Dopey Joe Benigno got his flu shot today, right, right, right, right, right?
And then 10 seconds later..."I wouldn't get it."
Wait, what?
Get a flu shot and you have a 15% chance of getting the flu. Don't get one? 17% Why even a 1% better chance if you get the shot? Probably because if you get one - you also wash your hands compulsively. A report in the U.S. News and World Report Wednesday February 20th, 2008 says, "The flu shot is recommended for such high-risk groups as children ages 6 months to 5 years, pregnant women, those ages 50 and older, those with chronic medical conditions (such as heart disease, asthma, and diabetes), those living in long-term-care facilities and nursing homes, healthcare workers, and those who provide care for or come in regular contact with high-risk groups." Funny, all of the groups mentioned have strong data indicating that the shot does not work for them and never has.
We are 100% against the mandate of flu shots (and 3 others) for infants. This is a disgrace. Especially following the New England Journal of Medicine calling on the FDA to remove all children's cold and cough remedies from the market.
The NEJM article says the drugs do not work, dosage recommendations are too high, and there is potential for injury or death for children under the age of six years old! But now NJ legislators are going to force you to inject your 6 MONTH old. Not 6 year old. 6 month.
Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said last year, "I hope we use absolutely every one of those (flu vaccine) doses, but we know that the demand for vaccine doesn't really match up to the list of people who we think really should have it."
Who does the CDC think should "really" have it? What is that recommendation based on? Well, we now know who they wanted to have it. We still don't know what the recommendation is based on.
Tom Jefferson, M.D., and colleagues at Cochrane Vaccines Field in Italy, conducted a review of the flu shot's efficacy. Their findings were reported in the Sept. 22 issue of The Lancet in 2005. http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/333/7574/912 is a similar offering titled, "Influenza vaccination: policy versus evidence" According to the study, vaccines against influenza are only "modestly effective" in people in long- term care facilities and even less effective for elderly people still living in the community.
We are curious as to what is the basis for recommending more flu shots.
FEMA. Yes, The Federal Emergency Management Agency, said in 2004:
This season's flu vaccine did little or nothing to prevent such flu symptoms as fever, cough or sore throat, says the first preliminary study of the vaccine's effectiveness. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say a survey of health care workers at The Children's Hospital of Denver revealed that the flu vaccine had "no or low effectiveness" against flu-like illnesses, which can be caused by a host of viruses.
We wrote to Dr Gerberding last year. And never got an answer. We wrote to her media and public relations contact. And we never received an answer from them either.
It is quite apparent that America has an addiction problem. It's not addiction to nicotine, alcohol, heroin or crack, though. Americans are addicted to the medical community. Statin drugs, blood pressure medications, Cylert, Vioxx, Avandia, the list goes on and on. A search for the term 'drugs removed from the market' on Google returns hundreds of once FDA approved pills that were eventually taken away. It is a sad commentary on Americans and doctors in general when they hook an increasingly sedentary and obese population on drugs that they say are needed to control 'high' this and 'high' that. The middle-aged and senior community is actually our biggest drug abuser. They are hooked. You do not start on high blood pressure meds and cholesterol drugs and then get off them - you need them for life! And now our state representatives and so called health' officials are getting your children hooked even earlier. Soon, every child born will be issued a social security number AND a prescription card number.
The biggest scam going this time of year every year is the flu shot. Flu shot articles start appearing like Christmas decorations at the mall weeks before Halloween (and on the front page for some reason), and are peppered with words like 'grateful' and 'hype' to refer to the availability of this year's vaccine while 'panic', 'awful' and 'heartbreaking' are utilized to paint the picture of past year's vaccine shortages. These articles point out that the Department of Health advises only high risk individuals should receive the shot before 10/24. High risk is defined as seniors over 65, children under 2, those in long term facilities, pregnant women and health care personnel. So demand is increased by utilizing scare tactics and by marketing the fact that the vaccine may be in short supply. It feels like getting a Cabbage Patch Kid years ago or a Playstation on Christmas - pandemonium.
THE Center for Disease Control stated in 2004 that that year's flu vaccine had little or no effectiveness against influenza-like illnesses. http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/01/15/flu.vaccine/ Of the 1,000 people who got the vaccine before November 1, 149 went on to develop influenza-like illness (14.9 percent). Of the 402 people who did not get the vaccine, 68 got an influenza-like illness (16.9 percent), the study said. I think the words 'hype' and 'heartbreaking' should be used more appropriately to refer to the sale of a potentially dangerous snake-oil to the already over injected infants.
The National Institutes of Health researchers, basing their findings on more than 30 years of U.S. flu-shot data, announced that giving flu shots to the elderly has not saved any lives. "There is no evidence that any influenza vaccine thus far developed is effective in preventing or mitigating any attack of influenza. The producers of these vaccines know that they are worthless, but they go on selling them, anyway," according to Dr. J. Anthony Morris, formerly chief vaccine control officer at the FDA.
Dr. Marc Siegel, author of False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear, said, "We have set up a situation where a fear is created, and then we try to create the treatment for this fear. The public gets the idea that the flu is going to kill them and the vaccine will save them. Neither is true." "The vaccine doesn't work very well at all," said study author Dr. Tom Jefferson, an epidemiologist. "Vaccines are being used as an ideological weapon. What you see every year as the flu is caused by 200 or 300 different agents with a vaccine against two of them. That is simply nonsense."
Basically they market a worthless, much hyped, $30 dollar injection of ethylene glycol (antifreeze) & formaldehyde (to inactivate and disinfect the virus), aluminum and mercury to preserve it (and the mercury or methyl mercury' is worse than the mercury in tuna because.it crosses the blood brain barrier.) If you look at the ingredients of the inhaled vaccine, Flu-Mist, it gets worse. They throw in monosodium glutamate (MSG) for you to inhale.
We look at food labels and avoid partially hydrogenated oils would you seriously purchase XYZ for children's colds if it said, "May contain aluminum, MSG, formaldehyde, phenol, and antifreeze"?
Lone Simonsen, senior epidemiologist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had said perhaps we should expand vaccination to schoolchildren. We're told to avoid tuna fish because it has small amounts of mercury, to wear a mask when around formaldehyde, not to get antifreeze near our mouths and that aluminum may be a cause of Alzheimer's, but we're going to FORCE parents to inject it directly into their infant's coursing veins because they've stockpiled the worthless garbage and need to turn a profit. This is the same industry that kept promoting Vioxx to us. (And remember, the body is constructed with a filtering device that normally latches onto pathogens as they try and enter the body - your child's nose. Injecting a shiny, sharp hypodermic needle through her skin and into her immune system sort of defeat's natures defense system.) Well, NJ officials have taken Simonsen's advice.
Two years ago, due to the shortage, less folks then ever received the flu shot. And guess what? It is one of the slowest flu seasons ever.
Americans are taking in more and more potentially dangerous drugs because, in general, we are lazy. Caveat emptor - do the research and make an informed decision. The medical and pharmaceutical communities are not necessarily out for your good - they are out for their bottom line. And now, New Jersey is taking away that right to make a decision. Visit www.congress.org and tell your state senators and assemblyperson that you will not stand for this. And if circumstances force you to get the shot at least initially ask for one without mercury. It will still contain antifreeze but that might be a benefit as the weather turns colder. Tell your daycare center that you will take your child to a nanny or, better yet, another state.
And, if that wasn't enough reason NOT to ever get this shot, this might be funny if it wasn't true: No need to read the actual articles - it's just funny reading the headlines:
Flu shot: Your best shot for avoiding influenza
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/ID/00017. html
This year's flu vaccine had little or no effectiveness against influenza-like illnesses, according to a preliminary study released Thursday.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/01/15/flu.vaccine/
The flu season is getting worse, and U.S. health officials say it's partly because the flu vaccine doesn't protect against most of the spreading flu bugs.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/02/15 /flu.season.ap/index.html
All children - not just those under 5 - should get vaccinated against the flu, a federal advisory panel said Wednesday.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/02/27/flush ots.kids.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch
Read this before you get a flu shot
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/10/31/flu.hm.flu. shot/index.html?iref=newssearch
This year's vaccine does not match two of the three main flu bugs knocking people down.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/02/fl u-vaccine-not.html
Officials question influenza shot as number of U.S. flu cases increase
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23075303/
The only science behind a flu shot? Everyone saying you have to have one. It's sorta like prayer. So what happened yesterday? The CDC said: Flu shots may not be good match for 2014-15 virus.
A sampling of flu cases so far this season suggests the current flu vaccine may not be a good match for the most common seasonal flu strain currently circulating in the United States, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.
The U.S. health agency issued an advisory to doctors noting that flu virus samples the agency took from Oct. 1 through Nov. 22, showed that just under half were a good match for the current influenza A (H3N2) component contained in flu shots for the 2014-2015 season, suggesting the virus has drifted.
...
The CDC said flu shots may still offer some protection against drifted viruses, which could help reduce the risk of the most severe complications from the flu, such as hospitalization and death. The current seasonal flu shots will still protect against flu strains that have not mutated, such as the influenza A (H1N1) virus and the B viruses contained in the vaccine.
The CDC is stressing that doctors should be prepared to use antiviral medications when needed. These include Roche's Tamiflu and GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza.
However, a recent study from the Cochrane Review, a respected research network, suggests that while these medicines can shorten flu symptoms by around half a day, there is no good evidence behind claims they cut hospital admissions or lessen complications of the disease.
And we know when they say, publicly, that flu shots may still offer some protection against drifted viruses...they mean little to none.
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