Facts about the swine flu

Facts about the swine flu

It starts with the name: The term „swine flu“ is actually not correct and very misleading, because the virus A / H1N1 is now a human virus - it is transmitted from person to person. „Just“ individual genes of the virus are related to those of viruses spread in pigs. In contrast, other genes of the virus are related to genes of viruses circulating in humans or in birds. There are always new types of influenza in our humans and that between, humans, pigs and birds, genes of influenza viruses are exchanged, which is always there! There is even a technical term here: re-sorting.

What is new is that this H1N1 strain differs from the H1N1 strains present in humans. There are serious differences between avian and swine flu:

Avian influenza is not easily transmitted from person to person. It has not become a human virus. In exceptional cases, bird flu can be transmitted to humans - then the disease has a very severe course with a high mortality rate. The „swine flu“ Although there is a higher risk of transmission, bird flu has a higher risk of mortality (almost 50%). Members of the Federal Armed Forces, Federal Government, ministries and subordinate authorities get the non-adjuvanted (active agent-free) vaccine Celvapan from Baxter. Paradoxical: Celvapan is indeed adjuvansfrei, but even less experienced than Pandemrix. The population, however, gets the vaccine Pandemrix. Pandemrix and another vaccine, Focetria, contain thimerosal, a mercury compound, in addition to potentiators (adjuvants). "The stuff has been deliberately kept out in today's vaccines for toddlers," says Wolfram Hartmann, president of the Federal Association of Paediatricians.

There are no data on the widespread use of Pandemrix and more and more doctors are not just suggesting that pregnant women should be vaccinated because of the incalculable risk of the adjuvants. Adjuvants strongly boost the immune system and could potentially lead to more side effects such as fatigue, redness and joint pain. 50 million doses of the vaccine Pandemrix produced by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will be loaded onto trucks Monday at a location near the Dresdner Serumwerke

No vaccine with a novel adjuvant has been approved in the US so far. Too large, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) assesses the danger of excessive immune reactions. "Children have an immune system that tends to overreact, and that's what adjuvants can do“, says Wolfram Hartmann, President of the Federal Association of Paediatricians.

The safety tests of the vaccines did not have to be very extensive - only common side effects that occurred in at least one in 100 vaccinated people should be recognized. According to the Berlin virologist Detlev H. Krüger in the ARD interview, resistant virus variants may be the result of prolonged use of the drugs. The whole vaccination campaign will cost the state and health insurance at least 600 million euros.

More than half of the German citizens (1000 were interviewed) sees no need, according to survey by Infratest dimap on behalf of the ARD morning magazine (Friday), against the „swine flu“ only 19 percent of respondents want to "vaccinate" likely; almost one in three (32 percent) is "little worried" and one in two (50 percent) is "not at all worried".

Experts on swine flu

Critical experts on "swine flu" and the upcoming vaccination
TheMarburg virologist Stefan Becker points to the mild course of the pandemic. The German Medical Association denounces the influence of the pharmaceutical lobby and the Vice President of the German Medical Association, Cornelia Goesmann, even speaks of „hysterical scaremongering without tangible background“. In her opinion, the number of seriously ill people is negligible and she opposes vaccination of the population.
The publisher of the pharmacological „Pharmaceutical telegram“, the physician Wolfgang Becker-Büser said: „What we experience here is a large-scale experiment on the German population.“ And the department head of health in the Bremen Senate, Matthias Gruhl, considers the vaccinations may be superfluous: „If the course of the swine flu remains as harmless as it is now, mass vaccination would not be justified“, he said to the mirror. There would be no indication that one „second, much worse wave of sham flu on us“.

Berlin virologist Detlev H. Krüger: „On average, up to 20,000 people die from the "normal" annual flu in Germany every year. Only a few have died of swine flu. When you put that in perspective, it's really incomprehensible why there is so much excitement now.“ (Heilprak Thorsten Fischer, 21.10.2009)