Swine flu spreading fear to passengers. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
Swine flu report. Thanks to media reporting on the swine flu, a pandemic wave of fear has already spread across our nation and world. People with only a cough or cold and virtually no chance of contact with the swine flu virus are staying home from work, some paralyzed by fear that they might die a victim of this impending pandemic being predicted by newspapers and TV news programs around the world. Yet what or who is really behind the swine flu and this pandemic of fear?
Newspaper headlines around America read like that of Monday's San Francisco Chronicle, "U.S. declares national health emergency." The venerable Center for Disease Control (CDC) states on their website, "If you are sick, you should stay home and avoid contact with other people as much as possible."
Yet we have to ask, should someone who lives in small town Nebraska with no chance of coming in contact with swine flu stay home if they get a cold? If your child has a cough, yet knows no one who has been to Mexico and no cases have been reported in your city, should they stay home? Why are the recommendations so out of proportion to the real risks? Is the media just feeding on the desire for sensationalism and spreading more fear than is warranted? Is the government acting out of proportion to the real danger?
To treat swine flu the CDC website states, "CDC recommends the use of oseltamivir or zanamivir for the treatment and/or prevention of infection with these swine influenza viruses." Oseltamivir is Tamiflu, the same drug recommended for the avian flu, which was promoted with such great fear only a few years ago. Yet Tamiflu was shown numerous times to be ineffective against avian flu, which in case you haven't noticed, never came close to being a pandemic.
In spite of its ineffectiveness for treating the avian flu, stock prices for the maker of Tamiflu, Gilead Sciences, soared because of sales of the drug, which was being recommended by the government as the best treatment. Few know that former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was chairman of the board of directors of Gilead in 1997.
Gilead stock increased so much that Britain's respected Independent reported on March 12, 2006 that Rumsfeld alone "made more than $5m (£2.9m) in capital gains from selling shares in the biotechnology firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being bought in massive amounts by Governments to treat a possible human pandemic of [avian flu]."
Here are other key excerpts from that Independent article:
The drug was developed by a Californian biotech company, Gilead Sciences. Mr Rumsfeld was on the board of Gilead from 1988 to 2001, and was its chairman from 1997. He then left to join the Bush administration, but retained a huge shareholding. The 2005 report showed that, in all, he owned shares worth up to $95.9m, from which he got an income of up to $13m. The firm made a loss in 2003, the year before concern about bird flu started. Then revenues from Tamiflu almost quadrupled, to $44.6m, helping put the company well into the black. Sales almost quadrupled again, to $161.6m last year [2005].
Yet the massive stockpiles of Tamiflu built up by governments around the world to combat the impending avian flu pandemic were never needed. The pandemic never came close to happening. As prescription drugs like Tamiflu all have expiration dates that rarely go beyond a couple of years, the stockpiles are now all outdated and cannot be used. Thus Gilead is now gifted with another major opportunity in the current swine flu scare to fleece the public once again as it's stock prices soar.
How much can we trust government when huge profits are at stake? How much influence do the lobbyists of the huge pharmaceuticals have over our elected representatives? Is there a possibility that the government might even have had a hand in the creation of both the avian flu and swine flu? These are questions that warrant media and public attention as this current wave of fear spreads.
Regarding pharmaceutical lobbyists, a 2007 CBS News article states, "Congressmen are outnumbered two to one by lobbyists for an industry that spends roughly a $100 million a year in campaign contributions and lobbying expenses to protect its profits." Another powerful article shows how fear is used by certain wealthy, elite groups to manipulate the public and rake in the profits. Here are key excerpts from a revealing 2006 article in the Christian Science Monitor on the pandemic of fear created by government and media in relation to the avian flu.
Americans consider the United States to be a country where debate flourishes. Yet with regard to avian flu, hyped sound bites predominate. When President Bush asked Congress for $7.1 billion toward "pandemic flu preparedness," even his critics replied "not enough." What is lacking in the overall discussion about pandemic flu is disagreement, criticism, and skepticism - once the bedrock of science - from researchers willing to question and test the data. There are better ways to promote America's health than selling sickness through the language of fear.
Some experts publicly claimed that the avian flu was not a threat and was being used as hype. As one newspaper stated, "Dr. Marc Siegel, a practicing internist and associate professor of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine ... isn't buying into the scare scenario. 'If anything is contagious right now, it's judgment clouded by fear,' Siegel said." Notice the many similarities in all of this between the avian flu and swine flu.
At the same time as we question the media and government, we have to also ask ourselves, why are we so easily affected by fear and sensationalism in the media? Why is this what sells newspapers and TV news programs? What if instead of feeling an almost morbid fascination with all things sensational and fearful, we choose to look at fear as an opportunity for growth.
What if instead of imagining all of the terrible things that might happen to us, we imagine how in times of crisis we might come together to support each other and transform fear into love and community support? When we choose to shift fear within ourselves, a ripple effect is created which, when joined with the ripples of many others doing the same, create a wave of transformation which can pave the way for a brighter future for us all.
The box immediately below provides several ideas on what you can do to better educate yourself on the realities of the swine flu and the similar aspects of the avian flu scare, and to transform fear in yourself. We also invite you to comment below and let us know what you think. Does it serve the public for the government and media to promote such caution and fear in cases like the avian flu and swine flu?
What you can do:
- Inform your media and political representatives of this important information. To contact those close to you, click here. Urge them to pay attention to where the dollars flow as a result of the swine flu situation and to work towards building community support rather than promoting fear.
- Learn more about the powerful influence of the drug companies over Congress at this link.
- Read concise summaries of highly revealing major media reports on the avian flu available here.
- Explore inspiring ideas on how we can build a brighter future for all by reading this short essay.
- Spread this news to your friends and colleagues, and bookmark this article on key news websites using the "Share This" icon just below the title of this article, so that we can fill the role at which the major media is sadly failing. Together, we can make a difference.
Fred Burks served as personal language interpreter to Clinton, Bush, Cheney, Gore, and other top dignitaries in secret meetings. As part of an international network of researchers and news analysts, Fred obtains and disseminates key, reliable information about powerful, yet little-known forces which shape our world. For more, see articles and links in the right column of this page.
Comments
in addition to financially benefiting Rumsfelt this flu scare is also diverting attention from the torture investigations in which he had a major role. it's also a way to divert money from Obama's agenda. the virus is continuing to mutate and it was just reported that a vaccine probably won't available before November - i would suggest additional mutations will have occured by then rendering billions of dollars worth of the vaccine outdated. Big Pharma wins again. will they again stockpile Cipro? - I will guess so.
All
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Nailed it!!!
Great article Fred. We are learning more and more how to transcend, intentionally, mentally and spiritually, the very old and tired controller rhetoric. They are truly falling apart right before our eyes, a bit of the death rattle of a failing paradigm, and we are waking up, the sunrise birth of a new paradigm!!!!
Love/Light and Peace for the World, Chris
Thank you for an informative article. I find the timing and speed of this health scare almost unbelievable. Reminds me of a Mark Twain saying: A rumor can travel around the world before truth gets it's shoes on.
I will wash hands,spread love not fear.
Mary
Thanks Fred for bringing this up in a world of disinformation with goals of personal gain.
Well, nothing wrong with personal gain, the whole nature works on that principle. But when an animal get its food stolen before its mouth, it needs to learn how to prevent that the next time. And that is exactly what we need to learn with this issue. We need to wake up and see for ourselves where the truth or lie is in the stories we are told via government controlled media, instead of blindly believing the 'authority'. It's hard work to stay alive withing the jungle of cunning human predators.
We could say nature is again giving us, via those crowd manipulators and fear mongers, an opportunity to switch to another level of awareness. In other words it time to wake up or simply be exploited. Our choice.
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