The WHO and its swine-flu campaign have come under heavy fire. “The handling by the WHO of the H1N1 pandemic led to a waste of large sums of public money and unjustified scares and fears about health risks faced by the European public,” charged the Council of Europe in a report, saying there was “overwhelming evidence that the seriousness of the pandemic was vastly overrated by WHO.” The world health body actually changed the definition of a pandemic during the crisis, allowing it to raise the alert and take emergency measures. The European-level investigation discovered improper sway by pharmaceutical companies and vaccine manufacturers on the WHO’s decision-making process, eventually calling for new safe-guards against “undue influence by vested interests.”
The man who led the charge to investigate, the Council of Europe’s health committee chairman and medical doctor Wolfgang Wodarg, said the “false pandemic” orchestrated and hyped by the WHO was ONE OF THE GREATEST MEDICAL SCANDALS IN THE LAST CENTURY. “The victims among millions of needlessly vaccinated people must be protected by their states." Parmaceutical companies and their cohorts in government were willing to "inflict bodily harm in their pursuit of profits."
The CDC was recently forced to admit that its widely cited flu-linked death statistics were way overblown and misleading. The new figures now state that around 23,000 people die from influenza-related complications every year, down from a supposed average of 36,000. Some years the number was actually less than 3,500, the CDC acknowledged. And even those figures are highly suspect, according to experts. “A closer examination of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) figures shows that in 2001, there were only 257 deaths directly attributable to flu, and in only eighteen cases was the flu virus positively identified. Between 1979 and 2002, NCHS data show an average of 1,348 actual flu deaths per year."
Almost half of the 150 million swine flu vaccines purchased by the U.S. government — about half of a billion dollars worth — were ultimately destroyed after expiring earlier this year. That was despite health officials “trying gimmicks to get anyone at all to come in for a shot.” One potential reason for the lack of demand was the fact that numerous health experts expressed serious concerns about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines. In Finland, swine-flu vaccinations were actually halted after being linked to a 300 percent increase in the neurological disorder known as narcolepsy.
Antonio Porchia
LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
5.1 OFF E. COAST OF NORTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND
5.4 STATE OF YAP, MICRONESIA
Yesterday -
9/7/10 -
5.2 KURIL ISLANDS
5.5 KURIL ISLANDS
5.7 VANUATU
5.0 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, P.N.G.
5.1 SOUTHEAST OF LOYALTY ISLANDS
TROPICAL STORMS -
-Tropical storm 11W was 270 nmi SSW of Taipei, Taiwan.
-Tropical storm MALOU was 241 nmi NNE of Kagoshima, Japan
-Tropical depression HERMINE was 280 nmi WNW of Galveston, Texas.
-Tropical storm IGOR was in the Atlantic east of Brazil, at about the latitude of Puerto Rico.
TEXAS & OKLAHOMA - At least two people died in flash floods as the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine swirled through central Texas and into Oklahoma.
Three tornadoes were confirmed in Oklahoma as the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine moved through Oklahoma on Wednesday.
Parts of Japan, including Tokyo, were swamped with heavy rains as tropical storm Malou lashed the country Wednesday. The 10th tropical storm of the season will bring torrential rains to southern parts of China from Thursday evening.
Tropical Storm Gaston bringing rains to Jamaica. An increase in showers is likely to affect Jamaica from Thursday through to Saturday as a trough, remnants of Tropical Storm Gaston, is forecast to move through.
HEAVY RAINS, SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
Hundreds of thousands hit by Mexico flooding - Worst to come. Weeks of heavy rain have brought widespread flooding to wide swathes of eastern and southern Mexico. Hundreds of thousands of people have seen rapidly rising rivers break their banks and inundate their communities. Authorities have been trying to evacuate the worst-hit areas but some people are refusing to leave, seeking refuge on the roofs of their houses.
Among the most severely affected areas is Tlacotalpan. Most of Tlacotalpan's residents have left the town to seek shelter elsewhere in the state of Veracruz. Over the past few weeks, some 200,000 people in Veracruz have been forced to abandon their homes. The torrential rains and subsequent flooding have also affected the states of Tabasco, Chiapas and Oaxaca. In Tabasco, more than 124,000 people have been affected but many have opted to stay. People in Tabasco face frequent floods "They are refusing to leave their homes and they don't want to go to shelters because they have a culture of living with water. What worries me is that the worst is yet to come for Tabasco. The state and these people cannot keep suffering these problems each year, or live in permanent uncertainty." Tabasco was the scene of devastating floods three years ago.
Tthe rains in the region during July and August were three and a half times more than usual. The rainy season does not officially end until November. The government has pursued flood-control measures in recent years. These had helped to avoid a wider disaster but more needs to be done.
EXTREME HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE -
A forest fire in the US state of Colorado has destroyed at least 136 homes. About 3,500 people have been evacuated from the path of the fire in Fourmile Canyon, near the city of Boulder. Four residents are missing. The fire is burning over a 6,400-acre (2,600-hectare) area of rugged terrain. The cause of the fire, which broke out on Monday, is not known. No deaths or injuries have been reported so far.
SPACE WEATHER -
EARTH DODGES ANOTHER BULLET: During the late hours of Sept. 8th, just as a sunspot 1105 was turning away from Earth, the active region erupted, producing a long-duration C3-class solar flare (peak @ 2330 UT) and a fantastic prominence. The eruption also hurled a bright coronal mass ejection into space. The expanding cloud is heading into a part of the solar system not currently occupied by any planet - it's going to miss everything, including Earth. If such an eruption did head our way, it would probably trigger strong geomagnetic storms. (photo & video)
HEALTH THREATS -
Swine flu no worse than seasonal flu for most victims, study says - More children and young adults were hospitalized as a result of pandemic H1N1 influenza than is normal for seasonal flu, but that was simply because those groups were disproportionately infected, not because the symptoms were worse.
(Following items are all at this link)
-Pigs found to have human, avian reassortant flu viruses - Chinese scientists documented two distinct groups of "human-like" H3N2 influenza viruses circulating in pigs: wholly human-like H3N2 viruses and double-reassortant viruses containing genes from "contemporary human" H3N2 as well as avian H5 viruses. It is THE FIRST EXAMPLE OF THE COEXISTENCE OF THESE TWO FLU TYPES IN PIGS. The novel H1N1 virus that caused the 2009-10 pandemic contained genes from human, swine, and avian influenza strains.
-Bangladesh is battling a major outbreak of human and cattle anthrax infections, with more than 400 human cases and "scores" of cattle deaths. Officials have described the outbreak as THE BIGGEST IN THE COUNTRY'S HISTORY, though no humans have died. The government has set up checkpoints at cattle markets, put livestock and health officials on "red alert," and sent emergency veterinary teams to the eight affected districts. Meat consumption has dropped sharply as consumers have shunned beef for fear of the disease. Bacillus anthracis, the anthrax pathogen, occurs in soil and infects livestock that ingest or inhale the spores while grazing. People can contract it by handling or eating infected animals.
-WHO warns about polio in central Africa - Fresh outbreaks of wild poliovirus type 1in Angola have spread to a neighboring area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a combination of events that poses the biggest threat to Africa's polio eradication efforts.
-Pertussis diagnosis missed in California infants who died - Eight infants who have died of whooping cough (pertussis) this year were not diagnosed as having the disease despite repeated visits to hospitals and clinics. 3,834 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of pertussis have been reported in the state this year, seven times as many as at this time last year. The number signals an incidence of 9.8 cases per 100,000 people, THE HIGHEST SINCE 1962.
