Originally published November 12 2009
Over Eighty Percent of Suspected Swine Flu Cases were Not Flu, CBS News Reports
by Melanie Grimes
(NaturalNews) In July 2009, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (the CDC) ceased tracking individual cases of H1N1 Swine flu, CBS News has reported. The CDC advised states to stop testing for the virus in the middle of an international pandemic. Their reasoning was that there was no need for confirmation of actual cases, since the epidemic was obviously underway. When CBS News investigated the data from that time period, they found that most of the reported cases were not H1N1 flu as suspected. In fact, over 80% of the tested cases that presented with upper respiratory infections were not any type of flu at all.
In California, from a sampling of 13,704 lab specimens, only two percent showed evidence of H1N1 flu strain. Twelve percent showed viruses representing other flu strains, and 86% of the specimens were negative for flu. Similar percentages were collected by CBS News in Florida`s sample of 8,853 specimens, Georgia`s 3,117, and Alaska`s 722. Alaska`s labs showed only a 1% infection rate for H1N1 flu. Georgia showed a 2% rate, and only Florida had double-digit infection rate of 17%. Even in Florida, the specimens that were negative for the flu were over 83%. This means that the people who came to medical centers presenting with symptoms that looked like the flu, i.e. fever and cough, did not have Swine Flu or any other type of flu.
The CBS report has important implications for this flu season and the question of vaccination. Those thinking they had the flu might assume they had immunity, when they do not. The data about the spread of the pandemic is compromised as the number of reported cases of actual H1N1 flu may not be clear. Some people may make decisions on vaccination based on unsubstantiated data.
The flu vaccine has been linked to concerns about numerous side effects, such as Guillain-Barre syndrome. This disease causes paralysis of the nervous system and can lead to death. Mercury toxicity is another concern with the Swine Flu vaccine as the thimerisol used in the vaccines contains a high level of mercury, which is then difficult to detox from the body. And only a few thousand doses of mercury-free flu vaccines will be made available. Even availability of flu vaccine is in question, as the CDC has only shipped 30 million of the 40 million that they planned.
CBS News is to be commended for excellent journalism. Their reporters even filed a Freedom of Information request with the Department of Health and Human Services to search for documents that the CDC provided to the state public health officials, explaining their decision.
In times of epidemic and pandemic disease, it is important for information to spread quickly. The fear of disease spread like wildfire this past spring and summer on the heels of the Swine Flu epidemic. Our technology provides us with a great opportunity to share information, and hopefully, this past year can help us improve the way we spread facts and data around the globe to benefit the health of mankind.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/21/cb...
http://www.cdc.gov/H1N1flu/qa.htm
http://www.naturalnews.com/027122_swine_flu_...
http://www.naturalnews.com/026148_homeopathy...
About the author
Melanie Grimes is a writer, award-winning screenwriter, medical journal editor, and adjunct faculty member at Bastyr University. She also teaches homeopathy at the Seattle School of Homeopathy and the American Homeopathic Medical College.
A trained homeopath, she is the editor of the homeopathic journal, Simillimum, and has edited alternative and integrative medical journals for 15 years. She has taught creative writing, founded the first Birkenstock store in the USA and authored medical textbooks.
Her ebook on Natural Remedies for the Flu is available at:
http://melanie-grimes.blogspot.com/2009/04/b...
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