The Side Effects Of Flu Shots

The flu vaccines are here, particularly the Swine Flu vaccine and the media is blitzing the subject every where you look. Each time I turn on a news show, there is yet another government official, spokes person from the CDC or a hired "authority" speaking to us about the necessity of receiving a flu shot.

Scare tactics are used left and right, statistics are skewed, images are shown of schools looking abandoned, veritable ghost towns. We are left to believe the worst if we don't rush off to the doctors office or clinic to get poked with a needle or sprayed up the nostrils.

The schools here where I live have remained opened, full of students, all activities happening as planned, even though the media says my state has been very hard hit. I'm puzzled by this.

Another part of this topic that puzzles me is how all of the experts I see on TV and read about in the newspaper and online are claiming the "total safety" of the flu shot. I'm sure you have read how the vaccine was rushed through products with little to no testing, so how do we really know it's safe?

Here are some of ingredients that can be found in flu vaccines:

• Thimerosal (a mercury derivative)


• Ethylene Glycol (Anti freeze)


• Aluminum


• Benzethonium Chloride (a disinfectant)


• Phenol (a disinfectant die)


• Formaldehyde (a preservative & disinfectant)


• Chicken Embryos

Thimerosal, which contains mercury has been known to induce membrane damage and cell death. It has been linked to a possible cause of autism. This possibility resulted in the use of Thimerosal to be reduced or eliminated from pediatric vaccines, however not from the flu vaccine.

I don't know about you, but I am not anxious to have even one of these "ingredients" injected into my body. I am happy to say that I have never had a flu shot and never plan on getting one. Ironically, I don't believe I have had the flu either, thanks to my healthy immune system. However from what I understand, it is often mistaken for a cold and sometimes people don't even realize they have the flu. I prefer to live with the discomfort of a cold and/or flu than to have myself injected with who only knows what.

Educate Yourself About Swine Flu

Educate yourself about Swine Flu and particularly about a vaccination to prevent Swine Flu. This is especially important when there is talk about instituting a manadatory vaccination for some. A mandatory vaccination that has been developed and tested all in a matter of a few short weeks.

Watch the video below and read the excerpt from Mercola.com on this extremely important topic.


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Following is an excerpt from a post from Mercola.com. To read the entire post, please click the link at the end of the excerpt.

By Dr. Mercola

You’ve probably noticed the escalating hype and hysteria surrounding the swine flu pandemic as colder months approach and the number of worldwide cases climbs.

It’s true the virus is spreading.

Much more important, however, is the fact that reported cases continue to be symptomatically mild, requiring little or no medical intervention. And deaths from the H1N1 virus remain extremely low, at less than one half of one percent of reported cases as of July 6.[1]

Despite this fact, the United States has committed to spending another $1 billion on ingredients for an H1N1 vaccine, according to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, with plans for a mid-October vaccination program intact.[2]

Plans are also underway to implement vaccine programs around the world. In Germany, for instance, the health ministry announced the government had plans to order 50 million vaccine units and up to 22.5 million people may be vaccinated in the first stage of the plan starting in September (even though no fatalities have occurred in the country to date).[3]

The cost of the vaccination program is estimated at two billion euros -- even though only 800 infections, none of them fatal, have been reported in the country.
The White House Speaks About Swine Flu

If you’re on the White House email distribution list, you received an email recently announcing the “H1N1 Influenza Preparedness Summit” held on July 9. The note was signed by the Secretaries of Health and Human Services (HHS), Homeland Security, and Education.

The message said, in part:

“We are working together to monitor the spread of 2009-H1N1 and to prepare to initiate a voluntary fall vaccination program against the 2009-H1N1 flu virus, assuming we have a safe vaccine and do not see changes in the virus that would render the vaccine ineffective.”

Two things in this paragraph stand out. Number one -- the vaccination program is still voluntary. A plan for mass swine flu vaccinations is not good news, but it appears that at least for now, the choice is still up to you.

The other item which stands out in that paragraph is the phrase, “... assuming we have a safe vaccine.”

How safe is a vaccine that has been developed, “tested,” and shipped for mass distribution in a matter of weeks? The answer -- it isn’t.

Unfortunately, President Obama is fully onboard with the prospect of mass injections of inadequately tested, potentially deadly vaccines.

"We want to make sure that we are not promoting panic, but we are promoting Read More

Swine Flu Update

BY MARIA CHENG and FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writer Maria Cheng And Frank Jordans, Associated Press Writer

GENEVA – The World Health Organization told its member nations it was declaring a swine flu pandemic Thursday — the first global flu epidemic in 41 years — as infections climbed in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere.

In a statement sent to member countries, WHO said it decided to raise the pandemic warning level from phase 5 to 6 — its highest alert — after holding an emergency meeting on swine flu with its experts.

The long-awaited pandemic decision is scientific confirmation that a new flu virus has emerged and is quickly circling the globe. It will trigger drugmakers to speed up production of a swine flu vaccine and prompt governments to devote more money toward efforts to contain the virus.
"At this early stage, the pandemic can be characterized globally as being moderate in severity," WHO said in the statement, urging nations not to close borders or restrict travel and trade. "(We) remain in close dialogue with influenza vaccine manufacturers."

On Wednesday, WHO said 74 countries had reported nearly 27,737 cases of swine flu, including 141 deaths. Read More

Cruise Ship Passenger Dies From Flesh Eating Bacteria

by Scott Carmichael on May 7th 2009 at 2:00PM

Have you had your breakfast/lunch/dinner yet? Because this story is bound to upset your stomach.

While on a Mediterranean cruise, 58 year old Raymond Evans hurt his knee during a fall. The injury was nothing serious, but the ships doctor put Mr. Evans on an antibiotic regimen, just to be safe.

Despite the shots, his widow said his condition started to deteriorate, and that the back of his knee was turning black. This developed into a "blotchy blackness" that spread to his chest, elbow and fingers, and he was admitted into the ships hospital.

When the ship docked in Alexandria, Egypt, Mr.Evans was transported to the intensive care unit of the city's hospital where he died hours later. The total time from noticing the blackness on his knee till death was just 24 hours.

A pathologist told the official inquiry that Mr.Evans had been infected by the flesh-eating bug necrotising fasciitis (warning: graphic images on that page!).

The pathologist concluded that Mr.Evans had not caught the bug during his fall, because the symptoms of the flesh eating bug usually start hours after being infected, so the most probable source was something on the cruise ship that entered through his wounds.

This is of course just another example of the health risks involved with cruise ships. For years, cruise lines have struggled with the norovirus as we previously covered here, here and here. Still, common sense and basic hygiene precautions should help keep you perfectly safe when you get on board.

Swine Flu Continues To Spread

By VOA News
13 May 2009

The swine influenza A-H1N1 virus is still spreading around the world.

Belgium on Wednesday confirmed its first case, becoming the 34th country to report an infection of swine flu. The World Health Organization says worldwide, the number of confirmed cases stands at more than 5,700.

Almost all the deaths from the virus have been in Mexico. Mexican authorities on Wednesday raised the death toll there to 60, though authorities say the outbreak in Mexico is declining.

Swine flu has also killed one person in Costa Rica, one in Canada and three people in the United States. On Wednesday, the U.S. said it had confirmed more than 3,300 cases of the virus. U.S. officials say they expect more.

On Tuesday, Finland and Thailand each confirmed two cases, the first for both countries. Authorities say each of those four patients had recently traveled to Mexico.

China also confirmed its second case on the mainland, while Hong Kong confirmed two as well.

Other swine flu cases have been confirmed in Cuba, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, France, Ireland, Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Germany, Austria, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

The WHO has released a report warning that although a flu virus may be considered mild, it can change over time as it spreads around the globe.

swine flu

Below is an article reprinted from CNN.com. It's discussing the potentially "pandemic virus" that has recently popped up seemingly out of nowhere, the Swine Flu Virus. While I don't think it's a cause for panic, it surely indicates we need to educate ourselves on the possibility it could visit our respective neighborhoods. I'm interested in hearing what you think.

More cases of swine flu reported; WHO warns of 'health emergency'
(CNN) -- A potentially deadly new strain of the swine flu virus cropped up in more places in the United States and Mexico on Saturday, in what the World Health Organization called "a public health emergency of international concern."

The most recent reports Saturday afternoon were of two confirmed cases of the virus in Kansas -- bringing the number of confirmed U.S. cases to 11.

Those joined nine confirmed cases in Texas and California and an apparent outbreak at a private school in New York City, where officials say eight children likely have the virus.

Mexican health officials say 81 deaths are now "likely linked" to the swine flu virus.

President Felipe Calderon on Saturday issued an executive decree detailing emergency powers of the Ministry of Health, according to the president's office.

The order gives the ministry with the authority to isolate sick patients, inspect travelers' luggage and their vehicles and conduct house inspections, the statement said.

The government also has the authority to prevent public gatherings, shut down public venues and regulate air, sea and overland travel.

The WHO's Gregory Hartl said the strain of the virus seen in Mexico is worrisome because it has mutated from older strains.

"Any time that there is a virus which changes ... it means perhaps the immunities the human body has built up to dealing with influenza might not be adjusted well enough to dealing with this new virus," Hartl told CNN.

In Mexico, otherwise young and healthy people have been hit by the virus -- "one of the pieces of the puzzle that is worrying us," he said.

Mexico City has closed all of its schools and universities because of the virus, and the country's National Health Council said all Saturday's soccer games would be played without public audiences.

WHO has sent experts to Mexico at the request of the country's government, Chan said.

Dr. Jason Eberhart-Phillips, director of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, was expected to officially announce the two cases later Saturday, a written statement from the state said.

All of the eight U.S. patients in Texas and California have recovered, Dr. Richard Besser, the acting director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday. Two of the cases were in Texas, near San Antonio, and six of the cases were in southern California, the CDC said.

More than 1,000 people have been sickened in Mexico, and officials are trying to determine how many of those patients have swine influenza, the country's health minister, Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos, said.

U.S. health officials said Friday that some cases of the virus matched samples of the deadly Mexican virus.

On Saturday, New York's Bureau of Communicable Diseases said preliminary tests from a Queens school suggest that eight out of the nine cases of the virus found there are probably swine flu.

Dr. Don Weiss said the samples will be sent to the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia, to determine the subtype of the strain. The results will likely come back either Sunday or Monday.

He said the samples, which were taken from oral and nasal swabs from nine students at St. Francis Preparatory School, came back positive for "Type A" flu and the tests will need to determine the samples' subtype -- which could be swine flu.

He said up to 200 students at the school reported feeling ill.

"What's concerning about this is, first, that it's likely swine flu; second is that at this time it is spreading from person to person," Weiss said.
When the flu spreads person-to-person, instead of from animals to humans, it can continue to mutate, making it a tougher strain that is harder to treat or fight off.

The people sickened in Kansas are a man who traveled to Mexico on business and his wife, Eberhart-Phillips said. The man had flu-like symptoms when he returned and went to his doctor, and his wife got sick about three days later, officials said.

Neither of them was hospitalized, and one is still sick, he said.

The United States had not issued any travel warnings or quarantines by Saturday afternoon.

The Canadian Public Health Agency had issued a travel health notice, saying, "The Public Health Agency of Canada is tracking clusters of severe respiratory illness with deaths in Mexico."

Symptoms of swine flu include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite, coughing, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, the CDC said.

Besser advised people with flu-like symptoms to stay home from work or school and to see a doctor.

Tainted Vaccines - A Conspiracy?

This article is reprinted from Mercola.com
Were Tainted Vaccines a Conspiracy to Provoke a Pandemic?

Last month vaccine maker Baxter International sent a mix of flu vaccine and unlabelled H5N1 virus (the human form of bird flu) to an Austrian research company. Expecting the shipment to contain only flu vaccine, the Austrian company then sent portions of the contaminated product to the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany.

It was only when researchers at a Czech Republic laboratory injected ferrets with the vaccine, and they unexpectedly died, that the contamination mistake was discovered.

But is “mistake” really an accurate term to describe this?

If this batch of live bird flu and seasonal flu viruses had reached the public, it could have resulted in dire consequences. Even though H5N1 doesn’t easily infect people, the flu virus does. So if people were exposed to both of these viruses, they would have become hosts for the combined viruses, and would have become highly contagious and able to transmit the deadly bird flu virus to others.

There is actually a name for this mixing of viruses; it’s called “reassortment,” and even The Canadian Press has pointed out that it is one of two ways pandemic viruses are created.


Could the Contamination Have Been a Plot to Start a Deadly Pandemic?


A spokesman for Baxter said the virus material was supposed to contain a seasonal flu virus and was contaminated after “human error.”

Yet, other sources say Baxter International adheres to something called BSL3 (Biosafety Level 3). This strict set of laboratory safety protocols is in place to prevent the cross-contamination of materials, and according to some may have made it virtually impossible for the live bird flu virus to contaminate a flu vaccine by accident.

Czech newspapers are among those questioning whether this was a deliberate act to start a pandemic, and there’s even been talk of plans to use the vaccines to carry out a form of population control.

But then there’s the issue of motive. Would Baxter have had any reason to carry out such a malicious and deadly scheme?

Well, if a bird flu pandemic suddenly broke out, the demand for bird flu vaccines would certainly skyrocket … and the profits from such a mass vaccination program would be astronomical.


Does the Past Give us Any Clues?


You may be thinking that such a conspiracy is too far-fetched to be accurate. But it is worth mentioning that some scientists say the most recent global outbreak -- the 1977 Russian flu -- was started by a virus leaked from a laboratory.

Further, drug companies are certainly not best known for their sterling moral values.

In 2006, for instance, it came out that the drug company Bayer sold millions of dollars worth of an injectable blood-clotting medicine to Asian, Latin American, and some European countries in the mid-1980s, even though they knew it was tainted with the AIDS virus.

So while it is unthinkable that a drug company would knowingly contaminate flu vaccines with a deadly bird flu virus, it is certainly not impossible.


How to Prevent All Flu’s, Even the “Deadly Ones,” Without Vaccinations


Whether or not the conspiracy theory is true, this whole scenario brings up two very important points:


1. Vaccines can be contaminated with dangerous substances (even above and beyond their already dangerous components)
2. Vaccines are not the answer to protecting yourself from flu outbreaks of any kind


Remember back in 2005, when headlines warned that the U.S. was facing a cataclysmic extermination event, with a calculated 2 million Americans succumbing to the bird flu, and the best-case scenario taking only 200,000 lives?

The case of “the impending pandemic of the Avian Flu” might as well have been a fictional mini-series, as it never materialized. What was really going on was a scenario filled with greed and political corruption.

By igniting fear in the public and massaging some key statistics, the powers-that-be were able to justify the expense of a massive vaccine stockpile to ward off the bird flu.

At $100 per dose, the United States used taxpayers’ dollars to purchase some 20 million doses of the highly questionable Tamiflu, lining the pockets of then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who was president of Gilead Sciences when they created the drug.

But I digress. If you want to read more about all the lies and corruption surrounding the avian “super-flu” that never was, read my book The Great Bird Flu Hoax.

For now, my point is that there are always going to be threats of flu pandemics, real or created, and there will always be potentially toxic vaccines that are peddled as the solution.

But you can break free of that whole drug-solution trap by following some natural health principles.

I have not caught the flu in 20 years, and you can avoid it too, without getting vaccinated, by following these simple guidelines, which will keep your immune system in optimal working order so that you’re far less likely to acquire the infection to begin with.


• Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels. Getting appropriate amounts of sunshine (or taking a vitamin D supplement when you can’t get healthy amounts of sun exposure) is one of my KEY preventive strategies against the cold and flu, as it has such a strengthening effect on your immune system.

• Avoid Sugar and Eat Right for Your Nutritional Type. Sugar decreases the function of your immune system almost immediately, and as you likely know, a strong immune system is key to fighting off viruses and other illness. Be aware that sugar is present in foods you may not suspect, like ketchup and fruit juice.

• Get Enough Rest. Just like it becomes harder for you to get your daily tasks done if you're tired, if your body is overly fatigued it will be harder for it to fight the flu.

• Deal With Stress. We all face some stress everyday, but if stress becomes overwhelming then your body will be less able to fight off the flu and other illness.

If you feel that stress is taking a toll on your health, consider using the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), which is remarkably effective in relieving stress associated with all kinds of events, from work to family to trauma.

• Exercise. When you exercise, you increase your circulation and your blood flow throughout your body. The components of your immune system are also better circulated, which means your immune system has a better chance of finding an illness before it spreads.

• Take a Good Source of Omega-3 Fats Like Krill Oil. Increase your intake of healthy and essential fats like the omega-3 found in krill oil, which is crucial for maintaining health.

• Wash Your Hands. Washing your hands with plain soap and water will decrease your likelihood of spreading a virus to your nose, mouth or other people. But don’t overdo it. Washing your hands too much can actually remove much of the protective layer on your skin and increase your changes of acquiring an infection.

• Eat Garlic Regularly. Garlic works like a broad-spectrum antibiotic against bacteria, virus, and protozoa in the body. And unlike with antibiotics, no resistance can be built up so it is an absolutely safe product to use.