Swine flu may have come from Vaccine manufacture

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Swine Flu May Be a Human Error From Vaccine Production

 

 

The World Health Organization is investigating a claim by Australian

researcher Adrian Gibbs, who says that the swine flu virus circling the globe

may have been created as a result of human error.

Gibbs, who collaborated on research that led to the development of Tamiflu,

said in an interview that he intends to publish a report suggesting the

new strain may have accidentally evolved in eggs scientists use to grow

viruses and drugmakers use to make vaccines. Gibbs said he came to his

conclusion as part of an effort to trace the virus’s origins by analyzing its

genetic blueprint.

“One of the simplest explanations is that it’s a laboratory escape,†Gibbs

said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. “But there are lots

of others.â€

Gibbs, who has studied germ evolution for four decades, is one of the first

scientists to analyze the genetic makeup of the virus.

 

Sources:

 

_Bloomberg May 13, 2009_

(http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087 & sid=afrdATVXPEAk & refer=worldwid\

e)

 

 

 

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

 

First of all I am very grateful that the _article I wrote last month_

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

has had such a powerful influence on quenching the fear mongering that was

going on shortly after the information about swine flu was released.

Most of the panic seems to stem from an overly nervous head of the World

Health Organization, who gave unfounded warnings that seemed to precipitate

the panic.

Nevertheless the article has been viewed well over one million times on my

site alone. The day it was published it was the sixth most viewed page on

the entire Internet, and it crashed our servers that could not keep up with

over 100 MB/sec bandwidth demands.

Swine flu this time around has not been able to develop into a panic like

it did in the pre-internet era when it first appeared in the 1970s. It is

enormously satisfying to observe that we CAN make a difference. But

ultimately this was a very small victory.

The primary battle will be to win over the consciousness of the public and

convince them that natural options are nearly always superior to expensive

and potentially toxic drugs that are depleting their income.

Theories as to Swine Flu Origin

Several theories have floated about, trying to explain the mysterious

cocktail that makes up the new flu strain A(H1N1), better known as the swine

flu.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta has

reviewed Gibbs report, which offers up the possibility that the strain is

the result of a laboratory mistake that somehow “escaped†the confines of

the lab.

However, the CDC gives little if any credence to Gibbs’ theory, stating

there is no evidence to support his conclusion.

Nancy Cox, director of the agency’s influenza division, stated that

researchers don’t have samples of swine flu viruses from South America and

Africa, where the new strain may have evolved, so those regions still cannot be

ruled out as natural sources for the new flu.

Said Dr. Julie Gerberding, an infectious disease expert and the former

director of the CDC,

" In this case I'm not concerned that this virus represents anything other

than a naturally occurring mixture of viruses happening in nature. "

And, in a previous _interview with ABC News_

(http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/SwineFlu/story?id=7584420 & page=1) , Christopher Ohl,

an associate professor of

medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and a specialist in

infectious diseases commented,

" Technically it's plausible but not likely. "

Still, the idea that this virus evolved in nature may be equally

farfetched.

Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in

Memphis, discovered the new strain is the product of two distinct lineages of

influenza that have circulated among swine in North America and Europe for

more than a decade.

But, according to Gibbs, the rate of genetic mutation in the new virus was

about three times faster than that of the most closely related viruses

found in pigs, suggesting it evolved outside of swine. And, other recent

discoveries support the notion that pigs may not be the source as well, which

I’

ll review in just a moment.

Swine Flu a Mystery But Not a Pandemic Threat

As of May 27, 2009, 48 countries have officially reported 13,398

laboratory confirmed cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, but so far there

have

only been 95 deaths WORLDWIDE -- 80 of them were people born in Mexico.

 

According to the _World Health Organization's Epidemic and Pandemic Alert

and Response_ (http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html) site,

updated as of May 27, the latest numbers are: site the latest numbers are:

 

 

Country

Cases Deaths United States

4714 3* Mexico 2895

66 Canada 496

1

Spain 100 0 UK 78 0

Panama 43 0 France 14 0 Germany 14 0 Colombia 10 0 Italy 9

0 Brazil 8 0

Costa Rica

9 1 Israel 7 0 New Zealand

7

0 China 4 0 El Salvador

4 0 Japan 4 0 Cuba 3 0 Guatemala 3 0 Korea 3 0 Netherlands 3 0

Finland 2 0 Norway 2 0 Sweden 2 0 Thailand 2 0

Additionally, the following countries each have 1 reported case of swine

flu and no deaths.

* Argentina

* Australia

* Austria

* Belgium

* Denmark

* Ireland

* Poland

* Portugal

* Switzerland

 

 

 

As you may have heard by now, _“patient zero†was identified_

(http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,518347,00.html) as a five-year old boy

living in

the southern Mexican town of La Gloria. He got sick in late March or early

April, but recovered after a few days.

The fact that he lives near a large pig farm fueled the suspicion that the

origin of the outbreak had been tracked down. Meanwhile, however, the farm

claims none of its workers or pigs are sick. And while Mexican officials

are testing the animals for signs of the virus, they have stated they do not

believe the infection came from there.

Instead, growing evidence suggests the virus may have originated in

California, reports the Wall Street Journal in another _recent article_

(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124113696409275445.html) .

It appears there were cases in California predating the Mexican cases, and

none of them had traveled to Mexico or had any contact with pigs.

These cases contradict the conventional understanding that the strain

originated from swine.

The first known California case was a 10-year-old boy in San Diego County,

who developed a fever on March 30. By the time the CDC had received

samples, on April 14, and determined it was the swine flu, the boy had already

recovered.

According to Michael Shaw, associate director for laboratory science for

the influenza division of the CDC, the flu theoretically could have first

appeared in California. But he also points out that the strain also exhibits

genetic characteristics traceable to Eurasia.

So the plot thickens, as experts try to weed out the possibilities of how

it could have ended up in multiple locations, around the same time, even

without contact with the farm animals in question.

 

Could Factory Farming be the Source of Swine Flu?

As I reported earlier in my _Critical Swine Flu Alert_

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

an earlier

theory was that it was caused by American factory farming practices. In the

United States, pigs travel coast to coast. They can be bred in North

Carolina, fattened in the corn belt of Iowa, and slaughtered in California.

While this may reduce short-term costs for the pork industry, the highly

contagious nature of diseases like influenza (perhaps made further

infectious by the stresses of transport) needs to be considered when

calculating the

true cost of long-distance live animal transport.

 

The majority of U.S. pig farms now confine more than 5,000 animals each.

With a group of 5,000 animals, if a novel virus shows up it will have more

opportunity to replicate and potentially spread than in a group of 100 pigs

on a small farm.

 

With massive concentrations of farm animals within which to mutate, these

new swine flu viruses in North America seem to be on an evolutionary fast

track, jumping and reassorting between species at an unprecedented rate.

 

Could a Laboratory Make Such a Critical Mistake?

Gibbs, a researcher whose work led to the development of Tamiflu, believes

it’s possible. And personally, I think the answer to that question is an

unequivocal yes.

 

The facts speak for themselves, and the fact is such horrendous “mistakesâ€

have happened before.

 

As recently as March of this year, the pharmaceutical company _Baxter was

under investigation for distributing the deadly avian flu virus_

(http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/03/26/Were-Tainted-Vacc\

ines-a-

Conspiracy-to-Provoke-a-Pandemic.aspx) to 18 different countries as part

of a seasonal flu vaccine shipment. The event launched a media probe, with

Czech reporters questioning whether or not it may have been part of a

deliberate attempt to start a pandemic.

 

And the idea that multiple viruses could be combined in a lab, with the

potential to be used for such a purpose?

 

That too is being done on a regular basis. It’s called “reassortment,â€

and is just one of two common ways pandemic viruses are artificially created,

for whatever reason.

 

Some scientists say the most recent global outbreak -- the 1977 Russian

flu -- was started by a virus created and leaked from a laboratory. According

to Gibbs, the swine flu may have “evolved†and originated in a similar

fashion.

 

And, while officials will deny any human or corporate wrongdoing, “mistakes

†like that are certainly possible, and have _happened more than once_

(http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2006/08/05/bayer-sells-aids

-infected-drug-banned-in-us-in-europe-asia.aspx) .

 

Backing up Gibbs claims are previous reports by sources like _The Online

Journal_ (http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4631.shtml) , which

have stated that a top scientist for the United Nations concluded the

current swine flu virus possesses certain transmission " vectors " that suggest

it

’s been genetically-manufactured as a military biological warfare weapon.

 

And Army criminal investigators are also looking into the possibility that

disease samples are missing from biolabs at Fort Detrick -- the same Army

research lab from which the 2001 anthrax strain was released, reported the

_Fredrick News Post_

(http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=89293) on

April 22.

 

I have yet to find an update on those allegedly missing samples.

 

For now, it seems the exact origins of this latest hybrid flu strain

remain a mystery. But what you can do to protect yourself against it, and ANY

kind of flu, is not.

 

For a refresher on how to avoid catching this or any other flu bug, please

review this _previous article_

(http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/10/21/avoid-flu-shots-v\

itamin-d-is-a-better-way.aspx) that

covers it in detail.