AP
Nov. 14--Provincial health officials in Hunan, China, reported on Friday that two people who had recently received Chinese-made H1N1 influenza vaccine died between Nov. 9 and Nov. 13. One death, authorities believe, had no relation to the vaccination. The other death is still under investigation as a possible allergic reaction to a vaccine component.
The Associated Press is reporting that the death already ruled a coincidence occurred when a middle-aged man suffered a heart attack and collapsed while playing basketball.
Some 13 million Chinese have been vaccinated against swine flu since September. The two deaths are the only known fatalities with even a suspected relation to the vaccination. Among the hundreds of thousands of U.S. residents who have received an H1N1 vaccination, no vaccine-related deaths or serious allergies have occurred. News did come this past week that a 14-year-old boy in Alexandria, Va., developed Guillain-Barre syndrome within weeks of getting swine flu shot, but Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigator could not establish a link between the disease and the vaccine.
The teen should make a full recovery. Between 800,000 and 1 million Virginians have been vaccinated against the H1N1 virus as of Nov. 14.
At the same time, more than 4,000 Americans have died after suffering complications from swine flu. Another 22 million-plus people in the United States have been sickened by the H1N1 strain of the influenza virus.
An analysis of worldwide injury and death rates published in the Oct. 31 issue of The Lancet indicates that practically all serious health problems for people who get flu shots--from miscarriages to strokes--will be coincidences rather than vaccine side effects. What people who take either a seasonal or swine flu vaccine shot can expect is mild soreness in their arm and, for a few people, a low, short-lived fever.
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Comments
Let's get the factual error out of the way first: The gov't stopped counting swine flu cases in August--since that time, EVERY FLU-LIKE illness is "presumed to be" H1N1. So there's no way to really know how "widespread" this virus really is. Second, no matter what the side-effects of any given vaccine, the manufacturer always repeats the same tired lie: "correlation doesn't equal causation." The vaccine never gets the blame, but always takes too much credit.Wake up, America!!!
Was this article really written by a journalist or was it media relations for big pharma?
If--and I remain unconvinced of this--if flu vaccines did cause the two deaths in China, than the fatality rate among vaccine recipients would be 0.0000015. Likewise, if the five reported cases of GBS among U.S. swine flu recipients resulted from vaccine administration, the rate would be 5 in about 40 million. Those odds are not worth worrying about and are well below normal rates of sudden death and GBS. Also, while it is true that the CDC does not count every individual case of swine flu, don't you know dozens of people who have recently suffered a disease that, if it wasn't swine flu, was as bad and potentially life-threatening? And deaths from suspected swine flu are confirmed through serology.
My questions to you, Zed and Ferri, are do you take any products to maintain or restore your health? What evidence do you rely upon to know or believe those products are effective? If you believe that evidence, why can you not believe evidence for flu vaccine effectiveness?
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