Some news updates about H1N1. You may have heard of that 13 year old Toronto boy, who played hockey, was healthy, and died of H1N1. Here's the real story, little Evan complained of a sore throat and dry cough on Friday evening, by Saturday he was showing signs of flu like symptoms. He played in a hockey tournament Saturday night, went to a clinic on Sunday, and Monday he passed away. The Toronto medical officer stated that Evan had a mild case of asthma.
Most people heard this story and freaked out, demanding our government start the vaccination process immediately, and it did. But people didn't look at the facts, a boy with asthma, who was infected with H1N1 (sore throat and dry cough) went and played in a hockey tournament. The Coroner said there will be no autopsy performed.
This story was blown WAY out of proportion, and it was used to solidify the importance of the vaccine.
Let's talk about the vacines for a moment shall we. These vaccines were rushed out the door to control something that isn't all that bad (not near as bad as "they" say it is).
Arepanrix, that Canadian adjuvented vaccine, like others were rushed out the door to start the vaccination process. Maybe this vaccine could have saved Evan, or maybe it could have done more damage, consider this line form the packaging slip that comes with Arepanrix "Children and adolescents aged 10-17 years: No clinical data are available for any influenza vaccines with AS03 in this age group."
They don't know what it will do to adolescents, I find that scary, same with my 2 year old, no data exists.
Other brands of the vaccine (CSL Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine, GSK Fluarix, Novartis Fluvirin, Sanofi Pasteur Vaccine) are considered Pregnancy Category C - Animal reproduction studies have shown an adverse effect on the fetus and there are no adequate and well-controlled studies in humans. Arepanrix isn't classified as Category C because it's Canadian and we don't have a classification system like the US and others. But it's package says "Pregnancy and Lactation -
No data have been generated in pregnant women with Arepanrix%u2122 H1N1 nor with the prototype AS03 adjuvanted H5N1 vaccine."
So, the only people that these drugs are "recommended" for by the producing company are the people who don't fall into the "high risk" category stated by government officials.
Thimerosal: a type of mercury used as a preservative for the vaccines. "But canned tuna has the same amount of mercury as the vaccine, and you eat that". Very true, but how often do you eat a full can of tuna without diluting it with Mayo or butter and bread? Virtually never, as opposed to injecting the same amount of mercury directly into your body.
Would you eat something that was designated by the manufacturer as "no data exists on what this food product may do to you", so why inject yourself with the a vaccine under the same warnings? Because you're scared of dying from H1N1, right? Don't be. Only 1600+ people in the USA have died from H1N1 and 120+ in Canada. So about 1800 people out of 330+ million have died from H1N1, or .0005%.
In other news, GlaxoSmithKlein has reported an 11% increase in 3rd quarter earnings.
