate 80, another component of the H1N1 vaccine adjuvant. Studies have found it can cause severe allergic reactions and hypersensitivity.
In the end, we might only get a good picture of the vaccine’s side effects long after swine flu has run its course. Then again, with Canada’s lax monitoring system for side effects, we may never know which was worse.
Unless you want to be an Obama heath care guinea pig.
I received mine last Monday...no side effects at all.
I got the swine flu vaccine.. all my friends got sick with some form of the flu but not me...
Vaccine = 100% change of getting H1N1 or something.
...no thanks
We eat healthy foods, take our vitamins and exercise daily.
Our immune systems fight off flu's naturally.
http://dprogram.net/2009/11/20/canada-the-killer-h1n1-vaccine-michel-chossudovsky/
Neither my wife and I, nor any of our children got the swine flu shot or spray, and none of us caught it even though kids at their school have.
Even if we did get it, it's not that big of a deal, so what's the point in getting the vaccine, other than to enrich the manufacturers? Why take the risk of a reaction to the vaccine?
God gave us immune systems for a reason...if you're healthy why not let them do their work in this case? If you do catch it and let your immune system run its natural course, you'll have a better immunity in the future to similar flu strains.
I was diagnosed with MS shortly after receiving the series of Hep B vaccines (I worked for a healthcare provider and was required to get it.)
For a few years, British researchers thought they could tie the Hep B vaccine to MS, but that theory fizzled.
I don’t know if it “caused” the MS, but I do believe it could have been a trigger. I don’t get flu shots, the only vaccine I’ve had since diagnosis was a pneumonia shot and it sent me into an exacerbation, so no vaccines for me.
Glad for you and hope you do well with it. But I think the Dr. in Canada is just saying that the death rate for the H1N1 isn’t severe enough to risk side effects from the vaccine.
Where is this flu vaccine manufactured? Does anyone here know if we have any domestic sources?
After the 1970’s epidemic,, U.S. manufacturers had their butts sued off because about 1 in 40,000 recipients (less than 1000 nationwide) suffered serious side effects (about 38 deaths an 800 paralyzed).
I took the regular flu shot about 2 months ago and the H1N1 about a month ago. No illness here so you may need to adjust your statistics.
Although these reactions are minor, the leaflet also says four of 253 people studied experienced “severe adverse reactions”. Three of the four were deemed to be unrelated to the vaccine, but one case of hypersensitivity (which can mean anything from an allergic reaction to autoimmune disease) was determined “to be related to vaccination”.That one serious reaction might not sound like a lot, but it actually translates into a rate of 395 cases per 100,000 people. That’s more than 50 times the rate of hospitalization due to H1N1 itself: 7.3 per 100,000 Canadians.
What especially worries Shaw is the possibility of longer-term side effects from the vaccine. Most vaccine safety studies monitor patients for a few days or, at most, several months.That isn’t enough, Shaw says. With some vaccines, the most serious reactions have taken years to surface. “Neurological problems don’t happen overnight,” he said. “It took five to 10 years to see the bulk of the Gulf War–syndrome outcomes.”
>>Assuming you’re not allergic to eggs, the potential side effects from the vaccine are a sore arm and a debatable one in one million risk of GBS, although as several of us hashed out in another thread, it’s not even certain there’s a causal relationship for that one case.<<
Unless one has had a previous reaction to a flu shot.
In that case, one should speak to one’s OWN physician rather than listening to the vaccine hard sellers that show up on every thread about vaccines.
Along with the “there is no reason NOT to have one” people who seem to disregard that we as responsible adults can make our own decisions based on our health history and own knowledge as to whether we want to play russian roulette with the side effects, there are MANY FReepers who have had bad reactions to flu vaccines.
This should be a personal choice between a person and his/her physician. NOT the vaccine pushers. The same ones show up on every thread.
Courtesy ping to the post above.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.