Swine flu H1N1

How to screw up a vaccination campaign in 12 easy steps Priceless.
FLU on Wednesday-Night.com
WHO Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 ; Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), University of Minnesota ; Centers for Disease Control (CDC) ; Public Health Agency of Canada Facts on the H1N1 FLU VIRUS ; Quebec government website ; CBC Health for news and background ; Montreal Gazette Swine Flu ; 7 swine flu myths you should know about ; PROTECT YOUR FAMILY WITH FLU-FIGHTING FOODS; John Evdokias points us to FLU.gov with the comment “here is a site that may be helpful…or add to anxiety” ; Vaccination Risk Awareness Network

Flu shots futile: study
Nursing Home Test; ‘Didn’t find’ proof immunization stops virus
A new Canadian-led study has added to a simmering scientific dispute over flu-shot campaigns, concluding that immunizing nursing-home workers does nothing to cut the number of confirmed influenza cases among the homes’ elderly residents. Coming at the end of the largest flu-vaccination campaign in Canadian history, the review of previous studies calls for stepped-up research into alternative, lower-tech ways to combat the virus, such as improved hand washing.
30 November 2009
Availability of vaccine no guarantee public will want it
Just because a vaccine is available doesn’t mean people will choose to be inoculated, according to new UofT research published amid widespread public confusion around the merit of H1N1 flu shots. The research – which looked at acceptability of potential future HIV vaccinations among high-risk adults in Los Angeles – shows many factors come into play when a person is deciding whether or not be vaccinated.
11 November
A note on the process from a friend: I had my inoculation today and can report that it is an 8-step process, only 4 of which are completely redundant. (They tell you about the benefits and possible side effects of the vaccine by flyer, by movie, by compulsory lecture, by form that you have to fill out, and by having a nurse read you the questions on the form you have just filled out so as to confirm that you answered them correctly.) Also, one of the steps is “Sortie.” So perhaps technically it’s only a seven-step procedure.
Letter from the [FDA] Commissioner to Nation’s Healthcare Professionals on H1N1 Vaccine
… Some of your patients may be asking how the FDA, the manufacturers, and the scientific community can have confidence in vaccines that were available just six months after the 2009 H1N1 virus emerged. Understanding more about the manufacturing and approval process for these vaccines should help you to answer their questions.
8 November
H1N1 shot schedule moved up by 15 days
People under 65 with chronic conditions can get vaccinated right away
JOE SCHWARCZ: it’s all a plot to anti-vaccination conspiracy nuts
To be or not to be (vaccinated, that is)?
Who can we trust for guidance? Is it Drs. Russell Blaylock, Leonard Horowitz or Rauni Kilde? I mention these names because I have been deluged by a tsunami of emails asking me if the anti-vaccine rhetoric – with which these self-proclaimed champions of the common man have flooded the Internet – has any substance.
WHO: H1N1 vaccine is safe
The World Health Organization reports no unusual side effects after the administration of millions of doses of the new H1N1 vaccine. Instances of viral mutation or resistance to the antiviral drug Tamiflu have been rare in the 20 countries that have used the vaccine, though the flu likely will change as it transmits further through the population. H1N1 is the dominant flu virus this season. CBC.ca (Canada)/The Associated Press (11/5)
H1N1 flu nears peak, experts suggest
The H1N1 virus is spreading rapidly across the country, but the pandemic has yet to seriously burden the country’s hospitals and might be close to peaking, experts and government statistics suggest
4 November
L. Ian MacDonald Your Constitution and the flu
Ottawa is responsible for supply while the provinces control the delivery
Ottawa is ultimately responsible for the safety and well-being of Canadian citizens, including those standing in line waiting for flu shots. Except that the lines are run by the provinces.
Ottawa is also responsible for national health and safety standards, approvals for experimental drugs, and the purchase of drugs such as the H1N1 vaccine. But the provinces, under Section 92 of the Constitution, are responsible for running the health-care systems across the country, including the distribution of vaccine and the determination of priorities.
In other words, Ottawa is responsible for assuring the supply, while the provinces are responsible for meeting the demand.
2 November
Coupons to fix H1N1 vaccination delays
Premier Jean Charest said Tuesday that delays in vaccination against the A (H1N1) swine flu are “unacceptable…  So now they (who?) will issue coupons – to whom and how? Meanwhile sensible suggestions from the public include:  don’t schools have nurses? How difficult is it to hand out papers to parents to sign a yay or nay to have their children vaccinated and the school nurse could have the honours, the way polio vaccines and others were given 40/50 years ago. How many companies have private nurses on staff? It would take only a couple of days to get a list of names and have the vaccine delivered to the work place. and Release quantities of the vaccine to public clinics, CLSCs and family doctors so patients have an alternative to waiting in line at a mass vaccination center.
Vaccination : des régions mieux servies que d’autres
Dans les Laurentides, l’ensemble de la population en bonne santé pourra se faire vacciner à compter du 16 novembre, tandis qu’à Montréal, il faut attendre jusqu’au 7 décembre. Pourquoi ces disparités ? «La région de Montréal est un cas particulier», a expliqué d’entrée de jeu le ministre de la Santé, Yves Bolduc, en entrevue à La Presse. Montréal compte beaucoup plus de travailleurs de la santé que les autres régions. Il faut donc plus de temps pour les vacciner. La région de Montréal s’est aussi occupée de l’envoi des doses de vaccins dans le Grand Nord, ce qui a compliqué la logistique.
2 November
Did Canada botch the vaccine rollout?
Some experts said on Monday the federal government and local public-health authorities made crucial mistakes. The marathon waiting lists, cancelled clinics and ill-timed shortages could have been avoided, for instance, had the seasonal flu vaccine been scrapped last summer and the pandemic version pushed into production earlier, argues Dr. Richard Schabas, Ontario’s former chief medical officer of health.
1 November
Dr. Ofer Avital recommends Vitamin D both as preventive measure and for victims of the flu. Epidemic Influenza And Vitamin D
David Mitchell forwarded the following excerpt from the New Scientist
1918
The “Spanish flu” epidemic of 1918 kills at least 50 million people worldwide. It is caused by an H1N1 virus which evolves directly from a bird flu into a human flu. After a mild wave of infections in the summer, the epidemic goes global: one-third of the population eventually get sick. Although most cases are mild, many sufferers develop a rapidly fatal infection deep in their lungs. People born before 1889 are less susceptible, thanks to their previous exposure to H1N1.
Most deaths are caused by bacterial lung infections that move in after the virus. Modern antibiotics might mean that a re-run of the 1918 pandemic would be less dangerous.
After 1919, the descendants of the H1N1 virus continue to circulate and cause seasonal flu outbreaks in humans – and pigs.
1931 – Swine flu is first isolated from a pig in Iowa.
1933 – The first human flu virus is isolated at Mill Hill in London. When given to ferrets, it produces a disease whose symptoms are all but identical to the Iowan pig virus. But ferrets that have had the human virus are not fully immune to the pig virus, showing that the two viruses have already started to evolve apart.
1957 – An H2N2 virus causes the “Asian” flu pandemic, completely displacing the H1N1 viruses that have been circulating in humans since 1918. The pandemic is fairly mild, killing 1 to 1.5 million people worldwide. The virus is produced by a reassortment, in which human-adapted H1N1 swaps genes with an H2N2 bird flu. The new H and N surface proteins mean most people do not have antibodies to the virus, allowing it to go pandemic. However, its human-adapted genes mean it is not as lethal to humans as the 1918 virus, which came, with few changes, from birds.
People tend to mount the best immune response to the first kind of flu virus they experience. Because of this, people born before 1957, whose first experience of flu would have been the H1N1 viruses then in circulation, have some immunity to the 2009 H1N1 strain causing the current pandemic. People born after the 1957 pandemic do not have this immunity.
And to make our lives even more complicated and unhappy:
Flu pandemic could bring down Internet
A U.S. government agency says the Internet in that country could actually break if an H1N1 flu pandemic forced millions to telecommute from home, a finding that has implications for Canada, because the continent’s telecommunications backbones are so closely connected.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office(GAO)–an agency whose function closely resembles Canada’s auditor general–warned this week that if millions of Americans stayed away from work or school because of the flu, but tried to work or study using home Internet connections, the resulting congestion would bring network traffic to a halt.
“A functioning Internet will be important during a pandemic, because it could be one important way that governments and private entities share necessary information with the public,” the GAO said.
31 October
Health minister asks for ‘patience and discipline’ for H1N1 vaccine
30 October
Too few in U.S. seek flu treatment: CDC
(Reuters) “Frustration over swine flu vaccine availability has created a growing credibility gap for governments in the U.S., Canada, western Europe, Hong Kong and Japan attempting to vaccinate large portions of their population,” Scott Rosenstein of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group said in a note. “Going forward, the failure to deliver on previous vaccine availability projections will make managing the swine flu message and communicating the threat an increasingly difficult challenge for President Obama and leaders in other countries that are rolling out large vaccination programs … in the coming weeks.”
(CBC) Provinces to ration smaller H1N1 vaccine supply – Flu activity increases across Canada, vaccine delivery to slow
(CTV) Federal health officials said Thursday that there will be significantly fewer doses of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine available in the coming weeks. The news comes as clinics across the country deal with seemingly endless lineups of people seeking vaccination.
(Montreal Gazette) H1N1 ‘rage’ explodes across Canada – As much as flu fears have people pulling away, H1N1 is also uniting Canadians through emotion — specifically, a deeply entrenched sense of frustration that, for many, has mutated into bitterness, anger and even hostility.
And we think we have problems!
Saudis Try to Head Off Swine Flu Fears Before Hajj
Every year, the single largest gathering on the planet is the annual pilgrimage to Mecca: 2.5 million people from 160 countries packed into a small city in Saudi Arabia for five days. This year, some will be bringing swine flu.
The Saudi authorities, fearing that the hajj could turn their holy city into a petri dish for viral mutations and a hub for spreading a new pandemic wave around the world, are working hard to head that off.
24 October
Emergency Rules Cut Red Tape in H1N1 Fight
(CBS) President Obama Declares State of Emergency; FDA Lifts Limits on Experimental Anti-Viral Drug Peramivir
24 October
H1N1 shots start early in Quebec region
(CBC) Beginning Monday, the H1N1 influenza vaccine will be available across most of Canada to health-care workers and people considered to be at a higher risk for complications from the respiratory illness. They include individuals under 65 years of age with chronic medical conditions, pregnant women and people living in First Nations or remote and isolated communities.
23 October
From one of  our Wednesday Night physicians:
The Cochrane Database Collaboration – the penultimate emergency medical think tank of investigators performing triage on the layers of bad, and even quack, science published throughout peer-reviewed medical journals, particularly research papers sponsored by the pharmaceutical industrial complex and their financial supporters and cronies in government health agencies and advisory committees. Dr. Tom Jefferson, head of the Cochrane’s Vaccine Field group, has shown that studies concluding flu vaccine’s efficacy were either poorly designed or “badly executed.” With respect to trials conducted on children under two years of age, the very sparse reliable studies show influenza vaccines are no more effective than a placebo.
At this moment, health care professionals in the UK are increasingly spurning the H1N1 vaccine. Some hospitals are showing as low as 10 percent of staff and 10 percent of doctors willing to get vaccinated. The primary complaint is “the vaccine is no good and you shouldn’t be bothered with it.” [7] The French government is struggling to find doctors to administer the flu jab. A recent poll in Sweden has more than half of its citizens refusing the shot, and anti-swine flu vaccination protests are erupting in New Zealand. The German health ministry is in a quandary. This week, physicians and advisors of the German military have declared soldiers should not be given the approved vaccines with the mercury preservative and the adjuvant squalene. Consequently, the German public is growing more skeptical by the day over H1N1 vaccines’ safety.[8] Yet here in the US, the sheeple are glued to the theatrics of the ever popular Dr. Oz rolling up his sleeve for a swine flu vaccination and offering his studio audience to fanfare applause their very own free injection of some toxic solution whose effects are unknown. But then Dr. Oz during a separate interview on CNN stated his four children and wife will not receive it.
20 October
Inevitably, the world-wide debate is not without its lighter moments, one of which has been made possible by  an alarmist message circulating on the Internet. In it, a woman doctor from Finland speaks out about the global depopulation intentions behind the Swine Flu injections and the propaganda war being waged to impose this murderous criminality on the people of the world. There is a 6 min video . A Scandinavian friend responds:

Thanks for the Daily Nut. Dr Rauni-Leena Luukanen-Kilde was born in Carelia and worked as a doctor in Lapland until 1985 when she was certified as a nut. She has published a number of books relating her experiences with humanoids with whom she still maintains daily contact and calls herself also an ufologist. She lives in Norway.
Dr Kilde believes that the vaccination programme is a conspiracy to diminish the population of the world. If the nuts will decline jabs and then succumb en masse, she has got it right and the result will benefit humankind.
In Norway Kilde has not been certified. Hardly anybody there ever is.

It’s odd to combine the adjectives amusing (his style) and terrifying (his thesis), however (Dr.) Robin Cook’s article in Foreign Policy Plague: A New Thriller of the Coming Pandemic is both.
A medical thriller titled Plague would certainly get people’s attention, especially because it wouldn’t be a historical novel that could be dismissed as “that was then; this is now.” Instead, it would be a novel of a horrendous contemporary event: a new Black Death. Of course, this plague won’t be a revisit of Y. pestis; we won’t see black buboes and excruciatingly painful suffering. But death is death, and in the plague I speak of there will be a lot of it, possibly equal in scale to the Black Death, but unfolding even faster. If that is the case, there will be a degree of worldwide societal chaos that taxes the imagination. And this is no far-fetched fiction. Despite all we know about biological science and despite all the wizardly powers of modern medicine, with its vast pharmacopeia and its array of sophisticated devices, this new plague might well happen. I say this not just as an author of medical thrillers, but as a medical doctor with four decades of experience in surgery, infectious disease, and emergency medicine.
19 October
1st H1N1 vaccine doses shipped to provinces
(CBC) Canada has shipped two million doses of swine flu vaccine to provinces and territories, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said Monday. The approval process is well underway, and clinical trials to test the vaccine have started, Aglukkaq said. “Pre-positioning” the vaccine across the country before the approval comes is part of good planning, she said. The two million doses all include a chemical booster known as an adjuvant, said Butler-Jones. It’s anticipated that eventually three million doses per week or more will be available across the country, he added.
17 October
Health minister assures pandemic planning is done as H1N1 hits B.C.
(CP) The “second wave” of the H1N1 pandemic is getting underway in Canada, with British Columbia reporting eight deaths as health officials grapple with a flu outbreak that is unprecedented for the province this time of year. Federal health officials assured the public Friday that pandemic preparations are in place, even as they warned that other provinces should expect to see an increase in the number of H1N1 cases themselves.
Vaccine Shortfall Predicted as Swine Flu Cases Rise
The swine flu is in 41 states, and flu-like illnesses account for 6.1 percent of doctor visits, health officials said.
New flu can kill fast, researchers agree
(Reuters) – The new H1N1 flu is “strikingly different” from seasonal influenza, killing much younger people than ordinary flu and often killing them very fast, World Health Organization officials said on Friday. A review of studies done during the seven months the virus has been circulating shows it is usually mild, but can cause unusual and severe symptoms in an unlucky few, according to a WHO-sponsored meeting in Washington this week.
Possible 2009 H1N1 Flu Screening for International Travelers  Current Situation
Due to the circulation of 2009 H1N1 influenza in the United States and many other countries, airport staff in some foreign countries may check the health of arriving passengers. Many other countries, including Japan and China, are screening arriving passengers for symptoms of the flu. More on CDC website
Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 – update 70
(WHO) As of 11 October 2009, worldwide there have been more than 399, 232 laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009 and over 4,735 deaths reported to WHO.
Three articles of interest published this week in the peer reviewed literature reported three different series of seriously ill pandemic influenza patients in Canada, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand. Several important observations were made including:
• A significant portion of patients with severe disease requiring intensive care had no predisposing conditions. The numbers are not directly comparable as the studies categorized conditions differently but nearly 1/3 of ICU patients in Australia and New Zealand had no predisposing conditions. 98% of ICU cases in Canada had a comorbid condition, which in this report included hypertension, smoking, and substance abuse, but only 30% had comorbid conditions that were considered “major”. In Mexico, 84% of critical patients had an underlying condition, which in the report included hypertension, ever having smoked, and hyperlipidemia, conditions that are not considered risk factors for severe influenza outcomes. All three groups were impressed by the number of severe cases occurring in previously healthy individuals.
• The researchers in Australia and New Zealand reaffirmed that infants under the age of 1 year have the highest risk of developing severe illness. The average age of ICU patients was 32, 40, and 44 years in Canada, Australia/New Zealand, and Mexico respectively.
• The study from Australia and New Zealand estimated that the demand for ICU beds due to viral pneumonia during the pandemic was as much higher than in previous influenza seasons. The Canadian study reported that intensive care capacity in Winnipeg, Manitoba, was “seriously challenged” at the peak of the outbreak with full occupancy of all regional ICU beds.
15 October
Swine Flu Shots Revive a Debate About Vaccines
The anti-vaccine movement, largely comprising activists and a handful of doctors and researchers who connect a variety of health problems — particularly autism spectrum disorders — to vaccines, has failed to find large-scale traction in the United States, where more than 90 percent of children are vaccinated.
14 October
(CDC) 2009 H1N1 Flu and Travel
On June 11, 2009, WHO raised the worldwide pandemic alert level to Phase 6 in response to the ongoing global spread of the 2009 H1N1 flu virus. A Phase 6 alert level means that a global pandemic is under way and that community level outbreaks are now ongoing in multiple parts of world. The Phase 6 pandemic alert level is a reflection of the spread of the virus, not the severity of illness caused by the virus. (CBC) Investigating swine flu
Not all reports are factual or rational:
25 September
Evidence emerges that seasonal flu vaccine increases risk of H1N1 swine flu
(NaturalNews) To hear it from the vaccine makers, their vaccines are perfectly safe and have no side effects. A person can receive an unlimited number of vaccines (10, 100 or even 1000) and have absolutely no ill effects, they claim. This is the quack…
This e-mail is circulating
Dr Rauni Kilde on Swine Flu Conspiracy
A woman doctor from Finland speaks out about the global depopulation intentions behind the Swine Flu injections and the propaganda war being waged to impose this murderous criminality on the people of the world.
23 September
Seasonal flu shot may increase H1N1 risk
The latest finding raises questions about the order in which to get flu shots. Across Canada, public health authorities are debating the idea of shortening, delaying or scrapping their seasonal flu vaccination campaign in favour of mass inoculation against H1N1. The main reason is that H1N1 may be the dominant strain of influenza circulating when the fall flu season hits, meaning it could be a waste of time and resources to mount a seasonal flu vaccine campaign. Health authorities in Quebec are considering cancelling or postponing seasonal flu shots for some groups, such as healthy, younger adults.
4 September
H1N1, vaccines, perspective on immunization and treatment (an independent view)
Here is a summary of important information that you may not be able to easily find about the possible risks accompanying interventions for swine flu. The information could be significant for the health of those you care about.
Note: The safe and effective interventions for either preventing or treating flu seem more and more to be common-sense personal care measures, such as:
– Adequate sleep
– Good, varied diet
– 15-30 minutes of sun a day with no sunscreen (don’t overdo it… 5 hours without sunscreen is no good)
– Hand washing and hygiene
– (Optional) a multivitamin daily. For adults, 500-1000mg Vitamin C daily).
25 August
Asia way short of vaccine to fight swine flu: WHO
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Asia is going to be way short of the new H1N1 vaccine to fight swine flu when the next surge of infections hits during the cold season this year, a spokesman for the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.
Australia and China are due to begin producing the vaccines in September, but these would be used domestically and the rest of the region is unlikely to benefit.
15 July
Australia H1N1 tally hits 10,000
(Straits Times) AUSTRALIA’S H1N1 flu cases topped 10,000 Wednesday as officials in the worst-hit Asia-Pacific country reported two more deaths and warned the virus ‘preferred young people’. Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the national tally was now 10,387, more than 10 percent of the global total confirmed by the World Health Organisation with 123 people in hospital.