Influenza
by Richard Pitt, originally appeared in Mothering Magazine, 7.26.05
We like to think that the advice we get from health organizations and medical professionals is determined solely by unbiased concerns and supported by scientific evidence. However, as most of us are aware, other factors influence decisions regarding health policy. The most obvious of these is the economic and political influence of the drug companies, which has grown considerably in the last 20 years. Another factor is the psychological and social impacts of the events of September 11, 2001, which have helped to create in this country what many are now calling "a culture of fear."
changing recommendations
Only a few years ago, the flu vaccine was recommended mainly for elderly people, who were considered to be at risk for flu complications such as pneumonia. In 2002-2003, the flu vaccine was recommended for children who already had diseases such as asthma, and who were also considered more likely to suffer flu complications. By April of this year, both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended the flu vaccine for all children ages 6 through 23 months, as well as for household contacts and caregivers of all children younger than two years. In the fall of 2004, the flu vaccine will be added to the United States Recommended Childhood and Adolescent Immunization Schedule, which is approved by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the CDC, the AAP, and the American Academy of Family Physicians.
According to a September 24, 2003, report in USA Today, the CDC was already recommending that everyone get the vaccine in the fall of 2003 (in contrast to the CDC's official published material, which at that time did not recommend that healthy people under age 50 get the vaccine). Due to a rare abundance of the vaccine, it was possible for everybody to be vaccinated. The article stated that the flu kills an average of 36,000 people in the US each year—nearly twice the previous estimate—and that about 20 percent of the population will become infected and 114,000 will be hospitalized.
The routine application of the flu vaccine raises questions that are rarely asked in the medical community or by the public. What has changed in one year? Has a new and virulent flu virus suddenly taken hold? More important, have there been any long-term vaccine trials, especially on children? The answer to these questions is no. The truth is that most children, especially those being breastfed, are at small risk of getting the flu (as opposed to the common cold), and that if they do, they usually recover quickly, without complications. In addition, injected flu vaccine still contains ethyl mercury in the form of the preservative thimerosal. There is alarming evidence of a possible connection between the mercury found in vaccines and the spiraling rate of autism in children. Because of concern about mercury in all vaccines, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA ) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) directed vaccine manufacturers to remove mercury from all childhood vaccines in 1999. In that same year, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the United States Public Health Service (USPS) issued a joint statement calling for the elimination of mercury content in childhood vaccines. Even the Institute of Medicine said, at its July 15, 2001, meeting, that the link between autism and thimerosal was "biologically plausible," and recommended that drug companies remove all mercury from vaccines and over-the-counter drugs. However, several vaccines still contain thimerosal, and neither the AAP nor the CDC will warn citizens to choose thimerosal-free flu vaccines in the fall.
In addition to the potential risks to children from mercury in vaccines, adults should be concerned about the risks they themselves accumulate by taking the vaccine each year. According to Hugh Fudenberg, MD, one of the world's leading immunogeneticists, if an individual had five flu shots between 1970 and 1980 (the years studied), his or her chances of getting Alzheimer's disease are ten times higher than a person who had one, two, or no shots. He explained that mercury and aluminum are found in every flu shot. The gradual buildup of mercury and aluminum in the brain causes cognitive dysfunction.
next...the epidemic of 2003