by: Meryl Dorey
(NaturalNews) Australian health authorities, demonstrating a shocking disregard for the safety of health consumers, have awarded the discredited vaccine manufacturer, CSL, an AUD $117 million, four-year contract to supply flu shots for anyone over the age of 10. In 2010, CSL's vaccine, Fluvax, caused hundreds of children to be hospitalized, leading to the death of at least one child and the permanent brain damage of another. The rate of convulsions in children who received this shot was 1 in 100 – almost ten times higher than the rate 'expected' by Australia's government regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)
* Failure of laboratory staff to wear masks while dispensing and mixing vaccines;
* Deficient tests to check whether the vaccine viruses had been properly split (not performing these tests properly can increase the risk of adverse vaccine reactions); and
* Inadequate investigations into vaccine and other product failures
Vaccine safety not a priority for Australian government
Despite the obvious problems with vaccine safety and the lack of accountability shown by CSL in demonstrating that they had taken any steps to improve manufacturing processes, the Australian government has chosen to continue administering this vaccine to an unsuspecting public. According to an unnamed spokesperson for the Australian Health Department, this decision was made because "CSL is the only onshore manufacturer of influenza vaccine … that can guarantee sufficient supply of influenza vaccine to allow the national vaccination program to commence on 15 March."
Will Australians be warned?
Due to a feeling within the community that influenza might be less dangerous than the flu vaccine, the government had to dispose of more than 42 percent of the 'Swine Flu' vaccines it had purchased (7.5 million doses) at a cost to the taxpayer of over AUD $100 million. One has to wonder if this year's vaccine recipients will be warned about the increased risk of using Fluvax and if they are, how many doses will be wasted since most people would most likely not want to leave themselves at risk from a flu shot that is known to be highly reactive.
What makes this waste of our precious and limited health dollar even more deplorable is the fact that in children under the age of two, flu vaccines have been shown to be completely ineffective. In those over the age of two and healthy adults, flu vaccines do nothing to prevent the risk of hospitalization, time spent off of work or the risk death from flu. And in the elderly – the original target group for this shot – flu vaccines do nothing to prevent death or serious morbidity from flu though there does seem to be a slight protective effect against death from pneumonia.
The TGA, which is fully funded by cost-recovery (meaning it gets no money from the Australian government and is completely funded by the drug companies whose products it is meant to regulate) has proven to be more of a friend to Big Pharma rather than a watchdog to protect the health and well being of the public.