Flu vaccines: what you must know – Part II, with Barbara Loe Fisher and Dr. Vicky Debold

This past spring, the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control declared a public health emergency after a new human-pig-bird hybrid influenza virus was identified in Mexico near a pig farm. The new swine flu virus is causing mostly mild symptoms similar to the regular flu. Congress has given drug companies several billion dollars to develop experimental swine flu vaccines that will contain genetically engineered flu viruses and novel oil-based adjuvants that have never been licensed in the U.S. These experimental flu vaccines are being fast- tracked with limited testing for public release and use this fall. CDC officials have announced that children ages 5 to 11 will be targeted first using school-based vaccination programs. There are many questions about the safety and effectiveness of these vaccines and whether new state public health laws will force vaccination and quarantine of Americans without informed consent. Please see www.NVIC.org