President Barack Obama holding a Homeland Security Council meeting about the swine flu outbreak in the Cabinet Room, while Dr. Richard Bresser speaks, May 1, 2009. (White House photo by Pete Souza)
Why are health ministers in places like British Columbia, Australia and Greece telling the public that ’swine flu’ is just ordinary H1N1 type A seasonal flu, while at the same time they are preparing to vaccinate their entire populations against H5N1 avian flu using untested vaccines that contain live avian flu?
Why are pandemic plans being laid to combat a more serious second wave of ’swine flu’ when it is already clear that such an outbreak is not happening in the southern hemisphere, where the flu season is already under way? Both Australia and Argentina report a normal flu season with no mutation of the ’swine flu’ virus.
If the world is really so concerned about a ’swine flu pandemic’ this fall, why has the World Health Organization stopped counting cases?
These are just some of the many questions being asked in the growing controversy over the safety of ‘pandemic flu’ vaccinations that health officials everywhere are planning for the entire global population.
WHO launches global vaccination program
The World Health Organization has issued a binding ‘recommendation’ to all member countries requiring them to institute mandatory vaccination programs. Under an existing multilateral agreement this formally invokes each state’s pandemic plan and puts coordination under control of WHO. For some European states the pandemic plan includes setting aside government as normal and ruling the country by a special council under control of the EU and WHO. France has already announced that it will effect a move to military rule beginning in September.
The global pandemic vaccination program will begin somewhere around the end of September and last about two months. Many countries are in the process of acquiring from Baxter, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline and other pharmaceutical companies enough doses of vaccine to vaccinate their entire population twice. They remain quiet about mandatory vaccination, simply saying they will make vaccination ‘available’ to all on a priority basis. But Greece and Switzerland have already announced that their programs will be mandatory and enforced by the military. There are unconfirmed reports that Norway and Israel have done the same. The United States is preparing for military ‘assisted’ mandatory vaccination but has not explicitly declared its intentions to the public.
Vaccine safety concerns
There is huge controversy brewing over the lack of testing of these vaccines, whose development has been fast-tracked. Czechoslovakia is not moving ahead with vaccine purchases from Baxter because Baxter cannot guarantee their safety. In Austria police are investigating Baxter on bioterrorism charges. There is concern about reports that the vaccine (referred to in a Novartis patent as “novel pandemic flu”) is developed by infecting green monkeys, and that the U.S. military helped with its development. Physicians and vaccine experts have expressed grave concern about toxic substances that are already known to be in these vaccines, such as mercury, squalene, mycoplasm and live H5N1 avian flu.
Many are deeply troubled by the implications of mandatory (or effectively mandatory) vaccination, especially given the known dangers of the vaccines. There have been official statements that vaccination will be ‘available’ first to certain ‘most vulnerable’ groups — health care workers, followed by children under two or three and pregnant women, and then those with chronic health problems (including obesity). These segments of the population are also the most likely to suffer harm from vaccination. Some statements have been released generally prioritizing everyone under 18 and over 65.
Most countries are acquiring enough vaccine to vaccinate their populations twice. Vaccination is reported to consist of two separate injections about a month apart — one for regular seasonal flu and one for ’swine flu’ (both of which are actually the same H1N1 type A seasonal influenza). It appears that the first treatment will be traditional seasonal flu vaccine, while the second will be some kind of “novel” flu vaccine containing different adjuvants (which are the main safety concern).
Registration
Canada has said that it may need to “verify eligibility” for vaccination.
“Planners need to develop methods of identifying the numbers for each population subgroup and how best to confirm inclusion in a particular subgroup at the level of the immunization clinic.” (Canadian pandemic plan)
Greece has said that everyone will be required to register. So clearly there may be some kind of identification and/or registration in Canada and possibly the issuance of vaccination certificates, the non-possession of which some are concerned could be used to deny various services — such as health insurance, day care, or employment — and thus effectively force people to accept vaccination.
Economic and social disruption
There is speculation that at least for the duration of the global vaccination program there could be widespread chaos and disruption, which would undoubtedly have an economic impact. Sick or quarantined people may not be able to work, people may refuse to go to work for their own protection, and travel may be seriously restricted, especially internationally. Some news stories have been encouraging small businesses to make contingency plans. We already saw some examples of air travel interruptions in April and May. It is not clear whether travel restrictions, such as highway check points, might apply within countries. There have also been hints from Sweden that the Internet may be shut down during the vaccination program.
New Brunswick’s pandemic plan anticipates “disruption of essential services.” U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, has said that “depending on the severity of the outbreak, community mitigation could involve more systematic means of social distancing, including limits on large gatherings and, if necessary and appropriate, temporary school or workplace closures.”
The disruption of business as usual will likely force people to make do with less, to do more things for themselves, to obtain more goods and services locally, and to spend more time at home — all things that perhaps we should be doing anyway, for our health, for the environment, and for a better society.
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