H1N1 crisis?

[Stevebert]

There apparently is no reliable test to determine whether someone has been infected by the H1N1 virus which causes "swine flu" (as distinct from seasonal flu that comes around every year at this time).

There are unreliable quick tests which often show false negative results (i.e. the test says NO but the doctor who observes the symptoms says YES), and the best test is only accurate when administered within 24 hours of first symptoms (it is useless if a patient has been sick for more than a day).

I've been told that most hospitals, clinics, doctors, and emergency rooms have been giving the blanket diagnosis of H1N1 swine flu to EVERYONE who comes in with flu-like symptoms, giving antiviral medication and hospitalization to the worst cases, and sending most home for 7 days of self-quarantine. In other words, the reported number of persons who have potentially deadly swine flu is certainly inflated and may be highly inaccurate.

So, is this truly a pandemic? Is this a genuine health crisis? Is it a legitimate national medical emergency just because the President proclaims it? And just what exactly are those normal requirements that medical providers can now skip?

I am not a medical worker so I'd like to hear from doctors or nurses or biomed techs on this.

I am very suspicious of another governmental power-grab, but I'm not sure what they're grabbing for this time. "Never allow a crisis to go to waste, they are opportunities to do big things." --White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel (quoted in NY Times)

[Sis]

Eighteen Reasons Why You Should NOT Vaccinate Your Children Against The Flu This Season

by Bill Sardi

This year it is more important that you protect your children and loved ones from the flu vaccines than influenza itself. Here are the reasons:

1. This flu is simply another flu. It is not unusually deadly. In fact, the H1N1 swine flu in circulation is less deadly than many other influenza outbreaks. The first 1000 confirmed swine flu cases in Japan and China produced zero deaths. The Centers for Disease Control alleges 36,000 Americans succumb to the flu each year, but so far, since March through August of 2009 (6 months), the swine flu has been attributed to ~500–600 deaths in the US. The swine flu of 2009 has already swept through the Southern Hemisphere's flu season without alarm. Only exaggerated reports have been issued by the World Health Organization regarding hospitalizations required during the flu season in South American countries. Getting exposed to influenza and developing natural antibodies confers resistance for future flu outbreaks. Artificially boosting antibodies by exposure to flu viruses in vaccines is more problematic than natural exposure. Americans have been exposed to the H1N1 swine flu throughout the summer of 2009 with far fewer deaths and hospitalizations than commonly attributed to the seasonal flu.

2. Health authorities tacitly admit prior flu vaccination programs were of worthless value. This is the first time both season and pandemic flu vaccines will be administered. Both seasonal flu and swine flu vaccines will require two inoculations. This is because single inoculations have failed to produce sufficient antibodies. Very young children and older frail adults, the high-risk groups in the population, may not produce sufficient antibodies in response to the flu vaccine. This is an admission that prior flu vaccines were virtually useless. The same people who brought you the ineffective vaccines in past years are bringing you this year's new vaccines. Can you trust them this time?

3. In addition to failure to produce sufficient antibodies, this swine flu vaccine is brought to you by the same people who haven't been able to adequately produce a seasonal flu vaccine that matches the flu strain in circulation. In recent years flu vaccination has been totally worthless because the strains of the flu in circulation did not match the strain of the virus in the vaccines. Authorities claim the prevalent flu strain in circulation in mid-September '09 is the H1N1 swine flu, which appears to be milder than past seasonal influenza in circulation. If this data is correct, why receive the season flu shot this year?

4. The vaccines will be produced by no less than four different manufacturers, possibly with different additives (called adjuvants) and manufacturing methods. The two flu inoculations may be derived from a multi-dose vial and in a crisis, and in short supply, it will be diluted to provide more doses and then adjuvants must be added to trigger a stronger immune response. Adjuvants are added to vaccines to boost production of antibodies but may trigger autoimmune reactions. Some adjuvants are mercury (thimerosal), aluminum and squalene. Would you permit your children to be injected with lead? Lead is very harmful to the brain. Then why would you sign a consent form for your kids to be injected with mercury, which is even more brain-toxic than lead? Injecting mercury may fry the brains of American kids.


5. This is the first year mock vaccines have been used to gain FDA approval. Mock vaccines are made to gain approval of the manufacturing method and then the prevalent virus strain in circulation is added just days before it is actually placed into use. Don't subject your children to experimental vaccines. Yes, these vaccines have been tested on healthy kids and adults, but they are not the same vaccines your children will be given. Those children with asthma, allergies, type I diabetes, etc. are at greater risk for side effects. Children below the age of 2 years do not have a sufficient blood–brain barrier developed and are subject to chronic brain infections that emanate into symptoms that are called autism. Toddlers should not be subjected to injected viruses.

6. Over-vaccination is a common practice now in America. American children are subjected to 29 vaccines by the age of two. This means a little bit of disease is being injected into young children continually during their most formative years! Veterinarians have backed off of repeat vaccination in dogs because of observed side effects.

7. Health officials want to vaccinate women during pregnancy, subjecting the fetal brain to an intentional biological assault. A recent study showed exposure flu viruses among women during pregnancy provoke a similar gene expression pattern in the fetus as that seen in autistic children. This is a tacit admission that vaccines, which inject a little bit of influenza into humans, causes autism.

8. Modern medicine has no explanation for autism, despite its continued rise in prevalence. Yet autism is not reported among Amish children who go unvaccinated. Beware the falsehoods of modern medicine.

9. School kids are likely to receive nasally-administered vaccines (Flu-Mist) that require no needle injection. But this form of live vaccine produces viral shedding which will surely be transmitted to family members. What a way to start an epidemic!

See the rest at    http://www.lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi119.html

[Sis]

The New "Twilight Zone" -- Obama Declares Swine Flu Emergency

President Barack Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency on Friday October 23, empowering the health secretary to suspend federal requirements and speed up treatment.

His declaration authorizes Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to bypass normal federal regulations so health officials can respond more quickly to the outbreak, which, allegedly, has killed more than 1,000 people in the United States.

"As a nation, we have prepared at all levels of government, and as individuals and communities, taking unprecedented steps to counter the emerging pandemic," Obama wrote in the declaration, which the White House announced Saturday.

He said the pandemic keeps evolving, the rates of illness are rising rapidly in many areas and there's a potential "to overburden health care resources."

Because of vaccine production delays, the government has backed off initial estimates that 120 million doses would be available by mid-October. As of mid-October, only 11 million doses had been shipped to health departments, doctor's offices and other providers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials said.

The government now estimates to have about 50 million doses of swine flu vaccine out by mid-November and 150 million in December.


Sources:

 Los Angeles Times October 24, 2009


 New York Times October 25, 2009
-----------------------

....As always with pandemic flus, taxpayers are footing the $1.5 billion check for the 250 million swine flu vaccines that the government has ordered so far and will be distributing free to doctors, pharmacies and schools. In addition, Congress has set aside more than $10 billion this year to research flu viruses, monitor H1N1's progress and educate the public about prevention.

Drugmakers pocket most of the revenues from flu sales, with Sanofi-Pasteur, Glaxo Smith Kline and Novartis cornering most of the market.

But some say it's not just drugmakers who stand to benefit. Doctors collect copayments for special office visits to inject shots, and there have been assertions that these doctors actually profit handsomely from these vaccinations.


Sources:  From the article entitled:  Washington Health Department Suspends Mercury Restrictions for Swine Flu Vaccine

  Seattle Times September 29, 2009


  The Scientist September 23, 2009

[Sis]

People Who Get a Seasonal Flu Shot Are Twice as Likely to Catch Swine Flu  


As-yet-unpublished Canadian data raises concerns about whether it's a good idea to get a seasonal flu shot.

A series of studies suggests that people who got a seasonal flu shot last year are about twice as likely to catch swine flu as people who didn't.

Journals bar would-be authors from discussing their results publicly before they go through peer review, but the findings have been a poorly kept secret and many in the public health community in Canada have heard about them.

In the meantime, five biopharmaceutical companies have been awarded massive contracts by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for development and production of more than 195 million doses of swine flu vaccine, and health officials are urging everyone to get vaccinated against both the seasonal- and the swine flu this season.

The companies -- Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, MedImmune, Australian drug maker CSL, and Sanofi-Pasteur -- will likely make a great deal of money.

CSL has contracts to supply $180 million worth of bulk antigen to the U.S. MedImmune will supply 40 million doses of its live attenuated nasal spray swine flu vaccine for more than $450 million. Sanofi-Pasteur is providing more than 100 million doses of monovalent swine flu vaccine, a $690 million order.


Sources:

  Health Zone September 24, 2009


  The Scientist September 23, 2009

[Sis]

Washington Health Department Suspends Mercury Restrictions for Swine Flu Vaccine

In preparation for swine-flu vaccinations next month, the state of Washington's Health Department has temporarily suspended a rule that limits the amount of a mercury preservative in vaccines given to pregnant women and children under the age of 3.

Thimerosal has been eliminated from most vaccines in the United States, and the compound may  be linked to autism. But it will be added to the bulk of swine-flu vaccines.

Thimerosal will be added to the vaccine because it is being produced in vials that contain enough medication for 10 shots. The mercury compound kills bacteria, lowering the risk that the drug will be contaminated by needles used to withdraw separate doses...

From:

Seattle Times September 29, 2009

The Scientist September 23, 2009


Environmental Health Perspectives, August, 2005

Fourteenstudies.org states: "This study demonstrates clearly and unequivocally that ethyl mercury, the kind of mercury found in vaccines, not only ends up in your brain, but leaves double the amount of inorganic mercury as methyl mercury, the kind of mercury found in fish.

This work is groundbreaking because little is known about ethyl mercury, and many health authorities have asserted that the mercury found in vaccines is the "safe kind."

This study also delivers a strong rebuke of the Institute of Medicine's recommendation in 2004 to no longer pursue the mercury-autism connection. Excerpt:

"A recently published IOM review (IOM 2004) appears to have abandoned the earlier recommendation [of studying mercury and autism] as well as back away from the American Academy of Pediatrics goal [of removing mercury from vaccines].

This approach is difficult to understand, given our current limited knowledge of the toxicokinetics and developmental neurotoxicity of thimerosal, a compound that has been (and will continue to be) injected in millions of newborns and infants."

Cell Biology and Toxicology April 9, 2009 [Epub Ahead of Print]

Exerpt: "In conclusion, MT-1 and MT-3 mRNAs but not MT-2 mRNA are easily expressed in the cerebellum rather than in the cerebrum by the injection of low-dose thimerosal. It is thought that the cerebellum is a sensitive organ against thimerosal.

As a result of the present findings, in combination with the brain pathology observed in patients diagnosed with autism, the present study helps to support the possible biological plausibility for how low-dose exposure to mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines may be associated with autism."

Annals of Epidemiology September 2009: 19(9);659

Male infants who received thimerosal-containing hepatitis-B vaccinations had a three-fold risk of developing autism.

Neurotoxicology October 1, 2009

The above findings are confirmed in this study wherein infant primates injected with just ONE dose of thimerosal-containing hepatitis B vaccine manifested significant developmental delays.

Brain Research September 9, 2009 [Epub Ahead of Print]

Study concluded that injecting thimerosal into suckling infant rats, and adult rats, impairs sensitivity to pain, apparently due to activation the endogenous opioid system.

Toxicology & Environmental Chemistry September-October 2008: 90(5);997-1008

Male infants who received thimerosal-containing hepatitis-B vaccinations were nine times as likely to be receiving special education services

Generation Rescue Survey of 9,000 boys, aged 4-17, in California and Oregon, found that vaccinated boys had a 155 percent greater chance of having a neurological disorder than unvaccinated boys. Vaccinated boys were 224 percent more likely to have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and 61 percent more likely to have autism.

For boys in the 11-17 age bracket, the results were even more pronounced. Vaccinated boys were 158 percent more likely to have a neurological disorder, 317 percent more likely to have ADHD, and 112 percent more likely to have autism.

Report to the Legislature on the Principle Findings from The Epidemiology of Autism in California: A Comprehensive Pilot Study by the MIND Institute, October 2002, concluded that the rise in autism cannot be explained by better diagnosis and expanded diagnostic criteria, but rather is a real event, likely propelled by "environmental exposures to substances such as mercury; viral exposures; autoimmune disorders; and childhood vaccinations."

Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology 2006: 214; 99-108

This French study used a new, sophisticated measurement for environmental toxicity by assessing porphyrin levels in autistic children. It provides clear and unequivocal evidence that children with autism spectrum disorders are significantly more toxic than their neurotypical peers.

Journal of American Physicians and Surgeon, 2003

Exerpt: "The data from this study, along with emerging epidemiological data showing a link between increasing mercury doses from childhood vaccines and childhood neurodevelopmental disorders, increases the likelihood that mercury is one of the main factors leading to the large increase in the rate of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. It is hoped that removing thimerosal from all childhood vaccines will contribute to a decline in the numbers of new cases of autistic spectrum disorders."

Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health 2007: 70; 837-851

This study reviewed the case histories and medical profiles of nine autistic children and concluded that eight of the nine children were mercury toxic and this toxicity manifested itself in a manner consistent with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Neuropediatrics, August 2006

Exerpt: "There was significant difference in blood mercury levels between cases and controls, which persists after adjustment for age, gender and parental occupational status. The geometric mean blood mercury level was also significantly higher in children with inattentive and combined subtypes of ADHD. CONCLUSION: High blood mercury level was associated with ADHD. Whether the relationship is causal requires further studies."

International Journal of Toxicology 2003: 22; 277-285

Fourteenstudies.org states: "This recent study demonstrates that the levels of mercury in the birth hair of autistic children were significantly lower than their control peers. While this may at first appear contradictory, it highlights one of the critical insights to understanding mercury poisoning and autistic children: many autistic children are non-excretors of mercury. This means their capacity to excrete mercury is significantly lower than their neurotypical peers and contributes to their condition."

Journal of Pediatrics, May 2000: 136; 679-681

This study measured mercury levels in infants before and after the administration of a Hepatitis B vaccine containing thimerosal and found that a "comparison of pre and post-vaccination mercury levels showed a significant increase in both preterm and term infants after vaccination."

Neurotoxicology January 2005: 26; 1-8

Study demonstrates that thimerosal lowers or inhibits your body's ability to produce glutathione, an antioxidant and your body's primary cellular-level defense against mercury.

Excerpt: "Thimerosal-induced cytotoxicity was associated with depletion of intracellular Glutathione in both cell lines...The potential effect of Glutathione or N-acetylcysteine against mercury toxicity warrants further research as possible adjunct therapy to individuals still receiving Thimerosal-containing vaccines."

Environmental Health Perspectives, July 2006

Study demonstrates that very low-levels of Thimerosal can contribute to immune system disregulation.

Molecular Psychiatry July 2004; 1-13

Study demonstrates how thimerosal inhibits methylation, a central driver of cellular communication and development.

Exerpt: "The potent inhibition of this pathway [methylation] by ethanol, lead, mercury, aluminum, and thimerosal suggests it may be an important target of neurodevelopmental toxins."

Molecular Psychiatry September 2004; 1-13

Fouteenstudies.org states: "This work by Columbia University Doctors explores whether genes are important in determining if mercury exposures akin to those in childhood immunizations can disrupt brain development and function.

It is the first known scientific study done specifically on ethlymercury administered in a way similar to the vaccine schedule. Dr. Hornig discussed the study before Congress in September 2004."

Excerpt: "The premise of our research is that if mercury in vaccines creates risk for neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, genetic differences are likely to contribute to that risk. Earlier studies, however, did not use the form of mercury present in vaccines, known as thimerosal, and did not consider whether intramuscular, repetitive administration during early postnatal development, when the brain and immune systems are still maturing, might intensify toxicity.

Our predictions were confirmed. Using thimerosal dosages and timing that approximated the childhood immunization schedule, our model of postnatal thimerosal neurotoxicity demonstrated that the genes in mice that predict mercury-related immunotoxicity also predicted nuerodevelopmental damage. Features reminiscent of those observed in autism occurred in the mice of the genetically sensitive strain."

Toxicological Sciences 2003: 74

Study demonstrates the potent toxicity of thimerosal on brain cells.

Autoimmunity Reviews June 2005: 4(5):270-275

Study demonstrates the clear link between ethylmercury [from thimerosal] and autoimmune responses.

Congressional Record - Extensions of Remarks by Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN), Committee on Government Reform, May 21, 2003

Fouteenstudies.org states: "This extensive report was prepared by the staff of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness and was the result of a three-year investigation. The Committee on Government Reform, chaired by Congressman Dan Burton, initiated the investigation and compiled the testimony of hundreds of researchers and physicians, as well as representatives from the FDA and CDC, who presented to the committee."

Excerpt: "Mercury is hazardous to humans. Its use in medicinal products is undesirable, unnecessary and should be minimized or eliminated entirely. Manufacturers of vaccines and thimerosal, (an ethlymercury compound used in vaccines), have never conducted adequate testing on the safety of thimerosal. The FDA has never required manufacturers to conduct adequate safety testing on thimerosal and ethlymercury compounds...

Thimerosal used as a preservative in vaccines is likely related to the autism epidemic. This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the switch regarding injected thimerosal and the sharp rise of infant exposure to this known neurotoxin. Our public health agencies' failure to act is indicative of institutional malfeasance for self-protection and misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry."

Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons 2006; 11(1); 8-13

Upon analysis of the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), researchers reported significantly increased odds ratios for autism, speech disorders, mental retardation and thinking abnormalities following vaccination with thimerosal-containing vaccines (DTP and Hib), compared to children who received a vaccine containing half the amount of thimerosal (DTPH).

The American Academy of Pediatrics decided that this study was flawed because it relied on VAERS data, which as a "passive surveillance system" is no intended to be used for proving hypotheses.


I could go on, but by now I'm sure you get the picture.

[Soubriquet]

It's just the flu... nothing to get super excited about.  I work between 36 and 60 hours a week on an ambulance and walking through the biggest emergency room in my state, and I haven't had either vaccine and I'm fine.  I rarely get the normal flu, though.  If you're remotely healthy, it isn't something to get scared about.  If you have "flu-like symptoms" just goto your family doctor, get checked out and get a prescription for meds like you would do any other year.  Please, though... don't goto the emergency room unless it's a true emergency.

This is a joke to the medical community... Yes, the "swine flu" kills people, but the normal flu has killed far more people this year.  And the people who died already had other medical problems.  The flu alone won't kill you if you get it treated.

[sunlight]

This is a joke to the medical community... Yes, the "swine flu" kills people, but the normal flu has killed far more people this year.  And the people who died already had other medical problems.  The flu alone won't kill you if you get it treated.

yup, I would have to agree. As a nurse, i have had 2 patients who have had this, and guess what... they got over it just like the regular flu, if not faster. This is being blown way out of proportion.

[SippinTea]

This is a joke to the medical community... Yes, the "swine flu" kills people, but the normal flu has killed far more people this year.  And the people who died already had other medical problems.  The flu alone won't kill you if you get it treated.

yup, I would have to agree. As a nurse, i have had 2 patients who have had this, and guess what... they got over it just like the regular flu, if not faster. This is being blown way out of proportion.

Hurray for Nurse Chel. I love honest medical people. *lol*

[Sis]

Of course they had to create an emergency to scare people into accepting their health care plan, which would force us to take meds we don't want in the name of prevention, no matter how bad it is for you, and make us wait for up to a year to have a gall bladder looked at.

[Sis]

Sharyl Attkisson is a CBS News correspondent and investigative reporter. She's covered Capitol Hill since February 2006 and has been a Washington-based correspondent there since January 1995. She was also part of the CBS news team that received the Edward Murrow Award in 2005 for overall excellence. Additionally, she received an Outstanding Investigative Journalism Emmy in 2002 for a series on the Red Cross.

In case you didn't realize it, Sharyl Attkisson is the investigative reporter behind the groundbreaking CBS News study that found H1N1 flu cases are NOT as prevalent as feared.

In fact, they're barely on the radar screen.

Getting Started on the Swine Flu Trail
Ms. Attkisson says:

"The reason I looked into this is a couple of months ago, I got tips from three or four different segments of public healthcare, with folks telling me the CDC has recommended that they go ahead and stop testing for and counting swine flu cases.

Each different entity that contacted me was concerned, thinking that this should not be happening. They really felt that it was necessary for the swine flu to continue to be tracked in some details. So I went about trying to find out why this decision was made and what the ramifications would be.

... I started by contacting the CDC and the HHS and asking some basic questions. I felt like I pretty much got stonewalled with some of the information I really needed to get at, especially what I needed from the states data, and information on the rationale behind this decision to stop counting and testing for swine flu."

Because the CDC did not initially respond to Attkisson's requests, she contacted all 50 states directly, asking for their statistics on state lab-confirmed H1N1 prior to the halt of individual testing and counting in July. She also asked states, one by one, to help explain the rationale behind the CDC's decision to stop tracking H1N1 cases.

Attkisson continues:

"One of my good sources within the government said to me that they're either trying to, in his opinion, over-represent the swine flu numbers or under-represent by not counting them anymore. He said, "You need to find out which it is." And so to find out which it might be, I really wanted to see the data that the CDC had at the time it made the decision to quit counting the cases."

What Her Investigative Report Reveals

If you listen to most media outlets and even to government agencies, you get the impression that virtually every person who has visited their physician with flu-like symptoms in recent months has H1N1, with no testing necessary because, after all, there's an epidemic.

We are all being led to believe that every case diagnosed as "swine flu" or even as "flu-like illness" is, in fact, swine flu.

But Attkisson's investigation revealed a very different picture right from her first contact with individual states. She explains:

"Across the country, state by state, they were testing [for H1N1] until CDC told them not to bother. They were testing, in general, the cases most likely to be believed to have been swine flu based on a doctor's diagnosis of symptoms and risk factors such as travel to Mexico.

These special cases were going to state labs for absolute confirmation with the best test -- not the so-called "rapid testing," but the real confirmation test.

Of those presumed likely swine flu cases out of approximately every hundred of what was tested, only a small fraction were actually swine flu. In every instance, perhaps the biggest number of cases that were swine flu was something like 30%. The smallest number was something like 2% or 3%.

Maybe there's one state where it was just 1%.

The point is, of the vast majority of the presumed swine flu cases recognized by trained physicians, the vast majority were not flu at all. They weren't swine flu or regular flu; they were some other sort of upper respiratory infection."
And here is the clincher that it seems the CDC just doesn't want the American public to know ...

"The CDC explained that one of the reasons they quit counting was because of all the flu that's out there, most are swine flu. Well, that's true. Most of the flu that was out there was indeed swine flu, but they failed to say that most of the suspected flu was nothing at all. And I think that's the caveat the public just didn't know," Attkisson explains.

She gives even more striking examples of the numbers the investigative report revealed. For instance:


•In Florida, 83 percent of specimens that were presumed to be swine flu were negative for all flu when tested!
•In California, 86 percent of suspected H1N1 specimens were not swine flu or any flu; only 2 percent were confirmed swine flu.
•In Alaska, 93 percent of suspected swine flu specimens were negative for all flu types; only 1 percent was H1N1 flu.
Freedom of Information and Getting the Truth Out


It is not easy for journalists to access this type of information, and they often have to wait weeks, months or even years for information from the CDC and the FDA -- information that is readily available and supposed to be clearly public.

Attkisson expands on the difficulties she faced in trying to get simple data regarding swine flu cases in the United States:

"They [CDC's public affairs] quit communicating with me when I pressed on why I couldn't get certain information. They just wouldn't answer my emails anymore. So I had to file a Freedom of Information request, which is usually my last choice because I know I was going into a deep black hole many times and I'll never get an answer.

But in this case, I got an interesting response on October 19 from the CDC when I had asked for some simple, public documents that would have been easy for them to obtain too quickly.

Journalists are allowed to ask for expedited processing of their Freedom of Information request because, for obvious reasons, they're working on a story that may have public impact or be of public interest. The agencies are not supposed to use the Freedom of Information Law to obstruct or delay the release of this information.

This may be the first time I was denied that expedited processing from Freedom of Information that we're entitled to as members of the press; a letter from HHS or Health and Human Services (the CDC is under HHS) said to me that one of the reasons they're denying my expedited processing is because this is not a matter of "widespread and exceptional media or public interest."

In other words, the CDC doesn't think these questions about swine flu prevalence and these other things that we've been asking are, at least in their opinion in this letter, not a matter of widespread and exceptional media or public interest."

Yet, while the CDC expressed that questions about swine flu prevalence were not a matter of widespread media or public interest, the President had declared the swine flu a national public health emergency!

The inconsistencies at the CDC are nearly incomprehensible.

The Ramifications of the Swine Flu Policy

According to Attkisson's CBS News study, when you come down with chills, fever, cough, runny nose, malaise and all those other "flu-like" symptoms, the illness is likely caused by influenza at most 17 percent of the time and as little as 3 percent! The other 83 to 97 percent of the time it's caused by other viruses or bacteria.

So remember that not every illness that appears to be the flu actually is the flu. In fact, most of the time it's not.

Curiously, the CDC still advises those who were told they had 2009 H1N1 (and therefore should be immune to getting it again) to get vaccinated unless they had lab confirmation.

But because very few people have actually had a lab-confirmed case of H1N1 (and in most cases those people told they had swine flu probably did not), this means nearly everyone is still being advised to get the swine flu vaccine.
Attkisson has been one of the few to speak out against this flawed system and point out the serious ramifications that come when a public health agency is secretive about their health data.

Attkisson says:

"From a public and journalistic standpoint, I believe the mistake comes when you don't fully disclose to the public as you go and discover the mistakes. Try to disclose and fix things that come up.

Everybody understands that there isn't a perfect system, but I think you need to be upfront with them, explain what you're doing, and explain what you're discovering. If you've made a mistake or you feel like you need to correct something, say that, too, but don't just try to keep information from the public."

I couldn't agree more, and Attkisson's CBS News report has stood out like a bright light of truth among all the clouds of misinformation.

If you'd like to learn more about the report and its findings, you can read all the details in the past article CBS Reveals that Swine Flu Cases Seriously Overestimated.