The Pharmaceutical Cartel is concerned… people are not dying to take their latest concoction: a “pre-pandemic” vaccine!
In an extraordinary announcement, the Wellcome Trust, is providing funding to find out why the H5N1 Virus, widely advertised as the organism that would create the mother of all pandemics, has so far failed to live up to its billing.
Before looking at the remarkable interest which this Trust has supporting this study, we should know a bit about the Wellcome Foundation. A quick visit to its web site, http://www.wellcome.ac.uk, tells us a heart warming story:
In 1880, two young Americans – Silas Mainville Burroughs and Henry Wellcome – established a pharmaceutical company, Burroughs Wellcome & Co. In 1895, Silas Burroughs died, leaving the company in the hands of his partner. The firm flourished under Wellcome’s leadership.
Henry Wellcome set up several research laboratories loosely linked to the drugs company – a highly original step at the time – and employed some of the most outstanding scientists of the day. He also indulged his passion for collecting artefacts related to medicine.
In 1924, Henry Wellcome consolidated all his commercial and non-commercial activities under one corporate umbrella: The Wellcome Foundation Limited. He died in 1936, at which time the Wellcome Trust was established.
In his will, Wellcome vested the entire share capital of the drug company, The Wellcome Foundation Limited, in individual Trustees. The Trustees were charged with spending the income according to Sir Henry’s wishes.
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/History/index.htm
We also learn that “The Wellcome Trust remained the sole shareholder of The Wellcome Foundation Limited until 1986. In that year, the Foundation became a public limited company, Wellcome plc, and was floated on the London stock market. The company merged with Glaxo plc in 1995, to form a new company, Glaxo Wellcome plc, and merged again with SmithKline Beecham plc in 2000 to form GlaxoSmithKline. “http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/History/Wellcome-business/index.htm
A look at GlaxoSmithKline tells us that in July, 2006 it announced in a Washington Post article that a new version of a vaccine against a strain of H5N1 virus that killed people in Viet Nam in 2004 was worthless without a new, secret adjuvant but people developed antibodies to very low doses of the vaccine with the adjuvant. Adjuvants are immune irritants like aluminum (associated with Alzheimer’s Disease), sqalene (associated with lethal auto immune responses) and other highly toxic substances. No mention is made of safety or safety testing for this secret adjuvant in the article.
The same article goes on to say that authorities generally require 70% of a population to develop antibodies to a vaccine if it is to be accepted as “safe and effective” medicine for us (throwing the entire “theory” of “herd immunity” into a very cocked hat, indeed, by the way). The same article also mentions, very close to the bottom, that it is not at all certain the vaccine against the 2004 Viet Nam H5N1 strain would confer immunity or protection in the event of an avian flu pandemic contagion, noting, “A key unanswered question is whether the antibodies against that strain would protect a person against other strains.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/26/AR2006072601716.html
On May 19, 2008, Medical News Today noted that “Many experts believe it is only a matter of time before the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, which currently humans can only catch from infected birds, mutates into a form that spreads easily from human to human and when it does so it will kill millions of people all over the world.” and enthused that “Global pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is the first to get the go ahead for a wide spectrum vaccine to protect humans ahead of a possible future bird flu pandemic now that the European Commission (EC) is giving the drug giant approval today, Monday, to market its pre-pandemic vaccine Prepandrix in all 27 member states of the European Union (EU), according to various media reports.”
The same article notes, ” Chief executive of GSK, Jean-Pierre Garnier said that:
‘This vaccine marks a significant step in the world’s ability to cope with an influenza pandemic.”
“It is testament to GSK scientists who have pioneered the approach to pre-pandemic vaccination, demonstrating our commitment to doing everything we can to help prevent the devastating effects of a pandemic,” he added.
Although Prepandrix has only just received its first regulatory approval, countries such as the US, Switzerland and Finland have already started stockpiling the vaccine, sales of which last year topped 200 million US dollars (102 million GB pounds). GSK said stockpiling means countries will be able to deal with an outbreak sooner rather than waiting for a vaccine to be developed for a particular strain….
“This drug represents one of the swing factors affecting us in 2008.” http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/107910.php
This means, of course, that the US is already stockpiling a vaccine which it has neither tested nor approved. A vaccine created on a premise which is totally untried and tested: that a vaccine against something that killed somebody will provide protection for somebody else if they encounter another type of pathogenic (disease causing) organism. It’s an interesting, and apparently highly profitable theory, but does it have much to do with reality? And just how safe is this vaccine with the super secret adjuvant? [Using an untested drug is treated as a crime in the US. How has this law been circumvented? REL]
Next it is instructive to note that, having already made a great deal of money on a unvetted vaccine based on an untested premise from the US and other countries where it has not been approved, the ever ethical GlaxoSmithKlein announced at ClinicalTrails.Gov a US clinical trial in adults for a vaccine already being stockpiled in the US:
July 2008
Sponsors and Collaborators: GlaxoSmithKline [and] Department of Health and Human Services
Information provided by: GlaxoSmithKline
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00719043
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine whether [emphasis added – REL] GSK’s avian flu vaccine GSK 1557484A is immunogenic [that is, does it produce an immune response, not whether it is safe or works – REL] when given to adults aged >=18 years.
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00719043
Before we go on, we should recall that Avian Flu vaccines are rich plums and are pretty low hanging as well: the vaccines do not have to be particularly safe or effective, just profitable. Very profitable, with Congress providing the “insurance” against vaccine induced injury (supported by a special vaccine tax vaccine “consumers” are forced to pay) that guarantees these endless profits.
The standards for vaccines are bargain basement science: some sort of immunological response has to be produced, but the person does not necessarily wind up being “protected” (which is why most epidemics occur in totally or nearly totally vaccinated populations) and safety is assessed so lightly and so poorly that, in the context of guaranteed immunity from any prosecution or liability findings in any court in the US, vaccine companies have little trouble picking those fruits. See, for example,
GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Iomi Land Avian Flu Vaccine Contracts
January 17, 2007 · Filed Under Generalby H.S. Ayoub
BioHealth Investor.comThe Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has awarded GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics (NVS) and Iomi (IOMI) all a total of $133 million in funding for the development of H5N1 Avain Flu vaccines.
GSK’s contract will total $63 million over 5 years, while Novartis will receive $55 million over the same period.
http://www.biohealthinvestor.com/2007/01/glaxosmithkline-novartis-and-iomi-land-avian-flu-vaccine-contracts.html
Now on to the search for the Perfect Pandemic storm: Here is the press release provided a few days ago to hail the generous funding of the Wellcome Trust to help scientists figure out what is taking the pandemic H5N1 flu so long to get started. Considering that in 2006 the US Government is reported to have mailed unprotected, unmarked vials of the newly reconstituted Pandemic 1918 flu virus to labs and hospitals all over the world (was that genome inserted in an H5N1 strain of Avian Flu or not? – the Natural Solutions Foundation does not yet have that information but would greatly appreciate knowing whether it was; we know people from government sites read this blog… won’t one of you become a whistle blower and save the lives of millions?). The media reports that several people are reported to have died from various strains of H5N1. It is remarkable, indeed, that after all that research, and all that hype, there is no H5N1, or H7N1 or any other Avian Flu Pandemic – YET.
Does the Welcome Trust aim to do something about that?
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“Scientists examine bird flu infections to monitor for ‘pandemic’ mutations”
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, and to developing drugs and a vaccine.
Since its reappearance in 1997, the H5N1 influenza virus has caused disease and death in millions of birds around the globe. The number of infections in humans is still relatively small, however: from 2003 to the end of June 2008 there had been 385 known cases in humans, 243 of them fatal(1). So far, there appear to have been very few cases of human-to-human transmission.
Professor Ten Feizi at Imperial College London believes one reason why H5N1 has not yet evolved into an effective pathogen capable of widespread transmission between humans lies in how the virus attaches itself to the respiratory tract. She is leading an international research project which has received over £720,000 from the Wellcome Trust to identify the receptor molecules in the human respiratory tract to which viruses attach and to look at how changes in the binding protein on the surface of the virus might increase its ability to attach to the tract and cause infection.
Professor Feizi will work with Professors Menno de Jong and Jeremy Farrar from the Wellcome Trust’s South East Asia Programme in Vietnam, Dr Alan Hay and Dr Steve Gamblin at the Medical Research Council National Institute for Medical Research, London, and Dr Mikhail Matrosovich at the Philipps University of Marburg, Germany.
“Over the last few years particularly in Asia we have seen just how deadly the H5N1 virus can be,” says Professor Farrar from the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where a number of people have been treated for infection by the virus. “So far, we have been relatively fortunate and there has been only limited evidence of the virus transmitting from human to human. The more we understand about the virus, how it interacts with the body, the better we will be prepared for any serious mutations that may arise.”
In humans, influenza infection occurs via the respiratory tract, or airway. In order to cause disease, the virus must enter the body’s cells where it can replicate and spread, but it must first find a site to which it can attach, known as a receptor. The virus can only attach to and enter the cells if the receptor fits into the binding proteins, or haemagglutinins (the “H” in H5N1), on the surface of the virus.
Previous research has shown that the haemagglutinin on H5N1 favours a particular form of receptor known as a “2,3 receptor”. These are abundant on cells of birds, but in humans are found mostly on cells of the lower respiratory tract (the lungs). Professor Feizi and colleagues have shown that mucus in the upper airway in humans also contains 2,3 receptors, but here the mucus acts as a defence mechanism to which the virus binds, blocking its progress and enabling the body to “sweep out” the virus. Both factors suggest that huge doses of the virus are required in order to infect humans, a theory supported by evidence that those who have become infected have spent large amounts of time in close proximity to infected fowl.
As with all viruses, H5N1 is continually mutating, and it is changes that allow the virus to attach to “2,6 receptors” in the human upper airway which may enable the virus to become more infectious to humans.
“If the bird flu virus evolves to favour the receptors in our nose and throat like normal flu, the results could be devastating,” says Professor Feizi from the Division of Medicine at Imperial College London. “We could have a virus which is not only highly infectious but is easily transmissible by coughing and sneezing.”
Dr Hay and Dr Gamblin will isolate haemagglutinin from samples of the virus taken from the patients in Vietnam, and Dr Matrosovich will grow cultures of human airway cells and isolate cell-membrane receptors and secreted mucus. Then, using a technique known as neoglycolipid (NGL) microarray analysis developed by Professor Feizi and her colleagues, the team at Imperial College will identify which of the various receptor structures the haemagglutinins bind most strongly to. Dr Gamblin’s team will then use X-ray crystallography to probe, at the molecular level, how mutations might cause the bird virus to change into a human virus.
“If we can find out which mutations of haemagglutinin prefer which receptors, we may be able to identify quickly or even predict which mutations give the virus pandemic potential,” says Professor Feizi.
Current antiviral treatments for influenza, such as Tamiflu, target neuraminidase (the “N” in H5N1), which is responsible for allowing the virus to jump off receptors on one cell and bind to those on another cell, and to replicate and spread once inside the body.
“Targeting the virus’s ability to bind to the receptors – which until now has proved far more difficult – may provide an alternative, more effective way of preventing infection,” says Professor Feizi. “We hope that our work will make this process simpler and faster.”
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1. Cumulative Number of Confirmed Human Cases of Avian Influenza A/(H5N1) Reported to WHO, 19 June 2008. http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/country/cases_table_2008_06_19/en/index.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-08/wt-seb082908.php
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Here is my question to you, dear reader: Are you convinced by the tag line which comprises the very last paragraph of this press release? Or, given the financial investment of the drug companies in having, not preventing, a pandemic, would you put your money on the “Where did that super Pandemic get to? By George, let’s go find it!” horse?
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
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