TWiV 217: I just flu in and my arms are shot

January 27, 2013

vaccine vialHosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Dickson Despommier

Vincent, Alan, Rich, and Dickson review influenza vaccines.

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  • Junio C Hamano

    I found that CDC has a very recent statement on Pandemrix while listening to this episode.

    http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Concerns/h1n1_narcolepsy_pandemrix.html

  • Elizabeth_Hart

    In TWiV 217: “I just flu in and my arms are shot” (Alan Dove?) paradoxically states “It’s a crummy vaccine, you should get it!”
    Another participant in TWiV 217 admits current widespread flu vaccination, with what the group admits are inferior vaccines, is “experiments with humans”.
    Around the discussions on flu and narcolepsy, we get another gem from TWiV 127, i.e. “the listeners are learning now that we don’t know a lot about a lot of things”. Ain’t that the truth….
    It’s incredible the way the ‘crummy’ flu vaccine is being pushed upon mass populations of healthy people. It seems to me that annual ‘crummy’ flu vaccination is a massive racket. Don’t write this off as an ‘anti-vax’ argument… For instance, based on my current knowledge, a single vaccination with an effective measles vaccine that is likely to produce lifelong immunity seems a reasonable bet. But some vaccination appears to be of questionable value, e.g. annual vaccination with a ‘crummy’ flu vaccine… People are being sucked into this scam.
    I suggest there is a significant dearth of ‘informed consent’. We don’t know what the long-term cumulative effects of annual flu vaccination might be, we’re undergoing “experiments with humans”.
    There appears to be an insidious creep towards compulsory annual flu vaccination starting with medical professionals e.g. “Nurses Fired for Refusing Flu Shot”: http://news.yahoo.com/nurses-fired-refusing-flu-shot-224637902–abc-news-health.html
    Citizens need to stand up for their right to individual autonomy against the over-bearing vaccine industry which is backed by government and the research sector. It’s about time university politics/philosophy departments starting examining this matter, particularly
    the range of conflicts of interest.
    Elizabeth Hart
    Over-vaccination: Challenging Big Pharma’s lucrative over-vaccination of people and animals: http://over-vaccination.net/

  • Chris

    Even if the vaccine worked just 50% of the time, it is better than 0% without vaccination.

    If a hospital decides to implement mandatory vaccines to protect patients, then the nurses have to decide what is more important: their “rights” or their patients’ health. If they choose their “rights”, then they have the option of finding another job.

    The fallout of a nurse exercising her “right” to refuse a vaccine (which is allowed in Oregon) is described here at the story quote labeled “Patient Story: Spreading the Flu 4-2012″:
    http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/protect-yourself/

    Personally, I am very very glad that the hospital that performed open heart surgery on my son last year had a mandatory vaccine policy for its employees. I like it more when the medical care personnel actually think about how their actions affect their patients’ health.

    I actually came here after listening to this episode to tell a story: Back in the olden days when swine flu was first big news I was an engineering student at a large state university. The dorm I lived in had a notice that they needed volunteers to try the new flu vaccines. So on in October 1976 I went to a meeting room off of the main lounge and volunteered.

    I was amused by the look of surprise by the young doctor when I asked him to fill out my Department of Defense shot record that had started shortly after I was born as an Army brat. He marked down both injections. one for Influenza A/NJ and the other for Influenza B/HK, and then signed his name.

    I personally feel that saved me from the Russian flu that my now husband a bit over a year later had, which caused him a couple weeks of pure misery. Though I have had some nasty flu bouts since then, but none since starting to get annual flu vaccines (which my son with the genetic heart condition had been getting for a few years before I got mine).

    Recently I Googled the name on my old shot record, and found that he is a doctor attached to the same university’s School of Public Health,. So I sent him an email, and he responded! At one point we lived twenty blocks from each other. He told me that after the first day vaccinations in the dorm, several students fainted and the numbers of volunteers dropped. I don’t remember that.

    Anyway, I thought it was cool to communicate with what was just a 36 year old signature on a fifty plus year old document. It is this podcast that reminds me that university researchers are real people!

  • idontgetit

    vincent is very insightful/witty but i can never tell if he’s f****** with someone or if he’s just being curt. anyone?