Tuesday, November 08, 2005
JON RAPPOPORT
www.nomorefakenews.com
HOW MANY AMERICANS REALLY DIE OF THE FLU EACH YEAR?
OCTOBER 22, 2004. Ask the American Lung Association. Better yet, read their
own report from August of 2004, titled, "Trends in Pneumonia and
Influenza/Morbidity and Mortality."
This report comes from "Research and Scientific Affairs/Epidemiology and
Statistics Unit." At the bottom of the document, the source is listed as:
National Center for Health Statistics, Report of Final Mortality Statistics,
1979-2001.
Get ready for some surprises, especially since the CDC keeps trumpeting
flu-death annual numbers as 36,000. Like clockwork. Year in and year out. 36,000
people in the US die from the flu every year. Killer disease. Watch out. Get
your flu shot. Every autumn. Don't wait. You might fall over dead
in the street.
Here are the total flu deaths from the report. From 1979 to 2001, the stats
were released every two years.
1979: 604
1981: 3,006
1983: 1,431
1985: 2,054
1987: 632
1989: 1,593
1991: 1,137
1993: 1,044
1995: 606
1996: 745
1997: 720
1998: 1,724
1999: 1,665
2000: 1,765
2001: 257
Don't believe me?
Here is the page:
www.lungusa.org/atf/cf/%7B7A8D42C2-FCCA-4604-8ADE-7F5D5E762256%7D/PI1.PDF
Get there and go to page 9 of the document. Then start scrolling down until
you come to the chart for flu deaths as a separate category.
Tommy Thompson, head of US Health and Human services, stated that 91 percent
of the people who die from the flu in the US every year are 65 and older. So
you might engage in a little arithmetic and figure out how many people under 65
are really dying from the flu each year.
But no matter. The raw all-ages stats are low enough. Quite low enough.
Quite, quite.
Do you see what is going on here?
You can go into my archive and read recent pieces on this subject and find my
argument for those who blithely claim, "Well, harumph, you see, uh ah, flu
often leads to pneumonia and THAT'S why we have to be so careful about the flu.
Deaths from pneumonia are large numbers, harumph, blah blah blah..."
It's a straight con, folks. The CDC is on a street corner with a little
table, and there are shills walking around repeating the 36,000 death figure while
the PR flacks at the table are working the vaccine angle.
The crowd is getting restless. A man shouts, "Where is my flu shot? We're all
going to die!"
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Congress planned a measure that will guarantee
vaccine manufacturers annual billion-dollar payoffs no matter how many doses are
left over, unused.
JON RAPPOPORT www.nomorefakenews.com
This article published a year ago in the BBC shows that these things can be
and are manufactured.
_______________________________________
Killer flu recreated in the lab
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/3719990.stm
Scientists have shown that tiny changes to modern flu viruses could render
them as deadly as the 1918 strain which killed millions.
A US team added two genes from a sample of the 1918 virus to a modern strain
known to have no effect on mice.
Animals exposed to this composite were dying within days of symptoms similar
to those found in human victims of the 1918 pandemic.
The research is published in the journal Nature.
The lesson is not to be complacent about anything to do with flu
The work of the US team, lead by Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of
Wisconsin, was carried out under the tightest security.
Experts focused on two genes thought to play a key role in the infection
process.
One controls production of a spike-like molecule called hemagglutinin (HA),
believed to be used by the flu virus to attach itself to the cells it is about
to infect.
Previous research published earlier this year in the journal Science
identified the HA gene as being the crucial element which made the 1918 virus so
deadly - and the latest work appears to confirm this.
Post mortems on mice injected in the nose with the composite virus showed
that it had rampaged through their lungs, producing inflammation and
hemorrhaging.
The researchers stress the experiment is conclusive for lab mice, and not
humans.
Better monitoring
But they say that their work may lead to better ways to assess the potential
danger of emerging flu viruses.
Writing in Nature, the researchers say: "Once the properties of the (1918) HA
gene that gave rise to its lethal infectivity are better understood, it
should be possible to devise effective control measures and to improve global
surveillance networks for influenza viruses that pose the greatest threat to humans
as well as other animal species."
Scientists believe the 1918 virus leapt to humans by mutating from bird flu,
possibly after passing through pigs, which are able to harbor both human and
avian viruses and thus allow them to swap genes as the viruses reproduce.
For that reason, experts are deeply concerned that the avian flu that has
broken out in poultry flocks in parts of southeast Asia may acquire genes that
will make it highly infectious as well as lethal for humans.
Professor John Oxford, an expert in virology at Queen Mary College London,
told BBC News Online the latest research underlined just what a threat all flu
viruses potentially posed.
He said: "It is not a big difference at all between a virus that kills 15 m
people and one that does not kill anyone at all.
"The lesson is not to be complacent about anything to do with flu. Every flu
virus must be carrying baggage that could potentially harm us, and we would be
well advised not to ignore them."
Many deaths
The 1918 "Spanish" flu pandemic is estimated to have infected up to one
billion people - half the world's population at the time.
The virus killed more people than any other single outbreak of disease,
surpassing even the Black Death of the middle Ages.
Although it probably originated in the Far East, it was dubbed "Spanish" flu
because the press in Spain - not being involved in World War I - was the first
to report extensively on its impact. (Other reports say the 1918 flu
occurred just after worldwide mass vaccination...Zeus)
The virus caused three waves of disease. The second of these, between
September and December 1918, resulting in the heaviest loss of life.
It is thought that the virus may have played a role in ending World War I as
soldiers were too sick to fight, and by that stage more men on both sides died
of flu than were killed by weapons.
Although most people who were infected with the virus recovered within a week
following bed rest, some died within 24 hours of infection.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/3719990.stm
Published: 2004/10/07 05:02:24 GMT
_____________________________
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N28315075.htm
U.S. company to work on jabless avian flu vaccine
28 Sep 2005 17:30:45 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - A company that makes an inhaled flu vaccine
signed up with the U.S. government on Wednesday to try to make a version of its
jabless vaccine for avian flu.
Maryland-based biotechnology company MedImmune will work with top
U.S. government influenza experts to develop a new vaccine against the H5N1 avia
n flu, which has killed 65 people in Asia since 2003.
"The threat of pandemic flu is an urgent health challenge," Health and Human
Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said in a statement.
"This agreement will help speed the process of developing vaccines we will
need to fight an outbreak if the avian flu starts to spread rapidly through the
human population."
Injected flu vaccines use a killed version of the virus. The nasal vaccine
uses a live but weakened virus.
To make this attenuated virus Dr. Kanta Subbarao and Dr. Brian Murphy of the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases will splice selected
genes from avian flu viruses considered to be a threat into a weakened human flu
virus. They will also work with MedImmune scientists to use a process called
reverse genetics to make a vaccine.
Experts consider the avian flu the single biggest threat to human health in
the world today. The H5N1 virus has killed and forced the destruction of tens
of millions of birds and can on occasion be transmitted to people, often
killing them.
A slight mutation would enable the virus to be passed easily from person to
person and because it is such a new virus, experts believe it would sweep
around the world, killing millions of people, if it is not stopped.
A vaccine is the best way but production of influenza vaccines is slow, and
they do not work perfectly.
PREPARING FOR FUTURE OUTBREAKS
NIAID and MedImmune will try to develop at least one vaccine for each of the
16 variations of a protein found on the surface of all influenza A viruses,
called hemagglutinin (represented by the letter "H" in the names of influenza
strains, such as H5N1).
This will take years but will help in preparing for future outbreaks, the
NIAID said.
Several companies are working on an H5N1 vaccine, and the furthest along in
development is France's Sanofi-Aventis. U.S.-based Chiron Corp. Claims to test
its H5N1 vaccine later this year and Britain's GlaxoSmithKline plans
large-scale clinical trials in 2006.
These companies, along with MedImmune, also make vaccines against ordinary
flu, but they do not protect against avian flu.
Experts would like to have as many options as possible, as influenza spreads
quickly once a new strain emerges. It takes months to make a new influenza
vaccine and the immunization must match the strain that is actually infecting
people, so it is not currently possible to make them up before a new strain
emerges.
"An intranasal pandemic vaccine may help facilitate and expedite influenza
vaccinations for more Americans in the event of a pandemic outbreak," MedImmune
research and development chief James Young said in a statement.
Two antiviral drugs can help against the infection and may even prevent it if
taken at the right time. These are Tamiflu from Switzerland's Roche Holding,
known generically as oseltamivir, and GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza, or Zanamivir.
www.nomorefakenews.com
HOW MANY AMERICANS REALLY DIE OF THE FLU EACH YEAR?
OCTOBER 22, 2004. Ask the American Lung Association. Better yet, read their
own report from August of 2004, titled, "Trends in Pneumonia and
Influenza/Morbidity and Mortality."
This report comes from "Research and Scientific Affairs/Epidemiology and
Statistics Unit." At the bottom of the document, the source is listed as:
National Center for Health Statistics, Report of Final Mortality Statistics,
1979-2001.
Get ready for some surprises, especially since the CDC keeps trumpeting
flu-death annual numbers as 36,000. Like clockwork. Year in and year out. 36,000
people in the US die from the flu every year. Killer disease. Watch out. Get
your flu shot. Every autumn. Don't wait. You might fall over dead
in the street.
Here are the total flu deaths from the report. From 1979 to 2001, the stats
were released every two years.
1979: 604
1981: 3,006
1983: 1,431
1985: 2,054
1987: 632
1989: 1,593
1991: 1,137
1993: 1,044
1995: 606
1996: 745
1997: 720
1998: 1,724
1999: 1,665
2000: 1,765
2001: 257
Don't believe me?
Here is the page:
www.lungusa.org/atf/cf/%7B7A8D42C2-FCCA-4604-8ADE-7F5D5E762256%7D/PI1.PDF
Get there and go to page 9 of the document. Then start scrolling down until
you come to the chart for flu deaths as a separate category.
Tommy Thompson, head of US Health and Human services, stated that 91 percent
of the people who die from the flu in the US every year are 65 and older. So
you might engage in a little arithmetic and figure out how many people under 65
are really dying from the flu each year.
But no matter. The raw all-ages stats are low enough. Quite low enough.
Quite, quite.
Do you see what is going on here?
You can go into my archive and read recent pieces on this subject and find my
argument for those who blithely claim, "Well, harumph, you see, uh ah, flu
often leads to pneumonia and THAT'S why we have to be so careful about the flu.
Deaths from pneumonia are large numbers, harumph, blah blah blah..."
It's a straight con, folks. The CDC is on a street corner with a little
table, and there are shills walking around repeating the 36,000 death figure while
the PR flacks at the table are working the vaccine angle.
The crowd is getting restless. A man shouts, "Where is my flu shot? We're all
going to die!"
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Congress planned a measure that will guarantee
vaccine manufacturers annual billion-dollar payoffs no matter how many doses are
left over, unused.
JON RAPPOPORT www.nomorefakenews.com
This article published a year ago in the BBC shows that these things can be
and are manufactured.
_______________________________________
Killer flu recreated in the lab
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/3719990.stm
Scientists have shown that tiny changes to modern flu viruses could render
them as deadly as the 1918 strain which killed millions.
A US team added two genes from a sample of the 1918 virus to a modern strain
known to have no effect on mice.
Animals exposed to this composite were dying within days of symptoms similar
to those found in human victims of the 1918 pandemic.
The research is published in the journal Nature.
The lesson is not to be complacent about anything to do with flu
The work of the US team, lead by Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of
Wisconsin, was carried out under the tightest security.
Experts focused on two genes thought to play a key role in the infection
process.
One controls production of a spike-like molecule called hemagglutinin (HA),
believed to be used by the flu virus to attach itself to the cells it is about
to infect.
Previous research published earlier this year in the journal Science
identified the HA gene as being the crucial element which made the 1918 virus so
deadly - and the latest work appears to confirm this.
Post mortems on mice injected in the nose with the composite virus showed
that it had rampaged through their lungs, producing inflammation and
hemorrhaging.
The researchers stress the experiment is conclusive for lab mice, and not
humans.
Better monitoring
But they say that their work may lead to better ways to assess the potential
danger of emerging flu viruses.
Writing in Nature, the researchers say: "Once the properties of the (1918) HA
gene that gave rise to its lethal infectivity are better understood, it
should be possible to devise effective control measures and to improve global
surveillance networks for influenza viruses that pose the greatest threat to humans
as well as other animal species."
Scientists believe the 1918 virus leapt to humans by mutating from bird flu,
possibly after passing through pigs, which are able to harbor both human and
avian viruses and thus allow them to swap genes as the viruses reproduce.
For that reason, experts are deeply concerned that the avian flu that has
broken out in poultry flocks in parts of southeast Asia may acquire genes that
will make it highly infectious as well as lethal for humans.
Professor John Oxford, an expert in virology at Queen Mary College London,
told BBC News Online the latest research underlined just what a threat all flu
viruses potentially posed.
He said: "It is not a big difference at all between a virus that kills 15 m
people and one that does not kill anyone at all.
"The lesson is not to be complacent about anything to do with flu. Every flu
virus must be carrying baggage that could potentially harm us, and we would be
well advised not to ignore them."
Many deaths
The 1918 "Spanish" flu pandemic is estimated to have infected up to one
billion people - half the world's population at the time.
The virus killed more people than any other single outbreak of disease,
surpassing even the Black Death of the middle Ages.
Although it probably originated in the Far East, it was dubbed "Spanish" flu
because the press in Spain - not being involved in World War I - was the first
to report extensively on its impact. (Other reports say the 1918 flu
occurred just after worldwide mass vaccination...Zeus)
The virus caused three waves of disease. The second of these, between
September and December 1918, resulting in the heaviest loss of life.
It is thought that the virus may have played a role in ending World War I as
soldiers were too sick to fight, and by that stage more men on both sides died
of flu than were killed by weapons.
Although most people who were infected with the virus recovered within a week
following bed rest, some died within 24 hours of infection.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/3719990.stm
Published: 2004/10/07 05:02:24 GMT
_____________________________
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N28315075.htm
U.S. company to work on jabless avian flu vaccine
28 Sep 2005 17:30:45 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - A company that makes an inhaled flu vaccine
signed up with the U.S. government on Wednesday to try to make a version of its
jabless vaccine for avian flu.
Maryland-based biotechnology company MedImmune
U.S. government influenza experts to develop a new vaccine against the H5N1 avia
n flu, which has killed 65 people in Asia since 2003.
"The threat of pandemic flu is an urgent health challenge," Health and Human
Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said in a statement.
"This agreement will help speed the process of developing vaccines we will
need to fight an outbreak if the avian flu starts to spread rapidly through the
human population."
Injected flu vaccines use a killed version of the virus. The nasal vaccine
uses a live but weakened virus.
To make this attenuated virus Dr. Kanta Subbarao and Dr. Brian Murphy of the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases will splice selected
genes from avian flu viruses considered to be a threat into a weakened human flu
virus. They will also work with MedImmune scientists to use a process called
reverse genetics to make a vaccine.
Experts consider the avian flu the single biggest threat to human health in
the world today. The H5N1 virus has killed and forced the destruction of tens
of millions of birds and can on occasion be transmitted to people, often
killing them.
A slight mutation would enable the virus to be passed easily from person to
person and because it is such a new virus, experts believe it would sweep
around the world, killing millions of people, if it is not stopped.
A vaccine is the best way but production of influenza vaccines is slow, and
they do not work perfectly.
PREPARING FOR FUTURE OUTBREAKS
NIAID and MedImmune will try to develop at least one vaccine for each of the
16 variations of a protein found on the surface of all influenza A viruses,
called hemagglutinin (represented by the letter "H" in the names of influenza
strains, such as H5N1).
This will take years but will help in preparing for future outbreaks, the
NIAID said.
Several companies are working on an H5N1 vaccine, and the furthest along in
development is France's Sanofi-Aventis. U.S.-based Chiron Corp. Claims to test
its H5N1 vaccine later this year and Britain's GlaxoSmithKline plans
large-scale clinical trials in 2006.
These companies, along with MedImmune, also make vaccines against ordinary
flu, but they do not protect against avian flu.
Experts would like to have as many options as possible, as influenza spreads
quickly once a new strain emerges. It takes months to make a new influenza
vaccine and the immunization must match the strain that is actually infecting
people, so it is not currently possible to make them up before a new strain
emerges.
"An intranasal pandemic vaccine may help facilitate and expedite influenza
vaccinations for more Americans in the event of a pandemic outbreak," MedImmune
research and development chief James Young said in a statement.
Two antiviral drugs can help against the infection and may even prevent it if
taken at the right time. These are Tamiflu from Switzerland's Roche Holding,
known generically as oseltamivir, and GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza, or Zanamivir.
// posted by Linda Weissinger Lupowitz @ 12:18 PM 
