The 1918 Influenza Pandemic, Vaccines and Flu Shots
Tuesday, March 03, 2009 by: Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor Key concepts: Influenza, Pandemic and NaturalNews
(NaturalNews) Following the breaking news today that Baxter International, Inc. (a U.S. drug company) shipped live avian influenza in vaccine materials distributed to 18 countries, it's worth reviewing a bit of history about the 1918 influenza pandemic.
This
provides a picture of what might have happened if the bird flu viral
strains had not been detected and halted. It also raises the question:
Are drug companies tempting Mother Nature by working with live viruses
in their vaccines? All it takes is one mistake (like we almost just
had) and the 2009 Influenza Pandemic could be unleashed...
Below, you'll find selected quotes from noted authors. Feel free to
quote these in your own work provided you give proper credit to both
the original author quoted here and this NaturalNews page.
Only five types of influenza are known to infect humans: HI, H2, H3, and Nl or N2. The avian influenzaviruses
H4, H5, and H7 make birds sick but usually don't infect humans. That
may be about to change, however. In addition to its technical
designation, when the flu becomes a human infection, each of the different influenza A viruses is given a common name corresponding to the place of outbreak or origin: the Spanish flu of 1918 or the Hong Kong flu of 1968. The word "influenza" is derived from the Latin influentia, to influence. - Beating the Flu: The Natural Prescription for Surviving Pandemic Influenza and Bird Fluby J. E. Williams - Available on Amazon.com
Influenza
is called the "last of the great uncontrolled plagues," and some
epidemiologists believe that we are imminently due for an influenzaepidemic of plague proportions like that of 1918. - Viral Immunityby J. E. Williams, O.M.D. - Available on Amazon.com
A review in The Lancet suggests that influenzavaccination
of infants is useless. Each and every year at this time medical
officials come out to remind us of our mortal danger. However, they
advocate medical procedures that do little to nothing to protect us,
but cost billions nonetheless. Dr. Eleanor McBean was an on-the-spot
observer of the 1918influenza epidemic and said, "As
far as I could find out, the flu hit only the vaccinated. Those who had
refused the shots escaped the flu. My family had refused all the
vaccinations so we remained well all the time. - Transdermal Magnesium Therapyby Mark Sircus - Available on Amazon.com
Just over thirty years ago, in 1976, the Centers for Disease Control investigated and confirmed that a severe influenza outbreak at Fort Dix, New Jersey, had been caused by the "swine flu" -- an influenza A-type virus. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare grew concerned that the United States might be about to see another large national flu pandemic, involving numbers of influenza deaths reminiscent of the flu pandemic of 1918. The federal government deemed it prudent to vaccinate all Americans. In October 1976, the National influenza Immunization Program officially began.
- The Autoimmune Epidemicby Donna Jackson Nakazawa - Available on Amazon.com
The infamous 1918influenza,
which spun around the planet in the last year of World War I, ended up
killing more people than the Great War itself. Though it was called the
"Spanish" flu, it most likely originated in Asia. In America, the first outbreak occurred on a military base in Kansas in the vicinity of a pig farm. The 1918
pandemic is believed to have killed up to 40 million people worldwide,
including 675,000 Americans. Many more got sick but survived. The 1918 flu killed more soldiers engaged in the war than the combat of the trenches. - The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Centuryby James Howard Kunstler - Available on Amazon.com
Avian flu is feared because it could provoke a repeat of the influenza pandemic of 1918. The 1918 flu, or H1N1 virus, was -- like the avian flu -- an influenza
A virus. Like that earlier flu, avian flu unleashes an unusual
hurricanelike storm of immune-system signaling proteins called
cytokines, which signal the immune system to combat microbial invaders. Cytokines signaling to the immune system to fight disease
is a good thing, but when cytokine levels are elevated for too long and
their signaling becomes uncontrolled, they can hijack the body's immune
system to turn against the body itself. - The Autoimmune Epidemicby Donna Jackson Nakazawa - Available on Amazon.com
Experts believe that the current avian H5N1 influenza strain, "bird flu," has the potential to become a human pandemic in proportions that could dwarf the Spanish flu of 1918, which killed millions and is, to date, the deadliest influenza outbreak in modern history. Flu hunters, influenza
experts who follow viral outbreaks, identify hot spots, study the
disease in the laboratory, investigate its genetic code, and create
theoretical worst-case scenarios in order to understand the disease and
predict its path, all agree on one thing: It's only a matter of time
before the next outbreak happens. - Beating the Flu: The Natural Prescription for Surviving Pandemic Influenza and Bird Fluby J. E. Williams - Available on Amazon.com
Fear of influenza deaths in numbers similar to the 1918flu epidemic
led to a recommendation that the federal government vaccinate all
Americans. When insurance companies refused to provide coverage to the
vaccine manufacturers, the government agreed to accept liability for
claims of adverse events. This obstacle having been cleared, the
National influenza Immunization Program (NIIP) officially started in October of 1976. - More Natural Cures Revealed: Previously Censored Brand Name Products That Cure Diseaseby Kevin Trudeau - Available on Amazon.com
Given the increasing virulence and frequency of other viruses, it seems certain that a more potent influenza virus will appear. In the temperate regions, like North America and Europe, flu outbreaks occur every winter and epidemics approximately every eight to ten years. Worldwide influenza
pandemics occur every ten to forty years, and in the last century the
world experienced three: the Spanish flu of 1918; the Asian flu in
1957; and the Hong Kong flu in 1968. - Viral Immunityby J. E. Williams, O.M.D. - Available on Amazon.com
If a strain of influenza emerged that retained these traits and added others like resistance to antiviral drugs and the ability to outsmart vaccines, we'd be in big trouble. A super flu is a viral infection that has all the ancestral traits of influenza,
is drug-resistant, has undergone genetic mutations that make it
possible for it to spread from human to human, no one has immunity to,
and is extremely contagious and virulent. Pandemic influenza, like the Spanish flu of 1918, is much more virulent than regular flu. - Beating the Flu: The Natural Prescription for Surviving Pandemic Influenza and Bird Fluby J. E. Williams - Available on Amazon.com
Though little attention is paid to a possible connection between fibromyalgia and influenza
A, some experts suggest it is an overlooked syndrome. In one research
paper, Allen Tyler, a medical doctor and naturopathic physician,
reports that fibromyalgia was not seen before the 1918 flu pandemic. In his research, he found that 90 percent of fibromyalgia patients tested positive for influenza A antibodies. - Viral Immunityby J. E. Williams, O.M.D. - Available on Amazon.com
The experts hope that a pandemic influenza
will be nothing more than a more severe version of seasonal nuisance
flu, but they're not betting on it. Viral dynamics are a mystery. We
could be in for a super flu. During a pandemic, symptoms may not follow
the usual course. If the coming one is anything like the 1918influenza
pandemic, inflammation may not be confined to the lungs, like regular
flu, but could affect the brain, liver, and other body tissues. The
virus could even bypass the respiratory system entirely. - Beating the Flu: The Natural Prescription for Surviving Pandemic Influenza and Bird Fluby J. E. Williams - Available on Amazon.com
The 1918-19 epidemic of Spanish influenza
killed 20-40 million people in less than a year, causing more deaths
than all the massive military casualties of World War I. In the spring
of 1918, the German Army's assault on Paris was halted by this
flu. It not only affected Europeans, but an unbelievable 80 percent of
the United States Army's death toll was from the Spanish flu that
killed 43,000 American soldiers between 1917 and 1919 -- nearly as many
as died in combat in the Korean War some thirty years later. - Viral Immunityby J. E. Williams, O.M.D. - Available on Amazon.com
During
the conquest of the Americas, upward of 95 percent of indigenous people
in North America, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and South
America were wiped out by smallpox and influenza. The last major killer pandemic, the Spanish flu of 1918,
caused an estimated 50 million deaths and possibly as high as 100
million in a single year. It reached even remote corners of the globe.
The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic was more like a Biblical prophecy come true than a medical disease. - Beating the Flu: The Natural Prescription for Surviving Pandemic Influenza and Bird Fluby J. E. Williams - Available on Amazon.com
This tablet is made from the combined strains of influenza virus from the major flu epidemics since 1918.
The combined strains are then homeopathically prepared and potentized.
No ill effects have ever been reported from the "cold and flu" tablet,
and the rate of protection has been high. In the flu epidemic of 1918 to 1920, the homeopaths lost only 1 percent of their patients, as opposed to 30 to 40 percent under allopathic care. - Homeopathic Medicine at Home: Natural Remedies for Everyday Ailments and Minor Injuriesby Maesimund B. Panos, M.D. and Jane Heimlich - Available on Amazon.com
The 1918 outbreak was directly linked with the Great War (World War 1). The influenza
A virus strain of subtype H1N1 behind the flu pandemic was unusually
severe and deadly. What made it that way? At no time in history was the
world exposed to such massive and 24-hour pollution created by the
fumes and smoke resulting from continuous bomb and grenade explosions,
the burning of entire cities, the effects of mustard gases and other
biological weapons by Germans. Nobody remained uninfluenced by it. - Timeless Secrets of Health & Rejuvenation: Unleash The Natural Healing Power That Lies Dormant Within Youby Andreas Moritz - Available on Amazon.com
There are no controlled trials that show that a flu shot
prevents deaths in children or the elderly. The only positive studies
are of patients with COPD, probably because COPD patients have marginal
lung function and preventing any flu infections
will have a greater impact. Dr. Tom Jefferson, an epidemiologist
working for the Cochrane Collaboration in Rome, Italy, a nonprofit
organization that conducts analyses of published clinical trials, led a
group that performed a comprehensive review of the published data on
flu vaccines. - Before You Take that Pill: Why the Drug Industry May Be Bad for Your Healthby J. Douglas Bremner - Available on Amazon.com
Just as the vaccination against hepatitis will give a false positive, the innocuous flu shot will create the same mistaken result. The New York Times reported, "Some blood donors who received the Beijing flu shot were testing positive to HFV... Upon further blood testing, the 'positive' HIV
tests were determined to be 'false-positive.'" A more scholarly
examination appeared in the American Journal of Epidemiology, which
noted that in December 1991, "U.S. blood centers reported an unusual
increase in donations that tested falsely reactive" for HIV antibodies
and other infections. - AIDS: A Second Opinionby Gary Null, James Feast - Available on Amazon.com
The decision was to compensate anyone who got the disease within ten weeks of a swine flu shot.
The cases were to be tried by federal district judges, without a jury,
and so it would be up to the judges to decide who had a legitimate
claim and who did not. The law allowed people to file claims within two
years after their injuries, and the claims steadily dribbled in. In
September 1977, 743 claims had been filed, seeking $325,671,708 in
damages. There were also 67 claims of wrongful death, including 19 of death from Guillain-Barre syndrome, and these claims sought an additional $1,032,948,179. - Flu : The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemicby Gina Kolata - Available on Amazon.com
With each new flu shot, on the other hand, your immune system becomes more depleted and the side effects
become more pronounced and severe. And, you may still get the flu
anyway... The bottom line is that there is no real advantage in having
a flu shot. And certainly, given the frailty of so many of the
oldest members of society, there is absolutely no reliable way of
telling whether the flu or something else may have led to their death. The death rate in and out of the flu season is actually about the same. But then, as we have seen with AIDS, statistics can be manipulated in ways that support theories which have only one objective, to keep the medical business going. - Timeless Secrets of Health & Rejuvenation: Unleash The Natural Healing Power That Lies Dormant Within Youby Andreas Moritz - Available on Amazon.com
In 1999 a bizarre flu-like illness struck millions, the flu shot
seemingly offering little if any protection. Instead of lasting the
typical week or so, symptoms persisted as long as six weeks, severely
weakening infected individuals. Yet, it was Dr. Lederberg who described
the return of the cycle of epidemic infection, not nationally
but, rather, globally. He predicts that a pandemic, that is a global
epidemic afflicting untold millions, perhaps billions, will strike at
any moment. His view is shared by the majority of microbiologists. The
viruses of the current era are highly invasive. - Dr. Cass Ingram's Lifesaving Curesby Dr. Cass Ingram - Available on Amazon.com
About the author: Mike Adams is a holistic nutritionist with
a passion for sharing empowering information to help improve personal
and planetary health He has authored and published thousands of
articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health
and the environment, impacting the lives of millions of readers around
the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading
his articles. Adams is a trusted, independent journalist who receives
no money or promotional fees whatsoever to write about other companies'
products. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of super bright LED light bulbs that are 1000% more energy efficient than incandescent lights. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products
(BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund
non-profit endeavors. He's also a noted pioneer in the email marketing
software industry, having been the first to launch an HTML email newsletter technology that has grown to become a standard in the industry. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates. http://www.naturalnews.com/025759.html