The Truth About Flu Shots

Tis the season! (Flu season that is!) People are standing in line at doctor's offices, grocery stores, clinics, hospitals, and pharmacies waiting to get their annual flu shot. Obediently rolling up their sleeve and sticking out their bare arm, they tolerate the pain of the needle, with hopes that they won't have to endure the fever, aches, chills, cough, respiratory problems, and stomach upsets of the flu. Everyone has a story of the year they got influenza, and how they felt like they'd been hit by a truck! (Still others report that the flu shot itself caused them to feel that way.) To get the flu shot or not get the flu shot-that is the question.

How effective are flu vaccines? Some studies have shown that younger adults benefit from flu shots, but surprising new research, according to the Lancet Medical Journal, has found that the flu vaccine has not prevented flu related deaths in people over the age of 65. This confirms earlier research in 2005, that found that even though rates for immunization in people over 65 had increased 50 per cent, in the last 20 years, there was not a comparative decline in deaths caused by influenza. However, flu shots are recommended for that purpose by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their data indicates that there are about 36,000 yearly deaths of Americans, and 200,000 annual hospitalizations for flu and related illnesses. However, research has revealed that flu deaths are only a small percentage of the 36,000 deaths cited, because that is a combined figure for both flu deaths and pneumonia. It is estimated that only 1 to 4 per cent of that total is for the flu alone. (This is backed up by annual reports from the National Center for Health Statistics.)

The most recent study also found that the flu vaccines are not as effective in elderly people, because they have a diminished immune system. Most research reports that flu vaccine is only 40 per cent effective in preventing sickness in the elderly, while it is 70-90 per cent effective in healthy younger people. Some researchers have even theorized that vaccinating 70 per cent of school-aged children, and all high risk individuals, could dramatically reduce flu transmission for an entire community.

There are many other risks to consider when getting annual flu shots. Dr. Hugh Fundenberg, biologist and immunogeneticist, has reported that if a person had five consecutive flu shots, their chances of developing Alzheimer's Disease are 10 times greater than if they had zero, one or two shots. This may be due to the accumulation of mercury and aluminum in the brain. It is reported widely that flu shots contain toxic agents such as formaldehyde, aluminum, thimerosal (mercury), ethylene glycol (antifreeze), and other dangerous microorganisms and substances. (In 1999, the Public Health Service Agencies, and the American Academy of Pediatrics requested that vaccine manufacturers (as a precautionary measure) remove mercury as a preservative in childhood vaccines. Many parents, doctors, and researchers felt that the mercury could be causing neurological damage to the nervous system and brain of children, resulting in autism.) There is still controversy raging over this hypothesis. By 2003, all early childhood vaccines were thimerosal free, except for some flu vaccines. Dr. Robert Roberts, Professor of Pediatrics at the UCLA School of Medicine explains, "Chemically, the way the mercury (in the flu shot) is bound, it just can't be utilized by the body like other forms of mercury." He added that thimerasol contains ethyl mercury, and the real risk comes from methyl mercury, a different form that is toxic. Many doctors now offer mercury free versions of the flu shot for children. The latest CDC recommendations include giving children the first flu vaccine, at the age of 6 months, and then annually for the rest of their lives.

Vaccine researcher, Mary Tocco states, "When you consider what is in the (flu) shot and how it is made, the toxic ingredients and additives are much worse for the body than the illness...We do not know how the shots or the neurotoxins will affect the human body in years to come. As I speak to people around the country, I am amazed how I hear that they suffered the "worst flu ever" after receiving the vaccine." (There are many documented reports of large groups of people coming down with the flu after receiving the flu shot.)

Since the composition of the flu vaccine is based on the previous year's strains, flu experts have admitted that they cannot predict with any certainty, what the principal strains of the virus will be, for any given year.

The most common reactions to the flu shot are fever, fatigue, painful joints, headache, and redness and swelling at the injection site.

One of the most serious reactions to the flu vaccine is Guillain-Barre Syndrome. It is a nerve disorder characterized by muscle weakness, unsteady gait, numbness, tingling, pain, and occasional paralysis of one or more limbs or the face. Dr. J. A. Morris, acclaimed as the world's most knowledgeable person on flu vaccine, was fired from his job at the U. S. Food and Drug Administration in the 1970's, because he would not endorse the mass vaccination program against swine flu. He did not feel that there would be an epidemic, and warned that the vaccine could result in serious neurological damage. He was later validated when the epidemic did not occur, (there were only 6 cases of swine flu) and many patients acquired Guillain-Barre Syndrome as a direct result of the vaccinations. At least 23 people died. A federal compensation plan was set up for victims of the vaccine, that resulted in over four hundred million dollars being paid out in lawsuits.

In October, 2004, a factory in Liverpool, England was about to ship 46 million doses of its product, Fluvirin, to U. S. distributors. British regulators discovered that the vaccine was tainted with Serratia bacteria. As a result, about half of the U. S. flu vaccine supply was diminished. If the vaccine had been distributed, many people, including the old, the sick , young children, and those with compromised immune systems would have suffered terribly. Mary York, former director of microbiology at UCSF commented, "If you injected it, you'd get bacteremia and sepsis...It would be horrible." Serratia is a bacteria that was once used in a secret germ warfare experiment off of the San Francisco coast. It can be deadly, and can trigger life threatening illnesses such as pnuemonia, septic shock, meningitis, heart valve infections, and death. Treatment would require multiple drugs, resulting in serious fungal infections, and other risks.

There is so much more that could be documented, but in view of the facts already presented, a person should think long and hard before rolling up their sleeve. Death by injection should only occur in prisons.

Sources: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/10/09/controversial-findings-about-flu-vaccines-for-the-elderly.aspx
http://www.mercola.com/2004/oct/23/flu_crimes2.htm
http://www.proliberty.com/observer/20041105.htm
http://www.vaclib.org/basic/fluindex.htm#graphs
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2004/02/19/flu_experts_vaccine_effectiveness_not_demonstrated.htm
http://www.vaccineinfo.net/immunization/vaccine/influenza/flu_vaccine_facts.shtml
http://www.health.org.nz/flu.html
http://www.worldchiropracticalliance.org/tcj/2000/may/may2000kent.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/od/science/iso/concerns/thimerosal.htm
http://www.nomorefakenews.com/archives/archiveview.php?key=2280