Asprin® or Tamiflu® - WATCH OUT ???

[Happyville]

Pretty Interesting read this morning on SOTT news flash back about our bodies natural defence to the flu virus being a good old hard fought day in bed with a fever... http://www.sott.net/articles/show/182968-The-Tamiflu-Myth-What-Big-Pharma-and-the-CDC-Forgot-to-Tell-the-Doctors

I looked into this a little further and found this interesting article on the 1918 flu "pandemic" and how a new wonder drug called Asprin® had just been marketed to control fevers around the same time as the pandemic... Next on the blocks is Tamiflu®, coming to a flu patient near you ???

http://www.jaredstory.com/1918flu.html

1918 Flu … How It Happened
By Marshall Smith, Editor, BroJon Gazette
Humans have genetically developed a natural method to defeat viral infections called a fever. With a mild fever of 101 degrees the telomers on the ends of the RNA molecule cannot attach and the virus cannot reproduce itself, and the body's white blood cells quickly destroy the invading virus. But the modern “regular” treatment for a fever from a cold or flu is to reduce the fever to ease the discomfort. This is wrong.

The traditional knowledge of how to quickly and effectively cure a common cold or flu infection due to viruses has been known worldwide since ancient times. But you are not supposed to know that. You are not supposed to know that you can quickly cure a viral infection overnight by yourself and at no cost to you. You are supposed to believe that you need costly medications and medical treatments to cure new life-threatening diseases.

Best advice: do not try to lower a fever, it is your genetically derived natural human defense against any viral infection. Stay wrapped up and warm to cause a sweat. Drink fluids to replace the water lost by sweating. And within 6 to 8 hours overnight the cold or flu is gone. Many older doctors knew this, which is the reason for the old docs advice, “go to bed, stay warm, drink fluids.” But younger docs just out of med school have been taught there is a drug or pill to treat everything. The result of using expensive pills or over-the-counter medications to reduce the fever from colds and flu is prolonged illness, the epidemic spread of viral diseases and the unneeded deaths of hundreds of thousands each year. Don’t buy it.

MURDER IN THE MEDICINE CABINET

PART ONE: The Deadliest Killer of the 20th Century, With More Deaths Than All the World Wars, Lurks Right Inside Your House, and Threatens to Take You and Your Family. The Story No One Told You.

In 1918, a virulent, never seen before, form of influenza seemed to suddenly appear. It seemed to kill within hours, and spread around the world within days. It seemed to appear simultaneously all around the world. Its spread was faster than any then known means of human travel.

In 2004, the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization warned of repeats of such a rapid and deadly pandemic, through such variants of influenza as SARS and Bird Flu. But without knowing what caused the 1918 pandemic or how it spread, how can the CDC or WHO make such a claim? Unless they already know something they are not telling.

As yet no one has been able to identify the actual medical cause of the 1918 Flu, with only a few samples of a "bird-like" virus taken from only several cadaver tissue samples. But no sample is complete. And those are only one or two samples from among the estimated 20 to 40 million people who seemed to die mysteriously almost overnight. The 1918 Flu spread faster and was more deadly, killing more people than even the Plague and Black Death of the middle ages. Why does no one talk about it?

And even if the viral cause were identified, no one can explain the lightning fast spread of the disease. Maybe it wasn't a disease after all. Many researchers have even looked at some world-wide phenomena, such as extra-terrestrial biology filtering into the atmosphere from outer space. Or maybe, the jet stream spreading disease-laden dust from Asia all around the world in a matter of days. In an area of investigation where there seems to be no real facts and less logic, any "fringe theory" or "outre logic" is just as valid as any other. Maybe something about the 1918 Flu is being covered up. Something that we are not supposed to know.

Actually, there is another rather simple mundane solution to the medical mystery. There did exist in 1918 a then new technical invention by which the "disease" was spread almost at the speed of light. The "1918 Flu" was spread around the world almost instantaneously by telephone. Of course, that claim needs an explanation, and proof.

In the 1890's an American chemist made an improvement on an old home folk remedy called Willow or Aspen Tea. It seemed to relieve the pains of old-age gout, arthritis and other assorted pains. But the evil tasting tea containing acetylsalicylic acid was so strong that it caused many people to have nausea and vomiting, along with the pain relief if they could tolerate drinking the tea. This potion was later neutralized, synthesized and buffered, and then sold to the German Bayer company as a pain reliever.

I have researched the source and history of the name Aspirin and found no reasonable explanation has ever been found. I have found, instead, that the German Bayer company, in order to sell to both the American and European markets, used a name familiar in both markets. In America the common folk remedy form was called "Aspen Tea" made from boiling willow bark from the Aspen tree family. In Europe, the same home remedy was called "Spirain Tea" made from boiling the leaves of the common European shrub Spirae.

Both preparations were found to contain large amounts of natural acetylsalicylic acid, but unbuffered. Combining the common home-remedy folklore names Aspen and Spirain comes up with the Euro-American brand name Aspirin. My research is the sole source for the information about that unique derivation of the brand name.

The reason for the deep confusion and lack of any clear history about the trade name is that for almost a decade from 1905 to about 1915, the use of the trade name, and the source of the name Aspirin, was tied up in international courts. In the late 1890's when Aspirin became available as an easy to use "pop a pill" replacement to the sour tasting Aspen or Spirain Teas, many people used it to relieve the pain of joint arthritis. Many users also discovered, quite by accident, a unique side effect. If you had a fever when you took the Aspirin, it also made the fever suddenly go away. What a discovery! It appeared to be a cure for the the common cold and flu.

By 1905 many other drug companies were making acetylsalicylic acid preparations and calling it Aspirin, but they were selling it as a common cold remedy. Bayer took these other companies to court and sued over illegal use of their trademark. Many people believe that Bayer lost the decision and lost control of the name Aspirin. Most believe that Aspirin is now a generic name such as Kleenex, Scotch Tape or Xerox. Not so. It was an odd court decision and a confusing compromise. By 1915 it was decided in court that Bayer had the exclusive use of the tradename Aspirin, if it were sold as a pain-relieving analgesic.

The court also found that the other companies could also use the name Aspirin, if in their ads and packaging, they claimed that their product was an anti-febril agent or a fever reducer. This odd court decision is still in use today. You can still buy Bayer aspirin to relieve pain, and on the store shelf right next to it is Nyquil, Aleve, Tylenol, Motrin, Bufferin, Anacin and a whole long list of others, all containing aspirin or aspirin-like compounds and claiming to be treatments for Colds, Flu and Fever. Reducing fever was not in Bayer's original patent claim. Bayer didn't know in 1895 of the use of aspirin as a fever reducer and had not put that in their original trademark application.

And how does that strange court decision fit into the rapid spread of the 1918 Flu? The primary defense which the human body has, to stop the spread of viral infections is to produce a fever. The fever is not a symptom of disease, but is actually the body's primary anti-viral immune system. The fever stops the telomeres on the ends of viral RNA from making copies of itself.

The telomeres are like a zipper which unzips and separates the new RNA copy within miliseconds, but the telomeres are temperature sensitive and won't unzip at temperatures above 101F. Thus the high temperature of the fever, stops the flu virus from dividing and spreading. It is an immune system response which only mammals have developed to prevent the spread of viral flu infections, which mostly 99% come from the more ancient dinosaur-like earth life forms called birds. Almost all influenza is a form of "Avian Flu." A few influenza forms come from other dinosaur-like life forms, the modern reptiles, but these are usually classified as very rare tropical diseases, since that is where most reptiles live.

The doctors in the early 1900's didn't know about that, and even today few if any doctors are aware that fever is not a symptom of disease, but is the primary and only way for the human body to stop viral infections. If you stop or reduce the fever, viruses are allowed to divide and spread uncontrolled throughout the body. I have already described this process in detail in my articles posted in the Brother Jonathan Gazette in 2003, so I won't go into detail here. Do a search on "SARS" on the Gazette and you'll find the articles. Normally the progress of a flu is that a virus enters the mucous membrane lining of the lungs, enters cells, then makes many copies of itself, which causes the cell to expand to such an degree that it bursts open. The new viruses then cloak themselves with a coating taken from the old damaged cell wall, thus hiding themselves from the human body's own T-cell antibody immune defense system. To the body's immune system the new viruses simply appear to be pieces of the body's own lung tissue.

By creating a fever, the viral infection is slowed down sufficiently so that the body's T cells can find the swollen infected lung cells, surround them and metabolize (literally eat) the damaged cell with strong acids which also breaks down the RNA viruses into basic amino acids. This effectively "kills" the viruses so that they can't reproduce. But viruses are not living things, and you can't kill something that's not alive. All the body can do is destroy or dissolve the RNA amino acid chain which makes up the virus.

Not knowing this, most doctors treat the flu with aspirin or fever reducers, as a palliative treatment to ease the aches, pains, and delerium fever effects. The result is that within hours, the fever goes down and the patient feels much better. What neither the patient nor the doctor knows is that with only a normal 98.6F body temperature, the viruses are allowed to reproduce unchecked. Within 72 hours, the viruses have grown from one or two virus bodies to millions or billions. The body is now completely overwhelmed. But while taking aspirin or cold medications, there are no symptoms or warnings of what is yet to come.

As a last resort the body tries to quickly flush the infection of billions of viruses from the lungs with massive amounts of T-cells, and fluid in the lungs to "cough out" the virus. This is called viral pneumonia. Soon within hours the patient is in the hospital. The doctors try to treat the now 105 degree fever with more anti-febril aspirins, or related medications to "treat the fever." Then within another 24 hours the patient, suffocating and gasping for breath, is dead.

You should note that the original infection did cause a mild fever, aches and pains, which the patient "self-medicated" with over-the-counter products. For the next several days, the patient seemed to have no symptoms, but was actually growing billions of copies of influenza virus in his lungs. Then days later, the patient and doctor seem to see a sudden rapid case of viral flu infection that is now overwhelming the body. Is that what really happened? What caused the patient's death? Was it the original flu virus, or was it the use of Aspirin to lower the flu fever which then shutdown the patient's own immune system response? Obviously, the latter. So how did this cause the massive rapid spread of the 1918 Flu?

The Bayer court case had just been settled, and many companies other than Bayer, could now legally market aspirin to treat colds and fever. But then "The Great War to End all War" was on, and most aspirin products were going directly to the front lines in France to treat the soldiers in the diseased hell hole trenches of WWI.

The World War I medics knew that aspirin could quickly reduce a fever. If a soldier had a fever, the docs gave aspirin. Magically the fever went down, the soldier felt better and quickly went back to the fighting. Then three days later, the same soldier was back, now with severe pneumonia and died almost overnight.

No doctors then made the connection between aspirin and pneumonia death, since the trenches were filled with many other seemingly related diseases such as diphtheria or tuberculosis. Death and dying on the front line was common, so no investigation was done. Aspirin seemed to be a god-send since it allowed sick soldiers to swiftly get right back into the fighting.

After the Armistice of November 11, 1918 the fighting stopped and the soldiers went home. The soldiers around the world announced the good news to their families back home. Most of the low-ranked doughboys had to wait till they got back to their homebase in Kansas, or wherever, to call home. They couldn't afford the costly trans-Atlantic deep sea cable phone rates. But when the troop arrived in Kansas, the call from sergeant Tom was something like: "Hey mom, I'm coming home. I'll see yu and dad next Tuesday in Chattanooga. How's everybody? Oh, Aunt Esther has a fever? Hey tell her to take some aspirin. Yeah, that stuff in the medicine cabinet for treatin' the aches and pains. Tell Esther, we used it in France. Works right away and the fever is gone. OK see yu Tuesday...."

So what does Esther do? She tries the aspirin, but the old Bayer label only says its for "aches and pains" and says nothing about fevers. She takes it and magically the fever is gone, and she feels much better, almost cured. She's so much better, she gets out the horse and buggy to go see her sister, Lucy in Mt Carmel, where Lucy and the kids are down with the fever. Mt. Carmel has no telephones and even no roads, only the buggy path to reach the outside world. But within hours of sergeant Tom's phone call home, by word of mouth, everybody in rural Mt. Carmel is now taking aspirin to treat fevers. Since the new information came from a soldier, from the US Army and the government, it must be true!

Within a week of the 1918 Armistice, by newfangled telephone, trans-oceanic telephone cables, and even the experimental ship-to-shore shortwave radios using Morse code, the message was flashed around the world -- "Have a fever? Take Aspirin. It worked in France, it'll work for you." That message spread at nearly the speed of light over millions of telephone lines all around the world. The news of the "miracle cure" even spread by word of mouth within a day or so, even to places with no phones nor roads. Mysteriously, a week later, doctors round the world now had hundreds of sick and dying patients. Nobody could figure out why. The patients themselves never reported that just the week before they did have a mild fever. But it was so mild that when they took some aspirin, it simply went away. Nobody made the connection. The doctors only saw, by November 24, 1918 thousands of very sick patients with high fevers, lungs filled with fluid, and swift overnight death.

The medical profession had never seen anything like it before, nor since. It seemed to occur simultaneously all around the world and even reaching into such out of the way places like Mt. Carmel with no telephones nor roads. How could such a massive fast-spreading killer disease exist? It didn't. It wasn't a disease. It was a new use for an old home folk remedy which everybody already had in their medicine cabinet, Bayer Aspirin to reduce fever.

The medical profession, at a complete loss to explain it, simply called it the "Spanish Flu" or the "1918 Flu" or many similar names. It was a mystery with no known source, so it was assigned many place names. So far, nobody has been able to prove any single pathogen was responsible. And even if they did, they still can't explain how it seemed to spread world-wide at almost the speed of light, clear around the world within a week.

To this day there is no explanation. But, now you know. The "disease" was not a single pathogen, but many of the hundreds of similar types of flu which are always existing at any time around the world. What was different in November 1918 was the many hundreds of thousands of almost simultaneous phone calls from the millions of returning sergeant Toms saying, "...tell Aunt Esther to take the aspirin. It worked in France. It'll work for her..." Nobody traced the spread of the 1918 Flu to sergeant Tom. Nobody made the connection.

That very same source of disease still exists today. What is different today is that cold and flu products are sold and used all year long. This results in an estimated one million deaths from mysterious viral pneumonia reported every year, but also all around the year. In 1918, the new use of aspirin for treating colds and flu all started at the same time in November, thus creating the false impression of a sudden massive onset of a new disease. Even today SARS is not a disease. It is the improper use of a brand new high-tech flu fighter called Tamiflu. The FDA approved the use of Tamiflu several years ago. In 2003 it began to be used world-wide. But how is it used?

Many millions of people around the world still self-treat their own colds and flu with over-the-counter meds containing aspirin. Those are the most commonly sold medications in the world. The patient's mild fever quickly goes away. They forget about ever having felt sick. Then several days later the patient sees the doctor and now has a high fever, bad cough and fluid-filled lungs. The doctor, using the new CDC and WHO guidelines, treats the hospitalized "flu" patient with the new high-tech Tamiflu. But how often and at what dosage?

The doctors do what they've always done for the past 100 years. Tell the nurse to stick a thermometer in the patient's mouth, increase the Tamiflu dosage by 10cc's every hour until the fever starts to drop. Then maintain that dosage level until the patient dies. Then blame the death on some new highly contagious lethal virus. Nothing new here. It's the same old story, since 1918. The only thing different is that they give it a new name like SARS, or Bird Flu or whatever sounds nifty and high-tech. Even today, each year about one million people world-wide die from the very same "disease" which first appeared in the fall of 1918. Has medicine, in the last 100 years, turned this "contagion" from Pandemic by Phone, into Illness by Internet? Is it the rapid and continuous spread of misinformation that is still killing millions?

So now, I have given you enough information that you are ready for Part Two. Coming next is a review of the curious scientific evidence, medical records and the biochemistry proof behind the Case of Murder in the Medicine Cabinet.

SHOW ME THE MONEY BABY!!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/business/global/28drug.html

Investors Buy Up Shares of Flu Drug Makers

The W.H.O. said Tamiflu and GlaxoSmithKline’s Relenza could be effective against the disease, while the virus was resistant to an older class of drugs, which includes amantadine and rimantadine.

“Generally speaking, you get a rally in stocks that have any kind of links to influenza.”

Not sure why the WTO would belive that Tamiflu could be effective considering the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oseltamivir

After following WHO protocols in treating 41 victims of the H5N1 bird flu virus (19% of the worldwide cases of bird flu reported to date), Nguyen Tuong Van, MD, who runs the intensive care unit of the Center for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, Vietnam concluded that Tamiflu, the drug most widely stockpiled around the world to combat a potential bird flu pandemic, is "useless"

 

[webglider]

They're all ready to come out with a new vaccine too! I haven't seen too much focus in the media about bringing members of the former Bush Administration up for charges on torture today.

Here is the New York Times Article mentioned by Happyville:

April 28, 2009
Investors Buy Up Shares of Flu Drug Makers
By DAVID JOLLY
PARIS — Shares of GlaxoSmithKline and Roche, makers of prescription flu treatments, rose Monday amid expectations that the swine flu scare would lift demand for their products.

There were no immediate signs of shortages of flu drugs. Roche, the Swiss maker of Tamiflu, said Monday that the World Health Organization has enough stockpiled to treat up to 5 million people, on top of millions more doses held by governments. Tamiflu has been stockpiled for years by governments, companies and health authorities. Still, shares of Roche rose 4.1 percent in Zurich, and GlaxoSmithKline rose 5 percent in London after the W.H.O. warned that the new A (H1N1) swine flu virus, which originates in pigs, could become a pandemic. The disease has killed more than 100 people in Mexico and isolated cases have been detected in countries around the world.

The W.H.O. said Tamiflu and GlaxoSmithKline’s Relenza could be effective against the disease, while the virus was resistant to an older class of drugs, which includes amantadine and rimantadine.

Biota Holdings, the Australian company that discovered the chemical behind Relenza and licensed it to Glaxo, rose nearly 82 percent in Sydney. Chugai Pharmaceutical, a unit of Roche that markets Tamiflu in Japan, rose 14 percent Monday, while Eiken Chemical, a maker of clinical diagnostic tools, also rose 14 percent. Gilead Sciences, the California biotechnology company that invented Tamiflu, rose 3.8 percent in early New York trading Monday.

Novavax, an American vaccine maker, soared 75 percent last Friday in New York, though it was not clear if that movement reflected anything more than a rush by investors into any stock that might conceivably gain from the epidemic. It rose another 160 percent Monday in early trading.

“We’ve seen these kind of effects with outbreaks before,” said Richard Purkiss, a drug sector analyst at Atlantic Securities in London.

“Generally speaking, you get a rally in stocks that have any kind of links to influenza.”

He noted that there did not appear to be a shortage of either Relenza or Tamiflu.

“There are very significant stockpiles for those drugs already,” he said, “but if those stockpiles are distributed and used, then you’ll see replenishment of orders subsequent to the outbreak.”

Martina Rupp, a spokeswoman in Basel for Roche, said Roche had donated 5 million treatment courses of Tamiflu to the W.H.O. in 2006 for a “rapid response stockpile,” which is available on 24 hours notice. Half of that stockpile is stored in Switzerland, and the other half in the United States, she said.

Ms. Rupp said it takes about eight months to produce Tamiflu if production were to start from scratch, but because the company has stockpiled intermediate materials, it could ramp up production in weeks or months.

GlaxoSmithKline said in a statement that since the start of the outbreak, it had supplied 100,000 packs of Relenza and 170,000 additional doses of its seasonal influenza vaccine to the Mexican authorities. GlaxoSmithKline, based in London, said it was closely monitoring the situation with the W.H.O. and that it was “urgently assessing mechanisms to increase production of Relenza.”

Glaxo is also “ready to initiate discussions with local authorities for the manufacture of a vaccine to help prevent this new influenza strain, once a suitable candidate vaccine strain is available from the W.H.O.,” it said.

Sales of Relenza, which is inhaled, have outpaced Tamiflu of late as governments increase their purchases to balance stockpiles.

Mr. Purkiss cautioned that shares of vaccine makers might not hold their gains, because a long lead time is required from the identification of a virus to commercial production of a vaccine.

Relenza and Tamiflu, both neuraminidase inhibitors, are not without their dangers. They are suspected of causing neural and psychiatric side effects, including delirium and abnormal behavior, a committee of outside advisers to the Food and Drug Administration said in 2007.

 

[FireShadow]

Re: Asprin® or Tamiflu® - WATCH OUT ???

The theory articulated in the article "1918 Flu … How It Happened " (_http://www.jaredstory.com/1918flu.html) quoted in the first post on this thread made a lot of sense to me...however,

I googled for more info on the origin of that article.  It seems it was based on an article originally posted on  "The Brother Jonathan Gazette - (_http://www.brojon.org/frontpage/the_tamiflu_myth.html).  In a short search (about 30 minutes or so), all I could find in terms of this theory was a variety of articles all based on the Brojon article.

I did find a variety of articles that state that a mild fever does not need to be treated as it is not dangerous and that fever is the body's way of fighting viruses as in this article:

http://www.rochester.edu/uhs/healthtopics/ColdCare/ViralInfection.html

Pain relievers (e.g., acetaminophen, aspirin, and ibuprofen) relieve head and body aches, sore throats, and fever. If a fever is mild, bringing it down is not needed; a mild fever is one of the body's ways to kill the virus and is not dangerous. Children and teenagers should not take aspirin since it can cause Reye's Syndrome, a rare but often fatal condition.

So, this is interesting.  I do think the theory makes some sense, but I am not sure of its source.  I have not yet had time to delve into Brother Jonathan's Gazette yet, but this site is devoted (it seems at first glance) to "conspiracy theories".  I don't yet know if legitimate alternate news or disinfo/cointelpro...

(Edited for spelling error.)

 

[Gaby]

So, this is interesting. I do think the theory makes some sense, but I am not sure of its source. I have not yet had time to delve into Brother Jonathan's Gazette yet, but this site is devoted (it seems at first glance) to "conspiracy theories". I don't yet know if legitimate alternate news or disinfo/cointelpro...

Yeah, I spent some time doing some search about it too, and most of the sources were from the Brother Jonathan's Gazette. Although there is info from naturopathy which is "against" pills that brings down fever, as the fever is the body's natural defense against the virus, the mechanism is not necessarily explained. Then I spent some time searching about the telomeres being sensitive to temperature, and I found some studies that will indicate that this is the case. The explanation about viral replication and bacteria seems also good. In any case, fever should be 38-39 degrees C (101-102F) and more than that IS dangerous.

 

[FireShadow]

Thanks Psyche,

I was just getting ready to ask if anyone had medical information on this topic and before I could hit post, you posted your reply.

And, I just did a quick search (on the forum) for Brother Jonathan and found this one post:

Under Bird Flu Hoax - http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=624.msg3010#msg3010

Does anyone else know anything about Brother Jonathan Gazette?

 

[Z...]

Well its common sense actually, in optimal conditions and normal circumstances our bodies are very well equipped to keep in check most of the NATURAL infectious agents. Long before high tech research on telomeres this was well known fact to ancient medical practitioners, Paracelsus and others who carry this torch.

Seems the downfall of "modern medicine" begins with psychopaths such as Pasteur - you can read more here

http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=5069.0

 

[Green_Manalishi]

For more info on who wrote the article and the The Brother Jonathan Gazette, i found the following.
The Brother Jonathan Gazette is a a division of The TeddySpeaks Foundation Inc (_http://www.geocities.com/teddyspeaks/index.html) which is a a non-profit Educational Corporation, as it is stated by them.
The author of the article is the same as this one, The Tamiflu Myth: What Big Pharma and the CDC Forgot to Tell the Doctors, which i think is part 2 of the one presented by Happyville. In that one he presents himself

Yes, I am a senior scientist. I have multiple university degrees. I spent several decades working as a senior scientist/engineer for NASA. One of my NASA projects was the rat and monkey biological experiment which flew on the Shuttle Challenger in 1985. I worked directly with astronaut/scientist Dr. Robert Obermeyer. I worked in the ultra-clean lab, testing the cages and data-instrumentation which I built for the experiment, while Bob Obermeyer took the animals in the surgical room and implanted the animals with tiny transmitters which were then recorded on my computer system.

I have long been a medical researcher, but I don't have a medical degree nor license. Thus I don't see things the way most doctors do.

 

[Happyville]

Another very good article out today discussing Virus hype in the world of late...

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/29/Swine-Flu.aspx

You may not know this, but all H1N1 flu's are descendants of the 1918 pandemic strain...
Just a couple of months ago, scientists concluded that the 1918 flu pandemic that killed between 50-100 million people worldwide in a matter of 18 months -- which all these worst case scenarios are built upon -- was NOT due to the flu itself!4

Instead, they discovered the real culprit was strep infections.

People with influenza often get what is known as a "superinfection" with a bacterial agent. In 1918 it appears to have been Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Since strep is much easier to treat than the flu using modern medicine, a new pandemic would likely be much less dire than it was in the early 20th century, the researchers concluded.

Others, such as evolutionary biologist Paul Ewald,5 claim that a pandemic of this sort simply cannot happen, because in order for it to occur, the world has to change. Not the virus itself, but the world...

According to the Associated Press at least one financial analyst estimates up to $388 million worth of Tamiflu sales in the near future10 -- and that's without a pandemic outbreak.

More than half a dozen pharmaceutical companies, including Gilead Sciences Inc., Roche, GlaxoSmithKline and other companies with a stake in flu treatments and detection, have seen a rise in their shares in a matter of days, and will likely see revenue boosts if the swine flu outbreak continues to spread.

As soon as Homeland Security declared a health emergency, 25 percent -- about 12 million doses -- of Tamiflu and Relenza treatment courses were released from the nation's stockpile. However, beware that the declaration also allows unapproved tests and drugs to be administered to children. Many health- and government officials are more than willing to take that chance with your life, and the life of your child. But are you?

Remember, Tamiflu went through some rough times not too long ago, as the dangers of this drug came to light when, in 2007, the FDA finally began investigating some 1,800 adverse event reports related to the drug. Common side effects of Tamiflu include:

Nausea
Vomiting
Diarrhea
Headache
Dizziness
Fatigue
Cough

All in all, the very symptoms you're trying to avoid

More serious symptoms included convulsions, delirium or delusions, and 14 deaths in children and teens as a result of neuropsychiatric problems and brain infections (which led Japan to ban Tamiflu for children in 2007). And that's for a drug that, when used as directed, only reduces the duration of influenza symptoms by 1 to 1 ½ days, according to the official data.

But making matters worse, some patients with influenza are at HIGHER risk for secondary bacterial infections when on Tamiflu. And secondary bacterial infections, as I mentioned earlier, was likely the REAL cause of the mass fatalities during the 1918 pandemic!

Just last month I reported on the story that the American pharmaceutical company Baxter was under investigation for distributing the deadly avian flu virus to 18 different countries as part of a seasonal flu vaccine shipment...

There is a name for this mixing of viruses; it's called "reassortment," and it is one of two ways pandemic viruses are created in the lab. Some scientists say the most recent global outbreak -- the 1977 Russian flu -- was started by a virus created and leaked from a laboratory.

Another example of the less sterling integrity of Big Pharma is the case of Bayer, who sold millions of dollars worth of an injectable blood-clotting medicine to Asian, Latin American, and some European countries in the mid-1980s, even though they knew it was tainted with the AIDS virus.

So while it is morally unthinkable that a drug company would knowingly contaminate flu vaccines with a deadly flu virus such as the bird- or swine flu, it is certainly not impossible. It has already happened more than once...

For now, my point is that there are always going to be threats of flu pandemics, real or created, and there will always be potentially toxic vaccines that are peddled as the solution. But you can break free of that whole drug-solution trap by following some natural health principles.

I have not caught a flu in over two decades, and you can avoid it too, without getting vaccinated, by following these simple guidelines, which will keep your immune system in optimal working order so that you're far less likely to acquire the infection to begin with.

Optimize your vitamin D levels. As I've previously reported, optimizing your vitamin D levels is one of the absolute best strategies for avoiding infections of ALL kinds, and vitamin D deficiency is likely the TRUE culprit behind the seasonality of the flu -- not the flu virus itself.
This is probably the single most important and least expensive action you can take. I would STRONGLY urge you to have your vitamin D level monitored to confirm your levels are therapeutic at 50-70 ng.ml and done by a reliable vitamin D lab like Lab Corp.

For those of you in the US we hope to launch a vitamin D testing service through Lab Corp that allows you to have your vitamin D levels checked at your local blood drawing facility, and relatively inexpensively. We hope to offer this service by June 2009.

If you are coming down with flu like symptoms and have not been on vitamin D you can take doses of 50,000 units a day for three days to treat the acute infection. Some researchers like Dr. Cannell, believe the dose could even be as high as 1000 units per pound of body weight for three days.

Avoid Sugar and Processed Foods. Sugar decreases the function of your immune system almost immediately, and as you likely know, a strong immune system is key to fighting off viruses and other illness. Be aware that sugar is present in foods you may not suspect, like ketchup and fruit juice.

Get Enough Rest. Just like it becomes harder for you to get your daily tasks done if you're tired, if your body is overly fatigued it will be harder for it to fight the flu. Be sure to check out my article Guide to a Good Night's Sleep for some great tips to help you get quality rest.

Have Effective Tools to Address Stress . We all face some stress every day, but if stress becomes overwhelming then your body will be less able to fight off the flu and other illness.

If you feel that stress is taking a toll on your health, consider using an energy psychology tool such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), which is remarkably effective in relieving stress associated with all kinds of events, from work to family to trauma. You can check out my free, 25-page EFT manual for some guidelines on how to perform EFT.

Exercise. When you exercise, you increase your circulation and your blood flow throughout your body. The components of your immune system are also better circulated, which means your immune system has a better chance of finding an illness before it spreads. You can review my exercise guidelines for some great tips on how to get started.

Take a good source of animal based omega-3 fats like Krill Oil. Increase your intake of healthy and essential fats like the omega-3 found in krill oil, which is crucial for maintaining health. It is also vitally important to avoid damaged omega-6 oils that are trans fats and in processed foods as it will seriously damage your immune response.

Wash Your Hands. Washing your hands will decrease your likelihood of spreading a virus to your nose, mouth or other people. Be sure you don't use antibacterial soap for this -- antibacterial soaps are completely unnecessary, and they cause far more harm than good. Instead, identify a simple chemical-free soap that you can switch your family to.

Eat Garlic Regularly. Garlic works like a broad-spectrum antibiotic against bacteria, virus, and protozoa in the body. And unlike with antibiotics, no resistance can be built up so it is an absolutely safe product to use. However, if you are allergic or don't enjoy garlic it would be best to avoid as it will likely cause more harm than good.

Avoid Hospitals and Vaccines In this particular case, I'd also recommend you stay away from hospitals unless you're having an emergency, as hospitals are prime breeding grounds for infections of all kinds, and could be one of the likeliest places you could be exposed to this new bug. Vaccines will not be available for six months at the minimum but when available they will be ineffective and can lead to crippling paralysis like Guillain-Barré Syndrome just as it did in the 70s.

 

[Happyville]

From article above...

Just last month I reported on the story that the American pharmaceutical company Baxter was under investigation for distributing the deadly avian flu virus to 18 different countries as part of a seasonal flu vaccine shipment...

Here is a link to the source - BYPASSING the Alex Jones show!!!

http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/02/27/8560781.html

The contamination incident, which is being investigated by the four European countries, came to light when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died. Ferrets shouldn’t die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses.

Scary...

Public health authorities concerned about what has been described as a “serious error” on Baxter’s part have assumed the death of the ferrets meant the H5N1 virus in the product was live. But the company, Baxter International Inc., has been parsimonious about the amount of information it has released about the event.

On Friday, the company’s director of global bioscience communications confirmed what scientists have suspected.

“It was live,” Christopher Bona said in an email.

The contaminated product, which Baxter calls “experimental virus material,” was made at the Orth-Donau research facility. Baxter makes its flu vaccine — including a human H5N1 vaccine for which a licence is expected shortly — at a facility in the Czech Republic.

People familiar with biosecurity rules are dismayed by evidence that human H3N2 and avian H5N1 viruses somehow co-mingled in the Orth-Donau facility. That is a dangerous practice that should not be allowed to happen, a number of experts insisted.

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.

That mixing process, called reassortment, is one of two ways pandemic viruses are created.

There is no suggestion that happened because of this accident, however.

Until now.

 

[RedFox]

As far as I understand it (correct me if I'm wrong) baxter sent out the live virus in feburary?

I then found the following story today, that (if I've got the month correct) seems a little beyond coincidence

Swine flu: virus has been in Mexico since February
_http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/swine-flu/5234143/Swine-flu-virus-has-been-in-Mexico-since-February.html

Officials had previously said that the first recorded case of the H1N1 virus in Mexico was from a woman who died in the southern state of Oaxaca on April 12.

However, in a news conference, Jose Cordova confirmed that a four-year-old boy in the eastern state of Veracruz had suffered from the virus as early as February. He survived the influenza.

A sample from the boy was sent to a US laboratory for anaylsis after swine flu was discovered in America.

"It came back confirmed," Mr Cordova said.

The announcement came as the probable death toll from the virus rose to 152.

The boy was one of about 1,800 people who suffered from a potent flu in the region in February, leading to calls to investigate if there was some kind of new epidemic.

However, Mr Cordova said there had been no evidence that a mutant human-to-human flu strain had emerged at that time.

"We never had this kind of epidemic in the world," he said. "This is the first time we have this kind of virus."

Mexico's Agriculture Department said that inspectors found no sign of swine flu among pigs in the region, adding that no infected pigs have been found yet anywhere in Mexico.

Swine flu has hospitalized almost 2,000 people in Mexico and spread to several countries including Britain, America, Spain and Israel.

Cases are also feared in New Zealand, Australia and South Korea.

The World Health Organization has raised its global alert level, signaling the swine flu virus was spreading from human to human in community outbreaks, but it stopped short of declaring a full-blown pandemic.

The WHO announcement in Geneva followed a decision by the top EU health official urging Europeans to postpone nonessential travel to parts of the US and Mexico because of the virus.

 

[spyraal]

Hello everyone,

Regarding the use of Tamiflu, I found a link to a site called "Askapatient.com" where drug users rate the effectiveness of their drugs. According to them:

"Askapatient.com is operated by Consumer Health Resource Group, LLC,
providing comparative drug and healthcare information to consumers.
For more than 8 years, Askapatient.com has provided patients with a
unique forum in which to share and compare medication experiences.
This site is not affiliated with any other company or organization. "

The drugs are rated on a 1 to 5 scale:

5-Very Satisfied: this medicine cured me or helped me a great deal.
4-Satisfied: this medicine helped
3-Somewhat Satisfied: this medicine helped somewhat
2-Not Satisfied: this medicine did not work to my satisfaction
1-Dissatisfied: I would not recommend taking this medicine

Now here is the link to Tamiflu evaluation: _http://www.askapatient.com/viewrating.asp?drug=21087&name=TAMIFLU

Tamiflu scores a mere 2.3 points! The curious thing is that there are few ratings in the middle range ("3's" and "4's"), most are ratings of "1" (worst rating) and also a few "shinning" troll-like "5's"... :/
Lets see what some users of tamiflu say about the side effects of it's use... [emphasis mine]

My 15 month old son started taking this medicine when he tested positive for the flu. Late the first night, he had muscle spasms in his arms and legs and got very stiff. Then he started screaming. The next day and night he wouldn't sleep for more than 45 minutes to an hour at a time, and he would start screaming, wouldn't let us touch him, and would back himself into a corner and sit down on the floor. This happened multiple times, and we assumed it was due to his high fever of 104. But by day 2 1/2, the fever was gone, and he was still behaving strangely. On day 3 we didn't give it to him, and he was fine, no problems. On the morning of day 4 I gave him a dose, and an hour later, he was backing away from me, sitting in the corner, banging his head on the wall. There was no question it was the medicine.

...

Nausea, sweating, vomiting, skin rash, congested chest (didn't have that when the Flu started) after two days taking it. One the third day moring, that's when I realized it's the medicine that's making me sicker than when the Flu started. So I quit taking it.

...

I was prescribed TamiFlu on Day 2 of my flu after being diagnosed by my physician. After 2 days of taking this drug, I was still running a fever of over 102 and began experiencing uncontrollable crying and sobbing, unexplained anger and fear. I thought I had lost my mind and had to be given a medication to calm me down so I could rest. It was horrible!!!!!!

....

Within 30 minutes of taking the drug I was horribly nauseus and had to lay down with something to continuously vomit/heave in to. The vomiting side effect experience lasted roughly 4 hours - intermittent vomiting/heaving/nausea. In addition to the 4 hours of pure hell I experienced (thank you tamiflu), it had worsened my headache so much that it was nearly unbearable for the next 12 hours, and the stress of the heaving popped blood vessels in my eyes... which is just nasty. I don't care if it costs me a few extra days off work - I can't go through that again! The flu is far better than tamiflu!

....

On the third on Tamiflu my son complained of sever leg cramps in the morning but this passed after a while. That night was one of the worst nights of my life. He woke up around 9:00 pm crying. I tried to calm him down and there was no calming him. He complained of severe leg and arm cramps and would not let me touch him. I asked him to calm down and tell me exactly where he hurt but he said he could NOT stop crying. I asked him why he could not stop and he said he didn't know. He would cry for an hour and a half and then basically fall asleep crying. I would nod off and he would be back up in 10-15 minutes screaming in pain for another hour or so. This lasted until 6:00 am the next morning.

....

Nausea onset one hour after first dose. My 8 year old son was sleeping at the time and did not get out of bed or react when he threw up. Continued to lay in bed (in his own vomit!) after throwing up and would not respond to his name. His eyes were open but he was unable to follow one step directions or even talk. He would nod that he understood me but could not follow instructions like "take off your socks" or "get out of bed".

....

18 month old and 6 year old, intense vomiting, hallucinations in my 6 year old daughter. loss of apatite, still having occasional hallucinations after a week of not taking a dose. Look up the ingredients on line, I wish we did not give it to our kids, we live in the US and I saw these side effects with my kids.

...

My 14year old son took one dose, and within 15min. began to act very irrational. We were watching a Christmas movie and he began to make all sorts of comments out loud. He was acting very strange, and laughed like someone who was not sane. He began to studder and his speach was slurring. He seemed very anxious and nervous. He kept wiggling his foot.

I have no words to describe how a feel at this moment. I thought I had lost my son! I thought he had lost his mind!! I am still very scared and I pray this HORRIBLE DRUG(THIS IS NOT A MEDICATION!!!!)wares off, and I pray there is no permanent damage. THIS MEDICATION MUST BE REMOVED FROM THE MARKET!! I AM SURE THERE WILL BE PLENTY OF LAWSUITS. ROCHE LABRATORIES BEWARE!I WILL BE SPREADING THE WORD AND WARNING PEOPLE ABOUT TAMIFLU AND IT'S DANGEROUS SIDE EFFECTS!!

....

I gave my 11 year old daughter one dose. An hour later she woke from a nap screaming that somebody please help her. We couldn't get her to snap out of it. It was the scariest thing i have ever seen. I did not know what to do. She was runnging around screaming that she needed to go home and somebody please help her get home. She was hallucinating. I never gave her another dose. I threw it away.

That seems to be the average experience with Tamiflu: vomiting, hallucinations, depression, anxiety, headaches, cramps etc...

But there are also some rare high "5 point" (and strangely very troll-like!) ratings for Tamiflu. Let's see some to make a comparison:

None I do not know what everybody is talking about have not had any problems.

....

My stepson was diagnosed with the flu and the doc prescribed this for me since i was sneezing, had nasal draining, and was *just* starting to feel run down and achy. 15 hours later, I feel awesome. Worth the $30 copay, would have been worth the $115 retail if I were going to miss 3+ days of work.

....

the symptom lightened up after taking the meidication within 24hr. My doctor was so kind to call the prescription in right away or I would have suffer this 10 worse. I stll have this, like I sead the symptoms are already bing releived just hope I dont have a super flu bug that is resistant, so far it seems its not.HOPE everyone going through this get well soon..

....

This worked great! Quite amazing actually. No side effects.

...

If you can get this at early onset, like within 12 hours of symptoms it is a real lifesaver since the virus has not fully multiplied. As you get close to 48 hours the effects become less then nil.

...

Judging by my co-workers who got the same strain of flu, Tamiflu cut the duration of the disease by at least 50% and the symptoms by more than that. Would highly recommend it.

...

side effects: none, anything would have felt better than the flu

...

Worked wonders with NO side effects.

...

Both of my sons had the flu and were miserable. When 16 and 11 year old boys beg to go to the doctor, I know they feel bad. They both took Tamiflu with no side effects at all. I took Tamiflu as a preventive measure, also with no side effects. Both boys recovered very quickly and I did not get the flu despite being in close proximity with them.

I think one can reach his own conclusions about all these...
It is also very interesting to read the user evaluations in that link, as the character and/or victim mentality of people towards drugs and what "doctor said" can be observed clearly...

:)