| The Public Relations Machine
for the Vaccine Complex
One
hard lesson we should have learned after Wall Street’s collapse
and the government’s handling of the bailout is that there
is no reason, whatsoever, for us to sacrifice our good faith and
trust in former bankers who now run the Treasury and Federal Reserve.
And now as the flu season gets ready to kick off amidst much fanfare
and predictions of doom due to a new H1N1 influenza virus, there
is emerging sufficient information to raise very serious doubts
whether our nation’s health authorities are truly serving the
public health instead of commercial.
If the flu season goes according to schedule, the vaccine industrial
complex will be poised to join Wall Street for record year rip-off
profits. We will also likely witness huge Pharma executive bonuses
and perhaps gold-plated toilets. Even if the CDC statisticians’
crystal ball used to forecast rampant swine flu infections turns
into a complete bust—which would only be one more added to
many other failed flu predictions back to 1976—it will nevertheless
be a very profitable failure as was the economic collapse for
the banking cartel. The vaccine industry has now received orders
in the range of 3 billion doses during the course of the coming
flu season. The World Health Organization would like to vaccinate
two thirds (4 billion) of the global community, and the US alone
is spending $2 billion to stockpile the nation with upwards to
250 million doses.
In the US, such profits could never be accomplished without a
dynamic, marketing initiative to convince Americans that vaccines
will keep them protected and alive. And what better public relations
machine for the vaccine complex, and all its supporters in health
insurance and professional medical institutions, than our very
own Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Health and
Human Services. Even better, our tax dollars are there to pay
for it all. We pay for the comfort in knowing that the CDC’s
disinformation campaign will continue to scare us over the major
networks and the New York Times. We can also assure vaccine makers
that once and for all they are protected from liability in the
event of serious flu vaccine injuries.
Nevertheless, the government has a lot of vaccine vials to distribute,
therefore, the CDC needs to sustain the fiction of numerous elderly
dying in nursing homes, unvaccinated pregnant moms and children
facing life threatening complications, and scores of sick and
dead burnt into our national subconscious. It is all part of the
CDC’s script to get citizens rushing to their doctors and
Wal-Marts to be vaccinated.
Peter Doshi, while at Harvard in the mid-2000s, published a devastating
study in the British Medical Journal that systematically unveils
the flawed predictive science used to publicize our health agencies’
influenza statistics and mortality rates. His analysis shook up
enough health authorities to warrant twelve scientists from the
CDC and National Institutes of Health to unsuccessfully take him
on. Now at MIT, Doshi continues his analysis of a century’s
worth of influenza mortality data and government manipulation
of influenza data, such as the annual figure of 36,000 influenza
deaths we hear and read repeatedly.[1] Although this magical number
was for all practical purposes alchemically conjured up via mathematical
modeling back in 2003, it continues to be the most holy number
in the CDC’s PR vocabulary every flu season. Doshi draws
the conclusion, published in the American Journal of Public Health,
that commercial interests are playing the role of science in both
industry and government.[2]
Deconstruction of the CDC’s cherry-picked science and a
growing anti-vaccination community are just some of the obstacles
health authorities face. Therefore, no public relations strategy
can have a solid multimedia punch on American citizens without
opinion leaders serving as the gnomes for the vaccine complex
and our heavily invested government health agencies, which are
about to be buried in millions of purchased vaccine vials eager
for distribution. This effort requires shock troopers, such as
the pro-vaccine prophet Dr. Paul Offit, the creator of the rotavirus
vaccine and a staunch critic against any scientist who discovers
an association between vaccines and severe neurological disorders.
Dr. Offit is on record for an audacious comment that children
can tolerate 100,000 vaccinations (yes, you read that number correctly).[3]
However, during this particular flu season, government health
officials’ may have a more difficult time convincing Americans
to be vaccinated for swine flu if recent polls are reliable indicators.
The latest Consumers Union poll released on September 30 shows
almost two-thirds of parents will withhold vaccinating their children;
fifty percent of respondents’ rationale is that the vaccine
has not been tested thoroughly for safety.[4] A poll of pregnant
mothers conducted by the internet parent support group Mumsnet.com
indicates women are turning more suspicious about the flu vaccine’s
true efficacy and safety. The survey of 1500 respondents found
only 6 percent of pregnant women “definitely” taking
the shot, while 48 percent said they “definitely” wouldn’t.
A parallel poll revealed only 5 percent would definitely vaccinate
their children.[5] A more recent San Francisco Chronicle survey
finds 54 percent saying the H1N1 flu is nothing to be worried
about.[6]
A separate study conducted by Harvard’s School of Public
Health showed that among the 41 percent who would not get the
shot, 44 percent of parents are uncertain they would allow their
children to receive it. Aside from many who expressed a fear of
the vaccine’s side effects, the poll found 31 percent expressing
a distrust in our public health officials providing accurate information
on vaccine safety.[7] Therefore, expect an aggressive government
public relations campaign during the coming weeks and even months,
while our tax dollars are spent on 250 million shots that independent
epidemiological evidence is showing may be ineffective at best,
and dangerous at worst.
European polls indicate that our neighbors on the other side
of the great pond are less nervous about the H1N1 strain’s
severity and far more suspicious towards health officials’
rationale for hyping dire warnings of swine flu’s dangers.
In France, Le Figaro conducted a poll of 12,050 people showing
69 percent will refuse the vaccination. In a separate French survey,
one third of 4,752 doctors, nurses and healthcare workers surveyed
would not be inoculated.[8] Twenty-nine percent of Germans surveyed
said they would refuse it “under any circumstance” and
an additional 33 percent would likely refuse it. In the region
of Bavaria and Baden Wurttemburg, only 10 percent of those polled
said they would submit their arms to injection. In the UK, a couple
polls reported in the Daily Mail last August, showed half of family
physicians and a third of UK nurses do not want the swine flu
vaccination. Seventy-one percent do not believe the vaccine has
been tested enough for safety and the swine flu is much milder
than health authorities are saying.
During the course of the CDC’s media war to push forward
the vaccine industry’s greed for profit, science and reflective
caution are being sacrificed. An important peer-reviewed study
appearing in the June 2009 issue of Toxicological and Environmental
Chemistry shows a causal relationship between the amounts of ethylmercury
(thimerosal) found in inoculations for infants, when administered
to monkeys, and cellular toxicity resulting in mitochondrial dysfunction,
impaired oxidative reduction activity and degeneration and death
in neuronal and fetal cells.[9] These are all indicative signs
found in some ASD. But health officials prefer to ignore such
results. For the future health of American children, the study’s
findings arrive at a bad time when a recent Harvard study now
reports autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) has risen to 1 in 91
people compared to the earlier 1 in 150 estimate. But since the
study was sponsored by the CDC, the press release makes no indication
that just maybe the over-vaccination of children with dozens of
injections by the age of 5 years might be a causal factor behind
this national epidemic of ASD and other neurological disorders.
During the course of interviewing many parents of autistic children
for our documentaries Vaccine Nation and Autism: Made in the USA,
the personal stories we filmed repeatedly were that of a once
perfectly healthy and joyful child who, shortly after a vaccination
or a series of injections, simply vanished from normality. However,
national health policy today seems to have almost legislated by
divine decree that there is no relationship between vaccine ingredients
and autism. Besides, further independent research and first-hand
personal stories would only interfere with the propaganda machine
and the CDC’s “Seven Step Recipe for Generating Interest
In, and Demand for, Flu Vaccination.”
Peter Doshi first brought public attention to the CDC’s
PR influenza strategy known as the Seven Step Recipe. Glen Nowak,
now the Director of the CDC’s Media Relations, outlined a
concise public relations template while serving as the communications
spokesperson for the National Immunization Program. Speaking at
the 2004 National Influenza Vaccine Summit, he presented the CDC’s
seven steps. After a careful review of Nowak’s Powerpoint
presentation we discover a very detailed and concerted PR and
multimedia campaign that includes the following (quotes are from
CDC’s materials):
• To encourage the belief that influenza infection can “occur
among people for whom influenza is not generally perceived to
cause serious complications (e.g., children, healthy adults, healthy
seniors).” In other words, promote flu vaccination to those
who don’t really need it.
• In order to “foster the demand for flu vaccinations”
the CDC should target “medical experts and public health
authorities publicly (e.g., via media) [to] state concern and
alarm (and predict dire outcomes)—and urge influenza vaccination.”
• By focusing on the message of dire health threats and human
casualties upon those who don’t really need to be vaccinated,
the CDC will reach its milestone of “framing of the flu season
in terms that motivate behavior (e.g., as “very severe,”
“more severe than last or past years,” “deadly”).”
• Throughout the flu season, the campaign would continue
issuing reports “from health officials and media” to
emphasize that “influenza is causing severe illness and/or
affecting lots of people—helping foster the perception that
many people are susceptible to a bad case of influenza.”
• Of course, no marketing strategy is thorough without images.
Ergo another ingredient in the recipe is to use “visible/tangible
examples of the seriousness of the illness (e.g., pictures of
children, families of those affected coming forward) and people
getting vaccinated (the first to motivate, the latter to reinforce).”
The CDC’s “key points” indicate we are now in
that critical timeframe for the CDC to distribute materials to
“a variety of partners.” This includes aggressively
disseminating all medical reports, studies and PR spins to the
soporific media and corporate-funded medical associations to support
the government’s mass vaccination efforts. Come November,
we will begin to see reports on “pediatric deaths” due
to influenza—although Dr. Martin Meltzer, a CDC expert in
health economics, has stated “almost nobody dies of the flu”
and “deaths [are] associated with flu, but not necessarily
caused by flu.”[10] Apparently, the folks over in the various
CDC departments and our different federal health agencies don’t
communicate with each other very well.
So why should our tax dollars go towards fabricating and/or ignoring
science in order to vaccinate Americans? Nowak publicly stated
the CDC’s reasons on National Public Radio, “…
the manufacturers were telling us that they weren’t receiving
a lot of orders for vaccine for use in November or even December
… It really did look like we [CDC] needed to do something
to encourage people to get a flu shot.[11]
At this moment, we are witnessing a steady flow press releases
and articles in the media to convert Americans to the wisdom of
national health vaccination policy. The National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has issued preliminary
positive results from an uncompleted clinical trial testing the
H1N1 vaccine on children and young people between 6 months and
17 years of age. The fact that the entire study only enrolled
70 individuals covering this age range should alone raise red
flags about any reliable conclusions after the study is completed.
Moreover, the study is specifically designed for measuring the
necessary immune response to protect youth from the swine flu.
It is not a safety study. We usually expect that sound scientific
ethics demand clinical trials to be reported after a final analysis
of research data, however, the CDC’s Seven Step Recipe is
not concerned with scientific facts, or rigorous research protocol.
It is simply part of the PR game plan to get people vaccinated
and to do it fast.
Donald McNeil, a shill for the vaccine complex writing for the
New York Times has printed two recent articles aligned with CDC
propaganda. He quotes Dr. Jay Butler, chief of the swine flu vaccine
task force at the CDC in order to relieve fears about flu vaccine
adverse effects, especially to pregnant women. Dr. Butler said,
“There are about 2,400 miscarriages a day in the US. You’ll
see things that would have happened anyway. But the vaccine doesn’t
cause miscarriages. It also doesn’t cause auto accidents,
but they happen.”[12] I hope that is reassuring to all those
expectant mothers across the country, especially since none of
the approved H1N1 vaccines have undergone rigorous clinical safety
trials on pregnant women or the potential adverse effects of mercury-laced
vaccines and other ingredients, such as spermacide, detergent
and cosmetics, on the developing fetus. Germany on the other hand
announced it is now taking preventative measures. Agreeing that
the verdict on ethylmercury and squalene safety for children is
unsettled, Germany is requiring the vaccine industry to return
to their plants and provide adjuvant- and mercury preservative-free
vaccine lots.
McNeil’s more recent article in October 7th’s New York
Times should be read alongside the Seven Step Recipe for a clear
visual unfolding of the CDC’s PR strategy in action. McNeil
downplays the growing medical realization that the swine flu is
in all likelihood much milder than seasonal flu in order to convince
us to roll up our sleeves. Following the CDC script, we see the
picture of little 3 year old Clayton being vaccinated, while McNeill
compares the swine flu death of an 18 year old Tibetan woman in
China with a story of joyful young Brandon and his 9 year old
sister gleefully surrendering their nostrils for a blast of live-attenuated
H1N1 virus.[13]
While finalizing this article, Peter Doshi replied to an email
and drew attention to an event in his Harper’s article that
should force us to pause before rolling up our sleeves. Briefly,
the 2004 flu season was a debacle for the vaccine complex and
federal health officials after 50 million doses of flu vaccine
promised by Chiron Corporation were made unavailable, therefore,
putting the health industry into a panic. In order to lessen the
frenzy previously stirred by its public fear tactics, the CDC
downgraded the flu’s urgency to “an annoying illness”,
and “stressed the protective benefits of regular hand washing.”[14]
Now that is a national policy I can support. I would much prefer
the CDC funding Americans’ soap bills to ward off an uncertain
swine flu pandemic rather than using taxes for unsubstantiated
threats from the CDC’s national vaccine marketing campaign.
Notes
[1] Doshi, Peter. “Viral Marketing: The Selling of the Flu
Vaccine.” Harpers Magazine. March. 2006.
[2] “MIT grad student’s study challenges notions of
pandemic flu” MIT Tech Talk. April 16, 2008.
[3] Kalb, Claudia. “Stomping through a medical minefield”
Newsweek. October 25, 2008.
[4] “Majority of US parents wary of H1N1 vaccine: poll”
Reuters Health. October 1, 2009.
[5] http://www.mumsnet.com
[6] Allday, Erin. “Swine flu draws a shrug, field poll shows.”
SF Gate. October 6, 2009.
[7] “Just 40 percent of adults ‘absolutely certain’
they will get H1N1 vaccine, survey finds” Science Daily.
October 2, 2009.
[8] “Grippe A: des blouses blanches anti-vaccin” SFR,
France. September 18, 2009 info.sfr.fr/france/grippe-a-des-blouses-blanches-anti-vaccin,115335
[9] Geier D, King P, Geier M. “Mitochondrial dysfunction,
impaired oxidative-reduction activity, degeneration, and death
in human neuronal and fetal cells induced by low level exposure
to thimerosal and other metal compounds.” Toxicology and
Environmental Chemistry. Volume 91, Issue 4, June 2009.
[10] Manning, Anita. “Study: Annual flu death toll could
be overstated.” USA Today. December 11, 2005.
[11] Doshi, Peter. “Are US flu death figures more PR than
science?” BMJ 2005; 331:1412 (10 December)
[12] McNeil, Donald. “Don’t blame flu shots for all
ills, officials say” New York Times. September 28, 2009.
[13] McNeil, Donald. “Swine flu vaccinations start as officials
attack myths.” New York Times. October 7, 2009.
[14] Doshi, Peter. “Viral Marketing: The Selling of the Flu
Vaccine.” Harpers Magazine. March. 2006.
Reference Source 183, Dprogram - Richard Gale and
Gary Null
October 9, 2009
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