From the August 2005 Idaho Observer:

HHS/CDC preparing the next flu pandemic

by Ingri Cassel

Every year since 1999 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been gearing up for an influenza pandemic that will require the coordinated efforts of public health departments, hospitals, police departments, EMTs and related community support staff to quell the rapid spread of an extremely virulent strain of influenza.

But somehow this year is different. They’re getting more and more serious about preparing for a massive outbreak of a specific strain of avian flu. Despite the lack of evidence of human-to-human transmission of this particular strain of influenza (H5N1), recent outbreaks in southeast Asia have alarmed the World Health Organization (WHO) and the CDC.

The hype

According to Ian Sample’s August 5, 2005 article in the UK’s The Guardian, "Flu Could Infect Half World’s People In Year: WHO In Talks To Stockpile Antiviral Drugs In Case Of Global Outbreak," the avian flu virus is rife among poultry in China, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.

According to Sample’s article, of the 50 deaths attributed to avian flu in southeast Asia (more than half those infected), nearly every death was associated with the person coming in contact with infected poultry in the countryside. Over 100 million birds have died or been destroyed in Asia due to avian flu.

The article also noted that Neil Ferguson headed a team of researchers at the Imperial College in London to do a computer model of a theoretical spread of a mutated avian flu virus among a population of 85 million people in Thailand and neighboring countries. Based upon their computer model, they were shocked at how quickly the proposed virus could spread around the globe. According to research models, if an outbreak was detected in its infancy, with less than 50 people infected, such an outbreak could be contained by administering anti-viral drugs to 20,000 people in close proximity to those infected. Ferguson’s team further claims that by shutting down schools and workplaces and instituting surveillance measures, the proposed outbreak could be contained in 60 days with, theoretically, no more than 200 people infected.

The WHO currently has stockpiled 120,000 doses of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu, produced by the pharmaceutical company Roche. Scientists have called for an international stockpile of three million doses of anti-viral drugs to be set up in case of an outbreak anywhere in the world so that these drugs could be "deployed" in a few days in the event an outbreak was detected. But with France and the UK waiting on orders of 15 million doses of Tamiflu, Roche will have to decide "who" takes priority (pun intended).

Makes one wonder if the Ministers of Health in the UK and France have ties to Roche.

The Guardian article ends with a quote from an anonymous scientist close to "the program": "The big issue is surveillance. If these models are right, and there may be problems with them, the outcome depends on getting an early warning of an outbreak."

Not enough vaccine

In the United States, our Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) came up with the comprehensive "Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response Plan" in August, 2004. According to the executive summary of their plan, "An influenza pandemic has a greater potential to cause rapid increases in death and illness than virtually any other natural health threat.  Planning and preparedness before the next pandemic strikes—the inter-pandemic period —is critical for an effective response.  This Draft Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response Plan describes a coordinated strategy to prepare for and respond to an influenza pandemic.  It also provides guidance to state and local health departments and the health care system to enhance planning and preparedness at the levels where the primary response activities in the U.S. will be implemented….Vaccination is the primary strategy to reduce the impact of a pandemic but the time required currently to develop a vaccine and the limited U.S. influenza vaccine production capacity represent barriers to optimal prevention.  Enhancing existing U.S. and global influenza surveillance networks can lead to earlier detection of a pandemic virus or one with pandemic potential. Virus identification and the generation of seed viruses for vaccine production is a critical first step for influenza vaccine development."

So there it is – the obsession with a vaccine solution to a predicted and planned for problem. Even though we can cite the dismal failures of each influenza vaccine ever produced and "deployed" upon the American populace, our government’s bureaucrats are intent on producing an influenza vaccine for mass deployment.

Pasteur to the rescue

To be precise, 300 million doses of a new influenza vaccine are in the hopper through an HHS $97 million contract awarded to Sanofi Pasteur, a pharmaceutical company. The Sanofi Pasteur company is currently breaking ground for a new 145,000 square-foot, $150 million manufacturing plant in Pocono Township in northeastern Pennsylvania. The new plant is expected to be online for the 2009 flu season with the ability to double its capacity to produce influenza vaccines for annual use as well as the predicted and planned for coming influenza pandemic. Sanofi Pasteur is currently the producer of several versions of FluZone, including their thimerosal-free pediatric FluZone, and has manufactured influenza vaccines for 58 years.

New technology

Due to the perceived fear of exacerbating the problem of a mutated, virulent avian flu virus by culturing the vaccine in chicken embryos, as well as the threat to the egg supply itself should the avian flu spread to chickens earmarked for "vaccine culture egg production," scientists have been experimenting with various animal and human cell lines for influenza vaccine production.

Another problem that will be averted by not using chicken embryos to culture influenza vaccines will be the fact that people can no longer say they are allergic to eggs as a means of refusing government-approved medication.

The contract with Sanofi Pasteur specifies that the influenza vaccine they are to prepare for mass consumption in the event of a pandemic will be cultured in a mammalian cell line—specifically, a human cell line. The advantage of using a mammalian cell line is that the cells can be frozen and be readily available in developing a flu vaccine that matches the existing viruses circulating during the southern hemisphere’s flu season.

For those of you who do not know how vaccines are actually produced, this means they will be cultured on human diploid cells derived from a continuous cell line originating from aborted human fetal tissue.

It should be noted that the contract awarded to Sanofi Pasteur is only one of several contracts that HHS has awarded during the past year to enhance pandemic influenza preparedness and the annual influenza vaccine supply. Earlier awards were made to increase domestic influenza vaccine capacity, secure year-round vaccine raw materials and supplies and develop pandemic-like vaccine candidates for clinical evaluation.

Shades of Bioshield

So how serious is the threat of a U.S. government manufactured flu pandemic? From my perspective, extremely serious. On April Fool’s Day, 2005, President Bush amended E.O. 13295 - Relating to Certain Influenza Viruses and Quarantinable Communicable Diseases. The amendment was: "(c) Influenza caused by novel or reemergent influenza viruses that are causing, or have the potential to cause, a pandemic."

In a July 1, 2005 press release from the Health Resources and Service Administration, "[p]eople thought to be injured by influenza vaccines given annually will be eligible for compensation under National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), effective July 1, 2005."

In June 2005 we received a phone call from a friend in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. He told us the postmaster there had received a letter from the Panhandle Health District that requested the postmaster to submit the names and addresses of anyone who would not be able to attend a proposed future "clinic" to receive an influenza vaccine. Since I was not able to obtain documentation of this, I asked our postmaster if she had received such a letter. She affirmed that she had. She also affirmed that the letter requested names and addresses of those she knew would not be able to travel to such a clinic.

In a recent conversation with Joyce Riley of "The Power Hour" radio show and co-producer of Beyond Treason (www.beyondtreason.com), she shared the following with me: A nurse in California was required to attend a bioterrorism training session. The nurses were told that by not participating in any portion of the training, they would be immediately fired. The nurses had to sign a form that relinquished the state/hospital from liability. The nurses then were required to do a mock vaccination of their peers since the training was preparing for the goal of inoculating one million people in 10 days. Both smallpox and influenza vaccines were mentioned as the likely vaccines for mass inoculation. They were told the "mock" injections contained a saline solution. The nurse who had spoken to Joyce told the staff that "if it contained only a saline solution, why did he have to sign a form releasing them of liability?" At that point he walked out and was presumably fired.

During a recent interview on Truth Radio 1470 AM in Knoxville, Tennessee, a caller claimed that California’s Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger put out an executive order calling for the inoculation of every man, woman and child in the state if there was a pandemic outbreak of influenza, acknowledging that the vaccine had the potential to kill infants and the elderly. I have since searched high and low for this information and have not been able to validate it. But what I can validate is the fact that the $5.6 billion of your tax dollars allotted to Bioshield has passed and Bioshield II (S. 666) is still on the docket, shielding the pharmaceutical industry from liability for any products they produce that are used on the masses in the event of a bioterrorist attack. BioShield gives authority to the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary to order mass vaccination or medication of the masses. Those who refuse will be quarantined and/or imprisoned. And they are fast at work preparing for that day – what we at The Idaho Observer call "Medical Armageddon."