"Step
back and think for a minute before rushing and panicking" is the message
coming from Texas Congressman Ron Paul who has warned that the swine flu scare
will once again be used as a precedent for big government intrusion.
"It makes me think back to 1976, the first year I served in
the Congress," Paul has said in a video
update. "We had a vote on the swine flu. Back then there was
panic, they said it was going to sweep the nation and they rapidly came up with
some flu shots and the government was going to inoculate everybody and save the
world from this disaster."
"It turned out that our instincts were correct." the
Congressman, also a medical physician, commented. "Not only did we think
that the government should be involved in making medical decisions... but the
flu came, the flu went and one person died, except for those individuals that
died from getting the flu vaccine."
Earlier this week we reported on the events of 1976,
highlighting the fact that this last significant outbreak of swine flu in the
U.S. originated at the
army base at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
President Gerald Ford and then Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld (a man who has long standing intimate ties with the big pharma
companies that have and will reap millions in profits from these scares)
instituted a mass nationwide vaccination program. More than 40 million people
were vaccinated. However, the program was stopped short after over 500 cases of
Guillain-Barre syndrome, a severe paralyzing nerve disease, were reported.
Officially 30 people died as a direct result of the vaccinations, though the
real figure is generally thought to have been much higher.
Paul described the move as “a shocking misuse of funds …and
an evil political maneuver”, “blatant advertising efforts to panic the
people into taking Swine Flu shots will fail.” Paul said.
Some of the fearmongering advertisement campaigns from 1976 are
featured in the following video:
"Here we are once again, swine flu coming up and everybody
is panicking." Ron Paul says in his latest update.
"This is not to downplay the seriousness of it. Some people
have died, some people might die, yet we've had no deaths in this country,
there's seven or eight cases up in New York, but none have even been
hospitalised and yet it's practically like we've been attacked by nuclear
weapons."
The Congressman put the current panic in perspective by pointing
out that last year alone there were 13,000 cases of tuberculosis with the number
of annual deaths last recorded in the hundreds.
Paul then opined on how the scare will once again be pounced
upon to bolster and further empower big government. He referred to Janet
Napolitano's announcement Sunday that the Department of Homeland Security had
started "passive surveillance protocols to screen people coming into the
country."
"How did the Department of Homeland Security get into the
medical business? It's just totally out of control," Paul said, describing
the situation as an open door invitation to allow the federal government to deal
with medical problems.
The big question is 'Does a bigger government always solve these
problems?' No, they usually make things much worse.
ABC
News' Jonathan Karl
reports: In Texas, state
officials have shut down all high school sporting events. In
Washington, Vice President Biden says he's advised family members not to fly in
airplanes. But at least one member of Congress has a different message on
the swine flu: Don't worry about it.
Congressman Ron Paul, R-Tex., is a committed libertarian who is skeptical of
government action of any kind. He is also one of the few medical doctors
in Congress and he may have a point. Maybe, just maybe, swine flu fears
have been blown out of proportion.
As ABC's
Z. Byron Wolf reported earlier this week, Dr.
Paul was a freshman Congressman in 1976, during the last swine flu panic.
He says he was one of just two members of the House who voted against the
emergency swine flu vaccination program ordered by President Ford. An
extreme position? Not really. Only one person died from the swine
flu then, but at least 25 people died because of the vaccine.
Ron
Paul is -- or was -- an ob-gyn doctor. So he should know, right? And he says
all this swine flu H2ON9 or whatever scary flu talk is, well, just that -- scare
talk. Just another facet of an ongoing plot by the federal government to
frighten the public and assume more control over the lives of Americans.
In a regular video report to supporters (see below), the 11-term
libertarian-like Texas Republican congressman says simply: "The government
shouldn't be in the medical business."
He describes a similar outbreak of swine flu back in 1976 when Democrat Joe
Biden was already a senator but Barack
Obama was just a teenager. Paul says he was one of two votes against federal
involvement in flu-fighting back then.
"There was a panic," he recalls, "and they said it was going
to sweep the nation and the government came up with some flu shots and the
government was going to inoculate everybody and save the world from this
disaster."
According to Paul, one person died in the swine flu outbreak that year while
more than 25 died as a result of bad reactions to the flu shots. Which sounds
like scary stuff to those of us sneezing into our bent arms and compulsively
washing our hands this morning. By late today word of mouth and exaggerated
e-mails will have the number of those 1976 deaths up to 250 or worse.
Not to mention the secret highway being planned from Mexico across Texas to
connect with Canada. But that's another conspiracy.
"Here we are once again," Paul says, "swine flu coming up and
everybody's panicking. It's practically like we've been attacked by nuclear
weapons. I mean, press conferences on the weekend! And how did the Department of
Homeland Security get into the medical business?"
Paul, who's even older than another unsuccessful Republican presidential
candidate John
McCain, paints the outbreak of panic over the outbreak of flu as another bid
by the new Democratic administration to grow government unnecessarily. He has
more to say in the video below.
"The big question," the shirt-sleeved Grandpa Paul lectures,
"is, does bigger government always solve these problems? It usually makes
them much worse."
Which is, of course, a totally ridiculous assertion. Look at how well the
federal government handled the Hurricane Katrina aftermath.
GENEVA, Switzerland (CNN) --
Confirmed cases of swine flu worldwide increased to 236 on Thursday, up
significantly from the previous day's total of 147, the World Health
Organization reported.
Mask-wearing people buy coffee and doughnuts Thursday morning in
Mexico City, Mexico.
In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention said it has confirmed 109 cases of swine flu, or 2009 H1N1, in 11
states, an increase of 18 from its previous total.
Mexico, with 97 confirmed cases, showed the biggest increase
in the world, WHO said. There were 26 confirmed cases Wednesday.
The higher totals do not necessarily mean that incidence of
the disease is increasing, but rather that health investigators are getting
through their backlog of specimens, said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, assistant
director-general of WHO.
The latest tally was announced one day after WHO raised the
pandemic threat level to 5 on a six-step scale. WHO did not change the threat
level Thursday.
"It really is all of humanity that is under threat
during a pandemic," said Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO's director-general.
"We do not have all the answers right now, but we will get them." View
images of responses in U.S. and worldwide »
The health department in Spain reported three new confirmed
cases, bringing the total for the country to 13. H1N1 was suspected in 84 other
cases.
The health department in the United Kingdom also reported
three new cases, to bring the total there to eight. An additional 230 cases are
being investigated. See
where cases have been confirmed »
On Thursday, Japan reported its first suspected case, which
has not been verified by WHO.
In the United States, New York has the most cases, with 50,
followed by Texas, with 26. California has 14 cases.
The CDC on Thursday added an 11th state, South Carolina,
with 10 cases.
"There are many more states that have suspect cases,
and we will be getting additional results over time," said Dr. Richard
Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in
Atlanta, Georgia.
By Monday, he said, all states will have additional
antiviral drugs from the Strategic National Stockpile that can be given to
people at high risk for flu. There hasn't been a decision on whether to attempt
making a vaccine specifically for H1N1, he said.
Swine flu is a contagious respiratory disease that affects
pigs and can jump to humans. Symptoms include fever, runny nose, sore throat,
nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Learn
about swine flu »
Reacting to comments earlier in the day by Vice President
Joe Biden, who said he has advised his family to avoid "confined
spaces" such as airplanes and subways, Besser said, "If you have a
fever and flu-like symptoms, you should not be getting on an airplane. That is
part of being a responsible part of our community. You don't want to put people
at risk.
"I think flying is safe, going on the subway is safe.
People should go out and live their lives," he said, but added, "There
is shared responsibility when it comes to preventing infectious diseases, shared
responsibility when it comes to fighting a new infection for which we have
incomplete information. Go
behind the scenes at the CDC »
"There's no one action that's going to stop this.
There's no silver bullet, but all of the efforts ... will help to reduce the
impact on people's health."
Nowhere is the crisis more severe than in Mexico. Medics in
Mexico City were tending to patients in tents set up outside hospitals while
clad head-to-toe in biohazard suits, goggles and two pairs of glasses.
The government has ordered a shutdown of about 35,000 public
venues, mandated restaurants to serve takeout only and closed all nonessential
government offices and private businesses. Watch
how Mexican authorities are dealing with the outbreak »
Mexican President Felipe Calderon took to television late
Wednesday night, saying the country has enough medicine to cure the sick.
"In times of difficulty, we've always come
together," he said. "Together we will overcome this disease."
Ecuador joined Cuba and Argentina in
banning travel to or from Mexico. Egypt began slaughtering all pigs Thursday,
although no cases of swine flu have been reported in that country.
A doctor in Texas claims that swine flu cases are at least ten times worse
than officials are letting on, and that hospitals are becoming overwhelmed as
the virus has already crossed the threshold to be considered a phase 6 global
pandemic.
Dr. Marcus Gitterle, an emergency medicine
physician based out of New Braunfels, Texas, sent out an internal alert which
contains several stunning claims about swine flu that, if true, officials have
presumably sought to keep from the public.
“After I returned from a public health
meeting yesterday with community leaders and school officials in Comal County
and Hays County, (name removed) suggested I send an update to my patients in the
area, because what we are hearing privately from the CDC and Health Department
is different from what you are hearing in the media,” writes Gitterle.
The doctor claims that the actual number of
confirmed cases of swine flu is 10 to 25 times worse than has been reported, and
that people are not recovering easily, as has been claimed, but that many
Americans are in fact seriously ill.
CLICK FOR ENLARGEMENTS
“The way they fudge on reporting this is
that it takes 3 days to get the confirmatory nod from the CDC on a given viral
culture, but based on epidemiological grounds, we know that there are more than
10 cases for each “confirmed” case right now,” claims Gitterle.
“This has not been in the media, but a 23
month old in Houston is fighting for his life, and a pregnant woman just south
of San Antonio is fighting for her life,” he writes.
Gitterle’s mention of a “23 month old in
Houston” obviously refers to the Mexican toddler who died on Monday night and
was announced as the first U.S. fatality on Tuesday morning.
Quick access to drugs like Tamiflu and Relenza,
as well as ventilators, is preventing fatalities on the scale of Mexico, but
Gitterle warns that “within a couple of weeks, regional hospitals will likely
become overwhelmed”.
Gitterle warns, “ER’s south of here are becoming overwhelmed — and I
mean that — already. It is coming in waves, but the waves are getting
bigger.”
The doctor states that the severity of the
situation has already crossed the threshold of the definition of a WHO phase 6
pandemic. “This has not happened in any of our lifetimes so far. We are in
uncharted territory,” he writes.
Gitterle claims that President Obama is being
advised to declare a national emergency and that this could happen within the
next 48 hours.
“This may not happen, but if it doesn’t, I
will be surprised. When this happens, all public gathering will be cancelled for
10 days minimum,” writes the doctor.
Gitterle advises people to avoid all public
gatherings, especially those held indoors, to avoid going to their ER if they
feel ill, and to take the nutritional supplements N-Acetyl-Cysteine and
Oscillococinum. He recommends Relenza as a more powerful drug than Tamiflu but
warns that supplies of both drugs are running out fast.
The doctor states that swine flu is infectious
for about two days prior to symptom onset and that the virus can spread for more
than seven days after symptom onset. The symptoms are the same as normal flu,
although it has been discovered that swine flu causes a distinctive
“hoarseness” in many victims.
“Since it is such a novel (new) virus, there
is no “herd immunity,” so the “attack rate” is very high. This is the
percentage of people who come down with a virus if exposed. Almost everyone who
is exposed to this virus will become infected, though not all will be
symptomatic. That is much higher than seasonal flu, which averages 10-15%. The
“clinical attack rate” estimation from CDC and WHO may be around 40-50%.
This is the number of people who show symptoms. This is a huge number. It is
hard to convey the seriousness of this to those outside of the medical
fields,” he writes.
Many people react with incredulity when the assertion is made that the
so-called swine flu outbreak in Mexico may be manufactured crisis. And yet
history is replete with examples of government using biological and chemical
agents for political purpose.
As a primary example, consider the CIA’s secret war against Cuba and Fidel
Castro.
The CIA used chemical agents and
toxins then stockpiled at Fort Detrick against Cuba and Fidel Castro.
In 1975, the Church Committee revealed a CIA memorandum listing deadly
chemical agents and toxins then stockpiled at Fort Detrick. “These included
anthrax, encephalitis, tuberculosis, lethal snake venom, shellfish toxin, and
half a dozen lethal food poisons, some of which, the committee learned, had been
shipped in the early 1960s to Congo and to Cuba in unsuccessful CIA attempts to
assassinate Patrice Lumumba and Fidel Castro,” write Ellen Ray and William H.
Schaap (Bioterror: Manufacturing Wars the American Way, Ocean Press,
2003, p. vii).
Schaap cites the work of Dr. Marc Lappé (Chemical and Biological
Warfare: The Science of Public Death, Student Research Facility for East
Bay Women for Peace and Science Students for Social Responsibility, 1969), who
claims that the U.S. Army had a biological warfare agent prepared for use
against Cuba at the time of the Missile Crisis in 1962, mostly likely Q fever (Coxiella
burnetii, a bacterium that affects both humans and animals). In 1977, a
Washington Post report confirmed that during this time the CIA maintained an
“anticrop warfare” program.
In regard to swine flu, the San
Francisco Chronicle reported on January 10, 1977, that CIA “operatives
linked to anti-Castro terrorists introduced African swine fever virus into Cuba
in 1971.” The outbreak, the first time the disease hit the Western Hemisphere,
was labeled the “most alarming event” of 1971 by the United Nations Food and
Agricultural Organization. Cuba reacted to outbreak by slaughtering 500,000
pigs. An intelligence source told the newspaper “that early in 1971 he was
given the virus in a sealed, unmarked container at Ft. Gulick, an Army base in
the Panama Canal Zone. The CIA also operates a paramilitary training center for
career personnel and mercenaries at Ft. Gulick.” The source said he was given
instructions to turn the container with the virus over to members of an
anti-Castro group.
In 1980, described as “the year of the plagues” by Schaap, “Cuba was beset
with disasters. Another African swine fever epidemic hit; the tobacco crop was
decimated by blue mold; and the sugarcane crops were hit with a particularly
damaging rust disease.”
By 1981, the Cuban population was targeted with hemorrhagic dengue fever, a
devastating disease transmitted by mosquitoes. “From May to October 1981 there
were well over 300,000 reported cases, with 158 fatalities, 101 involving
children under 15. At the peak of the epidemic, in early July, more than 10,000
cases per day were being reported. More than a third of the reported victims
required hospitalization. By mid-October, after a massive campaign to eradicate
Aedes aegypti [mosquito], the epidemic was over,” writes Schaap. “The
history of the secret war against Cuba and the virulence of this dengue epidemic
were enough to generate serious suspicions that the United States had a hand in
the dengue epidemic of 1981. But there is much more support for those suspicions
than a healthy distrust of U.S. intentions regarding Cuba.”
After interviewing officials from the Pan American Health Organization and of
the Cuban Ministry of Public Health, Schaap states that he believes the
“epidemic was artificially induced.”
The epidemic began with the simultaneous discovery in May 1981 of three
cases of hemorrhagic dengue caused by a type 2 virus. The cases arose in three
widely separated parts of Cuba: Cienfuegos, Camagiiey, and Havana. It is
extremely unusual that such an epidemic would commence in three different
localities at once. None of the initial victims had ever traveled out of the
country; for that matter, none of them had recently been away from home. None
had had recent contact with international travelers. Moreover, a study of
persons arriving in Cuba in the month of May from known dengue areas found
only a dozen such passengers (from Vietnam and Laos), all of whom were checked
by the Institute of Tropical Medicine and found free of the disease. Somehow,
infected mosquitoes had appeared in three provinces of Cuba at the same time.
Somehow, the fever spread at an astonishing rate. There appears to be no other
explanation but the artificial introduction of infected mosquitoes.
Researchers believe the Mexican swine flu outbreak may also be
“artificially induced.” First, the Mexican outbreak occurred outside of the
normal flu season (influenza usually obeys a regularly re-occurring time period
– in temperate climate zones, the flu season will typically begin in the late
fall and peak in mid- to late winter, while in tropical zones flu seasons appear
to be less pronounced, with year-round isolation of the virus). Second, the
genetic makeup of the fast-spreading H1N1 strain of influenza — including
genetic elements from bird flu, swine flu and human flu covering three
continents — appears to be man-made.
“What seems suspicious to me is the hybrid origin of the viral fragments
found in H1N1 influenza,” writes Mike
Adams. These viral fragments include human influenza, bird flu from North
America, and swine flu from Europe and Asia.
This is rather astonishing to realize, because for this to have been a
natural combination of viral fragments, it means an infected bird from North
America would have had to infect pigs in Europe, then be re-infected by those
some pigs with an unlikely cross-species mutation that allowed the bird to
carry it again, then that bird would have had to fly to Asia and infected pigs
there, and those Asian pigs then mutated the virus once again (while
preserving the European swine and bird flu elements) to become human
transmittable, and then a human would have had to catch that virus from the
Asian pigs — in Mexico! — and spread it to others.
At present, there is little evidence the virus was created in a U.S. lab and
deliberately unleashed on an unsuspecting Mexican public. However, there is
plenty of evidence the U.S. military and the CIA have used biological agents in
the past, including “tests” on the American people.
“More than 200 experiments were carried out in U.S. rural areas to test the
spread of non-lethal germs,” writes Joe
Allen. “These tests were also carried out in San Francisco in 1950 and in
New York in 1966. While the cover for these tests was to study a ‘defense’
against biochemical warfare, U.S. war planners wanted this knowledge for
offensive use against an enemy population,” for instance livestock and people
in Cuba, as mentioned above.
At the height of Cold War insanity, the U.S. government gave a free hand
for its scientists to experiment on anything that could possibly further its
military prowess. The CIA experimented with LSD for “mind control.” At
Fort Detrick, scientists studied the possibility of spreading yellow fever and
plague with insects. Anti-crop bombs were built for the United States Air
Force to be used in the Third World.
It appears this insanity did not stop with the Cold War. Last week, the Frederick
News Post reported Army criminal investigators are looking into the
possibility that disease samples are missing from biolabs at Fort Detrick.
Finally, investigative journalist Wayne
Madsen has reported that “a top scientist for the United Nations, who has
examined the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Africa, as well as HIV/AIDS
victims, [and] concluded that H1N1 possesses certain transmission ‘vectors’
that suggest that the new flu strain has been genetically-manufactured as a
military biological warfare weapon. The UN expert believes that Ebola, HIV/AIDS,
and the current A-H1N1 swine flu virus are biological warfare agents.”
Again, at this time, there is no definitive evidence indicating the Mexican
virus is a bioweapon. However, there is plenty of factual evidence pointing to
the fact the U.S. government (and other governments) have developed biological
weapons and have used them against target populations.
The U.S. Army is finishing an investigation into
the disappearance of three vials of a potentially lethal pathogen from the
U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick,
Md., the Washington Post reported today (see GSN,
Feb. 10).
(Apr. 23) - The
U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases last year reported
it could not account for several disease agent vials (U.S. Army photo).
The inquiry begun in 2008 by the service's Criminal Investigation Command
is "in the final stages of its mandatory review process before being
closed," according to command spokesman Christopher Grey. There is
"no evidence to date of any criminality related to the unaccounted-for
items," he said.
The Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus is considered a possible tool of
bioterrorism, but poses a significantly smaller threat than anthrax and other
disease agents handled at the institute.
The missing material is believed to have been destroyed when a freezer
malfunctioned, said USAMRIID spokeswoman Caree Vander Linden. The absence was
detected last year by a scientist conducting an inventory of samples that had
been passed down by two other researchers upon their successive departures
from the facility.
"We'll probably never know exactly what happened," said one Army
official. "It could be the freezer malfunction. It could be they never
existed."
Investigators spoke with "literally hundreds of people" in the
course of their work, the official said.
"They caught me on my cell phone on the road, and I stopped and talked
to them for quite a long time," said former laboratory scientist Alan
Schmaljohn, who now teaches at the University of Maryland. "She was just
going down this whole list of questions, including, 'Did you take it?'"
Schmaljohn answered in the negative. It would not be hard to lose three
vials, particularly if they must be rearranged following a problem with a
freezer, he said.
"The number of vials is utterly meaningless," Schmaljohn said.
"Three vials missing is no indication of any evildoing. ... It's almost
equivalent to saying you're missing 3 cents out of the national budget. ...
From the scientist's point of view it is inconsequential, but from the
regulator's point of view it is an indication of sloppiness, and they are
finally going to take rugged action."
The institute's security practices are already
under scrutiny, following the Justice Department's conclusion that USAMRIID
scientist Bruce Ivins perpetrated the 2001 anthrax mailings that killed five
people (see GSN,
Jan. 6). Ivins killed himself in 2008 before any charges were filed.
The laboratory is also finishing a full inventory
of its virus and bacterium holdings, which began in February after another
accounting problem was found in storage of Venezuelan equine encephalitis
virus, the Post reported (see GSN,
Feb. 10). Research largely stopped amid the accounting, though some has since
resumed, Vander Linden said (Hernandez/Tyson, Washington
Post, April 23).
Czech newspapers are questioning if the
shocking discovery of vaccines contaminated with the deadly avian flu virus
which were distributed to 18 countries by the American company Baxter were part
of a conspiracy to provoke a pandemic.
The claim holds weight because, according to
the very laboratory protocols that are routine for vaccine makers, mixing a live
virus biological weapon with vaccine material by accident is virtually
impossible.
“The company that released contaminated flu
virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental
product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses,” reports
the Canadian Press.
Baxter flu vaccines contaminated with H5N1 -
otherwise known as the human form of avian flu, one of the most deadly
biological weapons on earth with a 60% kill rate - were received by labs in the
Czech Republic, Germany, and Slovenia.
Initially, Baxter attempted to stonewall
questions by invoking “trade secrets” and refused to reveal how the vaccines
were contaminated with H5N1. After increased pressure they then claimed that
pure H5N1 batches were sent by accident. This was seemingly an attempt to
quickly change the story and hide the fact that the accidental contamination of
a vaccine with a deadly biological agent like avian flu is virtually impossible
and the only way it could have happened was by willful gross criminal
negligence.
According to a compiled translation from Czech
newspaper stories, the media over there is asking tough questions about whether
the contamination was part of a deliberate attempt to start a pandemic.
“Was this just a criminal negligence or it
was an attempt to provoke pandemia using vaccination against flu to spread the
disease - as happened with the anti-B hepatitis vaccination with vaccines
containing the HIV virus in US? - and then cash for the vaccines against H5N1
which Baxter develops? How could on Earth a virus as H5N1 come to the ordinary
flu vaccines? Don’t they follow even basic precautions in the american pharma
companies?” states
the translation.
The fact that Baxter mixed the deadly H5N1
virus with a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses is the smoking gun. The
H5N1 virus on its own has killed hundreds of people, but it is less airborne and
more restricted in the ease with which it can spread. However, when combined
with seasonal flu viruses, which as everyone knows are super-airborne and easily
spread, the effect is a potent, super-airbone, super deadly biological weapon.
As the Canadian Press article explains,
“While H5N1 doesn’t easily infect people, H3N2 viruses do. If someone
exposed to a mixture of the two had been simultaneously infected with both
strains, he or she could have served as an incubator for a hybrid virus able to
transmit easily to and among people.”
There can be little doubt therefore that this
was a deliberate attempt to weaponize the H5N1 virus to its most potent extreme
and distribute it via conventional flu vaccines to the population who would then
infect others to a devastating degree as the disease went airborne.
The Canadian Press article states, “That
mixing process, called reassortment, is one of two ways pandemic viruses are
created,” but then claims that there is no evidence that this is what Baxter
were doing, despite there being no clear explanation as to why Baxter has
samples of the live avian flu virus on its premises in the first place.
However, to reiterate, the key aspect of this
story is that it is virtually impossible for live avian flu virus to
find its way into a vaccine by “accident”.
As health expert Mike
Adams points out, “The shocking answer is that this couldn’t
have been an accident. Why? Because Baxter International adheres to
something called BSL3 (Biosafety Level 3) - a set of laboratory safety protocols
that prevent the cross-contamination of materials.”
“Laboratory personnel have specific training in handling
pathogenic and potentially lethal agents, and are supervised by competent
scientists who are experienced in working with these agents. This is considered
a neutral or warm zone. All procedures involving the manipulation of infectious
materials are conducted within biological safety cabinets or other physical
containment devices, or by personnel wearing appropriate personal protective
clothing and equipment. The laboratory has special engineering and design
features.”
Under the BSL3 code of conduct, it is impossible for live
avian flu viruses to contaminate production vaccine materials that are shipped
out to vendors around the world.
This leaves only two possibilities that explain these
events:
Possibility #1: Baxter isn’t following BSL3 safety
guidelines or is so sloppy in following them that it can make monumental
mistakes that threaten the safety of the entire human race. And if that’s
the case, then why are we injecting our children with vaccines made from
Baxter’s materials?
Possibility #2: A rogue employee (or an evil plot from
the top management) is present at Baxter, whereby live avian flu viruses were intentionally
placed into the vaccine materials in the hope that such materials might be
injected into humans and set off a global bird flu pandemic.
Spreading bird flu would create an
instantaneous surge of demand for bird flu vaccines. The profits that vaccine
companies such as Baxter International could reap out of such a panic are
astronomical.
In addition, as
we have previously reported, those that have a stake in the Tamiflu
vaccine include top globalists and BIlderberg members like George Shultz,
Lodewijk J.R. de Vink and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Authorities in both Europe and the U.S. have
openly detailed plans for martial law, quarantine and internment should a bird
flu pandemic occur.
The other motivation, as
we have exhaustively documented on this website for years, is the
fact that elites throughout history have openly stated that they want to see a
world population reduction of around 80 per cent. Shocking stories like this
take the plausibility of that narrative out of the realms of conspiracy theory
and into the dangerous reality of conspiracy fact.
“Baxter is acting a whole lot like a
biological terrorism organization these days, sending deadly viral samples
around the world. If you mail an envelope full of anthrax to your Senator, you
get arrested as a terrorist. So why is Baxter — which mailed samples of a far
more deadly viral strain to labs around the world — getting away with saying,
essentially, “Oops?”, Adams concludes.
This is not the first time that vaccine
companies have been caught distributing vaccines contaminated with deadly
viruses.
In 2006 it was revealed that Bayer Corporation
had discovered that their injection drug, which was used by hemophiliacs, was
contaminated with the HIV virus. Internal documents prove that after
they positively knew that the drug was contaminated, they took it off the U.S.
market only to dump it on the European, Asian and Latin American markets,
knowingly exposing thousands, most of them children, to the live HIV virus.
Government officials in France went to prison for allowing the drug to be
distributed. The documents show that the FDA colluded with Bayer to cover-up the
scandal and allowed the deadly drug to be distributed globally. No Bayer
executives ever faced arrest or prosecution in the United States.
Tainted Heparin Shipped to U.S. by Two Chinese Firms, FDA
Charges
Date Published: Monday, April 20th, 2009
The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has cited two Chinese
manufacturers for shipping tainted
heparin to the U.S. According to The Wall Street Journal, one of the firms
has also been charged with lying to the FDA about its role in the contaminated
heparin scandal.
In January 2008, Baxter International recalled nearly all its heparin
injections in the US after some patients experienced extreme - and in some
cases fatal - allergic reactions, after being administered the products. There
were similar recalls by other manufacturers of Chinese-sourced heparin in
Denmark, Italy, France Germany and Japan. In total, the FDA said tainted
heparin has been identified in 12 countries. In the US, the FDA
ultimately initiated 13 recalls of multiple contaminated medical products
containing heparin from several companies.
In March 2008, the FDA confirmed that it had found oversulfated chondroitin
sulfate in samples of the active ingredient used in Baxter heparin. The FDA
said the chondroitin sulfate was molecularly changed to mimic heparin’s
blood-clotting properties. That ingredient was supplied to Baxter by Changzhou
SPL, a Chinese plant partially owned by Wisconsin-based Scientific Protein
Laboratories. Chondroitin sulfate costs a fraction of the ingredient usually
used in heparin, and producers may have used it in an attempt to cut costs.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the FDA has now charged that Qingdao
Jiulong Biopharmaceuticals Co. and Shanghai No. 1 Biochemical &
Pharmaceutical Co. were involved in making and sending 19 lots of tainted
heparin sodium to the U.S., which the agency discovered in April 2008. The
tainted drug didn’t reach any patients because the FDA stopped all the
shipments at the border, the Journal said. The FDA said the heparin had been
contaminated with oversulfated chondroitin sulfate.
The charges were included in letters the FDA sent to the firms following
inspections conducted in July and August 2008. In its letter to Shanghai No.
1, the FDA also said it “uncovered untrue statements and information by your
firm to the agency” relating to the actual maker of heparin.
The FDA letters said the firms have in the past supplied heparin to
California-based Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Inc., and its subsidiary
International Medication Systems Ltd. According to The Wall Street Journal,
Amphastar makes pre-filled syringes and other products.
This is the first time the FDA has disclosed that Qingdao Jiulong and
Shanghai No. 1 had been implicated in the tainted heparin scandal, the Journal
said. At a Congressional hearing last March, the FDA would only identify
Changzhou SPL, even though it had said at least 12 Chinese companies had been
implicated.
Illinois-based Baxter working on
vaccine to stop swine flu outbreak in Mexico
By Associated Press
9:22 PM CDT, April 25, 2009
DEERFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Specialty drug maker Baxter International Inc. will
work with the World Health Organization to develop a vaccine that could stem
an outbreak of a deadly swine flu strain in Mexico.
Baxter spokesman Christopher Bona said Saturday that the Deerfield, Ill.-based
company has asked the WHO for a sample of the flu strain.
He says Baxter has patented technology that allows the company to develop
vaccines in half the time it usually takes — about 13 weeks instead of 26.
There have been 20 confirmed deaths in Mexico of the swine flu, with nonfatal
cases also confirmed in Kansas and California.
Humans don't have a natural immunity to swine flu strain that emerged in
Mexico in March. Officials have warned the outbreak could become a global
epidemic.
A U.S. based pharmaceutical company that just weeks ago was
involved in a scandal involving vaccines tainted with deadly avian flu virus has
been chosen to head up efforts to produce a vaccine for the Mexican swine flu
that has seemingly migrated into the U.S. and Europe.
Baxter confirmed over the weekend that it is working with the
World Health Organization on a potential vaccine to curb the deadly swine flu
virus that is blamed for scores of deaths in Mexico and has emerged as a threat
in the U.S., reports the Chicago
Tribune.
Baxter has previously worked with governments all over the globe
to develop and produce vaccines to protect against infectious disease or
potential threats from bioterrorism. After 9/11 Baxter helped supply stockpiles
of a smallpox vaccine and in 2003 the company was contracted to develop a
vaccine to combat the SARS virus. In 2006 the UK Government announced plans
designed to inoculate
every person in the country with Baxter's vaccines in the event of
a flu pandemic.
However, Baxter has a very recent and most disturbing connection to flu
vaccines.
As reported by multiple sources last month, including the Times
of India, vaccines contaminated with deadly live H5N1 avian flu
virus were distributed to 18 countries last December by a lab at an Austrian
branch of Baxter.
It was only by providence that the batch was first tested on ferrets in the
Czech Republic, before being shipped out for injection into humans. The ferrets
all died and the shocking discovery was made.
Initially, Baxter attempted to stonewall questions by invoking “trade
secrets” and refused to reveal how the vaccines were contaminated with H5N1.
After increased pressure they then claimed that pure H5N1 batches were sent by
accident.
Since the probability of mixing a live virus biological weapon with vaccine
material by accident is
virtually impossible, this leaves no other explanation than that
the contamination was a deliberate attempt to weaponize the H5N1 virus to its
most potent extreme and distribute it via conventional flu vaccines to the
population who would then infect others to a devastating degree as the disease
went airborne.
The fact that Baxter mixed the deadly H5N1 virus with a mix of H3N2 seasonal
flu viruses is the smoking gun. The H5N1 virus on its own has killed hundreds of
people, but it is less airborne and more restricted in the ease with which it
can spread. However, when combined with seasonal flu viruses, which as everyone
knows are super-airborne and easily spread, the effect is a potent, super-airbone,
super deadly biological weapon.
Now it has been announced that Baxter is seeking a sample of the
potentially lethal never
before seen form of swine/avian/human flu virus in order to assist
the World Health Organization in developing a new vaccine, reaping billions in
the process.
Why should Baxter be trusted, when they have already been proven
to be at the very least criminally negligent, and at worst a prime suspect in
attempting to carry off one of the most heinous crimes in the history of
mankind?
The company has already put the safety of the entire human race
at risk, and now, just a few weeks later, we're expected to invest our
confidence in them and take their shots with a smile and a still tongue?
As Mike Adams of Natural News has commented, "If you mail
an envelope full of anthrax to your Senator, you get arrested as a terrorist. So
why is Baxter — which mailed samples of a far more deadly viral strain to labs
around the world — getting away with saying, essentially, 'Oops?'"
WHO officials are reportedly still closely monitoring the
investigation into Baxter's contaminated flu vaccines, seemingly they are not
too concerned. Perhaps we should be.
Lawsuit
Charges Baxter Used Dangerous Ingredients In Vaccines To Increase Profits Questions remain over company chosen to develop swine flu vaccine
Steve Watson Infowars.net
Thursday, April 30, 2009
A scandal dating from January 2008, that is continuing to
unfold, raises more disturbing questions over the safety of U.S. pharmaceutical
company Baxter International's vaccines.
There were similar recalls by other manufacturers of
Chinese-sourced heparin in Denmark, Italy, France Germany and Japan, but initial
investigations found that only Baxter's heparin vaccines were tainted.
The FDA
has accused two Chinese manufacturers of being responsible for the
production and shipment of the tainted vaccines, suggesting that a cheaper
synthetic heparin mimic, subsequently identified as over-sulfated chondroitin
sulfate (OSCS), was used to decrease costs.
However, in January 2009 a new lawsuit was filed specifically
against Baxter for it's role in the scandal.
The allegation is that the pharmaceutical giant purposefully
altered an ingredient in heparin that flowed through heparin syringes to
patients, resulting in pain and suffering, and sometimes death, to those
affected, reported legal website Lawyers
and Settlements
Somewhat ironically, the natural ingredient in heparin that was
substituted in order to cut costs was a substance extracted from cooked swine
intestines.
The lawsuit notes that OSCS is not found in nature, and is not
approved in the United States. It accuses Baxter of using a more dangerous
ingredient to "reap greater profits as a result of utilizing cheap
component parts."
As we reported earlier this week, Baxter
has been chosen by the WHO to head up efforts to produce a vaccine
for the Mexican swine flu that is spreading throughout the U.S. and Europe.
The decision was made despite further revelations
last month that vaccines contaminated with deadly live H5N1 avian
flu virus were recently distributed to 18 countries by a lab at an Austrian
branch of Baxter.
Initially, the company attempted to stonewall questions by invoking “trade
secrets” and refused to reveal how the vaccines were contaminated with H5N1.
After increased pressure they then claimed that pure H5N1 batches were sent by
accident.
However, as we have highlighted, the probability of mixing a live virus
biological weapon with vaccine material by accident is
virtually impossible.
It’s emerged that virulent H5N1 bird flu was sent out by accident from an
Austrian lab last year and given to ferrets in the Czech Republic before
anyone realised. As well as the risk of it escaping into the wild, the H5N1
got mixed with a human strain, which might have spawned a hybrid that could
unleash a pandemic.
Last December, the Austrian branch of US vaccine company Baxter sent a
batch of ordinary human H3N2 flu, altered so it couldn’t replicate, to Avir
Green Hills Biotechnology, also in Austria. In February, a lab in the Czech
Republic working for Avir alerted Baxter that, unexpectedly, ferrets
inoculated with the sample had died. It turned out the sample contained live
H5N1, which Baxter uses to make vaccine. The two seem to have been mixed in
error.
Markus Reinhard of Baxter says no one was infected because the H3N2 was
handled at a high level of containment. But Ab Osterhaus of Erasmus University
in the Netherlands says: “We need to go to great lengths to make sure this
kind of thing doesn’t happen.”
Accidental release of a mixture of live H5N1 and H3N2 viruses could have
resulted in dire consequences. While H5N1 doesn’t easily infect people, H3N2
viruses do. If someone exposed to a mixture of the two had been simultaneously
infected with both strains, he or she could have served as an incubator for a
hybrid virus able to transmit easily to and among people.
Scientists Working "100 Miles An Hour," But Process
Takes Time, Agency Says
WASHINGTON, April 28, 2009
This 2009 image taken through a microscope and provided
by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, shows a negative-stained image
of the swine flu virus. (AP/CDC)
(CBS/AP)
U.S. scientists hope to have a key ingredient for a swine flu vaccine ready in
early May, but tell The Associated Press that the novel virus grows slowly in
eggs - the chief way flu vaccines are made.
Even if all goes well, it still will take months before any shots are available
for the necessary safety testing in volunteers.
Dr. Jesse Goodman, the Food and Drug Administration's swine flu chief, said
Tuesday that scientists are working, in his words, "at 100 miles an
hour" to create good raw material to deliver to vaccine manufacturers.
The researchers must engineer a strain that could trigger the immune system
without causing illness. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, flu
vaccine chief Dr. Ruben Donis says that work is about a third completed.
Meanwhile, health officials said the number of confirmed swine flu cases has
jumped to 64 in the U.S.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that the new count
includes "a number of hospitalizations" but they did not say how many.
CDC officials had said there had been just one person hospitalized.
The cases are still only in the five states where they previously were reported.
There are 17 new cases in New York City, four more in Texas and three additional
cases in California.
That brings the total confirmed cases to 45 in New York City, 10 in California,
six in Texas, two in Kansas and one in Ohio.
===============================================================================
Flashback: Another
Flu Pandemic Causing "Accident" Occurred in 2005 Every time there is a pandemic scare, it comes from a laboratory
In April of that year, both the New
Scientist and AP
reported that the virus that caused the 1957 "Asian flu" pandemic,
which killed 1 million to 4 million people, was "accidentally"
released by a lab in the US, and sent all over the world in test kits.
The New Scientist report states:
The flu testing kits were sent to some 3700 labs between
October 2004 and February 2005 by the College of American Pathologists (CAP),
a professional body which helps pathology laboratories improve their accuracy,
by sending them unidentified samples of various germs to identify.
The CAP kits - prepared by private contractor Meridian Bioscience in
Cincinnati, US - were to contain a particular strain of influenza A - the
viral family that causes most flu worldwide. But instead of choosing a strain
from the hundreds of recently circulating influenza A viruses, the firm chose
the 1957 pandemic strain.
Because the 1957 H2 flu strain was replaced by another new strain in 1968,
anyone born after that date has no immunity to it.
"...any escape of the virus in the test kits could be as lethal to them
as the Asian flu of 1957." the report stated at the time.
Because such test kits are routine and do not contain dangerous viruses, they
are not handed at a high level of biological containment. Therefore the chances
of the virus escaping the lab were high and scientists scrambled to find and
destroy the potentially lethal samples.
Despite these facts, the federal government downplayed the possibility of
foul play. From the AP report:
Dr. Nancy Cox, chief of the influenza branch at the federal Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said her agency was notified of the
situation on Friday morning. She also said officials strongly doubted that
someone deliberately planted the strain or that it was an act of bioterrorism.
"It wouldn't be a smart way to start a pandemic to send it to
laboratories, because we have people well trained in biocontainment," Dr.
Cox said.
The New Scientist report also points to another "accident" in 1970
when a H1 flu strain, the cause of the 1918 pandemic, was believed to have
escaped from a faulty batch of live flu vaccine prepared in a Russian lab.
(CNET)
-- Following the outbreaks of SARS and Avian Flu earlier this decade, Sprint
Nextel has taken the threat of a global flu pandemic very seriously. And in
2005, the company created a special group within its Emergency Incident
Management team to plan what to do in such an emergency.
Passengers wear protective masks as they arrive Wednesday at Los Angeles
International Airport.
Late last week, when the World Health Organization started
alerting the international community to the threat of the swine influenza that
originated in Mexico, Sprint's four years of planning came into action and
Sprint has been working through its checklist of actions.
On Friday, it started posting information and updates on its
internal Web site for employees. And by Monday, when the virus had started
showing up in dozens of cases in the U.S., the company restricted travel to
Mexico.
It also asked any employees going to El Paso, Texas, or
anywhere else near the Mexican border to notify the company. But Sprint, which
has only one call center in Mexico, has not closed any facilities yet.
By Wednesday, when the World Health Organization raised its
pandemic alert to level 5, which is the second-highest level of alert that
indicates a swine flu pandemic is imminent, Sprint started considering more
drastic actions from its check list.
While it's still unclear exactly how severe or deadly the
swine flu will be or even how devastating it will be the global economy, U.S.
and International health officials are taking the threat very seriously. And as
a result, so are many companies.
But the level of preparedness varies greatly among
companies. And experts say that it's important for companies to take action now
rather than wait until a full pandemic.
Research firm Gartner has been advising its clients to
prepare as quickly as they can for the worst case scenario. For companies like
Sprint that already have plans in place, the firm is advising clients to call
their vendors to make sure that they are also prepared to do business during the
outbreak and to test any remote communications contingency plans already in
place. For those without a formal plan, Ken McGee, a vice president and research
fellow at Gartner, suggests they get one as soon as possible.
"As the World Health Organization moves from a phase 4
alert to a phase 5 alert, which goes beyond the level achieved by both the Avian
and SARS outbreaks, the likelihood of a major pandemic is almost certain, "
he said. "And it's very important for companies to have a pandemic
contingency plan in place. That said, this is a time not for panic, but for
straight talk and preparation."
Contingency plans
Sprint Nextel is not the only large company to have
developed a flu pandemic contingency plan. Several large technology companies,
including Microsoft, General Electric, IBM, and Dell already have plans in
place.
At least initially many companies are focusing on keeping
employees healthy by restricting travel and encouraging workers in affected
areas to work from home. But as the threat level rises, so will their reactions
to situation. For example, Sprint is now considering whether to sanitize call
centers and offices in regions where the virus has been identified or whether it
should eliminate face-to-face meetings with employees who are living in regions
where the swine flu has already shown up.
"With the alert level rising, we are having a lot of
conference calls to decide what to do," said Crystal Davis, a Sprint
spokeswoman and a member of Sprint's Emergency Incident Management team.
Microsoft has also activated its incident management team,
which responds to various types of diseases, natural disasters and other
emergencies.
"We're following the guidance from the Mexican
government as far as our offices and employees," said Microsoft spokesman
Kevin Kutz. "We are strongly encouraging everyone to work from home. The
Mexico City office is open, but we are asking folks only to go in if it is
absolutely necessary."
Global conglomerate GE has already decided to restrict
employees to essential travel only to Mexico and it has updated its existing
contingency plans to deal with a potentially larger impact from the swine flu,
according to a representative.
Following the bird flu and SARS diseases earlier this
decade, IBM in 2006 started including pandemics as part of its disaster
contingency planning. The company has done an assessment of how many employees
can work at home and what skills they have in the case some employees get sick.
Outside of Mexico, though, IBM has not put any measures in place in response to
the swine flu.
Cisco Systems, which also has offices in Mexico City, says
it has not closed its office there. So far, no Cisco employees have been
affected by the swine flu, but the company has decided to implement a range of
precautionary measures. For example, it has restricted nonessential travel to,
from and within Mexico. And since many schools in Mexico City are closed, it's
allowing employees to work from home.
While most companies say they are monitoring the situation
and providing employees with information about how to minimize risk of infection
and what symptoms to look for, not all of them said they were restricting travel
or making other major plans to deal with the situation.
Japanese electronics giant Sony has operations in the
Mexican cities of Laredo, Mexicali, and Tijuana. The company is not restricting
employee travel, but is "closely monitoring the situation at all of our
facilities," a Sony representative said.
PC maker Dell, based right outside Austin, is also not
asking employees to change any travel plans or temporarily closing any offices
right now. Company spokesman David Frink said Dell does have a pandemic flu plan
in place.
And Verizon Communications, the nation's second largest
phone company, said that it is "simply monitoring the information coming
from global and national health organizations about cases and casualties but we
continue to operate on a business as usual basis with no travel restrictions or
constraints on activity of any kind. There's no need at this time to take
further action," according to a company spokesman.
But Gartner's analysts say it is very important for
companies to develop contingency plans in case an outbreak of swine flu forces
them to close offices or take other operation-disrupting actions.
Nick Jones, another Gartner analyst, recommends in a blog he
posted earlier this week that companies consider using wireless broadband in
addition to cable or DSL service to enable remote working from a range of
locations. He said that a remote office can be set up using wireless 3G
technology.
Some adapters come with built-in Wi-Fi, which provides
another potential connection mode, if the person is near a Wi-Fi hotspot. Jones
also suggests that companies set up these smaller home-based networks across
several geographic areas and networks in case one access network becomes
overloaded. And for people outside wireless broadband coverage there's always
satellite, he said.
Companies should also look for ways to use mobile devices,
such as sending a copy of the disaster or contingency plan to employee phones
and maybe using video phone calls as a substitute for in-person meetings, he
said.
And finally, he suggests that companies have everyone's
mobile number handy to contact them in the case of an emergency.
As the threat level increases, Gartner analyst Ken McGee
says that companies need to move quickly.
For companies that already have contingency plans in place,
he says that they need to halt all other activities and direct all their
resources to activating their plans. He suggests testing home networks of
critical employees to make sure they are working. He also suggests talking with
vendors to see their level of preparedness.
"This is not a snow day," he said. "Companies
need to review their plans and find their weaknesses and gaps readiness. And
then they need to fill them immediately."
For companies that do not have a plan in place already,
McGee says they need to be aware of hotspots where the virus is already
infecting people, and they should be preparing to set up home networks and
possibly shut down their offices in those regions.
"If they haven't prepared for this up until this point,
there isn't much they can do in terms of getting support from vendors or
communications providers," he said. "They're just too late for
that."
As for Sprint, Davis says the company has already planned
how it can offload functions to other offices and call centers throughout the
country depending on where the outbreak is occurring. She also said that the
company is well-prepared for many of its employees to work remotely.
"We are a mobile wireless
communications company," she said. "So a lot of our employees are
already mobile and working remotely."
First U.S. Swine Flu Death Reported; Nearly 100 Confirmed Cases
In 10 States
WASHINGTON, April 29, 2009
(CBS/AP)
The World Health Organization on Wednesday raised its alert level for the
fast-spreading swine flu to its next-to-highest notch, signaling a global
pandemic could be imminent.
The move came after the virus spread to at least 11 U.S. states from coast to
coast and swept deeper into Europe.
"It really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic,"
said WHO Director General Margaret Chan. "We do not have all the answers
right now but we will get them."
In the United States, President Obama mourned the first U.S. death, a Mexican
toddler who had traveled with his family to Texas.
Total American cases surged to nearly 100. But there are far more suspected
cases, from a military base in California where 30 Marines are quarantined to
the University of Delaware, where four people have fallen ill, reports CBS
News correspondent Nancy Cordes.
In Mexico, where the flu is believed to have originated, officials said
Wednesday the disease was confirmed or suspected in 159 deaths and almost 2,500
illnesses. But in Mexico City, officials suggested the outbreak there seemed to
be stabilizing, with far fewer deaths being reported.
The WHO says the phase 5 alert means there is sustained human-to-human spread in
at least two countries. It also signals that efforts to produce a vaccine will
be ramped up.
In Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was questioned by
senators on whether the U.S. should close its border with Mexico. She repeated
the administration's position that questioning of people at borders and ports of
entry was sufficient for now, and said closing borders "has not been
merited by the facts."
The WHO made it clear earlier in the week that the virus had already spread so
far and so fast that border restrictions were ineffective.
Mr. Obama made it clear in his primetime news conference Wednesday that he does
not support closing the border. He said health officials aren't recommending the
measure and likened it - in his words - to closing the barn door after the
horses are out.
Mr. Obama said Americans must maintain great vigilance and respond appropriately
to swine flu cases cropping up in their communities. He also said the outbreak
was cause for deep concern, but not panic.
Dr. Richard Besser, the acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control, said in
Atlanta that there were confirmed cases in 10 states, with 51 in New York, 14 in
California and 16 in Texas, where officials said Wednesday they were postponing
all public high school athletic and academic competitions until May 11.
Two cases have been confirmed in Kansas, Massachusetts and Michigan, while
single cases have been reported in Arizona, Indiana, Nevada and Ohio. State
officials in Maine said laboratory tests also had confirmed three cases in that
state, although those had not yet been included in the CDC count.
Laboratory testing shows the new virus is treatable by the anti-flu drugs
Tamiflu and Relenza, and the first shipments from a federal stockpile arrived
Wednesday in New York City and several other locations in the U.S. The
government was shipping to states enough medication to treat 11 million people
as a precaution.
Federal officials insist they have enough courses of the Tamiflu - roughly 50
million - to weather even a major outbreak, reports Cordes.
"The question is how rapidly and effectively can that Tamiflu actually get
into the hands of families that need to take it when they need to take it,"
Dr. Irwin Redlener of Columbia University told Cordes. For the Tamilflu
to be effective, a patient must take it within 48 hours of having flu symptoms.
Meanwhile, Egypt's government ordered
the slaughter of all pigs in the country as a precaution, though no swine
flu cases have been reported there. Egypt's overwhelmingly Muslim population
does not eat pork, but farmers raise some 300,000-350,000 pigs for the Christian
minority.
The disease is not spread by eating pork, and farmers were to be allowed to sell
the meat from the slaughtered animals.
In fact, officials appeared to go out of their way on Wednesday to not call the
strain "swine flu." Mr. Obama called the bug the "H1N1
virus."
"The disease is not a food-borne illness," Rear Adm. Anne Schuchat,
CDC's interim science and public health deputy direct, told the Senate Homeland
Security Committee.
She said the strain is particularly worrisome because "it's a virus that
hasn't been around before. The general population doesn't have immunity from
it."
People have various levels of protection against other more common types of flu
because they are exposed to it over time, and that protection accumulates. She
suggested that some older people might have more resistance to this particular
strain than younger people because its traits might resemble outbreaks of
decades ago.
Germany became the latest country to report swine flu infections. It reported
four cases on Wednesday.
New Zealand's total rose to 14. Britain had earlier reported five cases, Spain
four. There were 13 cases in Canada, two in Israel and one in Austria.
Mr. Obama said it is the recommendation of public health officials that
authorities at schools with confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu
"should strongly consider temporarily closing so that we can be as safe as
possible."
He was underscoring advice that the CDC provided earlier to cities and states,
and that some schools - most prominently in New York City - already have
followed.
"If the situation becomes more serious and we have to take more extensive
steps, then parents should also think about contingencies if schools in their
areas do temporarily shut down, figuring out and planning what their child care
situation would be," Mr. Obama advised.
He advised people to take their own precautions - washing hands, staying home if
they are sick, and keeping sick kids home.
Mr. Obama said the federal government is "prepared to do whatever is
necessary to control the impact of this virus." He noted his request for
$1.5 billion in emergency funding to ensure adequate supplies of vaccines.
CDC for days has said people with flulike symptoms should stay home - but now
also is stressing that other family members should consider staying home or at
least limiting how much they go out until they're sure they didn't catch it.
Besser, the acting CDC director, called it "an abundance of caution,"
but stressed that it's voluntary and that the government hasn't urged actual
quarantine, which isn't really effective with flu.
Besser told The Early Show that trying to determine why the
disease has caused so many more fatalities in Mexico than elsewhere was "a
critical question" for American scientists working on the ground with their
counterparts south of the border.
===============================================================================
It’s called “ring vaccination” or “traced vaccination” — a round
‘em up and vaccinate program forced on the population by the government. DHS
and FEMA have plans in place to accomplish this, as D.
H. Williams wrote for the Daily Newscaster in February. An Indiana county
municipal official in the vicinity of Chicago revealed a plan to “vaccinate
the entire population within 48 hours” as part of a Hazard Mitigation Plan.
Read the Regional Counter Terrorism
Task Forces document on "POD" mass vaccination (PDF).
In 2006, a pastor
came forward and told Alex Jones about a nationwide FEMA program designed to
train religious leaders on how to pacify their flocks in the event of a national
crisis. In addition to a declaration of martial law, property and firearm
seizures, and forced relocation, the FEMA program envisions mass vaccinations.
“In the event of an outbreak or a bio-terrorist attack, there’d be a mass
vaccination… they have a program nationwide ‘Pills in People’s Palm In 48
Hours’,” an anonymous pastor told Jones.
In 2004, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, along with ten
county health departments, organized a series of exercises designed to assist
local health department officials to exercise plans to mass vaccinate entire
communities. It was dubbed “Flu-X”
and it encouraged participants to get a flu shot.
Now we have a “template” to be used for mass vaccination. In a document
released by the Regional Counter Terrorism Task Forces, “specific dispensing
site operational plans and standard operating procedures” for mass vaccination
are put forward:
The dispensing of medications/vaccine is a core function of the Strategic
National Stockpile (SNS) plan and preparedness. It is the most complex and
challenging of all the functions since large numbers of persons must be
provided medication/vaccine in just a few days when an event occurs. The key
to survival for most people is to provide antibiotics/vaccine as soon as
possible and/or before an individual begins to show any clinical symptoms.
This plan describes the dispensing of medications to a large number of people
for prophylaxis of asymptomatic individuals as well as treatment of
symptomatic persons.
The SNS is the United States’ national repository of antibiotics, chemical
antidotes, antitoxins, and who knows what else. It is jointly run by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet
Napolitano mentioned the SNS stockpile when she declared the so-called
Mexican swine flu outbreak a public health emergency.
An Indiana county municipal official in the vicinity of
Chicago reveals plan to “vaccinate the entire population within 48 hours” as
part of a Hazard Mitigation Plan.
The Department of Homeland Security has sent
out an alert to health care providers outlining how BATF, FBI, and U.S. Marshals
will be called upon to impose mandatory quarantines in the event of a widespread
swine flu outbreak in the U.S.
According
to the report, “DHS Assistant Secretary Bridger McGaw circulated
the swine flu memo, which was obtained by CBSNews.com, on Monday night. It says:
“The Department of Justice has established legal federal authorities
pertaining to the implementation of a quarantine and enforcement. Under approval
from HHS, the Surgeon General has the authority to issue quarantines.”
The memo states, “U.S. Customs and Coast
Guard Officers assist in the enforcement of quarantine orders. Other DOJ law
enforcement agencies including the U.S. Marshals, Federal Bureau of
Investigation, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives may also
enforce quarantines. Military personnel are not authorized to engage in
enforcement.”
However, a separate Defense
Department planning document on dealing with pandemics states that
the Pentagon will use the forces at its disposal to assist in “quarantining
groups of people in order to minimize the spread of disease during an influenza
pandemic” and aid in “efforts to restore and maintain order.”
As
we reported yesterday, so-called “involuntary isolation” is
already being enforced in certain areas of the United States. The state’s
health director in North Carolina, Dr. Jeffrey Engel, said that authorities were
already involuntarily isolating patients who may have the swine flu virus. He
refused to divulge the location of where the victims were being quarantined
News reports such
as this one from MSNBC are prevaricating around the contention that
quarantines are a normal event that Americans should be comfortable with. In
reality, there has only been one case of “involuntary quarantine” in the
U.S. in the last 45 years.
“In 2007, Andrew Speaker, an Atlanta lawyer,
was quarantined inside a hospital in Denver on suspicion of having extensively
drug-resistant tuberculosis. It turned out that the CDC was incorrect and
Speaker had a milder form of the disease,” states the CBS report.
The MSNBC report also falsely claims that
quarantines will solely be handled on a state/local level, when in reality,
Bush’s executive order 13375 outlines a federal response, and the DHS memo
lists numerous federal authorities that will have powers of quarantine.
In addition, the Bush administration’s National
Strategy For Pandemic Influenza, released in November 2005, states
that the federal government will impose “quarantines” and “limitations on
gatherings”.
With Time
Magazine busy preparing Americans to accept enforced mass vaccination programs
and telling them to “trust” the government and “forgive” them when the
vaccines cause death and injuries, the prospect of mandatory quarantines will
likely be the precursor for any such nationwide vaccination program. The vaccine
to supposedly combat swine flu is being
manufactured by Baxter International, who were caught red-handed last
month attempting to release bird flu vaccines which were contaminated with the
deadly avian flu virus itself.
The comparative threat of swine flu does not
correlate with the feverish reaction of authorities, who in the initial stages
of the outbreak refused to take any measures to contain it, such as closing the
border with Mexico, but after the virus had already begun to spread, they were
quick to prepare draconian control measures while hyping the inevitability of a
pandemic.
Meanwhile, the hysteria whipped up by the
media has spread faster than the actual virus itself.
The FDA has approved “emergency measures” to carry out “mass dosings”
of U.S. citizens with antiviral drugs in the event of a widespread swine flu
pandemic.
An
Associated Press report states that the new powers would allow the drugs to
be distributed to a “broader range of the population” than present
measures allow.
The drugs, primarily Tamiflu and Relenza, would be “distributed to larger
segments of the population without complying with the approved label
requirements,” according to the report.
The announcement follows a similar directive issued last night, which would
allow Tamiflu to be used to treat children under the age of 1 and to provide
doses higher than originally approved for children over the age of 1.
As
we reported this morning, a Time Magazine article prepares Americans to
accept mandatory enforced vaccination and says that citizens should “trust”
the government and “forgive” them if the vaccination itself results in
deaths and injuries, as happened during the 1796 swine flu fiasco, when the U.S.
government attempted to mass vaccinate the entire population.
Time Magazine’s coverage of the swine flu scare has a noticeable subplot -
preparing Americans for draconian measures to combat a future pandemic as well
as forcing them to accept the idea of mandatory vaccinations.
In an article entitled How
to Deal with Swine Flu: Heeding the Mistakes of 1976, the piece discusses
how dozens died and hundreds were injured from vaccines as a result of the 1976
swine flu fiasco, when the Ford administration attempted to use the infection of
soldiers at Fort Dix as a pretext for a mass vaccination of the entire country.
Despite acknowledging that the 1976 farce was an example of
“how not to handle a flu outbreak,” the article still introduces the notion
that officials “may soon have to consider whether to institute draconian
measures to combat the disease.”
Later we discover exactly what this will entail, namely “when
to institute mass vaccination programs,” according to Howard Markel, director
of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan and a
historical consultant to the CDC on flu pandemics.
Markel notes that the less politically combustible situation in
America today compared to the post-Watergate era of Ford would make such
draconian measures more achievable.
“Even so, he says, citizens still need to trust that the
government is working for the greater good,” adds the article. “The American
public has to be forgiving and patient and do [their] part too,” according to
Markel.
Americans would indeed have to be very trustworthy and
ultimately forgiving in taking a vaccine by government decree manufactured by a
company that was been caught red-handed contaminating their vaccines with far
deadlier viruses than swine flu.
As
we reported yesterday, Baxter International confirmed over the weekend that
it is working with the World Health Organization on a potential vaccine to curb
the deadly swine flu virus that is blamed for scores of deaths in Mexico and has
emerged as a threat in the U.S., reports the Chicago Tribune.
As reported by multiple sources last month, including the Times
of India, vaccines contaminated with deadly live H5N1 avian flu virus were
distributed to 18 countries last December by a lab at an Austrian branch of
Baxter.
Since the probability of mixing a live virus biological weapon
with vaccine material by accident is virtually
impossible, this leaves no other explanation than that the contamination was
a deliberate attempt to weaponize the H5N1 virus to its most potent extreme and
distribute it via conventional flu vaccines to the population who would then
infect others to a devastating degree as the disease went airborne.
These are the people we are supposed to “trust” and
“forgive” according to Time Magazine and Markel when the federal government
breaks down our door, guns drawn and dripping needle in hand.
During this public health emergency, the FDA has issued Emergency Use
Authorizations that expand access to medical products that may become necessary.
Two antiviral treatments covered by Emergency Use Authorizations, Tamiflu (oseltamavir)
and Relenza (zanamivir), may already be included in many emergency stockpiles.
All companies, U.S. states and localities, and other organizations with
Tamiflu and Relenza that are approaching, or past, the labeled expiration date,
are urged to consider keeping it while the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services evaluates options, including those that may allow for their use if
needed during this 2009 H1N1 flu virus outbreak.
These organizations are also urged to contact the FDA’s Emergency
Operations Center with information on how much Tamiflu and Relenza in their
stockpiles is at or approaching expiration.
This information should be reported to:
FDA’s Emergency Operations Center
301-443-1240.
This statement is not directed to individual patients who already have these
two products in their homes. Individuals with these products should continue to
follow the directions from their doctor, pharmacist or other health care
professional.
ZURICH, Oct 16 2007 (Reuters) - Nine-month sales at Roche Holding AG (ROG.VX)
rose 12 percent to 33.95 billion Swiss francs ($28.82 billion), but missed
forecasts on lower orders of influenza drug Tamiflu, pressuring its shares.
Basel-based Roche confirmed its full-year outlook on Tuesday, saying it
expected double-digit increases in group and drugs sales and core earnings per
share to grow faster than group sales.
Tamiflu sales fell 60 percent in the third quarter following completion of
outstanding orders for pandemic influenza stockpiles.
The company said government and corporation stockpiling plans had largely
been completed and no significant new orders had recently been received.
Roche participation certificates, its most widely traded form of equity, fell
2.1 percent by 0713 GMT.
“The Tamiflu pandemic sales were even less than I had thought,” said
Landsbanki Kepler analyst Denise Anderson.
“On the other hand, obviously given the product cycles of a lot of the
drugs, the story cycle we see for Roche over the next 12 months has more to do
with clinical trials news flow than results,” Anderson said.
The company had no plans to raise its $3 billion hostile offer for Ventana
Medical Systems Inc VMSI.O, which has been rebuffed by shareholders, diagnostics
head Severin Schwan told Reuters.
“We believe that the offer is fully priced and fair, attractive for the
Ventana shareholders, and the ball is with Ventana,” said Schwan, who is
Roche’s designated new chief executive.
Roche declined to comment on any potential interest in U.S. biotech company
Biogen Idec Inc (BIIB.O),
which has put itself up for sale.
"We just don't know. The jury is out," said Dr. Tom
Jefferson of an internationally renowned medical study group
about Tamiflu effectiveness against the bird flu for which it
has been so highly touted. This conclusion was based upon a
review of 51 study trials on flu viruses that was published in
the prestigious medical journal The Lancet.
It was also noted that Tamiflu actually increased
nasal secretion of viruses that could be particularly
problematic in the event of a pandemic, the authors pointed out.
Damage CON-trol
"Tamiflu works against deadly bird flu strain,"
read a headline in the very next day's news. However, the
company that manufactures Tamiflu was the source for this
"news" story. CON-flict of interest?
The big headline was followed by a very small, ambiguous and
nondescript article that only noted "results suggest"
Tamiflu may prevent death in animals.
The last line of the tiny, little article noted that the
study was conducted on ferrets. It was the first I had heard or
read about bird flu and ferrets.
"Tamiflu: It's what's for ferrets," was suggested
as a new ad campaign by nationally syndicated broadcaster Robert
Scott Bell with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek.
Approval by the FDA (BIG Government) was noted by Roche (BIG
Pharma maker of Tamiflu) as its primary defense of its BIG money
maker (billions of dollars of primarily BIG government orders)
in Reuters (BIG Media) "news" stories.
The World Health Organization (WHO) chimed in its support for
Tamiflu within only a few hours. Perhaps it should be noted that
Roche has donated millions of Tamiflu doses for WHO use.
Once again that unholy trinity of BIG Government, BIG Pharma
and BIG Media are acting together as one for their own vested
interests without regard for the very best interests of you or
I.
One SCAM after another
The very same day as the above "news" story another
news item reported that "U.S. government's monitoring of
drug side effects could be strengthened" in an article
about hearings held on the matter.
Alas, a BIG "but" followed by BIG Media to their
above quote, "but does not need the major changes critics
have advocated". An array of BIG Pharma executives made
this point strongly to the alleged expert panel of the Institute
of Medicine (IOM).
Although the IOM is listed in the article as "an
independent, scientific organization" it in fact receives
almost all of its funding from BIG Government.
Other SCAMS snowballing
As the day wore on one report after another came forth with
new news reports about drugs and side effects including several
with heightened reports of deaths. These covered some of the
most common categories of all including weight loss, antibiotic,
contraceptive and diabetic drugs.
In the case of one common class of diabetic drugs increased
death rate due to cardiovascular problems was noted … again.
The first report on this category of drugs link to such deaths
was almost 40 years ago in 1970!
Sadly, there was still no mention of the mineral chromium
known for more than 40 years as the most antidiabetic substance
of all AND of great importance for heart health!
Finally, in a fitting end to the day's drug news items it was
reported that patients and pharmacists are frustrated and
confused with the new U.S. drug plan. This seems only fitting
since the drugs themselves are frustrating as to their confusing
alleged benefits.
WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention said on Friday it was too late to contain the swine flu outbreak in
the United States.
CDC acting director Dr. Richard Besser told reporters in a telephone briefing
it was likely too late to try to contain the outbreak, by vaccinating,
treating or isolating people.
"There are things that we see that suggest that containment is not very
likely," he said.
He said the U.S. cases and Mexican cases are likely the same virus. "So
far the genetic elements that we have looked at are the same." But Besser
said it was unclear why the virus was causing so many deaths in deaths in
Mexico and such mild disease in the United States.
(Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Patricia Zengerle)
If you sell crack, join a gang, or rob the mob you can expect to
die a violent death, but if you listen to your mother, eat all the right foods,
and study hard in college to become a microbiologist, you should expect to live
to a ripe old age and die peacefully.
That being the case, a few eyebrows were raised when five microbiologists
either disappeared or died mysteriously violent deaths in 2001. A short time
later the number rose to 19, and then 29.
They were found stabbed to death in the trunks of cars, thrown off bridges,
or they wrapped their cars around trees after their brake fluid disappeared.
Once again, this is the stuff of Hollywood spy stories, and not the way you
would expect a microbiologist to give up the ghost.
By 2005, we lost 40 micro-biologists in less than 4 years, all under
suspicious circumstances, and during this time someone discovered that they were
all working for the government, or government contractors, on projects related
to bio-terrorism, flu pandemics, or anthrax. Obviously they weren’t trying to
find a cure for anything, or there would be no need to silence them.
Then it was discovered that our government was involved in strange
experiments that involve exhuming bodies of people that were killed by the 1918
Spanish flu, and genetically engineered flu viruses, all the while the media is
preparing the public with stories of bird flu wiping out thousands of chickens
(acid test?) and even a few people here and there.
People who are becoming accustomed to the practices and motives of our criminal
government tried to warn you of an impending flu pandemic, but your TV training
taught you to dismiss them all as "crazy conspiracy theorists," and
you naturally associated all their warnings with stories of Bigfoot and UFO
abductions, just as you were trained to do.
The good folks of FEMA predicted a need for a few million plastic coffins,
which are now spread out across the country, but despite this revelation, most
of America still thinks their biggest concern is a toss up between the Super
Bowl and American Idol.
Well it seems as if the crazy conspiracy theorists were right again, because
the world-wide flu pandemic they were warning you about has been unleashed, and
it will dominate the headlines until millions, if not billions of people are
dead. It won’t be stopped because no one with the means to stop it wants to
stop it.
Wash your hands often, pull your kids out of school, avoid crowds, if not
people altogether, avoid alcohol or drugs that will weaken your resistance, and
stay well-nourished.
Two of the goals here are to cull the population, and to encourage general
mayhem and misery that only a World Government can save you from. You’ll be so
worn out and tired of death and depression that you’ll offer little resistance
to the new order. The economic collapse and World War three are part of the same
plan, and it’s all been tried before. It’s the same crew behind this latest
attempt, and it’s not difficult to see who’s behind it all, once again.
This flu pandemic that will soon cause people to drop like flies is no
mutated bird flu. It’s a genetically engineered virus designed to kill as many
people as possible. And after people do start dropping like flies, political
dissidents will be accused of being flu carriers and no one will object to them
being hauled away. Good luck. — Jolly Roger
Here’s an interesting link: http://www.legitgov.org/flu_oddities_shortnews.html
if you start at the bottom of the page and work your way up you’ll see a nice
collection of news articles that document the entire process of creating and
testing a flu bug that will wipe out millions of people.
(or at least that part of the process that’s revealed to the public)
Thanks to Lori Price of legitgov.org for
compiling these articles
#81: Dr. Mario Alberto Vargas
Olvera, age 52. Died: Oct. 6, 2007
as a result of several blunt-force injuries to his head and neck. Ruled as
murder. Found in his home. He was a nationally and internationally recognized biologist.
Died 2006
#80: Lee Jong-woo,
age 61. Died: May 22, 2006 after suffering a blood
clot on the brain. Lee was spearheading the organization's fight against global
threats from bird flu, AIDS and other infectious diseases. WHO director-general
since 2003, Lee was his country's top international official. The affable South
Korean, who liked to lighten his press conferences with jokes, was a keen
sportsman with no history of ill-health, according to officials.
Died 2005
#79: Leonid
Strachunsky. Died: June 8, 2005
after being hit on the head with a champagne bottle. Strachunsky specialized in
creating microbes resistant to biological weapons. Strachunsky was found dead in
his hotel room in Moscow, where hed come from Smolensk en route to the United
States. Investigators are looking for a connection between the murder of this
leading bio weapons researcher and the hepatitis outbreak in Tver, Russia.
#78: Robert J. Lull,
age 66. Died: May 19, 2005 of multiple stab
wounds. Despite his missing car and apparent credit card theft, homicide
Inspector Holly Pera said investigators aren't convinced that robbery was the
sole motive for Lull's killing. She said a robber would typically have taken
more valuables from Lull's home than what the killer left with. Lull had been
chief of nuclear medicine at San Francisco General Hospital since 1990 and
served as a radiology professor at UCSF. He was past president of the American
College of Nuclear Physicians and the San Francisco Medical Society and served
as editor of the medical society's journal, San Francisco Medicine, from 1997 to
1999. Lee Lull said her former husband was a proponent of nuclear power and
loved to debate his political positions with others.
#77: Todd
Kauppila, age 41. Died: May 8, 2005
of hemorrhagic pancreatitis at the Los Alamos hospital, according to the state
medical examiner's office. Picture of him was not available to due secret
nature of his work. This is his funeral picture. His death came two days
after Kauppila publicly rejoiced over news that the lab's director was leaving.
Kauppila was fired by director Pete Nanos on Sept. 23, 2004 following a security
scandal. Kauppila said he was fired because he did not immediately return
from a family vacation during a lab investigation into two classified computer
disks that were thought to be missing. The apparent security breach forced Nanos
to shut down the lab for several weeks. Kauppila claimed he was made a scapegoat
over the disks, which investigators concluded never existed. The mistake was
blamed on a clerical error. After he was fired, Kauppila accepted a job as
a contractor at Bechtel Nevada Corp., a research company that works with Los
Alamos and other national laboratories. He was also working on a new
Scatter Reduction Grids in Megavolt Radiography focused on metal plates or
crossed grids to act to stop the scattered radiation while allowing the
unscattered or direct rays to pass through with other scientists: Scott Watson (LANL,
DX-3), Chuck Lebeda (LANL, XTA), Alan Tubb (LANL, DX-8), and Mike Appleby
(Tecomet Thermo Electron Corp.)
#76: David Banks,
age 55. Died: May 8, 2005. Banks, based in North Queensland, died in an
airplane crash, along with 14 others. He was known as an Agro Genius inventing
the mosquito trap used for cattle. Banks was the principal scientist with
quarantine authority, Biosecurity Australia, and heavily involved in protecting
Australians from unwanted diseases and pests. Most of Dr Banks' work involved
preventing potentially devastating diseases making their way into Australia. He
had been through Indonesia looking at the potential for foot and mouth disease
to spread through the archipelago and into Australia. Other diseases he had
fought to keep out of Australian livestock herds and fruit orchards include
classical swine fever, Nipah virus and Japanese encephalitis.
#75:
Dr. Douglas James Passaro, age 43. Died April 18, 2005
from unknown cause in Oak Park, Illinois. Dr. Passaro was a brilliant
epidemiologist who wanted to unlock the secrets of a spiral-shaped bacteria that
causes stomach disease. He was a professor who challenged his students with
real-life exercises in bioterrorism. He was married to Dr. Sherry Nordstrom..
#74: Geetha Angara,
age 43. Died: February 8, 2005. This formerly missing chemist was found in a
Totowa, New Jersey water treatment plant's tank. Angara, 43, of Holmdel, was
last seen on the night of Feb. 8 doing water quality tests at the Passaic Valley
Water Commission plant in Totowa, where she worked for 12 years. Divers found
her body in a 35-foot-deep sump opening at the bottom of one of the emptied
tanks. Investigators are treating Angara's death as a possible homicide. Angara,
a senior chemist with a doctorate from New York University, was married and
mother of three.
#73: Jeong H. Im,
age 72. Died: January 7, 2005. Korean Jeong H. Im, died of multiple stab
wounds to the chest before firefighters found in his body in the trunk of a
burning car on the third level of the Maryland Avenue Garage. A retired
research assistant professor at the University of Missouri - Columbia and
primarily a protein chemist, MUPD with the assistance of the Columbia Police
Department and Columbia Fire Department are conducting a death investigation of
the incident. A "person of interest" described as a male
6'–6'2" wearing some type of mask possible a painters mask or drywall
type mask was seen in the area of the Maryland Avenue Garage. Dr. Im was
primarily a protein chemist and he was a researcher in the field.
Died in 2004
#72: Darwin Kenneth Vest,
born April 22, 1951, was an internationally renowned entomologist, expert on
hobo spiders and other poisonous spiders and snakes. Darwin disappeared in the
early morning hours of June 3, 1999 while walking in downtown Idaho Falls, Idaho
(USA). The family believes foul play was involved in his disappearance. A
celebration of Darwin's life was held in Idaho Falls and Moscow on the one-year
anniversary of his disappearance. The services included displays of Darwin's
work and thank you letters from school children and teachers. Memories of Darwin
were shared by at least a dozen speakers from around the world and concluded
with the placing of roses and a memorial wreath in the Snake River. A
candlelight vigil was also held that evening on the banks of the Snake River.
Darwin was declared legally dead the first week of March 2004 and now the family
is in the process of obtaining restraining orders against several companies who
saw fit to use his name and photos without permission. His brother David is
legal conservator of the estate and his sister Rebecca is handling issues
related to Eagle Rock Research and ongoing research projects.
Media help in locating Darwin is welcome. Continuing efforts to solve this
mystery include recent DNA sampling. Stories about his disappearance continue to
appear throughout the world. Issues surrounding missing adult investigations
have received new attention following the tragedies of 911.
#s70-71:Tom Thorne,
age 64; Beth Williams,
age 53; Died: December 29, 2004. Two wild life scientists, Husband-and-wife
wildlife veterinarians who were nationally prominent experts on chronic wasting
disease and brucellosis were killed in a snowy-weather crash on U.S. 287 in
northern Colorado.
#69:Taleb
Ibrahim al-Daher. Died: December 21,
2004. Iraqi nuclear scientist was shot dead north of Baghdad by unknown
gunmen. He was on his way to work at Diyala University when armed men opened
fire on his car as it was crossing a bridge in Baqouba, 57 km northeast of
Baghdad. The vehicle swerved off the bridge and fell into the Khrisan river. Al-Daher,
who was a professor at the local university, was removed from the submerged car
and rushed to Baqouba hospital where he was pronounced dead.
#68: John
R. La Montagne, age 61. Died: November
2, 2004. Died while in Mexico, no cause stated, later disclosed as
pulmonary embolism. PhD, Head of US Infectious Diseases unit under Tommie
Thompson. Was NIAID Deputy Director. Expert in AIDS Program work and
Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
#67: Matthew
Allison, age 32. Died: October
13, 2004. Fatal explosion of a car parked at an Osceola County, Fla.,
Wal-Mart store. It was no accident, Local 6 News has learned. Found inside
a burned car. Witnesses said the man left the store at about 11 p.m. and entered
his Ford Taurus car when it exploded. Investigators said they found a Duraflame
log and propane canisters on the front passenger's seat. Allison had a
college degree in molecular biology and biotechnology.
#66: Mohammed
Toki Hussein al-Talakani, age 40.
Died: September 5, 2004: Iraqi nuclear scientist was shot dead in
Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad. He was a practicing nuclear physicist since 1984.
#65: Professor
John Clark, Age 52, Died: August
12, 2004. Found hanged in his holiday home. An expert in animal
science and biotechnology where he developed techniques for the genetic
modification of livestock; this work paved the way for the birth, in 1996, of
Dolly the sheep, the first animal to have been cloned from an adult. Head
of the science lab which created Dolly the sheep. Prof Clark led the
Roslin Institute in Midlothian, one of the world s leading animal
biotechnology research centers. He played a crucial role in creating the
transgenic sheep that earned the institute worldwide fame. He was put in charge
of a project to produce human proteins (which could be used in the treatment of
human diseases) in sheep's milk. Clark and his team focused their study on the
production of the alpha-I-antitryps in protein, which is used for treatment of
cystic fibrosis. Prof Clark also founded three spin-out firms from Roslin - PPL
Therapeutics, Rosgen and Roslin BioMed.
#64:Dr.
John Badwey, age 54. Died: July 21,
2004. Scientist and accidental politician when he opposed disposal of
sewage waste program of exposing humans to sludge. Suddenly developed
pneumonia like symptoms then died in two weeks. Biochemist at Harvard
Medical School specializing in infectious diseases.
#63: Dr. Bassem
al-Mudares. Died: July 21, 2004.
Mutilated body was found in the city of Samarra, Iraq*. He was a Phd. chemist
and had been tortured before being killed. He was a drug company worker who had
a chemistry doctorate.
#62:
Professor Stephen Tabet, age 42. Died on July 6, 2004
from an unknown illness. He was an associate professor and epidemiologist at the
University of Washington. A world-renowned HIV doctor and researcher who worked
with HIV patients in a vaccine clinical trial for the HIV Vaccine Trials Network
#61: Dr.
Larry Bustard, age 53. Died July 2, 2004
from unknown causes. He was a Sandia scientist in the Department of Energy who
helped develop a foam spray to clean up congressional buildings and media sites
during the anthrax scare in 2001. He worked at Sandia National Laboratories in
Albuquerque. As an expert in bioterrorism, his team came up with a new
technology used against biological and chemical agents.
#60:
Edward Hoffman, age 62.
Died July 1, 2004 from unknown
causes. Hoffman was a professor and a scientist who also held leadership
positions within the UCLA medical community. He worked to develop the first
human PET scanner in 1973 at Washington University in St. Louis.
#59:John
Mullen, age 67. Died: June 29, 2004.
A Nuclear physicist poisoned with a huge dose of arsenic. A nuclear
research scientist with McDonnell Douglas. Police investigating will not say how
Mullen was exposed to the arsenic or where it came from. At the time of his
death he was doing contract work for Boeing.
#58: Dr. Paul
Norman, age 52. Died: June 27, 2004. From
Salisbury Wiltshire. Killed when the single-engine Cessna 206 he was
piloting crashed in Devon. Expert in chemical and biological weapons. He
traveled the world lecturing on defending against the scourge of weapons of mass
destruction. He was married with a 14-year-old son and a 20-year-old
daughter, and was the chief scientist for chemical and biological defense at the
Ministry of Defense's laboratory at Porton Down, Wiltshire. The crash site was
examined by officials from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch and the
wreckage of the aircraft was removed from the site to the AAIB base at
Farnborough.
#57: Dr. Assefa Tulu,
age 45. Died: June 24, 2004. Dr. Tulu joined the health department in
1997 and served for five years as the county's lone epidemiologist. He was
charged with trackcing the health of the county, including the spread of
diseases, such as syphilis, AIDS and measles. He also designed a system for
detecting a bioterrorism attack involving viruses or bacterial agents. Tulu
often coordinated efforts to address major health concerns in Dallas County,
such as the West Nile virus outbreaks of the past few years, and worked with the
media to inform the public. Found face down, dead in his office. The Dallas
County Epidemiologist died of a hemorrhagic stroke.
#56:Thomas
Gold, age 84. Died: June 22,
2004. Austrian born Thomas Gold famous over the years for a variety of
bold theories that flout conventional wisdom and reported in his 1998 book,
"The Deep Hot Biosphere," the idea challenges the accepted wisdom of
how oil and natural gas are formed and, along the way, proposes a new theory of
the beginnings of life on Earth and potentially on other planets. Long
term battle with heart failure. Gold's theory of the deep hot biosphere holds
important ramifications for the possibility of life on other planets, including
seemingly inhospitable planets within our own solar system. He was Professor
Emeritus of Astronomy at Cornell University and was the founder (and for 20
years director) of Cornell Center for Radiophysics and Space Research. He was
also involved in air accident investigations.
#55: Antonina
Presnyakova, age 46. Died: May
25, 2004. A Russian scientist at a former Soviet biological weapons
laboratory in Siberia died after an accident with a needle laced with ebola.
Scientists and officials said the accident had raised concerns about safety and
secrecy at the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology, known as
Vector, which in Soviet times specialized in turning deadly viruses into
biological weapons. Vector has been a leading recipient of aid in an American
program.
#54: Dr.
Eugene Mallove, age 56. Died: May
14, 2004. Autopsy confirmed Mallove died as a result of several blunt-force
injuries to his head and neck. Ruled as murder. Found at the end of his
driveway. Alt. Energy Expert who was working on viable energy alternative
program and announcement. Norwich Free Academy graduate.Beaten to death during
an alleged robbery. Mallove was well respected for his knowledge of cold fusion.
He had just published an "open letter" outlining the results of and
reasons for his last 15 years in the field of "new energy research."
Dr. Mallove was convinced it was only a matter of months before the world would
actually see a free energy device.
#53: William T. McGuire, age 39. Found May 5,
2004, last seen late April 2004. Body found in three suitcases floating in
Chesapeake Bay. He was NJ University Professor and Senior programmer analyst and
adjunct professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark. He
emerged as one of the world's leading microbiologists and an expert in
developing and overseeing multiple levels of biocontainment facilities.
#52: Ilsley Ingram,
age 84. Died on April 12, 2004 from unknown causes. Ingram was Director of
the Supraregional Haemophilia Reference Centre and the Supraregional Centre for
the Diagnosis of Bleeding Disorders at the St. Thomas Hospital in London.
Although his age is most likely the reason for his death, why wasn't this
confirmed by the family in the news media?
#51: Mohammed Munim al-Izmerly, Died: April
2004. This distinguished Iraqi chemistry professor died in
American custody from a sudden hit to the back of his head caused by blunt
trauma. It was uncertain exactly how he died, but someone had hit him from
behind, possibly with a bar or a pistol. His battered corpse turned up at
Baghdad's morgue and the cause of death was initially recorded as
"brainstem compression". It was discovered that US doctors had made a
20cm incision in his skull.
#50: Vadake Srinivasan, Died: March 13, 2004.
Microbiologist crashed car into guard rail in Baton
Rouge, LA. Death was ruled a stroke. He was originally from India, was one
of the most-accomplished and respected industrial biologists in academia, and
held two doctorate degrees.
#49: Dr. Michael Patrick Kiley, age 62. Died:
January 24, 2004. Died of massive heart attack. Ebola, Mad Cow Expert, top
of the line world class. It is interesting to note, he had a good heart, but it
"gave out". Dr. Shope and Dr. Kiley were working on the lab upgrade to
BSL 4 at the UTMB Galvaston lab for Homeland Security. The lab would have to be
secure to house some of the deadliest pathogens of tropical and emerging
infectious disease as well as bioweaponized ones.
#48:Robert
Shope, age 74. Died: January 23, 2004. Virus Expert Who
Warned of Epidemics, Dies died of lung transplant complications. Later
purported to have died of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis which can be caused by
either environmental stimulus or a VIRUS. It would not be hard to
administer a drug that would cause Dr. Shope's lung transplant to either be
rejected or to cause complications from the transplant. Dr. Shope led the group
of scientists who had an 11 MILLION dollar fed grant to ensure the new lab would
keep in the nasty bugs. Dr. Shope also met with and worked with Dr. Mike Kiley
on the UTMB Galveston lab upgrade to BSL 4. When the upgrade would be complete
the lab will host the most hazardous pathogens known to man especially tropical
and emerging diseases as well as bioweapons.
#47: Dr Richard Stevens,
age 54. Died: January 6, 2004. He had disappeared after arriving for work on
21 July, 2003. A doctor whose disappearance sparked a national manhunt, killed
himself because he could not cope with the stress of a secret affair, a coroner
has ruled. He was a hematologist. (hematologists analyze the cellular
composition of blood and blood producing tissues e.g. bone marrow).
In 2004, Professor Dmitry Lvov, head of D.I. Ivanovsky
Institute of Virology and an academic of the Russian Academy of Medical
Sciences, made an important prognosis at a press conference in Moscow. At
the time he spoke of not only how a deadly virus would infect the planet,
but he also gave a precise description for the mechanism of how it would
possibly generate.
Five years ago Professor
Dmitry Lvov gave a detailed description of how a deadly pandemic
flu virus was on the horizon. On Tuesday April 28, 2009, he spoke
to RT about the outlook of a swine flu pandemic.
This time, Professor Lvov has provided RT with further
explanations and a possible prediction for the current situation.
According to the scientist, who has been studying new and
returning viral infections for more than 40 years, influenza viruses are
primarily associated with birds. Normally, these viruses circulate in
various ecosystems and do not interfere with humans. However, occasional
shifts cause these viruses to infect different groups of animals, and even
human beings.
�When this happens, different types of viruses
may interfere within the same host organism and exchange with their genetic
material. Such events create new types of viruses with new characteristics.
This is exactly what happened to the swine flu virus in the Western
Hemisphere,� said the specialist.
A significant difference between the deadly viruses that
caused Spanish flu � which claimed 20-50 million lives at the
beginning of the XX century � bird influenza and swine flu, according
to Professor Lvov, pertains to their virulence. It is much higher in bird
flu, which, fortunately, cannot be transmitted from one human to another.
Yet both Spanish and swine influenza viruses are capable of this.
In his opinion, the high numbers of fatalities in Mexico and
their absence in the United States could be explained with earlier
diagnostics existing in the US, and proper, more intensive treatment of
patients.
[efoods]
In addition, the number of cases revealed in the US is not
to be compared with some 1500 diagnosed in Mexico.
�Fifteen hundred cases announced for Mexico are
more likely to be 150,000 of those infected in total, and such numbers of
patients would be virtually impossible to properly take care of,�
Professor Lvov explained.
According to the professor, should we face the beginning of
a pandemic, the process is going to develop instantly, taking the mobility
of people in the modern world into account. However, he has pointed out
that, at the moment, it is not completely clear whether this virus possesses
a pandemic potential.
The scientist particularly stressed that, �The
sooner we understand that the present cataclysm is as serious an earthquake
or tsunami, and that there is nothing people can do to prevent it, the
better. Still, we should do our best to minimize the possible consequences
of this situation and try to make better prognoses for such events in
future.�
Speaking of the potential vaccine, Professor Lvov noted that
he did not doubt it would be created, but not sooner than in six months.
Also, in his opinion, the existing vaccines with an H1N1 component might be
useful in the case of swine flu, too.
�These antigens are not identical, but such
vaccines may prove to be useful in this case. It is also possible that the
reason why the current situation in the United States can better be
explained by the high number of those vaccinated against common flu,�
said the scientist.
Professor Lvov is sure that no quarantine measures are able
to stop a pandemic, only to slow it down at best.
�Further scenario depends on how actively viruses
will be transmitted from one human to another and, in this way, spread over
the world,� Professor Lvov added.
The State of New York Division of Cemeteries has sent out
“Mass Fatality forms” to cemeteries in that state to collect data about
their ability to deal with the high volume of casualties that would occur if
their were a flu pandemic or other disaster. The form letter that this
office received was dated April 4, 2007 [pdf],
so clearly preparation for such disasters has been ongoing for some time.
Along with other data, cemeterians were asked in this
survey:
“Should a prolonged mass fatality disaster or
pandemic flu occur in your community would your cemetery be able to
provide temporary or permanent internment space for a significant number
of disaster or flu deaths in additional to your current burial
services?”
Cemetery owners were also asked to detail the business
structure and capacity of their facilities, including proximity to roads,
train lines and airfields. The Division of Cemeteries requested data to
calculate the number of acres that could be made available “at 950 graves
per acre.”
It is clear that emergency and disaster forces are being
mobilized at the state and federal level. There is no data to predict what
disasters could come– forces of nature, false-flag attacks, biological
attacks/ flu outbreaks, quarantines etc. However, a pattern of data
including news items, reports, photos and tips have all pointed to an
incremental gearing up for a cataclysmic situation that includes mass
casualties.
Whether it is half a million plastic coffin liners
videotaped at a truck depot, or massive expansion at dozens of cemeteries
across the country or FEMA and Homeland Security agents preparing for an
avian bird flu outbreak, it is clear that government agencies are expecting
something to happen and their agencies are expanding in accordance.
As this site reported
yesterday, a number of incidents have demonstrated a federal
preoccupation with a mass casualty incident– and it started before 9/11
ever happened.
The state of Colorado issued
an executive order in 2000 asserting its authority to bury
victims in mass graves and/or cremate bodies under emergency situations.
Jim Erickson of The Rocky Mountain News reported February 8,
2003 that:
The state of Colorado could seize antibiotics, cremate
disease-ridden corpses
and, under extreme circumstances, dig mass graves under executive orders
drafted for use in the event of a bioterrorism attack.
D.H.
Williams reported in February on an Indiana county municipal
official who received detailed requests from FEMA and the Department of
Homeland Security in regards to locations for mass graves, preparations for
regional refugees, preparations for economic collapse and budget cuts under
a GM collapse, as well as the locations of major installations, emergency
assets and more.
The official, speaking in this
recording, says that he became concerned about the intentions of the
FEMA and DHS officials after repeated meetings where scenarios were
discussed that included a bird flu outbreak as well as fires, floods and
earthquakes.
The authorities that be have warned in their white papers
that United States could face rioting; financial collapse seems very
possible; and now it is clear that preparations include widespread death and
emergency conditions. What do they see coming?
On March 19, 2009, the Gazette-Enterprise
reported that emergency management and their counterparts in Guadalupe County,
Texas, had prepared for a mass vaccination program in the event of a pandemic.
“Local officials have 36 hours to treat their entire population — in
Guadalupe County that would be 115,000 people,” Ron Maloney writes for the
newspaper.
Authorities in Guadalupe County have confirmed three cases of swine flu among
high school students and are waiting for test results of for at least 11 more
possible cases.
[efoods]”A massive call-up of volunteers that, in this county alone would
take 1,000 medical professionals and lay people is required to prepare and
operate five Points of Dispensing (PODs) at which the life-saving medications
can be distributed.” (For more on the “POD” concept of mass vaccination,
see Government
“Template” for Mass Vaccination.)
Guadalupe County admits it does not currently have the resources to deal with
a pandemic. “Guadalupe County Emergency Management Coordinator Dan Kinsey and
his volunteer coordinator, Kay Hays, are speaking to local large employers and
service clubs, seeking to compile a list of volunteers who can help.”
Guadalupe County Emergency Management gave presentations to the Seguin Kiwanis
Club and other community organizations.
Kinsey and Hays are preparing for a May 2 dress rehearsal of a pandemic
disaster at the Navarro ISD. Volunteers will set up and operate a “drive
through” POD in which they will take a practice run at registering,
screening and pretending to inoculate 100 volunteers so they can identify
whatever problems might come up and prepare to meet them.
Kinsey envisions five “drive-through” PODs operating 24 hours a day in
12-hour shifts that will require 100 volunteers for duties as varied as
administering medications, filling out paperwork, distributing food or water,
providing security or watching the children of other volunteers, according to
the Gazette-Enterprise.
Slow school response, indifferent attitudes may endanger kids, she says
Julia Xanthos / New York Daily News
Jacqueline Civitano, 41, center, of Floral Park, N.Y., worried this
week as after one confirmed case of swine flu led to four more likely
cases. Pictured here are four of Civitano's seven children: Anthony,
19, Katherine, 5, Frankie, 17, Nicholas, 2.
By JoNel Aleccia
Health writer
msnbc.com
updated 3:30 p.m. ET,Thurs.,
April 30, 2009
One confirmed case of swine flu was scary enough, but
Jacqueline Civitano spent this week worrying as five family members developed
high fevers, coughing, dizziness and other signs of the virus that’s sweeping
the globe.
By Wednesday, the fear had subsided for the Floral
Park, N.Y., mother of seven, who was simply stuck in the house under isolation
trying to entertain a crew of mildly sick, stir-crazy kids.
But she said there’s still plenty of worry to go
around, judging by the community response to the outbreak, which began a week
ago, when her 17-year-old son, Frankie, became one of more than 50 students from
St. Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows, N.Y., to contract the
potentially deadly illness. A group of students from that school had just
returned from a trip to Mexico, although Frankie wasn't among them.
“It was handled very poorly,” said Civitano, 41, a
lawyer with the New York state court system. “It went from being not a big
deal to being this big panic.”
So far, the U.S. has confirmed more than 100 swine flu
cases in 12 states, and one death of a toddler who traveled from Mexico to Texas
for treatment. In that country, 160 deaths have been linked to the outbreak and
nearly 2,500 may be sick.
But when the swine flu was discovered in New York last
week, communication lagged, information wasn’t clear and school officials’
reactions to news of the virus ranged from appropriate concern to a complete
lack of interest, said Civitano, whose children range in age from 2 to 24 and
who span the educational spectrum from elementary school through college.
“I just think we’re very ill prepared,” she said.
It took news crews parked in front of St. Francis and a
text message about scores of sick kids from her son’s girlfriend before
Civitano understood that the seemingly simple flu that kept Frankie home last
Friday actually was something far more serious.
“When I called him in sick, they didn’t tell me
that so many other kids were sick,” Civitano said. “Then we seen on the news
they were testing for swine flu.”
Civitano said she heard nothing from the school,
despite the growing roster of illnesses.
Brother Leonard Conway, principal of St. Francis, said
health officials weren’t able to test suspected cases until Friday or confirm
them until Sunday and school staff didn't want to speculate.
“We updated the Web site immediately each time we got
confirmed, accurate information,” he said.
Hospital confirms flu infection But Frankie’s 103-degree fever and his cough and headache worried
Civitano, who called her family doctor, Dr. Vincent Alfieri, on Saturday. He
prescribed preventive doses of antiviral medication for the family, and then
sent Civitano to North Shore University Hospital, where doctors on Sunday
confirmed that Frankie had a Type A influenza infection that didn’t match any
already circulating strains.
“Because other kids had tested positive for swine
flu, they assumed that’s what he had,” said Civitano, noting that
Frankie’s sample was sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention for confirmation.
By Monday, Civitano’s other children started coming down with flu symptoms.
First Anthony, 19, who had a mild cough and sore throat, and then Brendan, 10,
who has health problems, including diabetes.
“Anything for him can become so much more serious,”
Civitano said.
Indeed, Brendan’s symptoms were severe: high fever,
extreme headache and cough, nausea, dizziness and sensitivity to light and
sound.
Nicholas, 2, was next with milder symptoms, and then
Katie, Civitano’s 24-year-old daughter-in-law, called to say she’d come down
with flu after visiting over the weekend. Fortunately, Katie’s 3-month-old
baby was spared.
All this illness naturally concerned Civitano, who had
heard news reports of deaths in Mexico. But she approached the situation with a
matter-of-fact attitude:
“I said, ‘Great, here we go,’ ” recalled
Civitano, noting that neither she nor her husband, Paul, a 45-year-old carpentry
supervisor, have been ill at all.
In between comforting her sickly kids, Civitano reached
out to alert school officials that others might have been exposed — and was
surprised at the range of responses.
At the University of New Haven in New Haven, Conn.,
officials asked Anthony to stay away from class.
“Best to keep him home, just in case,” said Julie
Winkel, a school spokesperson.
But at St. John’s University in Queens, staff told
Christopher, 20, who had no symptoms, to come on in.
Since then, school officials have confirmed a case of
swine flu in one student, alerted the campus community and urged students to
take protective measures, said spokesman Dominic Scianna.
School officials dismiss concerns And at Our Lady of the Snows, the elementary school where
5-year-old Katherine goes, school officials appeared to dismiss her concerns out
of hand, Civitano said.
“I thought, ‘OK, you know what, I’d done my
part,’ ” she said, noting that she kept Katherine home even though the child
didn’t become ill. “I’m not going to take a chance on being responsible
for infecting other kids.”
Sister Roberta Oberle, the school’s principal,
declined to comment on the Civitano family’s situation.
Everyone at Civitano’s house is recovering now. That
appears to be one hallmark of this virus: a sudden onset and an equally sudden
easing of symptoms, she said.
“Brendan really got the worse dose,” Civitano said.
“But by yesterday, it was like it didn’t happen.”
No one can return to work or school, however, until a
week has elapsed since the last onset of illness, and until Dr. Alfieri clears
them with a written note.
Civitano is certain life will return to normal, despite
her brush with a near-pandemic virus. But she worries that other cases, in other
communities, might not be so mild.
She wants school and public health officials to let
parents and others know what’s happening early, and for them to take steps to
prevent others from being exposed.
“You need to take this seriously,” she said. “You
need to not downplay this, because when other kids get sick, it’s going to be
too late.”
Avoid 'confined spaces' such as planes, Biden says
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Vice President
Joe Biden said Thursday morning he has advised his family to avoid
"confined places" such as aircraft, subways and classrooms because of
the swine flu risk.
Vice President Biden on Thursday said people should avoid "confined
spaces."
Biden made the remarks on NBC's "Today Show,"
after he was asked what he would tell a family member about traveling to Mexico,
where the first cases of the virus -- technically known as 2009 H1N1 -- were
detected.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta,
Georgia, is advising people to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico, where the
Mexican government suspects 159 deaths have resulted from the infection, most of
them in or around Mexico City. Only a fraction of those cases have been
confirmed.
"The CDC is concerned that continued travel by U.S.
travelers to Mexico presents a serious risk for further outbreaks of swine flu
in the United States," the agency says on its Web site.
But Biden appeared to go a step further, saying, "I
would tell members of my family, and I have, I wouldn't go anywhere in confined
places now. It's not that you're going to Mexico, it's you're in a confined
aircraft. When one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft.
That's me. Watch
the vice president explain why he wouldn't fly »
"I would not be, at this point, if they had another way
of transportation, (be) suggesting they ride the subway. ... So from my
perspective, what it relates to is mitigation. If you're out in the middle of a
field and someone sneezes, that's one thing, if you're in a closed aircraft or
closed container or closed car or closed classroom it's a different thing."
Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association,
responded to Biden's comments by saying, "Americans should heed the advice
of medical experts when determining how best to manage health concerns during
the ongoing swine flu outbreak.
In a written statement, he noted that according to the CDC
"and countless other experts, swine flu should not discourage people from
traveling to or within the United States."
"Elected officials must strike a delicate balance of
accurately and adequately informing citizens of health concerns without unduly
discouraging travel and other important economic activity," he said.
The Travel Association is a "political liaison"
for the industry, and markets all modes of travel.
Not long after the "Today Show" aired, Biden
released a statement through his spokeswoman, Elizabeth Alexander.
"The advice he is giving family members is the same
advice the administration is giving to all Americans: that they should avoid
unnecessary air travel to and from Mexico."
"If they are sick, they should avoid airplanes and
other confined public spaces, such as subways. This is the advice the vice
president has given family members who are traveling by commercial airline this
week."
The statement also refers to advice President Obama gave to
Americans on Wednesday night.
He said they should take the same steps to
avoid swine
flu that one would take to prevent any other flu: keep hands washed, cover
your mouth when you cough, stay home from work if you're sick, and keep sick
children home from school
Following
Vice President Biden's suggestion this morning that Americans avoid
subways or commercial flights because of the flu, Roger Dow, President and CEO
of the U.S. Travel Association, today released the following statement:
"Americans should heed the advice of medical experts when determining
how best to manage health concerns during the ongoing swine flu outbreak,"
Dow said. "According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) and countless other experts, swine flu should not discourage
people from traveling to or within the United States.
"Elected officials must strike a delicate balance of accurately and
adequately informing citizens of health concerns without unduly discouraging
travel and other important economic activity. According to President Obama,
swine flu is a cause for concern, but not panic. President Obama's
measured and responsible comments are appropriate and should provide useful
guidance to other elected officials."
- jpt
UPDATE: "To suggest that people not fly at this stage of things is a
broad brush stroke bordering on fear mongering. The facts of the situation
at this stage anyway certainly don't support that," American Airlines
spokesman Tim Smith told The Associated Press.
Homeland Security: No Orders to
Border, Airport Agents Forbidding Surgical Masks
Fox News
A homeland security spokeswoman said border agents
and airport workers have not been told they cannot cover their faces to protect
themselves from swine flu.
The Department of Homeland Security said Thursday it has not told agents at
U.S. airports and border checkpoints that they cannot wear masks to protect from
exposure to swine flu.
"The Department of Homeland Security has not issued an order saying our
employees cannot wear masks. The health of our employees is of utmost importance
to us. And today we are issuing department-wide guidance to our workforce," DHS
spokeswoman Sara Kuban told FOX News.
Kuban was responding to a claim made Thursday that The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security issued a
guideline banning masks because they look too intimidating.
Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., told FOX News that it's absurd to say
border agents and airport workers don't need protections.when President Obama
and other agencies are suggesting Americans take precautions to protect
themselves from others.
"For somebody sitting in D.C., who won't even allow their family to fly,
and then to sit there and say, don’t put on the masks until you know
someone is sick is absolutely absurd. And it shows that Washington doesn’t
understand the procedures or the conditions along the border," Bilbray
said. "Washington ought to wake up."
While Kuban said no one has been ordered not to wear masks, a different
administration official said earlier that agents at the U.S. border and at
airports have been told not to wear surgical masks until they are needed.
The official said the "science indicates" no need for the
masks at this time.
"Masks should be used in high-risk situations, such as when an employee
comes into contact with a person or traveler who appears to be ill," the
official said..
"If an employee at (an airport) or (on the border) comes into contact
with someone who appears to be ill, it is strongly recommended and encouraged
that both of them put on masks and gloves immediately," the official
continued, adding that "the safety of employees is of the utmost
importance."
Asked why an agent shouldn't be allowed to wear a mask if it makes him or her
more comfortable and doesn't affect performance, the official said only that
"science indicates" masks are not needed now.
FOX News' Mike Levine and Erin Vogel contributed to this report.
Disturbing reports have emerged that suggest North Carolina is involuntarily
quarantining patients who may have the flu virus that is thought to
be spreading across the U.S. and the rest of the globe.
The details appear in a report by Adam Owens of N.C. based WRAL
news:
The state's health director said Monday afternoon that there
are suspected cases of swine flu in North Carolina, but declined to say how
many cases or where they were located.
Dr. Jeffrey Engel said Monday evening that officials are involuntarily
isolating patients who may have the virus. He declined to specifically say how
many suspected cases were in the state, noting that the number is always
changing, and he declined to say where they were located.
"We're working very closely with providers, and they are investigating
cases on a daily basis," Engel said.
Investigators were gathering specimens and hope to know whether the cases
are "probable" some time Tuesday and will seek confirmations by
Wednesday.
Watch a WRAL report on Dr. Jeffrey Engel's press conference:
Around 150 deaths in Mexico have been connected to the swine
flu, but only 18 cases have been definitively linked to the virus through
laboratory testing.
1600 more people have complained of flu-like symptoms since the
Mexican authorities publicised their concern about the virus on April 23.
However, the number of new cases reported by Mexico's largest
government hospitals has been declining for the past three days, according to
government officials, from 141 on Saturday to 119 on Sunday and 110 Monday.
Flu deaths are nothing new in the United States. The CDC
estimates that about 36,000 people died of flu-related causes each year, on
average, during the 1990s in the U.S.
Seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people globally in an average
year.
Experts have said that the danger of the new flu strain - which has been misnamed
"swine flu", owing to the fact that it is a combination
of pig, bird and human viruses - is that it is a primer for further mutations
that humans may have no natural immunity to.
Pity the poor pig. The otherwise estimable mammal has never had a very good
rep — something about the mud, the snout, the oink. Now add the flu.
The swine flu outbreak that has sparked widespread fear — so much so that
Egypt has ordered the slaughter of the country's 300,000 pigs, even though no
cases have been reported there — is easy to pin on the eponymous animal from
which it emerged, but the fact is, the current epidemic is little more than an
accident of evolution. If pigs are to blame, so too are birds and humans. (See
pictures of the swine flu in Mexico.)
The problem begins with the wily nature of the influenza virus itself. It may
be an uncomplicated thing, made up of nothing more than 10 proteins assembled
into a genome that's simple even by microbiological standards, but that
bare-bones genome is unusually flexible, with snap-in, snap-out gene segments
that allow easy mutation and exchange of information with other viruses. That's
the reason we need a new flu vaccine every year: by the time one flu season has
ended and the next one begins, the virus has changed so much, it can simply
shake off last year's shot. Compare that with, say, polio; the vaccine was
perfected in 1955 and hasn't had to change much since.
What keeps the flu relatively in check is that there simply aren't that many
species that are susceptible to it — with humans, pigs and certain kinds of
birds leading the list. "There are surface markers on the cells of some
species that bind with sites on the flu virus," says Dr. Peter Daszak, an
emerging-disease ecologist and president of the Wildlife Trust. "The
influenza virus evolved along with pigs, and it did the same with a few other
mammals and with birds." (Read
"To Travel or Not to Travel? A Swine Flue Dilemma.")
The adaptability of the virus, however, made it a certainty that a strain
that evolved in one of the susceptible species would easily make whatever
changes were necessary to allow it to survive in one of the few other eligible
hosts. So quickly and efficiently does the virus transform itself that it may
require just a single passage through a single individual to get that
shape-shifting job done. "Different viruses from different sources enter a
cell, and the virus that comes out the other end is an entirely different
one," says Dr. Richard Webby, an infectious-disease specialist at St. Jude
Children's Research Hospital in Memphis and the director of the hospital's World
Health Organization collaborating center. "The process is called
reassortment."
Birds are the natural reservoirs of the common flu strains that strike in
winter — and those strains reassort themselves to hit humans particularly
hard. But while humans are not susceptible to every strain of avian flu, pigs
definitely are. When bird flu viruses replicate in pigs, they pick up the viral
machinery that gives more selective flu strains the power to spread to other
mammals, like us. That's what makes pigs such potent mixing bowls for flu. The
roundabout bird-pig-human route may be less common than the straight bird-human
jump, but it may be more problematic. Strains of avian flu, like the much-feared
H5N1, can infect individual humans, but they can't make the person-to-person
leap. Avian flu that is passed through the pig's mammalian system, however, can
be passed readily among humans. (Read
"Why Border Controls Can't Keep Out the Flue Virus.")
All of this made the flu virus a tenacious foe from the outset, but once
humans invented farming and learned to cultivate animals, we made a bad
situation much worse. All at once, chickens, ducks and pigs — which never had
much to do with one another — began living cheek to jowl in high numbers and
often unsanitary conditions. Farm families and people working in live markets
then began mingling with the critters. That's a pathogenic speed blender, and
the viruses have taken full advantage of it. "It's really an ecological
issue," says Daszak.
So if we can't fairly blame the pigs (indeed, the CDC has officially stopped
calling the virus "swine flu," opting instead for the more
hog-friendly 2009 H1N1 flu), can we blame Mexico? That charge doesn't stick
either. Decades ago, numerous countries came together to develop the Global
Influenza Surveillance Network (GISN), which allows epidemiological teams to
spot new flu viruses as soon as they emerge and get vaccines ready in time. But
the GISN only tracks human flu, meaning animal flu can slip by undetected.
What's more, pigs that carry influenza tend not to die en masse the way flocks
of birds do, eliminating the immediate tip-off that a serious pathogen is at
large. None of that is Mexico's fault either. In fact, since human tourists and
domesticated animals cross into Mexico all the time, there's every reason to
believe that the progenitor virus behind the epidemic hitched a ride in one of
them.
"I'm of the opinion that this doesn't have to be a Mexico-originated
virus," says Daszak. "Somehow it got to Mexico and then mixed with
humans."
If we have to pin the rap somewhere then, forget any one species or country
and blame simple biology. But regardless of whence the virus came, the more
salient question is, Where will it go? That's what concerns doctors as they work
to stem the epidemic and make sure healthy people stay that way.
Group seeks to prevent needless slaughter of pigs as worldwide cases climb
Kote Rodrigo / EPA
A passenger and a child cover their faces with masks as they walk
through Madrid-Barajas International Airport in Madrid, Spain.
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 3:41 p.m. ET,Thurs.,
April 30, 2009
As worldwide cases of swine flu climbed to 257 on
Thursday, the World Health Organization announced it will would stop using the
term “swine flu” to avoid confusion over the danger posed by pigs.
The policy shift comes a day after global health
authorities warned that swine flu was threatening to bloom into a pandemic and
notched up their alert system to the second highest level.
WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said the agriculture
industry and the U.N. food agency had expressed concerns that the term “swine
flu” was misleading consumers and needlessly causing countries to ban pork
products and order the slaughter of pigs
“Rather than calling this swine flu ... we’re going
to stick with the technical scientific name H1N1 influenza A,” Thompson said.
Egypt began slaughtering its roughly 300,000 pigs
Wednesday even though experts said swine flu is not linked to pigs and not
spread by eating pork. Angry farmers protested the government degree.
In Paris, the World Organization for Animal Health said
Thursday “there is no evidence of infection in pigs, nor of humans acquiring
infection directly from pigs.” Killing pigs “will not help to guard against
public or animal health risks” presented by the virus and “is
inappropriate,” the group said in a statement.
China, Russia, Ukraine and other nations have banned
pork exports from Mexico and parts of the United States, blaming swine flu
fears.
Most in the Muslim world consider pigs unclean animals
and do not eat pork because of religious restrictions. The farmers in Egypt
raise the pigs for consumption by the country’s Christian minority.
The virus has spread farther in Europe, showing up in
the Netherlands and Switzerland. But most of the newly confirmed cases came from
Mexico. WHO's flu chief Keiji Fukuda said Thursday the number of confirmed cases
in Mexico has increased to 260, including 12 deaths.
In the Netherlands, a 3-year-old child who recently
returned from Mexico became the country's first confirmed case of swine flu, the
Dutch government announced Thursday. In Switzerland, a 19-year-old student with
swine flu was mistakenly released from a hospital and then hastily readmitted,
health officials said.
WHO said the global threat is serious enough to ramp up
efforts to produce a vaccine against the virus. The group raised its pandemic
alert for swine flu Wednesday, meaning that it believes a global outbreak of the
disease is imminent. It was the first time that WHO had declared a phase 5
outbreak.
WHO Director General Margaret Chan declared the
phase 5 alert after consulting with flu experts from around the world. The
decision could lead the global body to recommend additional measures to combat
the outbreak, including for vaccine manufacturers to switch production from
seasonal flu vaccines to a pandemic vaccine.
"All countries should immediately now activate
their pandemic preparedness plans," Chan told reporters in Geneva. "It
really is all of humanity that is under threat in a pandemic."
There was no evidence on Thursday to suggest that WHO
should raise its pandemic alert to the highest level due to a swine flu
outbreak, Fukuda said.
"Today that evidence holds steady," Fukuda
told reporters.
In Washington, President Barack Obama promised “great vigilance” in
confronting the outbreak, which has sickened 118 people in 15 states and forced
schools to close. A Mexican toddler who visited Texas with his family died
Monday night in Houston, becoming the first fatality in the U.S.
The virus, a mix of pig, bird and human genes to which
people have limited natural immunity, has also spread to Canada, New Zealand,
Britain, Germany, Spain, Israel and Austria.
A phase 5 alert means there is sustained transmission among people in at least
two countries. Once the virus shows effective transmission in two different
regions of the world, a full pandemic outbreak — phase 6 — would be
declared, meaning a global epidemic of a new and potentially deadly disease.
"It is important to take this very
seriously," Chan told a news conference watched around the globe on
Wednesday. But for the average person, the
term "pandemic" doesn't mean they're suddenly at greater risk.
The virus is believed to have sickened nearly 3,000 people across Mexico. Mexico
has taken drastic action to squelch a swine flu epidemic, ordering a suspension
of private business activity and nonessential federal government activities.
Health Secretary Angel Cordova Villalobos announced the decision to shut down
most of the country’s government and economy shortly after his department
reported the increase in confirmed cases of infection.
Vital services like transportation and airports will
remain open, as will crucial economic services like pharmacies and the media,
Cordova said, according to reports from several Mexican newspapers. The
Associated Press later confirmed the suspension plans.
Outside of Mexico, almost all cases have had only light
symptoms, and only a handful of cases have needed hospitalization.
Officials warned more deaths could be expected as
surveillance of the illness increases.
Pharmaceutical companies should ramp up manufacturing, Chan said. Two antiviral
drugs — Relenza, made by GlaxoSmithKline and Tamiflu, made by Roche AG —
have been shown to work against the H1N1 strain.
As fear and uncertainty about the disease ricocheted
around the globe, Chan added that WHO did not recommend closing borders or
forgoing pork.
Nations are taking all sorts of precautions, some more
useful than others.
Apart from Egypt's misguided attempt to curb swine flu
spread by slaughtering hundreds of thousands of pigs, Britain, with only five
cases, is trying to buy 32 million masks. And in the United States, Obama said
more of the country’s 132,000 schools may have to be shuttered.
At airports from Japan to South Korea to Greece and
Turkey, thermal cameras were trained on airline passengers to see if any were
feverish. And Lebanon discouraged traditional Arab peck-on-the-cheek greetings,
even though no one has come down with the virus there.
Peru and Ecuador joined Cuba and Argentina on Wednesday
in banning travel either to or from Mexico, and other nations considered similar
bans. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy met with cabinet ministers to discuss
swine flu, and the health minister said France would ask the European Union to
suspend flights to Mexico.
The U.S., the European Union and other countries have
discouraged nonessential travel to Mexico. Some countries have urged their
citizens to avoid the United States and Canada as well. But health officials
said such bans would do little to stop the virus, and WHO said total bans on
travel to Mexico were questionable because the virus is already fairly
widespread.
In Europe, EU health ministers have agreed to work
"without delay" with drugmakers to develop a pilot vaccine to fight
swine flu. The EU ministers say they are committed "to closely cooperate
together" to combat the spread of the virus across the 27-nation bloc and
agreed to step up sharing health data such as treatment and prevention measures
in the wake of the flu's spread.
The ministers, who held emergency talks Thursday, also
set up a special expert committee that will meet regularly to coordinate
national measures, including travel advisories and communication campaigns to
the public.
EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou says the EU
has taken "a united front" to fight the disease which has already been
confirmed in six European countries.
Hunting for the source
Scientists believe that somewhere in the world, months or even a year ago, a pig
virus jumped to a human and mutated, and has been spreading between humans ever
since. Unlike with bird flu, doctors have no evidence suggesting a direct
pig-to-human infection from this strain, which is why they haven’t recommended
killing pigs.
Medical detectives have not zeroed in on where the
outbreak began. By March 9, the first symptoms were showing up in the Mexican
state of Veracruz, where pig farming is a key industry in mountain hamlets and
where small clinics provide the only health care.
The earliest confirmed case was there: a 5-year-old boy
who was one of hundreds of people in the town of La Gloria whose flu symptoms
left them struggling to breathe.
Days later, a door-to-door tax inspector was
hospitalized with acute respiratory problems in the neighboring state of Oaxaca,
infecting 16 hospital workers before she became Mexico’s
first confirmed death.
Neighbors of the inspector, Maria Adela Gutierrez, said
Wednesday that she fell ill after pairing up with a temporary worker from
Veracruz who seemed to have a very bad cold. Other people from La Gloria kept
going to jobs in Mexico City despite their illnesses, and could have infected
people in the capital.
The deaths were already leveling off by the time Mexico
announced the epidemic April 23. At hospitals Wednesday, lines of anxious
citizens seeking care for flu symptoms dwindled markedly.
Cordova said getting proper treatment within 48 hours
of falling ill “is fundamental for getting the best results” and said the
country’s supply of medicine was sufficient.
Cordova has suggested the virus can be beaten if caught
quickly and treated properly. But it was neither caught quickly nor treated
properly in the early days in Mexico, which lacked the capacity to identify the
virus, and whose health care system has become the target of widespread anger
and distrust.
Swine flu has symptoms nearly identical to regular flu
— fever, cough and sore throat — and spreads like regular flu — through
tiny particles in the air — when people cough or sneeze. People with flu
symptoms are advised to stay at home, wash their hands and cover their sneezes.
H1N1 swine flu is seen as the biggest risk since H5N1
avian flu re-emerged in 2003, killing 257 people of 421 infected in 15
countries. In 1968 a “Hong Kong” flu pandemic killed about 1 million people
globally, and a 1957 pandemic killed about 2 million.
Seasonal flu kills 250,000 to 500,000 people in a
normal year, including healthy children in rich countries.
While epidemiologists stress it is humans, not pigs,
who are spreading the disease, sales have plunged for pork producers around the
world. WHO says eating pork is safe, but Mexicans have even cut back on
their beloved greasy pork tacos.
Authorities have sought to keep the crisis in context.
In the U.S. alone, health officials say about 36,000 people die every year from
flu-related causes.
The first swine flu death in the United States has been confirmed, but the
victim is a Mexican toddler who caught the illness in Mexico before traveling to
Texas. Serious questions must now be asked about why a virus that has spread
across at least 10 countries and is suspected in many others has only killed
hispanics, and whether a race-specific bio-weapon is being beta-tested.
Scientists are still baffled as to the
contrast between the lethality of the virus in Mexico compared to the rest of
the world. Despite the virus being confirmed in the United States, Canada, the
UK, Spain, New Zealand, Germany, Costa Rica, and Austria, with probable cases
also occurring in France, South Korea and Slovakia, the virus has killed only
Mexicans.
We
are also told that the virus which sickened students at a school in
Queens is the same strain as the one found in Mexico.
How can it be that the only fatalities are
Mexican hispanics nearly a week into the outbreak?
Race-specific viruses
can occur naturally, but this is a rare phenomenon. Is the swine flu virus a
synthetically manufactured race-specific bio-weapon being beta-tested in
preparation for more deadly pandemics in the future?
The U.S.
military-industrial complex’s interest in race-specific bio-weapons as a tool
of warfare is not a paranoid conspiracy theory - it’s outlined in their own
public documents.
“Advanced forms of biological warfare that
can target specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of
terror to a politically useful tool,” stated the September
2000 Rebuilding America’s Defenses report released by the Project
For A New American Century - the ideological framework of the Bush
administration.
In 2006, Armed Forces Journal, a mouthpiece
for the military-industrial complex, carried
a military strategy plan written by retired Major Ralph Peters which
called for “ethnic cleansing” to be instituted in the Middle East so that
the region could easily be dominated by the joint interests of Israel and the
United States
As far back as 1998, Wired
Magazine, citing the London Times, carried a report detailing the
fact that Israel was already readying race-specific weapons for this very
purpose.
“Israel is reportedly developing a
biological weapon that would harm Arabs while leaving Jews unaffected, according
to a report in London’s Sunday Times,” stated the article.
“The report, citing Israeli military and
western intelligence sources, says that scientists are trying to identify
distinctive genes carried by Arabs to create a genetically modified bacterium or
virus.”
Wikipedia - that bastion of credibility -
claims that the story was debunked but fails to provide conclusive evidence.
A
1999 UK Sunday Herald piece highlighted a report by the British
Medical Association which concluded that race-specific bio-weapons would be
ready within 5 years, “enabling governments to target victims solely on their
genetic make-up.”
“Genetic weapons capable of wiping out
specific ethnic groups are no longer the stuff of science fiction, military and
scientific advisers with the British and American governments have admitted,”
states the report.
“Professor Vivienne Nathanson, head of the
BMA’s health policy research, said: “Biological weapons had limited use due
to the shortcoming of being unspecific in targeting. “However, genetic
targeting is now possible. Probably in the next five to 10 years we will see the
manufacture of relatively specific biological weapons which are lethal in small
volumes.”
The article explains how FBI crime labs have
stumbled across genetic markers specific to blacks, whites, hispanics and native
Americans during routine work. The same markers have been discovered in
Palestinians, setting them apart from Israelis.
“If you add together a number of different
markers for different populations you can start to be specific to a target
population,” states Nathanson.
Lest we forget the
innumerable instances where pioneering eugenicists and members of the
global elite have publicly called for the earth’s population to be reduced to
“sustainable” levels.
Perhaps the most infamous example of this is Prince
Philip, the husband of the Queen of England, who has repeatedly
expressed his desire to return to earth as a “particularly deadly virus” to
“cull” the surplus human population.
As Alex Jones documents in his seminal
documentary End
Game, this mind set is endemic amongst the elite.
So having established the fact that
race-specific bio-weapons have already been produced and are ready for use, and
having confirmed that the elite have repeatedly expressed a desire to use them,
it’s necessary to ask whether or not hispanics are being targeted by the swine
flu outbreak as a beta-test of these weapons.
Since the common flu virus does kill people
every year, a handful of non-hispanic deaths attributed to swine flu will not
disprove this hypothesis, which will remain a possibility unless we see a
significant number of fatalities of non-hispanics.
Is swine flu some sort of genetically modified bioweapon? Before you totally
dismiss the idea as some sort of crazy wacko conspiracy theory, consider the
following:
1. Three vials of highly dangerous pathogens can’t be accounted for at the
nation’s top biodefense lab, and some virus samples recently found there
had not been inventoried.
Fort Detrick is the site of the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious
Diseases, which couldn’t keep tabs on the
anthrax that killed five people in 2001. FNP reports that criminal
investigators from Fort Meade are “investigating the
possibility of missing virus samples.... In February, USAMRIID halted all
its research into these and other diseases, known
as 'select agents’ following the discovery of virus samples that weren't
listed in its inventory,”
2. “The Swine Influenza A/H1N1 viruses characterized in this outbreak have
not been previously detected in pigs or humans.
The viruses so far characterized have been sensitive to oseltamivir, but
resistant to both amantadine and rimantadine."
3. Outbreaks of the “same [never been seen in nature before] virus” occurred
almost simultaneously in places thousands of miles apart.
"...It [is] likely too late to try to contain the outbreak by vaccinating,
treating or isolating people...the U.S. cases [in California,
Texas, Kansas, New York, according to WHO] and Mexican cases are likely the
same virus... so far the genetic elements that
we have looked at are the same... "
-Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, in a telephone briefing with reporters
on April 24, 2009.
Here’s where it gets really interesting:
4. A US/Chinese venture capital firm stands to benefit financially from a swine
flu pandemic.
According to
Reuters, private US/Chinese venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield &
Byers (KPCB), based in Menlo Park,
CA, launched
a $200 million Pandemic Bio Defense Fund in 2006. The firm’s portfolio
includes eight pandemic and bio
defense firms. Two of them, Novavax and Bio Defense, are publicly traded.
On Friday,
their stock jumped at news of the swine flu outbreak in Mexico. Novavax (up 75
percent) had already contacted the
Centers for
Disease Control offering to help with the crisis. But the same story also said
that shares of Gilead
Sciences, Inc. - which gets royalties from the sale of Tamiflu from Swiss
pharmaceutical giant Roche - declined 10 cents the
same day. Strange.
5. Guess who’s a partner at KPCB? Al Gore, who also chairs the Alliance for
Climate Protection. Gore bragged that he donates all his salary to the climate
change organization.
KPCB also has a “green”
investment collaboration with Generation Investment Management, which Gore also
co-founded with
David Blook
(Al is a very busy guy). A November 14, 2007 article in the UK Telegraph quoted
Blook: “There’s a significant gap
between the
capital needed and the capital currently deployed to create enduring solutions
to the climate crisis.”
Selling a boatload of swine flu vaccine to panicked government officials in
Mexico, the United States and Canada would raise a lot of capital. Just sayin...
Of course, tthis highly unlikely link between Al Gore, his joint private equity
venture with the Chinese, and the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico and the U.S.
could just be one of those strange coincidences. But if I were one of the
Army’s CID people, I’d look into it.
===============================================================================
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"Step
back and think for a minute before rushing and panicking" is the message
coming from Texas Congressman Ron Paul who has warned that the swine flu scare
will once again be used as a precedent for big government intrusion.
Dr. Mario Alberto Vargas
Olvera, age 52. Died: Oct. 6, 2007
as a result of several blunt-force injuries to his head and neck. Ruled as
murder. Found in his home. He was a nationally and internationally recognized biologist.
Lee Jong-woo,
age 61. Died: May 22, 2006 after suffering a blood
clot on the brain. Lee was spearheading the organization's fight against global
threats from bird flu, AIDS and other infectious diseases. WHO director-general
since 2003, Lee was his country's top international official. The affable South
Korean, who liked to lighten his press conferences with jokes, was a keen
sportsman with no history of ill-health, according to officials.
Robert J. Lull,
age 66. Died: May 19, 2005 of multiple stab
wounds. Despite his missing car and apparent credit card theft, homicide
Inspector Holly Pera said investigators aren't convinced that robbery was the
sole motive for Lull's killing. She said a robber would typically have taken
more valuables from Lull's home than what the killer left with. Lull had been
chief of nuclear medicine at San Francisco General Hospital since 1990 and
served as a radiology professor at UCSF. He was past president of the American
College of Nuclear Physicians and the San Francisco Medical Society and served
as editor of the medical society's journal, San Francisco Medicine, from 1997 to
1999. Lee Lull said her former husband was a proponent of nuclear power and
loved to debate his political positions with others.
David Banks,
age 55. Died: May 8, 2005. Banks, based in North Queensland, died in an
airplane crash, along with 14 others. He was known as an Agro Genius inventing
the mosquito trap used for cattle. Banks was the principal scientist with
quarantine authority, Biosecurity Australia, and heavily involved in protecting
Australians from unwanted diseases and pests. Most of Dr Banks' work involved
preventing potentially devastating diseases making their way into Australia. He
had been through Indonesia looking at the potential for foot and mouth disease
to spread through the archipelago and into Australia. Other diseases he had
fought to keep out of Australian livestock herds and fruit orchards include
classical swine fever, Nipah virus and Japanese encephalitis.
Dr. Douglas James Passaro, age 43. Died April 18, 2005
from unknown cause in Oak Park, Illinois. Dr. Passaro was a brilliant
epidemiologist who wanted to unlock the secrets of a spiral-shaped bacteria that
causes stomach disease. He was a professor who challenged his students with
real-life exercises in bioterrorism. He was married to Dr. Sherry Nordstrom..
Geetha Angara,
age 43. Died: February 8, 2005. This formerly missing chemist was found in a
Totowa, New Jersey water treatment plant's tank. Angara, 43, of Holmdel, was
last seen on the night of Feb. 8 doing water quality tests at the Passaic Valley
Water Commission plant in Totowa, where she worked for 12 years. Divers found
her body in a 35-foot-deep sump opening at the bottom of one of the emptied
tanks. Investigators are treating Angara's death as a possible homicide. Angara,
a senior chemist with a doctorate from New York University, was married and
mother of three.
Jeong H. Im,
age 72. Died: January 7, 2005. Korean Jeong H. Im, died of multiple stab
wounds to the chest before firefighters found in his body in the trunk of a
burning car on the third level of the Maryland Avenue Garage. A retired
research assistant professor at the University of Missouri - Columbia and
primarily a protein chemist, MUPD with the assistance of the Columbia Police
Department and Columbia Fire Department are conducting a death investigation of
the incident. A "person of interest" described as a male
6'–6'2" wearing some type of mask possible a painters mask or drywall
type mask was seen in the area of the Maryland Avenue Garage. Dr. Im was
primarily a protein chemist and he was a researcher in the field.
Tom Thorne,
age 64; Beth Williams,
age 53; Died: December 29, 2004. Two wild life scientists, Husband-and-wife
wildlife veterinarians who were nationally prominent experts on chronic wasting
disease and brucellosis were killed in a snowy-weather crash on U.S. 287 in
northern Colorado.
Taleb
Ibrahim al-Daher. Died: December 21,
2004. Iraqi nuclear scientist was shot dead north of Baghdad by unknown
gunmen. He was on his way to work at Diyala University when armed men opened
fire on his car as it was crossing a bridge in Baqouba, 57 km northeast of
Baghdad. The vehicle swerved off the bridge and fell into the Khrisan river. Al-Daher,
who was a professor at the local university, was removed from the submerged car
and rushed to Baqouba hospital where he was pronounced dead.
John
R. La Montagne, age 61. Died: November
2, 2004. Died while in Mexico, no cause stated, later disclosed as
pulmonary embolism. PhD, Head of US Infectious Diseases unit under Tommie
Thompson. Was NIAID Deputy Director. Expert in AIDS Program work and
Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
Dr.
John Badwey, age 54. Died: July 21,
2004. Scientist and accidental politician when he opposed disposal of
sewage waste program of exposing humans to sludge. Suddenly developed
pneumonia like symptoms then died in two weeks. Biochemist at Harvard
Medical School specializing in infectious diseases.
Professor Stephen Tabet, age 42. Died on July 6, 2004
from an unknown illness. He was an associate professor and epidemiologist at the
University of Washington. A world-renowned HIV doctor and researcher who worked
with HIV patients in a vaccine clinical trial for the HIV Vaccine Trials Network
Edward Hoffman, age 62.
Died July 1, 2004 from unknown
causes. Hoffman was a professor and a scientist who also held leadership
positions within the UCLA medical community. He worked to develop the first
human PET scanner in 1973 at Washington University in St. Louis.
John
Mullen, age 67. Died: June 29, 2004.
A Nuclear physicist poisoned with a huge dose of arsenic. A nuclear
research scientist with McDonnell Douglas. Police investigating will not say how
Mullen was exposed to the arsenic or where it came from. At the time of his
death he was doing contract work for Boeing.
Dr. Assefa Tulu,
age 45. Died: June 24, 2004. Dr. Tulu joined the health department in
1997 and served for five years as the county's lone epidemiologist. He was
charged with trackcing the health of the county, including the spread of
diseases, such as syphilis, AIDS and measles. He also designed a system for
detecting a bioterrorism attack involving viruses or bacterial agents. Tulu
often coordinated efforts to address major health concerns in Dallas County,
such as the West Nile virus outbreaks of the past few years, and worked with the
media to inform the public. Found face down, dead in his office. The Dallas
County Epidemiologist died of a hemorrhagic stroke.
Thomas
Gold, age 84. Died: June 22,
2004. Austrian born Thomas Gold famous over the years for a variety of
bold theories that flout conventional wisdom and reported in his 1998 book,
"The Deep Hot Biosphere," the idea challenges the accepted wisdom of
how oil and natural gas are formed and, along the way, proposes a new theory of
the beginnings of life on Earth and potentially on other planets. Long
term battle with heart failure. Gold's theory of the deep hot biosphere holds
important ramifications for the possibility of life on other planets, including
seemingly inhospitable planets within our own solar system. He was Professor
Emeritus of Astronomy at Cornell University and was the founder (and for 20
years director) of Cornell Center for Radiophysics and Space Research. He was
also involved in air accident investigations.
Dr.
Eugene Mallove, age 56. Died: May
14, 2004. Autopsy confirmed Mallove died as a result of several blunt-force
injuries to his head and neck. Ruled as murder. Found at the end of his
driveway. Alt. Energy Expert who was working on viable energy alternative
program and announcement. Norwich Free Academy graduate.Beaten to death during
an alleged robbery. Mallove was well respected for his knowledge of cold fusion.
He had just published an "open letter" outlining the results of and
reasons for his last 15 years in the field of "new energy research."
Dr. Mallove was convinced it was only a matter of months before the world would
actually see a free energy device.
Robert
Shope, age 74. Died: January 23, 2004. Virus Expert Who
Warned of Epidemics, Dies died of lung transplant complications. Later
purported to have died of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis which can be caused by
either environmental stimulus or a VIRUS. It would not be hard to
administer a drug that would cause Dr. Shope's lung transplant to either be
rejected or to cause complications from the transplant. Dr. Shope led the group
of scientists who had an 11 MILLION dollar fed grant to ensure the new lab would
keep in the nasty bugs. Dr. Shope also met with and worked with Dr. Mike Kiley
on the UTMB Galveston lab upgrade to BSL 4. When the upgrade would be complete
the lab will host the most hazardous pathogens known to man especially tropical
and emerging diseases as well as bioweapons.
