FOOLED TO BELIEVE

FOOLED  TO  BELIEVE  March 6,  2017

“The most exquisite pleasure in the practice of medicine comes from nudging a layman in the direction of terror, then bringing him back to safety again.”

--Kurt Vonnegut       

                Generally speaking, a person who can work hard and help others enthusiastically may be considered as enjoying good health.    That should be the definition of good health.

                                                         

MADE TO  BELIEVE

 On reading these, even professors in medical colleges would be wondering as to how they are made to believe honestly all the written and spoken “scientific” data presented in conferences, CME programmes, journals, books and product literature in modern medicine. Were we not made to believe that various drugs were ‘most effective and least toxic’ before they were banned?  Were we not made to believe that ‘scientifically formulated’ infant foods were lots better than the ‘ordinary’ breast milk, decades ago ?  Were we not made to believe recently that ‘swine flu’ was a true pandemic ? 

Allegations were made that the industry “invented” a pandemic by influencing World Health Organization (WHO) to declare “Swine flu” as a pandemic in  2009  so that  a huge fortune can be made by scaring people and selling everything from facemasks to vaccines to drugs.  Soon, the swine flu died on its own,  not by interventions.  A little later public in UK criticised the government for indirectly forcing the public to have swine flu vaccine by combining it with two other strains of the annual winter flu vaccines.  They said that it is a government ploy to favour commercial establishments.

About 8,600 complaints of suspected adverse reactions to ‘swine flu’ vaccination during the epidemic were made to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulating Agency (MHRA-UK).  ‘Inventing’ new “Superbugs”  and making costliest antibiotics  is another bright commercial idea !

“The head of health at the Council of Europe had raised questions about the role of pharmaceutical corporations in the declaration of H1N1 (swine flu) as a pandemic.  Later, an investigation by the British Medical Journal found that medical experts advising World Health Organization on H1N1 had financial ties with pharmaceutical companies producing the vaccine for the (H1N1) pandemic.  As all the developed countries stocked up on the vaccines, reportedly, the pharmaceutical companies made profits ranging from $ 7 – 10 billion” (  http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sundaymagazine/pandemics-in-the-age-of-panic/article6625928.ece ).  The trick is to create a panic across the world and make money by selling globally products which are made to be perceived as necessary.  In fact, panic itself has become pandemic according to the medical scholars, Luc Bonneux and Wim Van Damme. 

 ‘Tamiflu’(oseltamivir) sales hit almost $ 3 billion in 2009 mostly due to its use in the H1 N1 flu  (Swine flu) pandemic.  Now (2014) the respected research network, Cochrane Review found that ‘Tamiflu’ / ‘Relenza’ (zanamivir) had few if any beneficial effects, but did have adverse side effects that were previously dismissed or overlooked.  The researchers observed that governments that stockpile the drug are wasting billions of dollars on a drug whose effectiveness is doubtful.

Over the past two decades, people and professionals had a thorough brainwash to believe thatinfluenza vaccination is a must for those above 65 years to prevent fatal infections in this vulnerable age group.  Results of a systematic review and meta-analysis, screening 5,707 articles, are just published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases(Vol.12, Issue 1, pp. 36-44, Jan. 2012). The study concluded that“evidence for protection by influenza vaccines in adults aged 65 years or older is lacking,” sending shock waves through the multi-billion drug industry which has been impressing everyone with “scientific evidence” of the life-saving protection by the influenza vaccines in this age group !!

Dr. Diana Harper, who was associated with the development of the vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix, stated in 2009 that the vaccines were essentially useless and more dangerous than cervical cancer which they were supposed to prevent !

DENGUE  VACCINE

Being in Singapore today (March 6, 2017),  I happened to see in the newspapers here that the world’s first Dengue vaccine, DENGVAXIA, will be commercially available in Singapore starting this week, though it is not as effective against Den 1 and Den 2 (the common strains circulating in Singapore) as it is against Den 3 and Den 4 strains (http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/first-dengue-vaccine-available-from-this-week ).  The Dengvaxia has been given to a million children in Philippines.  An 11-year-old boy died days after getting the vaccination, but it was said that he died of complications arising out of congenital heart disease.  And ‘public health advocates’ are warning that the vaccine could  increase dengue’s severity due to what is called “antibody-dependent enhancement”, three years down the road.  The Executive Director of the Philippine Foundation for Vaccination said that there will always be people against vaccinations as there is no vaccine that is 100 per cent effective and safe    ( http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/dengvaxia-given-to-a-million-kids-in-philippines ).  Added to this confusion, is the study (2016) by an international team of scientists (York University, etc.)  which found that vaccination against ‘Dengue fever’ can increase ‘Zika virus’ outbreaks.

Back at home, Madhavi Yennapu, Scientist, National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, Delhi suspects that the idea of including expensive combination vaccines (pentavalent 5 in 1 vaccine) in the Universal Immunisation Programme is a ‘politico-economic’ move (THE WEEK, Feb. 17, 2013).  And in 2017, a huge opposition to “MR vaccination to children” propelled by ‘social network media’ caused stupendous confusion to the parents in Tamil Nadu.

All this is a testament to our thoughtless tinkering with NATURE, causing ecological imbalance leading to more diseases, more vaccinations, more drugs, more side-effects and more confusion.  We have to blame ourselves.  Medical care has become a monumental conundrum.  

Dr. T. Rama Prasad,

drtramaprasad@gmail.com,  'PAY  WHAT  YOU  CAN’ Clinic,  Perundurai,  Erode Dt., TN,  India., Former Medical Superintendent (Special), RTS & IRT Perundurai Medical College and Research Centre.