An international team has made a significant breakthrough in understanding why Alzheimer's disease progresses so rapidly in some people that they die within three years. The researchers found a link between strains of misshapen and fast-replicating tau protein and accelerated cognitive decline -- a critical result that illuminates the variations in Alzheimer's disease and could help lead to more precise diagnoses and targeted therapies. Such work could lead to changes in Alzheimer's care, possibly giving patients and families more accurate prognoses.
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Standard chemotherapies may efficiently kill cancer cells, but they also pose significant risks to healthy cells, resulting in secondary illness and a diminished quality of life for patients. To prevent the previously unavoidable damage, researchers have developed a new class of nanomaterials engineered to capture chemotherapy drugs before they interact with healthy tissue.
from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3HyUr4K
Recent guidelines have restricted aspirin use in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease to patients under 70, and more recent guidance to patients under 60. Yet, the risks of heart attacks and strokes increase markedly with age. Researchers urge that to do the most good for the most patients in primary prevention of heart attacks and strokes, health care providers should make individual clinical judgements about prescribing aspirin on a case-by-case basis and based on benefit-to-risk not age. They conducted an updated meta-analysis, which adds the results of the four recent trials to the previous comprehensive meta-analysis of six earlier major trials, and aspirin produced a statistically significant 13 percent reduction in cardiovascular disease with similar benefits at older ages in each of the individual trials.
from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3JM2jSe
Drugs we take like prednisone can weaken our bones and so can aging, and scientists working to prevent both have some of the first evidence that the best target may not be the logical one. They are finding that in aging bone, the mineralocorticoid receptor, better known for its role in blood pressure regulation, is a key factor in bone health.
from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3HEDtlG
Researchers have discovered details of how proteins produced by oral epithelial cells protect humans against viruses entering the body through the mouth. They also found that oral bacteria can suppress the activity of these cells, increasing vulnerability to infection.
from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3HCG6Er
Babies born during the pandemic's first year -- even to moms who did not have COVID during pregnancy -- scored lower on a screening test of social and motor skills compared to pre-pandemic babies, according to a new study.
from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3eThsmJ
You know you’ve entered a twilight zone of insanity when a police officer tells you you’re a criminal simply because you’re unvaccinated. That’s exactly what happened the other day in Germany. The police officer insisted the unvaccinated man was “a murderer” because he “might infect someone,” and that he’s “not a human.”
The bizarre altercation was posted on Twitter December 12, 2021, (see above). In response, the unvaccinated man tells the cop he’s the one who has “lost all humanity.” Indeed. Who thought we’d ever see the day when individuals are marked as “murderers” and “not human” based on vaccination status alone?
It’s beyond irrational. But then again, insanity does not obey reason, and according to professor Mattias Desmet, a Belgian psychologist, the world has indeed been hypnotized into a state of mass psychosis.1
“Mass formation psychosis” is the explanation for how the Germans accepted the atrocities by the Nazi party in the 1930s, and it’s the explanation for why so many around the world support medical apartheid and the dehumanization of the unvaccinated now.
The stigmatization and dehumanization of the unvaxxed is all the more irrational when you consider that the COVID shot doesn’t prevent infection or spread of the virus. Those who have received one, two or even three doses are STILL contracting the infection, and at ever-increasing rates, and are spreading it to vaxxed and unvaxxed alike.
Outbreaks among “fully vaccinated” populations, isolated on cruise ships, for example, have occurred on several occasions, proving the shots fail to prevent outbreaks. The COVID-jabbed are clearly just as “dangerous” and likely to “kill” their fellow man as those who are unjabbed.
When either decision — the decision to get the jab or decline it — results in you posing the exact same level of risk to others, how can anyone say that one is more dangerous than the other? Anyone still capable of clear, level-headed thinking will see that it doesn’t add up.
Unfortunately, most countries are experiencing a mass delusional psychosis. They have been manipulated into believing highly irrational absurdities. The same psychological operation was at work in the 1930s, when Jews, the old and infirm, and the mentally and physically handicapped were dehumanized and blamed as carriers of disease and other social ills.
In the short video above, Auschwitz survivor Marian Turski, now 94 years old, describes the incremental dehumanization and ostracizing that took place in Nazi Germany, ultimately ending in the Holocaust. Now, we stand before the same fork in the road yet again. Many, like the German police officer, are choosing the well-trodden road of repeated history.
Stigmatizing Unvaccinated Is Unjustified
November 20, 2021, The Lancet published a letter by Gunter Kampf, titled “COVID-19: Stigmatizing the Unvaccinated Is Not Justified.”2 “In the USA and Germany, high-level officials have used the term pandemic of the unvaccinated, suggesting that people who have been vaccinated are not relevant in the epidemiology of COVID-19,” Kampf writes.
However, he adds, “There is increasing evidence that vaccinated individuals continue to have a relevant role in transmission.” He goes on to cite statistics from Massachusetts, where 469 new COVID-19 cases were identified during July 2021. Of those, 346 (74%) were either fully or partially jabbed, and 274 (79%) were symptomatic.
The cycle threshold values used during PCR testing were also similarly low regardless of COVID jab status (median 22.8 cycles, which minimizes the risk of false positive results), “indicating a high viral load even among people who were fully vaccinated,” Kampf notes. These data are clear evidence that the COVID jabs cannot end the pandemic, and may in fact be preventing it from dying out naturally. Kampf continues:3
“In the USA, a total of 10,262 COVID-19 cases were reported in vaccinated people by April 30, 2021, of whom 2725 (26.6%) were asymptomatic, 995 (9.7%) were hospitalized, and 160 (1.6%) died. In Germany, 55.4% of symptomatic COVID-19 cases in patients aged 60 years or older were in fully vaccinated individuals, and this proportion is increasing each week.
In Münster, Germany, new cases of COVID-19 occurred in at least 85 (22%) of 380 people who were fully vaccinated or who had recovered from COVID-19 and who attended a nightclub.
People who are vaccinated have a lower risk of severe disease but are still a relevant part of the pandemic. It is therefore wrong and dangerous to speak of a pandemic of the unvaccinated.
Historically, both the USA and Germany have engendered negative experiences by stigmatizing parts of the population for their skin color or religion.
I call on high-level officials and scientists to stop the inappropriate stigmatization of unvaccinated people, who include our patients, colleagues, and other fellow citizens, and to put extra effort into bringing society together.”
Human Today, Not Human Tomorrow
It’s important to realize you cannot comply your way out of this tyranny. If you choose to get the COVID shot because you don’t want to be stigmatized, there can be no end to your compliance to future boosters, no matter what the cost to you or your family.
In short order — a handful of months at most — you will suddenly and arbitrarily be deemed an unvaccinated menace to society again, even though you’ve already had one, two or three kill shots.
None of that will matter. You get no brownie points for past compliance. At six months past your second or third dose, your status will go from green to red, from human to not human, literally overnight. You’re “unvaccinated” again, until or unless you get another booster. This cycle will continue until you’re dead. Are you game? Is that how you want to spend the rest of your life?
COVID Shots Keep the ‘Pandemic’ Going
More than 80 studies have confirmed that natural immunity to COVID-19 is equal or superior to what you get from the jab.4 This conforms to well-established medical science, so it’s no surprise. It’s as it should be.
But for the first time in modern medical history, natural immunity is being portrayed as having no benefit whatsoever. Even worse, those with natural immunity are being labeled as dangerous and are shunned and even fired from their jobs for failing to get a shot.
Only the jabbed are protected and can protect others, health authorities now claim — even though it’s those with natural immunity who are most protected and don’t pose a risk to others.
The reality and truth, though, is that natural immunity is long-lasting, protects against all variants and will not contribute to the creation of variants. The same cannot be said for the COVID jab. We now have clear evidence the shots offer, at most, six months’ worth of protection, after which the relative risk reduction drops to zero.
As just one example among many, a Swedish study5 published October 25, 2021, found that while the jabs initially lowered the risk of hospitalization, their effectiveness rapidly waned.
The Pfizer jab went from 92% effectiveness at Day 15 through 30, to 47% at Day 121 through 180, and zero from Day 201 onward.
The Moderna shot had a similar trajectory, being estimated at 59% from Day 181 onward.
The AstraZeneca injection had a lower effectiveness out of the gate, waned faster than the mRNA shots, and had no detectable effectiveness as of Day 121.
This and other studies showing waning immunity were discussed in a December 9, 2021, New England Journal of Medicine interview.6 As noted in that interview, the Delta variant, which is significantly different from the initial SARS-CoV-2 strain, can infect fully jabbed individuals, and its ability to do so increases over time, as the effectiveness of the shot rapidly wanes.
Aside from waning efficacy, the fact that the virus is mutating within “vaccinated” populations also forces it to develop the capacity to circumvent the COVID jab. In short, the deck is stacked against those who rely on the COVID shot to protect them. In the long term, it’s a hopeless situation, as we cannot inoculate our way out of an endemic with a product that doesn’t prevent infection and spread!
Sadly, NEJM, rather than promoting science, toes the line of the official mainstream narrative and suggest boosters are the answer. They should know better, which raises suspicions that conflicts of interest likely impact their clinical judgment.7
Lindsey Baden, one of the interviewees, has received grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust — three institutions that more or less openly support medical tyranny and totalitarian rule by a biosecurity-based police state.
The Gravity of Our Situation
In the video above, Dr. Chris Martenson interviews Desmet about the gravity of our situation, seeing how it’s rooted in a grossly self-destructive psychiatric condition — and one that permits totalitarianism to flourish.
According to Desmet, the mass formation psychosis now appears so widespread that global totalitarianism may be unavoidable. He believes it’ll take over, as we’re seeing in a number of countries already.
The German police officer denouncing the humanity of the unvaccinated is a shining example of the brainwashing propaganda that supports and strengthens the totalitarian state, and allows inconceivable atrocities to be committed in broad daylight. The question is, what can we do to limit the damage?
First and foremost, we must continue to provide true and accurate information to counter the false narratives. Some who aren’t yet fully hypnotized may still be routed back to sanity. Speaking out can also help to limit the atrocities the totalitarian regime is emboldened to implement, because in totalitarianism, atrocities and crimes against humanity increase as dissent decreases.
We can also substitute fear of the virus narratives with narratives that highlight an even greater fear — fear of totalitarianism. That’s a far greater threat to you and your children, by far. Try to appeal to people’s memory. Remind them of the freedoms they grew up with. Do they really want to be responsible for leaving their children with zero freedom to think and act for themselves?
Also, join with other dissenters into larger groups. This gives the larger majority who aren’t fully hypnotized but too fearful to go against the grain an alternative to going along with the totalitarians.
Lastly, start building parallel structures within your local communities that address the four underlying conditions that allowed mass formation psychosis to develop in the first place, namely poor social bonding, lack of meaning in life, free-floating anxiety and discontent, and free-floating frustration and aggression.
A parallel structure is any kind of business, organization, technology, movement or creative pursuit that fits within a totalitarian society while being morally outside of it. Once enough parallel structures are created, a parallel culture is born that functions as a sanctuary of sanity within the totalitarian world.
By rebuilding society, starting locally, into one where people feel connected and valued, the foundational psychological conditions for totalitarianism are undermined and ultimately eliminated. That’s the grand challenge facing all of us.
This article was previously published July 2, 2020, and has been updated with new information.
Up to 2.5% of children and 8.3% of adolescents suffer from depression, a condition that’s associated with significant complications later in life, including an increased risk of suicide, substance abuse, physical diseases and problems with work, academic and psychosocial functioning.1
It’s believed that both genetic and environmental factors play a role in why some children develop depression, and increasing attention has been placed on the role of dietary factors and nutrients such as vitamin D, which is ideally obtained via sun exposure.
Further, one-carbon metabolism, which includes vitamin B12, folate and homocysteine and which plays a role in many biological processes and maintaining cellular homeostasis, has been investigated for its role in psychiatric disorders, including depression in adults.2
After exploring the link further, researchers from Ordu University in Turkey revealed that low vitamin B12 and vitamin D levels, along with increased homocysteine, may play a role in depression among children and adolescents.3
Childhood Depression Linked to Low Vitamin B12, Maybe Folate
The study involved 89 children and adolescents with depression, along with 43 subjects without depression to serve as controls. The volunteers completed testing for childhood depression and anxiety and had their levels of folate, vitamin B12, homocysteine and vitamin D measured.
While there was no significant difference in folate levels between the groups, 11.23% of those with depression had low levels of folate. Further, among the depression group vitamin B12 and vitamin D levels were “clearly low.” As for how this might contribute to depression, the researchers explained:4
“One-carbon metabolism has a basic role in methylation processes of neurotransmitters, proteins, and membrane phospholipids. Additionally, it is necessary for DNA synthesis.
With vitamin B12 and folate deficiency, methylation processes are hindered and neurotransmitter levels fall. Also linked to vitamin B12 and folate deficiency, there is an increase in the levels of the extremely neurotoxic metabolite of homocysteine.”
Both vitamin B12 and folate have previously been described as antidepressant nutrients.5 Folate, found in dark leafy greens like spinach, avocados and other fresh vegetables, is involved in your body’s production of mood-regulating neurotransmitters. In one study, people who consumed the most folate had a lower risk of depression than those who ate the least.6
Vitamin B12 is found only in animal foods such as grass fed meat, eggs, dairy and wild-caught seafood. As such, vegetarians and vegans are especially susceptible to B12 deficiency, and this is one likely reason why vegetarianism may be nearly twice as likely to suffer from depression as meat eaters, even after adjusting for variables like job status, family history and number of children.7
It’s widely known that people with a vitamin B12 deficiency are at an increased risk of depression,8 which could be, in part, due to resulting alterations in the level of DNA methylation in the brain, leading to neurologic impairment.9 Vitamin B12 also helps regulate homocysteine levels, and increased homocysteine is linked to B12 deficiency as well as depression.
Folate, Vitamin B12 Suggested for Treatment of Depression
Considering the extensive research linking depression with low levels of vitamin B12 and folate, researchers with the MRC Neuropsychiatric Research Laboratory in Epsom, Surrey, U.K., suggested that folate and vitamin B12 should be considered in the treatment of depression.
“On the basis of current data, we suggest that oral doses of both folic acid (800 mcg daily) and vitamin B12 (1,000 mcg daily) should be tried to improve treatment outcome in depression,” they noted.10
Folic acid is the synthetic version of folate, or vitamin B9, and while it may have a place in depression treatment, the best way to increase your levels is to eat foods rich in folate, such as asparagus, avocados, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and spinach. As for why folate and vitamin B12 are so important for mental health, they explained:11
“Folate and vitamin B12 are major determinants of one-carbon metabolism, in which S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) is formed. SAM donates methyl groups that are crucial for neurological function. Increased plasma homocysteine is a functional marker of both folate and vitamin B12 deficiency. Increased homocysteine levels are found in depressive patients.”
Depressed Children Had ‘Remarkably High’ Homocysteine Levels
The connection between low vitamin B12 and increased homocysteine levels is notable, as the featured study found “remarkably high” homocysteine levels in the children and adolescents with depression.
“Increased homocysteine increases the flow of calcium within cells through the NMDA [N-methyl D-aspartic acid] receptor activation pathway. Within the cell, oxidative stress increases and apoptotic signals are activated. Increased homocysteine causes DNA damage, mitochondrial dysfunction, and endoplasmic reticulum stress,” the researchers noted, suggesting that this is likely one mechanism behind homocysteine’s depression connection.12
Separate research has also linked higher homocysteine levels with increased rates of depression and anxiety among 12- and 13-year-old boys in Taiwan.13 Higher levels of homocysteine, along with significantly lower levels of vitamin B12 and vitamin D, are also associated with other mental health conditions, including obsessive compulsive disorder, in which it’s believed to play a causative role.14
Homocysteine is an amino acid in your body and blood obtained primarily from meat consumption. Vitamins B6, B9 and B12 help convert homocysteine into methionine — a building block for proteins. If you don't get enough of these B vitamins, this conversion process is impaired and results in higher homocysteine. Conversely, when you increase intake of B6, folate and B12, your homocysteine level decreases.
As such, checking your homocysteine level is a great way to identify a vitamin B6, folate and B12 deficiency. The researchers also noted that “vitamin deficiencies and elevated homocysteine should be investigated in terms of cause-effect relationships” in terms of depression in youth, especially since depression may contribute to poor appetite and irregular eating habits.
Vitamin D Levels Also Low Among Depressed Youth
The Ordu University researchers also found vitamin D levels to be low among the children and adolescents with depression, a connection that’s been revealed in the past. In the study, the depressed group had a median vitamin D level of 11 ng/ml, compared to 24.85 ng/ml in the control group. Both of these values are low, but 11 ng/ml is dangerously low and will radically increase the risk of rickets.
It’s important to note that for optimal health and disease prevention, a level between 60 and 80 ng/mL (150 to 200 nm/L) appears to be ideal, so all of the study participants were very low by this measure. Vitamin D receptors exist in the human brain,15 hinting at the importance of this vitamin in mental and emotional health.
It’s believed that vitamin D regulates more than 200 different genes by binding to vitamin D receptors that are responsible for driving a number of biological processes.16 Low levels of vitamin D have, in fact, been linked to a number of psychological disorders, including anxiety, depression and schizophrenia.
It likely influences psychological health in a number of ways, including by modulating inflammation, regulating proteins that fight free radicals and increasing the synthesis of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which may play a role in schizophrenia.
Writing in the journal Children, Dr. Joy Weydert of the department of pediatrics at the University of Kansas Medical Center explained, “Vitamin D deficiency decreases the expression of the enzyme catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT), required for dopamine and serotonin metabolism.”17 Further, adolescents with low levels of vitamin D had improved depressive symptoms after vitamin D supplementation.18
Vitamin D deficiency in children is “very common,”19 and children, like adults, should obtain regular sun exposure or take vitamin D3 supplements to ensure their levels are in the optimal range. It’s important to note that vitamin D supplementation must be balanced with other nutrients, namely vitamin K2 (to avoid complications associated with excessive calcification in your arteries), calcium and magnesium.
The best way to gauge whether you might need to supplement, and how much, is to get your level tested, ideally twice a year, in the early spring and early fall when your level is at its low point and peak. Optimizing vitamin D levels may be a simple way to significantly improve mental health. As noted in Issues in Mental Health Nursing:20
“Effective detection and treatment of inadequate vitamin D levels in persons with depression and other mental disorders may be an easy and cost-effective therapy which could improve patients’ long-term health outcomes as well as their quality of life.”
Once you have your vitamin D level tested you can use the Vitamin D Calculator developed by GrassRootsHealth to determine your ideal vitamin D dose.
Poor Diet Linked to Depression; Healthy Diet Fixes It
It’s been proven time and again that what you eat influences mental health, and this is certainly true among teenagers. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham looked into the role two dietary factors play in symptoms of depression among adolescents, in this case African-American teens who may be at an increased risk of both unhealthy diet and depression.
They analyzed the excretion of sodium and potassium in the urine in 84 urban, low‐income adolescents. Higher levels of sodium in the urine can be an indication of a diet high in sodium, such as processed fast foods and salty snacks. A low level of potassium, meanwhile, is indicative of a diet lacking in fruits, vegetables and other healthy potassium-rich foods.
As might be expected, higher sodium and lower potassium excretion rates were associated with more frequent symptoms of depression at follow up 1.5 years later.21 Past studies have also confirmed the diet-depression link among children and teens.
When researchers systematically reviewed 12 studies involving children and adolescents, an association was revealed between unhealthy diet and poorer mental health, as well as between a good-quality diet and better mental health.22
Likewise, researchers from Macquarie University, Australia, studied 76 students between the ages of 17 and 35 who followed a poor diet and had moderate to high levels of depression symptoms.23 One group of the participants was asked to improve their diets by cutting back on refined carbohydrates, sugar, processed meats and soft drinks, while eating more vegetables, fruits, dairy products, nuts seeds, healthy fats and anti-inflammatory spices such as turmeric and cinnamon.24
After only three weeks of healthier eating, those in the healthy diet group had significant improvements in mood and their depression scores even went into the normal range. While teens and young adults aren’t always known for their healthy food choices, this is a crucial period in which lifelong healthy eating patterns are established.
Ensuring youth are eating healthy diets rich in folate and vitamin B12, as well as optimizing their vitamin D levels, may go a long way toward bolstering mental health and avoiding conditions like depression.
If a child or teen is already struggling with depression, eating real food is equally important. In addition to limiting the intake of processed foods, fast foods and sweets, including sugary beverages, increasing consumption of foods rich in omega-3 fats, such as sardines and wild-caught salmon, should be encouraged.
A search of the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) for 2019 using "flu" as the vax type and "influenza" as the vax name, recorded 12,061 adverse events following the influenza vaccine. In 2018, that number was 12,970.1
Despite what was considered a high number of adverse events in 2019, the effectiveness of the vaccine has been questionable. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:2
"While vaccine effectiveness (VE) can vary, recent studies show that flu vaccination reduces the risk of flu illness by between 40% and 60% among the overall population during seasons when most circulating flu viruses are well-matched to those used to make flu vaccines."
In other words, only in years when the vaccine is well-matched to most circulating viruses will the shot afford protection for 40% to 60% of the overall population. This flu season doesn't meet the criteria and so we can expect a low rate of protection in the overall population and possibly even lower in the elderly.
According to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases,3 this is the very population that requires the best protection. Older adults are at higher risk of related complications and other flu-related risks, such as heart attack and stroke, which increase in the first two weeks after infection.4
This Year's Flu Vaccine Doesn't Match the Circulating Virus
Headlines in the news are calling this year's flu shot a "mismatch" for the dominant strain,5 but continue to encourage adults and children to get a shot without also encouraging healthy behaviors. The information comes from a study6 co-written by Scott Hensley, professor of microbiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
The researchers wrote that although there may be a mismatch between the flu vaccine and the circulating H3N2 subtype of the influenza virus, "Studies have clearly shown that seasonal influenza vaccines consistently prevent hospitalizations and deaths even in years where there are large antigenic mismatches."7
Hensley spoke with a reporter from CNN,8 sharing that they have been monitoring the H3N2 strain of flu for months, which is the main circulating strain. He believes this strain will evade the antibodies your body produces in response to the current vaccine.
In November 2021, there was an outbreak of flu at the University of Michigan, in which 700 people were affected and more than 26% who tested positive for flu had been vaccinated.9 Interestingly, this was the same percentage as those who tested negative, indicating the vaccine was not effective.
Hensley's argument for taking the vaccine despite the mismatch is that while the vaccine does not generate the right antibodies for the new version of H3N2, the mismatch does not affect the second line of defense: your T cells. These are designed to help protect against severe disease.
One paper in 201610 outlined the importance of memory T-cells against the influenza virus and suggested the need for addressing this shortcoming in the flu vaccines. Two new approaches being researched at the time were infection permissive and recombinant T-cell inducing vaccines.
According to the CDC,11 82% of the 2021-2022 flu vaccine will be produced using egg-based manufacturing technology and the remaining 18% using recombinant and cell-based technology.
Mismatched Vaccine May Do Seniors More Harm Than Good
Despite assurances from the CDC that an annual flu shot is the best protection for seniors, there is a dismal history of effectiveness. After studies showed that protection in the elderly against mortality was low,12 the Flucelvax vaccine was introduced.13
It was promoted as an improved flu shot that would protect more people and yet, FDA research14 showed no significant difference between this vaccine and a conventional flu shot in seniors. The overall effectiveness in preventing hospitalizations for flu shots in the study was 24% in people 65 and older, while the Flucelvax shot had an effectiveness rate of 26.5% in the same population.15
Health officials also frequently encourage flu vaccines to lessen the severity of disease, but a 2017 study found these claims were also not true.16 Analyzing data from vaccinated and unvaccinated seniors diagnosed with influenza, the researchers found only a reduction in initial headache complaints in those who had been vaccinated.
And yet the same researchers implausibly suggest that this very slight improvement in initial flu symptoms was enough to warrant the suggestion to "reinforce the need for influenza vaccines providing better protection."17
Another systematic review and meta-analysis published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases similarly found "Evidence for protection [from influenza vaccines] in adults aged 65 years or older is lacking."18
Will the Flu Vaccine Raise COVID-Related Deaths?
Questions arose after the 2009 mass vaccination campaign against H1N1 swine flu about whether seasonal influenza vaccinations may make pandemic infections worse or more prevalent.19 This same question has arisen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A review of four studies published in 201020,21 showed that people who received the trivalent influenza vaccine during the 2008-2009 flu season were between 1.4 and 2.5 times more likely to get infected with pandemic H1N1 in the spring and summer of 2009 than those who did not get the seasonal flu vaccine.
In the early months of the COVID pandemic, Dr. Michael Murray, naturopath and author, agreed with what Judy Mikovitz, Ph.D., spoke with me about during one of our interviews22 — seasonal influenza vaccinations may have contributed to the dramatically elevated mortality from COVID-19 seen in Italy. In a blog post, Murray pointed out that Italy had introduced a new, more potent type of flu vaccine, called VIQCC, in September 2019:23
"Most available influenza vaccines are produced in embryonated chicken eggs. VIQCC, however, is produced from cultured animal cells rather than eggs and has more of a "boost" to the immune system as a result. VIQCC also contains four types of viruses – 2 type A viruses (H1N1 and H3N2) and 2 type B viruses.24
It looks like this "super" vaccine impacted the immune system in such a way to increase coronavirus infection through virus interference that set the stage for what happened in Italy."
Cell-based technology flu vaccines, which are included in the 18% of vaccines distributed in the 2021-2022 season in the U.S., are cultured in animal cells.25 One study published in early 2020 in the journal Vaccine showed people were more likely to get some form of coronavirus infection if they had been vaccinated against influenza. The scientists wrote:26
"Receiving influenza vaccination may increase the risk of other respiratory viruses, a phenomenon known as virus interference … Examining virus interference by specific respiratory viruses showed mixed results. Vaccine derived virus interference was significantly associated with coronavirus and human metapneumovirus."
October 1, 2020, Christian Wehenkel, an academic editor for PeerJ, published a data analysis27 in which he reported finding a "positive association between COVID-19 deaths and influenza vaccination rates in elderly people worldwide." In other words, areas with the highest flu vaccination rates among elderly people also had the highest COVID-19 death rates. To be fair, the publisher noted that correlation does not necessarily equal causation.
That said, one of the reasons for the analysis was to double-check whether the data would support claims that seasonal influenza vaccination was negatively correlated with COVID-19 mortality — including one that found regions in Italy with higher vaccination rates among elders had lower COVID-19 death rates.28 "A negative association was expected," Wehenkel writes in PeerJ. But that's not what he found:29
"Contrary to expectations, the present worldwide analysis and European sub-analysis do not support the previously reported negative association between COVID-19 deaths (DPMI) [COVID-19 deaths per million inhabitants] and IVR [influenza vaccination rate] in elderly people, observed in studies in Brazil and Italy …
The results showed a positive association between COVID-19 deaths and IVR of people ≥65 years-old. There is a significant increase in COVID-19 deaths from eastern to western regions in the world. Further exploration is needed to explain these findings, and additional work on this line of research may lead to prevention of deaths associated with COVID-19."
Co-Founder of Cochrane Finds Flu Research Weak
Professor Peter Gøtzsche is a Danish physician-researcher who co-founded the Cochrane Collaboration in 1993 and later launched the Nordic Cochrane Centre. He has been an outspoken critic of conflicts of interest and bias in research.
In a February 9, 2020, tweet,30 Gøtzsche wrote: "Cochrane corruption. A Cochrane review did not find that flu shots reduce deaths … 'After invitation from Cochrane,' a financially conflicted person 're-arranged' the data and vaccines reduced deaths. They don't …"
Indeed, in past years, Cochrane has repeatedly found flu vaccinations are ineffective and have no appreciable effect on influenza-related hospitalizations and mortality. For example:
• A 2006 systematic review31 of 51 studies analyzing the effectiveness of the shot in children found a 33% effectiveness in children using live vaccines and 36% using inactivated vaccines.
• A 2010 Cochrane review32 of 50 influenza studies found "In the relatively uncommon circumstance of vaccine matching the viral circulating strain and high circulation, 4% of unvaccinated people versus 1% of vaccinated people developed influenza symptoms … Vaccination had a modest effect on time off work and had no effect on hospital admissions …"
• A 2010 Cochrane review33 of 75 studies analyzing the effectiveness of preventing influenza in the elderly found the studies were generally of low quality and there was a "likely presence of biases" making any firm conclusions possibly misleading.
• In a 2018 Cochrane review34 of 41 clinical trials on live and inactivated flu vaccines in children they found for live attenuated vaccines, "Seven children would need to be vaccinated to prevent one case of influenza, and 20 children would need to be vaccinated to prevent one child experiencing an ILI [influenza-like illness] …"
Children vaccinated with inactivated vaccines showed "Five children would need to be vaccinated to prevent one case of influenza, and 12 children would need to be vaccinated to avoid one case of ILI."
Moderna Racing for mRNA Flu Vaccine
Despite not knowing the long-term effects of mRNA vaccines and the mounting evidence of adverse events occurring within the first six months of the COVID mRNA injection, there are several genetic therapy shots in the pipeline. One of those is a seasonal flu vaccine produced by Moderna, which has already entered Phase 1 human trials. July 7, 2021, The Verge reported:35
"Moderna gave its mRNA-based seasonal flu vaccine to the first set of volunteers in a clinical trial. … Moderna is the second group to start testing its mRNA flu shot in human trials — Sanofi and Translate Bio kicked off a trial this summer. Pfizer and BioNTech have been interested in mRNA flu shots for a few years, and they're pushing forward with those plans as well."
Six months later, Moderna has announced the initial data from the Phase I trials are showing positive results and boosting "the immune response against all targeted flu strains 29 days after administration."36
In true warp-speed action, Moderna announced they have already fully enrolled their Phase II human clinical trial for this mRNA flu vaccine before the Phase I trial has been completed. In addition, they are preparing for a Phase III study, assuming the data — produced by the pharmaceutical company that owns the rights to the flu vaccine — will be positive.
Human clinical trials are split into three phases to protect the participants as much as possible.37 Phase I is primarily aimed at establishing the safety and dose range using a small number of healthy volunteers. These studies often involve risk as they are the first time the drug has been administered to a human.
Phase II studies look at the effectiveness of the drug against a particular condition and can last up to two years. The secondary objective is to determine the therapeutic dose level and frequency. According to the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine,38 roughly 33% of drugs that pass Phase I and Phase II will go on to Phase III.
Phase III studies should occur over multiple centers and enroll up to several thousand patients. In this phase, the drug can be studied for several years and roughly 25 to 30% of these drugs may pass Phase III trials. Moderna is confident the data from the trial they are sponsoring will sail over these hurdles.
Big Pharma and vaccine stakeholders advise you to take every shot possible without concern for your health and safety. Despite a growing number of adverse events being reported39 — including death — from a new technology genetic therapy injection, pharmaceutical companies are plowing ahead in human trials to create yet another mRNA vaccine as they chase larger quarterly returns.
