ACTION ALERT: Oppose [NJ] Dietitians Monopoly Bills

September 18th, 2008

09/19/08 – UPDATE: NJ Assembly vote postponed until October (6th or 23rd).., maybe it was the 1,000 person parade permit requested from the Trenton PD! Return here for updates & new rally date. See Action Steps below, for all States.
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Say No to Restrictions on Nutritional Free Speech!

09/18/08 – I was on the Gary Null radio show – http://www.garynull.com/ – earlier today alerting tri-State listeners to an urgent issue. For the first time in the decade since then NJ Governor Christy Todd Whitman vetoed it, as not adding anything to consumer protection, the State Legislature is about to adopt nutritionists licensing law that will put a stop to all discussions of nutrients, advanced health care and everything we have been trying to accomplish. This evil bill must be stopped or NJ will go the way of Ohio… where people are prosecuted regularly for daring to speak. A protest is planned. Read on:

Yes I know, we used to have a First Amendment. We even have a Supreme Court that told us in 2002, in Thompson v Western States, in the powerful words of Justice O’Connor:

“If the First Amendment means anything, it means that regulating speech must be a last – not first – resort. … We have previously rejected the notion that the Government has an interest in preventing the dissemination of truthful commercial information in order to prevent members of the public from making [even] bad decisions with the information.”

The “Registered Dietitian Licensing” Bills, A2933 and S 1941 ignore all that…

You can contact your NJ legislator at: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/

Take Action in All States: ask your Legislators to oppose all restrictions on Nutritional Free Speech!
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25929

So here is the scoop from Nutritionist Dian Freeman:

WHERE HAVE ALL THE HEALTH SHOPS GONE?

Trenton is voting on nutritional censorship bills
masquerading as dietitian licensing bills

NJ Senate Bill S1941 and Assembly Bill A2933 Propose
A Ban on All Current Sources of Holistic Health Information
about Food, Diet, Weight-Loss, Nutrition and Supplements

Please help stop the passage of these Bills

JOIN US FOR A MARCH ON TRENTON

Thursday, September 25, 2008

This is the day the Assembly will vote on Bill A2933

Contact all state legislatures to say you oppose
NJ Senate Bill 1941 and Assembly Bill 2933

These bills interfere with our freedom of speech, civil rights,
our right of informed choice and it creates a
medical monopoly over all nutritional information

This Bill will license and allow only medically trained registered
dietitians to practice, lecture, and advise regarding
health, food, weight-loss, supplements and nutrition

These bills designate the American Dietetic Association (ADA) as the only legal entity allowed to set nutritional standards. They choose the foods served in schools, hospitals & nursing homes. Among their sponsors are: Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, PepsiCo, Crisco, Hershey’s, etc. Are these the nutritional sources you seek?

Contact Us if you can Join Our March on Trenton -Thursday, September 25, 2008 – We need a head count!

Please share this information and contact Us
If you can help and if you can attend our rally

Dian Freeman – (973) 267-4816 – abouthealth@att.net

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Where Have All the Health Shops Gone? Long Time Passing…
Testimony before
The Committee of Health and Senior Services
of the New Jersey State Assembly
by Dian Freeman, MA
Certified in Clinical Nutrition and Holistic Health
Doctoral Candidate in Medical Humanities, Drew University

Today, health freedom choices in New Jersey include medical care, natural alternative care or a combination of both. This will come to an end if Assembly Bill 2933 is passed.

Masquerading as a “Registered Dietician Licensing” Bills, A2933 and an identical bill in the Senate, S1941, will name dieticians as nutritionists while allowing no other to teach, consult or advise about health, nutrition, supplements, diet, food or food materials. This will BAN all natural and alternative health practitioners from calling themselves nutritionists or disseminating information about natural food, holistic health and medical alternatives.

The justification for these Bills is that the New Jersey State legislature, being so much wiser than the federal government (which protects civil rights), believes that the people are too incompetent to know what is good for them. This bill is proposed in the name of protecting “the People” from making “wrong” decisions about their nutrition. This bill wishes to delineate for the poor confused populace who is the correct person to see about nutrition and that this correct person is one who is medically trained in food science. Thus the attempt in this bill to rename those who are ordinary dietician to now be know as the only “nutritionists’ that are medically approved.

They use the fact that doctors are licensed to justify licensing in general. The licensing of doctors does not exclude other doctors, those who have a PhD in nutrition or are naturopaths, NDs, or those who are Ayurvedic doctors form practicing. Licensing should not exclude the competition to the potential licensee.

We, the nutritionists, holistic health practitioners, herbalists, naturopathic doctors, Ayurvedic doctors, doctors of Nutrition, etc., who have worked hard to build businesses in the natural health field do not wish to prevent dieticians from being licensed. We believe in free information and choice. But, we do not believe that in a free country health information and options should be excluded through the licensing of dieticians.

We ask that the newly added exclusionary portion of the Dietician’s Licensing Bill be deleted. This is the portion that excludes all other practitioners from remaining in their natural health businesses. To exclude a group in favor of another is an unconscionable and discriminatory act unbecoming to those governing in a free society.

The obligatory 12 Points in opposition to Senate Bill 1941
1. As currently written, this bill would censor information that is neither understood nor endorsed by the medical establishment. Information should be freely available in a free society. Therefore, the crux of the issue with this bill is multiple violations of civil rights, i.e., freedom of speech, the right to have fully informed choice and the basic right to make our own personal health decisions. This bill is also questionable relative to anti-trust laws against creating business monopolies. As it is written, Bill S1941 favors the medical establishment in New Jersey.

2. This bill, if passed, will disallow the public to be educated about natural health options and choices. Dieticians have no training or interest in natural and holistic alternatives and wish to be known as “medical nutritionists”. An oxymoron if ever there were one. Medicine and nutrition have been at odds for centuries.

In the Sixteenth Century, as in the Twentieth Century, licensed physicians and surgeons were going to the British Parliment to ban the activities of the alternative practitioners of their day, herbalists. Parliament ordered an end to this misuse of the Parliament to enforce licensure, thereby protecting the nutritionists from “suit, vexation, trouble, penalty, or loss of their goods…” (see attachment 7- The Herbalists Charter). http://home.earthlink.net/~lifespirit23/herbcharter.htm

The obvious aim of senate bill 1941 is once again the age old attempt to silence by licensure all alternatives to modern medicine and to render historically valuable health information extinct. This is knowledge that is valuable in both a historical and a practical sense. We ask the New Jersey legislators to stop this atrocity of justice and abuse of civil rights. We hope that this legislature, to paraphrase the Herbalist Charter, will order an end to this misuse of the New Jersey Legislature to enforce licensure, thereby protecting we nutritionists from “suit, vexation, trouble, penalty, or loss of our goods… to a medical monopoly. This charter protecting herbalist was taken as law by New Jersey and remains on the books today.

3. In every culture the perception of a people weighs as reality. The perception by the people about nutritionists and natural health practitioners is of those who would advise about eating organic food, traditional common-sense health practices, balancing and healing diet programs, effective supplement protocols and recommendations on other alternative choices that are complementary to a holistic approach to health. Dieticians are trained in none of these aspects of nutrition because doctors are not trained in them. Dieticians are by their own admission, medical. They are taught to mirror the medical establishment’s disrespect for holistic alternatives. This medical attitude, based on ignorance and fear, is unfortunate. Without the option to seek information from an alternative viewpoint, many will be misled by dieticians masquerading as nutritionists.

To designate dieticians as nutritionists is both to redefine the common perception of a nutritionist, which is propagating a lie upon the public, and to destroy a vast and growing industry by creating a medical monopoly.

4. These Bills deny the public access to holistic health information, thereby eliminating any possibility of a person to make an informed choice regarding their health and violating the American Medical Association’s dictate of 1999 which says, “Informed consent can be effectively exercised only if the patient possesses enough information to enable an intelligent choice.” Permitting only one side of a story does not lend itself to providing an informed consent.

5. Among the sadder consequences of these Bills would be the inevitably contradictory and probably intentional misinformation dispensed by the medical science community on diet and food. This would lead to confusion among the public as to what their truly healthful choices are. Natural practitioners can clear up much of this misinformation today by helping those who are confused to sort it all out.

Without the dissemination of natural health information and if natural health dialogue is censored by the passage of this bill, the ancillary businesses that depend on natural health information will decline and eventually vanish. This may be the true intention of this bill. The pharmaceutical and medical industries appear to be using their vast resources and influence to get the legislators of New Jersey to eliminate those seen as competition.

The businesses that will decline with the passage of this bill will be small farmers, organic foods, health shops, herbal and natural supplement suppliers, Dan doctors who council on diets for the autistic, natural health publications, etc. Voters will not be happy with those who take away their supplements. The natural heath field is a large industry. A industry of voters. Large enough to be of significant competition to the medical and pharmaceutical industry.

6. Of course, dieticians have a right to be licensed if they so choose. Removing the clause from these Bills that criminalizes the people who have been practicing, learning and teaching holistic nutrition would be the logical solution for this dilemma. Allowing nutritional guidance and the dissemination of natural health information by those other than dieticians would give dieticians their license without infringing upon the freedoms of others.

7. The bill proposes to designate registered dieticians as “nutritionists” a designation they did not have before and do not have the training for. It would also deem it illegal for any person who is not a medically trained dietician working inside the medical “box” to address or share information relating to food, diet, nutrition and health including doctors of nutrition and those nationally certified and conventionally trained as nutritionists.

8. Dieticians have traditionally been perceived as the food preparers in institutions. They have training in the constituents that make up a food thus they prepare the nutritional panels on food packaging. Memorizing food nutrients does not provide for understanding the nutritional value of food. Dieticians advocate the use of processed foods probably because the chemical constituents they memorized seem the same whether processed or fresh. In his article “Corporate Potluck” (attachment 6), Jacob Wheeler describes a dietician at the 2007 American Dietetic Association’s Annual Food and Nutrition Expo in Philadelphia as “promoting Taco Bell’s new Fresco Style line…” Wheeler notes that among the many sponsors present were PepsiCo, Heshey’s, Crisco, Taco Bell and McDonalds,” and he asks. “When did PepsiCo become an advocate for health?” A nutritionist does not advocate such food. A dietician does.

9. Dieticians choose the foods served in public schools, hospitals and nursing homes. All three the butt of many common jokes within the nutritional field as well as among everyday people. Nutritionists believe if people regularly ate the food recommended by dieticians, most people would end up, sooner than later, in hospitals and nursing homes, which may be part of a larger plan. It is dieticians that choose pizza, hot dogs and french fries as a wholesome school lunch with ketchup seen as a valid serving of vegetables. The moms of New Jersey will think their legislators have gone nuts when they hear that they are considering naming the perpetrators of such food atrocities as valid nutritionists.

10. Dieticians also recommend the diets of the American Diabetic Association and the American Heart Association and hand them out in doctor’s offices and hospitals. In study after study, these diets are reported to be less healthy for the diseases that they target than the Atkins diet is! There is not one major study that supports the effectiveness of these medical diets. Looking at the statistics, we see that diabetes and heart disease have not diminished one iota in America over recent decades, rather, they are growing to epidemic proportions. Medical-model diets seem not to work and authentic nutritionists reject them. As a result, with real nutritional guidance people are getting well eating the right foods and taking effective and appropriate supplements.

11. As I mentioned before, perception is often read as reality. The fact that this bill so strongly favors the medical establishment and is sponsored mainly by those who are medical doctors, work in the medical field or work for medical foundations does not leave much room for the perception of the impartiality or fairness of the sponsors or the legislature.

The legislators who sponsor this bill and those who vote for it will be perceived as bent on outlawing all competition to the medical model. By denying their voters the many healthy alternatives available they will be forced to adhere to the medical industry’s two “health” options: drugs and surgery. There may be a perception that New Jersey legislators have no compunction about violating the civil rights of their constituents in favor of their own special interest and agenda.

This is a perception that will be brought to the mind of New Jersey voters repeatedly, state-wide, district-by-district by holistic health proponents each time a legislator who votes for these Bills comes up for re-election. American can be tenacious when it comes to the loss of their freedoms.

12. If passed in New Jersey, a precedent will be set for similar legislation to pass in other states. This will lead to a nation-wide, state-by-state ban on the dissemination of all holistic information. This effort will accomplish what the combined forces of the pharmaceutical and medical industries, with the help of the FDA, have been unable to accomplish on a federal level. Even though they have been trying for years to outlaw holistic practices in Washington D.C., that ol’ Constitution keeps getting in their way.

The proposal of such legislation reeks of a paternalistic government behaving with an obnoxiously elitist attitude giving the appearance of questionable ties to the special interest of the pharmaceutical and medical industries.

They want us to believe that they think it is up to our government, our legislators, to protect us from natural wholesome advice, supplements and information in favor of the FDA approved products and procedures of the medical/pharmaceutical industries.

These are the products and procedures that nearly caused me my life. And no wonder, the FDA recently requested an internal assessment of whether it could do its job (attachment 5). The result of this massive audit found that the FDA cannot fulfill its mission because “its scientific base has eroded and its scientific organizational structure is weak.” They admit they are inept.

These are facts that we in the natural health field have long been aware of. Many practitioners, like me, were damaged by modern medicine when we healed or cured ourselves naturally it became out passion to dedicate our lives to sharing that information with those who seek it out. There must be alternative choices for those who do not choose modern medicine and for those who wish to use a little of both. We Americans have the right to health self-sufficiency not to a “big Brother” government that makes our health choices for us.

In actuality, modern medicine, working without the natural health wisdom of the ages, is not doing so well for the people. Jama has named doctors as the third leading cause of death (attachment 1) and a recent study by the Commonwealth Fund of western countries has determined the U.S. comes in “dead last” in “providing timely and effective healthcare to its citizens” while France came in first. France mixes traditional and natural health practices with modern medicine as most of the other industrialized countries in the study (attachment 2). In addition, the associated press last year reported that the U.S. lags behind 41 nations in life span projections, “as other countries improve health care, nutrition and lifestyles (attachment 3).” Dieticians and their fast food sponsors will not be of any help to the U.S. in improving the nutrition and lifestyle of its citizens.

These trends could be reversed if modern medicine in the U.S. joined with traditional and natural health practitioners in changing the diet and lifestyles of Americans. Until then and with the help of dieticians, the U.S. will lead the western world only in the expanding numbers of cases of heart disease, diabetes and obesity.

Terror Days for Health Freedom.2 NJ to Fine PreSchools $500 Per Child Per Day for Unvaccinated Kids

September 17th, 2008

I am close to speechless with this one. Here is a post from a member of a New Jersey No Forced Vaccines group relayed to me today:
“…The state of NJ is charging $500 per day, per child, for every child in preschool that does not receive the flu vaccine. As this is the first year that this will be happening, the director of my school said she wasn’t sure how it would happen. However the threat of the charge is enough pressure to feel forced to turn children away if they don’t comply. Obviously this wouldn’t apply for religious exemptions. The director lamented the fact that around Oct, the county nurse comes in and pours over the records of every child. The director then has to send letters to those parents of children that don’t have all their vaccines. Also, she mentioned that the law only applies to children up to age 5, not to older children….”

How real is this? Very real. Here is the exchange from a nurse in a NJ private school and the mother of a vaccine injured child (one of two in the family, by the way):
Nurse writes,
“Hi,
I noticed your letter of exemption and I think we will be in trouble
come inspection time. I recently learned at a teleconference that the
state has an “all or nothing” policy concerning immunizations. Since
Christopher has had all of his shots up to this point, the state
requires him to continue having the required immunizations.
Let me know how you want to proceed.
Nurse’s name withheld by request
PS. Vaccine injured child’s name withheld by request needed a nebulizing treatment this afternoon. Please provide me the doctors order ASAP. I know you forgot it at the
doctor’s office, but perhaps the doctor’s office can fax me an order.”

The child’s mother writes back,
“Dear Nurse,

The last time Child’s name was immunized was when he was 5 years old. Our religious beliefs changed when child’s name was 6 (2003) when we changed and converted to the Christian Scientist, Natural and Organic food only from God way of living our life.

The state is using scare tactics to get school nurses to get all students immunized which is illegal. If the State of New Jersey, or the town of xx (town name deleted by request) does not accept our religious beliefs, I will 1) send them attorney letter telling them of our rights to exercise our religious beliefs 2) would take the state to court if need be for violating their own law of allowing religious exemptions. It is our right not to immunize our children based on our religion and convictions of our religious tenants. People are known to change their religions as they go through life and experience other beliefs and the yy (name withheld by request) family is a family who changed religious beliefs.

As you will note, an attorney also received a copy of our religious exemption letter. Stand your ground for our family for we are doing nothing wrong. Do not let the state intimidate you. I have thoroughly done my research on this matter. My letter is exactly what is required for the state to waive the vaccinations and we have every right to exercise our religious exemption based on our current religious beliefs.”

Yours,
Child’s Mother, Name withheld by request

But wait! There’s more!

This post was received from the mother of a toddler who is autistic but sees the jackboots coming toward her son with syringes in hand

“My son is 3 1/2, pdd-nos, in a public school autism preschool program.

The other day one of my long time customers walked into my business.
In the past she had worked in a local public school as an aide in the
disabled programs. She came in the other day, and we got to chatting.
She said that she got a promotion. She is now a “compliance”
officer, for verifying that people live in the district, and for
vaccine compliance. She basically said that parents who don’t
vaccinate are “reckless” and that the religious exemption will no
longer be easy to get in NJ. She is charged with reviewing and
investigating the exemption requests she claims. She said in the past
that you could just file a letter, but no longer. Schools are going
after parents who invoke the religious exemption from now on, who she
said are just using it as an “excuse” not to vaccinate, and thereby
endangering public health. She asked numerous questions, when we told
her our son was allergic, “does he have an epi pen, eczema..” etc, it
was as if she had a laundry list of things she had been trained to ask.

I was and am horrified. She said the districts will investigate the
nature of the religious commitment. They will interview your pastor,
the length of your commitment etc, prior history of vaccination. And
if they don’t “buy” it, they will then turn it over to the “township
attorney” she said, and they will deny it. She said starting Sept.
2008, things will be totally different in NJ.

I sincerely hope she is not right. It definitely smacks of big
Pharma, who owns this state. But what is the real state of the law
and the regs in Sept. 2008? What is going on with the conscientious
belief exemption? Is it just languishing in committee or in the
assembly? Can you all enlighten me? My son is allergic to eggs, so I
guess for now as to the flu shot, I can get a doctor’s letter and
that’s that. But come the spring, when his next round of shots are
due, I will have to confront this. The irony is, I was the only one
to vaccinate my child for the flu at 6 and 18 months, when no one I
know did, and now when I know better and am living with the damage
done, it becomes the state’s new agenda. What are the other new
shots? I seem to recall that my son had had most of them, we had a
very pro vaccine pediatrician, who gave him everything and then some,
anything “approved”, however new.

My husband and I believe in God, and believe that the vaccinations and
most interventions from the medical community just are there to enrich
big Pharma and doctors, and in fact are evil and pose a direct threat
to our health and lives. We do not belong to an organized church, but
guess will be forced to find a church to join that reflects our
beliefs, so as to satisfy big brother in NJ it seems. Perhaps it
would help to alleviate the stress that autism has brought to our
lives, and give us some comfort as well. ”

This medical fascism is coming to a town, city, state and school near you. Even if you have no children, adults are on the list, too, for compulsory vaccinations.

The time to take action is now, before you are faced, like the children and parents of Prince George’s County, MD, last November, with syringes in the hands of “health” personnel backed up by armed police with dogs terrorizing the children. Meanwhile, in the Courthouse where the Judge looked on and observed that the crying children looked like they were being dragged to church and said that it was “kind of cute” as 2300 children were forcibly vaccinated with injections. Referring to those same injections, State’s Attorney, Glen Ivey, said he would not give his kids because of the dangers inherent in them.

What to do? Visit www.HealthFreedomUSA.org and
1. Sign up for the Health Freedom eAlerts (upper right hand corner of page)
2. Take the various action steps down the right hand side of the page including telling your elected representatives that you will not tolerate forced vaccination
3. Get the Vaccine Exemption eBook to learn your rights and find out how to protect yourself and your loved ones
4. Join the No Forced Vaccination Forum on Yahoo
5. Make a generous recurring tax free donation to the Natural Solutions Foundation, www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
6. Spread the word. Tell other people and get them involved. This is a battle that is facing us all.

Thanks!
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org
www.Organics4U.org
www.NaturalSolutionsMedia.tv
www.NaturalSolutionsMarketPlace.org

Terror Days for Health Freedom. 1 Gardasil Required for Immigrant Women, Not Citizens

September 17th, 2008

The Natural Solutions Foundation has been ringing the alarm bell linking compulsory vaccinations and health freedom’s death knell. After all, if you don’t own your body, and can’t make your own decisions about what goes into it, are you free? We think not.

So much is happening around vaccination to strip our freedoms away from us that we think a special Health Freedom Blog series is in order.

We will be publishing, with full attribution, of course, the progressive attempts at the erosion of your control over your own body.

Here’s the first entry: The US Immigration and Naturalization Service now owns, it believes, the right to make decisions for women entering the country as legal immigrants: they, unlike other women in the United States will be compelled to receive 3 shots, at $162 per shot, to “protect” against a highly questionable “public health hazard” with a dangerous injection for HPV.

The FDA has admitted in its own documentation that the 4 strains of HPV which the Merck vaccine supposedly protect against are NOT involved with cervical cancer, and that the administration of the vaccine actually INCREASES the chance of cervical cancer by a factor of 4 fold.

“FDA Documents Reveal HPV “Not Associated with Cervical Cancer”, http://deathbypaxil.com/?p=296

None the less, this risky shot series has been added to the list of vaccines required for immigrant women despite the contrary recommendation of CDC experts who felt that it was not necessary.

A children’s song about inappropriate touching said, “My body’s nobody’s body but mine. You run your own body. Let me run mine!”

The Natural Solutions Foundation could not agree more!

To stop compulsory drugging and vaccination, click here,http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?p=460, to sign the Tiburon Declaration. And to get your copy of the highly informative Vaccine Exemption eBook, click here,http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=699. A third action step you can take is to let your elected representatives know that you do not favor compulsory drugging or vaccination and add your voice to the hundreds of thousands of people already telling them. Click here, http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=21833 , to say “No!” to state required vaccination.

Please click here, http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189, to make your generous regular donation to make sure that this type of information keeps coming your way. Health Freedom is far from free.

And click here, http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=187, sign up for the free and secure Health Freedom eAlerts so we can keep providing you with the information and action options you need. And then please forward this information to everyone you know telling them that this is important to you and you know it will be important to them, too!

Thanks!
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org
www.Organics4U.org
www.NaturalSolutionsMedia.tv
www.NaturalSolutionsMarketPlace.org

Bush Administration Forcing HPV Vaccine On Immigrants

September 15, 2008
In July, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services quietly amended its list of required vaccinations for immigrants applying to become citizens. One of the newest requirements? Gardasil, which vaccinates against the human papillomavirus (HPV). From the agency’s press release:

CDC’s revised Technical Instructions to Civil Surgeons for Vaccination Requirements require the following age-appropriate additional vaccinations to adjust status to legal permanent resident:

* Rotavirus
* Hepatitis A
* Meningococcal
* Human papillomavirus
* Zoster

This regulation goes directly against the advice of Dr. Jon Abramson, chairman of the CDC’s advisory committee on immunization practices. In Feb. 2007, Abramson said that he and other committee members advised that Gardasil should not be mandatory because HPV is not a communicable disease like chicken pox.

The problem with this regulation is that the HPV vaccine is not mandatory for U.S. citizens. Therefore, U.S. citizens are allowed to weight the costs and risks associated with Gardasil, but immigrants are forced to pay-out-of-pocket for a vaccine they might not want to take. Some of the problems with this scenario:

Cost: Without health insurance, the three-shot vaccine can cost $162 per dose, making it the most expensive vaccine on the market. Gardasil manufacturer Merck, which lobbied heavily for state mandates for school girls, would profit greatly from the new regulations

Testing on underserved populations: WOC PhD writes how immigrants and women of color have historically been used as human test subjects: “[Although] Gardasil has already been approved by the FDA recent complications in patients using the drug, 3500 major complaints in a single year and 8000 since the approval, as well as multiple deaths, could indicate that more testing is needed. Why pull the drug off the market when you can study the results through a mandated population?”

Immigration barrier: Jessica Arons, Director of the Women’s Health and Rights Program at the Center for American Progress, expressed concerns to ThinkProgress that this mandate will block women from immigrating: “Given Gardasil’s high cost, and the fact that there does not seem to be a public health justification for this particular mandate, I’m concerned that its real purpose is to create a financial barrier for immigrant women who seek to lawfully enter this country.”

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted viral infection in the United States. The two most deadly strains are “responsible for most of the cervical cancer in the U.S., affecting over 10,000 women each year and killing more than 3,700 of them.”

Gardasil has so far proven to be extremely effective in preventing women from contracting HPV and should remain a widely available option for women. But as Jill at Feministe notes, “[E]very woman deserves the right to decide for herself if the benefits of Gardasil outweigh the risks. And we all need to be vigilant when we see the history of reproductive exploitation of bodies of color repeating itself.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/15/immigrant-gardasil/

Tell Me Again: Properly Filtered Bottled Water Is No Better Than Tap Water?

September 16th, 2008

There has been a good deal of hoopla recently about the absurdity of drinking filtered, bottled, or other wise special water. It is more expensive (true), it has plasticizers in the water from the most commonly used type of bottles and these confer dangers (true) and it is unnecessary since municipal water in the US is safe and wholesome (manifestly untrue). The article posted below makes it very clear that the water you drink from municipal supplies can kill you, or at least change your biology significantly, whether you want it to or not.
I agree, as an environmentally aware physician, that plastic bottles are dangerous. Bis-Phalates are bad for you. I also agree that water which is merely put into jugs and bottles from common municiple taps are absurd, deceptive and should be clearly labled, “Nothing but tap water at a premium – no charge for the plasticizers”.
But the notion that water supplies in the US are anything close to safe is patently absurd. Water is frequently poisoned, yes, poisoned, with fluoride compounds (often derived from uranium mining but too expensive to dispose of according to EPA standards, so it is more profitably sold), chlorine, aluminum (to “polish” the water and give it sparkle) and a host of other unwise and dangerous compounds.
So yes, the bacteria that are tested for, including E. coli, a component of human and animal feces which is uses as an index organism (that is, if it is present, so are other dangerous components of feces), which were those of concern when water purification became a public responsibility in the late 18, early 19th century, are not present, mostly, in the water supply of most municipalities.
But benzine and other industrail wastes, pesticides, herbicides, waste-water emissions from nuclear stations which can legally (!) be discharged into water ways, land fill leachates, acid rain-dissolved chemicals and compounds legally and illegallly dumped, etc., etc., etc., plus the lead from the solder used on the water pipes in places like New York City (!) make unfiltered municipal water a highly dangerous bet for drinking, cooking or sterilizing.
You see, bacteria were of major concern. But the standards for metals, industrial compounds (which did not even exist when purification was being standardized, and a host of recent problems makes the quality of water, aside from its bacteria-free status, highly problematic, indeed.
Plastic is a serious concern, it is true. Use glass. Buy bottles of stuff in heavy glass, dump it out, wash the bottles out and use them instead of plastic to hold the water you filter with heavy duty, NOT pitcher-type filters. I prefer reverse osmosis filters with the capacity to add minerals back in. But clean water in glass bottles is essential for life, health and well-being.

And then there are the pharmaceuticals. See below!
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org
www.Organics4U.org
www.NaturalSolutionsMedia.tv
www.NaturalSolutionsMarketPlace.org

bottlesTons of Drugs Dumped Into Wastewater
https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=afbdc5dc14&attid=0.0.1.2&disp=emb&view=att&th=11c6a797e3776720
Bryant Sears, working in a Teflon suit and wearing goggles and rubber gloves, sorts leftover medicines and contaminated packing one-by-one at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, May 13, 2008 in Minneapolis. Items are put into separate barrels and bins, depending on their differing disposal standards and methods. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

by Jeff Donn Martha Mendoza and Justin Pritchard

U.S. hospitals and long-term care facilities annually flush millions of pounds of unused pharmaceuticals down the drain, pumping contaminants into America’s drinking water, according to an ongoing Associated Press investigation.
[Bryant Sears, working in a Teflon suit and wearing goggles and rubber gloves, sorts leftover medicines and contaminated packing one-by-one at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, May 13, 2008 in Minneapolis. Items are put into separate barrels and bins, depending on their differing disposal standards and methods. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)]Bryant Sears, working in a Teflon suit and wearing goggles and rubber gloves, sorts leftover medicines and contaminated packing one-by-one at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, May 13, 2008 in Minneapolis. Items are put into separate barrels and bins, depending on their differing disposal standards and methods. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
These discarded medications are expired, spoiled, over-prescribed or unneeded. Some are simply unused because patients refuse to take them, can’t tolerate them or die with nearly full 90-day supplies of multiple prescriptions on their nightstands.

Few of the country’s 5,700 hospitals and 45,000 long-term care homes keep data on the pharmaceutical waste they generate. Based on a small sample, though, the AP was able to project an annual national estimate of at least 250 million pounds of pharmaceuticals and contaminated packaging, with no way to separate out the drug volume.

One thing is clear: The massive amount of pharmaceuticals being flushed by the health services industry is aggravating an emerging problem documented by a series of AP investigative stories – the commonplace presence of minute concentrations of pharmaceuticals in the nation’s drinking water supplies, affecting at least 46 million Americans.

Researchers are finding evidence that even extremely diluted concentrations of pharmaceutical residues harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species in the wild. Also, researchers report that human cells fail to grow normally in the laboratory when exposed to trace concentrations of certain drugs.

The original AP series in March prompted federal and local legislative hearings, brought about calls for mandatory testing and disclosure, and led officials in more than two dozen additional metropolitan areas to analyze their drinking water.

And while most pharmaceutical waste is unmetabolized medicine that is flushed into sewers and waterways through human excretion, the AP examined institutional drug disposal and its dangers because unused drugs add another substantial dimension to the problem.

“Obviously, we’re flushing them – which is not ideal,” acknowledges Mary Ludlow at White Oak Pharmacy, a Spartanburg, S.C., firm that serves 15 nursing homes and assisted-living residences in the Carolinas.

Such facilities, along with hospitals and hospices, pose distinct challenges because they handle large quantities of powerful and toxic drugs – often more powerful and more toxic than the medications people use at home. Tests of sewage from several hospitals in Paris and Oslo uncovered hormones, antibiotics, heart and skin medicines and pain relievers.

Hospital waste is particularly laden with both germs and antibiotics, says microbiologist Thomas Schwartz at Karlsruhe Research Center in Germany.

The mix is a scary one.

In tests of wastewater retrieved near other European hospitals and one in Davis County, Utah, scientists were able to link drug dumping to virulent antibiotic-resistant germs and genetic mutations that may promote cancers, according to scientific studies reviewed by the AP.

Researchers have focused on cell-poisoning anticancer drugs and fluoroquinolone class antibiotics, like anthrax fighter ciprofloxacin.

At the University of Rouen Medical Center in France, 31 of 38 wastewater samples showed the ability to mutate genes. A Swiss study of hospital wastewater suggested that fluoroquinolone antibiotics also can disfigure bacterial DNA, raising the question of whether such drug concoctions can heighten the risk of cancer in humans.

Pharmacist Boris Jolibois, one of the French researchers at Compiegne Medical Center, believes hospitals should act quickly, even before the effects are well understood. “Something should be done now,” he said. “It’s just common sense.”

___

Some contaminated packaging and drug waste are incinerated; more is sent to landfills. But it is believed that most unused pharmaceuticals from health care facilities are dumped down sinks or toilets, usually without violating state or federal regulations.

The Environmental Protection Agency told assembled water experts last year that it believes nursing homes and other long-term care facilities use sewer systems to dispose of most of their unused drugs. A water utility surveyed 45 long-term care facilities in 2006 and calculated that two-thirds of their unused drugs were scrapped this way, according to the National Association of Clean Water Agencies.

An internal EPA memo last year included pharmaceuticals on a list of “major pollutants of concern” at health care businesses. Still, few medical centers keep comprehensive records of drugs they cast down toilets or into landfills. When data are kept, drugs and tainted packaging are combined in the same totals.

In an attempt to quantify the problem, the AP examined records in Minnesota, where state regulators have pushed hospital administrators to keep closer track than elsewhere. Fourteen facilities were surveyed, in a range of settings from rural to urban. The AP projected those annual totals onto the national patient population for hospitals and adjusted for the relatively lower pharmaceutical use of Minnesotans. Since long-term care facilities generate more drug waste than hospitals, the AP conservatively doubled the number.

That calculation produced an estimate of at least 250 million pounds of annual drug waste from hospitals and long-term care centers, further complicated by the fact experts say drugs might account for only up to half of pharmaceutical waste, while the rest is packaging.

The AP estimate excludes many other sources of health industry drug waste, from doctors’ to veterinary offices. Smaller medical offices typically dispose of expired samples and unwanted drugs like ordinary consumers – with little forethought.

Alan Davidner, president of Vestara of Irvine, Calif., which sells systems to manage drug waste, says his limited sampling suggests the health care industry’s contribution could even be higher.

Plus, untold amounts of pills and tablets are being thrown away each year at federal and state correctional institutions.

At a state prison in Oak Park Heights, Minn., nurse Linda Peterson says the hospital unit serving inmates statewide has been throwing away up to 12,000 pills a year. She says some heart medicines and antibiotics are simply chucked into the trash. Tightly regulated narcotics susceptible to abuse go down the toilet.

“We flush it and flush it and flush it – until we can’t see any more pills,” she says.

She notes the presence of nursing homes, a hospital and another prison in the same area. “So what are all these facilities doing, if we’re throwing away about 700 to 1,000 pills a month?”

___

The EPA is considering whether to impose the first national standard for how much drug waste may be released into waterways by the medical services industry, but Ben Grumbles, the EPA’s top water administrator, says a decision won’t be made until next year, at the earliest.

So far, regulators have done little more than politely ask the medical care industry to stop pouring drugs into the wastewater system. “Treating the toilet as a trash can isn’t a good option,” says Grumbles.

Some think it’s time to do more than ask. “It’s strange that we have rules about the oil from your car; you’re not allowed to simply flush it down the sewer,” says U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa. “So why do we let these drugs, without any kind of regulation, continue to be flushed away in the water supply?”

Landfills are one alternative. At least they don’t empty directly, and immediately, into waterways like some sewage.

Marjorie E. Powell, a lawyer for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, says landfills are “more environmentally friendly,” while EPA spokeswoman Roxanne Smith contends that landfilling of hazardous pharmaceutical waste “poses little threat to the public.”

Still, Grumbles acknowledges that landfills, while safer, are not a permanent solution. That’s because pharmaceuticals can eventually reach waterways from landfills through leaks or intentional releases of treated seepage known as leachate.

An agency staffer wrote in a memo last year: “EPA recognizes that residuals in the leachate could contaminate groundwater supplies and ultimately reach water treatment plants, but disposal into the trash is currently considered a BMP” – or best management practice.

Already, researchers have detected trace concentrations of drugs – including the pain reliever ibuprofen and seizure medicine carbamazepine – in seepage or groundwater near landfills.

Environmental professionals outside government are reaching a consensus that incinerators are the best disposal method.

“That’s the best practice for today because we don’t really know what the hell to do with the stuff,” says industrial engineer Laura Brannen, an executive at Waste Management Healthcare Solutions, of Houston. She says burning destroys more drug waste than all other methods, though some contaminants may escape in smoke and ash.

On a recent day at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, Mary Kuch was getting ready to squirt leftovers from a syringe of hydromorphone, a powerful morphine derivative, into a sink. When she started out in nursing 18 years ago, “I took it for granted, because I was a young nurse, and that’s what other nurses did,” she says. “But I did find it strange.”

These days, only four gallons – drugs with high potential for abuse – go down the hospital’s drains each year. Nearly all leftover medicine and contaminated packaging are instead tossed into black bins and rolled to a hospital storage room crammed with scores of 55-gallon drums.

There, waste-company employee Bryant Sears – dressed in a Teflon suit, rubber gloves and goggles – conducts a sorting operation. Pills, blister packs and liquid medicines collected in vials, along with syringes and IV bags, are separated out according to differing disposal standards and methods. Occasionally, he glances at a wall-sized placard with details on which drug goes where – hazardous waste in one barrel, nonhazardous in another. A roll of “hazardous waste” stickers hangs from a pole on the wall.

Sears points to some epinephrine, a heart drug, saying, “Now that it’s past its expiration date, it’s waste.”

These leftovers and discards ultimately will be incinerated.

EPA’s Smith says even municipal burners unapproved for hazardous waste “will destroy all but a minute fraction” of organic compounds – the kind found in pharmaceuticals.

But Stephen DiZio, a manager with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, says not so fast. “I don’t think we’re encouraging incineration of anything. The public outcry would be so great.”

The push for incineration hides an irony. Several decades ago, drug waste was routinely chucked into the trash and burned in hospital or city incinerators.

Then came a national campaign against air pollution. Most hospitals shut down their burners, and city incinerator managers became pickier about what they’d accept. With options restricted, hospitals began shipping more drug waste to landfills – and dumping more into toilets and sinks.

___

A few choices are expanding. Some states have passed laws to make it easier to contribute unused drugs to charity pharmacies that supply low-income patients.

Also, a small share of unused drugs is shipped back to manufacturers for credit – and incineration, waste consultants say. But the drugs are supposed to be sent back in original packaging – sometimes impractical because the packaging is discarded or damaged.

Several long-term care residences want to deploy automatic drug-dispensing machines that suppliers would refill often to reduce waste.

While not yet practical, there are several experimental technologies, such as destroying trace drugs with an electrical arc, microwaves, or caustic chemicals.

Increasingly, some bureaucrats and health professionals are suggesting that drug makers help pay costs of managing drug waste. But the pharmaceutical industry says there’s insufficient evidence of environmental harm to warrant the expense!

But impatience is mounting. Even the EPA has begun to take such suggestions seriously. Grumbles says drug makers “should do more for product stewardship and meds retrieval now.” He says it would be unwise to wait for all the proof.

For now, many health facilities, especially small ones, are put off by the cost of proper handling. Drugs deemed hazardous by the EPA – about 5 percent of the market – might cost up to $2 a pound to incinerate in a certified hazardous waste incinerator, says Vestara’s Davidner. A pound might cost 35 cents to burn in a regular trash incinerator.

Tom Clark, an executive at the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, wonders: “When you can flush it down the toilet for free, why would you want to pay – unless there’s some significant penalties?”

© 2008 Associated Press

© Copyrighted 1997-2008
www.commondreams.org

Weaponized Avian Flu: Current Intelligence Estimate of Situation.3

September 15th, 2008

In all the smoke and mirrors… shards of truth.

The Natural Solutions Foundation continually updates and expands it coverage of the breaking news, information and disinformation about the forthcoming, supposedly “inevitable pandemic” which is now acknowledged by such luminaries as the head of the CDC to be certain and very rapidly approaching, although whether it will be from Avian Flu or not, what the strain will be if it is, and exactly when and where it will appear are unknowns, at least to the general public. The logical impossibility of these statements is overlooked by frantic members of the public, who are officially advised to avoid complacency (whatever that means) and lay in stocks of food, water and medicines (which insurance companies will not cover if they will supply people for more than 30 days).

Links to the previous Estimates of Situation:
Internet Abuzz over Weaponized Avian Flu – http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?p=846

Estimate of Situation 2.1 – http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=794
Estimate of Situation 1 – http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?p=755

The announcement of a new Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA organism across Australia that appears to target healthy adolescents and not only infect, but kill them makes the waffle wording of the CDC’s latest statement particularly ominous. Has MRSA also been weaponized?

Since the causal role of industrial food production practices (including vaccinating birds “against” Avian Flu) is coming under scrutiny as a principle cause of Avian Flu outbreaks, it is relevant to note that antibiotic resistent organisms like Staphylococcus aureus are made that way through the subclinical administration of antibiotics to the animals we eat. The antibiotics they receive, and which we eat, either changed or rendered more toxic, in their eggs, flesh and milk, are given to them to keep them alive in the inhumane and unsanitary conditions in which they live. They are so crowded and poorly nourished that their immune systems collapse from the filth, “food” and stress under which they are reared so that the profit of the “farms” will be increased.

Food and health experts have long warned that the use of sub clinical antibiotics, and the “farming” practices that make them necessary would create plagues of resistant organisms which we had no bullets left to fire at once they made their way into the population. MRSA is only the first of many.

How interesting that MRSA vaccines have been under development for several years. For example, on Feb. 2, 2007, a new company devoted to producing MSRA vaccines was created in the UK. See commercialization items below.

http://bulletin.sciencebusiness.net/ebulletins/showissue.php3?page=/548/2230/7170

In 2007, Dr. Anthony Fiori presented a lecture refrenced by the CDC called “Introductory Session on Influenza Vaccines” presented to its influential Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in which he noted:

Compared to previous 2 seasons [2004-2005 and 2005-2006 – REL]
– Increase in mean age to 7 years (from 4-5 years in 2004-2006)*
– Increase in proportion with invasive MRSA-associated co-infection
from <5% to 27%
-preliminary data L Finelli, R Dhara, CDC- REL]

What he did not note was that the proportion of vaccinated children has been going up along with increased pediatric influenza deaths:

“As of June 22, 2007, CDC has received 67 reports of
influenza-associated pediatric deaths this influenza
season (2006-2007)
– 2005-2006: 45 deaths
– 2004-2005: 46 deaths
– 2003-2004: 153 deaths”.

Dr Fiore did, however, note that MRSA influenza, which presents itself as a bacterial co-infection, is now a significant cause of death in children

Also included in this interesting presentation is the anticipated schedule for revised influenza schedules:

“Potential Time-Frame for Modifying Influenza Vaccination Recommendations
• 2007-2008: Consider expanding recommendations to include school-age children
• 2010-2011: Consider expansion of recommendations to include household contacts and caregivers of school-aged children
• 2012-2013: Consider expansion to universal vaccination”
www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/ACIP/downloads/mtg-slides-jun07/26-influenza1-fiore.pdf

You might find it instructive to review the section of this presentation following the one cited above in which, despite clear evidence of dangers and deaths in young children receiving Flu Mist vaccine, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to approve it for young children anyway.
If you have no financial interest in vaccines, as the Natural Soluitons Foundation and I do not, you might find the evidcence compelling AWAY from approval. If, on the other hand, you do have a fninanciaql interstes in the sale of vaccines, which is permitted under the FDA/CDC rules, you might have voted as the ACIP members did.

Also, remember that live virus vaccines in general, and inhaled ones like Flu Mist in particular, cause live, infective viruses to be shed for as long as 3 months. Thus, the sibling, friend or relative of a susceptible child, for example, a wheezing baby, can infect, and potentially kill, the child.

The drums beat louder every day and the manipulation of information and statistics continues to build and impel the juggernaut of pandemic panic. You are the primary target of this flood of disinformation. We are here to help you sort through it all; to become prepared in meaningful ways.

Based on our best assessment of information and events, here is our current Intelligence Estimate of Situation, starting with some important notes of interest.

NOTES:

1. It is becoming increasingly clear to us at the Natural Solutions Foundation that whether or not there is a pandemic reality attached to Avian Flu, this opportunity for commercialization and social control has taken on a life of its own in the political establishment. We foresee that the necessity to allow, create or synthesize a pandemic will drive the process in the very near future into a deadly reality. Ask yourself: just how many government and foundation grants to “study” weaponizing the flu, to how many labs around the world, would be necessary before it was certain that one of those engineered bugs would be released, by “accident” or by a disgruntled employee, as with the Anthrax panic of 2001?

2. The inflammatory propaganda designed to panic and intimidate you into accepting whatever comes next once a “Pandemic” is declared consistently fails to differentiate between human cases of Avian Flu and animal cases. That way, the impression is ceaselessly reinforced that the Pandemic is already here, jut not on your block yet. The reality is that no human to human transmission has been demonstrated.

3. Exercises like the one in New Mexico (see below) are taking place in every State. Nearly every State has passed Emergency Medical Powers Acts which make refusing vaccination a felony once the Governor identifies a state of Pandemic. The property of felons, and those who hold strategic assets in a pandemic can be seized/nationalized according to various Homeland Security Directives and Executive Orders cited in our earlier discussions of this issue.

4. Industrial animal rearing practices and genetic engineering are the causes of the Pandemic Avian Flu threat, to whatever extent that threat is real. See Kennedy Shortridge, PhD’s important quote below.

Remembering the distinction between pandemic human Avian Flu and poultry disease would help to bring accuracy and proportion to the reports. Since all headlines uniformly refer to the occurrences by the same term, “Avian Flu”, a casual, hurried or frightened reader will glean the global dangers of this “inevitable pandemic” when, in fact, human cases are still exceedingly rare.

5. Discussions of “Who Lives, Who Dies” and “Necessary Restrictions of liberties” Beginning to Surface. Expect a pounding barrage of items telling you to let others decide your future and restrict your freedoms. Personal freedom and survival will be decided by “Public Health and Emergency organizations” like FEMA. The preparation for this totalitarian culling will begin with articles, meetings and propaganda and then become public policy at the UN level as well as in the US.

See Tucson, AZ Daily Star article below. Becoming aware of the propaganda is important for your survival.

6. 2 Recent Avian Flu Fatalities in Indonesia Reported, First Since July. (For Comparison, 700,000 People Die Annually In US From Cardiac Disease). While we believe that a disseminated, intentional pandemic is highly likely, early alerts devoted to the “Natural Evolution” of this danger are irrational and illogical. However, to the propagandists, making sure that the public stays primed is of importance in softening resistance to control measures and forced vaccination. Two deaths globally in the last 6 weeks is a pretty poor showing for a Pandemic disease which is consistently billed in that fashion. Is this really the next Plague? This indicates to us the careful propaganda push behind these perceptions.

http://www.avianflutalk.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=21052

7. Powerful and influential forces are at work to both convince you that the Pandemic is inevitable and to set up the situation so that self-fulfilling prophecy is fulfilled. This August 29, 2008 article is worth repeating: “Scientists funded by the Wellcome Trust are to examine what is preventing the H5N1 avian influenza virus from causing a human pandemic and what mutations are required to realise its deadly potential. The research could hold the key to early identification of a potential influenza pandemic…”

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-08/wt-seb082908.php

8. Drug-Resistant ‘Superbug’ in Australia Fueling Fear of Epidemic
By Jill Stark, Melbourne Age (Australia), September 8, 2008

“Australia is facing an epidemic of a drug-resistant superbug that attacks healthy teenagers and can be fatal, leading scientists have warned. A summit of 350 international microbiologists will converge on Cairns today to discuss the global health threat posed by resistant staphylococcal infections — also known as MRSA superbugs. Of particular concern is a new virulent form of the flesh-eating bug that can lead to a severe form of pneumonia that causes death in up to 50% of cases.

Unlike hospital-acquired MRSA, which affects mostly elderly patients, the community strain of the bug carries far more toxic genes and can be picked up in communal settings. Similar bugs in the U.S. have led to the deaths of several teenagers and schools being shut and disinfected. Experts at the conference say the bug is on the rise in Australia and patients are presenting to emergency departments with infected boils that can lead to abscesses and gaping wounds.

Associate Professor Keryn Christiansen, director of microbiology at Royal Perth Hospital and co-ordinator of the conference, said antibiotics seemed to have no effect. ‘We’re looking at a major epidemic. These are much more virulent strains of these bugs We’re seeing more people coming to our emergency departments, more people admitted with more severe infections and we’re seeing people die. It’s happening right across Australia,’ she said.”
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_14536.cfm

Read on for more details…

Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org
www.Organics4U.org
www.NaturalSolutionsMedia.tv
www.NaturalSolutionsMarketPlace.org

Listen to the Music: Pandemic Drum Beats:

The World Health Organization (WHO) notes that the drum beats for Pandemic Panic are not sufficiently arousing “Flu Fatigue’ Poses Public Health Threat, WHO Says.” http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=at0oOdQTLVE0&refer=home. [We can expect an increase in dire stories and more urgent warnings, whether or not they have any basis in reality. -REL]

1. New Bird Flu Strain Detected In Nigeria

A strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza previously not recorded in sub-Saharan Africa has been detected in Nigeria for the first time, FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization- REL] said today. Nigeria has recently reported two new Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza outbreaks in the states of Katsina and Kano.

Laboratory results from Nigeria and an FAO reference laboratory in Italy show that the newly discovered virus strain (H5N1, clade 2, EMA3) is genetically different from the strains that circulated in Nigeria during earlier outbreaks in 2006 and 2007. [Note that previous outbreaks represented zero danger to humans – REL] The new strain has never been reported before in Africa; it is more similar to strains previously identified in Europe (Italy), Asia (Afghanistan) and the Middle East (Iran) in 2007.

“It seems to be unlikely that wild birds have carried the strain to Africa, since the last migration of wild birds from Europe and Central Asia to Africa occurred in September 2007 and this year’s southerly migration into Africa has not really started yet,” Newman said. “It could well be that there are other channels for virus introduction: international trade, for example, or illegal and unreported movement of poultry. This increases the risk of avian influenza spread to other countries in Western Africa….

“Uncertainty about virus spread and transmission is a major challenge for control campaigns. [Indeed – REL] …. Since the avian influenza epidemic caused by the H5N1 strain started five years ago in Asia, the disease has affected over 60 countries [with virtually no human deaths despite deceptive statistics and media hype – REL]; the vast majority of countries have succeeded to eliminate the virus from poultry. In Nigeria, the virus was first confirmed in February 2006 and infected poultry in 25 states before being contained.” [Note: industrial poultry operations are paid more than market price for birds slaughtered “because” of Avian Flu, real or imagined. Subsistence farmers are paid nothing at all. WHO wants to eliminate backyard flocks totally despite the fact that Avian Flu infections do not occur in outdoor flocks AND almost always occur in previously vaccinated birds. Globalizing and industrializing the food supply is greatly assisted by these economically disastrous culls for peasant farmers which are, at the same time, highly profitable for industrial food producers. – REL]

Food And Agriculture Organization Of The United Nations – Fri, 08/15/2008
http://www.emaxhealth.com/90/24003.html

2. New Mexico Helps Business Community Prepare For Pandemic Flu
About 130 business and health leaders in New Mexico attended “Economic Consequences of Pandemic Influenza along the United States – Mexico Border” this week as a part of the State’s efforts to help organizations mitigate the effects of a pandemic flu. The New Mexico Department of Health partnered with the New Mexico Economic Development’s Office of Mexican Affairs to explain how companies can prepare for the impact a pandemic flu could have on their business.
http://www.emaxhealth.com/90/23957.html

“We are looking for every opportunity to meet with different sectors of our community to make sure New Mexico is prepared for the disruption to services and businesses during a pandemic flu,” said Health Secretary Dr. Alfredo Vigil. “We appreciate businesses taking the time to learn about how they can develop plans to ensure minimal disruption to trade and commerce in the region….

‘Business leaders have a responsibility to be part of the solution in dealing with a potential pandemic. We must have measures in place that will prevent disruptions in the supply chain and have a plan to deliver goods and services if the workforce gets sick.’” [Perhaps there is another way to interpret this, but we see this as a clear preparatory step for government forces to nationalize supplies and distribution of goods and services when, not if, the pandemic is declared. This possibility is already embodied in various Homeland Security Directives and Executive Orders that allow for the nationalization of assets, resources, transportation and distribution property and systems. REL]

3. American Lung Association Urges Vaccination “Each and Every Year” In Its Influenza Prevention Program
Welcome to Faces of Influenza

[Reading this item, please ask yourself how much of the budget of the American Lung Association derives from the pharmaceutical and vaccine industry. And then ask yourself how the vaccine prevents influenza when the symptoms of the reaction to the vaccine are identical to the flu – a neat “escape hatch for the unpleasant, and unprofitable reality that vaccines frequently cause diseases they are designed to protect against. – REL]
“Welcome to Faces of Influenza—an educational Web site of the American Lung Association. This site is designed to put a face on influenza in the United States and show firsthand the seriousness of this potentially deadly infectious disease.

This site features special portraits of famous and not so famous Americans, who represent each of the influenza high-risk groups—persons health officials recommend receive an influenza vaccination, with its “trace” amount of mercury poison, each and every year.

Along with these dramatic portraits are compelling stories about their experience with influenza and the importance of annual immunization.

You will likely see yourself, family members and others among the many Faces of Influenza. You also will come to realize that influenza is not the common cold. It’s serious. Each year, approximately 226,000 Americans are hospitalized with complications from influenza. An average of 36,000 people, it is alleged, die from the virus and its complications. [As previously discussed by the Natural Solutions Foundation, these statistics are highly deceptive since ALL lung related deaths which could potentially, not actually, be associated with flu of ANY type are listed as deaths CAUSED BY influenza. – REL]

http://www.facesofinfluenza.org/home.php?utm_source=msn&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Philadelphia

4. “Bird Flu – A Virus of Own Hatching” by Michael Greger reinforces Industrial Fowl Production Cause of the Coming Pandemic.

[Note the continuing conflation of human and poultry infection which is described as “rampaging west to Russia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.” despite the lack of a single human case in any of these areas of pandemic flu. -REL]

Kennedy Shortridge, PhD, DSc(Hon), CBiol, FIBiol has issued a critical statement in the introduction to this book:

“Indeed, molecular and genetic evidence suggests that the chicken is not a natural host for influenza. Rather, the domestic duck is the silent intestinal carrier of avian influenza viruses being raised in close proximity to habitation.”

“It is the siting of large-scale chicken production units, particularly in southern China where avian influenza viruses abound, that is the crux of the problem. There, domestic ducks have been raised on rivers, waterways, and, more recently, with the flooded rice crops cultivated each year. The importation of industrial poultry farming into that same region introduced millions of chickens—highly stressed due to intensive production practices and unsanitary conditions—into this avian influenza virus milieu. The result? An influenza accident waiting to happen. The H5N1 virus signaled its appearance in Hong Kong in 1997, and has since made its way into dozens of countries, infected millions of birds, and threatens to trigger a human catastrophe.”

“Michael Greger has taken on the formidable task of reviewing and synthesizing the many factors contingent upon chicken production that have brought us to the influenza threat the world now faces. Drawing upon scientific literature and media reports at large, Dr. Greger explores the hole we have dug for ourselves with our own unsavory practices.”

“Indeed, while governments and the poultry industry are quick to blame migratory birds as the source of the current H5N1 avian influenza virus, and to view pandemics as natural phenomena analogous to, say, sunspots and earthquakes, in reality, human choices and actions may have had—and may continue to have—a pivotal role in the changing ecology. Now that anthropogenic behavior has reached unprecedented levels with a concomitant pronounced zoonotic skew in emerging infectious diseases of humans, H5N1 seems like a cautionary tale of how attempts to exploit nature may backfire. The use of antibiotics as farm meal growth promoters leading to antibiotic-resistance in humans or the feeding of meat or bone meal to cattle leading to mad cow disease are cases in point: profitable in the short term for animal agriculture, but with the potential for unforeseen and disastrous consequences. Intensified, industrial poultry production has given us inexpensive chicken, but at what cost to the animals and at what heightened risk to public health?”

“We have reached a critical point. We must dramatically change animal farming practices for all animals.”

http://birdflubook.com/a.php?id=115

An excerpt from Dr. Greger’s introductory comments: “H5N1 took its first human life in Hong Kong in 1997 and has since rampaged west to Russia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. It remains almost exclusively a disease of birds, [Emphasis added – REL] but as the virus has spread, it has continued to mutate. It has developed greater lethality and enhanced environmental stability, and has begun taking more species under its wing. Influenza viruses don’t typically kill mammals like rodents, but experiments have shown that the latest H5N1 mutants can kill 100% of infected mice, practically dissolving their lungs. The scientific world has never seen anything like it. [This supports the bio-engineered origin of this virus – REL] We’re facing an unprecedented outbreak of an unpredictable virus….”

“Currently in humans, H5N1 is good at killing, but not at spreading. There are three essential conditions necessary to produce a pandemic. First, a new virus must arise from an animal reservoir, such that humans have no natural immunity to it. Second, the virus must evolve to be capable of killing human beings efficiently. Third, the virus must succeed in jumping efficiently from one human to the next. For the virus, it’s one small step to man, but one giant leap to mankind. So far, conditions one and two have been met in spades. Three strikes and we’re out. If the virus triggers a human pandemic, it will not be peasant farmers in Vietnam dying after handling dead birds or raw poultry—it will be New Yorkers, Parisians, Londoners, and people in every city, township, and village in the world dying after shaking someone’s hand, touching a doorknob, or simply inhaling in the wrong place at the wrong time….”

[While Dr. Greger does an admirable job of pulling information together, he does not critically analyze the statistical slight of hand which creates the panic perception of a disease which apparently has a very low mortality, despite what appear to be the best efforts of sophisticated scientists. -REL]

http://birdflubook.com/a.php?id=114

5. Lead In To Surrender of Choice for Personal Safety and Liberty Re: Pandemic Flu Beginning.

Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, AZ, September 14, 2008

“In global flu outbreak, who gets saved? “In the event of a global flu outbreak, some government leaders could have higher priority to receive vaccines than infants and toddlers…..The department, which has been preparing for the possibility of a massive pandemic flu outbreak for more than four years now, is adding a new component to its plan — input from the public… [What a novel departure! -REL]

If people understand what’s going on, there’s a bigger chance of buy-in, if and when if happens,” said Dr. Michelle McDonald, the department’s chief medical officer.

“There will be three major ethical issues — short supplies of critical things, restrictions of freedom (as) places will be closed [including your home as you are “detained” for quarantine or other purposes? – REL], and there will be personal and community interests to balance.” [Early justification for marshal law – REL]…. ‘Many people will be asked to make choices,’ McDonald said.

The worst pandemic flu in the last century was the 1918 “Spanish flu,” which infected between 30 and 40 percent of the population and resulted in more than a half-million deaths in the United States and between 20 million and 100 million deaths worldwide. [Which makes its intentional recreation highly puzzling -REL]

“Is there going to be another pandemic? Yeah, there is absolutely, no question,” said Dr. Bob England, director of the Maricopa County Health Department…. If it gets going, it’s going to go very fast. … But panic does not have to happen if you communicate well, tell the truth and give people something rational to do.”
http://www.azstarnet.com/me
tro/257459

6. Avian Flu Found in Togo, West Africa [Note that this item refers to the virus in birds, not in people, but it is written to sound like Avian Flu is among us humans now. Note the misuse of the word “deadly’ in the following headline. – REL]

Togo: Recent bird flu outbreak is deadly H5N1

LOME, Togo (AP) — Tests performed after the first ever outbreak of bird flu in the West African nation of Togo have confirmed the presence of the virulent H5N1 strain of the virus, state media said Monday.

The virus was detected at a poultry farm housing more than 4,500 birds in the village of Agbata outside the capital, Lome, according to the government.

The presence of the deadly strain raises special concern because it has the potential to infect humans. At least 235 people have died of bird flu worldwide since 2003, according to the World Health Organization.

However, the disease remains hard for humans to catch, with most cases linked to contact with infected birds. But scientists worry the virus could mutate to a form that spreads more easily among people.

Togo state television reported the lab tests were carried out by experts in Ghana and Italy after the outbreak was discovered last week.

The Health Ministry says “precautionary measures have been taken to contain the situation.” [Whatever that means -probably slaughtering backyard flocks and paying nothing, as in Nigeria, but paying above market value for industrial flocks which are killed. – REL]
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ijHXcssRTwpilkrwuURZECPGZ_bgD937G5500

Commercializing the Pandemic Opportunity [This is but a small sampling of the rush for profit by pharmaceutical companies and others to profit from the predicted, but not yet real, Pandeic Flu (or Pandemic anything else) hysteria.

The gold rush is on!

1. IntefleCSâ„¢ Bio Surveillance

A Pandemic Surveillance program called “IntefleCSâ„¢ Bio Surveillance has been designed for the early detection and effective management of an epidemic or pandemic outbreak of infectious disease. The solution steers consumers and clinicians successfully through the complex healthcare delivery process to ensure that patients are referred to the most appropriate level of care. [Whatever that might mean -REL]” Their website banner repeats the now-familiar harrangue, “No one knows what or when the next pandemic outbreak will be but healthcare services need to be fully prepared.” [The logical absurdity of this does not seem to bother either this company or those who repeat this illogical statement over and over. – REL]

http://www.csdss.com/solutions/bioSurveillance/index.aspx?gclid=COi_yq_p25UCFQGVGgodYlEyYw

2. Novavax Today Reported that it’s VLP Pandemic Influenza Vaccine, Joined With Innovative Vaccine Preparation, Pas the Potential to Address Aaps in Global Flu Pandemic Preparedness.

Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ: NVAX) announced today favorable results from the second stage of the Phase I/IIa human clinical trial of its pandemic influenza virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine candidate. The vaccine, [produced in insect cell culture – REL] which does not contain an adjuvant, induced robust neutralizing antibody responses. Novavax’s VLP candidate is directed against the H5N1 A/Indonesia/05/2005 avian influenza strain. Avian influenza emerged in humans in Indonesia in 2005 and has caused 135 documented human cases, 81% of which have been fatal. [As previously discussed, the number of cases mentioned is the number of SYMPTOMATIC cases. Asymptomatic cases, those without any symptoms or mild ones, are totally ignored although there may be thousands of such cases for every one reported, altering the statistics profoundly. This precision would undermine the frantic, and profitable, “media reality” being created. -REL]….

[The point of this commercialization is presented at the end of this article – REL] “These data are also supportive for moving forward with development of another Novavax vaccine candidate: against seasonal influenza. Seasonal influenza causes over 500,000 deaths worldwide and over 36,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, most of which occur in adults 65 years of age and older, a population in which currently licensed vaccines have only modest efficacy.

Novavax has developed a vaccine candidate against seasonal (human) influenza strains. While current seasonal vaccines consist almost entirely of HA, the Novavax VLP contains HA, NA, and M1 with the potential of inducing neutralizing antibody to prevent infection and reduce the severity of influenza illnesses.”

http://www.emaxhealth.com/90/1/24265.html

3. New Drugs in the Offing – H5N1 Already Resistant to Current Ones
New drugs to fight bird flu, other influenza epidemics

Researchers at Rutgers University and The University of Texas at Austin have reported a discovery that could help scientists develop drugs to fight the much-feared bird flu and other virulent strains of influenza.

The researchers have determined the three-dimensional structure of a site on an influenza A virus protein that binds to one of its human protein targets, thereby suppressing a person’s natural defenses to the infection and paving the way for the virus to replicate efficiently. This so-called NS1 virus protein is shared by all influenza A viruses isolated from humans – including avian influenza, or bird flu, and the 1918 pandemic influenza virus….

“Our work uncovers an Achilles heel of influenza A viruses that cause human epidemics and high mortality pandemics,” said Montelione, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry. “We have identified the structure of a key target site for drugs that could be developed to effectively combat this disease.”

http://www.emaxhealth.com/90/1/24222.html

4. Self Immunize to Find Out if Avian Flu Vaccine Works [Or Might Kill You -REL], Suggests Anonymous Blogger,

“The newly introduced way to prevent avian infection is the bird flu vaccine. [This is factually incorrect – REL] Through years of experimentation, health experts have finally put a solution to our problems [This is factually incorrect. One of the largest studies of an Avian Flu vaccine ever reported is now in progress. St. Louis University has enrolled just 167 people in the trial. -REL]. Although it has been released with great certainty, how are we going to know if the vaccine works? How will we know if the new influenza virus vaccine promises immunity from avian flu contamination? Well, there can only be one way to find out and that is through self-immunization.” [This is bizarre reasoning -REL]

Is The Influenza Virus Vaccine Effective Against Bird Flu

“Among the many tests [What tests? -REL] conducted by several health agencies from all over the globe, the efficacy of the flu vaccine is said to be very successful. About eighty percent of the group tested showed positive results [Antibody production is NOT disease protection – REL]. Although it still needs to be tried and tested by many people, the influenza virus vaccine can probably be our great defense against the killer disease. [It is not a killer disease. It is billed as a killer disease. No one who is talking knows the real statistics: people infected vs. kill rate. All we have is the oft-repeated statistic of people seriously ill vs. kill rate. The difference is massively important. REL] Through this newly crafted ounce of fluid, we can remove our fears of getting infected with the deadly virus. [There is no way to create a vaccine against a virus that does not yet exist. IF the Pandemic Flu virus does not exist, there is no assurance whatsoever that these vaccines provide any measure of protection. Vaccines often cause the diseases they are supposed to protect against. What would the implications of such a chain of events be with the Pandemic Avian Flu? REL] Perhaps in a year’s time, we can know even more about the effectiveness of the vaccine.” [And perhaps not, perhaps with tragic consequences – REL]

5. Vaxin Gets Funding for Bird Flu Vaccine Experiments
Birmingham News, Birmingham Alabama 09/12/2008

Alabama-based biotech firm Vaxin has received a $995,000 grant from the NIH to conduct experiments on its genetically engineered bird-flu vaccine designed to inoculate in-ovo poultry populations. [This means that eggs used for human consumption would be vaccinated before they are consumed and that chickens hatched from these eggs would already be vaccinated. The health hazards of these process are not characterized or understood. A large percentage of the poultry consumed is already being inoculated with untested vaccines against various diseases including the supposedly dangerous Avian Flu. Please note that only vaccinated flocks develop Avian Flu. -REL] The company’s CEO says it could be possible to vaccinate “70,000 to 80,000 eggs an hour,” because the process can be automated. He also noted that the company is separately developing a human vaccine, and they’re preparing for human trials. Birmingham News (Ala.),
http://birdflubreakingnews.com/templates/birdflu/window.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.smartbrief.com%2Fnews%2Faabb%2FstoryDetails.jsp%3Fissueid%3D59CD5B23-32D2-42EA-851D-E9E95F579F5B%26copyid%3D12DF01FC-0BBD-453C-ADC7-080F2649CD3D

And on it goes… But remember, we at Natural Solutions Foundation are here for you, to help you sort the hype from the threat. To continue to do so, we need your generous, tax-deductible support.

6. MRSA Vaccines under development for several years.

Nabi Biopharmaceuticals and NIAID to Advance PentaStaph Vaccine Research
Collaboration to Focus On Protecting Against Life-Threatening Staphylococcus aureus Infections

ROCKVILLE, Md., Sept. 9, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Nabi Biopharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:NABI) announced today that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the National Institutes of Health, has entered into a collaboration with Nabi to advance the Company’s promising PentaStaph(tm) vaccine candidate for the prevention and treatment of S. aureus infections in the community and hospital settings. The focus of the collaboration is to conduct pre-clinical toxicology evaluations of two new S. aureus antigens as components of the first-in-class, multivalent vaccine, targeting S. aureus infections. NIAID will fund the pre-clinical toxicology evaluations of the vaccine components manufactured and provided by Nabi. The two novel antigens are designed to protect against two of the most virulent and debilitating toxins produced by the bacteria: Panton-Valentine Leukocidin, found predominantly in community-acquired methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), and alpha toxin, produced by almost all S. aureus isolates. Pre-clinical toxicology testing of these components will help enable the initiation of Phase 1 clinical trials for these new antigens in early 2009 which is one of the Company’s three development milestones for 2008.

http://www.fiercebiotech.com/press-releases/nabi-biopharmaceuticals-and-niaid-advance-pentastaph-vaccine-research

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