FaceBook Post by Dr. Palevsky

      "Flu is serious. Every year millions of people get sick; more than 200,000 people are hospitalized and thousands of people die from influenza," Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a Thursday morning press conference. In keeping with CDC guidelines, "everyone over the age of 6 months should get a flu shot," he said.

DR PALEVSKY'S COMMENTS: Flu is serious any time of year, not just during the winter, and we don't vaccinate against viruses that can cause a flu-like illness during other times of the year. Viruses are around all year long, not just in the winter. According to health officials at the CDC, we don't know how many people are hospitalized, or die, of actual influenza documented cases of the flu each year, because not everyone who appears to have or die with flu-like illnesses, is tested for the influenza virus. It is just assumed that people who present, or die, with flu-like illnesses during the winter must be suffering from an influenza viral illness. Thus, the numbers are exaggerated. Not all flu-like illnesses are caused by influenza viruses. In fact, most flu-like illnesses in the winter are NOT caused by influenza viruses.

             "Flu vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself against the illness", Frieden added.

DR PALEVSKY'S COMMENTS: This has never been scientifically proven. In fact, there is more scientific evidence to demonstrate that the flu vaccine is not effective against the flu at all. Proper rest, more sleep, slowing down in the winter, eating whole foods, taking vitamin D supplements, and good hygiene are more of a sure bet to protect against the flu than the flu vaccine.

             "The fear of the vaccine outweighs the fear of the disease and that's a huge mistake, because the disease is more dangerous than the vaccine."

DR PALEVSKY'S COMMENTS: This is pure hyperbole. Proper studies around the safety of the flu vaccine have never been done. Here is a direct quote from last year's H1N1 flu vaccine package insert about the H1N1 vaccine, and the flu vaccine:  

"8.1 Pregnancy Pregnancy Category C: Animal reproduction studies have not been conducted with Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine or FLUVIRIN.  It is also not known whether Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine or FLUVIRIN can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman or can affect reproduction capacity. Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine should be given to a pregnant woman only if clearly needed.

8.3 Nursing Mothers It is not known whether FLUVIRIN or Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine is excreted in human milk. Because many drugs are excreted in human milk, caution should be exercised when Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine is administered to a nursing woman.

13.1 Carcinogenesis, Mutagenesis, Impairment of Fertility  Neither FLUVIRIN nor the Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine have been evaluated for carcinogenic or mutagenic potential, or for impairment of fertility."

And, where are the studies that directly measure and evaluate the short or long term effects on the immune and nervous systems of growing children when they are injected with thimerosal, chicken egg protein, foreign animal DNA, viral DNA, polysorbate 80, or gelatin? How are these materials incorporated into the body, other than understanding the presence of an antibody that's produced against the influenza viruses? Any impairment to the blood brain barrier? Any entrance of the vaccine material into the brain itself? Any alteration, impairment, or damage to the native DNA of the children who are vaccinated? Any impairment of enzyme systems due to exposure to mercury, or other vaccine materials? Any production of antibodies against vaccine proteins that are part of the cells and DNA of our own bodies, that our immune systems have already been exposed to and recognized as friendly, safe, or part of self? We don't know the answers to any of these questions. And, we're told not to ask them. Vaccines, we are told, are too great an achievement for us to be fearing the negative answers to these scientific questions.

     "In addition, children should be vaccinated not only so they won't get the flu, but so they can't spread it", Siegel, an associate professor of medicine at New York University, said. "Children don't have any immunity. They are super-spreaders of the flu," he explained.

DR PALEVSKY'S COMMENTS: Unfortunately, these statements are not true either. Even if people are vaccinated against the three influenza viruses, they can still spread the viruses. The very existence of viruses is not eliminated by vaccines. Viruses are still present even if people are vaccinated. We may not see the symptomatic expression of these viruses, but the viruses themselves don't just vanish because people are vaccinated. Just because children are young, it doesn't mean they haven't already been exposed to these viruses. After all, they live around adults all the time. And, just because children or adults may not have antibodies to the viruses, it doesn't mean they haven't been exposed to them, or that they aren't already immune to them. We can be immune to viruses without having antibodies to them. Viruses live in plants, animals, bacteria and humans. We have thousands of viruses, whose genetic material is incorporated into our own human DNA. We are exposed to these thousands of viruses, plus those in plants, animals, and other humans all the time, against which we may not necessarily get sick or develop antibodies at all, yet, we are still protected from them.