When I think about Swine Flu, I think about last century's famous novel, Amor en Los Tiempos del Colera (Love in the Time of Cholera) written by Columbian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  In that novel, Florentino Ariza, a boy of humble origins, falls in love at a tender age with Fermina Daza.  But alas, his love is unrequited when Fermina is sent away to live with family so that she can overcome her attraction to this boy less than worthy of a girl of her socioeconomic stature.  Fermina denies her own sentiments and eventually marries a wealthy doctor, who at first adores her, and then, alas turns out to be a cheating cad.  While cholera was all around them during those days, they both survived and fifty years after their first meeting, Florentino and Fermina were reunited at the funeral of her philandering, doctor-husband and their long lasting love is consummated shortly thereafter.  Neither ever got infected with cholera, but it was all around them in true epidemic proportion.
 
My more modern version would be, "Love in the Time of Swine Flu."  It has been almost a century since 1918 when the last true swine flu epidemic ravaged these United States, or virtually twice as long as Florentino's love for Fermina went unrequited during the times of cholera.  During that outbreak, a half million Americans died.  There was no vaccine developed, therefore no one was vaccinated and yet common sense set forth policies within families and private institutions to minimize the spread of the disease.
 
The Hong Kong Flu of 1968-1969 was a pandemic where one million people died, 500,000 in Hong Kong itself, 38,800 deaths in the United States and the rest worldwide. This was a sub strain of type A influenza known as H3N2 that contained genes from avian (bird) influenza virus. There was no vaccine.

A subsequent outbreak of swine flu 50+ years after the first, led F. David Matthews, then Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, to predict in February 1976 that the current outbreak would kill one million Americans that year.  The public was distrustful of this declaration by a government official because of the recent unpopular Vietnam War and Watergate scandal.  Nevertheless, President Gerald Ford initiated a public vaccination program under the advice of scientists from the federal government and pharmaceutical manufacturers who believed the 1976 strain to be similar to the 1918-1919 strain which caused a pandemic.   In the end, this skepticism was well warranted as few were infected with that swine flu virus, while only one death occurred from the actual virus, and that was patient zero, Pvt. David Lewis.  However, 500 people developed cases of Guillaine-Barre Syndrome (GBS) and 25 people died of complications there from.  That vaccine was withdrawn after 10 weeks of use when the GBS link became indisputable.  The U.S. Federal Government paid out millions to those affected.  Don't worry, that won't happen now as while you may not be immune to today's swine flu strain, the Bush and Obama administration have ensured that the vaccine manufacturers, the federal government, and those who administer the swine flu vaccine are immune to legal action and responsibility should anything, go wrong. 
 
Next came the "bird flu" or H5N1 supposed epidemic which was supposed to go pandemic.  But instead has infected only 114 humans over these last 9 years.  Countless funds have been devoted to this non-epidemic that could be used annually to combat real worldwide diseases such as tuberculosis, AIDS, malaria, adult chemical injury, Gulf War Syndrome or Autism.
 
The 2003 SARS corona virus infected only 8,400 people worldwide but was met with a SWAT approach by the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) who essentially cordoned off Toronto and Asia.  This strain of flu proved to be not nearly as infectious as originally thought and yet these two health organizations champion themselves for its successful containment.   

Fast forward 33 years to 2009 and you have the Obama administration and World Health Organization officials warning of yet another swine flu or H1N1 influenza virus, not only epidemic, but pandemic.  The Federal government claims and therefore mainstream media echoes that 1,000 people have already died.  But, that is an enormously inflated, unverified number since the federal government ordered testing for actual H1N1 to stop in August.  What instead has been happening is that all patients were directed to the ER who had "flu-like" symptom from the individual doctors' offices.  Then, in the ER, patients were swabbed in their noses for Influenza B (or normal seasonal flu).  If the patient was NEGATIVE for normal seasonal flu, he was PRESUMED to have Influenza type A or H1N1.  This folks is not science by any definition.  First, the patient may have a bacterial infection, may have countless other less invasive viruses, or may be sickened with panic disease because of all the inflated hoopla over swine flu 2009.  If the SARS containment was such a successful strategy, why weren't the US borders with Mexico closed?  And, no, nobody ever bought into the lie that there were already a few people who already had it here in America and therefore it was uncontainable.  It is all about money and commerce before your health and then tackling this outbreak by boosting Big Pharma with a $150 billion shot in the arm when you get your shot in the arm.  Oh, and it's "free".  Wait, no it's not, the American taxpayer has to pay for it.  There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. 
 
The problem with these inflated numbers of deaths is that it merely fuels unnecessary hysteria in the hypochondriacs or those less able to evaluate the actual clinical evidence and make an informed opinion about whether to receive the current vaccine in either the nasal mist or injection form.  Most seniors are immune according to sources, as they maintain antibodies from the earlier outbreak, so that seems to save the Medicare program and seniors from the vaccination administration fee for this "free" immunization.  Ultimately, the Obama administration has the American public on the hook for the $150 billion price tag to the various pharmaceutical companies who manufacture this vaccine (if they can ever grow enough out of eggs on a timely basis).   Now that the vaccine manufacturing and distribution processes have become problematic, there is scarcity which is provoking some panic, and a back peddling about the availability promises by the Federal government.  Ultimately, there will be continued panic via the mainstream media communicated to the American public so that the Feds market the vaccine and get enough takers as it is rolled off the assembly line, so don't count on the "death and infected" numbers to be fudged for the last time as the federal government will want to ensure that they get that $150 billion debacle distributed and injected into somebody.  The real fear fueling this media generated hysteria is that if this $150 billion vaccine is not injected into somebody, then the Obama administration will have egg on its face instead of in the vaccine medium.
 
The problem with all this is that when you cry wolf, and then tell the American public to "hurry up and wait patiently," you frankly, lose your credibility.  Which brings us back to the drawing board where we should have lingered as a society to begin with.  Research should take place on those 85 child deaths in order to determine whether or not those children were vaccinated or not, both for "regular" childhood diseases, seasonal flu, and H1N1.  And, whether the deceased adults had been vaccinated and/or actually even had H1N1.  These are the questions of science that need to be addressed.  Did all of these children have underlying medical conditions that were either diagnosed or undiagnosed at the time of infection with H1N1?  Has our society been vaccinated to death with so many vaccinations going to this under-30 year old group of young and healthy that it has made them the most immune compromised because they were never given the opportunity to develop natural immunity to any disease?  Is our over-vaccination as a society making these under 30 youngsters most vulnerable to actually dying from a virus like swine flu because they cannot ward off real disease upon exposure? Do the mercury in the thimerasol and the aluminum adjuvants in American vaccines have long term negative immunological and neurological effects?  These have never been scientifically measured.  Most "reaction" studies are limited to looking for "site reactions" within 24 hours of administration of the vaccines, not long term effects in our short term sighted society.  Also consider that, while the administration shuns the nasal snort for immune compromised individuals, it does recommend that they line up for a shot in the arm (not up the nose), even though there are no scientific studies to show that adults or children with chemical injury in any of its forms such as industrial poisonings, heavy metal toxicity, Gulf War syndrome, or autism have the ability to make antibodies for H1N1.  Nor have they investigated any other of the multitude of potential negative health effects.  This means that not only are immune compromised individuals risking their health with an injection containing 25,000 times the amount of mercury in the form of thimerasol than the EPA recommends a human eat at a meal, but that they may become further immune compromised.  And, there are other vaccination studies that clearly show that 1/2 the dose of regular vaccines given to women produce fewer side effects and better immunity.  But, once again, there are no double blind studies to show what the least effective dose should be for women.  Currently, women are given the same dose as men.  So, roll up your sleeve if you want to be the next guinea pig.  It probably won't hurt or result in swelling or redness at the site of injection within 24 hours, but no one knows what the long term effects will be.
 
What we really need to address are the true epidemics in the United States that are the "underlying conditions" causing the fatalities.  Those are: the obesity epidemic, proliferation of negative health effects of vaccines & other chemicals on human and animal life, and the staph infections that are overwhelming the lungs of those with "pre-existing conditions"  such as asthma resulting in worse outcomes from mild flu and other infections than in the "normal" junk food eating, sedentary American population.  The overuse of antibiotics in our food supply and in unnecessary patient use has created more drug resistant antibiotic infections than ever before, such as MERSA which is arising everywhere.  This is due to "prophilactically" treating livestock by giving routine antibiotic doses in their feed and due to doctors' handing out unnecessary antibiotic scripts to sniffling patients without confirmed bacterial diseases faster than trick-o-treaters get Halloween candy merely for ringing a doorbell.   
 

In this epoch of swine flu, tough times have us all on edge because of the financial hangover America is suffering.  Americans are less trustful of the federal government now, whether they voted for "change" or not, than any time in recent history because of the bailout of big banks that were too big to fail and this new 2000 page healthcare bill cut behind closed doors by a few members of the Senate Finance Committee with Big Pharma, the AMA, and Insurance companies, but not one iota of the public's input.  Hence, there has been a mixed reaction of the American public to the Federal government's urging and some state governments' mandate that certain populations get immunized.  This reaction ranges from panic to skepticism to outright rejection.  The most easily manipulated and the desperate are running to be vaccinated out of fear and one-sided information proliferated by the vaccine manufacturers, the Obama administration, and the diluted forms of this party line that are filtered down to the state health departments, county health departments and individual physicians.  A large Canadian study involving 12-13 million participants showed that individuals who were vaccinated against seasonal flu were TWICE as likely to be infected with H1N1 swine flu.  In response to this study, several Canadian provincial governments such as Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia have suspended the normal seasonal flu vaccination program for people under 65 years of age.  Artificially over-stimulating the immune system with seasonal vaccinations may indeed have harmed the body's ability to fight off the H1N1 virus.  At least they are looking at science and public well-being when making medical decisions.

Kimberly Wilcox is currently freelance writing about financial politics, as well as Healthcare policy, specifically, Chemical Injury and its medical & lifestyle consequences.  She is a lifestyle coach to others with chemical injury, chronic fatigue, autism, Gulf War Syndrome & Fibromyalgia, as well as to professional athletes desiring peak performance without use of illegal PED's.  She is an expert on Green Living and her new book will soon be published about the Green Life that she has been forced to live for the last decade.