ANOTHER Epic Fail for Influenza Vaccine

By Barbara Loe Fisher
National Vaccine Information Center

Here we are in the winter of 2015 and U.S. public health officials admit that the historically ineffective influenza vaccine is once again an epic fail.1 2

Flu Vaccine Effectiveness Measured from 0 to 62 Percent

little girls with coughIn the past three flu seasons, the CDC has claimed the flu vaccine’s overall effectiveness clocked in at between 47 and 62 percent3 while some experts have measured it at 0 to 7 percent.4 Other studies suggest that when children get a flu shot every year it can interfere with healthy immune responses and make them more likely to get influenza in certain flu seasons.5 6 Independent medical literature reviews document that flu shots don’t really prevent influenza or complications of influenza7 8 or influenza-like-illness (ILI) associated with other types of viruses that cause about 80% of all respiratory or gastrointestinal infections during any given flu season.9 10 11 12
A car in which seatbelts and brakes only worked at best half the time is not a car Americans would choose to buy or drive. Car manufacturers profiting from selling that kind of defective product would be sued in civil court and rightly so.

Americans Forced to Get Flu Shots or Suffer Sanctions

Woman afraid of vaccineYet, U.S. public health officials are making flu vaccine policy that gets turned into law.13 14They are forcing Americans to buy and use a pharmaceutical product that fails to work as advertised time and again and can brain injure people, too.15 16 17 But we can’t sue drug companies for vaccine failures, brain injuries and deaths in civil court.18 Many of us are being fired from our jobs or denied an education, childcare and medical care if we refuse to salute smartly and get a flu shot every year or give it to our children.19 20 21 22

Dominant Influenza A Strain NOT In Current Flu Shot

Every spring, federal health officials select two influenza A virus strains (usually H1N1 and H3N2 subtypes)23 and one or two influenza B virus strains24 to include in flu vaccines released in the fall.  This past December, CDC officials held a press conference and informed Americans that they were unaware last spring that one of the influenza A strains selected for the 2014/2015 flu vaccine – the H3N2 subtype – was starting to “drift.” It turns out that the genetically mutated subtype is the dominant influenza A strain causing sickness this year but it is not in the flu vaccine.25 26 2728

Some Experts Warn Flu Shot Does NOT Make Symptoms Less Severe

Bottom line: If you or your child got a flu shot this year, it does not protect you from the most common influenza A subtype making people sick. And now, some influenza experts are warning that flu shots do not make symptoms less severe if the vaccine fails to prevent influenza infection.29

2003/2004 Flu Shot Failure: Same Story

Is this the first time that federal health officials have been aware that the influenza A H3N2 subtype constantly mutates and is often the dominant strain of flu that circulates in the U.S.? No, it’s not.
Woman with fluLet’s go back and take a look at the 2003/2004 flu season’s epic influenza vaccine fail. In the spring of 2003, federal health officials did know ahead of time that the influenza A Panama strain they chose for the seasonal flu vaccine was not a match for the emerging mutated H3N2 Fujian strain making people very sick. Influenza experts told the FDA vaccine advisory committee (VRBPAC) that two genetic mutations in the H3N2 strain would likely cause the flu shot to fail if it was not included in the vaccine.[30]
As the consumer voting member at that March 2003 FDA committee meeting, I abstained from the influenza vaccine strain selection vote because the influenza A strain being recommended was not a match for the emerging mutated H3N2 strain and said I thought the public should be told.  31 So what was the government’s rationale for allowing drug companies to produce a flu vaccine they knew was likely a non-starter from the very beginning?
Well, the vaccine manufacturers said they couldn’t include the mutated H3N2 subtype in the vaccine because they would miss the fall 2003 delivery and marketing deadline! In other words, it was all about protecting a multi-billion dollar flu vaccine market and not about truth in advertising.
Flu vaccine effectiveness for the 2003/2004 season was described by health officials as 3% to 14%, which does qualify as an epic fail.32

2012/2013 Flu Shot Failure: Vaccine Manufacturing Problem

Now let’s look at the 2012/2013 flu season, when flu vaccine effectiveness was 50% and only 41% in preventing the H3N2 subtype that caused most of the disease that season. A little digging into the medical literature reveals that the H3N2 subtype problem was not due to a natural antigenic drift like CDC officials are claiming it is this season. No, flu vaccine failure two years ago was about mutations in the egg adapted H3N2 vaccine strain used by drug companies to produce the vaccine. 33
In other words, it was a vaccine manufacturing problem. Drug companies introduced H3N2 mutations through the vaccine manufacturing process, creating a mismatch between the circulating H3N2 strain and the vaccine strain.

Congress Funds Aggressive Influenza Vaccine Push on Americans

 
Virus PhotoHow honest is the CDC being with legislators voting to give federal health agencies and drug companies billions of dollars to produce influenza vaccines34 35 36 37 38 39 that are being aggressively pushed on all Americans, including infants, children, pregnant women and health care workers40 41 42 43using a pathetically poor evidence base?44 45 46

Influenza Viruses Always Mutating, Vaccine Strain Virus Shedding

 
Influenza viruses that infect humans and animals are always mutating and evolving, recombining with each other and creating new influenza strains being shed and transmitted in body fluids and waste products of animals and humans.47 48 49 50 51 Vaccine strain influenza viruses can recombine with other viruses as well,52 particularly those shed and transmitted by children and adults given live influenza virus vaccines53 54 55 56 and by experimental live virus vectored vaccines being created in labs, with unknown effects on humans, animals and the environment.57 58 59 60

GMO Flu Vaccines, Risky Adjuvants: Follow the Money

 
And yet, billions of dollars are being spent by government and industry to build more flu vaccine plants to create genetically engineered flu vaccines that contain insect and animal DNA, foreign proteins61 62 63 64  65 and novel adjuvants designed to hyper-stimulate human immune responses.66 67 68 69 70 In an irrational crusade to outsmart influenza viruses, vaccine risks are increasing71  while vaccine failures continue to haunt the entire money-driven enterprise. 72 73 74

Repeal Flu Shot Mandates, Hold Companies Accountable

 
After decades of government propaganda trumpeting the benefits and minimizing the risks of annual flu shots, one-size-fits-all, cradle to the grave influenza vaccine recommendations should be revised. Flu shot mandates should be repealed and vaccine manufacturers held accountable for vaccine risks and failures in civil court.
Read the Full Article Here.

References


4 Cooper M. DOD Influenza Surveillance and Vaccine Effectiveness. Presentation to FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (Slide 28) Feb. 27, 2014.
6 The Canadian Press. Flu shot linked to higher incidence of flu in pandemic year. CBCNews Sept. 11, 2012.
7 Jefferson T, DiPietrantonj C, Rivetti A et al. Vaccines for preventing influenza in health adults. The Cochrane Library July 7, 2010.
8 Jefferson T., Rivetti A, Di Pietrantonij C et al. Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy children. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2012; Issue 8.
10 CDC. Seasonal Influenza Q&A. Aug. 15, 2014.
11 CDC. 2014-2015 Influenza Season Week 51 Ending December 20, 2014. FluView Weekly U.S. Influenza Surveillance ReportDec. 29, 2014.
12 Doshi P. Influenza Vaccine Time for a Rethink. JAMA Intern Med 2013; 173(11): 1014-1016.
15 Machicado JD, Bhagya-Rao B, Davagustto G, McKelvy BJ. Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis following seasonal Influenza Vaccination in an Elderly Patient. Clin Vaccine Immunol 2013; 20(9): 1485-1486.
20 Johns Hopkins. Mandatory Flu Vaccination.
23 Zimmer SM, Burke DS. Historical Perspectives – Emergence of Influenza A (H1N1) Virus. N Eng J Med 2009; 381: 279-285.
24 CDC. Types of Influenza Viruses. Aug. 19, 2014.
28 Clancy S. Genetics of Influenza Virus. Nature Education 2008; 1(1): 83.
30 Fisher BL. Flu Vaccine: Missing the Mark. NVIC: The Vaccine Reaction Newsletter Spring 2004.
34 Lister S. Pandemic Influenza Appropriations for Public Health Preparedness and Response. Congressional Research Service Jan. 23, 2007.
35 Homeland Security News Wire. Sanofi Pasteur to open new flu vaccine plant. Aug. 14, 2007.
37 Palmer E. GSK gets OK for $91M vaccine plant with Texas A&M. Fierce Pharma Manufacturing Mar. 27, 2013.
40 CDC Division of Media Relations. CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) Recommends Universal Annual Influenza Vaccines. CDC Press Release: Feb. 24, 2010.
44 Fisher BL. Influenza Deaths: The Hype vs. The Evidence. NVIC Newsletter Oct. 3, 2012.
45 LaVigne P. Expert Says Influenza Vaccine Maker Misrepresents Facts. NVIC Newsletter June 25, 2013.
46 Fisher BL. Vaccination During Pregnancy: Is It Safe? NVIC Newsletter Nov. 9, 2013.
47 World Health Organization. Influenza. Oct. 2, 2014.
48 Centers for Disease Control. Transmission of Influenza Viruses from Animals to Humans. Aug. 19, 2014.
49 Fox M. Virus experiment reminds that flu surprises await. Reuters Feb. 23, 2010.
50 Bouvier NM, Lowen AC. Animal Models for Influenza Virus Pathogenesis and Transmission. Viruses 2010; 2: 1530-1563.
52 He CQ, Han GZ, Wang D et al. Homologous recombination evidence in human and swine influenza A viruses. Virology 2008; 380(1): 12-20.
57 Lauring AS, Jones JO, Andino R. Rationalizing the development of live attenuated virus vaccines. Nature Biotech 2010; 28: 573-579.
58 Tripp RA, Tompkin SM. Virus Vectored Influenza Vaccines. Viruses 2014; 6: 3055-3079.
59 Saxena M, Van TTH, Baird FJ et al. Pre-existing immunity against vaccine vector: friend or foe? Microbiol 2013; 159: 1-11.
60 Myhr AI, Traavik T. Genetically Engineered Virus-Vectored Vaccines – Environmental Risk Assessment and Management Challenges. In: Genetic Engineering – Basics, New Applications and Responsibilities. In Tech 2012.
63 Margine I, Luis-Martinez-Gil, Chou Y, Kramer F. Residual Baculovirus in Insect Cell-Derived Influenza Virus-Like Particles Preparation Enhances Immunogenicity. PLOS One2012; 7(12).
64 Novartis Vaccines. Flucelvax (Influenza Vaccine) Package Insert. Description March 2014.
67 Tetsutani K, Ishi KJ. Adjuvants in influenza vaccines. Vaccine 2012; 30(52): 7658-7661.
68 Vano M, Taccone M, Caccin P et al. The adjuvant MF59 induces ATP release from muscle that potentiates responses to vaccination. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2013; 110(52): 21095-21100.
72 PR Newswire. Market Forecast: Seasonal Influenza Vaccines Sept. 2, 2012.
73 True JM. Succeeding in the Global Vaccines Market. Capgemini Consulting Aug. 6, 2013.

Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, and The Forgotten History
by Dr. Suzanne Humphries and Roman Bystrianyk

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