by Jacquie Schmall

Created on: December 25, 2009   Last Updated: December 26, 2009

The flu virus, a global health menace, is responsible for approximately 36,000 deaths each year. Every now and then the virus mutates and there may be a different range of the population more susceptible to this variant, than the previous variant. This appears to be the case with the H1N1, so called swine flu of 2009, where people over fifty years of age have been found to be less susceptible to the disease.

Due to the disease process caused by the flu, each time a new variant of the virus appears, there is the danger a global pandemic may result. At the onset of a flu season where a new variant is discovered, the potential crisis takes some time to develop a pattern. The announcement of a 2009 pandemic was premature, to say the least. 

The southern hemisphere had already gone through their flu season before the northern hemisphere began theirs. According to hospital records in New Zealand, and Australia with a population of approximately 22 million people, only 722 people were admitted with confirmed cases of H1N1, and less than would be expected with viral pneumonia. As reported in the New England Journal of Medicine in October of 2009, their numbers did not indicate a global threat from the new variant. Still the hype in the USA did not abate, and millions of vaccinations were ordered and delivered.

According to Dr. Russell Blaylock, a retired neurosurgeon, getting the seasonal flu shot may actually increase susceptibility to the swine flu. In the case of very young children, the H1N1 vaccinations appear to give little or no protection. In fact the figures show a huge increase in pediatric fatalities from 2002 to 2003, following a mass vaccination in 2003. The figures indicate the vaccination actually increased the severity of the disease. 

Observations early on in the year showed this flu variant was not highly contagious. Although there were populations more at risk than others, people with underlying medical conditions, and obese patients for example, the media hype and scare tactics by the medical community seem to have been highly inflated.

There are reasons to be highly suspect the manufacturers of the vaccine, and various segments of the medical community were premature in their warnings, and then could not back away from the publicity. President Obama took his clue from these sources, and predicted a flu season with dire circumstances. Much to the relief of everyone, no pandemic has appeared to threaten Americans. However, millions of vaccinations have been ordered, paid for, and delivered. Case dismissed. 

As a footnote, Dr. Mehmet Oz,  encouraging people on TV to get vaccinations for the swine flu, was reportedly the stockholder of 150,000 shares, in SIGA, a company that manufactures the vaccines. On the other hand, he may have had the best interest of his viewers at heart.

Perhaps the swine flu scare will be noted in history books as the pandemic that never happened. Sadly, there were many flu victims in 2009, however, the H1N1 virus was not the major threat it was made out to be.

References:

http://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/dr-r ussell-blaylock-vaccine-may-be-more-dangerous-than-s wine-flu/

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2 009/11/03/What-We-Have-Learned-About-the-Great-Swine -Flu-Pandemic.aspx

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