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Up to half of family doctors do not want to be vaccinated against swine flu.

GPs will be first in the line for the jabs when they become available but many will decline, even though they will be offering the vaccine to their patients.

More than two thirds of those who will turn the jab down believe it has not been tested enough. Most also believe the flu has turned out to be so mild in the vast majority of cases that the vaccine is not needed.

Last night Government experts criticised GPs who decide not to have the jab, saying they will put vulnerable patients needlessly at risk.

A week ago, a poll of nurses showed that a third would turn down the opportunity of being vaccinated against swine flu.

News that medics are unconvinced by the need for a vaccine will cause grave concern to patients who will be invited for the jab over the next few months.

A poll of doctors for Pulse magazine found that 49 per cent would reject the vaccine with 9 per cent undecided.

A separate survey for GP magazine found that 29 per cent would definitely opt out of having the jab, while a further 29 per cent were unsure. Just 41 per cent said they would definitely have the jab.

Of those who said they did not want to jab, 71 per cent said it was because of safety concerns.

Richard Hoey, editor of Pulse, said: ‘The medical profession has yet to be convinced by the Government’s whole approach to swine flu, with most GPs now feeling that the Department of Health overreacted in its policy on blanket use of Tamiflu.

‘Inevitably, that has coloured feelings about the planned immunisation campaign.

‘The view among many doctors is that the Government hasn’t yet made its case for why such a huge vaccination programme needs to be rushed in for what seems to be an unusually mild illness.’

But Professor David Salisbury, the Department of Health’s director of immunisation, told GP magazine that frontline health workers had a duty to themselves regarding vaccination.

‘They have a duty to their patients not to infect their patients and they have a duty to their families,’ he said.

The Pulse survey questioned 15 doctors, while GP spoke to 216.

The poll raised further questions over the Government’s planned mass vaccination programme. The jab, currently being processed, will be fast tracked and will not be fully tested before it is administered to patients.

There are also concerns the jab can spark cases of Guillain Barre Syndrome, which can lead to paralysis and even death.

A mass swine flu vaccination programme in the U.S. in 1976 caused far more deaths than the disease it was designed to combat, and the Health Protection Agency watchdog has asked doctors to look out for cases of GBS when the vaccinations begin.

Earlier this month, Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson announced that the jab will be given to people in high-risk groups, such as those with asthma or diabetes, as well as health workers such as GPs and nurses.

Some 14million people will be covered by the first wave of the vaccination programme, with everyone else following over the next few months.

The BMA is still negotiating with doctors over how they should be paid to give out the jabs. The union is demanding £7 for every injection.

A spokesman for the BMA said: ‘The new vaccine has been thoroughly tested and we believe it should provide good protection against swine flu.

‘It is important that doctors are among the first to be offered the vaccine as it will not only protect them but the patients they care for.

However, doctors like all individuals have the right to decide whether they are vaccinated or not.’

Source: Mail Online.com, 25th August 2009
By: Daily Mail Reporter

A conference first discussed by this website three weeks ago has now taken place, with health authorities meeting at the end of last week to finalize response plans to a swine flu pandemic that has been all but guaranteed to occur this coming fall.

According to a PDF information leaflet released before the meeting, attendees were briefed on how to “conduct morgue operations,” manage an interruption in food supplies and “manage panic caused by sudden disruption of services & interruptions in essential goods & services”.

During a swine flu pandemic, their duties would also include dealing with civil disturbances, controlling and diffusing social unrest and public disorder, carrying out mass vaccination programs and enforcing quarantines, according to the conference documentation.

One of the most shocking modules of the conference deals with “School / University Pandemic Planning” and strongly implies that authorities will usurp parental rights over children in the event of a swine flu pandemic.

“Concurrent Breakout Session #10? outlines plans to “train teachers to screen for symptoms & know what to do when students / teachers fall ill,” before then transporting ill students, which presumably means transporting them to quarantine zones with or without the consent of parents. The use of schools as “shelters” or quarantine centers is also mentioned.
As we have documented, authorities have been training to raid and remove children from schools during times of emergency for over a decade, mainly under the auspices of preparing for school shootings or during drug sweeps.
In October 2001, authorities swooped in to kidnap and remove 115 children from Heartland Christian Academy without a warrant. Children were forcibly loaded onto buses like criminals as they screamed for help in  shocking scenes featured in Alex Jones’ Road To Tyranny documentary.

Earlier this month we reported on how a Maine high school was taken over by National Guard in a drill focused around riots during a mass vaccination program. In this scenario, the rioters were begging for the vaccine, but obviously the opposite is likely to be the case if a mandatory vaccination program is announced, if there are riots then they will consist of people refusing to take the shot.

A You Tube user posted the following video which covers some of the issues raised by the swine flu conference.
Vodpod videos no longer available.

Source: Info Wars.com, August 24, 2009
By: Paul Joseph Watson

This was never more obvious than with the Wall Street bailout, whereby the very corporations that caused the collapse of our economy were rewarded with taxpayer dollars. So arrogant, so smug were they that, without a moment’s hesitation, they took our money — yours and mine — to pay their executives multimillion-dollar bonuses, something they continue doing to this very day. They have no shame. They don’t care what you and I think about them. Henry Kissinger refers to us as “useless eaters.”

But, you say, we have elected a candidate of change. To which I respond: Do these words of President Obama sound like change?

“A culture of irresponsibility took root, from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street.”

There it is. Right there. We are Main Street. We must, according to our president, share the blame. He went on to say: “And a regulatory regime basically crafted in the wake of a 20th-century economic crisis — the Great Depression — was overwhelmed by the speed, scope and sophistication of a 21st-century global economy.”

This is nonsense.

The reason Wall Street was able to game the system the way it did — knowing that they would become rich at the expense of the American people (oh, yes, they most certainly knew that) — was because the financial elite had bribed our legislators to roll back the protections enacted after the Stock Market Crash of 1929.

Congress gutted the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial lending banks from investment banks, and passed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which allowed for self-regulation with no oversight. The Securities and Exchange Commission subsequently revised its rules to allow for even less oversight — and we’ve all seen how well that worked out. To date, no serious legislation has been offered by the Obama administration to correct these problems.

Instead, Obama wants to increase the oversight power of the Federal Reserve. Never mind that it already had significant oversight power before our most recent economic meltdown, yet failed to take action. Never mind that the Fed is not a government agency but a cartel of private bankers that cannot be held accountable by Washington. Whatever the Fed does with these supposed new oversight powers will be behind closed doors.

Obama’s failure to act sends one message loud and clear: He cannot stand up to the powerful Wall Street interests that supplied the bulk of his campaign money for the 2008 election. Nor, for that matter, can Congress, for much the same reason.

Consider what multibillionaire banker David Rockefeller wrote in his 2002 memoirs:

“Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure — one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.”

Read Rockefeller’s words again. He actually admits to working against the “best interests of the United States.”

Need more? Here’s what Rockefeller said in 1994 at a U.N. dinner: “We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis, and the nations will accept the New World Order.” They’re gaming us. Our country has been stolen from us.

Journalist Matt Taibbi, writing in Rolling Stone, notes that esteemed economist John Kenneth Galbraith laid the 1929 crash at the feet of banking giant Goldman Sachs. Taibbi goes on to say that Goldman Sachs has been behind every other economic downturn as well, including the most recent one. As if that wasn’t enough, Goldman Sachs even had a hand in pushing gas prices up to $4 a gallon.

The problem with bankers is longstanding. Here’s what one of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, had to say about them:

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation, and then by deflation, the banks and the corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their father’s conquered.”

We all know that the first American Revolution officially began in 1776, with the Declaration of Independence. Less well known is that the single strongest motivating factor for revolution was the colonists’ attempt to free themselves from the Bank of England. But how many of you know about the second revolution, referred to by historians as Shays’ Rebellion? It took place in 1786-87, and once again the banks were the cause. This time they were putting the screws to America’s farmers.

Daniel Shays was a farmer in western Massachusetts. Like many other farmers of the day, he was being driven into bankruptcy by the banks’ predatory lending practices. (Sound familiar?) Rallying other farmers to his side, Shays led his rebels in an attack on the courts and the local armory. The rebellion itself failed, but a message had been sent: The bankers (and the politicians who supported them) ultimately backed off. As Thomas Jefferson famously quipped in regard to the insurrection: “A little rebellion now and then is a good thing. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

Perhaps it’s time to consider that option once again.

I’m calling for a national strike, one designed to close the country down for a day. The intent? Real campaign-finance reform and strong restrictions on lobbying. Because nothing will change until we take corporate money out of politics. Nothing will improve until our politicians are once again answerable to their constituents, not the rich and powerful.

Let’s set a date. No one goes to work. No one buys anything. And if that isn’t effective — if the politicians ignore us — we do it again. And again. And again.

The real war is not between the left and the right. It is between the average American and the ruling class. If we come together on this single issue, everything else will resolve itself. It’s time we took back our government from those who would make us their slaves.

Source: Huffington Post.com, August 20 2009
By: Larry Flynt

Official: plan for ‘multiple graves’ in swine flu pandemic

The Framework for Planners Preparing to Manage Deaths  –  a -page document  –  discusses using “a grave that is for a number of unrelated persons, excavated mechanically in advance and designed for efficient preparation and use.”
It said this approach would create a “burial site for multiple graves and consecutive burials” but added there must still be “marking of the position of individual burials”.
It added that some cemeteries “may experience shortage of grave space, in particular in inner city areas”.
Freight containers and ” inflatable” storage units may be needed to provide extra mortuary space but it stated that “refrigerated vehicles and trailers should not be used”.

During the meeting, in which a senior official from Westminster council, gave a presentation, officials discussed the need for cemeteries and crematoriums to work seven days a week and the hiring of extra staff to cope.
The report also warned there may be a need for more “basic and shorter services at the chapel” or for “memorial services” to be held at a person’s home instead.

Test of resources: A swine flu scientist holds up tubes analysis. A Home Office document warns that a burial site may need to be created to cope with a potential flu crisis.

Whitehall officials are also speaking to coffin makers to see if they could meet demands.
Retired doctors may also be called back to work to issue death certificates so GPs can focus on patients.
According to the document it may no longer be possible to bury some people in family plots and it may also become impossible to fly home the bodies of Britons who die abroad.
Meanwhile, NHS Blood and Transplant appealed to the public to give blood to avoid stocks being reduced over the autumn and winter as regular donors fall ill with swine flu. People cannot give blood when they have flu so it is important to keep the blood banks well stocked, it warned.

Source: Mail Online.co.uk, August 19 2009
By: Daily Mail Reporters

Returning to Britain from a summer holiday abroad, you begin to notice things that perhaps escaped your attention before – the huge number of CCTV cameras that infest our public spaces and, much less obviously, the atmosphere of watchfulness and control that has now become a way of life. This is the regime that 12 years of New Labour have imposed on Britain, a place of unwavering suspicion, paranoia – and obsessive surveillance.

We have become the sort of society that we would unhesitatingly have railed against a few years ago. But, because the change has been brought about with such stealth, we are the very last to see it.
The latest figures, in a report by the Interception of Communications Commissioner, Sir Paul Kennedy, are truly terrifying. They reveal that a request is made every minute to snoop on someone’s phone records or email accounts.

Last year alone, there were 504,073 new cases of state-sanctioned surveillance, the equivalent of one adult in 78 being watched – and a rise of 44 per cent over two years. Whatever happened to our centuries- old traditions of freedom?

Voltaire called England ‘the land of liberty’. Until New Labour materialised, with its intrusive and ‘character improving’ agenda, that description rang true. The English preferred freedom and tolerance to ideological and religious fanaticism. The currency of our society was common sense.

No longer. Common sense has been replaced by officially sanctioned mistrust, mistrust that allows anyone invested with the tiniest bit of authority – often in the form of a high-visibility jacket – to throw their weight around.

Britain is now a place where terror laws have been used by councils to spy on people breaching smoking bans, making a fraudulent application for a

Police routinely stop anyone who photographs a public building, in one instance deleting the pictures taken by a 69-year-old Austrian tourist who admired the architecture of Vauxhall bus station. And if the authorities are behaving like this today, what will they subject us to in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics?

Wardens in Brighton already habitually seize drink from people on the mere suspicion that they plan to consume it in a public place. And in Edinburgh, a swimming pool attendant stopped the 85-year-old mother of TV presenter Nicky Campbell from taking pictures of her grandchildren.

These stories have become part of our national life – and there are thousands of them each year. I know this because my researcher trawls local and national newspapers for examples every morning. What they add up to is a depressing account of a nation infantilised by micro-management and fear.

We are losing something essential to our national identity. Foreigners who know what is going on here cannot believe that the British show such little regard for their freedoms. Even Americans, the most jumpy people in the world, are unsettled by Britain’s paranoia.

Government policy is largely to blame. Labour has instilled an endemic culture of suspicion in Britain, which is manifest in the 3,500 new criminal offences brought in over its 12 years in office.
Labour is also behind a flurry of new databases that either leech personal information from each one of us or require innocent members of the public to go through an endless rigmarole of proving themselves to the state.

Surveillance: One in 78 adults is being watched

The scale of this project is vast. ‘The state and its agencies are amassing increasing quantities of data about its citizens,’ writes Jill Kirby, the director of the Centre for Policy Studies, in a recent pamphlet. She lists them as including the DNA database, centralised medical records and the children’s database Contact-Point. This data, she says, has ‘proliferated to levels previously unseen in peacetime Britain’.

An institutionalised pessimism has taken over. The clear message of Government is that we are incapable of managing our lives and must be watched and regulated by ministers and civil servants from dawn to dusk.

More sinister is the assumption that we are all in some way guilty of harbouring the worst intentions. Up to 11 million people who work with children – music tutors, babysitters, football coaches and even parents who have exchange students to stay – will now have to join a new database at the cost of £64 and undergo criminal checks.

Writers such as Philip Pullman and Anthony Horowitz, who regularly visit schools, are among those who have roundly condemned the scheme.
You can see why – the other day I heard of a retired canon who was told that he could only baptise his grandson in his local cathedral if the church authorities first saw proof of his criminal records check. But it is the Government’s obsession with surveillance that poses the greatest threat to our liberty.

Earlier this year, I calculated from published figures that Britain’s expenditure on databases and surveillance systems would amount to a staggering £32 billion.
Thanks to the economic crisis, some projects have been scaled back. But plans still include a £1 billion system that will give the Government access to data from all emails, text messages, phone calls and internet usage – a proposal that has even been savaged by companies expected to collect the information.
Additionally, the e-Borders scheme, which will take 53 pieces of personal information from anyone travelling abroad – including phone and credit card numbers, details of an onward journey and history of cancelled journeys – will cost over £1.2 billion.

But the absurd amounts spent on these schemes are not the only concern. The threat they pose to our privacy – and the incompetent way in which the Government handles our personal data – are even more worrying.

We know, for example, that more than 30 million separate personal files have been lost by government agencies. Recently, a Freedom of Information request by Computer Weekly magazine revealed that nine local authority staff have been sacked for accessing the personal records of celebrities and acquaintances.

This largely unpublicised breach should warn us that a government obsessed with hoarding our information and watching us cannot be trusted to keep our details safely.

A similar security lapse in ContactPoint could be disastrous. But even this doesn’t compare to the real possibility of the systems that watch our movements, monitor our behaviour and tap into the communications data linking up into one great apparatus of surveillance.

This would allow the authorities more or less to monitor our every movement and transaction in real time. Nothing would remain private.

If this happens, we can kiss goodbye to a functioning free society in the United Kingdom. We are not there yet – but we can see the seeds everywhere, from the spread of CCTV, and the flood of government regulations to the expropriation of our personal information.

We have to consider the distinct possibility that the obituary for the ‘land of liberty’ is being composed at this very moment.

• The Dying Light by Henry Porter is published by Orion at £12.99.

Israel credits the barrier, which it began constructing in 2003, with helping to halt the wave of deadly suicide bombings unleashed on the Jewish state at the height of the latest Palestinian uprising in 2002.
The Palestinians view it as an “Apartheid Wall” that carves off large segments of the West Bank, splitting families, separating farmers from their land and slicing east Jerusalem off from their hoped-for future state.
The filmmakers interview a Palestinian farmer who has lost several dunams (hectares) of land to the wall and a family caught in the “seam line” between the wall and the Green Line delineating territories Israel occupied in the 1967 Six Day War, including the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

The film concludes with a shot of scores of Palestinians packed into a fenced-in corridor waiting to pass through an Israeli checkpoint.
“It fills me with horror, the thought of living in a giant prison,” Waters says as he spray-paints “We don’t need no thought control” on the wall.

Organisers of the project said they made the film out of concern that international awareness of the barrier’s effect on Palestinians may be waning five years after the court’s decision.
“It is first and foremost a reminder that the world’s highest court has essentially said you cannot build a fence on your neighbour’s yard,” Yohan Eriksson, the Finnish director of the film, told AFP.
Israel has long accused the United Nations of bias towards the Palestinians.
But Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the UN Palestinian refugee agency, insisted that “as well as being a powerful piece of advocacy, the film is also a very balanced piece of journalism.”

The film features top Israeli security officials involved in the wall’s construction who defend the overall project as a desperate response to the violence of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, which erupted in 2000.
It also includes footage of the aftermath of suicide attacks carried out prior to the wall being built.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said he hoped the virtual disappearance of such attacks in recent years would encourage Israel to rethink the barrier.
“The number of suicide bombings has dropped from about 38 a year to one in the last two years,” he said ahead of the premiere.

“This might be an opportunity to reflect if the reasons still prevail for continued construction at the expense of tens of thousands of Palestinians.”
According to UN figures, Israel has so far completed 413 kilometres (256 miles) of the planned 709-kilometre (435-mile) barrier, a network of walls, barbed-wire fences, trenches, and closed military roads.
When completed, 85 percent of the wall will have been built inside the West Bank, leaving 9.5 percent of the territory and 35,000 Palestinians between the barrier and the Green Line.

Source: Raw Story.com, August 19, 2009
By: Agence France-Presse

Allegations: Jamil Rahman claims security officers in Bangladesh, under the direction of MI5, made threats to rape his wife if he did not confess to the London bombings

The extraordinary allegations will add to pressure on UK ministers to come clean over the way Britain’s intelligence agencies have been allowed to gather evidence around the world in the eight years since the September 11 attacks.

Jamil Rahman, a former civil servant from South Wales, is a British citizen who moved to Bangladesh in 2005 and married a woman he met there. He returned to the UK last year. He said: ‘It was all to do with the British. Even the Bengali intelligence officer told me that they didn’t know anything about me, that they were only doing this for the British.’Mr Rahman, 31, says he was released after three weeks but re-arrested and mistreated repeatedly over the next two years.

He described how two men he believes were British agents would leave the room for ‘a break’ while he was beaten.
They often asked: ‘We’re not torturing you, are we?’ and recorded his confirmations that they were not, he alleges.

Guantanamo inmate: Binyam Mohamed also claims MI5 colluded in his torture

‘The first time they tried to be friendly, they came in trying to show they were my friends, calm and relaxed, nothing wrong. I tried to demonstrate my innocence. I thought this is wrong, because they were British I might get some justice.’
He added: ‘They showed me hundreds of pictures. Black, white, Chinese, bearded non-bearded, woman, man, young and old. Every time, they came for a new session, same pictures with new ones. ‘The main thing they wanted me to be is a witness against another British man in Bangladesh. They pressured me so much to be a witness against this guy in court.
Mr Rahman denies being a terrorist, although he admits attending meetings in Britain of the radical Islamist group al-Muhajiroun – claiming he later rejected their extremist ideology.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We firmly reject any suggestion that we torture people or ask others to do so on our behalf. ‘Mr Rahman has made a lot of unsubstantiated allegations. They have not been evidenced in any court of law.’

Jamil Rahman is one of a number of former detainees who accuse the British Government colluded in their torture abroad.
His account echoes that of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed, who said he was tortured in Pakistan and Morocco with MI5’s knowledge.

The 30-year-old Ethiopian says he was beaten and deprived of sleep to try to make him confess to an Al Qaeda ‘dirty bomb’ plot, and his treatment is now the subject of an unprecedented police investigation into MI5’s conduct.

Source: Mail Online.co.uk, 25 June 2009
By: Matthew Hickley

Prevention: Is the swine flu jab safe?

A warning that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by the Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter.
The letter from the Health Protection Agency, the official body that oversees public health, has been leaked to The Mail on Sunday, leading to demands to know why the information has not been given to the public before the vaccination of millions of people, including children, begins.
It tells the neurologists that they must be alert for an increase in a brain disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be triggered by the vaccine.
GBS attacks the lining of the nerves, causing paralysis and inability to breathe, and can be fatal.
The letter, sent to about 600 neurologists on July 29, is the first sign that there is concern at the highest levels that the vaccine itself could cause serious complications.
It refers to the use of a similar swine flu vaccine in the United States in 1976 when:

• More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu.
• 500 cases of GBS were detected.
•  The vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times.
• The vaccine was withdrawn after just ten weeks when the link with GBS became clear.
• The US Government was forced to pay out millions of dollars to those affected.

Concerns have already been raised that the new vaccine has not been sufficiently tested and that the effects, especially on children, are unknown.
It is being developed by pharmaceutical companies and will be given to about 13million people during the first wave of immunisation, expected to start in October.
Top priority will be given to everyone aged six months to 65 with an underlying health problem, pregnant women and health professionals.
The British Neurological Surveillance Unit (BNSU), part of the British Association of Neurologists, has been asked to monitor closely any cases of GBS as the vaccine is rolled out.
One senior neurologist said last night: ‘I would not have the swineflu jab because of the GBS risk.’
There are concerns that there could be a repeat of what became known as the ‘1976 debacle’ in the US, where a swine flu vaccine killed 25 people – more than the virus itself.
A mass vaccination was given the go-ahead by President Gerald Ford because scientists believed that the swine flu strain was similar to the one responsible for the 1918-19 pandemic, which killed half a million Americans and 20million people worldwide.

The swine flu vaccine being offered to children has not been tested on infants

Within days, symptoms of GBS were reported among those who had been immunised and 25 people died from respiratory failure after severe paralysis. One in 80,000 people came down with the condition. In contrast, just one person died of swine flu.
More than 40million Americans had received the vaccine by the time the programme was stopped after ten weeks. The US Government paid out millions of dollars in compensation to those affected.
The swine flu virus in the new vaccine is a slightly different strain from the 1976 virus, but the possibility of an increased incidence of GBS remains a concern.
Shadow health spokesman Mike Penning said last night: ‘The last thing we want is secret letters handed around experts within the NHS. We need a vaccine but we also need to know about potential risks.
‘Our job is to make sure that the public knows what’s going on. Whyis the Government not being open about this? It’s also very worrying if GPs, who will be administering the vaccine, aren’t being warned.’
Two letters were posted together to neurologists advising them of the concerns. The first, dated July 29, was written by Professor Elizabeth Miller, head of the HPA’s Immunisation Department.
It says: ‘The vaccines used to combat an expected swine influenza pandemic in 1976 were shown to be associated with GBS and were withdrawn from use.
‘GBS has been identified as a condition needing enhanced surveillance when the swine flu vaccines are rolled out.
‘Reporting every case of GBS irrespective of vaccination or disease history is essential for conducting robust epidemiological analyses capable of identifying whether there is an increased risk of GBS in defined time periods after vaccination, or after influenza itself, compared with the background risk.’
The second letter, dated July 27, is from the Association of British Neurologists and is written by Dr Rustam Al-Shahi Salman, chair of its surveillance unit, and Professor Patrick Chinnery, chair of its clinical research committee.

Halted: The 1976 US swine flu campaign

It says: ‘Traditionally, the BNSU has monitored rare diseases for long periods of time. However, the swine influenza (H1N1) pandemic has overtaken us and we need every member’s involvement with a new BNSU survey of Guillain-Barre Syndrome that will start on August 1 and run for approximately nine months.
‘Following the 1976 programme of vaccination against swine influenza in the US, a retrospective study found a possible eight-fold increase in the incidence of GBS.
‘Active prospective ascertainment of every case of GBS in the UK is required. Please tell BNSU about every case.
‘You will have seen Press coverage describing the Government’s concern about releasing a vaccine of unknown safety.’
If there are signs of a rise in GBS after the vaccination programme begins, the Government could decide to halt it.
GBS attacks the lining of the nerves, leaving them unable to transmit signals to muscles effectively.
It can cause partial paralysis and mostly affects the hands and feet. In serious cases, patients need to be kept on a ventilator, but it can be fatal.
Death is caused by paralysis of the respiratory system, causing the victim to suffocate.It is not known exactly what causes GBS and research on the subject has been inconclusive.
However, it is thought that one in a million people who have a seasonal flu vaccination could be at risk and it has also been linked to people recovering from a bout of flu of any sort.
The HPA said it was part of the Government’s pandemic plan to monitor GBS cases in the event of a mass vaccination campaign, regardless of the strain of flu involved.But vaccine experts warned that the letters proved the programme was a ‘guinea-pig trial’.
Dr Tom Jefferson, co-ordinator of the vaccines section of the influential Cochrane Collaboration, an independent group that reviews research, said: ‘New vaccines never behave in the way you expect them to. It may be that there is a link to GBS, which is certainly not something I would wish on anybody.
‘But it could end up being anything because one of the additives in one of the vaccines is a substance called squalene, and none of the studies we’ve extracted have any research on it at all.’
He said squalene, a naturally occurring enzyme, could potentially cause so-far-undiscovered side effects.
Jackie Fletcher, founder of vaccine support group Jabs, said: ‘The Government would not be anticipating this if they didn’t think there was a connection. What we’ve got is a massive guinea-pig trial.’
Professor Chinnery said: ‘During the last swine flu pandemic, it was observed that there was an increased frequency of cases of GBS. No one knows whether it was the virus or the vaccine that caused this.
‘The purpose of the survey is for us to assess rapidly whether there is an increase in the frequency of GBS when the vaccine is released in the UK. It also increases consultants’ awareness of the condition.

Panic over? The number of swine flu cases has fallen sharply in the past few weeks.

‘This is a belt-and-braces approach to safety and is not something people should be substantially worried about as it’s a rare condition.’
If neurologists do identify a case of GBS, it will be logged on a central database.
Details about patients, including blood samples, will be collected and monitored by the HPA.
It is hoped this will help scientists establish why some people develop the condition and whether it is directly related to the vaccine.
But some question why there needs to be a vaccine, given the risks. Dr Richard Halvorsen, author of The Truth About Vaccines, said: ‘For people with serious underlying health problems, the risk of dying from swine flu is probably greater than the risk of side effects from the vaccine.
‘But it would be tragic if we repeated the US example and ended up with more casualties from the jabs.
‘I applaud the Government for recognising the risk but in most cases this is a mild virus which needs a few days in bed. I’d question why we need a vaccine at all.’
Professor Miller at the HPA said: ‘This monitoring system activates pandemic plans that have been in place for a number of years. We’ll be able to get information on whether a patient has had a prior influenza illness and will look at whether influenza itself is linked to GBS.
‘We are not expecting a link to the vaccine but a link to disease, which would make having the vaccine even more important.’
The UK’s medicines watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, is already monitoring reported side effects from Tamiflu and Relenza and it is set to extend that surveillance to the vaccine.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: ‘The European Medicines Agency has strict processes in place for licensing pandemic vaccines.
‘In preparing for a pandemic, appropriate trials to assess safety and the immune responses have been carried out on vaccines very similar to the swine flu vaccine. The vaccines have been shown to have a good safety profile.
‘It is extremely irresponsible to suggest that the UK would use a vaccine without careful consideration of safety issues. The UK has one of the most successful immunisation programmes in the world.’

I COULDN”T EAT OR SPEAK… IT WAS HORRENDOUS

Victim: Hilary Wilkinson spent three months in hospital after she was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre SyndromeWhen Hilary Wilkinson woke up with muscle weakness in her left arm and difficulty breathing, doctors initially put it down to a stroke.

But within hours, she was on a ventilator in intensive care after being diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
She spent three months in hospital and had to learn how to talk and walk again. But at times, when she was being fed through a drip and needed a tracheotomy just to breathe, she doubted whether she would survive.
The mother of two, 57, from Maryport, Cumbria, had been in good health until she developed a chest infection in March 2006. She gradually became so weak she could not walk downstairs.
Doctors did not diagnose Guillain-Barre until her condition worsened in hospital and tests showed her reflexes slowing down. It is impossible for doctors to know how she contracted the disorder, although it is thought to be linked to some infections.
Mrs Wilkinson said: ‘It was very scary. I couldn’t eat and I couldn’t speak. My arms and feet had no strength and breathing was hard.
I was treated with immunoglobulin, which are proteins found in blood, to stop damage to my nerves. After ten days, I still couldn’t speak and had to mime to nurses or my family.
‘It was absolutely horrendous and I had no idea whether I would get through it. You reach very dark moments at such times and wonder how long it can last.
But I’m a very determined person and I had lots of support.’
After three weeks, she was transferred to a neurological ward, where she had an MRI scan and nerve tests to assess the extent of the damage.
Still unable to speak and in a wheelchair, Mrs Wilkinson eventually began gruelling physiotherapy to improve her muscle strength and movement but it was exhausting and painful.
Three years later, she is almost fully recovered. She can now walk for several miles at a time, has been abroad and carries out voluntary work for a GBS Support Group helpline.
She said: ‘It makes me feel wary that the Government is rolling out this vaccine without any clear idea of the GBS risk, if any. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone and it certainly changed my life.
‘I’m frightened to have the swine flu vaccine if this might happen again – it’s a frightening illness and I think more research needs to be done on the effect of the vaccine.’

Hotline staff given access to confidential records

Confidential NHS staff records and disciplinary complaints could be accessed by hundreds of workers manning the Government’s special swine flu hotline.
They were able to browse through a database of emails containing doctors’ and nurses’ National Insurance numbers, home addresses, dates of birth, mobile phone numbers and scanned passport pages – all details that could be used fraudulently.
And private and confidential complaints sent by hospitals about temporary medical staff – some of whom were named – were also made available to the call-centre workers, who were given a special password to log in to an internal NHS website.
It could be a breach of the Data Protection Act.

The hotline staff work for NHS Professionals, which was set up using taxpayers’ money to employ temporary medical and administrative staff for the health service.
The not-for-profit company runs two of the Government’s swine flu call centres – with 300 staff in Farnborough, Hampshire, and 900 in Watford, Hertfordshire.

Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley described the revelations as ‘disturbing’.
Anne Mitchell, a spokeswoman for Unison, said: ‘There’s no excuse for such a fundamental breach of personal security. Action needs to be taken as soon as possible to make sure this does not happen again.’
A spokeswoman for NHS Professionals would not confirm whether access to the confidential files had been granted.

Source: Mail Online.co.uk, 15th August 2009
By: Jo Macfarlane

“It is a TRICK [DECEIT] we ALWAYS USE it!” “When from EUROPE someone criticises Israel we bring up the HOLOCAUST!”

“When someone from the US does, we call them Anti-SEMITIC!”

“It is VERY easy to BLAME people who criticise certain acts of the Israeli Government as ANTI-SEMITIC and to bring up the HOLOCAUST and the suffering of the Jewish people and that justifies everything we do to the Palestinians.”

[The Crafty way is to act “THE VICTIM” and to brand the REAL Victim as the PERETRATOR – a Tactic used very successfully by HITLER!]

From this deliberate policy is derived the ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE (ADL) – which is very well funded whose Honorary Chairman is Edgar BRONFMAN who was to control SEAGRAMS Spirits in Montreal, Canada

From the time the acquisition of SEAGRAM was completed in December 2000 and its prized liquor assets sold off, until Messier’s departure a little more than 18 months later, the company added an astonishing $1 BILLION worth of DEBT a month, to pay for a dizzying MEDIA and TELECOM spending spree that left the Bronfmans and other investors shaking their heads in disbelief. The inevitable result was a liquidity CRISIS of monumental proportions. [AS TELECOMS are the means to CONTROL the World – as long as others (that control the money) provide the FUNDING!]

PS. Seems to me that honesty is for sheep only.

Shake on it: Peter Mandelson and David Geffen meet in Curfu last week

Lord Mandelson launched a crackdown on internet piracy just days after meeting a leading Hollywood critic of illegal file sharing.

The business secretary plans to criminalise the estimated seven million people – one in 12 of the population – who illicitly download music and films over the internet.

In what critics describe as a gross attack on civil liberties, those flouting new laws could see their internet accounts suspended and face fines of up to £50,000. 

Parents could even be thrown off the net even if it is their children are caught downloading tracks upstairs in their bedrooms, not them.

Lord Mandelson ordered officials to draw up the draconian regulations days after dinner with David Geffen, who founded the Asylum record label which signed Bob Dylan.

The pair dined on 7 August at the Rothschild family villa on Corfu, while Mandelson was holidaying on the Greek island.

Tory backbencher David Davies
said: ‘It does seem a remarkable coincidence. Peter Mandelson should be
forced to reveal the full extent of his meetings with wealthy friends
on holiday and, in the name of openness, disclose exactly what they
discussed.’

The controversial new laws, set to be announced in a ‘Digital Britain’ bill to be published next month, would target broadband users who persistently download music and films for nothing.

But former digital engagement minister Tom Watson is leading a campaign against the legislation, which is due to form a key plank of this autumn’s Queen’s Speech.

Writing in the Independent on Sunday, Mr Watson called for people who upload illegal content should be targeted, rather than downloaders.

‘Not only do the sanctions ultimately risk criminalising a large proportion of UK citizens, but they also attach an unbearable regulatory burden on an emerging technology that has the power to transform society, with no guarantees at the end that our artists and our culture will get any richer,’ he said.

‘Working on the safe assumptions that (a) people like downloading music from the internet, and (b) most people would prefer not to break the law, we should aim to map a way forward for businesses to take financial advantage of the digital market.’

Last week the Pirate Party, which won a Swedish European Parliament seat in June on a platform of legal file sharing, announced it would be standing in the General Election.

Andrew Robinson, leader of the Pirate Party UK, who will be standing against Worcester Labour MP Michael Foster, said the proposed laws represented an attack on civil liberties. ‘This is about proving to the major parties that there are so many votes to be had in adopting policies like ours,’ he said.

A spokesman for Lord Mandelson said file sharing was not discussed at the dinner with Mr Geffen.

‘Work has been ongoing on these issues for a matter of weeks,’ he said. ‘Lord Mandelson does not believe Digital Britain is even on David Geffen’s radar.’

But a source at his business department said: ‘Until the past week, Mandelson had shown little personal interest in the Digital Britain agenda. Suddenly Peter returned from holiday and effectively issued this edict that the regulation needs to be tougher.’

Yesterday a poll for the Sunday Mirror showed that Lord Mandelson was emerging as a favourite to succeed Gordon Brown as Labour leader. Party members place him second behind David Miliband as their choice.

BIG PLAYER IN HOLLYWOOD

David Geffen is one of the most important figures in the U.S. film and music business.

Worth around £3billion, the 66-year-old (pictured) has been feted as one of the most powerful gay people in America.

He set up Asylum Records in 1970, which signed up Bob Dylan and the Eagles.

Ten years later he established Geffen Records, which brought out John Lennon’s final album Double Fantasy. Other artists included Nirvana and Elton John.

In the 1980s he set up the Geffen Film Company which brought out Risky Business and Little Shop of Horrors.

In 1994 he joined with Steven Spielberg to set up Dreamworks, which produced Saving Private Ryan, Shrek and Gladiator.

He is also a noted art collector, philanthropist – giving millions to universities and AIDS charities and theatre impresario.

Source: Daily Mail Online.co.uk, 17th August 2009
By: Daniel Martin

Fox News:

It could be a combination of 19th-century mechanics, 21st-century technology — and a 20th-century horror movie.

A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find — grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies.

Read the whole story: Fox News