Vaccine Shortages

October 9, 2004

The 2004 Flu Vaccine " Shortage " created by the British vaccine manufacturer

realizing that the contamination was so great that the assured costs from

lawsuits resulting from future deaths would outweight profits that has

halved the number of available vaccines in America presents an exciting and

unpredented opportunity for a national wide scientific study.

By spring the number of deaths and incidences of flu in America should be

available.

Will they be lower or higher with the half the flu vaccines available?

With recent new reports of (accidental or intentional) genocide resulting

from antidepressants, Vioxx and hormone replacement therapy, I'm feeling

better than ever about having taken no pharmaceutical drugs since 1975 when

I flushed down about a quart of pills into the toilet cerimoniously before

hopping into my trusted Valient pulling the U-Haul with all my earthly

possessions to depart for Palmer College of Chiropractic other than some

antibiotics this year for a tooth infection. Ironically, with so many deaths

and disabilities from misprescribed and/or misused drugs in America, the

dentist made a mistake and ordered a drug for a viral infection that I

caught and didn't take by mistake and the antibiotics didn't result in

arresting the infection or saving the tooth. I quietly saved myself from the

side effects of hormone replacement therapy and somehow survived menopause

like woman have been doing for several thousands of years without

endangering myself to cancer.

I'm really looking forward to knowing if the news media will report in the

Spring if there is or is not an increased incidence of flu and deaths from

flu this year. IF there isn't, America not having 1/2 it's intended flu

vaccine may be one of the best things that could have happened to improve

the health of Americans in years.

Having decided not to vaccinate my daughter who was born at home on my

living room floor without drugs and somehow survived and I've not been

vaccinated as an adult for anything, I look forward to earning the drug

manufacturers as little as possible for the rest of my life.

Dr. Sandra Lance, D.C.

Highway2Health.net

Thursday Nights

-

" califpacific " <califpacific

Saturday, October 09, 2004 7:11 AM

Medicine and the market: the Vioxx and

flu vaccine debacles

Medicine and the market: the Vioxx and flu vaccine debacles

By Patrick Martin

8 October 2004

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/oct2004/viox-o08.shtml

Two events of the past week have further exposed the official

lie-endlessly propounded by the corporate media and the politicians of

the Democratic and Republican parties-

that " the market " can provide a rational and effective solution

to the deepening crisis of health care in the United States.

Last Thursday, September 30, the huge drug company Merck,

long one of the most profitable U.S. corporations,

announced it was recalling its arthritis drug Vioxx, used by more than

two million people worldwide.

Merck took the action after a study confirmed what has long been

suspected by cardiologists: the drug is associated with a sharply

increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

Five days later, on October 5, Chiron Corp. announced that its entire

production run of flu vaccine had to be scrapped because of

contamination problems, cutting the U.S. supply of vaccine in half only

days before the start of the flu season.

Federal health officials immediately issued guidelines for cutting back

the scope of vaccination campaigns, suggesting a focus on selected

high-risk groups, including infants between 6 and 23 months, the

elderly, and those suffering from asthma and other respiratory

problems.

What connects these two events, which threaten the health of millions

of

people?

Both are byproducts of the subordination of the health care system to

the profit motive.

In the case of Vioxx, it is questionable whether the drug should ever

have been released to the public.

The class of drugs of which it is part, called COX-2 inhibitors, have

little demonstrated medical superiority over such proven

over-the-counter pain relievers as aspirin and acetaminophen, though

they cost 100 times more.

October 11, 2004

I am also interested in this, and anticipate the later television news that

" weather conditions produced a less favourable climate for influenza type

organisms to develop, and doctors are now breathing a sigh of relief

predicting a mild flu season this year, despite earlier scares... "

It might be noted that the indirect consequence of the " shortage " was a

dramatically increased cost- ie large profits per unit with less production

for the pharmaceutical corporation.

And, same personal health story or close to it, It really amazes me that I

can be, at least up to now, so healthy at my age despite being " unprotected

against the ravages of illness and disease " that seem to incapacitate

almost everyone I know who receives antibiotics or other pharmaceuticals

regularly...it appears to me that the people I know who go to physicians

regularly or often, experience more health problems than people I know who

avoid them altogether; and I have secretly wondered if maybe these

medicines and surgical procedures aren't effective means of promoting

health. What I am sure of is that I seem to heal a lot better and stay

apparently healthy without the benefit of doctors or

pharmaceutical/surgical/etc procedures.

I was stunned to be part of a conversation the other day. Someone asked me

when my last surgery had been, and I answered " oh about 35 years ago. " They

looked at me with disbelief as if I were lying and just didn't want to tell

them. I then listened as each told of a trail of surgical procedures every

few years or so. I thought " my God, how can I possibly be so healthy

despite my lack of surgeries or procedures or other interaction with modern

medicine for years? "

(What I have heard from physicians is scary- that many of the illnesses that

are being proliferated such as MRSA are the result of overuse of

antibiotics. It slays me that these same physicians then treat the condition

with more antibiotics...)

Live healthy.

Michael

DrLance [DrLance]

Saturday, October 09, 2004 6:46 AM

; DrLance

Vaccine " Shortages "