October 31, 2006

Hg in Flu Vaccines - Print This Helpful Guide Out And Take To The Doc

List of flu shots that contain mercury:

Autism, mercury poisoning, thimerosal and the flu vaccine
public_health@8:22 am PST email to the editor
by Michael Dorausch, DC
planetc1.com news staff

About two weeks ago, news reports began showing up online suggesting that the flu vaccine was found safe to be used in children under the age of two.

The study looked at immunization records for more than 45,000 children and researchers determined that the intramuscular flu vaccine was safe to be used in children under the age of two.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "the single best way to protect against the flu is to get vaccinated each year" and the CDC now recommends children under the age of two receive the flu vaccine.

Hundreds of news articles began appearing on major web sites such as Google News, MSN, and Yahoo, touting the recently reported study and suggesting the vaccine was now safe for babies. The message was clear... get the shot, get the shot, get the shot. However, there was something missing that was not appearing in any of the news articles... flu shots contain thimerosal.

That may come as no big deal to some, but to a parent that has been fighting with vaccine manufacturers and/or government officials to get mercury compounds out of vaccines, it's a very big deal.

Thimerosal
After increased pressure from consumers, parents of autistic children groups, and government elected officials, vaccine manufacturers and the FDA have collectively agreed to begin removing thimerosal from childhood vaccines. Problem is, up until these recent recommendations, the flu vaccine was not considered a childhood vaccine.

Here is a list of FDA links with PDF document information on various intramuscular flu vaccines being used in 2006. Fluzone "No Preservative" pediatric dose by Aventis Pasteur, reports not to use thimerosal in the manufacturing process. Below that are some links to get more information about Thimerosal.

Fluvirin™ (Chiron Vaccines Ltd.)
Thimerosal (mercury derivative, =0.98 mcg mercury per 0.5 mL dose) is used in manufacture of the unit dose preservative free presentation but is reduced by the purification process to trace amounts.
http://www.fda.gov/cber/label/inflchi091405LB2.pdf

Fluarix™ (Influenza Virus Vaccine for intramuscular use)
Thimerosal is used at the early stages of manufacture and is removed by subsequent purification steps to <1.25 mcg mercury per dose.
http://www.fda.gov/CbER/label/inflgla083105LB.pdf

FLULAVAL™ (Influenza Virus Vaccine) ID Biomedical Corporation of Quebec (IDB)
FLULAVAL is an influenza virus vaccine indicated for active immunization of adults 18 years of age and older. Thimerosal, a mercury derivative, is added as a preservative. Each 0.5 mL dose contains 25 mcg mercury.
http://www.fda.gov/Cber/label/inflidb100506LB.pdf

Fluzone (Aventis Pasteur, Inc.)
Fluzone vaccine is supplied in four different presentations: a 5 mL vial of vaccine which contains the preservative thimerosal [(mercury derivative), (25 µg mercury/dose)]; a 0.25 mL prefilled syringe (No Preservative: Pediatric Dose, for 6 – 35 months of age) distinguished by a pink syringe plunger rod; a 0.5 mL prefilled syringe (No Preservative, for 36 months of age and older); and a 0.5 mL vial (No Preservative, for 36 months of age and older). There is no thimerosal used in the manufacturing process of the No Preservative unit dose presentations of Fluzone vaccine.
http://www.fda.gov/CbER/products/inflave071405.htm

Thimerosal in Vaccines (from the FDA)
http://www.fda.gov/Cber/vaccine/thimerosal.htm

Thimerosal (from Wikipedia) -- Thiomersal is a very toxic compound which is harmful by inhalation and ingestion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thimerosal

National Vaccine Information Center - Mercury Calculator
http://www.nvic.org/Issues/HgCalculator.htm

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My husband is a primary care provider, this year he provided a handout on thimerasol along with the consent form for the flu shot. He would rather not give it, but if he doesn't, his patients will go elsewhere, & no doubt get the thimerasol too. He stated it was an ethical & moral obligation to uphold his oath-1st. DO NO HARM. Many of his patients were shocked to learn mercury was in vaccines, all were proud to have a doctor that valued their health above the almighty dollar. I'm proud of him too, 1 local MD had some snide remarks for him, my Jim just laughed & said, I care for my patients as I would my family, and besides, better safe than sorry, or sued, 'ya dumb ass.
Keep up the blog, Ive missed you.
JC

Anonymous said...

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/thimerosal.htm
Updated Sep 26, 2006
Is influenza vaccine that does not contain thimerosal as a preservative available this flu season (2006-07)?
At the current time, sanofi pasteur is projecting that 8 million to 9 million doses of thimerosal-free vaccine in pre-filled syringes or vials will be produced for the 2006-07 influenza season. The majority of this vaccine will be in 0.25 mL syringes (indicated for ages 6-35 months) with the remainder in 0.5 mL vials or syringes (indicated for ages 36 months and older). In addition, GlaxoSmithKline’s influenza vaccine for adults 18 years of age and older is preservative-free vaccine and Novartis (formerly Chiron) has a preservative-free preparation for persons 4 years of age and older. Also, the nasal-spray influenza vaccine (sold commercially as FluMist®) does not contain any thimerosal and can be given to healthy people 5 to 49 years of age who are not pregnant.