Friday night Pandemic Watch - Swine Flu coming to you?

[lightningBugout]

I guess it's easy for ust to sit in front of our computers and jaw about whether or not the state of emergency was needed. But I have a feeling that if either of us had been a nurse on the front lines lately, say for instance, working double shifts and dealing with people with swine flu on respirators in your hospital, and you just watched the last of your hospital's respirators go into use, you might have a different outlook on the need for the declaration that would facilitate the sharing across the country of those limited machines, transporting equipment from one area not hit yet to your area where the flu was spreading like wildfire. Or prepared to transport personnel, if needed.

What are you, agent provocateur of the Big Pharma conspiracy? Sheesh.

[lightningBugout]

From Transparency International

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Open letter to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Yuliya Timoshenko as for non-transparency of using by the government of Ukraine of 50 million hryvnas, assigned for the purpose of preventing in the state of Californian flue epidemic

Ukraine, 04 November 2009

Ukraine – Open letter

In June 2009 the government of Ukraine was allocated 50 million hryvnas (US $6m) to prepare its citizens’ for the possible outbreak of influenza A/H1N1. However there are grave concerns about how these funds were used, according to Transparency International in Ukraine.

Read about this in an open letter to the prime minister of Ukraine, Yuliya Timoshenko.

An open letter to the prime minister of Ukraine, Yuliya Timoshenko, to address the lack of transparency by the government of Ukraine in its use of the 50 million hryvnas (US $6m), assigned for the purpose of preventing in the state of Californian flue epidemic

Honorable Yuliye Volodymyrivno!

We demand from you, as head of the executive authority, inform the community of Ukraine regarding the use of 50 million hryvnas (US $6m) allocated in summer of 2009 to fund preventive measures for the epidemic of Californian flue. We remind you, Mrs Timoshenko, that according to the Ukranian constitution, the Cabinet of Ministers’ is supposed to perform functions of providing state policy in the healthcare sphere. During the interview with the Minister of Health, Vasyl Knyazevych, in a live televised broadcast conducted on 1 November 2009, it became apparent that the tender procedures on disbursement of the assigned funds were ambigious. This went against the current legislation of Ukraine and placed the tender vulnerable to corruption.. Due to this lack of transparency and the misappropriation of funds allocated to protect the Ukranian people, the citizens’ have been left vulnerable to fight flue epidemic. (http://tsn.ua/ukrayina/tender-na-zakupi ... lyaye.html)

History of the question. On the 11th of June, 2009 World Health Organization (WHO) announced the pandemic of A/H1N1 (swine flue). This statement was a signal to national governments and medical institutions around the world to prepare for a possible outbreak that could place significant strain on their healthcare systems. We remind you that the last time a statement was released by the WHO announcing a pandemic of global proportions was 40 years ago, in 1968. This case led to the deaths of one million people from the Hong Kong virus. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8094655.stm)

On the 2 June 2009, the first case of swine flue was confirmed in Ukraine. Ten days later the Minister of Health, Mr Knyazevych, informed that the system of health care in Ukraine is was ready for the impending epidemic of flue A/H1N1. (http://www.zaxid.net/newsua/2009/6/12/195230/). Mr Knyazevych then circulated the measures taken in Ukraine to fight the epidemic of A/H1N1 flue :

1. Ukraine obtained from the WHO, 61 thousand doses of “Tamiflue” medicine
2. The government of Ukraine was allocated for the aim of fighting A/H1N1 flue 50 million hryvna (US $6m). The allocation to the Cabinet of Ministers of this significant amount of funds was publicly confirmed by the Head of the Health Care Verhovna Rada Committee, Tetyana Bakhteyeva.

This funding, according to the Minister, was aimed at (i) creation in of a new high quality laboratory. (ii) purchasing medicines for patients’ treatment (iii) funding of special regional commissions.
According to Mr Knyazevych, such precautions were sufficient and effective. “There is still time till autumn in order to get ready for the flue epidemic. At present we are working at increasing the nations’ immunity level, using methods of national and non-traditional medicine. (http://www.zaxid.net/newsua/2009/6/12/195230/)

On the 5th of June 2009, information-analytical edition “Hlavred” (http://ua.glavred.info/archive/2009/06/05/153452-1.html) informed its readers of the measures taken by Ministry of Health, in order to prevent an epidemic of Californian flue in Ukraine. Among those mentioned were the creation of an operative unit, introducing a government helpline and the distribution of informative leaflets for the population on A/H1N1 flue. Regarding the allocated 50 million hrvynas by the Government of Ukraine, medical institutions should have been set-up at train stations, ports, airports, and constant monitoring of people displaying symptoms of respiratory diseases should have been conducted and immediate informing of epidemic service. The employees of controlling services at the border of Ukraine should have been provided with the means of personal protection and an inventory of national scientific basis should have been started with the aim of mobilizing science at flue fighting.

Real situation as for the 2nd of November, 2009

1. Only 200 test systems are available in Ukraine at present, 14 of these have already been used. (http://www.rbc.ua/ukr/newsline/show/par ... v_02112009)

2. By the decision of the Council of National Security and Defence, on the 30 October 2009, the president commissioned the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine during 3 days to solve the issue for allocating additional resources for funding sanitary and hygienic measures to minimize the consequences of the spread of pandemic flue and viral-respiratory diseases. The Cabinet of Ministers’ was also tasked by the president to provide viral laboratories, a Ukrainian sanitary-epidemic service and corresponding scientific-medical establishments with the necessary equipment, diagnostic and spending materials. Measures to provide reinforcement of the anti-epidemic regime and conduct complex disinfecting of public places (airports, train and bus stations, children preschool educational establishments, health protection institutions, culture establishments, at enterprises, in organisations and institutions) Urgent restrictions were ordered to be placed on mass cultural-entertaining and other events related to big human gatherings. The Cabinet of Ministers’ were asked to allocate necessary funds according to the inquiry by the Ministry of Health, for the purchase of medicines, medical equipment, means of personal protection, other appliances of medical purpose for population and medical staff of the aggrieved persons.

(http://www.rbc.ua/ukr/newsline/show/v_y ... e_01112009)

Therefore, we have to state that before the appearance of the mentioned CNSD decision, the enlisted measures had not been undertaken by the Cabinet of Ministers.

3. The first vice-prime minister of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, issued the following instructions: (i) pharmaceutical enterprises work 24 hours in order to produce the necessary medicines; (ii) inform the community of the difference between preventive and medical drugs (iii) Confirmed the list of drugs and means of disease prevention (gauze bandages, gloves, etc) which must be available in each drugstore in Ukraine; (iv) underlines that the level of prices for preventive and medical drugs shouldn’t be higher than the price set in the retail drugstore networks based on 20th of October 2009 (v) Use the State material reserve provides the necessary amount of gauze. (http://gazeta.ua/index.php?id=314009)

Therefore, we have to state that the enlisted measures hadn’t been undertaken earlier.

4. The Minister of Health, Mr Knyazevych, on the 30 October 2009 was informed that the Ukrainian government had contacted the WHO with the request for assistance for the vaccine against flue. On 30 October 2009, according to the Ministry of Foreign affairs data, 81, 487 infected people were registered in Ukraine. Among this number 33,559 were children. All in all, 2,341 persons were hospitalized and among that number 1,100 were children. At this point, 60 Ukrainians had died from severe viral-respiratory disease.

(http://www.kirovograd.net/shortly/2009/ ... mertei.htm)

5. The secretary of the Council of National Security and Defence(CNSD) Rayisa Bohatyryova, published information that from 12 October 2009, fatalities were attributed to A/H1N1 flue. However, data of laboratory research which confirm circulation of A/H1N1 flue, only started to be analysed from the 27 October 2009. (http://gazeta.ua/index.php?id=313991).

6. The government of Ukraine allocated 500 millions hryvnas (US $63m) from the Reserve Fund of the Cabinet of Ministers. (http://fbc.net.ua/ru/news/finance/Kabmi ... rbu_s.html). This money is aimed at buying medicines and equipment in order to prevent the spread of the flue epidemic.

7. Retail drugstore networks for more than 3 days didn’t have (i) gauze bandages; (ii) medication aimed at preventing severe viral-respiratory infection, flue, etc; (iii) anti-virus medication for the new generation “Tamiflue”.

And finally, none of the Ukranian population has seen the special leaflet for promised to provide information about A/H1N1 flue.

The conclusion.

50 millions hryvna (US $6m) allocated at preventing in Ukraine the swine flue epidemic were spent ineffectively by the Cabinet of Ministers. The non-transparent scheme of distribution of these funds led to a lack of medication in the establishments of retail drugstore network. A mass lack of knowledge within the Ukranian public regarding the virulent A/H1N1 flue led to an unreasonable amount of deaths among the citizens of Ukraine

If the existing approach of the government of Ukraine remains the same, the additional funding in the amount of half billion hryvnas will not have the necessary influence on curbing of the epidemic

Taking into consideration the above, we demand from the government of Ukraine and personally from the prime minister of Ukraine Mrs Timoshenko:

1. A public report on the spending 50 million hryvnas(US $6m) , which the government was allocated in June of the current year for the fight with A/H1N1 flue.
2. Announce in public the list of measures and their cost which the government of Ukraine plans to carry out in order to decrease sickness rate and treat A/H1N1 flue.
3. Provide access for independent civic control over all the materials related to measures conducted by the government of Ukraine to deal with the epedemic, as well as A/H1N1 flue treatment (excluding the information, spreading of which is directly prohibited by the law of Ukraine).

Media contact(s):
Alla Voloshyna
+38-067-611-23-00
voloshyna@toro.org.ua

[lightningBugout]

WHO warns countries not to underestimate pandemic virus
Lisa Schnirring * Staff Writer

Nov 5, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – An official from the World Health Organization (WHO) today said he expects serious cases and deaths as pandemic flu activity picks up in the Northern Hemisphere, and he warned people not to underestimate the virus, even though illnesses are often mild.

At a media briefing today, Keiji Fukuda, MD, special adviser on pandemic flu to the WHO director-general, said virus activity remains at high levels in the United States, where fall activity has already exceeded the peak of some of the worst winter seasonal flu outbreaks, and in Mexico, where the number of illnesses has topped the country's spring outbreak.

Flu activity is picking up across European countries such as the Ukraine, "where clearly they are seeing high levels of infections," Fukuda said. Countries in eastern Asia, such as Mongolia, are seeing rising pandemic flu case numbers. He said earlier this fall the seasonal H3N2 virus was common in some parts of eastern Asia, but as the pandemic H1N1 strain becomes dominant, the numbers of H3N2 viruses in those regions are decreasing.

Fukuda said the self-limiting nature of many pandemic H1N1 illnesses has led some people to dismiss the seriousness of the outbreak. He said that though transmission and pathogenicity of the pandemic virus seems to resemble seasonal flu, other features clearly distinguish the two. He emphasized that serious illnesses and deaths are concentrated in people younger than age 65, a pattern not seen with seasonal flu.

"At the WHO we're concerned about a sizeable number of serious complications and deaths," he said. "In some countries the number of serious cases can put pressure on intensive care units, and people in health systems should take this into account during their planning."

Over the past few weeks more than 20 countries have launched pandemic H1N1 vaccine campaigns, he said. "We see that they [the vaccines] are very safe, with only local pain and redness at the injection site at levels that are similar or sometimes even lower than the seasonal flu vaccine, he added.

The WHO is working to free up as much vaccine as possible, but so far, none has arrived in developing countries, he said. Eleven countries and four vaccine companies have pledged 200 million doses, which will go to 95 countries that could not otherwise buy their own supply,

Though the WHO's vaccine advisory group recently recommended that most groups receive only one dose of pandemic vaccine, including children younger than 10 in countries that have prioritized them, Fukuda said the WHO is mindful that more studies on optimal dosage will be coming out over the next several months. He said the WHO's recommendations may adapt and change, based on new information.

US officials recently released new pandemic vaccine clinical trial data that reaffirmed a two-dose regimen in children under age 10.

In the Ukraine, the country's laboratory experts along with WHO experts have so far found no evidence of a worrisome mutation in the pandemic virus isolated from sick patients in the western part of the country. That region has seen dramatically increased virus activity over the past few weeks. However, Fukuda said the virus is still undergoing further characterization at the WHO collaborating center in London.

Today the WHO's regional office in Europe issued a statement that said a five-member WHO team arrived in the Ukraine's western Lviv region, where 100,000 people are reportedly sick with flulike illness. The WHO scientists are visiting some of the affected areas, interviewing medical staff, and talking to patients. They will spend several days in Lviv before traveling to other sites.

The Ukrainian health ministry said today it has receive reports of 633,877 acute respiratory illnesses since Oct 29, including 95 pneumonia deaths, the National News Agency of Ukraine reported.

So far 15 cases of pandemic H1N1 flu have been confirmed, and two deaths from the virus have been reported in Kiev, according to a report today from the National Radio Company of Ukraine that quoted the health ministry.

See also:

Nov 5 WHO regional office for Europe statement on pandemic H1N1 in the Ukraine

Nov 5 National News Agency of Ukraine report

Nov 5 National Radio Company of Ukraine report

[justdrew]

Wall St swine flu vaccinations spark uproar
AFP
Published: Thursday November 5, 2009

News that US swine flu vaccines, meant to be prioritized for the nation's most vulnerable, are being distributed to Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs sparked uproar Thursday.

The New York Department of Health said Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have applied for supplies of the H1N1 vaccine and are eligible because they are large employers with in-house clinics.

With H1N1 vaccines often scarce and populist anger already raging at Wall Street for last year's financial meltdown, the news triggered furor.

Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer for the largest US health care union, the SEIU, said it was "obscene" that powerful and wealthy private organizations got vaccines when "at-risk Americans are either waiting in line for hours or getting turned away.

"Last time I checked, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have not prioritized Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and other Wall Street executives over the rest of America," Burger said.

Democratic Senator Chris Dodd, from Connecticut, declared he was "stunned."

"It is shocking to think that private firms would be prioritized ahead of hospitals when the vaccine supply cannot meet the demand," he wrote in a letter to US Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius.

New York City's health authorities said critics had got their facts wrong.

Banks, as well as two universities in New York, were allowed to make orders because they had their own health clinics and there was enough vaccine to go round, city health spokeswoman Jessica Scaperotti told AFP.

Vaccines will not be given just to any employee, but those falling into official at-risk categories, for example, pregnant women, health care workers, and people with chronic medical conditions, Scaperotti said.

"What they (critics) have to realize is that all providers who order H1N1 vaccine -- whether it be a hospital or an employee health service -- they have to agree that they'll only administer the vaccine to people in at-risk groups," she said.

So far, Citigroup has requested 2,200 vaccines and received 1,200, health department figures show. Goldman Sachs requested 5,400 vaccines and has received 200. Morgan Stanley, which requested 1,500, has not yet received any.

Giant media corporation Time Warner requested 2,000 and has so far received 100.

Scaperotti said 50 employee health clinics in the city had received vaccines. "As more becomes available we expanded that group to include providers that serve adults both in private practice and community settings."

[stickdog99]

LOL.

It's as if the CFR itself is posting the vast majority of entries on this thread.

[lightningBugout]

Oh please.

What kills me is that you don't seem to recognize that the MSM is driving the lite CT meme on h1n1 simultaneously along with the panic/pandemic meme. Drudge has been stoking the martial law / hoax / deadly vaccine meme right along with Fox and Alex Jones for months. And ABC, CBS, CNN et al have been playing both sides too. If you can't see that, I don't know what to say.

For example, Time just published the following which gives a semblance of credence to the Alex Jones h1n1 will lead to forced vaccinations and martial law bit (and if you think either of those things is going to happen, please buy my bridge):

Friday, Nov. 06, 2009
Swine-Flu Panic in Ukraine: Crisis or Political Ploy?
By James Marson / Kiev

Ukraine is in the midst of what some might call swine-flu hysteria. The country is in virtual lockdown mode, with the government closing schools, universities and movie theaters and banning all public gatherings until the end of November. Pharmacies have run out of protective masks; those who missed the rush are improvising with scarves or homemade facsimiles. And rumors are running rampant, much as they did during Soviet times when the authorities tried to cover up disasters like the Chernobyl nuclear-plant meltdown. "We are worried that the swine flu has mutated and is killing scores of people," says Nina Sokolovska as she stands in line at a pharmacy.

To be sure, flu is spreading in Ukraine, with the government reporting more than 600,000 cases in the last week. The Health Ministry said Thursday that 95 people have died from the flu or respiratory infections, although it's uncertain how many of these deaths have been caused by the H1N1 virus and how many have been the result of seasonal flu. The World Health Organization says it's safe to assume the H1N1 virus is widespread. (See pictures of soccer in the time of swine flu.)

Given the persistent rumors and the country's volatile political situation, however, some Ukrainians have suggested that the gravity of the situation is being exaggerated by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko for political gain ahead of the January presidential elections. "What has happened is hysteria and panic, which is being provoked," says Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a presidential candidate currently running third in the polls. He accused Tymoshenko of whipping up a frenzy to distract people from the government's failings. "Is anyone talking about wages? No. Is anyone talking about the 4 million unemployed? No. Is anyone talking about the gas we haven't paid for? No," he says. The media have also questioned Tymoshenko's motives. A headline on one Ukrainian news website, Ukrayinska Pravda, read: "Who needs swine flu and who needs a high rating?"

Others are taking the flu pandemic more seriously and are blaming Tymoshenko for mishandling the government's response efforts. Viktor Yanukovych, the leader of the opposition and front-runner in the presidential race, has called for the Health Minister to be fired and accused Tymoshenko of putting people's health at risk by launching her own presidential campaign with a rally just six days before the ban on public gatherings was announced. "Tymoshenko knew she shouldn't bring such a large number of people to Kiev. It was a feast at the time of a plague," he says. Current President Viktor Yushchenko — Tymoshenko's former partner in the 2004 Orange Revolution and now her bitter rival — also attacked her for holding a campaign rally, saying it was "criminal irresponsibility" if it allowed the disease to spread. (See pictures of the swine-flu outbreak in Mexico.)

But Tymoshenko has also been praised by many for implementing sweeping measures to try to stop the spread of flu. She has made every effort to appear on top of the situation, personally going to meet a shipment of the H1N1 vaccine Tamiflu at Kiev's airport on Monday. One doctor who asked not to be named in the hard-hit Lviv region praised the Prime Minister's actions. "Politicians are aggravating the situation by making so much noise," she tells TIME. In addition, Glenn Thomas, a spokesman for the WHO team that's been dispatched to Kiev to assist Ukrainian authorities, says the government's response had been "transparent and rapid."

Taras Berezovets, an adviser to Tymoshenko, tells TIME that Yushchenko and the other presidential candidates are using the swine-flu epidemic as an opportunity to attack the Prime Minister. "The media are to blame for the panic. From the beginning, the government has told people to remain calm and follow some simple rules," he says. (See pictures of thermal scanners hunting for swine flu.)

Tymoshenko has been guilty of one thing: sending mixed messages. The closing of schools and banning of public gatherings are among the harshest measures in Europe against the H1N1 virus. Yet Tymoshenko has not forcefully advocated for people to get vaccinated against the virus. "I am not vaccinated," she said in a television address this week. "I am protecting myself like everybody, with lemon, onion, garlic, everything that is needed. I think the best way is simply to protect your health through well-known means." Yushchenko, meanwhile, has urged people to get vaccinated immediately. (See what you need to know about the H1N1 vaccine.)

Everyday Ukrainians are used to the political bickering that has beset their country since the Orange Revolution five years ago. Many people are looking after themselves because they don't trust the government to do anything for them. The folk remedies advocated by Tymoshenko are growing in popularity, as are slightly stronger tonics. "A vodka a day keeps swine flu away," one elderly woman told masked passersby on the street.

[hanshan]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gWyw-CvXI2tl-eW-K9vVDUyCEcLQ

link for hanshan

tx, Col. Q

[barracuda]

Death-by-swine flu these last 300 days ran neck and neck with death-by-leprosy.

[stickdog99]

Oh please.

What kills me is that you don't seem to recognize that the MSM is driving the lite CT meme on h1n1 simultaneously along with the panic/pandemic meme. Drudge has been stoking the martial law / hoax / deadly vaccine meme right along with Fox and Alex Jones for months. And ABC, CBS, CNN et al have been playing both sides too. If you can't see that, I don't know what to say.

So what is your explanation for this? Could it be that the fear mongering relative to H1N1's virulence is just a bit too obvious for every single media outlet to ignore?

[Hairball]

The top story on my national TV news yesterday was that 4 people had died from the swine flu. 30,000 had been infected the same week, the health authorities reckoned the true number was possibly twice this since most people would have suffered and recovered at home without seeking medical help. It's tragic that 4 people died but every single one of them had a serious underlying health condition. Any influenza would have killed them.

My heavily pregnant sister was due to get the vaccine today. Yesterday I asked her to get the Celvapan shot instead of the Pandermix one. This required her to cancel her doctor's appointment and go to a public clinic to get it. She's highly strung at the best of times and she shouted at me a lot. I left. I'd rather have told her not to get any vaccine since the H1N1(A) is considerably less dangerous than most seasonal 'flus. I knew she wouldn't buy that so I advised her to get the Celvapan, not because I love Baxter aka Bayer aka I G Farben of Zyklon B fame, but because I know that mercury can cross the placenta and do massive and catalytic damage to living tissue and especially brain cells.

She called me back this morning to say that I didn't need to babysit my nephew because she'd decided to get the Celvapan vaccine. My new nephew won't be exposed to mercury and the "adjuvant" squalene in utero. I'm really happy about this.

I don't know what the WHO are playing at with this pandemic alert but I am sure that they are up to no good. At best it's a money maker. I think it's likely that this is an excuse to lock down countries on the brink of civil war over the banker bailouts or whatever. I'm sure something more lethal can be released if the situation requires. Vaccinating hundreds of millions of people against this weak virus is a waste of time.

[chiggerbit]

http://tinyurl.com/yhrgxh6

Suspect arrested after truck carrying 900 doses of swine flu vaccine is stolen in Milwaukee
By AP
November 6th, 2009




Suspect arrested in Milwaukee theft of flu vaccine

MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee police have arrested a man accused of stealing a truck carrying 900 doses of swine flu vaccine.

The suspect is a 38-year-old man with a criminal record. Police are looking for two other men who were seen in the vehicle with him.

The truck was taken Thursday night as it idled outside a swine flu clinic.

Officers found the abandoned truck less than an hour later with the vaccine apparently intact. As they investigated, a witness pointed to the 38-year-old leaving a nearby liquor store and identified him as one of the three men in the truck.

City health official Raquel Filmanowicz says even if the vaccine hasn’t been tampered with, it’s still considered “compromised” because it was out of city possession. She says it can no longer be used.

[lightningBugout]

Ukraine's flu outbreak shows signs of slowing
Health News

Nov 6, 2009, 14:00 GMT

Kiev - Ukraine's deadly flu outbreak showed signs of slowing on Friday, as government control measures began taking effect and warmer weather arrived.

A total of 109 people had died of flu-related symptoms since late October, 14 from the particularly virulent H1N1 swine flu strain, said Oleskander Vilovol, a Health Ministry spokesman, according to a Channel 5 television news report.

Close to 34,000 Ukrainians nationwide were hospitalized because of severe flu symptoms, 32 with confirmed cases of swine flu, Vilovol said, noting a moderate slowing of reported cases as compared with last week.

But flu remained a massive health problem, he said, with 762,833 persons registered with the Health Ministry as currently suffering from the flu, or roughly 1.6 per cent of Ukraine's entire population.

World Health Organization (WHO) officials praised the response by the government to the flu outbreak, according to the Interfax news agency. Mission leader Jukka Pukkila said at a Kiev press conference: 'We can only approve of the actions of the Ukrainian government, that they so quickly and adequately began to respond to the epidemic.'

Road and foot traffic at Ukraine's western border-crossing points with Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland had almost returned to pre-flu outbreak levels, according to a statement from Ukraine's Border Troops command.

Every second Ukrainian will catch the flu this season, partly because of a government ban on flu vaccinations in the autumn, Interfax quoted Oleksy Hromazyn, spokesman for Ukraine's Ministry of Emergency Situations, as saying.

Ukraine's Ministry of Health put a moratorium on flu vaccinations in September after a series of deaths, mostly of children, who had received flu vaccine at government health clinics.

The effective absence of flu vaccinations in Ukraine since then has helped widen and deepen the impact of the present flu outbreak, Hromazyn was quoted as saying.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, in company with his Belarusian counterpart President Aleksandr Lukashenko, on Friday flew to Ukraine's western Ivano-Frankivsk province, a region hard-hit by the flu.

'We have come here to show you we are with you,' Yushchenko said to local reporters. 'There is no need to panic ... our enemy is panic, and lack of professionalism.'

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Friday said government efforts to control and limit the extent of the flu outbreak were improving day by day, and that medical supplies to fight the flu 'were now present in sufficient quantities,' according to an ICTV television news report.

Despite Tymoshenko's statement, severe retail shortages of protective masks, flu remedies, and the swine flu treatment Tamiflu were widely reported in Ukrainian media Friday.

Read more: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/ ... z0W7m1Ps7Y

[lightningBugout]

Oh please.

What kills me is that you don't seem to recognize that the MSM is driving the lite CT meme on h1n1 simultaneously along with the panic/pandemic meme. Drudge has been stoking the martial law / hoax / deadly vaccine meme right along with Fox and Alex Jones for months. And ABC, CBS, CNN et al have been playing both sides too. If you can't see that, I don't know what to say.

So what is your explanation for this?

Ad revenue.

[stickdog99]

Oh please.

What kills me is that you don't seem to recognize that the MSM is driving the lite CT meme on h1n1 simultaneously along with the panic/pandemic meme. Drudge has been stoking the martial law / hoax / deadly vaccine meme right along with Fox and Alex Jones for months. And ABC, CBS, CNN et al have been playing both sides too. If you can't see that, I don't know what to say.

So what is your explanation for this?

Ad revenue.

Well, that seems to be what drives US elections.

[Belligerent Savant]

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200911/brownlee-h1n1

Excerpt:

When Lisa Jackson, a physician and senior investigator with the Group Health Research Center, in Seattle, began wondering aloud to colleagues if maybe something was amiss with the estimate of 50 percent mortality reduction for people who get flu vaccine, the response she got sounded more like doctrine than science. “People told me, ‘No good can come of [asking] this,’” she says. “‘Potentially a lot of bad could happen’ for me professionally by raising any criticism that might dissuade people from getting vaccinated, because of course, ‘We know that vaccine works.’ This was the prevailing wisdom.”

Nonetheless, in 2004, Jackson and three colleagues set out to determine whether the mortality difference between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated might be caused by a phenomenon known as the “healthy user effect.” They hypothesized that on average, people who get vaccinated are simply healthier than those who don’t, and thus less liable to die over the short term. People who don’t get vaccinated may be bedridden or otherwise too sick to go get a shot. They may also be more likely to succumb to flu or any other illness, because they are generally older and sicker. To test their thesis, Jackson and her colleagues combed through eight years of medical data on more than 72,000 people 65 and older. They looked at who got flu shots and who didn’t. Then they examined which group’s members were more likely to die of any cause when it was not flu season.

Jackson’s findings showed that outside of flu season, the baseline risk of death among people who did not get vaccinated was approximately 60 percent higher than among those who did, lending support to the hypothesis that on average, healthy people chose to get the vaccine, while the “frail elderly” didn’t or couldn’t. In fact, the healthy-user effect explained the entire benefit that other researchers were attributing to flu vaccine, suggesting that the vaccine itself might not reduce mortality at all. Jackson’s papers “are beautiful,” says Lone Simonsen, who is a professor of global health at George Washington University, in Washington, D.C., and an internationally recognized expert in influenza and vaccine epidemiology. “They are classic studies in epidemiology, they are so carefully done.”

The results were also so unexpected that many experts simply refused to believe them. Jackson’s papers were turned down for publication in the top-ranked medical journals. One flu expert who reviewed her studies for the Journal of the American Medical Association wrote, “To accept these results would be to say that the earth is flat!” When the papers were finally published in 2006, in the less prominent International Journal of Epidemiology, they were largely ignored by doctors and public-health officials. “The answer I got,” says Jackson, “was not the right answer.”

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“Tom Jefferson has taken a lot of heat just for saying, ‘Here’s the evidence: it’s not very good,’” says Majumdar. “The reaction has been so dogmatic and even hysterical that you’d think he was advocating stealing babies.” Yet while other flu researchers may not like what Jefferson has to say, they cannot ignore the fact that he knows the flu-vaccine literature better than anyone else on the planet. He leads an international team of researchers who have combed through hundreds of flu-vaccine studies. The vast majority of the studies were deeply flawed, says Jefferson. “Rubbish is not a scientific term, but I think it’s the term that applies.” Only four studies were properly designed to pin down the effectiveness of flu vaccine, he says, and two of those showed that it might be effective in certain groups of patients, such as school-age children with no underlying health issues like asthma. The other two showed equivocal results or no benefit.

Flu researchers have been fooled into thinking vaccine is more effective than the data suggest, in part, says Jefferson, by the imprecision of the statistics. The only way to know if someone has the flu—as opposed to influenza-like illness—is by putting a Q-tip into the patient’s throat or nose and running a test, which simply isn’t done that often. Likewise, nobody really has a handle on how many of the deaths that are blamed on flu were actually caused by a flu virus, because few are confirmed by a laboratory. “I used to be a family physician,” says Jefferson. “I’ve never seen a patient come to my office with H1N1 written on his forehead. When an old person dies of respiratory failure after an influenza-like illness, they nearly always get coded as influenza.”