Did you get the Polio shot when you were a kid? I did. Now I'm carrying around a cancer virus that could become active at any time.
Thanks Big Pharma!!
Of course, the article where they admitted this has been removed, but someone took a screenshot before they did... and now we know the truth.
Well if its true, it could explain why so many people in there 40s upwards are getting the big C. I just got my anti flu injection today hope its free of any additives
Green Monkey
Quote:Green monkey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about the primate of the family Cercopithecidae. For other uses, see Green monkey (disambiguation).
Green monkey[1]
juvenile, Gambia
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[2]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Primates
Family:
Cercopithecidae
Genus:
Chlorocebus
Species:
C. sabaeus
Binomial name
Chlorocebus sabaeus
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Geographic range
The green monkey (Chlorocebus sabaeus), also known as the sabaeus monkey or the callithrix monkey,[3] is an Old World monkey with golden-green fur and pale hands and feet.[4] The tip of the tail is golden yellow as are the backs of the thighs and cheek whiskers.[4] It does not have a distinguishing band of fur on the brow, like other Chlorocebus species, and males have a pale blue scrotum.[4] Some authorities consider this and all of the members of the genus Chlorocebus to be a single widespread species, Chlorocebus aethiops.
Contents
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Physical description[edit]
The green monkey is a sexually dimorphic species, with males typically being slightly larger than females. Wild adult males weigh between 3.9 and 8.0 kg (8.6 and 17.6 lb) and measure between 420 and 600 mm (1.38 and 1.97 ft), while the females usually weigh between 3.4 and 5.3 kg (7.5 and 11.7 lb) and measure between 300 and 495 mm (0.984 and 1.624 ft).[4]
Habitat and distribution[edit]
Callithrix monkeys can be found in a wide range of wooded habitats, ranging from very dry Sahel woodland to the edge of rainforests. It is also commonly seen in coastal regions, where known to feed on seashore foods such as crabs.[3] It also takes a wide variety of other foods, including fruits and invertebrates.[3]
The green monkey is found in West Africa from Senegal to the Volta River. It has been introduced to the Cape Verde islands off north-western Africa, and the West Indian islands of Saint Kitts, Nevis, Saint Martin, and Barbados.[1] It was introduced to the West Indies in the late 17th century when slave trade ships traveled to the Caribbean from West Africa.[4]
Behavior[edit]
As other members of the genus Chlorocebus, the green monkey is highly social and usually seen in groups. They usually live in groups of up to 7 to 80 individuals. Within these groups, there is distinct social hierarchy evidenced by grooming behaviors and gender relationships.
Green monkeys are known to communicate both verbally and non-verbally. They have distinct calls which they use to warn others in the group of predators, and even have specific calls for specific predators. Body language, such as the display of brightly colored genitalia is also used to communicate danger, but can also be used as a way of establishing dominance. It has also been documented that green monkeys may use facial expressions to express their emotional state.[5]
Reproduction[edit]
Green monkeys live in a polygynous society, revolving around the alpha males. The alpha males have control over social interactions and mating between other males and females in the group.
These monkeys are seasonal breeders, breeding during the April to June months (October and November in the Nyes area North West of Thies), during which rainfall is the heaviest. It is during these rainy seasons that fruit is most abundant, so it is speculated that green monkeys schedule their breeding around this time, when resources are most abundant. They breed about once a year, with males reaching sexual maturity in 5 years, females in 2. Despite infant mortality being fairly high, at roughly 57%, green monkeys are known to be heavily invested in their offspring, with mothers taking care of their young for about a year before letting them venture out as individual adults.
References[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Green monkey.
- ^ Jump up to:a b Groves, C.P. (2005). Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M., eds. Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 158–159. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. OCLC 62265494.
- Jump up^ Kingdon, J. & Gippoliti, S. (2008). "Chlorocebus sabaeus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2008. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 4 January 2009.
- ^ Jump up to:a b c Kingdon, J. (1997). The Kingdon Guide to African Mammals. London: Academic Press Limited. ISBN 0-12-408355-2.[page needed]
- ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Cawthon Lang, K. A. (2006). "Primate Factsheets: Vervet (Chlorocebus) Taxonomy, Morphology, & Ecology". Retrieved 2007-08-13.
- Jump up^ Matthew Keller, [1], "Animal Diversity Web", 3/26/12
Extant species of family Cercopithecidae (Old World monkeys) (subfamily Cercopithecinae)
External links[edit]
and
Rhesus_macaque
Quote:Rhesus macaque
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Rhesus (disambiguation).
Rhesus macaque
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Primates
Family:
Cercopithecidae
Genus:
Macaca
Species:
M. mulatta
Binomial name
Macaca mulatta[2]
(Zimmermann, 1780)
Rhesus macaque native range
Synonyms[3]
Indochinese Rhesus Macaque (Macaca mulatta siamica) from Monkey Island, Cat ba National Park, Vietnam
The rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) is one of the best-known species of Old World monkeys. It is listed as Least Concern in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in view of its wide distribution, presumed large population, and its tolerance of a broad range of habitats. Native to South, Central, and Southeast Asia, rhesus macaque troops inhabit a great variety of habitats, from grasslands to arid and forested areas, but also close to human settlements.[1]
Contents
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Characteristics[edit]
The rhesus macaque is brown or grey in color and has a pink face, which is bereft of fur. Its tail is of medium length and averages between 20.7 and 22.9 cm (8.1 and 9.0 in). Adult males measure about 53 cm (21 in) on average and weigh about 7.7 kg (17 lb). Females are smaller, averaging 47 cm (19 in) in length and 5.3 kg (12 lb) in weight. Rhesus macaques have, on average, 50 vertebrae. Their ratio of arm length to leg length is 89%. They have dorsal scapulae and a wide rib cage.
The rhesus macaque has 32 teeth with a dental formula of 2.1.2.3/2.1.2.3 and bilophodont molars. The upper molars have four cusps: paracone, metacone, protocone, and hypocone. The lower molars also have four cusps: metaconid, protoconid, hypoconid, and entoconid.
Distribution and habitat[edit]
Rhesus macaques are native to India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Afghanistan, Vietnam, southern China, and some neighboring areas. They have the widest geographic ranges of any nonhuman primate, occupying a great diversity of altitudes throughout Central, South, and Southeast Asia. Inhabiting arid, open areas, rhesus macaques may be found in grasslands, woodlands, and in mountainous regions up to 2,500 m (8,200 ft) in elevation. They are regular swimmers. Babies as young as a few days old can swim, and adults are known to swim over a half mile between islands, but are often found drowned in small groups where their drinking waters lie.[citation needed] Rhesus macaques are noted for their tendency to move from rural to urban areas, coming to rely on handouts or refuse from humans.[4] They adapt well to human presence, and form larger troops in human-dominated landscapes than in forests.[5]
The southern and the northern distributional limits for rhesus and bonnet macaques, respectively, currently run parallel to each other in the western part of India, are separated by a large gap in the center, and converge on the eastern coast of the peninsula to form a distribution overlap zone. This overlap region is characterized by the presence of mixed-species troops, with pure troops of both species sometimes occurring even in close proximity to one another. The range extension of rhesus macaque – a natural process in some areas, and a direct consequence of introduction by humans in other regions – poses grave implications for the endemic and declining populations of bonnet macaques in southern India.[6][7]
The Thai population is locally classified as endangered. There are about 1,000 troops at Wat Tham Pha Mak Ho, Tambon Si Songkhram, Wang Saphung district, Loei province.[8]
Distribution of subspecies and populations[edit]
The name "rhesus" is reminiscent of the Greek mythological king, Rhesus. However, the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Audebert, who applied the name to the species, stated: "it has no meaning".[9]
According to Zimmermann’s first description of 1780, the rhesus macaque is distributed in eastern Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, as far east as the Brahmaputra Valley in peninsular India, Nepal, and northern Pakistan. Today, this is known as the Indian rhesus macaque M. m. mulatta, which includes the morphologically similar M. rhesus villosus, described by True in 1894, from Kashmir, and M. m. mcmahoni, described by Pocock in 1932 from Kootai, Pakistan. Several Chinese subspecies of rhesus macaques were described between 1867 and 1917. The molecular differences identified among populations, however, are alone not consistent enough to conclusively define any subspecies.[10]
The Chinese subspecies can be divided as follows:- M. m. mulatta is found in western and central China, in the south of Yunnan, and southwest of Guangxi;[11]
- M. m. lasiota (Gray, 1868), the west Chinese rhesus macaque, is distributed in the west of Sichuan, northwest of Yunnan, and southeast of Qinghai;[11] it is possibly synonymous with M. m. sanctijohannis (Swinhoe, 1867), if not with M. m. mulatta.[10]
- M. m. tcheliensis (Milne-Edwards, 1870), the north Chinese rhesus macaque, lives in the north of Henan, south of Shanxi, and near Beijing. Some consider it as the most endangered subspecies.[12] Others consider it possibly synonymous with M. m. sanctijohannis, if not with M. m. mulatta.[10]
- M. m. vestita (Milne-Edwards, 1892), the Tibetan rhesus macaque, lives in the southeast of Tibet, northwest of Yunnan (Deqing), and perhaps including Yushu;[11] it is possibly synonymous with M. m. sanctijohannis, if not with M. m. mulatta.[10]
- M. m. littoralis (Elliot, 1909), the south Chinese rhesus macaque, lives in Fujian, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, northwest of Guangdong, north of Guangxi, northeast of Yunnan, east of Sichuan, and south of Shaanxi;[11] it is possibly synonymous with M. m. sanctijohannis, if not with M. m. mulatta.[10]
- M. m. brevicaudus, also referred to as Pithecus brevicaudus (Elliot, 1913), lives on the Hainan Island and Wanshan Islands in Guangdong, and the islands near Hong Kong;[11] it may be synonymous with M. m. mulatta.[10]
- M. m. siamica (Kloss, 1917), the Indochinese rhesus macaque, is distributed in Myanmar, in the north of Thailand and Vietnam, in Laos, and in the Chinese provinces of Anhui, northwest Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, central and eastern Sichuan, and western and south-central Yunnan; possibly synonymous with M. m. sanctijohannis, if not with M. m. mulatta.[10]
Feral colonies in the United States[edit]
Main article: feral rhesus macaque
Around the spring of 1938, a colony of rhesus macaques called "the Nazuris" was released in and around Silver Springs in Florida by a tour boat operator known locally as "Colonel Tooey" to enhance his "Jungle Cruise". A traditional story that the monkeys were released for scenery enhancement in the Tarzan movies that were filmed at that location is false, as the only Tarzan movie filmed in the area, 1939's Tarzan Finds a Son!, does not contain rhesus macaques.[13] In addition, various colonies of rhesus and other monkey species are speculated to be the result of zoos and wildlife parks destroyed in hurricanes, most notably Hurricane Andrew.[14]
A notable colony of rhesus macaques on Morgan Island, one of the Sea Islands in the South Carolina Lowcountry, was imported in the 1970s for use in local labs and are, by all accounts, thriving.[15]
Ecology and behavior[edit]
A roadside band of rhesus macaque in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India: Although they are infamous as urban pests, which are quick to steal not only food, but also household items, it is not certain if the pair of jeans draped over the wall on the right is their handiwork.
Rhesus macaques are diurnal animals, and both arboreal and terrestrial. They are quadrupedal and, when on the ground, they walk digitigrade and plantigrade. They are mostly herbivorous, feeding mainly on fruit, but also eating seeds, roots, buds, bark, and cereals. They are estimated to consume around 99 different plant species in 46 families. During the monsoon season, they get much of their water from ripe and succulent fruit. Macaques living far from water sources lick dewdrops from leaves and drink rainwater accumulated in tree hollows.[16] They have also been observed eating termites, grasshoppers, ants, and beetles.[17] When food is abundant, they are distributed in patches, and forage throughout the day in their home ranges. They drink water when foraging, and gather around streams and rivers.[18]Rhesus macaques have specialized pouch-like cheeks, allowing them to temporarily hoard their food.
In psychological research, rhesus macaques have demonstrated a variety of complex cognitive abilities, including the ability to make same-different judgments, understand simple rules, and monitor their own mental states.[19][20] They have even been shown to demonstrate self-agency,[21] an important type of self-awareness. In 2014, onlookers at a train station in Kanpur, India, documented a rhesus monkey, knocked unconscious by overhead power lines, that was revived by another rhesus that systematically administered a series of resuscitative actions.[22]
Group structure[edit]
Like other macaques, rhesus troops comprise a mixture of 20–200 males and females.[23] Females may outnumber the males by a ratio of 4:1. Males and females both have separate hierarchies. Female philopatry, common among social mammals, has been extensively studied in rhesus macaques. Females tend not to leave the social group, and have highly stable matrilineal hierarchies in which a female’s rank is dependent on the rank of her mother. In addition, a single group may have multiple matrilineal lines existing in a hierarchy, and a female outranks any unrelated females that rank lower than her mother.[24] Rhesus macaques are unusual in that the youngest females tend to outrank their older sisters.[25] This is likely because young females are more fit and fertile. Mothers seem to prevent the older daughters from forming coalitions against her.[clarification needed] The youngest daughter is the most dependent on the mother, and would have nothing to gain from helping her siblings in overthrowing their mother. Since each daughter had a high rank in her early years, rebelling against her mother is discouraged.[26]Juvenile male macaques also exist in matrilineal lines, but once they reach four to five years of age, they are driven out of their natal groups by the dominant male. Thus, adult males gain dominance by age and experience.[18]
In the group, macaques position themselves based on rank. The "central male subgroup" contains the two or three oldest and most dominant males which are codominant, along with females, their infants, and juveniles. This subgroup occupies the center of the group and determines the movements, foraging, and other routines.[18] The females of this subgroup are also the most dominant of the entire group. The farther to the periphery a subgroup is, the less dominant it is. Subgroups on the periphery of the central group are run by one dominant male, of a rank lower than the central males, and he maintains order in the group, and communicates messages between the central and peripheral males. A subgroup of subordinate, often subadult, males occupy the very edge of the groups, and have the responsibility of communicating with other macaque groups and making alarm calls.[27] Rhesus social behaviour has been described as despotic, in that high-ranking individuals show little tolerance and frequent and often severe aggression towards non-kin.[28]
Communication[edit]
Rhesus macaques interact using a variety of facial expressions, vocalizations, body postures, and gestures. Perhaps the most common facial expression the macaque makes is the "silent bared teeth" face.[29] This is made between individuals of different social ranks, with the lower-ranking one giving the expression to its superior. A less-dominant individual also makes a "fear grimace", accompanied by a scream, to appease or redirect aggression.[30] Another submissive behavior is the "present rump", where an individual raises its tail and exposes its genitals to the dominant one.[29] A dominant individual threatens another individual by standing quadrupedally and making a silent "open mouth stare" accompanied by the tail sticking straight.[31] During movements, macaques make coos and grunts. These are also made during affiliative interactions, and approaches before grooming.[32] When they find rare food of high quality, macaques emit warbles, harmonic arches, or chirps. When in threatening situations, macaques emit a single loud, high-pitched sound called a shrill bark.[33] Screeches, screams, squeaks, pant-threats, growls, and barks are used during aggressive interactions.[33] Infants "gecker" to attract their mother's attention.[34]
Reproduction[edit]
Adult male macaques try to maximize their reproductive success by entering into sex with females, both in and outside the breeding period. Females prefer to mate with males that will increase the survival of their young. Thus, a consort male provides resources for his female and protects her from predators. Larger, more dominant males are more likely to provide for the females. The breeding period can last up to 11 days, and a female usually mates with four males during that time. Male rhesus macaques have not been observed to fight for access to sexually receptive females, although they suffer more wounds during the mating season.[35] Female macaques first breed when they are four years old, and reach menopause at around 25 years of age.[36] When mating, a male rhesus monkey usually ejaculates less than 15 seconds after sexual penetration.[37] Male macaques generally play no role in raising the young, but do have peaceful relationships with the offspring of their consort pairs.[18]
Manson and Parry[38] found that free-ranging rhesus macaques avoid inbreeding. Adult females were never observed to copulate with males of their own matrilineage during their fertile periods.
Mothers with one or more immature daughters in addition to their infants are in contact with their infants less than those with no older immature daughters, because the mothers may pass the parenting responsibilities to their daughters. High-ranking mothers with older immature daughters also reject their infants significantly more than those without older daughters, and tend to begin mating earlier in the mating season than expected based on their dates of parturition the preceding birth season.[39] Infants farther from the center of the groups are more vulnerable to infanticide from outside groups.[18] Some mothers abuse their infants, which is believed to be the result of controlling parenting styles.[40]
Self-awareness[edit]
In several experiments giving mirrors to rhesus monkeys, they looked into the mirrors and groomed themselves as well as flexed various muscle groups. This behaviour indicates that they recognised and were aware of themselves.[41]
In science[edit]
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mercury]Project Mercury rocket Little Joe 1B, launched in 1960, carried Miss Sam to 9.3 mi (15.0 km) in altitude.
The rhesus macaque is well known to science. Due to its relatively easy upkeep in captivity, wide availability, and closeness to humans anatomically and physiologically, it has been used extensively in medical and biological research on human and animal health-related topics. It has given its name to the Rh factor, one of the elements of a person's blood group, by the discoverers of the factor, Karl Landsteiner and Alexander Wiener. The rhesus macaque was also used in the well-known experiments on maternal deprivation carried out in the 1950s by controversial comparative psychologist Harry Harlow. Other medical breakthroughs facilitated by the use of the rhesus macaque include:
The U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, and NASA launched rhesus macaques into outer space during the 1950s and 1960s, and the Soviet/Russian space program launched them into space as recently as 1997 on the Bion missions. One of these primates ("Able"), which was launched on a suborbital spaceflight in 1959, was among the first living beings (along with "Miss Baker" on the same mission) to travel in space and return alive.[43]
On October 25, 1999, the rhesus macaque became the first cloned primate with the birth of Tetra. January 2001 had the birth of ANDi, the first transgenic primate; ANDi carries foreign genes originally from a jellyfish.[44]
Though most studies of the rhesus macaque are from various locations in northern India, some knowledge of the natural behavior of the species comes from studies carried out on a colony established by the Caribbean Primate Research Center of the University of Puerto Ricoon the island of Cayo Santiago, off Puerto Rico.[citation needed] No predators are on the island, and humans are not permitted to land except as part of the research programmes. The colony is provisioned to some extent, but about half of its food comes from natural foraging.
Rhesus macaques, like many macaques, carry the herpes B virus. This virus does not typically harm the monkey, but is very dangerous to humans in the rare event that it jumps species, for example in the 1997 death of Yerkes National Primate Research Center researcher Elizabeth Griffin.[45][46][47]
Sequencing the genome[edit]
Genomic informationNCBI genome ID
215
Ploidy
diploid
Genome size
3,097.37 Mb
Number of chromosomes
21 pairs
Year of completion
2007
Work on the genome of the rhesus macaque was completed in 2007, making the species the second nonhuman primate to have its genome sequenced.[48] Humans and macaques apparently share about 93% of their DNA sequence and shared a common ancestorroughly 25 million years ago.[49] The rhesus macaque has 21 pairs of chromosomes.[50]
Comparison of rhesus macaques, chimpanzees, and humans revealed the structure of ancestral primate genomes, positive selection pressure and lineage-specific expansions, and contractions of gene families.
"The goal is to reconstruct the history of every gene in the human genome," said Evan Eichler, University of Washington, Seattle. DNA from different branches of the primate tree will allow us "to trace back the evolutionary changes that occurred at various time points, leading from the common ancestors of the primate clade to Homo sapiens," said Bruce Lahn, University of Chicago.[51]
After the human and chimpanzee genomes were sequenced and compared, it was usually impossible to tell whether differences were the result of the human or chimpanzee gene changing from the common ancestor. After the rhesus macaque genome was sequenced, three genes could be compared. If two genes were the same, they were presumed to be the original gene.[52]
The chimpanzee and human genome diverged 6 million years ago. They have 98% identity and many conserved regulatory regions. Comparing the macaque and human genomes, which diverged 25 million years ago and had 93% identity, further identified evolutionary pressure and gene function.
Like the chimpanzee, changes were on the level of gene rearrangements rather than single mutations. Frequent insertions, deletions, changes in the order and number of genes, and segmental duplications near gaps, centromeres and telomeres occurred. So, macaque, chimpanzee, and human chromosomes are mosaics of each other.
Surprisingly, some normal gene sequences in healthy macaques and chimpanzees cause profound disease in humans. For example, the normal sequence of phenylalanine hydroxylase in macaques and chimpanzees is the mutated sequence responsible for phenylketonuria in humans. So, humans must have been under evolutionary pressure to adopt a different mechanism.
Some gene families are conserved or under evolutionary pressure and expansion in all three primate species, while some are under expansion uniquely in human, chimpanzee, or macaque.
For example, cholesterol pathways are conserved in all three species (and other primate species). In all three species, immune response genes are under positive selection, and genes of T cell-mediated immunity, signal transduction, cell adhesion, and membrane proteins generally. Genes for keratin, which produce hair shafts, were rapidly evolving in all three species, possibly because of climate change or mate selection. The X chromosome has three times more rearrangements than other chromosomes. The macaque gained 1,358 genes by duplication.
Triangulation of human, chimpanzee, and macaque sequences showed expansion of gene families in each species.
The PKFP gene, important in sugar (fructose) metabolism, is expanded in macaques, possibly because of their high-fruit diet. So are genes for the olfactory receptor, cytochrome P450 (which degrades toxins), and CCL3L1-CCL4 (associated in humans with HIV susceptibility).
Immune genes are expanded in macaques, relative to all four great ape species. The macaque genome has 33 major histocompatibility genes, three times those of human. This has clinical significance because the macaque is used as an experimental model of the human immune system.
In humans, the preferentially expressed antigen of melanoma (PRAME) gene family is expanded. It is actively expressed in cancers, but normally is testis-specific, possibly involved in spermatogenesis. The PRAME family has 26 members on human chromosome 1. In the macaque, it has eight, and has been very simple and stable for millions of years. The PRAME family arose in translocations in the common mouse-primate ancestor 85 million years ago, and is expanded on mouse chromosome 4.
DNA microarrays are used in macaque research. For example, Michael Katze of University of Washington, Seattle, infected macaques with 1918 and modern influenzas. The DNA microarray showed the macaque genomic response to human influenza on a cellular level in each tissue. Both viruses stimulated innate immune system inflammation, but the 1918 flu stimulated stronger and more persistent inflammation, causing extensive tissue damage, and it did not stimulate the interferon-1 pathway. The DNA response showed a transition from innate to adaptive immune response over seven days.[53][54]
The full sequence and annotation of the macaque genome is available on the Ensembl genome browser.
See also[edit]
It means something very nasty
It indicates a vector for the source of AIDs as well..
Long story but my research from years ago..
It is best described as a crime against humanity
That was one hell of a read, thank you. It will take me a long time to digest it all
Thank you for all that information @"Armonica_Templar".
Big Pharma and the Elite have been working on the depopulation agenda a long time it appears.
Doesn't surprise me at all.
Every story has at least two sides, always good to know at least some of them
If You Know Anyone Afraid of the Flu Shot, Show Them This!
Posted on October 20, 2016 by Stephen Propatier
Internet memes are constant reminders of how unstructured information sharing is. I see memes through the prism of scientific skepticism and critical thinking and the most frustrating aspect is how they can be used to disseminate dangerous ideology and disinformation. There is no end to the structured disinfo out there—from creationism to anti-vaccine doggerel—everywhere on the Internet. Fear mongering has become an art form in promoting the agendas of ideologues, often using reasonable-sounding but myopic anti-science propaganda. This is especially dangerous during flu season.
Fear mongering plays on our fallible human brain, our innate fear of the unknown,with a dash of the precautionary principle to structure a scare tactic. The anti-science themes and memes are artfully packaged to frame the conversation to their agenda. Facebook popularity makes it ground zero for such nonsense. Given the fact that the Influenza season approaches there is little surprise that the anti-vaccine disinformation machine throws its annual fear pamphlet out on Facebook for all to pass around. Fear mongering about the flu vaccine with exaggerated or false claims. Dressed up nicely with click bait headlines, scary words, and ominous claims of experts and research. Lets turn our skeptical eye to a viral Facebook article that personifies false anti-vaccine arguments.
A salacious listicle from LoveThisPic.com, titled “If You Know Anyone Thinking Of Getting A Flu Shot Give Them This!” [sic] has recently been circulating on Facebook. This is complete and utter bunk, anti-vax propaganda, written with just the right amount of science-y sounding words and tired, disproved vaccine claims to give the average person pause. Since a lay person would most likely Google the claims, they will see an avalanche of anti-vax sites duplicating those false ideas. It raises the likelihood that an honestly concerned person will get inaccurate confirmation of those fears. Let’s pull apart this tent of lies and give you the real answers that the anti-vaccine crowd doesn’t want you to know.
[img=0x0]https://i2.wp.com/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/53/Fight_flu_early_with_vaccine_141020-M-IY869-017.jpg/640px-Fight_flu_early_with_vaccine_141020-M-IY869-017.jpg?resize=640%2C480&ssl=1[/img]Single-dose flu vaccine. Via Wikimedia
So here are 11 lies about the flu vaccine, revisited:
1. The flu shot makes you sick—Mostly wrong. Although live attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIVs), such as flu mist, could possibly give an active but very weak case of the flu, it is almost unheard of. That kind of nasal LAIV is not available this year; all forms of vaccine are either recombinant proteins or a complete killed virus. Although some people feel slightly ill after taking the vaccine, this is just the immune system reacting to the vaccine and making antibodies to destroy the actual disease. It has none of the cell-damaging effects of the actual disease.
2. Flu vaccines contain other dangerous ingredients such as mercury—Wrong! First, it’s important to note that almost no flu vaccines even contain thimerosal, and children are not given thimerosal in the vaccines they receive. The only US vaccine left with thimerosal is Fluvirin, from Noventis, which contains 0.0000001 grams mercury per dose. (You inhale more mercury from air pollution than you get from a dose of Fluvirin.) It is only given to adults. Neither single-dose shots nor nasal spray versions of the flu vaccine contain any mercury compounds. The multi-dose flu shot does contain a preservative called thimerosal, which breaks down into 49% ethylmercury and is used to prevent bacterial contamination of the vaccine container. It’s important to understand the difference between two different compounds that contain mercury: ethylmercury and methylmercury. They are totally different materials.
Methylmercury is formed in the environment when mercury metal is present. If this material is found in the body, it is usually the result of eating some types of fish or other food. High amounts of methylmercury can harm the nervous system. In the United States, federal guidelines keep as much methylmercury as possible out of the environment and food, but over a lifetime, everyone is exposed to some methylmercury.
Ethylmercury is formed when the body breaks down thimerosal. The body removes ethylmercury from the blood quickly. Low-level ethylmercury exposures from vaccines are very different from long-term methylmercury exposures, such as from tainted foods, because ethylmercury does not stay in the body. Again, you consume more mercury from air pollution than you could from the only vaccine that has thimerosal.
3. The flu shot can cause Alzheimer’s disease—A bald-faced lie. All the best evidence at this stage is that Alzheimer’s is a genetic disease. There is no credible evidence for this claim at all.
4. The people pushing flu vaccines are making billions of dollars a year—This is wrong in so many ways it’s beyond wrong. Even if it were true, so what? If vaccines are profitable it doesn’t automatically mean they’re useless and deadly. Many products make multiple billions of dollars and are totally safe. Companies don’t just recommend flu vaccination—medical professionals do. There are plenty of medically literate vaccine supporters who don’t get a dime. I, for example, support vaccines and I have written extensively in favor of vaccines. I am an orthopedist with no financial interest in vaccines in any way. We don’t even have them available to give to our patients, any more than I have antibiotics.
But let’s ignore the fallacy of the main statement and put this in context of the worldwide sales of all pharmaceutical products in 2013—nearly $1 trillion worth of sales. Various flu vaccines make up less than 0.3% of worldwide sales of “Big Pharma,” so from a strategic point of view, they’re not that interesting an incentive. Just for context, cholesterol-lowering drugs, e.g. statins, made more than $33 billion two years ago. If I were a Big Pharma executive, I’d be telling my R&D and marketing divisions to invest in new statins, because the potential return on investment could be 10x higher. And that’s exactly what they do. In 2013, the top-selling drugs were daily medications, such as for diabetes, pain, inflammation, blood pressure, cholesterol, and depression. A single-dose-per-year medicine doesn’t make much difference to the bottom line of drug companies.
Let’s examine those sales in context of the three biggest companies in this particular vaccine sector:
Quote:Sanofi Pasteur: Total sales $41.6 billion. Flu vaccine sales $1.3 billion. In other words, flu vaccine makes up around 3% of their sales
Glaxo SmithKline: Total sales $32.3 billion. Flu vaccine sales $420 million, or 1.3% of their total sales.
Novartis: Total sales $57.9 billion. Flu vaccine sales $215 million, or 0.4% of their sales.
Note: the remaining $1.1 billion in flu vaccine sales is spread over 15 other manufacturers, none of whom have a major market share. And much of these sales are to public organizations (which cap prices) and to developing nations.
If Big Pharma were run solely for profit over all other considerations, then they would stop making vaccines. (Indeed, some have.) It is far more profitable to treat the disease than it is to prevent it, which, ironically, is a common half-baked claim about modern medicine by the anti-science ideologues. If pharmaceutical companies stopped selling flu vaccines, it is estimated that there would be an extra preventable 78,000 hospitalizations in the USA. In addition, the estimated annual deaths from flu would probably be 6,000 to 100,000 individuals. Setting aside the costs of lost productivity and deaths from the flu (tens of billions of dollars), hospitalizations alone would cost around $4,000 per individual, or a total of nearly $300 million. Furthermore, in a full-blown flu outbreak, millions of individuals would visit their physicians and emergency rooms, adding another $1 billion or more in health care costs. And that’s just the USA. These costs would probably be three to five times greater if we looked at the whole planet. And Big Pharma would capture about 30-40% of those healthcare costs, for consumable supplies, drugs, treatments for secondary infections, and other products. And these products have a much higher gross profit than vaccines.
In other words, if we assume that pharmaceutical company decisions are strictly driven by cold blooded profit, it might make more sense to under produce enough vaccine or stop selling the flu vaccine altogether, and sell supplies to the hospitals and physician offices. But that isn’t the case, obviously. It would also be extremely short-sighted and dangerous.
5. Lack of real evidence that young children and the elderly even benefit from the flu shots—This is a very harmful lie. The most vulnerable populations are the elderly and children, along with people with compromised immune systems. They have the highest risk of vaccine failure because their immune system is weak or underdeveloped. It’s not because the vaccine is ineffective; rather, it is the insufficient response of their weak or underdeveloped immune system. The reason why everyone needs to be immunized is to protect them. They are the weak and need to be protected with herd immunity. That’s where the vaccine protects them, by keeping it away from the little babies and the very old. By avoiding the vaccine, you’re dooming them to rely on their own defenses. Even if they do not receive the flu vaccine, the benefits for children and the elderly are without question.
6. Vaccines make you susceptible to other diseases—The reverse of this is actually true. Vaccination empowers your immune system, while being unvaccinated is more draining and dangerous. Catching the flu will weaken your immune system, and while you’re sick it’s easier to become ill from other bugs. But more importantly, pneumonia is among the most common complications to occur as a result of a flu infection. Getting the flu shot reduces your risk of pneumonia, a leading cause of death among those who die from influenza complications.
7. They cause vascular disorders—There is no evidence that the flu vaccine causes vascular disorders. Meanwhile, the vaccine has been shown in multiple studies to reduce individuals’ risk of heart attacks, stroke, and other cardiovascular events.
8. They are risky for children under the age of 1—This is an utter falsehood, based on the wrong claim that a young child’s blood-brain barrier is underdeveloped. There is no evidence that flu vaccines can hurt children’s development or that children’s neuro-vascular structures are affected by flu vaccines. A child’s blood-brain barrier is formed in utero and is functional from birth in regulating what can and cannot pass into the brain. Researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco discovered in 2010 that pericytes, required for blood-brain barrier development, are present in the fetal brain. The physiology of the blood-brain barrier and how it functions at that level of development make it highly implausible that any vaccine components could penetrate the barrier.
9. Increased risk of narcolepsy—This is one of the few myths that is rooted in a small amount of fact, though it’s often misrepresented or blown out of proportion. Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder in which the brain in unable to regulate sleep-wake cycles. Several studies, first in Finland and then in other European countries, found and confirmed a link between narcolepsy and the 2009 H1N1 flu vaccine called Pandemrix, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline Europe and used in several European countries (but not in the US or Canada). It was not used before 2009 or since the 2009–10 season, and no links to narcolepsy have been found for US-manufactured H1N1 or seasonal flu vaccines. The CDC sponsored an international study on the link between the 2009 H1N1 flu vaccines and narcolepsy, it was published in 2014 and doesn’t support any danger .
10. Weakens immune responses—Influenza vaccines actually strengthen the immune system, activating a response that leads to the production of specific antibodies against the disease the vaccine is designed to protect against. In fact everyone should actually think about this as an immune system “workout.” Training the muscle to fight a future invader. You might get a little sore but no damage is done and in the end you have a stronger muscle not a weaker one.
11. Serious neurological disorders—This claim is also totally, completely wrong. Anti-vax propagandists love to fear-monger about Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). Guillain-Barré is associated with influenza, the disease, but not the vaccine, and GBS is rare. Medical events occur regardless of vaccination, and background rates are used to assess vaccine safety by comparing the expected rate of disease or death to the actual or observed rate in any given timeframe. The background rate for GBS in the U.S. is about 80 to 160 cases of GBS each week, independent of vaccination. According to our friends at Science-Based Medicine, “Guillain-Barré syndrome affects 1 to 4 of every 100,000 people around the world every year, and the increased risk from vaccines is currently estimated at no more than 1 in a million.” And that was in spite of other problems in the shaky data used to come to that estimate.
So, 11 oft-repeated falsehoods about getting the influenza vaccine. It requires some digging to get at the truth, but there’s a lot of evidence against each claim. So here’s the truth, no digging. Be sure to pass it around Facebook as generously as the misinformation is being shared. I’m getting my influenza vaccine this week; make sure you get yours!
I put up a thread a few months ago about a series on the different kinds of vaccines. You had to sign up to watch them. You got one show per day in your e-mail for 9 days, and had 24 hrs. to watch it.
I can't share it here, but I hope my thread got people to sign up to watch. It had some of the most "in the know" people available who were speaking out about the dangers of several vaccines, and the flu vaccine was one included.
People can do as they wish.
There will always be those who think it's all fear mongering, but then, there will be those who pay attention to the warnings and take the advice offered. It's to those willing to listen that I put this information out.
And, for what it's worth, those reports you see from the lab researchers on medicines have been tainted by Big Pharma goons telling the researchers what they CAN, or CAN'T put in the report. This was also covered in the series I watched by people in the field.
Its always good to get as much info as possible, thats why people like you (MW) and sites like this are so important