Pvt. David Lewis
Stop what you’re doing, this could get interesting, but first some history…
NB: It’s also probably best to put the kettle on and switch your phone off as this is going to take some digesting!
“On the cold afternoon of February 5, 1976, an Army recruit told his drill instructor at Fort Dix that he felt tired and weak but not sick enough to see military medics or skip a big training hike. Within 24 hours, 19-year-old Pvt. David Lewis of Ashley Falls, Mass., was dead, killed by an influenza not seen since the plague of 1918-19, which took 500,000 American lives and 20 million worldwide.”
Ever heard of Fort Dix? I came across it a few months ago while doing some research into Swine Flu and now have decided to return to the topic after reading the following BBC article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8199629.stm). In February of 1976 Pvt. David Lewis died at Ft. Dix, an autopsy showed that his death was due to the flu strain A/New Jersey/76 (Hsw1n1) or as it’s more commonly called H1N1 the strain causing the current pandemic. In addition a number of soldiers localised at the base were also infected, from the reports i’ve read the figuures range for 230 to 500 with some saying a number were hospitalised but all made a full recovery. Gerald Ford immediately ordered a nationwide vaccination program and over 40 million people were vaccinated as it was believed they were dealing with a virus potentially as deadly as the one that caused the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic with reports stating that it caused the death of 20 to 100 million people world wide. In the end the vaccination program was stopped short due to over 500 cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, including at least 25 related deaths.
To summarise:
1. 1 death caused 40 million people to be vaccinated with a vaccine that hadn’t been properly tested hence the Guillain-Barre syndrome cases and associated deaths.
2. Vaccinations started taking place in October, 8 months after the initial death
3. The vaccination program cost $500 million in today’s money
4. The source of the outbreak and how it was contained has never been concluded (more to come on this matter)
The Story Continues…
Here’s where we encounter David J. Sencer and Richard Hodder. Sencer released a famous March 11, 1976, memorandum bearing the heading “Swine Influenza: ACTION,” (http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=177) and due to the actions made as a result of that memo he was fired as director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. It turns out due to numerous court cases as a result of the effects of the vaccine, millions of dollars were paid out thus Sencer’s dismissal is a no brainer. Hodder was one of the Army epidemiologists who investigated the Fort Dix outbreak.
On reflecting upon what occurred during 1976:
“Dr. Sencer felt very strongly that he didn’t want to be the person who let a lot of Americans die because he sat on his hands,” Hodder said. “And you have to remember, there was nothing else – no Tamiflu or Relenza. Once the disease would start to spread, you’d be in trouble.”
“Sencer was unfairly blamed for the unforeseeable”
“Generals and doctors have the same problem: They have to make a decision today with the information they have”
This response is initially understandable, there was a huge responsibility, action needed to be seen and the initial logic behind the mass vaccination seems sound due to the quick human to human infections seen at Ft. Dix and the expectation of a pandemic but if vaccinations didn’t start until October and the outbreak was contained within Ft. Dix then what the deuce? I can’t help think that Sencer’s decision wasn’t in the publics interest and had a political bias. It was known that there could be neurological side effects and at the time Ford was competing against Reagan in the North Carolina Republican presidential primary and thus Sencer has to be seen as supporting Ford. Not only that, private pharmaceutical companies were to be contracted to produce the vaccine and as a result big profits.
So lets take notice of what’s going down with the current “crisis”…
The BBC have released a report (16:28 GMT, Thursday, 13 August 2009 17:28 UK) as mentioned early with the following break down:
• In October, those aged six months to 65-years-old in conventional at-risk groups for normal seasonal flu, such as those with diabetes or heart disease, will be vaccinated.
• This will be followed by all pregnant women, subject to licensing arrangements and better information on when in the pregnancy the vaccine should be given.
• People living in households with patients with suppressed immune systems and those over 65 in conventional at-risk groups will then be eligible.
• Front-line health and social care workers will then be vaccinated.
• By the middle of winter, the government hopes to have enough evidence to decide whether the campaign should be extended to healthy people.
The point which I find most interesting is the last one! I’ll rephrase it how I hear it “By February, the government will know if the vaccine that they have spent 3 months placing within 14+ million people is having any adverse effects and then make the decision to continue the program or to scrap it.”
It’s probably also worth bearing in mind that the Czech Republic have cancelled Baxter “swine flu” vaccines as Baxter can’t guarantee that it will be safe and have ”refused to pay compensation to anyone injured by the vaccine”. (http://birdflu666.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/czech-republic-cancels-baxter-swine-flu-vaccines-because-baxter-refuses-to-guarantee-safety/)
Next the first case of the current Swine Flu pandemic has been reported to have occured in in Veracruz state in February, so that’s given a time period of approx 8 months to create a vaccine if they are to start in October. Obviously time is critical as it unknown when the second wave it going to hit but there is already a vaccine in place for the seasonal flu. NewScientist back in May ran a couple of article titled “Swine flu vaccine won’t be ready for next wave” and “First genetic analysis of swine flu reveals potency” concluding that the current strain spreads barely well enough to keep itself going and that a vaccine will probably not be ready until September which is after the predicted second wave.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227083.900-swine-flu-vaccine-wont-be-ready-for-next-wave.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17072-first-genetic-analysis-of-swine-flu-reveals-potency.html
My initial thoughts on the matter are is the vaccine safe and if so whether a mass vaccination is required? Since the initial out break there have been 229,446 confirmed cases world wide, 12,261 of which are from the UK with 49 death which is a 0.07% death rate compared to 3000-4000 deaths per year from seasonal flu, with the majority being over 65 and due to complications.
The second thing that concerns me is “Why do you never get the really good drugs” from your GP? What I mean here is your GP will rarely give you the cream of the crop on the drug front because a) over prescribing of the good shit increases the probability of the pathogen evolving to become resistant to said “good shit”. So on that logic if you vaccinate 14 million people in 3 months, what’s the chance of the strain evolving and becoming resistant to the current vaccine? I’d say quite high!! And then what? Well we don’t know? The strain might become more virulent, causing more people to become ill with a knock on effect of more death and b) the health service is also a business and thus the GPs will precribe what they’re being told to prescribe ie. what’s been sold to them at the “best” price.
What other brain food can I give you…
Here are some of the sites i’ve read giving you a further heads up on this matter if your interested:
http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/7587
http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/Influenza.htm
It all smells a little big wrong…
Leave a Reply