SAFE: no harm done
According to the World Health Organization (WHO)
According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control [and Prevention] (CDC)
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
According to the Hospitals, Clinics, and CornerConvenience Doctors Offices
According to the Mainstream Media urging citizens to get vaccinated yearly
and of course,
According to the Pharmaceutical Companies manufacturing the flu vaccines...
flu vaccines aren't just safe, they are needed to prevent the catching and spreading of our most pesky (and sometimes deadly dangerous) [influenza] viral cold.
"The single best way to protect against the flu is to get vaccinated each year." -CDC
So, why is flu vaccine safety even a question?
Do you know what is in the flu vaccine, specifically?
Not going into the musical chairs and probabilities aspect of pining down which set of viral strains (yes, many flu shots contain more than one) will be most present in a flu season, there is the preservative thimerosal.
Thimerosal [Thiomersal outside the U.S.] is between 49% -52% mercury [reports vary] and often used for multi-doze vials, to prevent germs, fungi and bacteria from contaminating the vaccine every time a new dose is administered to someone else. Commonly, there are 25 micrograms of thimerosal per dose in the multi-dose flu vaccine vials.
Consider This: It's been reported that thimerosal settles in the vaccine vial, and if it's not shaken or upturned before injecting into a patient, the first patients will get a smaller dose of the thimerosal, while the last patients will get a bigger dose.
If you've ever "had a shot" you know the Nurse pokes the vial with the needle, then withdraws the vaccine dose (maybe plunges some out to be sure it's air free), before you get it in the arm.
Pinch, sting, done.
Right past your body's natural defenses and filters, right into your muscle tissue and blood stream; is it safe?
Not every hospital and clinic can afford the single doses (especially in impoverished neighborhoods) which do not require a preservative, and we're used to seeing preservatives in our food and drinks, why not vaccines? It's probably not a lot of mercury!
Do you know what mercury does to the human body?
Do you know what Methylmercury (the specific mercury found in some sea food) does to the human body?
Do you know what Ethylmercury (the specific mercury bound chemical in Thimerosal) does to the human body?
Do you know the difference between a microgram and a nanogram?
Do you know how vaccine safety is regulated?
Do you know how mercury safety is regulated?
Do you know the Flu Shot isn't the only vaccine with this preservative; and depending on how many other vaccines you've had, or given to your child, that contain this preservative, you're then looking at repeated exposure to mercury?
I didn't.
We know to stop the baby from trying to eat a mercury thermometer (if you keep one in the house at all) but trust our Doctors and Regulators so much, too few look up what is in the vaccine before taking it, or giving it to others.
Case and point: I gave a ride to a Mom who needed to take her nine month old to the Doctors for a flu shot. Infant. Flu shot. She did not know what was in it, but said her baby was the most vulnerable because she had two other kids in school who always bring germs home. She admitted getting flu shots when pregnant with all three kids, and asked if I had ever had one; I had to answer honestly, not in my adult life.
Case and Point: Grandmother A gets the Flu Shots every year, she says she's vulnerable to her grandkids (my cousins) who are still in elementary school. She doesn't know what is in them either, and she's someone who reads labels at the grocery store, researches ingredients, and ensures she knows what she is eating and drinking. She advises me to get flu shot too.
Case and Point: Grandmother B has no little kids around her, but she also sees all the advertisements on the news to go get her flu shot (she's over 65), and so she goes, and asks what's in it. She's given the insert, reads it, writes some stuff down, and researches what it all means. She decides not to take the shot, ignores all the cautions she is vulnerable, and advises me not to take the shot either.
Hmmm.
I got to asking the people I know personally:
Everyone who had researched what was in the vaccine they were going to take, decided not to take it, but those who had no idea what was in it, both took them and advised me too; with two exceptions:
One went to a clinic where single doses were available and did not contain the preservative, the other did contain the preservative in multi-dose vials but the recipient expressly stated trusting the CDC and wanting protection against the flu;
"if they say it's safe, I believe its safe..."
I cringed to hear that, not because I don't believe safe vaccines are possible (I do!), but because the history of the U.S. regulatory administrations claiming things are safe that are later found to be NOT safe (and the stages of denial before they finally admit it and fix it) made it impossible for me to just take all the acronym agencies words for it.
So, I did more research, trying to answer those earlier questions.
The first thing you might notice when you start researching flu vaccines (or any vaccine) is that there is abundant material on the necessity of vaccines, and little or no mention of being "safe," but instead, declaring that there is "no evidence of [specific harm]" or "some [specified] risk involved."
This includes the WHO, FDA, CDC, DHHS, AAP, Pharmaceutical Companies, Doctor Offices, Mainstream Media and even Wikipedia.
Most of these appear to be informative, but I know a little more about different sciences than the average person, if only because I like understanding what I read or converse about. One thing I noticed about all pro-vaccines sites, pamphlets, books, etc... a lack of in depth science related to anything in the vaccine except the live or dead virus and how it is cultured. Why?
Common consumer-trained response is; it must not be important to the effectiveness of the product, and it's probably safe or it wouldn't be on the market...
To someone who takes a measure of responsibility for their own personal well-being, it raises an eye-brow.
There are three glaring commonalities in pro-thimerosal literature:
1) the Ethylmercury in thimerosal "is more quickly passed from the human body" than the accumulating Methylmercury, and is not as toxic as the EPA and FDA regulated Methylmercury.
2) there is "no evidence thimerosal is harmful when used in vaccines" (though it was banned in 2001 from all child vaccines except the flu vaccines in the U.S.)
3) distinct lack of access to specific information and studies that lead to those conclusions...
So, I kept researching.
To my surprise, the only ones who seemed to be talking about the science like people who get that science is how we learn and fact-check our theories, were the ones cautioning there is no safe level of mercury anything for human beings.
More sickeningly, the thimerosal cautioners are the only ones talking about how thimerosal hit the markets in the early 1900's.
Eli Lilly (patent holder and original maker/marketer of thimerosal) first did studies on mice, rabbits, and chicks, that all died within days of being injected with smaller amounts of thimerosal than we find in vaccines. Without a single survivor in his animal studies, he also conducted human studies, and all of those subjects died too, most of them in a few days after injections. This was in 1929.
Officially, those human-deaths are recorded as being caused by the meningitis they had before being injected with thimerosal, though many reports suggest the Doctor who made that declaration was on Lilly's payroll. Whether the Doctor was, or wasn't on payroll is besides the scientific need for more data at that point; which never happened before thimerosal went on the market. (Hello, that's what the FDA's job is, to make sure things are safe before being approved!)
Admitting thimerosal killed small animals, Eli Lilly [and company] had it declared "low toxicity" for humans, and since the 1930s it has been used in a variety of human and animal vaccines.
By 1935, other studies conducted by potential users of the preservative, showed and declared that thimerosal wasn't even fit to preserve vaccines for dogs. For the record, dogs weigh anywhere from 1 pound to 140+ pounds from small breeds to large breeds. I don't now about anyone else, but if this preservative isn’t safe for dogs, I certainly wouldn’t want to give it to kids!
Interestingly, it was Russia that first published a study showing the harmful effects of Ethylmercury in adult humans in 1977. Unfortunately, in distinct contrast with the CDC, FDA, DHHS, and the pharmaceutical companies lobbying for the preservative to remain in vaccines, the Russian study showed that Ethylmercury did NOT break down and become passed as waste by the body, but built up in the organs, brain, nervous system, and so on. By 1980, Russia said “no more” and banned thimerosal in all child vaccines.
Denmark, Austria, Japan, Great Britain, and all the Scandinavian countries followed, with Chile being reported as the “first” in 2014. Um… no, though they were the first to include adults in the ban by also banning thimerosal in vaccines intended for people over 60, as well as children between infant and 8 years old.
By 1986, the U.S. passed and ratified the National Childhood Vaccine Act of 1986; this act quite literally shields vaccine manufacturers from being liable in vaccine injury claims (though to many Judges, it does not protect specific vaccine components or their makers; i.e. Thimerosal's Eli Lilly [and company]).
The National Childhood Vaccine Act of 1986 requires anyone wanting to file a claim regarding injury due to a vaccine, to first file with the Federal Vaccine Court. There is a statute of limitation of 3 years from the first adverse reaction, which eliminates all the cases that took more than 3 years to show adverse affects.
Well, if it takes more than 3 years, how do you know the vaccine was the cause?
Sadly, the CDC’s studies into Ethylmercury-based thimerosal, and Methylmercury based sea-food consumption and accumulation was sold to a private company which makes the data inaccessible through the Freedom of Information Act.
Other studies are dismissed by the FDA, CDC, WHO, and so on, but show that not only is Ethylmercury harmful to any brain or nerve system in as small a dose as one nanogram (1 billionth of a gram), but when combined with the accumulative damage of natural intake of Methylmercury through air, food, water, and other environmental exposures, the effects become compounded, and even more toxic.
Perspective: One microgram is 1 millionth of a gram, and while these studies have shown one billionth of a gram of this ethylmercury is harmful, each flu shot received with this preservative is dosing the individual with 25 thousand times that harmful level.
So... about those questions we asked earlier:
Do you know what mercury does to the human body?
-YES- mercury’s effect on the human body varies by type of mercury and type of exposure, as well as length of exposure, but all forms of mercury are toxic to the human body and cause injury and illness from failing organs and nervous systems to the reproductive system, brain damage and death.
Do you know what Methylmercury (the specific mercury found in some sea food) does to the human body?
-YES- like any mercury, it is toxic to the human body, most specifically effecting lungs, kidneys, reproductive systems, central nervous systems, cardio-vascular system, and brains cumulatively; less than about 20% of consumed methylmercury is discharged from the body in wastes. Blood tests for methylmercury exposure are only effective in the stage of its absorption when the mercury elements are hitching a ride on red blood cells through the blood stream, after they get where they are going, only tissue samples of the specified areas of mercury accumulation will reveal the specific damage.
Do you know what Ethylmercury (the specific mercury bound chemical in Thimerosal) does to the human body?
-YES- like any mercury, it is toxic to the human body, most specifically effecting lungs, kidneys, reproductive systems, central nervous systems, cardio-vascular system, and brains cumulatively; less than about 10% of injected Ethylmercury is reported to be discharged from the body in wastes. Some studies have shown that Ethylmercury breaks down in the human body into Methylmercury, and contributes to the natural consumption of methylmercury in air, water, food supplies to become exponentially toxic; while simultaneously being reported as passing through the body because it's no longer present as Ethylmercury. Blood tests for Ethylmercury exposure are only effective in the stage of its absorption when the mercury elements are hitching a ride on red blood cells through the blood stream (shown to cross the blood-brain barrier faster than methylmercury), after they get where they are going, only tissue samples of the specified areas of mercury accumulation will reveal the specific damage.
Do you know the difference between a microgram and a nanogram?
-YES- Micrograms are 1 millionth of a gram, while nanograms are 1 billionth of a gram. There are 1000 nanograms in a single microgram.
Do you know how vaccine safety is regulated?
-YES- The FDA and CDC regulate vaccines in the U.S.; the process is supposed to prevent any harmful chemicals or organic materials (like mercury) from being allowed in our food, water, and medical supply. Before a vaccine, or additive, is approved by the FDA, it is supposed to have solid studies on hand and available to the public, proving the SAFE use of said vaccine or additive. (Not only has there never been a publicly accessible study showing that thimerosal is safe to use, all the studies in the hands of the FDA and CDC are now under the ownership of private companies and inaccessible to independent researchers or citizens request for information through the Freedom of Information Act.)
Do you know how mercury safety is regulated?
-YES- The Department of Defense (DOD) classifies mercury as a hazardous element, and anything containing mercury in it must be disposed of as a hazardous waste. This means, if a mulit-dose vial of a flu vaccine remains unused through its life, it must be disposed of as a hazardous waste and cannot simply be thrown away (like your sushi, which might contained traces of methylmercury). Also, the Department of Energy (DOE) likewise has regulations against mercury in power supplies (like batteries) and is dedicated to the long-term storage of such materials away from the human population. Furthermore, the EPA has regulatory guidelines on mercury to prevent harmful amounts in air and water supplies. Plus, the FDA also regulates mercury in our food and dental supplies. All of these regulatory agencies do not dispute the toxicity of mercury, but none of them have pushed for more studies on the effects of thimerosal on the human body, and often complain of shoddy science of every report that has.
Interestingly, and not widely known, in 1999 the DHHS and AAP urged the CDC to remove thimerosal from all vaccines because the vaccine schedule (how often a person receives vaccines) indicated an accumulative exposure to mercury that far exceeded all national and GLOBAL limits of mercury.
This ultimately lead to the CDC’s ban on thimerosal in children vaccines except the flu vaccine back in 2001. What most people don’t know, manufacturers didn’t just get rid of the thimerosal containing vaccines, but simply stopped producing the specified children's vaccines with thimerosal, and continued to sell those they still had in stock until 2002 when a congressional inquiry shined a light on it. Likewise, the CDC increased the vaccination schedule for children and adults at the same time, causing public confusion about the safety concerns.
Consider this: Vaccines have been a part of public health since the 1930’s. Back in 1940, U.S. children received about 4 vaccine doses before 2 years of age, and never more than one shot at a time. In 1980 (when Russia banned thimerosal) U.S. children received about 8 vaccine doses before 2 years old, and up to 2 shots at a time. In 2001 (just after the call to ban thimerosal in children vaccines was put into U.S. law), children under 2 years old received about 20 vaccine doses, and it’s iffy whether or not they were absent thimerosal. In 2016, children are looking at 30 vaccine doses (including at least one flu shot; either when in the mother’s belly, or after birth) before they reach 2 years old, and then more between 2 years and 18 years, plus the recommended flu shots the rest of their life (while multi-dose vials still contain thimerosal as a preservative).
NOTE: this information is based on a child receiving all the recommended vaccinations.
If one nanogram of ethylmercury is unsafe for humans, then why is it still being used in much higher concentrations, and why is it legal to repeatedly expose people to it?
The simple answer is… Money.
Look at any pro-thimerosal publication, and none of them will dare try to tell you that thimerosal is good for us, and only some of them will dare to say it’s "safe," while all of them will site that the world cannot “afford” to ban thimerosal because it’s the only way multi-dose vials are available, and all the health clinics in the U.S. and abroad who cannot afford single dose vials will suddenly be without protection against the flu; some will even outright say that we cannot “afford” to bankrupt the pharmaceutical companies (which banning thimerosal might do) because they are our only defense against germ warfare…
I leave it to the individual to decide what is right for them, and their family, but I for one will not be taking any vaccines until and unless I have strong evidence that these Acronym Agencies, and the pharmaceutical industry they are protecting, are actually putting human-health before profit.
Historical evidence so far suggests that’s never going to happen; look at any product declared “safe” and later found to be “unsafe” (i.e. lead, sulfites, aspartame, DDT, and cigarettes which have too many chemical toxins to name as example) and you will see the same song-and-dance happening now over thimerosal’s “safeness” when used in vaccines.
If you believe current vaccines are safe, you probably aren’t looking into what’s inside them, and you probably haven’t been paying attention to the U.S. history of gambling with public safety in the name of exponential profits.
Do I believe safe vaccines are possible? Absolutely!
Do I believe vaccines given in (and by) the U.S. are safe? No.
I love my country (the land, nature, and We The People), but I do not trust our regulators care more about the people than the profits, and until then, I will never trust anything they say as truth until and unless I can verify it myself through cross-referenced and thorough research.
I advise the same of every person in every nation, as this is the only way we can demand change; we have to know what we’re talking about first.
-M.E.
201610021400
P.S. companies are not required to list ingredients that make up less than 1% of the content of the product, therefore, I do not even trust non-thimerosal preserved (or non-preservative) vaccines at this time, because I lack the medical equipment and the ability to get a sample to verify what is actually in it 100% and our regulations do not require full disclosure.