Info on Flu Shots(long)

[Guest guest]

I got this info from the Down syndrome Exchange egroup. (very informative

egroup. If you are not a member, you should join!) This is 3 messages in a

thread concerning Flu Shots. Since this has been a recent discussion, I thought

you may want to read more on it.

Kristy

Most Americans Surprised, Concerned that 90 Percent of Flu Shots Contain the

Toxin Mercury

Health Officials' Aggressive Flu Shot Campaign May Disregard Safety,

According to Survey of 9,000 Americans

74 Percent of Respondents Unaware Flu Shots Contain Mercury, 78 Percent

Disagree with CDC About Vaccinating Pregnant Women and Children

PORTLAND, Ore., Nov. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- As health officials step up their

effort to vaccinate Americans against the flu, a new survey suggests serious

concerns over the toxin mercury, an ingredient in over 90 percent of this

season's flu shot supply. PutChildrenFirst. org, a parent-led organization

advocating vaccine safety, commissioned a survey of over 9,000 Americans to

learn their plans for getting flu shots, their knowledge of its ingredients,

and who they hold responsible for making sure vaccines are safe.

The survey revealed that the overwhelming majority of Americans were unaware

that most flu shots contain mercury and that they would refuse a shot with

mercury. (See page two for the key findings.)

" More than 75 percent of Americans feel a mercury-containing flu shot should

not be given to a pregnant woman or a child, despite recommendations from

medical authorities to do just that, " said Handley, a founding parent

of PutChildrenFirst. org. Her own son, Jamison, had an adverse reaction to a

flu shot containing mercury in 2003. " I know firsthand how life-changing a

flu shot with mercury can be, since our son began his regression into autism

after his flu shot. "

In 1999, government agencies called for the removal of Thimerosal, the

mercury-based preservative in most vaccines. Then, in 2001, the American

Academy of Pediatrics stated that, " mercury in all of its forms is toxic to

the fetus and children, and efforts should be made to reduce exposure to the

extent possible to pregnant women and children as well as the general

population. " Despite these actions, 90 percent of this season's flu vaccines

still contain Thimerosal, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

(CDC) are recommending the vaccine for pregnant women and children six

months and older.

These recommendations come on the heels of recent studies that reveal new

findings about the neurological effects of mercury and question the

effectiveness of flu shots. Mercury, the second most toxic element after

plutonium, is estimated to be 500 to 1,000 times more toxic than lead.

" A common myth is that Thimerosal is added to vaccines in 'trace' amounts, "

said Mike Wagnitz, who has over 20 years experience evaluating materials for

mercury and is employed as a senior chemist with the University of

Wisconsin. " The concentration of mercury in a multi-dose flu vaccine vial is

50,000 parts per billion. To put this in perspective, drinking water cannot

exceed 2 parts per billion of mercury, and waste is considered hazardous if

it has only 200 parts per billion. Is it really safe then to inject pregnant

women, newborns, and infants with levels of mercury 250 times higher than

what is legally classified as hazardous waste? "

Agreeing that mercury has no place in vaccines, seven states have passed

Thimerosal bans in recent years: California, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa,

Missouri, New York, and Washington. California is the first to have

implemented the ban for the current flu season, but Governor Schwarzenegger

temporarily overturned the ban on November 2 after a shortage of

mercury-free flu shots led to pressure from state medical groups.

" Parents need to be informed about all aspects of their children's

healthcare, including vaccines, " said Deirdre Imus, President and founder of

The Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology at Hackensack

University Medical Center and co-founder and co-director, with husband Don

Imus, of The Imus Cattle Ranch for Kids with Cancer. " It doesn't make common

sense to inject Thimerosal, a known neurotoxin, into the bloodstream of our

babies. "

This fall, two studies were published in leading medical journals admitting

that limited data exists to support the effectiveness of flu shots. One

study, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, noted that,

" there is scant data on the efficacy and effectiveness of influenza vaccine

in young children. "

" So, not only is the flu shot's effectiveness in doubt, there is plenty of

evidence revealing the devastating effects of mercury, " said J.B. Handley,

's husband and a founder of PutChildrenFirst. org. " Our health

authorities are not being forthcoming about mercury's presence in shots and

its toxicity to the nervous system. Our children deserve better. "

" With everything we know about the dangers of mercury and the havoc it can

wreak on young, developing brains, there is no excuse for any vaccine to

contain mercury, " said Lyn Redwood, RN, MSN, President of SafeMinds, a

nonprofit committed to ending mercury-induced neurological disorders. " The

survey reveals that Americans are overwhelmingly in the dark about what is

in most flu shots. They do not want a known neurotoxin injected into their

children, and they believe Congress and medical professionals must be more

vigilant about keeping vaccines safe and mercury-free. "

Key findings from the poll, conducted October 27-30 by Zogby International,

include:

* 74 percent of respondents are unaware that most flu shots contain

mercury.

* After learning that mercury is an ingredient, 74 percent are less

likely

to get a flu shot and 86 percent of parents say they are less likely

to

get their child a flu shot.

* 78 percent of respondents believe mercury should not be an ingredient

in

flu shots given to pregnant women and children.

* 73 percent believe the government should warn pregnant women not to

get

a flu shot if it contains mercury.

* More than 70 percent agree that Congress, doctors and medical groups

(e.g., the American Academy of Pediatrics) should take responsibility

for ensuring that vaccines do not contain mercury.

* 80 percent of respondents and 82 percent of parents are willing to pay

the $2.50 additional cost for a mercury-free flu shot.

PutChildrenFirst. org is a parent-led initiative advocating vaccine safety

and a division of Generation Rescue, a nonprofit organization providing

parents with information on the relationship between mercury and its

relationship to Autism Spectrum Disorders. Generation Rescue gives parents

information to make informed decisions about treatment options and

physicians. Generation Rescue is a 501© (3) nonprofit founded in 2005.

end of message

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If you would like to cross reference some of the information from Put Children

First, check out these two web sites.

Thimerosal is ethylmercury , mercury, but a DIFFERENT form of mercury then the

kind typically found in fish or your rectal themomater which is methylmercury.

http://www.fda. gov/cber/ vaccine/thimfaq. htm#q3

http://www.epa. gov/mercury/ consumerinfo. htm#vaccines

Be sure to check out sources in your daily life that DO contain methylmercury.

http://www.aap. org/profed/ thimaut-may03. htm

http://www.aap. org/advocacy/ releases/ vaccinesafety. htm

Also here is the statement from the American Academy of Peds... I am guessing

anyway cause I don't see the exact source referenced -

http://aappolicy. aappublications. org/cgi/reprint/ pediatrics;108/1/197. pdf

CONCLUSIONS

1. Mercury in all of its forms is toxic to the fetus and

children, and efforts should be made to reduce

exposure to the extent possible to pregnant

women and children as well as the general population.

Pediatricians can contribute to the effort

of decreasing the amount of mercury in the waste

stream by phasing out mercury-containing devices,

such as thermometers and sphygmomanometers,

from their offices and other medical

facilities and encouraging parents to remove mercury

thermometers from their homes.

2. Inorganic and elemental mercury should not be

present in the home or other environments of

children. Pediatricians need to be aware of traditional

folk uses of mercury like in Santeria or in

ethnic remedies and work sensitively with such

families, who may initially be unwilling to discuss

such factors with physicians and with people outside

of their cultural group. Public health agencies,

community organizations, pediatricians, and

other child health providers should work together

to identify the diverse cultural practices that may

lead to mercury exposure.

3. The most important source of methylmercury exposure

is fish consumption by the mother before

or during gestation and by young children. Parents

can reduce methylmercury exposure to their

children by limiting the amount of fish with high

mercury content consumed during pregnancy and

lactation and amounts eaten by children. Recreational

and subsistence fishers need to heed warnings

and advisories from state health departments

not only about mercury but also about other contaminants,

such as PCBs, in fish.

4. As part of an ongoing review of biological products

in response to the Food and Drug Administration

Modernization Act of 1997, the FDA is

reviewing the use of mercury in biological products

and pharmaceutical preparations. It would

seem prudent for the FDA to carefully examine all

uses of mercury in pharmaceuticals, particularly

pharmaceuticals that are used by infants and

pregnant women. The FDA is working with the

AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS 203

pharmaceutical industry and the medical community

to decrease or eliminate exposures to mercury

in vaccines and other products.

end of message

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" In June 2000, a group of top government scientists and health officials

gathered for a meeting at the isolated Simpsonwood conference center in

Norcross, Ga. Convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

the meeting was held at this Methodist retreat center, nestled in wooded

farmland next to the Chattahoochee River, to ensure complete secrecy. The

agency had issued no public announcement of the session - only private

invitations to 52 attendees. There were high-level officials from the CDC

and the Food and Drug Administration, the top vaccine specialist from the

World Health Organization in Geneva, and representatives of every major

vaccine manufacturer, including GlaxoKline, Merck, Wyeth and Aventis

Pasteur. All of the scientific data under discussion, CDC officials

repeatedly reminded the participants, was strictly " embargoed. " There would

be no making photocopies of documents, no taking papers with them when they

left.

The federal officials and industry representatives had assembled to discuss

a disturbing new study that raised alarming questions about the safety of a

host of common childhood vaccines administered to infants and young

children. According to a CDC epidemiologist named Tom Verstraeten, who had

analyzed the agency's massive database containing the medical records of

100,000 children, a mercury-based preservative in the vaccines - thimerosal

- appeared to be responsible for a dramatic increase in autism and a host of

other neurological disorders among children. " I was actually stunned by what

I saw, " Verstraeten told those assembled at Simpsonwood, citing the

staggering number of earlier studies that indicate a link between thimerosal

and speech delays, attention-deficit disorder, hyperactivity and autism.

Since 1991, when the CDC and the FDA had recommended that three additional

vaccines laced with the preservative be given to extremely young infants -

in one case, within hours of birth - the estimated number of cases of autism

had increased fifteenfold, from one in every 2,500 children to one in 166

children.

Even for scientists and doctors accustomed to confronting issues of life and

death, the findings were frightening. " You can play with this all you want, "

Dr. Bill Weil, a consultant for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the

group. The results " are statistically significant. " Dr. ston, an

immunologist and pediatrician from the University of Colorado whose grandson

had been born early on the morning of the meeting's first day, was even more

alarmed. " My gut feeling? " he said. " Forgive this personal comment - I do

not want my grandson to get a thimerosal-containi ng vaccine until we know

better what is going on. " " Rest of article:

http://www.tuberose .com/Deadly% 20Immunity. html