I.                   INTRODUCTION

The 2009-2010 swine flu pandemic is officially over, but many serious risks remain--not so much from the flu, but from the flu vaccines and America’s emergency health laws. Current laws allow states to mandate fast-tracked, untested emergency vaccines and other emergency medical protocol without exemptions during declared emergencies, despite the existence of safer, viable alternatives; those who refuse vaccines can be quarantined in government facilities. This Report documents the problems and the need for prompt, proactive legislative solutions.

 

II.                BRIEF HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

A.    1976 “Swine Flu Fiasco”[i]

In 1976, the Ford Administration projected up to one million deaths from the swine flu. President Ford claimed on national T.V. that the 1976 swine flu was the same virus as the 1918 Spanish flu that killed ½ million Americans and 20 million people internationally. In response, Congress allocated money for swine flu vaccines, guaranteed vaccine manufacturers a profit, and indemnified vaccine manufacturers from harm from the vaccines.

Ford’s 1976 vaccine campaign went against the recommendation of government scientists. There had been only one swine flu death—a soldier from Fort Dix. That flu season turned out to be the mildest flu season on record. CBS news later reported 4,000 vaccine damage claims for $3.5 billion. Two thirds of the claims were for neurological harm or death from the vaccines.[ii]

 

B.     2005 Bird Flu Hoax

In early October of 2005, the Bush Administration warned that bird flu could kill from 200,000 to 2,000,000 Americans.[iii] In late October of 2005, the Centre for Research on Globalization revealed that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld would profit from the “bird flu hoax.”[iv] No pandemic materialized, but the U.S. spent $2 billion on Tamiflu.

 

C.     2009 Contaminated Vaccines

In February of 2009, American vaccine manufacturer Baxter sent vaccines contaminated with live avian bird flu virus throughout Europe.[v] Media in the Czech Republic, where the contamination was first discovered, reported that it was “virtually impossible” for this to have been an accident, given the Biosafety Level 3 laboratory protocols used, and questioned whether this was an attempt to start a deliberate pandemic.[vi] The vaccine mixture of the deadly-but-not-easily-spread H5N1 bird flu virus and the benign-but-easily-spread seasonal flu virus could have been a lethal airborne biological weapon that could have triggered contracts internationally for the production and sale of vaccines to address such a pandemic.[vii] [Nor was this an isolated instance in which an American pharmaceutical company deliberately introduced disease into a foreign country. In the mid-1980’s, Bayer knowing dumped HIV-tainted drugs on other countries after being forbidden to sell them in the U.S. Many innocent people died as a result.[viii]]

Baxter first denied the 2009 European vaccine contamination, then later claimed it was an accident. Baxter has had over 44 Class I recalls since 2003, yet has developed flu vaccines fully funded by the federal government.[ix] “Class I Recalls by the US Food and Drug Administration [FDA] are the most severe type of FDA recall. In a Class-I recall there is a potential for serious injury or death.”[x]