Concern Grows in the British Media About Swine Flu Vaccine
Managing Editor's Note: We'll continue to inform you about the H1N1 vaccination program so that you can make an informed choice for your family. The comments following the article John references (in the UK's Mail Online) (HERE) are interesting.
By John Stone
Concern is finally being raised in the UK media that government agencies are failing to be straight with the public over the safety of the proposed swine flu vaccine now scheduled for release in October.
Leaked documents show that there is concern – as with the previous US swine flu scare in 1976 – that the vaccine might give rise to Guillain-Barré syndrome, which can cause paralysis or death. A letter was sent to 600 neurologists from Professor Elizabeth Miller of the Health Protection Agency acknowledging concern on 29 July, two days after a letter circulated amongst the Association of British Neurologists by Dr Rustam Al-Shahi Salman, chair of its surveillance unit, and Professor Patrick Chinnery chair of its clinical research committee. The leak highlights the fact that Prof Miller is prepared to disclose the concern secretly to professionals but not the public. Her letter, quoted in the Mail on Sunday (HERE), states:
"The vaccines used to combat an expected swine influenza pandemic in 1976 were shown to be associated with GBS and were withdrawn from use.
"GBS has been identified as a condition needing enhanced surveillance when the swine flu vaccines are rolled out.
"Reporting every case of GBS irrespective of vaccination or disease history is essential for conducting robust epidemiological analyses capable of identifying whether there is an increased risk of GBS in defined time periods after vaccination, or after influenza itself, compared with the background risk."
Prof Miller is exceptionally well connected. A recent biographical note states:
‘Professor Elizabeth Miller is the Head of the Immunisation Department at the Health Protection Agency, Centre for Infections in Colindale North West London. She joined the Epidemiological Research Laboratory in 1978 to work on the large post-licensure safety and efficacy studies of pertussis vaccines that were being conducted following the collapse of the UK whooping cough immunisation programme in the mid 1970s. This experience prompted her continuing interest in the risks and benefits of vaccination programmes and organising trials of new vaccines. She has been involved with trials of acellular pertussis, MMR, Hib, meningococcal C vaccines and more recently the new pneumococcal vaccines. Her other interests include seroepidemiology and mathematical modelling, vaccine safety studies and viral infections in pregnancy. Professor Miller also has wide experience of committee membership, covering bodies such as the UK and European licensing authorities, the WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety, various Data Safety Monitoring Boards, The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) subgroups and scientific organisations such as the Medical Research Council. She has also led or acted as an external expert on various European projects combined with her work for the European Medicines Evaluation Agency.’HERE
Another report in the Daily Telegraph reveals that the GSK version of the swine flu vaccine will contain mercury:
‘Prof David Salisbury, head of immunisation at the Department of Health, said the vaccines will arrive in vials containing about ten doses as it is not feasible to produce or store single-dose preloaded syringes on the scale needed to vaccine the 11m people who will be offered the vaccine between October and December.
‘He said, if only one or two doses in a vial are used on one day the GSK vaccine can be stored overnight in the fridge and the remaining doses used the next day. However the Baxter vaccine, which does not contain thiomersal, would have to be thrown away if the whole vial's contents were not used within three hours, he added.‘ (Telegraph.)
Initially, the vaccines are to be targeted children and adults with underlying health problems, and pregnant women, not groups on whom it is likely to have been trialed in the first place.
John Stone is the UK Contributing Editor to Age of Autism.
Thank you, Dr Miller, for your breath of fresh air in the stale atmosphere of the medical-pharmaceutical-government complex, that has ruled health matters in the UK and the US for far too long.
It's almost shocking to hear truth espoused in the pages of the MSM.
There's hope yet.....
Posted by: Stan | August 17, 2009 at 06:15 PM
I just wanted to thank everyone for their comments - particularly the other Dr Liz Miller (particularly courageous).
John
Posted by: John Stone | August 17, 2009 at 05:54 PM
The General Medical Council is the regulatory body for doctors.
I work with doctors who have mental health conditions - depression, stress etc. These doctors are judged by a panel appointed by the General Medical Council. In order to appear before this quasi judicial panel, doctors are recommended to obtain the services of a solicitor and barrister (attornies) and the services of their medical defence body. The GMC in turn appoints a barrister to prosecute these doctors.
I have known many doctors commit suicide directly and indirectly as a result of their experiences with the General Medical Council.
The "Death Panels" as such do not exist. However there is a government body NICE that decides what drugs the NHS should and should not buy.
Both the US and the UK systems have their faults. I believe both the UK and the US should be looking further than each other in order to find an equitable system that works.
The American system gives too much power to the healthcare industry, and gives the employer too much power over employees. It also places a heavy burden on small businesses.
The UK system gives too much power to the government and politicians.
Both systems, in their different ways, owe too much to money and Big Pharma.
Posted by: Dr Liz Miller | August 17, 2009 at 04:04 PM
What a well put together article by John Stone. I am so glad to know that this man is doing all he can to make people aware of the dangers of un-safe vaccines.
Posted by: Joan Campbell | August 17, 2009 at 02:36 PM
Thank you again, John. Truly terrifying. Of course most of the public won't pay much attention and lives will be lost. But since the vaccine will be given to adults, it will be hard to hide the "before" when the "after" sets in and perfectly healthy people are struck down.
From Miller's language, the strategy for handling prospective vaccine injuries is pretty clear. I guess that's where the express "doctoring" comes in-- as in they'll have to "doctor" the records to make it seem as if the flu caused GBS in certain patients.
Posted by: Gatogorra | August 17, 2009 at 01:29 PM
my grandmother was one of those who developed guillaume-barre after the shot and her doctor told her and her daughter (my mother) never to get any flu shot again. My family will take our vit d and c and take our chances.
Posted by: jen | August 17, 2009 at 12:34 PM
Dr. Miller
General Medial Counil is that idea here in the United States what some people have nicknamed Death Panels?
Posted by: Benedetta Stilwell | August 17, 2009 at 10:07 AM
also of note is that a Dailey Mail story
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1206330/Swine-flu-vaccine-rolled-October--11million-vulnerable-first.html
was revised afternoon friday, the headline and opening tesxt change from what appeared in the print version from
Babies to get swine flu jab
...even though it hasn't been tested on children under 3
Children and Babies with health problems which put them at risk from dying from swine flu are to be offered a vaccine jab within weeks.
but there are claims thata the program is being rushed out without sufficient testing.
to
Law firms 'seeking to jump swine flu vaccine queue'
Law firms are planning to jump the queue for the swine flu vaccine ahead of more vulnerable people, it has been claimed.
Doctors have complained that some firms are planning mass vaccinations of their staff because they cannot afford to have a lot of people off work sick.
no explaination for the change was made and comments pointing out the change were not published
Posted by: AVR | August 17, 2009 at 04:43 AM
For the last two years the General Medical Council has hounded Andrew Wakefield because he wrote a paper in a leading medical journal, the Lancet that raised the question about a link between autism and MMR
The crime is "raising the question", the original paper concluded there was no hard evidence.
It is ironic perhaps, that as the GMC show trial draws to a close, in a final bid to discredit Wakefield et al, that the swine flu fiasco should emerge
It is not just the concept of a totalitarian NHS that the US should avoid, but also a regulatory body, the General Medical Council, that it Stalinist in approach to the governance of the medical profession.
Posted by: Dr Liz Miller | August 17, 2009 at 02:44 AM