by Barbara Loe Fisher
Every day Americans wake up to news reports that warn us about the dangers of influenza, especially the new H1N1 “swine flu” and the need to roll up our sleeves and get vaccinated. We are witnessing a roll-out of the largest, most expensive mass vaccination campaign in the history of our nation. A rollout that is bigger than even the polio vaccine campaigns of the 1950's.
How much do you know about the disease or vaccine risks so you can make an informed decision about whether to get flu shots for yourself or your children?
H1N1 “Swine Flu” Mild
First, the good news is that swine flu is mild for most people and the virus is not mutating into a more serious form. By the end of September, there had been about 600 deaths in America including about 50 deaths in young children. Complications from infectious diseases like influenza are more common in people with heart, respiratory and other health problems and that is true for swine flu.
Limited Testing of Swine Flu Vaccines
Swine flu vaccines have been tested on only a few thousand healthy Americans for a few weeks. There is little or no information about how safe the vaccine is for pregnant women and chronically ill or disabled children because only a handfull were part of the testing. Nobody will know how safe the vaccine really is until it is given to millions of Americans this year and next year.
Drive-By Flu Shots Risky
Swine flu vaccine is not just being given to children and adults in clinics and doctors offices but also in non-medical settings like pharmacies, stores, schools and even at drive-by kiosks. Getting vaccinated in a non-medical setting can be risky. Driving a car immediately after getting vaccinated, when you could suffer an unexpected a shock collapse reaction can be deadly.
No Compensation For Swine Flu Victims
If you or your child are injured from getting a flu swine flu shot, you are on your own. Because Congress shielded the vaccine manufacturers and any person giving swine flu shots from lawsuits if people get hurt. There is no funded government vaccine injury compensation program for swine flu vaccine.
Swine Flu Reactions: “It’s a Coincidence”
But even if there was a funded vaccine injury compensation program - like the one that had to be created by the federal government in 1976 after that year's swine flu vaccine paralyzed about 500 Americans and killed 25, there is little chance you would be compensated if you or your child does become vaccine injured.
Federal health officials are already pre-emptively warning Americans that most of the deaths and cases of brain inflammation, seizures, paralysis, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, strokes, heart attacks, miscarriages and other serious health problems that develop after swine flu vaccination will be considered a “coincidence” and not related in any way to the flu shots just given.
Prevent Vaccine Injuries
This makes it even more important for Americans to become informed health care consumers. If you choose to get vaccinated and you or your child do suffer a health complication, insist that the health care worker who gave the shot immediately files a report with the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System. If the person who gave the flu shot won't file a vaccine reaction report, you can file it yourself.
Do NOT let a doctor or anyone else tell you that a serious health problem you or your child experiences after vaccination is a coincidence and allow more shots to be given until you know for sure. The most tragic cases of vaccine injury occur when vaccine reaction symptoms are dismissed as a 'coincidence" and more vaccines are given that result in more severe symptoms and sometimes end with permanent brain and immune system damage or death.
Thimerosal in Multi-Dose Vials
Injectable flu shots in multi-dose vials contain the mercury preservative, thimerosal, and some come in single dose vials and do not contain mercury. If you get vaccinated, make sure you know what is in the vaccine you are getting because people can be very allergic to different components of vaccines. And some people can't get the live virus flu vaccine.
FOUR Flu Shots for Young Children?
Doctors are telling some children under 10 years old to get 3 to 4 flu shots this year - 2 shots for seasonal flu and one or two more for swine flu. We have never given young children 3 to 4 flu shots in a single year and there is no information about how safe it is to do that.
Government Spend Billions On H1N1 Vaccine Program
Swine flu shots are free for most Americans because the government has given $1 billion dollars to pharmaceutical companies to create the new swine flu vaccines and has given another $5 billion dollars to state and federal health agencies to promote and deliver the influenza vaccines to people. That is a lot of money. The push to get vaccinated is like nothing we have ever seen before.
Most People Recover From Swine Flu
The fact is: Millions of people around the world have recovered from swine flu and millions more will get sick with fevers, body aches, nasal congestion, cough and sometimes diarrhea and vomiting and recover from it this year and next year without any complications.
People who recover from influenza, including swine flu, get long lasting protection from the flu strain they recovered from. Actually, most people over 60 won't get swine flu this year because they recovered from influenza caused by a similar swine flu strain in the past and still have protective antibodies.
Just the Facts, Not the Hype
So, here are the facts:
* The new swine influenza is mild for most people even though a small number have developed complications and died.
* The swine flu vaccine has been tested for only a few weeks on a few thousand healthy children and adults, including very few pregnant women. We don't know how safe it really is for pregnant women or children and adults with chronic illness even though they are being specially targeted for vaccination by government health officials.
* There is very little information about how safe it is to give swine flu vaccine with other vaccines, including seasonal influenza vaccine.
* There is very little information about whether the swine flu shot will keep you from getting swine flu.
All Vaccines Come With Side Effects: Weigh Risks
All pharmaceutical products, including vaccines, come with side effects. The risk of having a vaccine reaction depends upon the vaccine you are getting; your personal and family medical history; whether you are sick or healthy at the time of vaccination; whether you are taking other medications; and whether you have reacted to vaccines before.
If you decide you or your children are going to get swine flu shots this year, you can learn more by visiting www.NVIC.org.
If Your Child’s School Has Vaccine Clinics
And if you have a child, whose school is going to be holding vaccine clinics and you do NOT want your child to get vaccinated in school, you can take the following actions:
Number One: Write a letter to the school principal stating you do not want your child vaccinated in school without your written consent.
Number Two: Ask to be notified in advance exactly when the in-school vaccine clinics will be held.
Support NVIC, Get Red “NO VACCINE FOR ME” Bracelets
Number Three: Support NVIC and raise awareness in your community by giving your child a red NO VACCINE FOR ME bracelet to wear to school. And wear one yourself.
Go to www.NVIC.org to donate and learn more about how to be prepared for the pandemic public health emergency that has been declared in your state. Learn about the public health laws that govern you. Learn about how you can change them by becoming a citizen activist.
Health Workers Being Forced To Get H1N1 Vaccine
Right now, the government says that the swine flu vaccination program is voluntary. That nobody will be forced to get vaccinated. However, health care workers in New York and other states ARE being forced by law to get swine flu shots this year.
Will that be true for all of us next year?
Stand Up For Your Informed Consent Rights
Please join NVIC and become a grassroots vaccine safety and informed consent advocate in your community. Stand up for the human right to make informed, voluntary health care choices, including vaccine choices, today - so your children and grandchildren and all Americans will have that right tomorrow.
However, health care workers in New York and other states ARE being forced by law to get swine flu shots this year.
ReplyDeleteYes. By their employers, not by state or federal agencies. This is because health workers are at high risk for infection and spreading the infection to others. As I understand it, those health workers who refuse the vaccine will be required to wear gloves and protective breathing apparatus from the moment they enter the hospital to the moment the leave. This protective equipment is not the most comfortable. Those who refuse to do both are putting patients at high risk.
But, spreading fear is so much more interesting than the truth, right?
I'm so glad to have just found your site and your blog! You present information in a clear, non-hyped manner, and I will be sharing your blog as much as I can. Great work!
ReplyDeleteCheers!
Thank you for this informational article that highlights the "other" side of flu vaccines.
ReplyDeleteThere are no words to describe how grateful I am for you and your work and organization, and the people who help to fund your mission...I have donated before and will again this week, with my next paycheck on Friday. I hope everyone will follow suit - and donate, even if it is hard right now to do so. There is nothing more important than this.
ReplyDeleteBless your dear dear heart and soul with Love, Joy, Perfect Health and Well Being, and may you be safe, loved and protected in all that you do.
Sheree Rainbolt Kren
New Jersey
3 kids
(suspect vaccines was the cause of son's illness 2 decades ago).
yes..Swine Flu vaccine...nice..!!!
ReplyDeleteI will stand up! Thank you so much for a WONDERFUL conference. I was blessed to be able to attend. I am so excited about the direction the movement is headed. Thank you for all your hard work!
ReplyDeleteBarbara,
ReplyDeletethank you so much for your undying efforts to inform those of us who are swaying from vaccination. I am done vaccinating my four children, ages 8 - 21. My oldest having multiple disabilities, therefore still under my duress as far as vaccines are concerned. She lives in a group home, and I'm just waiting to hear from the state, NY, that I MUST have her "protected" from flu and swine flu. I can tell you with certainty, she will NOT receive them.
Thank you again, and God bless you
Deborah
Hi Barbara. My name is Lucila Donoso and I`m from Quito-Ecuador. I`m interested to contact you becasuse we have an article that you published on Monthering that we want to translate to spanish so other mother of our lactantion group can read it. I`ll want to have your permission. ¿How can I contact you? Lucila Donoso
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this information. It confirmed many points that a Physician friend of mine has stated.
ReplyDeleteBarbara, I am pregnant and my ob/gyn wants me to get the vaccine and I do not and will not but I REALLY want hard facts to back me up. Where do you get all your information? I am trying to get to the SOURCE of all the facts and reasonings so that I am not just telling my ob/gyn that I read this and that on the interent. THANK YOU!!
ReplyDeleteIf I wear a bracelet and someone asks, if they should vaccinate, where do we start the conversation. There is so much info - I'm overwhelmed. Are talking points outlined anywhere?
ReplyDeleteBarbara, I'm also looking for reports of cases where pregnant woman have contracted swine flu and recovered...I find it interesting that I can't fine these and it's NOT because every pregant woman that gets it dies because I have come across at least one report of a woman getting it and recovering around 32 weeks of pregnancy.
ReplyDelete700 healthcare workers participated at rally in Albany, NY on September 29 against flu and H1N1 vaccine mandate for all healthcare workers in NY State.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lifehealthchoices.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=247&catid=1:latest
Todd W. is the one spreading misinformation. The NY State Helath Department has MANDATED swine flu vaccinations for all hospital workers. This is a state government agency, not a private employer.
ReplyDeletewww.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/nyregion/21vaccine.html
There are some cases in Indonesia, where the vaccine brought some negative effects.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.myspecialgifts.net
I am a nurse, and the hospital I work for is requiring flu vaccines this year. If we do not get the vaccine then we will have to wear a mask at all times while in the hospital and if by January we have not gotten it then we risk losing our jobs! Also, everyone who gets the vaccine will have to display a sticker on their ID badge saying they got it. I do not know how to fight this. I'm especially upset because I am pregnant and do not want to put my baby at risk.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your article and this forum. After years of studying government conduct in financial, medical, and other fields this type of conduct is SOP. Taking a step back and seeing the large picture of conduct is an important step in identifying who you believe and who you don't. Specifically here, if a vaccination corp can place a toxic preservative in its multidose vaccine vial, that identifies their corp conduct and makes *everything* they produce suspect. Our dear writer is being kind with respect to Thimerasol. No mercury should be in your body. Zero. Not some. Not below some threshold. None.
ReplyDeleteSo this corp and the gov by complicity is saying that some Hg is ok. This is their basic challenge. And it is this, "What are you going to do about it?"
I suggest reading whale.to as a start.
A good friend of mine, who is doing his residency in an emergency room in Kansas, is putting out the word for everyone to get vaccinated because he is seeing the worst of H1N1 and it's effects. He wasn't working there last year when the cases of regular flu came through, which I'm sure were just as severe, so he's reacting to this flu as if it's 1918. ER residents become alarmed at what they see because it's all new to them. It's their first REAL experience of severe sickness and death. They discount side effects of vaccines, such as autism, as non-life threatening, even though autism is the real pandemic. It's the acute effects of the flu that they dangle like carrots to justify their vaccine recommendations. It's not their fault, really. It's the system they're a part of. Hopefully, with time and experience, most of them will come to know better.
ReplyDeleteI am a physician, M.D. Here in California no one is forcing me to get a flu shot. I got one because I did not want to get the flu. The H1N1 is not yet available, but I'll get the shot when it is.
ReplyDeleteWhen your 6 month old child dies of swine flu or swine flu kills your pregnant wife, you may change your mind about vaccines.
Thimersol has never been scientifically proven to cause autism.
Whooping cough was almost extinct before crackpot lunatics like you decided that vaccines were making the sky fall.
Henny Penny, don't get a flu shot if you don't want one.
to the "physician" above, the statistics of whooping cough mortality can be seen to decrease after the vaccination campaign began. But those statistics also show that in the forty years prior to said vaccination that whopping cough mortality was decreasing at the same rate. So publicity of !vaccination! as the cause of the victory over whopping cough is (once again) bad science.
ReplyDeletehttp://video.google.com/videosearch?q=vaccination+the+hidden+truth&emb=0&aq=2&oq=vaccin#
start at 4:30 to view pertinent section on whopping cough.
Whooping cough was almost extinct before crackpot lunatics like you decided that vaccines were making the sky fall.
ReplyDeleteThe vaccine doesn’t provide immunity. Remember Cincinnati in the 90’s? The whooping cough outbreak resulting in more than 80% of children under five who got whooping cough had been fully vaccinated. You’re a doctor so you should know that whooping cough vaccines CAN NOT be given to children over the age of 5 because it often causes adverse reactions.
Children who receive the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine are six times more likely to develop asthma than children not receiving this vaccine.
Whooping cough is an illness that a child can get over...asthma isn't.
Annonymous - Just becasue you are an MD doesn't make you an expert - scientific evidence used to be based on double blind studies - where are these studies when it comes to proving efficacy and safety of increasing numbers of vaccines. Vaccine schedules are based on political wills and are no longer if ever they were based on science - Henny Penny? read Animal Farm again the line where power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutey - this is what this vaccine business is all about.Power, money and mass ignorance - people do your own research.
ReplyDeleteBarbara,
ReplyDeleteDon't know if you will let me take a crack at this crack pot, but here it goes.
To the 'Anonymous' MD. I'm scientist who has studied vaccine science over 20 years. you want to rumble intellectually let's go for it.
You can take 60 + shots if it floats your boat but let's not fool each other here. You're going to be carrying genetically altered dna / rna viral strains in your body which, if your a 'real' doctor, you should know, they will mutate and you WILL shed these viruses and SPRED them into the population. Can you tell us ALL what the mutated viruses will be and how will they effect the population? Is this really a part of your hippocratic oath?
As a Doctor it is NOT ethical to use fear to push your agenda on the rest of us. Some even call this terrorism. The Mayo Clinic released it's findings and stated you are MORE likely to GET h1n1 FRON THE VACCINE ITSELF than NOT getting the shot at all. So, to scare innocent people into getting this TOXIC vaccine by threatening the lives of six month olds with NO scientific PROOF to back your wild claim up, it's criminal at minimum.
Thimersol..
You say you are a doctor? Then why don't you know about the peer reviewed studies that PROVE mercury from Thimersol (and other heavy medals in vaccines) accumulates in areas of the body such as the brain, liver and other organs. This was PROVEN using radio isotopes to track the heavy metals after vaccines were given. These tests (along with autopsies) also proves the non toxic mercury ion in the Thimersol converts to the TOXIC ionic form of mercury once it accumulates in the body. Oh, and doc, it HAS been proven that mercury poisoning occurs on the NANO particulate level.
One last thing on autism. You doctors like to tell us how smart you are when it comes to vaccines but how come you same doctors can't explain the reason why the autism graph and the increased vaccine schedules over time run exactly parallel with each other? Classic line you people use is... "We've always had it." That is very ODD from a scientific standpoint to say the very least because we are soon to have an explosion of autistic adults as these autistic kids move into adulthood. As far as the REAL WORLD goes, there has NEVER been an autistic 'epidemic' in the 20+ age bracket, the prime of life, in the history of this planet!!!!
Whooping cough????
WHooping cough numbers declined to almost a non issue due to improved living conditions BEFORE a vaccine for it existed !!! Again, the Mayo Clinic (reluctantly?) admits whooping cough can EASILY be treated (if even gets to that point) WITHOUT A VACCINE. Including infants and children.
.
I won't get a flu shot for the simple scientific FACT they DON'T work and are chalk-full of contaminates.
Whereas normally, should the anonymous physician in CA go ahead with injecting toxins into the bloodstream of his children, so that he can justify the Alice in Wonderland rationale that he received in Med School, I'd be extremely interested in learning what his eventual reaction ( no pun intended)would be after the years go by and the heavy metals accumulate in their brains and organs. BUT, I pray instead that the Doc does his due diligence and researches the massive amounts of research material and testimonies online countering both the safety and efficacy of vaccines, and changes his mind, that his children may grow up healthy and with nimble capable minds, unlike what so many of their peers will enjoy whose parents go with the deleterious flow.
ReplyDeleteAs for my 10 year old son, I have steadfastly refused to EVER vaccinate him, and at 10 years of age he has been sick only 5 times in his whole life, has had NO ear infections ever and already writes and illustrates his own novellas. His level of energy, ability to learn and his natural immunity to sickness are all stellar. I credit a prodigious desire to plumb the truth, when I was introduced to the vaccine controversy during my pregnancy - beginning with the book "A Shot in the Dark". All told, the evidence turned out to be overwhelmingly in favor of eschewing vaccines forever. My siblings see it differently and they have illnesses, allergies and other ailments in their children that were never part of our own 1960's childhood. Barbara, Keep reaching the masses with common sense, one day it will even prevail. Victoria Bingham, Alexandria VA
my kids got the shot and are fine! better than staying up all night with them miserable, puking out one end and something out the other at the same time.!! not fun and trying to get them to keep down fluids so they don't get dehydrated. you know cause of people like you my sister-in-law doesn't even vaccinate her children cause she is more afraid of here say and real facts.! it sad, really really sad! if it wasn't for vaccines we would be like every other country and dieing children and people. the whole thing makes me angry!
ReplyDeleteThe "Physician" writes,
ReplyDelete"Whooping cough was almost extinct before crackpot lunatics like you decided that vaccines were making the sky fall."
Does the "Physician" find his/her unscientific, disparaging, and unprofessional remark rather embarrassing, given the light of day?
Perhaps it is a good point to remain anonymous lest his/her patients discovered the abhorrent attitude, expressed through a demonstrated lack of self-control. I should think self-control might be high on the list of characteristics one would want in their Doctor, but standards among Americans these days never cease to amaze.
Scientific disciplines such as medicine demand disciplined minds. Scientists savour a challenge and respond in appropriate and scientific language, not aspersions. We should note that Ms. Fisher has never exhibited this same lack. She is not a "Physician" but manages to stand up to nonsense when it's nonsense and holds her own quite well in the sciences.
It may be logical to assume that the "Physician" is not the physician he/she claims or, worse, is suffering an idiopathic disease.
I am not a "Physician" and therefore I'll allow myself some license. The definition of idiopathic disease is: "When the patient is pathetic and the physician is an idiot".
Physician: it fits.
Thank you for the great website and also for a great comment for John H. We are having the same problems here in Finland! They are fooling us everywhere.. Sad. There are some that are releasing the true information. Let's not give up!
ReplyDeleteI'd like to share some facts I've gathered from my personal experiences as a physician.
ReplyDeleteFlu shots are infrequently obtainable for seasonal flu, get rid of these vaccines aren’t expected to be defensive against respiratory disease due to the novel H1N1 (formerly called swine flu) virus. A vaccine for the new H1N1 flu is in the works as of end summer and could be set for concentration in autumn of 2009.
There are 2 kinds of seasonal flu shots, the shot (with dead virus) and nasal sprayer vaccines (with live but diluted virus).
Every year, the flu virus may alter to some extent, making the vaccine used zinc blende earlier years inutility. Every year, an original vaccine has to be prepared that will be efficient fort wayne fight back to the probable nature of flu viral. The duty period is to stand for able to foresee which respiratory disorder viruses will cause illness and to get a pneumovax put on to keep away these viruses. More often than not, scientists are able to calculate precisely which kinds of flu virus are going to cause contamination and arrange a suitable dpt vaccine. The viruses that are utilized for creating asiatic flu shots are matured in eggs.
Influenza season may begin america October and last until May. October and November are noted element the finest multiply to be given the vaccination, but it’s still successful when given later in the year.
In general, the vaccine is valuable against the flu virus outside 2 weeks of distribution. The immunize is simple useful against the strains of the virion that coordinate with the vaccinate. These strains differ every flu season. This is why revaccination should be annual, with the vaccine that goes with the strains of influenza that are presently widespread. Flu vaccination doesn’t shield against infection due to microbes other than the influenza virus.
The flu shot vaccine
Both residential flu shots and company flu shots are inactivated vaccines–they have killed flu virus outside. The killed flu virus is inserted into muscles and inspires the immune carrier system to generate an immune response, antibodies, to the influenza virus. When the virus goes inside of a person who had a flu shot that season, then the antibodies battle and destroy the virus. This does not allow infection.
The inactivated flu shot is given territorial dominion a plural booster shot of 0.5 cl injected through skin into muscle. Routine, the injection is into the rotator cuff muscle on one side of the arm, by means of rubbing alcohol massaged over the skin beforehand for sterilization. The vaccine is administered each fall. Side effects of flu shots are uncommon.
Side effects could be a sore injection area, muscle pains, febrile, and feeling under the weather. Extremely rarely, severe allergic reactions collapse been reported.
Guillain-Barré apyretic tetanus (GBS) is an illness which provides fever, nerve price, and muscle passing. In the year 1976, vaccination with squealer flu shots caused GBS. Studies have been attempted to assess if different flu shots were linked to GBS, with only one study presenting a relation. That study proved that 1 person out of 1 million vaccinated people could be at risk of GBS related to the poliovirus vaccine.