Well, it's that time of year again...cold weather (for many of us, anyway), holiday shopping...and flu season. This year, it seems,
flu season has come early. And with flu season comes that sticky question...should I get a flu shot?
I don't know about you, but the more I read about the politicization of the CDC, the FDA, the NIH, the WHO, and just about every other government organization that is supposed to have our best health interests at heart, the less confidence I have that they actually do. In today's news, the medical experts actually said on TV, "THIS time, they have the flu vaccine right." Really? This time?
What about last time, when we were all supposed to be good little citizens and run out and get vaccinated? They didn't have it right last time? They were injecting people full of useless vaccine because that's all they had? Better a useless vaccination than no vaccination at all?
But
this time we should just trust them, because this time they have it right.
In a 2005 book entitled
Evidence of Harm, the author, David Kirby, concludes that the advisory panels that review and make recommendations on whether or not new vaccines should be approved are heavily compromised. For instance, in respect to childhood vaccinations, which for a long time contained an additive called Thimerasol (a preservative containing mercury), he quoted Congressman Dan Burton, who was presiding over a June 15, 2000, Government Reform Committee hearing. It was one of several during 2000 and 2001 called in answer to a growing suspicion by the public that vaccinations might be connected to certain childhood disorders such as autism, ADD and other neurological conditions. Burton had discovered that,
"many advisory panel members had received research grants from drug companies, either for themselves or their academic institutions. Others got plum speaking honoraria, travel funds, or other benefits. Incredibly, some of these 'independent' experts owned stock in the companies whose products were under review." In an even harsher assessment, he writes,
"..an 'old boys' network' of vaccine advisers was rotating between the CDC and FDA, at times serving simultaneously." Congressman Burton concluded,
"The entire process has been polluted and the public trust has been violated...No individual who stands to gain financially from the decisions regarding vaccines that may be mandated for use should be participating in the discussion or policy making for vaccines." He was exactly right. However, his efforts to bring these shameful practices to light and ultimately to an end were evidently fruitless because they're still going on.
Even today we continue to see the same kind of contemptible collusion in practically every area of medical research, from cancer studies to the fluoride debate to the immunization question. Regular people like you and me expect our government research to be "for the people," when in fact it turns out to be
for the lobbyists who keep the politicians' pockets padded. It is the worst betrayal to discover that the government has known that something is harmful to its citizens for a very long time, yet has refused to do anything to correct it because to do so would cause difficulties for the industry they protect.
Behind the veil of smiling health professionals lurks a medical industrial complex whose sole purpose is to create new drugs and then convince a population of consumers through deceptive marketing that we need them. I'm not saying that drug companies are evil -- they are merely self-interested. What bothers me most is that the doctors and health professionals, for the most part, have become the tools of the drug-makers. There are very few doctors anymore who know anything about true healing. They are merely surgeons and drug dispensers. So when we get sick, their first course of action is to find a corresponding drug to manage our symptoms.
So what about the flu shot. Is it safe?
Even after all the research and the FDA's concurrence that mercury is toxic above 0.025 mcg per kilogram of weight (1995 NIH study published in their journal,
Environmental Health Perspectives), it is still allowed in vaccinations as a preservative...in staggeringly high levels. If I've done my math right, that makes the recommended maximum 2.27 micrograms for a 200 pound adult. There is currently
24.5 mcg of mercury in a 0.5 mL dose of the vaccine brand AFLURIA flu vaccine. That same 0.5 mL dose given to a 40-pound child will contain 54 times the maximum recommended dose of mercury. Children with compromised immune systems are especially at risk for neurological injury from doses this high.
Have you ever read the
list of ingredients for the flu shot? I highly recommend you do before submitting yourself or your child to the needle.
If you are pregnant, DO NOT get a flu shot that contains mercury. The flu vaccine that is packaged in individual doses does not contain any preservative. It may have
other toxins in it, but at least not mercury. Mercury is known to pass from mother to fetus.
Until medical research becomes independent of the pharmaceutical industry, we are not going to have an honest evaluation of the health risks of any drug, including immunizations. Personally, I don't plan to get a flu shot-- first, because I'm currently avoiding toxins. But secondly, because I can't remember the last time I got the flu. I'm certainly not going to run out and get a flu shot because the CDC tells me I should. Last year, the
University of Minnesota published a study that suggested flu shots protected adults against getting the flu only 59% of the time and "showed no evidence of protection" for children or the elderly.
This year, a Canadian study concludes that
getting a flu shot helps reduce heart attacks and stroke...so, I guess, even if you still get the flu, at least you'll have a better chance of not getting a heart attack!
The bottom line is,
most people are able to withstand an attack of the flu if they are relatively healthy to begin with. And once recovered, the body has formed antibodies that will help protect you the next time. Remember, the CDC and the FDA are in the pockets of the flu vaccine manufacturers. They will use fear of illness to convince you to use their product. And if that doesn't work, they'll fund a study to show some dubious benefit to reel you in. The best gift of all is the force of law. Will the government eventually make flu immunizations mandatory? It's already happening in some hospitals. But today, at least, we still have a choice.
To stick? or not to stick? I'm putting my money on a
strong immune system.
...Besides, I never did like needles.
