"Smart Power": Reasons for Disaffection in Italy, and the Destruction of the Post-War Liberal Order
The term "smart power" was new to me when I encountered it recently in a British Medical Journal blog as part of the new-speak vocabulary of J Stephen Morrison 'senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and director of its Global Health Policy Center". Morrison's article is interesting both because it discloses explicitly how 9/11 was made an opportunity to draw health into the global security agenda of the United States while failing to understand how such a move might result in the shattering of "consensus" and the post war "Western post-war liberal order": "smart power" even if it is smart is not "liberal" and will not lead to consensus. But it also spells out that the global vaccine program has become a covert instrument of US power. If Morrison by any chance laments the passing of the centre-left government in Italy, then perhaps the White House putting Italy and its health minister, Beatrice Lorenzin, in charge of global vaccine strategy was an error.
Morrison thinks it is a paradox but it is scarcely so if a government is seen to pursue coercive health measures over its citizens at the behest of a foreign power - even those who favor vaccination could be concerned at the state's new found powers over their bodies (which might also be indefinitely extended). If that was not so smart a political move perhaps the technology is not so smart either - as I remarked to Steven Salzberg a few years ago: "The unwelcome news is that the “cruise missiles and drone helicopters” of the war on disease often hit the wrong target, and the more cruise missiles and drone helicopters you unleash the greater the risk".
Frankly, no one knows what they are going to be injected with next. Smart bombs become too easily the agents of international chaos and mistrust: just so the smart bombs of the war on disease, both for what they can do to your body and what they can do the political landscape, including destabilizing friendly governments. “Smart power” is also duplicitous: Italy is just the surrogate of the US. Why could the citizens of the world not have it directly from the mouth of Obama saying in effect your bodies are not your own and we inject into them what we like?
To make measles a key issue in global security is an unforgivable distortion of policy. It really is not clear why we are at more risk from disease now (apart from by the sinister development of viral technology) than at any time since the end of the Second World War, we are simply being gripped by a new manipulative rhetoric. Nor could we be further from the consensus that gave rise to the Nuremberg Code 70 years ago. Everything we have learnt has been stood on its head.
* * *
Below is a letter I recently wrote to British Medical Journal (unfortunately not so far published):
"Smart power": reasons for disaffection in Italy, and the destruction of the post-war liberal order and consensus
Owen Dyer presents a rather incomplete background to recent political events in Italy [1]. The is is not to say that I have any insight into what Giulia Grillo - the Italian Health Minister - intends, but there are some gaps in the narrative regarding the defeat earlier this year of the governing centre-left coalition, in which Grillo's predecessor - Beatrice Lorenzin - was a key player over several years. This is to say that there are reasons for discontent which apart from anything else fall well short of outright rejection of vaccination.
In the first place we seldom if ever hear mention in mainstream reports of the appointment of Lorenzin, and Italy, to head global vaccine strategy by the Obama administration in September 2014. An Italian government press release states [2]:
"Washington, 29 September 2014 - Italy will lead vaccination strategies and campaigns in the world over the next five years. This was decided by the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) held last Friday at the White House. Our country, represented by the Minister of Health Beatrice Lorenzin, accompanied by the President of the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) prof. Sergio Pecorelli, has been commissioned by the Summit of 40 Countries, at which also spoke US President Barack Obama...."
Equally, demonstrators against mandated vaccinations in Summer 2017 will likely have been aware of the statement by GSK's Italian administrator - Daniele Finocchiaro in 2015 [3]:
"Recently I accompanied our global CEO, Andrew Witty, to Matteo Renzi. The premier told us clearly that he considers - and rightly so - the pharmaceutical sector as strategic for Italy. Further, he said that the pharmaceutical is precisely the future of our country ... I then met also Minister Lorenzin and other members of the government who reiterated the sensitivity of the government to those who invest, create jobs and opportunities for young people. So we started on the right foot. To find such sensitivity in Roman palaces is not to be discounted. As for us, Andrew Witty asked few things: certain rules and stability in the face of very strong investments in advanced research and production equipment. We understood each other."
Citizens may also have been sceptical of Lorenzin's claim that 270 children had died in a recent outbreak of measles in London [3,4], and they may have wondered why ten vaccines had to be mandated to protect against one disease.
It is interesting in this light to view the complaint of J Stephen Morrison (senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and director of its Global Health Policy Center) in BMJ Opinion that post-war consensus has broken down [5]:
"Global health is a product of the Western postwar liberal international order—an order that is today besieged, says Stephen Morrison"
"In the past two decades, we have witnessed an expansion of investments into global health that have been rooted in humanitarianism, the rule of law, and democracy. Underlying this action have been the principles of multilateralism, alliances, and partnerships. It has been consistently argued that investments outside home borders will not only save and improve lives but also promote economic growth and the stability of communities.
"In surprising and unforeseen ways, global health also benefited enormously from the post 9/11 counter terror doctrine that came to dominate the security strategies of the major Western powers. That doctrine aggressively advanced the argument that uncontrolled infectious diseases pose major transnational threats. It put a spotlight on smaller countries beset by weaker governance and fragile infrastructure, where grave health challenges can fuel armed, internal violence. Counter terror gave rise to the belief that focused investments—“smart power”—would achieve concrete results in improving lives while also winning hearts and minds in a global struggle."
But there is a paradox here that "smart power" is necessarily what everyone wants, or that the consensus is any longer "liberal". The Italian people were in effect being told that they must cede rights over their bodies and those of their children to the state because of the demands of global security strategy (starting apparently in the White House). Even if they accepted ten vaccines where would this end in principle? Could it be that the global strategists are themselves smashing the consensus, by arrogating extraordinary rights over ordinary people? Morrison assumes this is a benefit of 9/11, but if so it was not one that the citizens of the world were consulted about, it was something which happened within US and global hierarchies and we were all just supposed to do as we were told.
[1] Owen Dyer, 'Italy’s health minister fires country’s top health board', BMJ 2018; 363 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k5158 (Published 05 December 2018)
[2] John Stone, 'Re: MEPs devise strategy to tackle vaccine hesitancy among public -Echoes of WMD', 26 March 2018, https://www.bmj.com/content/360/bmj.k1378/rr
[3] John Stone, 'Re: Too many vaccine mandates subvert measles vaccine update', 24 August 2018, https://www.bmj.com/content/362/bmj.k3596/rr-6
[4] John Stone, 'Re: Compulsory vaccination and growing measles threat - Prof Melegaro's response', 21 October 2017, https://www.bmj.com/content/358/bmj.j3429/rr-7
[5] J Stephen Morrison, 'Global health disruptors: Decay of the postwar multilateral Western order', BMJ Opinion 29 November 2018, https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2018/11/29/stephen-morrison-decay-of-the-postwar-multilateral-western-order/
John Stone is UK and European editor of Age of Autism
Ray
Certainly. We should also bear in mind that our medicines licensing body the MHRA is 100% funded by industry, that the chair of the JCVI (Andrew Pollard) which recommends vaccines to the schedule is also director of Oxford Vaccine Group which develops vaccines with the industry, and both are sub-agencies of Public Health England - there really is very little or no separation between industry and the state, and sometimes it is very blatant.
https://www.ageofautism.com/2017/09/pollard-tyrannos-another-power-bid-from-the-vaccine-lobby-some-real-news.html
https://www.ageofautism.com/2017/11/the-fox-guarding-the-hen-house-outgoing-gsk-chief-to-head-new-uk-government-agency-fast-tracking-the-licensing-of-pharma-pro.html
Also, our news is managed by bullying agencies like Science Media Centre and Sense About Science which are surrogates for the government-industrial complex and who will set upon any journalist who steps out of line. If there are a few journalists who might be game for it the editors are not.
Posted by: John Stone | December 12, 2018 at 06:57 AM
Dear Hans Litten,
Per........"You may well be able to explain the American experience using your terms of Pharma paid lobbyists and the lamestream advertising revenue from Pharma etc.
I ask this question once again for the umpteenth time, please explain the situation here in the UK ?"
The UK follows the USA on vaccines and I would think the UK health authorities like the USA health authorities are influenced by the USA and UK pharmaceutical lobby. It does not mean because you don't see advertisements in the UK they are not there pulling the strings. These pharmaceutical companies have lots of money and deep pockets selling very expensive prescription drugs and forcing vaccines on the USA and UK population. You look hard enough in the UK and I bet you will see lots of pharmaceutical lobbyists walking around. Just my take on it. Why else would the UK follow what the USA does on vaccines if there weren't lobbyists? Money talks, nobody walks as they say.
Great article as usual, John.
Posted by: Raymond Gallup | December 12, 2018 at 06:44 AM
Maybe adding to the perspective here (I'm not sure I'll represent this accurately), I've recently looked into the discussion about what U.S. governmental CAFRs reveal and am understanding that 2/3s of the total funding of state and local governments (and some of the federal funding, but I don't know how much) here in the U.S. are generated from investment funds, not from taxpayers. http://cafr1.com/TheWay.html
We're not told about this. We're always being told "there is not enough in the 'budget,' we need to vote for bonds to repairs the schools, etc." the taxpayers will "owe" interest on, while these investments funds are left off of "the budget," much of it "intended" for pension funding, but, from what I understand, in the meantime funding insider projects, investments (and who knows what, particularly thinking about recent revelations of 21 trillion unaccounted dollars in the U.S. pentagon and H.U.D financial reports: https://usawatchdog.com/entire-federal-budget-now-national-security-secret-dr-mark-skidmore/).
Somewhere in this rather long, but I think informative video Burien mentions that the largest investment returning industry collectively of 2012 was pharma: https://www.bitchute.com/video/M4fa1zKLWI8K/
I'm sure pharma ranks among the top returning industries every year.
So, I would say in a way every government employee has a conflict of interest when they promote the interests of any investment industry like pharma (though many might just be trying to get along with the club and wanting to believe they are doing good), and certainly those closer to the internal government financing mechanisms do. For those that have a good idea of how much vaccination operates as the gateway drug for other drugs and that to some unmeasured extent the practice itself has a mortality profile, I do not think altruism is operating, but how often does understanding of all of this come together consciously?
Also, this means that collectively, U.S. governments funds (pension funds, etc) are the largest U.S. investor. They could (and maybe do) have a lot of pull in terms of the financial values of the country. They could refuse to invest in pharma companies injuring kids for instance
Anyway, I'm left asking does pharma own our government or do our government own pharma, and how much does this influence, even without full comprehension of this, what happens in our communities?
Further, tying into what's happening globally, the U.S. government to me doesn't look altruist at all promoting, again, what I call pharma's gateway drugs for the world.
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop | December 11, 2018 at 12:29 PM
Thanks John, but seriously chilling stuff . Could the Smart Power be meaning
S-specific
M-measurable
A-agreed /achievable
T-time bound/or time framed ?
See What is Machiavellianism in Psychology?
Harley Therapy https/www.harleytherapy.co.uk/counselling/machiavellianism-psychology.htm .
And VU alum Grantland Rice, focus of new documentary Youtube
For when the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name .He writes not that you won or lost, but how you played the game . Grantland Rice 1880-1954
Politicians get their first, but not last? performance apprasial come next voting day?
If their [ game plan] was in sport ,rather than Global Health Governance ,then I would not fancy their chances much of sucessfully being able to organise a game of "Kick The Can " around their own back passages, and very shoogly corridors, of abuse of their power of authority.
Those politicians happy to sit quietly in a position of apathy will only end up with corns,callisus and
caustic carbuncles and furuncles on their own hin ends ?
Posted by: Morag | December 11, 2018 at 06:30 AM
The mechanism for regulating medicines in the EU is set to change next year. This is a quick guide:
https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/human-regulatory/research-development/clinical-trials/clinical-trial-regulation
The full regulation is here:
https://ec.europa.eu/health//sites/health/files/files/eudralex/vol-1/reg_2014_536/reg_2014_536_en.pdf
Posted by: Science is pure. People are corrupt. | December 11, 2018 at 05:34 AM
‘Smart Power’ is the new ‘Mission Creep’.
Take cover!
Posted by: annie | December 11, 2018 at 01:11 AM
Re the influence of 9/11, these two articles may be of interest:
Biodefence since 9/11: The price of protection, Nature, 7 September 2011: https://www.nature.com/news/2011/110907/full/477150a.html
Pentagon rethinks bioterror effort, Nature, 21 September 2011: https://www.nature.com/news/2011/110920/full/477380a.html
It would be interesting to see some recent, and independent and objective, updates...
Posted by: Elizabeth Hart | December 11, 2018 at 12:22 AM
Mr Morrison's contention that CDC is "unscathed" may change soon.
CDC in being sued regarding suppression of more accurate Lyme testing by Dr Lee.
https://m.ctpost.com/local/article/Milford-scientist-suing-CDC-over-Lyme-test-13409351.php?fbclid=IwAR1e1z3BWvBxrzASHCKI48b_mrPM7Gp8NNfic17lg3xz08UpsmWmXYMLUsk&utm_campaign=fb-mobile&utm_source=CMS+Sharing+Button&utm_medium=social
Posted by: greyone | December 10, 2018 at 09:19 PM
It's all so unsettling. Thank you for breaking down the new Newspeak for us. That term had been irritating me but I hadn't taken the time to really unravel it.
Posted by: Basta | December 10, 2018 at 07:08 PM
Susan - a vaccine developer with an autistic daughter, who writes a book about how vaccines didn’t cause her autism: that’s a shot in the foot!
Posted by: John Stone | December 10, 2018 at 05:12 PM
https://twitter.com/bmj_latest/status/1071494811365056513
Really interesting article, John. A lot to think about.
I've posted a Twitter link from BMJ tweet, but not sure if it will work. Seems very biased to me. I did respond with my first word being 'Rubbish!'.
Posted by: Susan Welch | December 10, 2018 at 03:14 PM
“In the past two decades we have witnessed an expansion in investment into global health that has been rooted in humanitarianism, rule of law, and democracy”.
MY EYES! MY EYES!
I cannot not see the forest
for the lies!
To date that has been one of the most egregious lies I have read regarding the implementation of global healthcare policy! Please excuse me now while I go and try to regain my vision.
Posted by: annie | December 10, 2018 at 02:03 PM
I like this paper :
https://www.jpands.org/vol21no4/miller.pdf
Aluminum in Childhood Vaccines Is Unsafe
A recent paper by Luján et al. found that sheep developed
a new type of autoimmune and inflammatory disorder—
ovine autoimmune/inflammatory syndrome induced by
adjuvants (ASIA)—after receiving vaccines containing
aluminum adjuvants.40 The condition appears in some
sheep two to six days after they are vaccinated. Symptoms
of the acute phase include poor response to external stimuli
and acute meningoencephalitis. The chronic phase causes
muscular atrophy, neurodeg
Posted by: Hans Litten | December 10, 2018 at 12:04 PM
"In surprising and unforeseen ways, global health also benefited enormously from the post 9/11 counter terror doctrine that came to dominate the security strategies of the major Western powers."
Yeah, right. Tell that to the Iraqi people. These people have no shame.
Posted by: David Weiner | December 10, 2018 at 11:22 AM
Maurine
I think it is part of a complex flow diagram in which the whole of global corporatism feeds into the CDC
https://www.cdcfoundation.org/partner-list/corporations
https://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h2362.full
But yes, it all ends up at a meeting at the White House where Obama sets the agenda, and makes Italy the US surrogate. And everyone wants a piece of the pudding.
John
Posted by: John Stone | December 10, 2018 at 11:08 AM
The Guardian is a disgrace (I hope its goes under) - fake arguments - all staged
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/dec/09/not-good-enough-2-million-uk-boys-to-miss-out-on-hpv-vaccine
The government announced in July that it would extend the roll-out of the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine, which can prevent HPV-related cervical, vaginal, penile and anal cancers, and also genital warts, to boys aged 12-13.
Teenage boys to be vaccinated against cancer-causing HPV
The vaccine has been offered to girls aged between 11 and 13 in the UK since 2008, when the government also carried out a catch-up programme for girls aged 13-18 who had missed the vaccination.
However, in a letter to the shadow public health minister, Sharon Hodgson, the public health minister, Steve Brine, confirmed there would be no such catch-up programme for boys. He said older boys already benefited from “herd protection” – indirect protection from infectious disease thanks to the immunity of a significant percentage of the population – because of the earlier vaccination introduction for girls.
“Including a catch-up programme would place additional pressure on NHS delivery services, which risks delay or disruption to the roll-out of the routine HPV programme for boys or to other vaccination programmes,” he wrote.
The decision was criticised by Peter Baker, the campaign director of HPV Action, who called it “disappointing”. The Terrence Higgins Trust has also called for a catch-up programme to ensure the same protection for boys as girl.
Posted by: Hans Litten | December 10, 2018 at 10:37 AM
John,
Being that the US was the main driver in the assault and occupation of Afghanistan and then Iraq, can we assume that it was also the main driver in this health assault on the world? How much blame can Blair take as a big supporter of Bush drive? Thanks M
Posted by: Maurine Meleck | December 10, 2018 at 10:33 AM
Maurine
I believe she is likely just a clone, and Italy btw remains the front nation for the US global vaccine drive until September 2019 - probably the Italian government whichever party is locked into the decisions of the previous one, although they seem pretty cynical and devious about it.
Posted by: John Stone | December 10, 2018 at 09:50 AM
Hans
The BBC may also link to the WMD history. Early in 2004 the Hutton report into WMD and the death of Dr Kelly came in, ruling that BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan who was telling the truth was technically lying and Prime Minister Blair was technically telling the truth ie with lots of hair splitting and executive rank pulling reality was turned upside down, the chairman and the director-general resigned. The BBC were no doubt already manned by deep state and pharma toads but those were perhaps the last moments of partial independence - as late as December 2003 Juliet Stevenson was allowed to trail ‘Hear the Silence’ on a morning show, and You and Yours even ran a report on thiomersal earlier that year. In February 2004 the Wakefield witch-hunt began in earnest with the BBC at the head of the pack with the Sunday Times, with the demonstrably false report that Wakefield had hidden his part in the MMR litigation. Perhaps they would have done this anyway, but they simply refused to countenance demonstrable facts when having had them pointed out - they just became hard-nosed liars.
Posted by: John Stone | December 10, 2018 at 09:42 AM
Thank you , John for this brilliant commentary. You have surely put this complicated issue into an understandable explanation of what is going on. Even my friends in Rome don't have an easy explanation for what is going on there.. All sorts of misinformation regarding Italy have been surfacing on FB. So my question is: Is the new health minister of Italy just another clone of the old one? Maurine
Posted by: Maurine Meleck | December 10, 2018 at 09:41 AM
Posted by: Raymond Gallup | December 10, 2018 at 07:01 AM
You may well be able to explain the American experience using your terms of Pharma paid lobbyists and the lamestream advertising revenue from Pharma etc.
I ask this question once again for the umpteenth time, please explain the situation here in the UK ?
The BBC does not run any adverts, it is licence funded enforceable by law £147 for colour (lol).
£47 for Black and white and London has a huge number of Black and White TVs apparently.
The BBC has NEVER published William Thompsons name (Aug 2014), the BBC spins the safe and effective NLP mantra over and over for years now. Andrew Wakefield is a pariah.
Newsnight the UKs premier serious news program runs regular pro-vax hit pieces every month or two in the usual format. No dissent is EVER aired in this country at all. We have a complete BLACKOUT on all news that may be any way truthful about the heinous crime of vaccinocide.
Newsnight has run a panel of 5 pro-vax experts with no opposition and Jeremy Paxman even told viewers to stop reading the internet and trust us.
The BBC has endless regional TV & radio channels who all coordinate the pro vaccine message in perfect unison. The truth is never given any airtime. All orchestrated perfectly.
The lamestream here does talk about the Anti-Vaccine movement but never gives anyone a platform to demonstrate the simple common sense of the basic lie.
The public somehow are so asleep they accept the existence of the anti-vaccine movement that they never allowed to hear or see.
The BBC uses all its energy to promote the annual flu vaccine every year and its so tragic to see the lemmings continually falling for it (& all the rest of it). If anyone dares write even a word asking a question about the vaccine program they are pounced on immediately and made back track and apologise for their transgression (and then black balled altogether if they do not recant).
What is very amusing is to see the rate of acceptance of the flu vaccine is falling year after year in every region, every country.
This of course could be due to the fact the that ones who do trust are being fluthanized.
Posted by: Hans Litten | December 10, 2018 at 08:59 AM
Thanks, John. What most Americans have forgotten, or perhaps never knew, is that, at one time, Saddam Hussein did have plenty of WMD, including weaponized anthrax.. Where did he get them? From the U.S. government, during the reign of Ronald Reagan and the recently departed GHW Bush. John Rappaport has published the details of these dirty dealings. We are dealing today, all over the world, with criminal governments, and Obama was just as terrible as Dubya. The main reason so many of the elite hate Trump is because he doesn't share their agenda. But truly evil it is. This is why people are rising up.
Posted by: Gary Ogden | December 10, 2018 at 08:46 AM
Thanks John - Perhaps I should make it clear ONLY this season's vaccine for the over 65s in the UK is adjuvanted with Squalene.
Bob Moffat "if the Flu vaccine is so ineffectual then what is it for ? Fluthanasia perhaps ?"
Yes it's scary for us old-timers in the NHS, constantly reminded about how much public money we cost the taxpayers, (forgetting the years of contributions we made).
Posted by: Jenny Allan | December 10, 2018 at 08:40 AM
Sooo smart they are poisoning their own.
Reminds me of Pharma Messiah Maurice Hilleman and SV40 "U.S. win the Olympics because the Russian athletes will all be “loaded down with tumors.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uGWut6IRfA
Clustervacs are King.
Pharma For Prison
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | December 10, 2018 at 08:39 AM
“The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger--but recognize the opportunity.”
More recently Rhamn Emanuel has been credited with saying .. paraphrasing here .. "never let a good crisis go to waste" .. and .. make no mistake about it .. the attack on 9/11 was clearly seen as an "opportunity" for US government intelligence agencies to greatly expand their powers to "monitor people" .. as well as .. providing the 'CRISIS" to launch an attack on Iraq to remove Saddam from power.
In any event .. that every "crisis" provides an "opportunity" is common political strategy .. used to justify whatever means the government decides necessary. In other words .. it is no accident that small outbreaks of measles throughout a country of 360 million people is treated as a MAJOR CRISIS .. providing the OPPORTUNITY for public health agencies, media and pharmaceutical industry to ramp up efforts to fully vaccinate the unvaccinated population .. in essence "demonizing" the unvaccinated as a threat to the health and well-being of the people.
The flip side of this is what is NEVER described as a CRISIS … such as .. 1 in 35 autistic children .. or any of the other major chronic autoimmune disorders that are clearly a CRISIS for this generation .. yet … never described as such.
IT WORKS .. IT WORKS EVERY TIME.
Posted by: bob moffit | December 10, 2018 at 08:06 AM
Jenny
I can't find any information about the strains from UK government website which is interesting in itself but from the CDC published 4 days ago:-
What viruses will the 2018-2019 flu vaccines protect against?
There are many different flu viruses and they are constantly changing. The composition of U.S. flu vaccines is reviewed annually and updated as needed to match circulating flu viruses. Flu vaccines protect against the three or four viruses (depending on vaccine) that research suggests will be most common. For 2018-2019, trivalent (three-component) vaccines are recommended to contain:
A/Michigan/45/2015 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus
A/Singapore/INFIMH-16-0019/2016 A(H3N2)-like virus (updated)
B/Colorado/06/2017-like (Victoria lineage) virus (updated)
Quadrivalent (four-component) vaccines, which protect against a second lineage of B viruses, are recommended to contain:
the three recommended viruses above, plus B/Phuket/3073/2013-like (Yamagata lineage) virus
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/flu-season-2018-2019.htm
Posted by: John Stone | December 10, 2018 at 07:53 AM
Hans
Morrison tells us that this goes back to 9/11 so it is possibly relevant to make a comparison to WMD. One thing of course is that WMD has become universally acknowledged as a fraud. Also it will be recalled (at least in my memory) that the military told Dubya that he would need to deploy at immense expense another 250,000 personnel to secure to contain the backlash and control Iraq's borders, or the conflict would spread - and as we know a decade and half on the problems of the region have just got worse with absolutely no benefit to real security. The way to have really saved money would, of course, have been not to have invaded Iraq at all - I think part of this is irrespective of the damage and chaos that they advance the interests of the corporate US and perhaps beyond that they don't much care what they are doing.
Meanwhile, they create a captive market for their endless supply of products to be paid for by the already hard-pressed citizens of the developed world etc. It would not surprise me if many engaged in this actually still believe in it - perhaps Morrison does.
Posted by: John Stone | December 10, 2018 at 07:32 AM
That's interesting John:-
Your Link -https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46482988
Quote:-
"Early indications suggest the vaccine will be more effective this year because it is well-matched to the predominant strain circulating. This is thought to be Influenza A (H1N1), commonly called swine flu."
In other words this over 65s flu vaccine is IDENTICAL to the H1N1 vaccine administered a few years ago in response to hyped up fears about a possible global epidemic. Yes that one had Squalene as an adjuvant too. At the time there were rumours about low uptake of the vaccine, and a lot of apparent adverse reactions reported from 'grassroots' sources.
So I am asking the $million dollar question? (literally!!) Is this a ruse to use up old stocks of a potentially harmful vaccine?
Posted by: Jenny Allan | December 10, 2018 at 07:07 AM
I know in the USA almost all politicians, no matter what political party, Democrat or Republican, succumb to lobbyists and among them which are very powerful, the pharmaceutical companies. I have seen Presidents, come and go and all of them owe the lobbyists including pharmaceutical lobbyists favors except President Donald Trump who didn't come into office with lobbyist money. Though in his case, the people he appointed may be connected to the pharmaceutical companies. Other people may know better than me on that. Even the media owes the pharmaceutical lobby because they take money from them for their advertisements. Plus the Federal and state governments have health agencies that pharmaceutical companies have influence. The question is how to break this monopoly? No clear answers over the years and sadly there may be no answer.
Posted by: Raymond Gallup | December 10, 2018 at 07:01 AM
@Jenny
"which was eventually acknowledged by the UK Government to have caused Narcolepsy."
Only because of some honest government in Norway which had already admitted the crime, otherwise Ian Duncan Smith was all set to deny everything once again !
"It was quite difficult to track down the Squalene, through a succession of links, since it was identified as a number only." Do you mean MF59 ? VaccineA Gary Matsumoto
"My husband recently got his annual flu jab. He asked for the version without the Squalene, but was told by the nurse this was not 'allowed'. So- no choice? I find this sinister. Me? No flu jab this year, unless I can insist on the nice single dose mercury free one I got last year."
Why ? The Relative Risk Measure says it is maybe 40% effective, but the actual risk measure says <0.5% effective .so if the Flu vaccine is so ineffectual then what is it for ? Fluthanasia perhaps ?
@JDS
"But it also spells out that the global vaccine program has become a covert instrument of US power. "
Wow John, are you saying what David Ayoub said all those years ago, vaccines are not healthcare at all but weapons in fact ? Vaccines are a new paradigm in warfare ?
If you are saying this, then I am in full agreement with you.
VMDs , vaccines of mass destruction.
I am not sure if this is an old story or not ? Does anyone know ?
Health - Vaccine Dr Marlie Dulaurier Dies after Flu Shot
Posted by: Hans Litten | December 10, 2018 at 06:20 AM
Jenny
Yes, with BMJ I probably have another go. It looks from the new publicity offensive that they are having serious difficulty with getting people to take the flu vaccine this year. The BBC are telling people the “A strain” component is for “swine flu”!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46482988
Posted by: John Stone | December 10, 2018 at 04:50 AM
I'll be very interested to see if the BMJ publishes your letter John. I suspect there are some key issues in your letter, which have resulted in automatic rejection. This is particularly evident with letters about vaccines. Sometimes, they publish letters with editing. For example my admittedly rather scathing comments about Public Health England, in a BMJ letter about those recent hyped up 'official' measles stats, was edited to call the stats 'confusing', not my terminology!
I recently wrote a BMJ response on a thread (which you contributed to), about that H1N1 vaccine Pandemrix, which was eventually acknowledged by the UK Government to have caused Narcolepsy. My post was about the 'super duper' new 'adjuvanted' influenza vaccine for the over 65s in the UK this season. Yes I qualify, but was not prepared to accept any vaccine using Squalene as an adjuvant. This substrate was used in Pandemrix, and was suspected of being involved in 'Gulf War Syndrome'. All officially denied of course, as was any connection with Narcolepsy and the Squalene in Pandemrix. It was quite difficult to track down the Squalene, through a succession of links, since it was identified as a number only.
My BMJ letter quite literally disappeared into the ether as soon as I attempted to submit it. I suspect the word 'Squalene' was the trigger. My husband recently got his annual flu jab. He asked for the version without the Squalene, but was told by the nurse this was not 'allowed'. So- no choice? I find this sinister. Me? No flu jab this year, unless I can insist on the nice single dose mercury free one I got last year.
John keep writing your excellent responses to the BMJ and publish here if they insist on censoring .
Posted by: Jenny Allan | December 10, 2018 at 04:01 AM