Antonio C. Abaya - Swine Flu Re-examined

This is becoming confusing. Last week (April 29), 159 were said to have died from the swine flu, all of them in Mexico, and some 1,600 others were said to have been infected.

But now we are told, only 19 have died in Mexico, and one in the US â€“ and he happened to be a Mexican boy visiting relatives in Texas. Or a total of only 20 deaths worldwide, out of a world population of more than six billion, plus some 900 confirmed infections in some 20 other countries.

The initial over-counts in deaths and non-fatal infections are now being attributed to ordinary seasonal flu and other causes.

Yet by the definition of the World Health Organization (WHO), we are approaching Level 5 in its 6-level Alert about an imminent pandemic because the infections have spread to more than 20 countries in four continents, including one solitary infection in the whole of Asia (Hong Kong), a Mexican visitor.

I think the WHO needs to fine-tune its Alert system into subsets that reflect more soberly the number of deaths, non-fatal infections and countries affected. Having a Level 5 (out of 6) warning about an imminent pandemic is inherently alarmist and cause people and countries to panic.

Egypt, for example, has ordered the culling of its 300,000 pigs despite the repeated caution by the WHO that the swine flu virus cannot be caught by eating pork and pork products.

A more sober assessment of the swine flu outbreak can be read in the URL below:

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

or by accessing the website www.mercola.com

Dr. Joseph Mercola warns that this is not the first swine flu outbreak. The last one was in 1976 when US President Gerald Ford pushed for mass vaccination.

Within a few months of the mass vaccination, claims totaling more than $1.3 billion were filed by victims who had suffered paralysis from the vaccines. Some 25 deaths were also blamed on the vaccines. Several hundred people, including healthy 20-yr olds, ended up as paraplegics. And the swine flu pandemic did not materialize.

By contrast, malaria kills 3,000 people EVERY DAY, but of course, they are largely impoverished people in Third World countries. Dr. Mercola, however, points out that the regular seasonal flu has killed 13,000 persons in the US alone since January.

Dr. Mercola warns: â€œYour fear will make some people VERY rich in todayâ€™s crumbling economy. Tamiflu (oseltamivir phosphate) is approved for treatment of uncomplicated influenza A and B in children one year or older. It is also approved for prevention of influenza in people 13 years or older. It is part of a group of anti-influenza drugs called neuraminidase inhibitors, which work by blocking a viral enzyme that helps the influenza virus to invade cells in your respiratory tractâ€¦

â€œMore than half a dozen pharmaceutical companiesâ€¦.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.

â€Swine flu is extremely convenient for governments that would have very soon to dispose of billions of dollars of Tamiflu stock, which they bought to counter avian flu, or H5N1. The US government ordered 20 million doses, costing $2 billion, in October 2005,and around that time the UK government ordered 14.6 million doses.â€

Dr. Mercola was author of the 2006 New York Times bestseller, The Bird Flu Hoax. Tamifluâ€™s manufacturer, Roche, of Switzerland, has confirmed that the shelf life of its anti-viral is three yearsâ€¦.â€

Dr. Mercola warns: â€œTamiflu is loaded with side effects, including death, and can only reduce symptoms by 36 hours at BEST. Please realize that Tamiflu is NOT a safe drug. Serious side effects include convulsions, delirium or delusions, and 14 deaths in children and teens as a result of neuropsychiatric problems and brain infections. Japan actually banned Tamiflu for children in 2007. â€¦.â€

â€œAdditionally, Tamiflu has been reported to be ineffective against seasonal flu outbreaks, and may not be sufficient to combat an epidemic or pandemic.

â€œBut 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.

â€œBut hereâ€™s the real kicker. When Tamiflu is used as directed (twice a day for 5 days), it can ONLY reduce the duration of your influenza symptoms by one or 1 Â½ days, according to the official data.

â€œWhy on earth would anyone want to take a drug that has a chance of killing you, was banned in Japan, is loaded with side effects that mimic itself, costs over $100, and AT BEST can only provide 36 hours of SYMPTOM relief. Just doesnâ€™t make any sense.â€

Should we believe Dr. Mercola? Best to read his entire brief by clicking the URL above or by accessing his website. There is no space here to reprint the whole article. And it would also help to hear the side of the pharmaceutical companies as they refute him.

But what does Dr. Mercola recommend instead of flu vaccines?

He recommends a) increase your daily intake of Vitamin D to 60 ng/ml; b) avoid sugar and processed food; c) get enough rest; d) have effective tools to avoid or reduce stress; e) exercise regularly; f) have a good source of animal-based omega 3 fats; g) wash your hands often; h) eat garlic regularly; i) avoid hospitals and vaccines.

So where did the current swine flu virus originate? Dr. Mercola points to industrial

pig farming as a likely source, as I did in my column last week. I cited an Associated Press report that focused on the Virginia-based Smithfield Farms, whose pig farm in the village of La Gloria in Vera Cruz state in Mexico sickened last February the apparent first victims of the current swine flu outbreak.

Smithfield Farms is the largest pig farming corporation in the US ($11.4 billion in sales in 2008), slaughtering some 27 million hogs last year to produce six million pounds of processed pork products.

I recently downloaded a 20+ page 2006 article from Rolling Stone magazine about a Smithfield Farms facility in North Carolina

Unbelievable! Why hasnâ€™t half the population of that state died off from the stench, the algal blooms in rivers and lakes that have killed millions of fish, the poisoned air that have sickened hundreds of its own employees?

In the last paragraphs of his article, Dr. Mercola writes that â€œa top scientist for the United Nations, who has examined the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Africa, as well as HIV/AIDS victims, has concluded that the current swine flu virus possesses certain transmission â€˜vectorsâ€™ that suggest the new strain has been genetically manufactured as a military biological warfare weaponâ€¦.â€ What did I tell you last week?

â€œIn addition, Army criminal investigators are looking into the possibility that disease samples are missing from biolabs at Fort Detrick â€“ the same Army research lab from which the 2001 anthrax strain was released, according to a recent article in the Fredrick News Post.

â€œIn February, the top biodefense lab halted all its research into Ebola, anthrax, plague and other diseases known as â€˜select agentsâ€™ after they discovered virus samples that werenâ€™t listed in its inventory and might have been switched with something else.â€

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FOOTNOTE BY Diana Limjoco What also confuses me is that two doctors have stated that the swine flu will abate in the US with the onset of spring, as the virus spreads faster in cold weather, yet most of the deaths and infections are in Mexico, which has hot weather??!!!