Another Epic Fail for Influenza
Vaccine
January 20, 2015
Story
at-a-glance
-
In the past three flu seasons, the CDC rated the flu
vaccine’s overall effectiveness between 47 and 62
percent; some experts have measured it at 0 to 7
percent
-
When children get a flu shot every year, it can
interfere with healthy immune responses and make
them more likely to get influenza in certain flu
seasons
-
If you got a flu shot this year, it does not protect
you from the most common influenza A subtype making
people sick
By Barbara Loe Fisher
Here we are in the winter of 2015, and U.S. public health
officials admit that the historically ineffective influenza vaccine
is once again an epic fail.1,2
Flu Vaccine Effectiveness Measured from 0 to 62 Percent
In the past three flu seasons, the CDC has claimed the flu
vaccine's overall effectiveness clocked in at between 47 and 62
percent3
while some experts have measured it at 0 to 7 percent.4
Other studies suggest that when children get a flu shot every
year it can interfere with healthy immune responses and make them
more likely to get influenza in certain flu seasons.5,6
Independent medical literature reviews document that flu shots
don't really prevent influenza or complications of influenza7,8
or influenza-like-illness (ILI) associated with other types of
viruses that cause about 80 percent of all respiratory or
gastrointestinal infections during any given flu season.9,10,11,12
A car in which seatbelts and brakes only worked at best half the
time is not a car Americans would choose to buy or drive. Car
manufacturers profiting from selling that kind of defective product
would be sued in civil court, and rightly so.
Americans Forced to Get Flu Shots or Suffer Sanctions
Yet, U.S. public health officials are making flu vaccine policy
that gets turned into law.13,14
They are forcing Americans to buy and use a pharmaceutical product
that fails to work as advertised time and again and can brain injure
people, too.15,16,17
But we can't sue drug companies for vaccine failures, brain
injuries, and deaths in civil court.18
Many of us are being fired from our jobs or denied an education,
childcare and medical care if we refuse to salute smartly and get a
flu shot every year or give it to our children.19,20,21,22
Dominant Influenza A Strain NOT in Current Flu Shot
Every spring, federal health officials select two influenza A
virus strains (usually H1N1 and H3N2 subtypes)23
and one or two influenza B virus strains24
to include in flu vaccines released in the fall.
This past December, CDC officials held a press conference and
informed Americans that they were unaware last spring that one of
the influenza A strains selected for the 2014-2015 flu vaccine – the
H3N2 subtype – was starting to "drift."
It turns out that the genetically mutated subtype is the dominant
influenza A strain causing sickness this year, but it is not in the
flu vaccine.25,26,27,28
Some Experts Warn Flu Shot Does NOT Make Symptoms Less Severe
Bottom line: if you or your child got a flu shot this year, it
does not protect you from the most common influenza A subtype making
people sick. And now, some influenza experts are warning that flu
shots do not make symptoms less severe if the vaccine fails
to prevent influenza infection.29
2003/2004 Flu Shot Failure: Same Story
Is this the first time that federal health officials have been
aware that the influenza A H3N2 subtype constantly mutates and is
often the dominant strain of flu that circulates in the U.S.? No,
it's not.
Let's go back and take a look at the 2003-2004 flu season's epic
influenza vaccine fail. In the spring of 2003, federal health
officials did know ahead of time that the influenza A
Panama strain they chose for the seasonal flu vaccine was not
a match for the emerging mutated H3N2 Fujian strain making people
very sick.
Influenza experts told the FDA vaccine advisory committee
(VRBPAC) that two genetic mutations in the H3N2 strain would likely
cause the flu shot to fail if it was not included in the vaccine.30
As the consumer voting member at that March 2003 FDA committee
meeting, I abstained from the influenza vaccine strain selection
vote because the influenza A strain being recommended was not a
match for the emerging mutated H3N2 strain and said I thought the
public should be told.31
So what was the government's rationale for allowing drug
companies to produce a flu vaccine they knew was likely a
non-starter from the very beginning?
Well, the vaccine manufacturers said they couldn't include the
mutated H3N2 subtype in the vaccine because they would miss the fall
2003 delivery and marketing deadline!
In other words, it was all about protecting a multi-billion
dollar flu vaccine market and not about truth in advertising. Flu
vaccine effectiveness for the 2003-2004 season was described by
health officials as 3 percent to 14 percent, which does qualify as
an epic fail.32
2012-2013 Flu Shot Failure: Vaccine Manufacturing Problem
Now let's look at the 2012-2013 flu season, when flu vaccine
effectiveness was 50 percent and only 41 percent in preventing the
H3N2 subtype that caused most of the disease that season.
A little digging into the medical literature reveals that the
H3N2 subtype problem was not due to a natural antigenic
drift like CDC officials are claiming it is this season.
No, flu vaccine failure two years ago was about mutations in the
egg adapted H3N2 vaccine strain used by drug companies to
produce the vaccine.33
In other words, it was a vaccine manufacturing problem. Drug
companies introduced H3N2 mutations through the vaccine
manufacturing process, creating a mismatch between the circulating
H3N2 strain and the vaccine strain.
Congress Funds Aggressive Influenza Vaccine Push on Americans
How honest is the CDC being with legislators voting to give
federal health agencies and drug companies billions of dollars to
produce influenza vaccines34,35,36,37,38,39
that are being aggressively pushed on all Americans, including
infants, children, pregnant women and health care workers40,41,42,43
using a pathetically poor evidence base?44,45,46
Influenza Viruses Always Mutating, Vaccine Strain Virus Shedding
Influenza viruses that infect humans and animals are always
mutating and evolving, recombining with each other and creating new
influenza strains being shed and transmitted in body fluids and
waste products of animals and humans.47,48,49,50,51 Vaccine
strain influenza viruses can recombine with other viruses as well,52
particularly those shed and transmitted by children and adults given
live influenza virus vaccines53,54,55,56
and by experimental live virus vectored vaccines being created in
labs, with unknown effects on humans, animals and the environment.57,58,59,60
GMO Flu Vaccines, Risky Adjuvants: Follow the Money
And yet, billions of dollars are being spent by government and
industry to build more flu vaccine plants to create genetically
engineered flu vaccines that contain insect and animal DNA, foreign
proteins61,62,63,64,65
and novel adjuvants designed to hyper-stimulate human immune
responses.66,67,68,69,70
In an irrational crusade to outsmart influenza viruses, vaccine
risks are increasing71
while vaccine failures continue to haunt the entire money-driven
enterprise.72,73,74
Repeal Flu Shot Mandates, Hold Companies Accountable
After decades of government propaganda trumpeting the benefits
and minimizing the risks of annual flu shots, one-size-fits-all,
cradle to the grave influenza vaccine recommendations should be
revised. Flu shot mandates should be repealed and vaccine
manufacturers held accountable for vaccine risks and failures in
civil court.
Protect Your Right to Informed Consent and Defend Vaccine Exemptions
With all the uncertainty surrounding the safety and efficacy of
vaccines, it's critical to protect your right to make independent
health choices and exercise voluntary informed consent to
vaccination. It is urgent that everyone in America stand up and
fight to protect and expand vaccine informed consent protections in
state public health and employment laws. The best way to do this is
to get personally involved with your state legislators and educating
the leaders in your community.
THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY.
National vaccine policy recommendations are made at the federal
level but vaccine laws are made at the state level. It is at the
state level where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights
can have the greatest impact. It is critical for EVERYONE to get
involved now in standing up for the legal right to make voluntary
vaccine choices in America because those choices are being
threatened by lobbyists representing drug companies, medical trade
associations, and public health officials, who are trying to
persuade legislators to strip all vaccine exemptions from public
health laws.
Signing up for NVIC's free Advocacy Portal at
www.NVICAdvocacy.org gives you immediate, easy access to your own
state legislators on your Smart Phone or computer so you can make
your voice heard. You will be kept up-to-date on the latest state
bills threatening your vaccine choice rights and get practical,
useful information to help you become an effective vaccine choice
advocate in your own community. Also, when national vaccine issues
come up, you will have the up-to-date information and call to action
items you need at your fingertips.
So please, as your first step,
sign up for the
NVIC Advocacy Portal.
Share Your Story with the Media and People You Know
If you or a family member has suffered a serious vaccine
reaction, injury, or death, please talk about it. If we don't share
information and experiences with one another, everybody feels alone
and afraid to speak up. Write a letter to the editor if you have a
different perspective on a vaccine story that appears in your local
newspaper. Make a call in to a radio talk show that is only
presenting one side of the vaccine story.
I must be frank with you; you have to be brave because you might
be strongly criticized for daring to talk about the "other side" of
the vaccine story. Be prepared for it and have the courage to not
back down. Only by sharing our perspective and what we know to be
true about vaccination will the public conversation about
vaccination open up so people are not afraid to talk about it.
We cannot allow the drug companies and medical trade associations
funded by drug companies or public health officials promoting forced
use of a growing list of vaccines to dominate the conversation about
vaccination. The vaccine injured cannot be swept under the carpet
and treated like nothing more than "statistically acceptable
collateral damage" of national one-size-fits-all mandatory
vaccination policies that put way too many people at risk for injury
and death. We shouldn't be treating people like guinea pigs instead
of human beings.
Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More
I encourage you to visit the website of the non-profit charity,
the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), at
www.NVIC.org:
-
NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View
descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have
suffered vaccine reactions, injuries, and deaths. If you or your
child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider
posting and sharing your story here.
-
If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn
how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine
injuries.
-
Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post
descriptions of harassment and sanctions by doctors, employers,
and school and health officials for making independent vaccine
choices.
Connect with Your Doctor or Find a New One That Will Listen and Care
If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to
you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don't want, I
strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another
doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care
is becoming the modus operandi of the medical establishment in an
effort to stop the change in attitude of many parents about
vaccinations after they become truly educated about health and
vaccination.
However, there is hope.
At least 15 percent of young doctors recently polled admit that
they're starting to adopt a more individualized approach to
vaccinations in direct response to the vaccine safety concerns of
parents. It is good news that there is a growing number of smart
young doctors, who prefer to work as partners with parents in making
personalized vaccine decisions for children, including delaying
vaccinations or giving children fewer vaccines on the same day or
continuing to provide medical care for those families, who decline
use of one or more vaccines.
So take the time to locate a doctor, who treats you with
compassion and respect and is willing to work with you to do what is
right for your child.
Copyright 1997- 2015 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/01/20/epic-fail-influenza-vaccine.aspx
|