H1N1 Swine Flu Even Milder than Seasonal Strains

What a difference a year makes. It was around this time last year that swine flu hysteria was sweeping across the United States and much of the world, and one of the largest, most inappropriate and unnecessary vaccine campaigns was launched.

We were told by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the president of the United States that H1N1 swine flu was deadly  and millions might die worldwide. The terrifying, deadly pandemic that health officials had been expecting for over half a century was knocking at our doorstep … only it never materialized.

It didn’t take long for the truth to come out -- that the swine flu was not only no more dangerous than regular flu but it was FAR less dangerous. Nevertheless, government agencies remained steadfast in their urgings to get vaccinated.

Swine Flu is a Mild Virus, and the Pandemic was a Fake

Now we have even more evidence of swine flu’s mild nature, as a new report in JAMA found that serious complications were no more likely in adults and kids with swine flu than they were in those with regular seasonal flu.

This is an important finding to further solidify that the 2009 swine flu pandemic will likely go down as one of the most massive cover-ups in American history … but it is really not new information.

Within a week of Australia reporting that the swine flu virus appeared to be 40 times less lethal than originally feared, the World Health Organization (WHO) instructed countries to simply stop lab confirming suspected H1N1 cases, which meant that any and all flu-like symptoms were reported as pandemic influenza, padding the statistics.

It was only June 11, 2009 when WHO raised its swine flu pandemic alert from a 5 to a 6. By this time the swine flu virus was already showing itself to have mild symptoms, quick recovery time, and low incidence of death among the vast majority of H1N1 patients throughout the world.

Yet all the drug companies needed to begin shipping out their profitable new H1N1 vaccine across the world was for the swine flu to be kicked up one notch, from a phase 5 to a phase 6 pandemic … and that is exactly what they got.

Suspicious?

That’s putting it mildly considering the very same "scientists," and I use that term lightly, who advised the WHO on their decisions were paid consultants with the drug industry.

Even before this revelation, the Council of Europe, European Parliament, and even the WHO itself had launched investigations to determine exactly what role the drug companies played in the swine flu debacle, and how deeply Big Pharma's tentacles reach into the World Health Organization.

In a motion asking the council to investigate the declaration of H1N1 as a pandemic, these members accused pharmaceutical companies of faking the pandemic and farming it out to the world, so they could fill their pockets with the proceeds.

As I have said from the very beginning, this so-called pandemic was never a pandemic in the true sense. Despite rampant misrepresentation of the facts, last year's flu season turned out to be one of the mildest in recent years!

The Swine Flu May be a Memory … but the Vaccine is Still Here

The flu vaccine that’s being widely promoted in the United States this year is a combination vaccine that contains a type A and type B seasonal flu strain as well as the pandemic H1N1 type A swine flu strain of influenza. This is despite the fact that many Americans have now been exposed to H1N1 swine flu and have some natural immunity to it.

But while the swine flu is mild for most people, the vaccine has been causing a host of reactions in both children and adults.

According to Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center, a special government committee has been created to investigate last year's H1N1 monovalent H1N1 swine flu vaccine for signs that it may be associated with a higher rate of certain kinds of reactions. What the committee found out provisionally is that there were three signs of trouble with the H1N1 swine flu vaccine used last year.

In a recent NVIC video update, Fisher explained:

"One was Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), which we know has been associated with influenza vaccine since 1976 when the first swine flu vaccine was used.

There is [also] a sign of a blood disorder called thrombocytopenia. Thrombocytopenia is when your blood cannot produce enough platelets. It's an autoimmune type reaction.

The other is Bell's palsy. That's a facial paralysis. It's a neuroimmune reaction.

The government is saying they don't know if these are true signals or not, but there were some red flags that were raised."

Sweden and Finland also recently sounded the alarm because young patients suddenly developed narcolepsy after being vaccinated with the H1N1 swine flu vaccine. France, Germany and Norway have also started counting cases, and the EU has launched an investigation.

Earlier this year, Australia suspended use of its seasonal flu vaccine for children under the age of 5 back in April after detecting an abnormal number of side effects within 12 hours of vaccination, compared to previous years. The vaccine contained three strains of influenza, including the H1N1 swine flu vaccine. Side effects included high fevers and seizures.

Despite outstanding questions about the safety of this year’s seasonal influenza vaccine containing the reactive H1N1 swine flu component, including warning signs from Australia and Europe about seizures and other neurological complications, the United States is now moving into the 2010-2011 flu season using a flu vaccine that may be very reactive.

"I am concerned," Fisher says. "We have over 300 million people [in the US] who… are supposed to get this influenza vaccine. And we have a very aggressive push by the media and others who are following the lead of the government, so we could have a bad situation."

A Saner Option: Vitamin D

While the flu vaccine continues to be plagued with side effects and often misses the boat entirely on effectiveness, vitamin D continues to ward off the flu time and time again. And what many people do not know is that only about 20 percent of all “flu-like” illness in any given flu season is actually due to type A or type B influenza.

In fact, the CDC admits that only about 5 percent to 20 percent of Americans get seasonal influenza every year.

Most flu-like illness that causes chills, fever, body aches, sore throat, runny nose, cough and other “flu” symptoms is actually illness caused by other viruses and bacteria -- not the influenza virus.

Typically, influenza is not a deadly disease for healthy people. Dying as a result of influenza is rare and most often occurs when elderly or immune compromised individuals suffer complications. A typical case of influenza in a healthy person often lasts about a week and improves with plenty of bed rest, fluids to remain hydrated and proper nutrition.

The vast majority of so-called “influenza deaths” are in fact due to bacterial pneumonia -- a potential complication of the flu if your immune system is too weak. Other complications can include ear- or sinus infections, dehydration, and worsening of chronic health conditions.

The annual flu shot will not protect you against coming down with flu-like illness caused by other viruses or bacteria (remember, 80 percent of all flu-like illness in any flu season is NOT caused by the influenza virus). And for many people the flu shot will not protect against coming down with influenza as studies have shown the flu shot is often ineffective at preventing influenza.  

And the influenza vaccine could, in some instances, lower your resistance to infections, which could spell serious trouble, especially if your vitamin D levels are also low.

A Japanese study from last year showed that a group of children taking vitamin D3 was 58 percent less likely to catch influenza A. That's a higher effectiveness than any flu vaccine can claim, and doesn't come with a barrage of potentially devastating side effects!

More and more studies about the effectiveness of vitamin D in preventing infections, disease, and flu are coming out all the time, but most adults, children and teenagers and the elderly are vitamin D-deficient.

So I urge you to get your whole family’s vitamin D levels tested, and if found deficient, follow my recommendations for optimizing your levels. Do this, and you'll be far less likely to catch any type of flu this year.