The Centers for Disease Control: The Best Vaccination PR Firm Taxes Can Buy

The Centers for Disease Control: The Best Vaccination PR Firm Taxes Can Buy

Richard Gale & Gary Null

Progressive Radio Network, October 7, 2009



One hard lesson we should have learned after Wall Street's collapse and the
government's handling of the bailout is that there is no reason, whatsoever,
for us to sacrifice our good faith and trust in former bankers who now run
the Treasury and Federal Reserve. And now as the flu season gets ready to
kick off amidst much fanfare and predictions of doom due to a new H1N1
influenza virus, there is emerging sufficient information to raise very
serious doubts whether our nation's health authorities are truly serving the
public health instead of commercial interests.

If the flu season goes according to schedule, the vaccine industrial complex
will be poised to join Wall Street for record year rip-off profits. We will
also likely witness huge Pharma executive bonuses and perhaps gold-plated
toilets. Even if the CDC statisticians' crystal ball used to forecast
rampant swine flu infections turns into a complete bust-which would only be
one more added to many other failed flu predictions back to 1976-it will
nevertheless be a very profitable failure as was the economic collapse for
the banking cartel. The vaccine industry has now received orders in the
range of 3 billion doses during the course of the coming flu season. The
World Health Organization would like to vaccinate two thirds (4 billion) of
the global community, and the US alone is spending $2 billion to stockpile
the nation with upwards to 250 million doses.

In the US, such profits could never be accomplished without a dynamic,
marketing initiative to convince Americans that vaccines will keep them
protected and alive. And what better public relations machine for the
vaccine complex, and all its supporters in health insurance and professional
medical institutions, than our very own Centers for Disease Control and the
Department of Health and Human Services. Even better, our tax dollars are
there to pay for it all. We pay for the comfort in knowing that the CDC's
disinformation campaign will continue to scare us over the major networks
and the New York Times. We can also assure vaccine makers that once and for
all they are protected from liability in the event of serious flu vaccine
injuries.

Nevertheless, the government has a lot of vaccine vials to distribute,
therefore, the CDC needs to sustain the fiction of numerous elderly dying in
nursing homes, unvaccinated pregnant moms and children facing life
threatening complications, and scores of sick and dead burnt into our
national subconscious. It is all part of the CDC's script to get citizens
rushing to their doctors and Wal-Marts to be vaccinated.

Peter Doshi, while at Harvard in the mid-2000s, published a devastating
study in the British Medical Journal that systematically unveils the flawed
predictive science used to publicize our health agencies' influenza
statistics and mortality rates. His analysis shook up enough health
authorities to warrant twelve scientists from the CDC and National
Institutes of Health to unsuccessfully take him on. Now at MIT, Doshi
continues his analysis of a century's worth of influenza mortality data and
government manipulation of influenza data, such as the annual figure of
36,000 influenza deaths we hear and read repeatedly.[1] Although this
magical number was for all practical purposes alchemically conjured up via
mathematical modeling back in 2003, it continues to be the most holy number
in the CDC's PR vocabulary every flu season. Doshi draws the conclusion,
published in the American Journal of Public Health, that commercial
interests are playing the role of science in both industry and
government.[2]

Deconstruction of the CDC's cherry-picked science and a growing
anti-vaccination community are just some of the obstacles health authorities
face. Therefore, no public relations strategy can have a solid multimedia
punch on American citizens without opinion leaders serving as the gnomes for
the vaccine complex and our heavily invested government health agencies,
which are about to be buried in millions of purchased vaccine vials eager
for distribution. This effort requires shock troopers, such as the
pro-vaccine prophet Dr. Paul Offit, the creator of the rotavirus vaccine and
a staunch critic against any scientist who discovers an association between
vaccines and severe neurological disorders. Dr. Offit is on record for an
audacious comment that children can tolerate 100,000 vaccinations (yes, you
read that number correctly).[3]

However, during this particular flu season, government health officials' may
have a more difficult time convincing Americans to be vaccinated for swine
flu if recent polls are reliable indicators. The latest Consumers Union
poll released on September 30 shows almost two-thirds of parents will
withhold vaccinating their children; fifty percent of respondents' rationale
is that the vaccine has not been tested thoroughly for safety.[4] A poll of
pregnant mothers conducted by the internet parent support group Mumsnet.com
indicates women are turning more suspicious about the flu vaccine's true
efficacy and safety. The survey of 1500 respondents found only 6 percent of
pregnant women "definitely" taking the shot, while 48 percent said they
"definitely" wouldn't. A parallel poll revealed only 5 percent would
definitely vaccinate their children.[5] A more recent San Francisco
Chronicle survey finds 54 percent saying the H1N1 flu is nothing to be
worried about.[6]

A separate study conducted by Harvard's School of Public Health showed that
among the 41 percent who would not get the shot, 44 percent of parents are
uncertain they would allow their children to receive it. Aside from many who
expressed a fear of the vaccine's side effects, the poll found 31 percent
expressing a distrust in our public health officials providing accurate
information on vaccine safety.[7] Therefore, expect an aggressive
government public relations campaign during the coming weeks and even
months, while our tax dollars are spent on 250 million shots that
independent epidemiological evidence is showing may be ineffective at best,
and dangerous at worst.

European polls indicate that our neighbors on the other side of the great
pond are less nervous about the H1N1 strain's severity and far more
suspicious towards health officials' rationale for hyping dire warnings of
swine flu's dangers. In France, Le Figaro conducted a poll of 12,050 people
showing 69 percent will refuse the vaccination. In a separate French survey,
one third of 4,752 doctors, nurses and healthcare workers surveyed would not
be inoculated.[8] Twenty-nine percent of Germans surveyed said they would
refuse it "under any circumstance" and an additional 33 percent would likely
refuse it. In the region of Bavaria and Baden Wurttemburg, only 10 percent
of those polled said they would submit their arms to injection. In the UK, a
couple polls reported in the Daily Mail last August, showed half of family
physicians and a third of UK nurses do not want the swine flu vaccination.
Seventy-one percent do not believe the vaccine has been tested enough for
safety and the swine flu is much milder than health authorities are saying.

During the course of the CDC's media war to push forward the vaccine
industry's greed for profit, science and reflective caution are being
sacrificed. An important peer-reviewed study appearing in the June 2009
issue of Toxicological and Environmental Chemistry shows a causal
relationship between the amounts of ethylmercury (thimerosal) found in
inoculations for infants, when administered to monkeys, and cellular
toxicity resulting in mitochondrial dysfunction, impaired oxidative
reduction activity and degeneration and death in neuronal and fetal
cells.[9] These are all indicative signs found in some ASD. But health
officials prefer to ignore such results. For the future health of American
children, the study's findings arrive at a bad time when a recent Harvard
study now reports autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) has risen to 1 in 91
people compared to the earlier 1 in 150 estimate. But since the study was
sponsored by the CDC, the press release makes no indication that just maybe
the over-vaccination of children with dozens of injections by the age of 5
years might be a causal factor behind this national epidemic of ASD and
other neurological disorders.

During the course of interviewing many parents of autistic children for our
documentaries Vaccine Nation and Autism: Made in the USA, the personal
stories we filmed repeatedly were that of a once perfectly healthy and
joyful child who, shortly after a vaccination or a series of injections,
simply vanished from normality. However, national health policy today seems
to have almost legislated by divine decree that there is no relationship
between vaccine ingredients and autism. Besides, further independent
research and first-hand personal stories would only interfere with the
propaganda machine and the CDC's "Seven Step Recipe for Generating Interest
In, and Demand for, Flu Vaccination."

Peter Doshi first brought public attention to the CDC's PR influenza
strategy known as the Seven Step Recipe. Glen Nowak, now the Director of
the CDC's Media Relations, outlined a concise public relations template
while serving as the communications spokesperson for the National
Immunization Program. Speaking at the 2004 National Influenza Vaccine
Summit, he presented the CDC's seven steps. After a careful review of Nowak's
Powerpoint presentation we discover a very detailed and concerted PR and
multimedia campaign that includes the following (quotes are from CDC's
materials):

a.. To encourage the belief that influenza infection can "occur among
people for whom influenza is not generally perceived to cause serious
complications (e.g., children, healthy adults, healthy seniors)." In other
words, promote flu vaccination to those who don't really need it.
b.. In order to "foster the demand for flu vaccinations" the CDC should
target "medical experts and public health authorities publicly (e.g., via
media) [to] state concern and alarm (and predict dire outcomes)-and urge
influenza vaccination."
c.. By focusing on the message of dire health threats and human casualties
upon those who don't really need to be vaccinated, the CDC will reach its
milestone of "framing of the flu season in terms that motivate behavior
(e.g., as "very severe," "more severe than last or past years," "deadly")."
d.. Throughout the flu season, the campaign would continue issuing reports
"from health officials and media" to emphasize that "influenza is causing
severe illness and/or affecting lots of people-helping foster the perception
that many people are susceptible to a bad case of influenza."
e.. Of course, no marketing strategy is thorough without images. Ergo
another ingredient in the recipe is to use "visible/tangible examples of the
seriousness of the illness (e.g., pictures of children, families of those
affected coming forward) and people getting vaccinated (the first to
motivate, the latter to reinforce)."
The CDC's "key points" indicate we are now in that critical timeframe for
the CDC to distribute materials to "a variety of partners." This includes
aggressively disseminating all medical reports, studies and PR spins to the
soporific media and corporate-funded medical associations to support the
government's mass vaccination efforts. Come November, we will begin to see
reports on "pediatric deaths" due to influenza-although Dr. Martin Meltzer,
a CDC expert in health economics, has stated "almost nobody dies of the flu"
and "deaths [are] associated with flu, but not necessarily caused by flu."[10]
Apparently, the folks over in the various CDC departments and our different
federal health agencies don't communicate with each other very well.

So why should our tax dollars go towards fabricating and/or ignoring science
in order to vaccinate Americans? Nowak publicly stated the CDC's reasons on
National Public Radio, ". the manufacturers were telling us that they weren't
receiving a lot of orders for vaccine for use in November or even December .
It really did look like we [CDC] needed to do something to encourage people
to get a flu shot.[11]

At this moment, we are witnessing a steady flow press releases and articles
in the media to convert Americans to the wisdom of national health
vaccination policy. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases (NIAID) has issued preliminary positive results from an uncompleted
clinical trial testing the H1N1 vaccine on children and young people between
6 months and 17 years of age. The fact that the entire study only enrolled
70 individuals covering this age range should alone raise red flags about
any reliable conclusions after the study is completed. Moreover, the study
is specifically designed for measuring the necessary immune response to
protect youth from the swine flu. It is not a safety study. We usually
expect that sound scientific ethics demand clinical trials to be reported
after a final analysis of research data, however, the CDC's Seven Step
Recipe is not concerned with scientific facts, or rigorous research
protocol. It is simply part of the PR game plan to get people vaccinated and
to do it fast.

Donald McNeil, a shill for the vaccine complex writing for the New York
Times has printed two recent articles aligned with CDC propaganda. He quotes
Dr. Jay Butler, chief of the swine flu vaccine task force at the CDC in
order to relieve fears about flu vaccine adverse effects, especially to
pregnant women. Dr. Butler said, "There are about 2,400 miscarriages a day
in the US. You'll see things that would have happened anyway. But the
vaccine doesn't cause miscarriages. It also doesn't cause auto accidents,
but they happen."[12] I hope that is reassuring to all those expectant
mothers across the country, especially since none of the approved H1N1
vaccines have undergone rigorous clinical safety trials on pregnant women or
the potential adverse effects of mercury-laced vaccines and other
ingredients, such as spermacide, detergent and cosmetics, on the developing
fetus. Germany on the other hand announced it is now taking preventative
measures. Agreeing that the verdict on ethylmercury and squalene safety for
children is unsettled, Germany is requiring the vaccine industry to return
to their plants and provide adjuvant- and mercury preservative-free vaccine
lots.

McNeil's more recent article in October 7th's New York Times should be read
alongside the Seven Step Recipe for a clear visual unfolding of the CDC's PR
strategy in action. McNeil downplays the growing medical realization that
the swine flu is in all likelihood much milder than seasonal flu in order to
convince us to roll up our sleeves. Following the CDC script, we see the
picture of little 3 year old Clayton being vaccinated, while McNeill
compares the swine flu death of an 18 year old Tibetan woman in China with a
story of joyful young Brandon and his 9 year old sister gleefully
surrendering their nostrils for a blast of live-attenuated H1N1 virus.[13]

While finalizing this article, Peter Doshi replied to an email and drew
attention to an event in his Harper's article that should force us to pause
before rolling up our sleeves. Briefly, the 2004 flu season was a debacle
for the vaccine complex and federal health officials after 50 million doses
of flu vaccine promised by Chiron Corporation were made unavailable,
therefore, putting the health industry into a panic. In order to lessen the
frenzy previously stirred by its public fear tactics, the CDC downgraded the
flu's urgency to "an annoying illness", and "stressed the protective
benefits of regular hand washing."[14]

Now that is a national policy I can support. I would much prefer the CDC
funding Americans' soap bills to ward off an uncertain swine flu pandemic
rather than using taxes for unsubstantiated threats from the CDC's national
vaccine marketing campaign.

Richard Gale is the Executive Producer of the Progressive Radio Network and
a former Senior Research Analyst in the genomic industry. Dr. Gary Null is
the host of the nation's longest running public radio program on nutrition
and natural health and a multi-award-winning director of progressive
documentary films, including Vaccine Nation and Autism: Made in the USA.



[1] Doshi, Peter. "Viral Marketing: The Selling of the Flu Vaccine." Harpers
Magazine. March. 2006.

[2] "MIT grad student's study challenges notions of pandemic flu" MIT Tech
Talk. April 16, 2008.

[3] Kalb, Claudia. "Stomping through a medical minefield" Newsweek. October
25, 2008.

[4] "Majority of US parents wary of H1N1 vaccine: poll" Reuters Health.
October 1, 2009.

[5] http://www.mumsnet.com

[6] Allday, Erin. "Swine flu draws a shrug, field poll shows." SF Gate.
October 6, 2009.

[7] "Just 40 percent of adults 'absolutely certain' they will get H1N1
vaccine, survey finds" Science Daily. October 2, 2009.

[8] "Grippe A: des blouses blanches anti-vaccin" SFR, France. September 18,
2009 info.sfr.fr/france/grippe-a-des-blouses-blanches-anti-vaccin,115335

[9] Geier D, King P, Geier M. "Mitochondrial dysfunction, impaired
oxidative-reduction activity, degeneration, and death in human neuronal and
fetal cells induced by low level exposure to thimerosal and other metal
compounds." Toxicology and Environmental Chemistry. Volume 91, Issue 4, June
2009.

[10] Manning, Anita. "Study: Annual flu death toll could be overstated." USA
Today. December 11, 2005.

[11] Doshi, Peter. "Are US flu death figures more PR than science?" BMJ
2005; 331:1412 (10 December)

[12] McNeil, Donald. "Don't blame flu shots for all ills, officials say" New
York Times. September 28, 2009.

[13] McNeil, Donald. "Swine flu vaccinations start as officials attack
myths." New York Times. October 7, 2009.

[14] Doshi, Peter. "Viral Marketing: The Selling of the Flu Vaccine."
Harpers Magazine. March. 2006.