Swine Flu?

[Bob Hubbard]

During the 20th century, it is estimated that smallpox was responsible for 300–500 million deaths.[7][8][9] In the early 1950s an estimated 50 million cases of smallpox occurred in the world each year.[10] As recently as 1967, the World Health Organization estimated that 15 million people contracted the disease and that two million died in that year.[10] After successful vaccination campaigns throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the WHO certified the eradication of smallpox in December 1979.[10] To this day, smallpox is the only human infectious disease to have been completely eradicated.[11]

However....

Responding to international pressures, in 1991 the Soviet government allowed a joint US-British inspection team to tour four of its main weapons facilities at Biopreparat. The inspectors were met with evasion and denials from the Soviet scientists, and were eventually ordered out of the facility. In 1992 Soviet defector Ken Alibek confirmed that the Soviet bioweapons program at Zagorsk had produced a large stockpile—as much as twenty tons—of weaponized smallpox (possibly engineered to resist vaccines), along with refrigerated warheads to deliver it. It is not known whether these stockpiles still exist in Russia. In 1997, however, the Russian government announced that all of its remaining smallpox samples would be moved to the Vector Institute in Koltsovo.[66] With the breakup of the Soviet Union and unemployment of many of the weapons program's scientists, there is concern that smallpox and the expertise to weaponize it may have become available to other governments or terrorist groups who might wish to use virus as means of biological warfare.[67]

 

[grydth]

Well wishes much appreciated!

What infuriates me as a father is to have seen all the government boasting about vaccine production and Tamiflu stockpiles - all at enormous financial cost - yet, when faced with my child getting a virus of unknown lethality, there is absolutely NOTHING available for my family.

 

[Tez3]

History of smallpox. the first vaccine was discovered by Janner in 1792.
http://dermatology.about.com/cs/smallpox/a/smallpoxhx.htm

Flu jabs have been used here for many years, I've had them and suffered no side effects. Polio is another disease that vaccination has made for most a thing of the past apart from those who considr vaccination a 'bad thing'. TB is on the rise again though because of peoples unwillingness to be vaccinated. Measles is a very nasty disease which most don't consider as anything more than a simple childhood ailment. Vaccines for these have been around for decades.
Tamiflu is avaible here for any the who need it and innoculatons started a couple of weeks ago for the vulnerable and is now available for any who want it.

 

[Monadnock]

Small pox is still very much still here. We just don't catch it.

Also, for those looking at the shot versus the spreay for H1N1:

http://www.wicz.com/news2005/viewarticle.asp?a=11108

For New York state: However, the department of health says close to 380,000 doses of the thimerosal-free vaccine is expected to be available in the state by late November.

 

[Ken Morgan]

Small pox is still very much still here. We just don't catch it

Evidence please

 

[Ramirez]

I and my children have been vaccinated for everything under the sun, and every year we get our flu shot. This year we will get the H1N1 and the normal influenza shot. Never been an issue or a problem.

Lets see now small pox’s is gone, it killed millions every year and is gone.
Polo is essentially gone, except for those who do not immunize their children.
Measles, mumps and Rubella would be gone if everyone vaccinated their kids.

We are almost 7 billion people and are living longer today for two reasons and two reasons only. Antibiotics and immunization.

You of course have a right, depending on your job, not to get an immunization shot, but you do so at your own risk.

Exactly, I and my family get every possible vaccine there is.

I really don't understand how anyone can question the value of vaccines when the incredible benefits of them have been proven without a doubt.

Not only that, vaccines do not work on everyone , some people do not have an immune response. To wipe out diseases like polio, small pox etc. there has to be a minimum percentage of the population getting the immunization.

If the flu shot were mandatory, there wouldn't be a problem with the flu every year.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Evidence please

US and former Soviet bio-weapon stockpiles, various research labs and government installations still maintain active samples. It exists, but your chance of catching it in the general populace is close to nil.

 

[shesulsa]

The biggest danger exists in catching these diseases during travel to other countries where vaccination isn't mandated or available or too expensive or whatever and from people immigrating from those countries who can carry the disease.

Believe me, I am for *safe* vaccination. I absolutely and fervently believe in it - but I also believe the mass production is doing something else to our "herd immunity" and general health and attention to details needs to be paid.

I'm not saying don't get vaccinated ... I'm saying be aware and be careful about any immunization you put in your body.

 

[Ramirez]

One of the vaccines available now that wasn't when I was a child is a chicken pox vaccine.

I wish it had been available, I had shingles last year around my eye, my doctor took it very seriously, said that it could go on the cornea of my eye and I could go blind and put me on an anti-virals right away.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Some comments from a blog.

For instance: the new H1N1 innoculation everyone's getting. In Canada we're using two formulas: a non-adjuvanted vaccine for pregnant women & very young children, and the normal adjuvant-bearing one, that boosts the effectiveness of the shot. According to the NIAID this is generally done for one of three reasons: "1) to boost the immune response in certain age groups or in people with underlying health conditions who can not mount an adequate immune response to a vaccine made without adjuvant; 2) to broaden the immune response to a vaccine to provide better protection against a virus if it mutates; and 3) to stretch the vaccine supply if it is limited."

So what is this magical adjuvant? Squalene, a compound derived from shark liver oil -and generally sold in health food stores! In vaccinations squalene prompts the production of C4 memory cells, which in turn promotes a stronger immune response. ), and DL-α-tocopherol (a form of vitamin E- though many of the articles around are mislabelling it as Vitamin D for some odd reason). Sounds like an endorsement to me

The properties of those substances might never have been studied for this application if non-scientific claims hadn't been made about them in the first place.

Sadly, they're still growing the culture in eggs (bad news for some extremely sensitive people) and using excipients including Thiomersal (sodium ethylmercurithiosalicylate, an organic mercury compound that is still having questions raised about its safety), formaldehyde, and Polysorbate-80.

(Note: bold links are mine)

Thimerosal in Seasonal Influenza Vaccine

Does the influenza vaccine contain thimerosal?

Yes, the majority of influenza vaccines distributed in the United States currently contain thimerosal as a preservative. However, some contain only trace amounts of thimerosal and are considered by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be preservative-free. Manufacturers of preservative-free flu vaccine use thimerosal early in the manufacturing process. The thimerosal gets diluted as the vaccine goes through the steps in processing. By the end of the manufacturing process there is not enough thimerosal left in the vaccine to act as a preservative and the vaccine is labeled "preservative-free".
How much thimerosal-free influenza vaccine is expected to be available for the 2008-09 season?

For the 2008-09 season, manufacturers project producing as many as 50 million doses of thimerosal-free or preservative-free (trace thimerosal) influenza vaccine. Of these 50 million doses, approximately 20 million doses represent flu vaccine products that are licensed for use in children over 3 years of age.

See also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiomersal_controversy

 

[Gordon Nore]

Grydth,

I quoted you from another thread and placed it here as I didn't want to derail the Black Friday discussion with H1N1.

At least you guys have innoculations in Canada - my daughter was out a week with flu (and I home with her), hundreds in the schools have it, a friend is in hospital, there are multiple absences starting at my workplace and we are told - Hooray! Vaccine will be here - in December.

I can't speak for what's going on in other provinces -- each of which is working its strategy with the feds, but the vaccine has not yet been made available to all members of the general public. Here in Toronto we're nearing the end of the second week of injecting high risk people:

H1N1 shots are available to people in priority groups.

• People under 65 with chronic health conditions
• Pregnant women (clinics now have non-adjuvanted vaccine available)
• Children 6 months to less than 5 years of age
• Health care workers
• Household contacts and care providers of persons at high risk who cannot be immunized or may not respond to vaccines
• Police and firefighters, frontline institutional correctional workers, and people aged 65 and over who live in institutions like long-term care homes.

http://www.toronto.ca/health/cdc/h1n1/clinics.htm

During the first week, there were only four sites open; now, I believe, there are ten to twelve at various times. It's probably going to be close to December before the general population can get inoculated. Evidently, there have been supply problems. I think there's a growing sense of frustration here, none of which excuses the abusive behaviour that has been reported in some of the line ups.

For Toronto, this is kind of an open sore. Remember, we had a SARS outbreak in the early 2000s that many felt was mismanaged. Vancouver had, at the same time, managed to contain their initial outbreak. Due to some foul up in communications, Toronto authorities thought they had it licked, only to discover a second outbreak in the general population. It wasn't typhoid, but it was bad enough, and there was an expectation that municipal, provincial and federal authorities would learn from it, use the lead time they had from the first H1N1 cases last spring, and be well prepared.

I'm not typing this during work. I'm home.... another sick child!

Sorry to here that. Take care.

 

[KELLYG]

Bizarre thought!

The people that I work with that are 25ish did not get the small pox vaccination. They are in the "high risk" group while I at 45 am not, and had the small pox vaccination. I was just wondering if some of the vaccines that we were required to take, that the younger crowd did not have to take, has given us older guys a leg up on this deal?

Told Y'a it was Bizzare