Flu Vaccine Warning For Pregnant Women

[Guest guest]

flu vaccine for adults still has mercury (and most flu vaccine for children)

Flu Vaccine Warning For Pregnant Women

http://www.vaccineinfo.net/immunization/vaccine/influenza/flu_vaccine_warning.sh\

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October 8, 1999

Flu Vaccine Warning For Pregnant Women

Please distribute and post so every pregnant woman in America can read this!

SAME for 2005-2006 - (Critical Update 10/25/00 - All three of the flu

vaccines for the 2000-2001 season still contain mercury. The CDC has

since updated the link referred by my article below - it is no longer

valid, but their new answer to the question who is most vulnerable to

methyl mercury is much more revealing: " Two groups are most

vulnerable to methyl mercury: the fetus and pregnant women. Premature

babies are more vulnerable because they tend to be very small and

their brain is not as developed as a full term baby " )

October 8, 1999

Flu Vaccine: Stay Out of My Womb!

Commentary by Dawn

Pregnant women everywhere know the feeling of making it to the

milestone of their second trimester. For most, queasiness starts to

subside, energy returns in spurts, and of course there is that

indescribable feeling of becoming aware of your developing baby's movements.

You've altered your diet, exercised, stayed away from over the

counter medications, your true hair color is revealing itself, and

that wonderful bottle of wine with the Surgeon General's warning will

continue stay buried in the back of the refrigerator awaiting the

skinnier days ahead.

You ask yourself, " Is there anything more that I can do for me and my

baby during the remainder of my pregnancy? " Well, according to the

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the federal government's

Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) there is - get

the flu vaccine before this year's flu season hits. According to the

CDC and ACIP, it was estimated that an average of 1 to 2

hospitalizations among pregnant women could be prevented for every

1,000 pregnant women immunized. (Prevention and Control of Influenza:

Recommendations of ACIP. MMWR - May 1, 1998; 47)

My initial pregnant maternally protective hormonal response to this

was utter disbelief. How could a biological pharmaceutical product

be recommended for routine use for all healthy second and third

trimester pregnant women? As I looked into this further, I became

outraged and inspired to share the truth with pregnant women so they

could make up their own minds. Here is what I found.

There are four drug manufacturers for this year's flu vaccine. The

product package inserts published by the manufacturers state the

disclaimer that " Animal reproduction studies have not been conducted

with influenza virus vaccine. It is also not known whether influenza

virus vaccine can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant

woman...Although animal

reproductive studies have not been conducted, the prescribing

health-care provider should be aware of the recommendations of the

Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices...The ACIP states that,

if used during pregnancy,

administration of influenza virus vaccine after 14 weeks of gestation

may be preferable to avoid coincidental association of the vaccine

with early pregnancy loss... "

Additional reading and phone calls to the manufacturers confirmed

that all four flu vaccines contain thimerosal, a mercury derivative

preservative banned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in

over-the-counter (OTC) drug preparations because of questions over

safety. (Federal Register: April 22, 1998 (Volume 63, Number

77)][Page 19799-19802].

On July 7, 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the

United States Public Health Service (PHS) issued a joint statement

that because of the " neuro-developmental effects posed by exposure to

thimerosal " , " thimerosal-containing vaccines should be removed as

soon as possible. " The PHS and AAP recognized that because of

thimerosal in vaccines, some

children would be exposed to " a cumulative level of mercury over the

first six months of life that exceeds one of the federal guidelines

on methyl mercury. " Hospitals around the country responded this

summer by halting the administration of the thimerosal containing

vaccine for hepatitis B at birth, deferring vaccination until the

baby is older and more developed. What about my beloved little baby

that isn't even developed enough to live outside the womb yet?

A quick internet search showed that even the CDC, in a revealing

self-contradiction at another location, posted: " Q. Who is most

vulnerable to mercury? A. Two groups are most vulnerable to methyl

mercury: the fetus and children ages 14 and younger. "

(http://www.cdc.gov/nip/Q & A/genqa/Thimerosal.htm) More searching on

the National Library of Medicine site almost effortlessly produced

hundreds of articles and studies in medical and scientific journals

clearly documenting

the damaging effects of prenatal exposure to mercury. The results of

one recent study published in the August 1, 1999 issue of the

American Journal of Epidemiology stated that " the greatest

susceptibility to methylmercury neurotoxicity occurs during late

gestation, while early postnatal vulnerability is less " which is the

precise point in time that ACIP and the

CDC is recommending we get the shot.

I then decided to call the CDC's Influenza Division myself, as a

pregnant mother baffled by this scientifically unfounded and

potentially unsafe recommendation. Maybe I was missing something

that an " expert " could reveal for me. I was told that there was no

scientific proof that the flu vaccine caused fetal harm. Well of

course not, the manufacturers are right up front

when they state that this hasn't been studied - isn't that

convenient. I was also told that the CDC had no intention to change

the recommendation for pregnant women because of thimerosal. The

doctor blamed the recent concerns on " politics " rather than

science. What a shame.

Even though the CDC does claim that a single study of a small number

of pregnant women have demonstrated no adverse fetal effects

associated with influenza vaccine; they continue and say, " however,

more data are needed. " Maybe this scientifically unsubstantiated

recommendation is how the CDC plans on getting that data. So much

for the Nazi war criminal trials at Nuremberg outlawing human

experimentation without informed consent.

While I would absolutely hate to be one of the 1 in 1000 pregnant

women needing to go to the hospital for the flu this winter, at this

point, I feel far more threatened by the public health bureaucrats

recklessly willing to experiment on me and my unborn child with a flu

vaccine not proven safe for my baby.

To receive email updates on vaccine safety and informed consent

issues, write to prove@...

Permission to distribute and print in whole and unedited given by,

Dawn

President, PROVE (Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education)

prove@... (email)

http://vaccineinfo.net (web site)