Mainstream Media's Swine Flu Fear Mongering

Mobile Laboratory Seeks Children for Swine Flu Vaccine Tests

July 28, 2009

Alabama Live - Coastal Clinical Research is looking for children between the ages of 1 and 8 to test a pediatric vaccine for the H1N1 virus — commonly referred to as swine flu.

The Mobile-based research group was selected, along with several others across the country, by a pharmaceutical company to test the vaccine in August, said Appie Head, patient recruiter with CCR.

Compensation for taking part in the local clinical trials varies, Head said. Last year, CCR paid participants between $35 and $100 to take part in four different seasonal flu vaccines.

How much will be paid to those who try the swine flu vaccine had not yet been established, Head said.

The number of confirmed and probable U.S. swine flu cases has surpassed 37,000, with more than 200 deaths reported, according to the most recent numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta...

Here’s how the clinical trial will work: After a first visit to establish eligibility, the participant will be required to return to the CCR offices on the Springhill Medical Center campus, 100 Memorial Hospital Drive, Suite 3-B for two additional visits. During the second visit, a patient will have blood drawn for lab testing and will be given an injection of the vaccine. A legal guardian receives a symptom diary to record any side effects after the shot. A staff member from CCR will call the patient at least twice after the injection to check on them, Head said. A month after the shot, the patient is required to visit the research offices again to have more blood drawn to assess the effectiveness of the vaccine, Head said.

To be eligible for the H1N1 influenza vaccine pediatric trial in Mobile, children must be free from illness, accompanied by a legal guardian and submit to a screening process that includes a physical exam. A urine sample is also required during the first appointment. Patients, or their guardian, are paid at the end of each visit.

Mainstream Media's Swine Flu Fear Mongering Kicks into Full Gear

U.S. Gears for Huge Swine Flu Vaccination Push

July 27, 2009

AFP - Anxiously eyeing the approach of winter, US health officials are urgently gearing up for a huge vaccine campaign hoping Americans will swing behind efforts to protect them from swine flu.

“Ultimately, the number of people that we hope will be vaccinated before the fall winter wave of H1N1 arrives will exceed any of the previous vaccine campaigns that we’ve conducted in this country,” Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told AFP.

“This is the largest vaccine effort the world has ever seen,” agreed Robin Robinson, director of the Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority (BARDA), quoted in the Washington Post.

But authorities also have to overcome a vocal debate in the United States about vaccinations, amid lingering suspicions among some parents that they are not safe for young children.

“At this point it is just really unclear to say how many will get vaccinated,” said Osterholm.

“It’s all going to be a matter of when the vaccine is available. If the vaccine is available, and people are getting sick in the winter, then I think you are going to see many more people wanting the vaccine...”

Some 263 people have so far died across the country, and more than 40,000 cases have been registered, although US health officials have said they believe as many as a million people could already be infected. To put the figures in perspective, officials stress that ordinary seasonal flu kills on average some 36,000 people a year in a nation with 300 million people.

But an all-out effort has been launched to put in place a vaccine before the start of the traditional flu season in the coming months. Health officials have called for thousands of volunteers to join clinical tests of two vaccines with the aim of having results in two months time, enabling the vaccination campaign to start at the beginning of the fall.

“We are hopeful we’ll be talking about several hundred million people getting vaccinated if possible,” said Osterholm. “It’s going to literally be a function of how much vaccine we’ll ultimately have before the wave really takes hold in this country.”

An emergency meeting of health officials has been set for Wednesday, July 29, to work on an action plan and identify the groups most at risk.

“Everything is going to be done to try to encourage people to get it,” said Gretchen Michael, a BARDA spokeswoman, referring to the vaccine...

Swine Flu Could Hit Up to 40 Percent in U.S.

July 25, 2009

AP - In a disturbing new projection, health officials say up to 40 percent of Americans could get swine flu this year and next and several hundred thousand could die without a successful vaccine campaign and other measures.

The estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are roughly twice the number of those who catch flu in a normal season and add greater weight to hurried efforts to get a new vaccine ready for the fall flu season.

Swine flu has already hit the United States harder than any other nation, but it has struck something of a glancing blow that's more surprising than devastating. The virus has killed about 300 Americans and experts believe it has sickened more than 1 million, comparable to a seasonal flu with the weird ability to keep spreading in the summer.

Health officials say flu cases may explode in the fall, when schools open and become germ factories, and the new estimates dramatize the need to have vaccines and other measures in place.

A world health official said the first vaccines are expected in September and October. The United States expects to begin testing on some volunteers in August, with 160 million doses ready in October.

The CDC came up with the new projections for the virus' spread last month, but it was first disclosed in an interview this week with The Associated Press.

The estimates are based on a flu pandemic from 1957, which killed nearly 70,000 in the United States but was not as severe as the infamous Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19. The number of deaths and illnesses from the new swine flu virus would drop if the pandemic peters out or if efforts to slow its spread are successful, said CDC spokesman Tom Skinner.

"Hopefully, mitigation efforts will have a big impact on future cases," he said. Besides pushing flu shots, health officials might urge measures such as avoiding crowded places, handwashing, cough covering and timely use of medicines like Tamiflu.

Because so many more people are expected to catch the new flu, the number of deaths over two years could range from 90,000 to several hundred thousand, the CDC calculated. Again, that is if a new vaccine and other efforts fail.

In a normal flu season, about 36,000 people die from flu and its complications, according to the American Medical Association. That too is an estimate, because death certificates don't typically list flu as a cause of death. Instead, they attribute a fatality to pneumonia or other complications.

Influenza is notoriously hard to predict, and some experts have shied away from a forecast. At a CDC swine flu briefing Friday, one official declined to answer repeated questions about her agency's own estimate. "I don't think that influenza and its behavior in the population lends itself very well to these kinds of models," said the official, Dr. Anne Schuchat, who oversees the CDC's flu vaccination programs.

The World Health Organization says as many as 2 billion people could become infected in the next two years — nearly a third of the world population. The estimates look at potential impacts in a two-year period because past flu pandemics have occurred in waves over more than one year.

Swine flu has been an escalating concern in Britain and some other European nations, where the virus' late arrival has grabbed attention and some officials at times have sounded alarmed.

In an interview Friday, the WHO's flu chief told the AP the global epidemic is still in its early stages. "Even if we have hundreds of thousands of cases or a few millions of cases ... we're relatively early in the pandemic," Keiji Fukuda said at WHO headquarters in Geneva.

The first vaccines are expected in September and October, Fukuda said. Other vaccines won't be ready until well into the flu season when a further dramatic rise in swine flu cases is expected.

First identified in April, swine flu has likely infected more than 1 million Americans, the CDC believes, with many of those suffering mild cases never reported. There have been 302 deaths and nearly 44,000 laboratory-identified cases, according to numbers released Friday morning.

Because the swine flu virus is new, most people haven't developed an immunity to it. So far, most of those who have died from it in the United States have had other health problems, such as asthma.

The virus has caused an unusual number of serious illnesses in teens and young adults; seasonal flu usually is toughest on the elderly and very young children.

New York Times Propaganda: Swine Flu May Cause Seizures in Children

UMd. to Lead Swine Flu Vaccine Study; Researchers Looking for Trial Participants

July 22, 2009

WBAL TV (Baltimore, MD) - The University of Maryland School of Medicine said it will lead a human trial of a swine flu vaccine. The order came from the National Institute of Health.

The clinical trial will begin in August and enroll as many as 1,000 healthy adults and children at 10 centers nationwide.

Participants in five age groups will receive two doses three weeks apart. The response after the first dose will be compared to the response after the second. If there are no problems, then doctors will begin testing on children and infants.

The trial also will evaluate two strengths of the vaccine to determine how much is needed to prompt an immune response most likely to protect against the swine flu.

Dr. Karen Kotloff, who is overseeing the trials, said she is confident the tests will be without complications as they are similar to shots that are given for seasonal flu. "We're very hopeful that this study will lead to a safe, effective vaccine to protect the world's population from the H1N1 flu," Kotloff said.

The University of Maryland School of Medicine is home to one of eight federally supported Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units. "We're extraordinarily proud to live in Maryland with the worlds-best scientists, and one of the worlds premier institutions of higher learning. (We're) going to be putting to test this important health weapon," Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Sec. John Colmers said.

Doctors said they are hopeful that the first test doses will begin sometime in mid-August, with results starting to trickle in sometime in earlier to mid-September.

If you would like to take part in the trials, click on the link or call the center at 410-706-6156.

Hundreds volunteer for Saint Louis University swine flu vaccine study

U.S. Trials for H1N1 Vaccine Announced

July 22, 2009

CNN - In a race to beat the flu season, medical institutes across the United States will begin human trials for a new H1N1 flu vaccine starting in early August, the University of Maryland announced Wednesday.

In the hope of getting the vaccine to those who will need it most by October, the clinical trials will enroll as many as 1,000 adults and children at 10 centers nationwide, said officials at the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, which will lead the effort. The trials will measure the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.

The research is a first step toward U.S. health officials' goal of developing a safe and effective vaccine against H1N1, also known as swine flu, which has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization

The time frame for developing a vaccine is a tight one. "It's going to be close," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. "I believe it can be [ready by October] if things run smoothly. We hope they will, but you never can tell when you're dealing with biological phenomena like making vaccines and administering them."

The announcement of the U.S. trials followed the announcement earlier this week, by an Australian company, CSL Ltd., of the first human trials of a swine flu vaccine. "This virus has the potential to cause significant illness with hospitalizations and deaths during the U.S. flu season this fall and winter," said Dr. Karen Kotloff, professor of pediatrics and lead investigator and researcher at Maryland's Center for Vaccine Development. "Vaccines have always been a vital tool for controlling influenza. The results of these studies will help to guide the optimal use of the H1N1 vaccines in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world."

After careful screening, volunteers will be inoculated and then asked to keep a diary on how they feel. After eight days their blood will be checked and after 21 days they will receive another dose, followed again by diary logs and blood tests. Patients will be monitored two months for safety issues, followed by a four-month and six-month checkup.

"The purpose of these trials is always to make sure they are safe," Kotloff said. "But even after six weeks, if things look good, we're pretty sure the vaccine will work."

She noted the response to the vaccine may vary in different age groups. "This is because young people have not seen a flu virus like this one before," she noted. "Older adults might have some immunity to the new H1N1 virus as a result of being exposed to similar flu viruses in the past. As a result, older adults might need fewer doses or a lower strength of the vaccine than younger individuals."

The vaccine at this point has been tested only in animals, where it has shown to be effective. Further trials will examine questions such as how the vaccine works in combination with the seasonal flu vaccine and whether including an adjutant, a substance that boosts the immune response to vaccines, can make it work better at lower doses.

Other trial sites along with the University of Maryland Medical Center are Baylor College of Medicine, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Emory University, Saint Louis University, Seattle Group Health Cooperative, the University of Iowa, and Vanderbilt University. They will be joined by Children's Mercy Hospital and Duke University Medical Center.

China Swine Flu Pupils Released After Being Quaranteened for Swine Flu

July 21, 2009

BBC News - The first batch of British school pupils quarantined in China after members of their group contracted swine flu has been released. A total of 20 students and three teachers were allowed to leave Yanxiang Hotel after seven days of restrictions.

They were under observation after a number of students on a tour of China fell ill with the virus. The released pupils were taken to another hotel in Beijing from where they will continue their visit...

More than 80 British school pupils and teachers remain in quarantine in the Yanxiang Hotel, along with a number from the US... None of the children is thought to be seriously ill.

China has this year quarantined hundreds of foreign visitors who have shown symptoms of swine flu.

Brit Home Secretary: Swine Flu Greater Threat Than Terrorism

July 20, 2009

Telegraph - Swine flu is a greater threat to Britain than terrorism, said Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, as pregnant women were advised to avoid unneccessary travel. Mr Johnson insisted that measures were in place to deal with the spread of the virus but urged people to adhere to good hygene practices to limit the risk to themselves and others.

He said: “We have been preparing for this for a long time. It came actually above terrorism as a threat to this country, so we had the whole Cobra machinery and inter-agency working. We have gone through simulation exercises where everyone was involved.

Mr Johnson told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show: “What we are finding is that it is attacking the young rather than the elderly, who traditional seasonal flu would attack...

Vaccine May Be More Dangerous Than Swine Flu

July 7, 2009

Newsmax - An outbreak of swine flu occurred in Mexico this spring that eventually affected 4,910 Mexican citizens and resulted in 85 deaths. By the time it spread to the United States, the virus caused only mild cases of flu-like illness.

Thanks to air travel and the failure of public health officials to control travel from Mexico, the virus spread worldwide. Despite predictions of massive numbers of deaths and the arrival of doomsday, the virus has remained a relatively mild disease, something we know happens each year with flu epidemics.

Worldwide, there have only been 311 deaths out of 70,893 cases of swine flu. In the United States, 27,717 cases have resulted in 127 deaths. Every death is a tragedy, but such a low death rate should not be the basis of a draconian government policy.

It is helpful to recall that the Centers for Disease Control with the collusion of the media, constantly tell us that 36,000 people die from the flu each year, a figure that has been shown to be a lie. In this case, we are talking about 300 plus deaths for the entire world.

This virus continues to be an enigma for virologists. In the April 30, 2009 issue of Nature, a virologist was quoted as saying,“Where the hell it got all these genes from we don’t know.” Extensive analysis of the virus found that it contained the original 1918 H1N1 flu virus, the avian flu virus (bird flu), and two new H3N2 virus genes from Eurasia. Debate continues over the possibility that swine flu is a genetically engineered virus.

Naturally, vaccine manufacturers have been in a competitive battle to produce the first vaccine. The main contenders have been Baxter Pharmaceuticals and Novartis Pharmaceuticals, the latter of which recently acquired the scandal-ridden Chiron vaccine company. Both of these companies have had agreements with the World Health Organization to produce a pandemic vaccine.

The Baxter vaccine, called Celvapan, has had fast track approval. It uses a new vero cell technology, which utilizes cultured cells from the African green monkey. This same animal tissue transmits a number of vaccine-contaminating viruses, including the HIV virus.

The Baxter company has been associated with two deadly scandals. The first event occurred in 2006 when hemophiliac components were contaminated with HIV virus and injected in tens of thousands of people, including thousands of children. Baxter continued to release the HIV contaminated vaccine even after the contamination was known.

The second event occurred recently when it was discovered that Baxter had released to 18 countries a seasonal flu vaccine containing the bird flu virus, which would have produced a real world pandemic. Fortunately, astute lab workers in the Czech Republic discovered the deadly combination and blew the whistle before a worldwide disaster was unleashed.

Despite these two deadly events, WHO maintains an agreement with Baxter Pharmaceuticals to produce the world’s pandemic vaccine.

Novartis, the second contender, also has an agreement with WHO for a pandemic vaccine. Novartis appears to have won the contract, since their vaccine is near completion. What is terrifying is that these pandemic vaccines contain ingredients, called immune adjuvants, that a number of studies have shown cause devastating autoimmune disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and lupus.

Animal studies using this adjuvant have found them to be deadly. A study using 14 guinea pigs found that when they were injected with the special adjuvant, only one animal survived. A repeat of the study found the same deadly outcome...

It is obvious that the vaccine manufacturers stand to make billions of dollars in profits from this WHO/government-promoted pandemic. Novartis, the maker of the new pandemic vaccine, recently announced that they would not give free vaccines to impoverished nations—everybody pays.

One must keep in mind that once the vaccine is injected, there is little you can do to protect yourself—at least by conventional medicine. It will mean a lifetime of crippling illness and early death. There are much safer ways to protect oneself from this flu virus, such as higher doses of vitamin D3, selective immune enhancement using supplements, and a good diet.

Swine Flu Vaccine Makers Granted Legal Immunity

July 18, 2009

EmaxHealth - Swine flu manufacturers have now been granted legal immunity in case something goes wrong that causes side effects associated with the vaccine. Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, signed a document making federal officials and vaccine makers immune from lawsuits related to any ill effects from the swine flu vaccine.

Fears about the effects of a novel swine flu vaccine have sparked much discussion. A swine flu outbreak among soldiers at Fort Dix, N.J in 1976 resulted in vaccinations that caused side effects including Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a condition that causes paralysis. The result was thousands of lawsuits.

Stephen Sugarman, a law professor who specializes in product liability at the University of California at Berkeley says, "The government paid out quite a bit of money,” following past swine flu vaccination side effects.

Most cases of swine flu have been mild. The WHO has stopped tracking cases. No one knows how many infections have really occurred, because not everyone seeks treatment.

Five pharmaceutical companies are manufacturing swine flu vaccine. The drugs are not as profitable as some, like cancer drugs, but immunity from legal action provides incentive to vaccine makers.

Paul Pennock, a New York plaintiffs attorney on medical liability cases, spoke out about the immunity granted to swine flu vaccine makers, saying: "If you're going to ask people to do this for the common good, then let's make sure for the common good that these people will be taken care of if something goes wrong."

The document granting protection from lawsuits to swine flu vaccine makers was signed by Sebelius last month.

National Survey Finds Six in Ten Americans Believe a Serious Outbreak of Influenza Will Occur in Fall 2009

July 16, 2009

Harvard School of Public Health - As part of a series about Americans’ response to the H1N1 flu outbreak, the Harvard Opinion Research Program at the Harvard School of Public Health is releasing a national poll that focuses on Americans’ views and concerns about the potential for a more severe outbreak of Influenza A (H1N1) in the fall or winter. The polling was done June 22-28, 2009.

Approximately six in ten Americans (59%) believe it is very or somewhat likely that there will be widespread cases of Influenza A (H1N1) with people getting very sick this coming fall or winter. Parents are more likely than people without children to believe this will occur, with roughly two thirds of parents (65%) saying it is very or somewhat likely compared to 56% of people without children.

“These results suggest Americans are likely to support public health officials in prioritizing preparations for the possibility of a serious H1N1 outbreak in the fall or winter,” said Robert J. Blendon, Professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health...

U.S. Orders $690 Million in Swine-Flu Vaccine

July 14, 2009

San Francisco Business Times - The federal government is committing more than $800 million to buy more of the two key ingredients to make the H1N1 swine flu vaccine, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The money will be used to place additional orders on existing contracts with vaccine manufacturers including GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis. The former Chiron Corp. facility in Emeryville is now owned by Novartis, which makes vaccines there.

The government is placing orders for antigen and adjuvant. Antigen is the active ingredient in a vaccine that triggers the immune system to develop antibodies to fight the H1N1 virus. Adjuvant is added to boost the immune system and reduce the amount of antigen needed for the vaccine. The vaccine ingredients will become a part of the pandemic stockpile, for use if a vaccination campaign is necessary.

Swiss company Novartis, which is building a vaccine manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, received an order for $346 million for antigen and $343.8 million for adjuvant. London-based GlaxoSmithKline received an order for $71.4 million of adjuvant. In addition, Sanofi Pasteur received a $61.4 million order for antigen, and MedImmune won a $61 million order for its nasal flu spray.

“We are doing our part to be as prepared as possible for the impact that this infectious disease could have on our country,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement. “Vaccines may serve an important role in that preparedness.”

Swine Flu Vaccine Rushed Through Safety Checks

July 13, 2009

Times Online - A swine flu vaccine will be fast-tracked for use in Britain within five days once it is developed, and 130 million doses are on order.

The Department of Health expects to have enough vaccine this year to give it to half the population. Further supplies will be available if needed. Each person will need two doses of the vaccine, unless one single jab is found to provide high rates of immunity.

The first doses specific to the H1N1 swine flu virus are set to arrive in September and could be given regulatory approval in less than a week.

The move came after the first British patient without underlying health problems died from swine flu, taking the number of swine flu-linked deaths in Britain to 15. Peter Holden, the British Medical Association’s lead negotiator on swine flu, said that GPs’ surgeries were prepared for one of the biggest winter vaccination campaigns in almost 50 years. He said that, although swine flu was not generally causing serious illness in patients, health officials were eager to start a mass vaccination campaign, starting first on groups that were susceptible to infection or prone to complications.

It is likely that the elderly would be given a seasonal flu jab to guard against other circulating flu strains — as happens every year — as well as the swine flu vaccination. “The high-risk groups will be done at GPs’ surgeries. People are still making decisions over this, but we want to get cracking before we get a second wave, which is traditionally far more virulent,” Dr Holden said.

It takes several weeks or months to make flu vaccines, which are cultured using chicken eggs. The European Medicines Agency said the fast-tracked approval procedure has involved trials of a “mock-up” vaccine and that the speed would not compromise patient safety. “The vaccines are authorised with a detailed risk management plan,” the agency said.

Swine Flu Vaccine To Be Cleared After Five-Day Trial

July 12, 2009

Times Online - The path of a popular medicine from the laboratory to the chemist or doctor’s surgery can involve years of clinical trials on a select group of patients. When the new vaccine for swine flu arrives in Britain, regulators said this weekend, it could be approved for use in just five days.

Regulators at the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) said the fast-tracked procedure has involved clinical trials of a “mock-up” vaccine similar to the one that will be used for the biggest mass vaccination programme in generations. It will be introduced into the general population while regulators continue to carry out simultaneous clinical trials.

The first patients in the queue for the jab - being supplied to the UK by GSK and Baxter Healthcare - may understandably be a little nervous at any possible side effects. A mass vaccination campaign against swine flu in America was halted in the 1970s after some people suffered Guillain-Barré syndrome, a disorder of the nervous system.

However, regulators said fast-tracking would not be at the expense of patient safety. “The vaccines are authorised with a detailed risk management plan,” the EMEA said. “There is quite a body of evidence regarding safety on the trials of the mock-up, and the actual vaccine could be assessed in five days.”

The UK government has ordered enough vaccine to cover the entire population. GPs are being told to prepare for a nationwide vaccination campaign.

Dr Peter Holden, the British Medical Association’s lead negotiator on swine flu, who has been attending Department of Health meetings on the outbreak, said GPs’ surgeries were prepared for one of the biggest vaccination campaigns in almost 50 years.

He said although swine flu was not causing serious illness in patients, health officials were eager to start a mass vaccination campaign, starting first on priority groups. First, the jabs would reduce the chances of a shortage of hospital beds because of people suffering from swine flu. Second, it would reduce the effect on the economy by ensuring workers were protected from the virus...

Holden said it would be the biggest campaign in response to an outbreak since mass vaccination against smallpox in 1962. He said surgeries would be aiming to inoculate about 30 people an hour in a “military-style operation.”

The Department of Health said it had still not finalised which groups would be vaccinated first, but children, frontline health workers, people with underlying illnesses and the elderly are likely to take priority...

About 15 people have died of swine flu in Britain, but most of those infected get only mild symptoms. According to the latest figures from the Health Protection Agency, the UK has had 9,718 confirmed cases of the disease.

All Britons Could Be Vaccinated Against A/H1N1 Flu

July 12, 2009

Xinhua News Agency - All Britons could be vaccinated against the A/H1N1 flu as the number of confirmed cases in Britain is moving closer toward 10,000, health authorities said Sunday.

The first doses of A/H1N1 vaccine are set to arrive in Britain in September and could be fast-tracked through regulatory approval in less than a week.

Health officials have put forward plans to build a nationwide immunity to the disease, the biggest vaccination program of the past 50 years.

Health experts have already provided a priority list of patients, and the fast-tracking system has been established since the first British patient without underlying health problems died of the disease.

Lead negotiator on A/H1N1 of the British Medical Association Peter Holden told the Sunday Times the high risk groups will be done at the local clinics. He added that if the virus does mutate, the idea is to give people immunity, but he also admitted that the sheer logistics of dealing with 60 million people can’t be underestimated.

It is reported on Friday that a patient at an Essex hospital has become the first person in Britain without underlying health problems to die of the infection, bringing the death toll in the country to 15.

It is expected to surge in the winter months when flu is more prevalent.

There are 9,718 confirmed cases of A/H1N1 in Britain, according to the latest figures from the Health Protection Agency.

States Eligible to Receive $350 Million for H1N1, Seasonal Flu Preparedness Efforts

July 10, 2009

Yahoo Finance - One day after hosting a summit on the 2009 novel H1N1 flu with representatives from state, tribal, territorial and local governments from across the country, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced the availability of $350 million in grants to help states and territories prepare for the 2009 novel H1N1 flu virus and the fall flu season. The grants were funded by the recent supplemental appropriations bill that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on June 24, 2009.

“With flu season around the corner, we must remain vigilant and do all we can to prepare our nation and protect public health,” said Secretary Sebelius. “These grants will give states valuable resources to step up their flu preparedness efforts.”

A total of $260 million in Public Health Emergency Response Grants and $90 million in Hospital Preparedness grants will be distributed nationwide.

Public Health Emergency Response grants help state public health departments perform a variety of functions, including preparing for potential vaccination campaigns, implementing strategies to reduce people’s exposure to the 2009 novel H1N1 flu and improving influenza surveillance and investigations.

Hospital Preparedness grants enhance the ability of hospitals and health care systems to prepare for and respond to public health emergencies. Local outbreaks of the novel H1N1 virus have produced a surge of patients at hospitals, and these grants will help ensure hospitals are ready for future outbreaks that may impact their community.

In addition to the grants released today, the Obama Administration has taken a series of steps to help prepare and protect the American people from the novel H1N1 flu. In May of this year, HHS distributed 11 million treatment courses of antivirals to states, territories and tribes to fight the H1N1 influenza outbreak.

Also in May, HHS invested more than $1 billion to produce bulk supplies of key vaccine ingredients as part of the process to develop and test a potential H1N1 vaccine.

The Administration has upgraded and expanded http://www.flu.gov/, which includes guidance that community leaders and the American people need to prepare for, prevent, and respond to the H1N1 flu virus.

The Obama Administration has also launched a new public service announcement competition. Any American can record and submit his or her own public service announcement regarding H1N1 flu preparedness by visiting http://www.flu.gov/. The entries will be judged by experts and the winner will receive a $2,500 prize and the opportunity to have his or her announcement aired on television across the country.

Source: Press Release, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
HHS Press Office: 202-690-6343



Government Announces Flu Pandemic PSA Propaganda Contest

California Eligible for $31 Million to Fight Swine Flu

July 10, 2009

Los Angeles Times - California is eligible to receive $31 million in federal grants meant to fight potential cases of the H1N1 influenza virus during the fall flu season, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced today.

The grant is funded by a supplemental appropriations bill recently passed by Congress and signed into law last month by President Obama.
The announcement came a day after Sebelius hosted a summit on the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu. The meeting was attended by representatives from state, tribal, territorial and local governments from across the country.

Officials at the California Department of Public Health could not be reached for comment because of a state office furlough.

According to statistics on the state health agency’s website, as of Thursday there were 1,945 confirmed cases of H1N1 infections. Thirty-two people in California have died as a result of the virus, and there have been 287 hospitalizations, the website reports.

The grants are aimed at giving states “valuable resources to step up their flu preparedness efforts,” Sebelius said in a written statement. “We must remain vigilant and do all we can to prepare our nation and protect public health...”

White House Puts States on H1N1 Flu Alert

July 9, 2009

Associated Press - The Obama administration put the states on notice Thursday: Swine flu vaccinations are likely to be ready this fall with the looming threat of the disease's resurgence, so figure out now how to deliver them.

"We want to make sure we are not promoting panic but we are promoting vigilance and preparation," President Barack Obama said in a phone call from Italy to the National Institutes of Health, where his Cabinet officials were leading a swine flu summit with 500 state and local officials.

No final decision has been made on vaccination, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told the meeting.

But studies with experimental doses of the new swine flu vaccine are set to start in early August to see if they're safe and seem to work. If all goes well, some vaccine could start to roll out in mid-October, she said.

Probably first in line for shots would be school-age children, young adults with risky conditions like asthma, pregnant women and health workers, she added. "We need your help now to prepare" so those shots actually get to people's arms, Sebelius told state officials.

Only limited amounts of vaccine will be available at first, but she warned that even a modest vaccination campaign "will involve extraordinary efforts throughout this country." Swine flu may have faded from the headlines but it's still sickening people in the U.S. and especially abroad and is almost certain to worsen when influenza-friendly fall temperatures arrive. "We must avoid complacency," Sebelius said.

The government estimates that 1 million Americans so far have been infected with the never-before-seen virus known formally by its scientific family name, H1N1.

No longer do many public health experts warn of the new virus' "return" in the fall. Summer's heat and humidity usually chase away influenza, but the swine flu has never left. Children are spreading it in summer camps - 50 outbreaks documented so far - and U.S. deaths have reached 170.

It has spread worldwide, and is causing serious problems in parts of the Southern Hemisphere, where it's currently flu season. In the U.S., even if the virus doesn't mutate to become more dangerous, greater spread is considered inevitable as students return to crowded classrooms and temperatures drop - and regular winter flu makes its own return.

"This fall, it's daunting, all that will be required," said Paul Jarris, executive director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

At the top of his worry list is finding enough workers for two vaccination campaigns.

The 100 million-plus doses of regular winter flu vaccine are set for the usual October inoculation start. But those shots won't protect against swine flu.

Looking back at school closings that disrupted the spring, communities also are struggling to determine when such a drastic step - one that has the chain reaction of parents missing work - is necessary.

A key theme to Thursday's summit: Consider now how your family would handle a disruption even bigger than what happened last spring when the outbreak began. To spur those discussions, HHS will host a contest - at www.flu.gov - for the best anti-flu video to turn into a national public service announcement.

American Students 1st in Line for Flu Vaccine

July 10, 2009

Washington Post - School-age children will be a key target population for a pandemic flu vaccine in the fall, and they may be vaccinated at school in a mass campaign not seen since the polio epidemics of the 1950s.

The federal government should get about 100 million doses of vaccine by mid-October, if the current production by five companies goes as planned. But enough vaccine for wide use by the 120 million people especially vulnerable to the newly emerged strain of H1N1 influenza virus will not be available until later in the fall.

Those were among the messages administration officials delivered to about 500 state, territorial, city and tribal health officials yesterday at a "flu summit" at the National Institutes of Health's Bethesda campus.

President Obama, speaking by audio link from the Group of Eight summit in L'Aquila, Italy, urged "complete ownership" of preparations for what he termed a "significant outbreak" of H1N1 flu in the next few months.

Classic Man-Made Diseases - Dengue Fever & Pandemic Flu

South America has faced one of the largest dengue fever epidemics on record.

 

Health alerts were declared in several countries since the outbreak began in earlier this year.

The recent outbreak of dengue fever is being portrayed by the media as a fortuitous reemergence of the disease in Florida and elsewhere in the United States after 75 years.

Dengue fever is a virus-based disease spread by the bites of mosquitoes. It can be caused by any one of four separate but related viruses carried by infected mosquitoes, most commonly the mosquito Aedes aegypti, found in tropic and subtropic areas.

Dengue fever has been the intense focus of U.S. army and CIA biological warfare researchers for over fifty years. As early as the 1950s, the army’s Fort Detrick in partnership with the CIA launched a multi-million dollar research program under which dengue fever and several addition exotic diseases were studied for use in offensive biological warfare attacks.

A University of Illinois international law professor Francis Boyle charged the Fort Detrick work would include,

“acquiring, growing, modifying, storing, packaging and dispersing classical, emerging and genetically engineered pathogens.”

Those activities, as well as planned study of the properties of pathogens when weaponized,

“are unmistakable hallmarks of an offensive weapons program.” (Read Wanted For Bio-Terrorism, Genocide and Conspiracy To Commit Mass Murder)

In early 2009, Czech newspapers questioned if the shocking discovery of vaccines contaminated with the deadly avian flu virus which were distributed to 18 countries by the American company Baxter were part of a conspiracy to provoke a pandemic.

Baxter flu vaccines contaminated with H5N1 - otherwise known as the human form of avian flu, one of the most deadly biological weapons on earth with a 60% kill rate - were received by labs in the Czech Republic, Germany, and Slovenia.

The swine flu H1N1 virus had three parents from two continents and appeared suddenly without warning, evading all routine flu surveillance and quarantine; sequence data suggest it may have been created from a faulty vaccine given to pigs in North America.

The CDC isolated and genetically altered (engineered) the H1N1 flu virus so that it could be used to make hundreds of millions of doses of the bio-terrorism agent. The new genetically engineered (novel) A-H1N1 virus then contained a lethal combination of bacteria, viruses, and toxins.

The CDC has also conducted experiments in which they infected ferrets with both the H1N1 swine virus and the H5N1 bird flu virus to see if they would "reassort" and create a new hybrid flu virus. (Read CDC Playing With Fire: Mixing H1N1 Swine Flu and H5N1 Bird Flu To Create For Super Flu)