Three Things You Should Know This Flu Season

This year, a new vaccine is going to come out & will be targeted at school children as a protection from the dreaded Swine Flu. Here is some information you can use to make the choices you will be faced with in a few months.

• according to Australian Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon, the swine flu is a mild flu similar to regular seasonal flu. "Most people, including children, will experience very mild symptoms and recover without any medical intervention," she told the ABC News on July 2, 2009.
• The new vaccine has been developed under regulations that allow it to be released without the same testing as other vaccines, because the WHO (World Health Organization) declared a pandemic. There has been and will be no safety testing - this vaccine was developed, manufactured and shipped in a matter of weeks.
• Although school children will be among the first to be targeted by the vaccination program, you should know that it is not mandatory for your child to get the injection to attend school. It is usually a simple matter to sign the exemption form - in some states, it's just a line on the back of the sheet they use to document each child's vax history.

So why would you want to consider declining a vaccine during a pandemic? The definition of pandemic isn't, "Panic, it's an epidemic!!" although it really does sound like the words "panic" and "epidemic" are mixed in this misunderstood term. All it means is that a new virus is moving across the globe. That basically happens every year when the new year's mutated version of the regular flu arrives. It does not mean that millions of people are going to die. The WHO actually classifies the H1N1 virus as a moderate illness that requires neither hospitalization or even medical care.

Another aspect of this situation is that the new vaccine contains squalene as an adjuvant. Squalene is normally used by the body after ingestion in foods like olive oil. However, when it is injected, the immune system generates antibodies to it as if it were an enemy. Then it attacks all the squalene molecules present in the body even where squalene is supposed to be, in your nervous system. This has in the past resulted in auto-immune reactions with serious consequences.

In a nation where the country's budget is in the red, how does it make sense that over a billion dollars are being spend on ingredients to manufacture a vaccine for a virus with mild symptoms? And now that it is clear that the virus isn't significantly different than the regular flu, why is there an urgent plan to administer the vaccine at schools as if it were polio or smallpox?

Who stands to benefit the most from this plan? It sure isn't you or your kids.