The Health Forum

A place for open discussions – with no cover ups – about health issues

It now looks as if the H1N1 scam – using scare tactics to make billions of people get themselves vaccinated – has been a big failure. Few people were scared. Instead, they paid heed to websites, blogs and other non-mainstream sources of information that highlighted the dangers of vaccines as well as their ineffectiveness at preventing the flu. In the end, few people got themselves vaccinated.

A small group of people did fall for the scam, however. They include mainly the Health Ministers – except the Polish Health Minister Eva Kopacz – and other government officials who ordered billions of dollars worth of vaccines. Now they are stuck with huge stockpiles of vaccines that nobody wants. They are now trying desperately to sell off their unwanted stocks. But there have been few takers because most other governments have also bought huge stockpiles. And the few that hadn’t would be foolish to buy too much, considering the low vaccination rate reported in many countries – especially the European countries that are currently going through winter, the “flu season”.

And so, from the perspective of the big pharmaceutical companies, the H1N1 scam has been a great success. They already sold billions of dollars worth of vaccines; they already laughed their way to the bank.

But… their good fortunes may be short-lived after all.

France has been especially hard-hit by the scam. The French government ordered 94 million doses of vaccines, which works out to approximately 1.5 dose for every French citizen. But only 5 million doses have so far been used up, while another 10 percent of the purchase was said to have been donated to the World Health Organisation. Early in the new year, France reported that it was trying to sell its excess vaccine stocks to countries like Romania, Bulgaria, Qatar and Egypt. Both Romania and Bulgaria have since decided not to buy the vaccines from France, while Egypt and Qatar are reported to have bought a mere 2.2 million doses.

So that leaves France with still tens of millions of unused, unwanted vaccine doses. Now France has announced that it will cancel orders for 50 million doses that have not yet been delivered. A French government spokesman said on 3 January that it had already cancelled 9 million doses from Sanofi Pasteur, and was in talks about cancelling the remaining excess supply from other companies. The French government further said that it was “confident” about not having to pay compensation to the pharmaceutical companies for the cancellations.

France is not alone. Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland have also been trying to cancel their orders, cut back on deliveries or sell their excess vaccine stocks – with limited success. The Netherlands is reported to have sold 2 million of its 19 million excess vaccine doses while Germany is said to be still in negotiations to sell 2.2 million doses to Ukraine.

Now, the latest cancellation announcement by France has got the Big Pharma boys and their investors worried. Share prices of vaccine manufacturers Glaxo, Sanofi, Novartis have all dropped!

WHY DID THIS HAPPEN?

France, the biggest victim, still refuses to acknowledge that it had been scammed. It keeps harping on the fact that “experts” originally said two doses of vaccines were needed, but they later determined that one was enough. This still does not explain why, out of a population of 65 million, only 5 million vaccine doses were taken up.

The truth of the matter is that ordinary citizens realised that the flu vaccine is unsafe, ineffective and not necessary. Despite the low vaccination rate in France, latest reports say that H1n1 flu cases as well as H1n1 deaths in France have been on the decline!

Ordinary citizens have been able to see the H1N1 scam for what it is – an attempt by pharmaceutical companies to boost revenue by using scare tactics. Yet presidents, prime ministers, health ministers and other government officials, as well as top World Health Organisation officials – the people who are supposed to be the top brains – have fallen for it hook, line and sinker.

This is particularly disappointing in a country like Singapore, where government ministers praise themselves as being “world-class” and pay themselves obscene salaries equivalent to the combined salaries of their counterparts in about seven of the world’s leading industrialised nations. They, too, have fallen for the scam.

One exception is Poland’s Health Minister Eva Kopacz, who has shown both courage and wisdom in rejecting the H1N1 vaccine for the Polish people. Three cheers to her!

by Richard Seah

In a major victory for medical freedom, councillors in Big Island, Hawaii, have voted almost unanimously – by 7 to 1 – in support of a resolution that rejects mandatory vaccination and protects the rights of citizens to be exempted from vaccines.

The vote by the Big Island of Hawaii Council demonstrated the power of local community activists to rebuke “top down” policies advancing “mandatory” vaccinations during declared emergencies. It urges State and Federal legislators in Hawaii “to amend vaccine laws to include medical, religious, and philosophical exemptions from any vaccine program,” including those declared urgent by health officials.

The vote is said to reflect a nationwide trend of increasing public distrust of official proclamations of vaccination safety and efficacy. A solid majority of medical doctors, and nearly 70% of parents polled by Consumer Reports, feared the new vaccines and were determined not to recommend them. After exhaustive research conducted by Council researchers and attorneys, and many drafts, the Resolution stated:

“there is insufficient scientific evidence proving that vaccines are safe or effective, therefore it is not in the best interest of public health to recommend vaccinations without exemptions.

Whereas, in the wake of potential harm to the individual and the public from vaccinations, and the vacillating interpretation of ‘vaccine science, it is in the public’s best interest to amend the vaccine laws to include the right of medical, religious, and philosophical exemptions from any vaccination program.”

Council Vice Chair Naeole-Beason said:

“This is a victory for health freedom, common sense, and U.S. Constitutional entitlements. I am very proud of our Council who put public safety ahead of special interests.”

Dr. Leonard Horowitz, a Harvard-trained authority  in vaccinations and emerging diseases who advised the research committee. added: “This is a win for ‘We the People’.”

Not surprisingly, opposition to the resolution came from two medical doctors – Chiyome L Fukino, the Department of Health Director, and Sarah Y. Park, Chief of the State’s Disease Outbreak Control Division. They claimed that “a number of inaccuracies pertaining to immunization were cited in the Resolution . . . ,” but failed to show any or send anyone to the County meeting to defend their views.

Hawaii’s State and Federal lawmakers will vote on the Resolution next.

by Richard Seah

A new study published by the British Medical Journal (on 8 December 2009) has cast more doubts on the effectiveness of the flu drug, Tamiflu, as well as on its manufacturer, Roche Pharmaceuticals.

The study, led by Professor Chris del Mar of the Cochrane Collaboration, found no evidence that Tamiflu prevents serious complications, hospitalization, or death in people that have the flu. It further suggests that Roche, the Swiss company that manufactures and markets Tamiflu, may have misled governments and physicians by withholding vital information through not publishing critical studies that showed the drug to be ineffective.

But Roche maintains that it “has never concealed (or had the intention to conceal) any pertinent data.” And the company now says it will publish all the study data on a password-restricted website.

The latest findings come from a re-evaluation of an earlier 2006 study by Cochrane, which is a highly respected not-for-profit organisation that evaluates the effectiveness of various treatments. In that earlier study, Cochrane Collaboration generally agreed with claims by Roche that Tamiflu reduces:

• hospital admissions by 61%
• complications as bronchitis, pneumonia, and sinusitis by 67%
• and lower respiratory tract infections requiring antibiotics by 55%.

That 2006 Cochrane review was based largely on a paper that looked at 10 studies, all of them funded by Roche. But following concerns expressed by a Japanese doctor about the lack of medical evidence on Tamiflu’s effectiveness, the Cochrane team decided to re-examine the earlier study. In doing so, they found that only two of the 10 studies had ever been published in medical journals. Those two studies showed the drug had very little effect on complications compared to a placebo.

Meanwhile, attempts to trace the data from the remaining eight studies were not entirely successful. Said Prof Chris del Mar:

“The most important finding we found, which is a change from the previous review, was that we didn’t have enough data to know whether it reduces the complications of influenza.

There was a study written by professor Laurent Kaiser from Geneva in Switzerland, which was a summary of about 10 different trials that had been conducted by Roche Pharmaceuticals. When we actually put the data together and analysed them, we found that we couldn’t draw the conclusions that [professor] Kaiser had drawn. And so we felt very insecure about that. In fact we didn’t think it was proper to use those data.

“When we wrote to [professor] Kaiser and said ‘can you give us these data because we need to sort it all out properly’, he wrote back and said, ‘I’m very sorry I don’t have the data’. That’s a very weird thing to say. And he referred us to Roche. He said, ‘You’ll have to go and talk to the pharmaceutical company that funded it’.”

According to Professor Del Mar, Roche never gave out the data that the research team requested, but only some tables of data that were not what they needed.

Cochrane said Roche offered the data “under conditions we thought unacceptable, and what was offered to us was insufficient to analyze properly.” So now, Roche is accusing the Cochrane researchers of conducting an incomplete review, because those eight studies had been left out.

Prf Chris del Mar added:

“I can only speculate. It would be pure guesswork. But I do know that this is a drug which has made a lot of money based on the conclusions drawn from this and maybe they’re not keen for other scientists to scrutinise it in the way that the Cochrane Collaboration does.

“I do think that we need the data before we can draw conclusions and that’s why we’ve had to withdraw that conclusion that we had previously made. It’s something that makes me feel that we were rather naive as an organisation. I think this does call into question a lot of things about scientific debate and I am worried about it.”

Adding to the suspicion, two former employees of a large communications company, Adis International, have come forward with documents showing they had ghostwritten some of the published studies of Tamiflu. One of the ghostwriters revealed:

“The Tamiflu accounts had a list of key messages that you had to get in. It was run by the [Roche] marketing department and you were answerable to them. In the introduction . . . I had to say what a big problem influenza is. I’d also have to come to the conclusion that Tamiflu was the answer.”

All in, the latest Cochrane study evaluated 20 published trials. It concluded that drugs like Tamiflu are, at best, are modestly effective against flu symptoms in otherwise healthy adults and that there is a “paucity of good data” to support claims that such drugs can prevent complications from flu.

by Richard Seah

Among alternative, natural treatments for the flu, probably the most surprising are osteopathy and chiropractic. These are manipulation therapies where all the practitioner does is make some adjustments to re-align your bone structure. They are most commonly sought for aches and pain.

I made a surprising discovery back in 2005 when I had a bad flu (H1N1 wasn’t active then but the scare at that time was over the bird flu) and my osteopath friend remarked that I “didn’t trust him”.

I was taken aback. What did he mean? “You never come to me for treatment,” he said. “Don’t you know that osteopathy is very effective for treating the flu?”

Sorry, no. Although I knew the osteopath for 16 years, I never knew that osteopathy could treat the flu. I decided to give it a try. Within minutes, my breathing became deeper, my cough became shallower, I started feeling very much better.

Some weeks later, I was surfing the Internet when I found an article about osteopathy and the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918:

The mortality rate in US medical hospitals fell between 30 percent and 40 percent, with the exception of a rate of 68 percent in medical hospitals in New York City…

The American School of Osteopathy, now the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine of A. T. Still University of Health Sciences, in Kirksville, MO, contacted all their alumni. This effort culminated in 2,445 osteopaths responding in treating 110,122 patients with influenza, with a resulting mortality of 0.25 percent. One of the few osteopathic medical hospitals, 400-bed Massachusettes Osteopathic Hospital, in Boston, also reported a mortality of 0.25 percent for that period.

I searched chiropractic, which is similar to osteopathy, and found this:

Chiropractors at the Palmer School of Chiropractic adjusted 1,635 cases, with only one death. Outside Davenport, chiropractors in Iowa cared for 4,735 cases with only six deaths – one out of 866. During the same epidemic, in Oklahoma, out of 3,490 flu patients under chiropractic care, there were only seven deaths. It was chiropractic’s success in caring for flu victims that led to the profession’s licensure in many states.

The idea that adjusting the body – particularly the spine – can fight the flu might seem far fetched. But not if you understand the basic tenet of osteopathy and chiropractic: “structure governs function”. It means that the structure of the body influences the function of the body and its many systems, including the immune system. By restoring the structure of the body to its optimal balance, all the various body functions – including immune function – will get better. And natural immunity is the most powerful weapon against the flu, more so than any man-made drug!

This idea is not new. About 2,400 years ago, Hippocrates said: “Look to the spine for the cause of disease.” Also, many Eastern forms of martial arts and health practices, including yoga, taiqi, qigong, karate, aikido, etc, emphasise the importance of keeping the spine straight.

Is it scientific? A “partial list” compiled by the World Chiropractic Alliance cites 109 scientific references linking osteopathic / chiropractic treatment to improved immune function.

Fixing the back is, of course, not the only way to boost immunity and fight the flu. I highlight it because it seems so unlikely, yet has an impressive track record.

As John Yeo pointed out in an earlier article, homeopathy, too, has a proven track record, with a mortality rate of only about 1 percent during the Spanish flu outbreak. There are lots and lots of other ways to build up immunity and prevent as well as fight the flu. It is not difficult to find them. We need only to look outside the box called “medical science”.

by Richard Seah

I am so upset. I was so excited to be pregnant after trying for a year. As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I joined this birth club and I was due June 25th. We have two healthy boys with no history of miscarriage. Everything was going great. Last Monday, I got the H1N1 vaccine thimerosal reduced (mercury reduced for pregnant women). On Tuesday morning, I started cramping and on Wednesday I started bleeding heavily. My hcg (a glycoprotein hormone produced in pregnancy) was 50 on Wednesday and I was almost 6 weeks along so it was low. They still thought that I might be pregnant but on Friday my hcg was down to 22. I am an emotional wreck. I feel like I had a healthy baby and I caused this by getting the H1N1 vaccine. My doctors pushed it. I researched online and there have been many miscarriages after the H1N1 vaccine but they haven’t been reported since it is hard to say what caused the miscarriages. I hope that I did not cause this. I wish everyone the best.

My heart goes out to you as i recently miscarried as well and was due in june. i had a healthy heart beat at 6wks. then at 7.5 wks my son got the h1n1 mist vaccine which has live vaccine in it. the nurse said to be careful b/c it could technically spread if he rubbed his nose and touched a surface etc. the next night i miscarried and 5 days later was diagnosed with h1n1. i work from home, kids are home, hadnt been anywhere during that time. so the chances that it is all related are very high. the flu mist vaccine warns for immunocompromised patients (which includes prego) to stay away from recipients of the flu mist for 21 days.

I got the flu vaccine (regular not H1N1) at 8 weeks pregnant. Three days later I miscarried. I am not going to get the H1N1.

I got both vaccines on Thursday. I was 9 weeks pregnant. I miscarried on Sunday. I was told by several doctors to get these vaccines. Now I wish I followed my gut feeling and not get them at ALL!

i work in a hospital like setting and was told ‘the benefits outweigh the risks” 1 a.m. I got the vaccine, 3 a.m. i started bleeding and craming, 3 p.m. miscarried. you decide

And so on. And so on. Lots of personal stories such as these have been appearing in blogs and online forums across the United States – and most probably in other countries as well. This lot was compiled by Organic Health.

The details vary. Some miscarried early in their pregnancy, some miscarried late and gave birth to still borns. Some miscarried within hours of receiving the H1N1 (or seasonal flu) vaccine. Some miscarried a few days later.

Yet the common themes are all too clear. ALL miscarried shortly after receiving vaccination. ALL were told by their doctors that the miscarriages had nothing to do with the vaccination. They were just “coincidences”.

Yet how do doctors know??? that the miscarriages were not linked to the vaccines when none of the vaccines had been tested on pregnant women. On what basis do doctors assert that the miscarriages were not caused by vaccination? Just because they learned in medical school that vaccines are safe?

As long as doctors dismiss such cases, they will never get investigated. And there are lots more cases that go unreported and unvoiced. With the victims just suffering in silence. It has been estimated that for every one reported case of adverse vaccine side effect, there are at least another 10 cases that go unreported.

And so any reports linking vaccines to miscarriages will forever be classified as “anecdotal”. They will always remain “unscientific”. Because science never got involved. Only the pig-headed refusal to acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, there are too many “coincidences”.

Yet there is a point in reporting. Whether you miscarried or suffered any other adverse effect, whether or not your doctor believes it was caused by the vaccine, as long as you believe so, you are strongly encouraged to report it to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. Or tell us. Or anybody else.

TELL THE WORLD. In the past, if your doctor brushed you off, that was the end of the story. You go off and cry in bitterness but there was nothing much else you could do.  Today, with the Internet, YOUR STORIES WILL BE HEARD. By someone, somewhere. You could help save a few miscarriages. And a few lives!

by Richard Seah

Cases of anaphylaxis – severe allergic reactions – in Canada following H1N1 vaccination are much worse than originally reported.

Early reports said there were six cases. This was enough to raise alarm bells and to have vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKilne recall a batch of vaccines associated with the cases. The batch contained 170,000 doses, of which about 150,000 doses had been administered. This meant that the incidence of anaphylaxis was 4 in 100,000, which is about 13 times the expected incidence of just 0.32 in 100,000.

Now, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has confirmed that there were, in fact, 24 cases of anaphylaxis, including one death of a man in his 80s. This means the incidence rate is actually 16 in 100,000, or about 50 times higher than expected!

Not surprisingly, PHAC Head Dr. David Butler-Jones was quick to divert blame from the flu vaccine, but to point out that the person who died had other medical conditions. This has been the typical response of pro-vaccine doctors and government health officials whenever an adverse event follows vaccination.

“It’s important to remember that just because a medical event follows vaccination, it may not have been caused by the vaccination; it may have been caused by other factors, as unfortunate events continue to occur with or without vaccine,” Dr Butler-Jones told a news conference.

This is what Barbara Fisher, Co-founder & President of the US National Vaccine Information Center, has to say about such responses. Speaking in 2001 about the Prevnar PCV7 vaccine (for pneumonia) being approved in spite of several babies dying during the vaccine trials, she said: “What’s scientific about that? That every time something bad happens after vaccination it’s ‘coincidence’? That’s not science, that’s politics.”

Anaphylaxis develops quickly, usually within minutes of being exposed to a substance (most commonly food, insect stings and drugs/vaccines) that the person is allergic to. Symptoms include breathing difficulties, weak but rapid pulse, sudden drop in blood pressure, swollen lips / tongue / throat that makes breathing and swallowing difficult, hives. vomiting, anxiety, feelings of “impending doom”, etc. Immediate medical treatment is needed, failing which the person may lose consciousness and die.

Such severe allergic reactions are rare but have happened before. Some years back, when Australia rolled out its HPV vaccination programme (against cervical cancer), it also recorded a higher than normal anaphylaxis rate of 2.6 in 100,000.

However, nobody seems able to explain how anaphylaxis might be associated with ONE BATCH of vaccines but not others, which was apparently what happened in Canada. When asked about that by a Canadian newspaper, Dr John Treanor, a flu vaccine expert at the University of Rochester, New York said it is “a difficult question to answer”.

by John Yeo

A mum walked into my office this afternoon as usual, with her son for his regular neurofeedback session. Only today, he was wearing a N95 face mask.

“He has H1N1” said the mum. “Oh!” I said. My first thought was: should I call the Ministry of Health (MOH) and get the whole place shut down? If this had taken place six months ago, at the height of the H1N1 mania, I would have had to undertake a forced 7-day vacation in a holiday chalet. Fortunately, this is end November of 2009 and the MOH has finally come to its senses with all the temperature taking, contact tracing and quarantining e.t.c.

The mum said: “I can’t believe he has H1N1. He looks fine to me and he wanted to come for neurofeedback. Yes, the first day, he vomited. Then he developed a mild 37.5 degree fever the next day. That’s it! I thought H1N1 was much more serious, you know, like there is no cure and you are likely to die.”

She was still standing by the doorway with the boy pulling towards my desk but restrained by his mum. I said: “Please sit down. I am not afraid.” The boy broke free of his mum’s grip and moved to take his usual chair, ready for the therapy.

While preparing the boy for therapy, I continued talking to the mum. I said I had not been vaccinated and don’t intend to. I told her that in fact, I might have already caught it but no one will ever know. That is because I am not in the habit of visiting the GP for every little cold, which is what the H1N1 is. So I might have already caught it, rested and recovered without anyone ever knowing about it.

As a matter of fact, I have not visited a GP in more than 15 years, preferring my Vitamin C, zinc, hydrogen peroxide bath, acupuncture and homeopathy to handle any minor (or major) flu. I have never been out sick for more than a day or two since.

She said: “I now think the media has overplayed this whole H1N1 thing. This is too much, all that scare, for nothing.” I asked if she was afraid and she said no. The doctor had given the boy a 5-day course of Tamiflu. This is the 3rd day and she noticed he was a little more hyperactive, perhaps from taking the drug.  She was thinking of stopping the drug after I told her there were reports from Japan that some kids had committed sucide after taking Tamiflu.

She and her husband were also given a preventive course of Tamiflu. I thought Tamiflu is not a vaccine and does not prevent H1N1??!! Where is the evidence in “evidence-based” medicine? But I’ll bet you this is also known as “generally acceptable medical practice” and the doctors would testify in court for each other if something went amiss.

I asked her what about the house maid? Was she prescribed Tamiflu as well? No, not at $50 a pill! The maid will just have to make do with a mask and go about her daily chores…social status does have its privileges. In any case, the maid refused the mask. She was reported to have said: “No need lah! Look like Ultraman! Look at the boy, nothing lah!”

Less educated she may be but I thought the maid had more common sense and freedom than her employers. I think no one can truly be free until one is free from fear, particularly the fear created by others for their own benefit.

The bishops of the middle ages were able to create enough fear of eternal damnation in the hearts of the monarchs to harness considerable political privileges. The modern day medicine men too are able to create fear in the hearts of politicians and citizens to gain considerable power and wealth. To exorcise ourselves from the curse of the modern medicine men, we need to go out to seek the truth. The truth shall set us free.

by Richard Seah

The new H1N1 swine flu vaccine is being rejected by people across the world, even as governments, working with pharmaceutical companies, continue to push for their populations to get vaccinated with assurances that the vaccine is safe. Many people are simply not convinced about the safety of this vaccine. In addition, Internet access has given more people access to information about flu vaccine dangers.

And so, in the two months since the H1N1 swine flu vaccine was introduced at end-September 2009, reports have come in from around the world that only a small percentage of people say they would be receiving the flu shots.

In the United States, a poll by McClatchy-Ipsos show that just 52 percent of Americans say they’re likely to get the swine flu vaccine – 33 percent say they’re very likely while 19 percent say they’re somewhat likely. A more recent survey conducted by Washington Post / ABC News when the flu vaccine became availble in late September 2009 showed that 62 percent will not accept it.

In the United Kingdom, more than half of Britons being offered vaccination against H1N1 flu are turning it down. Pulse, a trade newspaper for doctors, polled 107 doctors and found many saying there was widespread resistance from patients and on average only 46 per cent of those offered the vaccination agreed to have it. Doctors reported particular difficulties in persuading pregnant women to be vaccinated against the virus. Said Dr Chris Udenze, a family doctor based in Nottingham, central England: “In all the pregnant women we’ve offered it to, I think only about one in 20 has agreed.”

In Germany, the government has ordered 50 million doses of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine and is offering it free to Germans. Yet only 10 percent of the vaccines have been taken up so far, and only 13 percent of Germans say they would get themselves vaccinated. This is despite the fact that Germans are generally open to flu vaccination and about 24 percent of Germans regularly vaccinate themselves against the seasonal flu.

Yet as recently as July 2009, 51 percent of Germans said they would get the flu shot. The dramatic fall off in willing recipients follows revelations that government officials, the German military, police and members of pandemic crisis committees will receive a non adjuvanted H1N1 vaccine, while the general public will only be offered the GlaxoSmithKline Pandemrix shot, which contains the adjuvant squalene and the preservative,  thimerosal.

In Poland, Health Minister Eva Kopacz has rejected the swine flu vaccine for her country, saying she would not allow millions of Polish people to be given an untested vaccine. Minister Kopacz, who practised as a family doctor for 20 years before she became Health Minister, told the Polish Parliament on 5 November that as Health Minister, her first duty is to act in the best interest of the people, not in the interest of pharmaceutical companies.

Eva Kopacz also alluded to irregularities in the negotiations between pharmaceutical companies and governments, saying the Law Department has “20 points of doubts” regarding the proposed agreement for vaccine sales to the government.

In Italy, Deputy Health Minister Ferruccio Fazio and the Mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno have both personally decided against vaccination. And a recent survey showed that six out of 10 Italian family physicians do not prescribe the H1N1 vaccine for their patients, particularly those with heart diseases.

In France, a September 2009 survey by the French National Union of Professionally Qualified Nurses show that 65 percent of all nurses will refuse the swine flu vaccine over safety concerns, Of the 4,107 nurses polled, only 26 percent said they will accept the H1N1 vaccine while a further 9 percent were still undecided. The protests of nurses appeared to have influenced the French Health Minister, who said she might drop plans to give vaccines with adjuvants to pregnant women. As of 5 November, about two weeks after H1N1 vaccination began in France, only 0.1 percent of French citizens had been vaccinated and the French Health Minister has described the vaccination campaign as “timid”.

In Hong Kong, research conducted by the University of Hong Kong and published in the British Medical Journal found that more than half of doctors and healthcare workers in public hospitals repeatedly say they will not get themselves vaccinated against the flu. Their stance did not change even when the WHO raised the flu pandemic alert level from 3 to 5, declaring a flu pandemic.

In China, as in Germany, there has been a dramatic fall in the percentage of people willing to take the swine flu vaccine. A poll, conducted by China Daily and news website sohu.com found that only 30 percent of 2,000 respondents said they would definitely get the shot. Over 54 percent of the respondents rejected the vaccine outright. The latest survey indicates a seismic shift in popular opinion from just two months ago, when 76 percent of people in China indicated that they would opt for inoculation. The primary reason given for the turnaround is a general worry over the quality and reliability of the vaccine.

In Kuwait, despite the highest rate of H1N1 infection in the Middle East, the first batch of H1N1 swine flu vaccine is said to be “virtually untouched”, with Kuwaitis reportedly influenced by Internet posts about the dangers of flu vaccination. Kuwait Times attributed the concerns to the health website mecola.com.

Kuwaitis are also worried that the flu shot would make them impotent. A Kuwaiti identified as Mohammad was quoted in Kuwait Times saying: “Yes, it is very alarming. I am afraid because I don’t want to be impotent after taking the vaccine. I still want to be sexually active and make babies.”

Adding to the worries, the Kuwaiti Social Affairs and Labour Minister Mohammad Al Affassi was hospitalised soon after he received the H1N1 swine flu vaccine. His colleague, Health Minister Helal Al Sayer denied any links with the flu shot, and said: “Dr Al Affassi was admitted into hospital for exhaustion from overwork and his condition has nothing to do with the swine flu vaccination.” Al Affassi reportedly felt uneasy after he watched a football match in which a Kuwaiti team won the Asian Cup!

Meanwhile, in Singapore… well, the local press neither conducts polls nor makes any effort to find out how many people are getting vaccinated. They just wait for the Health Ministry to make announcements.

by Richard Seah

Poland’s Health Minister Eva Kopacz, a qualified family medical doctor with more than 20 years of experience, has rejected the H1N1 vaccine. She told the Polish Parliament that she will not authorize the use of vaccines that have not been adequately tested for safety, on millions of people in Poland.

Three cheers to her, for having the courage to go against what the rest of the world’s governments are senselessly doing, simply following each other so that they (believe they) won’t get into trouble since everyone else is doing the same thing. She rightly points out that she is acting in the best interest of her citizens, not in the interest of pharmaceutical companies!

Her closing quote is a gem: The Polish nation is very wise, Poles can tell the truth from lies very precisely. They can also tell what is an objective situation and what is just a game.

Below is her Parliament speech:

I would like to say that my priority during my 20 odd years of my GP practice was “First of all do not harm,” I took that rule with me to my Health Minister Office.

In situations when I was to recommend a medicine to anybody, I believe just like any other practitioner, I would think: would I give it to my elderly mother, my child?

And exactly such thoughts make me very cautious about double checking the information regarding a medicine that the Health Ministry is to recommend to every Pole – to millions of Poles that have no medical education that a Minister has, that an expert, professor Brydak has, an expert that has been working on the flu for over 40 years. He works in one of 189 flu research centers that are in the world, one is in Poland. Can we today be accused of lack of knowledge about the flu? Can one question an opinion of a professor that has been working on the flu for over 40 years, and not just on one type of flu, that has published hundreds of articles on the subject?

I have just one fundamental question: do we want to fight the flu pandemic?

Today we have knowledge about enclosures in agreements that other governments of wealthier countries have signed with vaccine producers.

Also we know what was proposed to Poland. Due to negotiations being in progress I can’t tell you everything today, but I can tell you one thing: our Law Department found at least 20 points of doubt in the agreement.

So what is the Health Minister’s duty? To sign agreements that are in the best interests of the Polish people, or to sign agreements that are in the best interests of the pharmaceutical companies?

I know that there are 3 vaccines available on the market today, of 3 different producers. Each has a different amount of active substance and yet strangely they are all treated the same. Therefore isn’t it fair enough for the Health Minister and health experts to have doubts about it? Maybe the one with trace amounts of active substances is just a “holy water” that we are supposed to think can cure flu? Are we supposed to pay for that?

We have an example of Germany that bought 50 million jabs, only 10% have been applied so far. Only 13% of Germans want to take this “miraculous cure” today. But it’s peculiar because the Germans have a very high percentage of vaccine takers, so when in Poland for 1000 people only 52 will take a seasonal flu jab, in Germany there will be 238 per 1000 (23%). So what is happening when only 13% of Germans want to take the swine flu vaccine and not 23% of the population as usual with the seasonal flu vaccine? Their government bought the vaccines and offered them for free and they don’t want it. What happened?

Can those facts make us have second thoughts about buying the vaccines or not? Second thoughts about introducing a medicine that is kind of secret?

There are websites on which vaccine producers have an obligation to publish so-called post-vaccine unwanted side effects. The vaccinations in Europe started on 1st October 2009. I would like you to visit any of these websites and find any unwanted side effects. The slightest thing, at least one, like allergic skin rash. That can happen even when using the safest medicine. There are none on those websites. A “perfect” medicine?! And since this is so miraculous, then why don’t the producing companies want to introduce their medicines to the free market and take responsibility for them? Why wouldn’t they say: “Wonderful, safe medicine, therefore I will take responsibility for it, I will introduce it to the market and everything is clear and transparent,” instead of dropping the weight on us, the buyers.

We do not have clinical test results, no detailed ingredients and no information about side effects. The vaccines are now in the 4th stage of very short tests and we still do not have this information. Also the sample size has been very little, one kind of vaccine was tested only on 160 volunteers aged 20-60, all healthy. Another kind of vaccine tested on 600 volunteers aged 18-60, all healthy. Is this good enough, especially for us doctors present in the room? It is not good enough for me.

I want to be sure enough to recommend this vaccine. We are not out of the line for the vaccine, during the negotiations we want to take that time and use it to find out as much as we can about the vaccine. Then if the pandemic committee will accept this vaccine, we will buy it.

Also there are 1 billion people with seasonal flu worldwide every year. 1 million people die of seasonal flu worldwide every year. And this hasn’t been going happening for a year or two, but for a very long time. Has anybody anywhere announced a pandemic because of seasonal flu? And the seasonal flu is much more dangerous than swine flu, there are many deaths and severe complications. Was there any pandemic announced? Those who are pushing me to buy the vaccines, I ask you: Why didn’t you scream and shout last year, 2 years ago and in 2003? In 2003 there were 1,200,000 Poles who had seasonal flu! Did anybody shout, here in this room: “Let’s buy vaccines for everybody!” I can’t recall such a thing.

And finally I would like to say only one thing: The Polish nation is very wise, Poles can tell the truth from lies very precisely. They can also tell what is an objective situation and what is just a game.

by John Yeo, 17 Nov 2009

The Straits Times in Singapore today (17/11/09) carried a photo of the Health Minister getting the H1N1 vaccine shot. My colleague James Ong had written to him two weeks ago to warn him of the dangers of vaccination. Obviously he has either not received the letter or he has great faith in the medical system. Like everyone else, we are led to think that the vaccine is completely safe and effective.

I am so glad he has not made the vaccine compulsory for the general population. However, I am not sure if certain front line professions like nurses and NS men are effectively not given the choice not to receive the vaccine. According to a survey by the French national union of professionally qualified nurses, 65% of all nurses in France will refuse the vaccine over safety concerns.

However, the public is scared, thanks to the media and the way public health organisations have painted the picture. What should we do? Nothing really, if you dare. Many prominent doctors have been saying that H1N1 is just another flu with relatively mild symptoms. However, fear has been put into everybody’s mind that what if the virus mutates and the symptoms become worse?

For this, we can look towards the experience of the last major influenza pandemic of 1918. Hundreds of million of people were affected severely, with total deaths estimated at between 20 million and 100 million. This was a real pandemic, not the one declared by World Helath Organisation (WHO) which is a “technical” pandemic. Here, the numbers are there but the symptoms and death rates lack the seriousness to warrant the emotive word “PANDEMIC”. Many are still questioning why the WHO was so eager to press the panic button.

An article published in the Journal of the American Institute for Homeopathy May, 1921 recorded some statistics. (Julian Wilson Archives)

Dr. T A McCann, Ohio reported a death rate of 28.2 percent in 24,000 cases of flu treated with conventional medicine. Another group of 26,000 patients suffered only 1 percent death rate when treated with homeopathic medicine. This success rate was repeated in another situation. A Dean WA Pearson of Philadelphia Hahnemann College reported that of 26,795 cases of flu treated with homeopathic medicine, only 1 percent death rate was recorded.

Homeopathic medicine are made mainly from plants and minerals and diluted many times. The homeopath matches the individualized symptoms of the patient to the characteristics of the medicine in a “like cure like” manner. The medication stimulates the immune system of the patient to deal naturally and effectively with the flu.

In conventional medicine, drugs are used to kill the virus or bacteria. It is hoped that by killing off enough of the bugs, the disease will leave the body. If not, a stronger dose will be administered. Often, such “strong arm” tactics can succeed in killing off the disease but leave the patient weak and vulnerable to other complications.

Those who choose to treat illnesses with drugs are basically opting for the “strong arm” approach. As shown in history, more than one in four influenza patients eventually died using this kind of approach. Those who choose to treat influenza with homeopathy suffered only one death in 100. The choice is yours to make, provided the people in power allow that choice.