H1N1 session raises questions

Dr. Issa Ephtimios, a specialist in infectious diseases at the Center for Prevention and Treatment of Infection in Pensacola came to PJC on Tuesday to give a speech that was much needed at the college campus’ Student Center.  His topic—H1N1, and his subjects, a room full of students, faculty, and general public, most with urgent questions about the disease. 

Of the nearly 100 people in attendance, an outspoken parent, who had some questions of his own stood up at the end of the presentation and addressed Dr. Ephtimios about the flu virus. 

That parent was Phillip Sandy of Milton who was looking for answers about research he had come across while studying the pandemic.  Sandy questioned the doctor and the crowd about the H1N1 outbreak, which has already taken the lives of 23 people in the state of Florida. 

“The public is getting a bunch of misconstrued information from a number of different sources,” said Sandy. “They should be concerned.”

That concern according to Sandy was on the new public health state statute that Carmen Reynolds of Navarre challenged in a lawsuit against Gov. Charlie Crist in September. 

The statute states that a resident can be forced to be vaccinated, treated, or examined if they signify mortality and present a severe danger to the public.

Reynolds brought her lawsuit against the governor to the Santa Rosa County Courthouse on Oct. 1 and was granted 60 days to find an attorney. 

Sandy stood up and questioned the doctor about the statute, who responded saying he was unaware of the enactment.

“The Swine Flu vaccine is not mandatory, and it is not being mandated by the state,” responded Dr. Ephtimios. 

As of now, there are 3 vaccines that are available to the public.  One is a live vaccine that was made available to the Santa Rosa County physicians and pre-k population nearly two weeks ago. 

Another vaccine is in the works according to Sandy, who questioned the doctor about one of its key ingredients—mercury. 

“Mercury is poisonous and has been known to kill people who have too much in their body,” said Sandy.  “Why is this stuff even being questioned to be given to the public?”

Dr. Ephtimios confirmed with Sandy and the crowd that the fourth vaccination would contain mercury, but has not yet been released by the CDC due to obvious health concerns. 

“The three vaccinations that are out right now do not contain mercury.  A fourth one that they have tested will contain mercury, but the CDC is debating whether to put that one on the market,” said Dr. Ephtimios. 

Sandy who says has been a scientific researcher for 20 years said that he found out that the government gave Baxter International Incorporated, a global medical product and service company, a process patent for an H1N1 Swine Flu vaccination 8 months before the first case, which came in April, ever surfaced. 

The Deerfield, Illinois-based corporation is said to have worked with the World Health Organization to come up with a vaccine this past April, and previously helped create antibodies for the bird flu outbreak. 

“My question is, why did they approve this patent before the virus even existed, and why did they give out the current vaccines with such little research done,” asked Sandy. 

Several websites and newspapers including fiercevaccines.com, The Toronto Sun out of Canada, and The Times of India, a daily newspaper based out of India comply with Sandy’s findings, stating that the patent was filed in August 2008. 

Maxine, a representative from Baxter International who declined to disclose her last name to the Press Gazette confirmed that the incident did occur, but no employees at the Austrian facility were infected.

“These (H5N1, H3N2 mixture) were testing materials exclusively for research.  There were a lot of inaccuracies surrounding this event,” said Maxine.

“No Baxter employees were exposed because of our safe level 3 laboratory.  There were no employees that contracted the virus, and they were all given an antiviral,” said Maxine.

The spokeswoman confirmed that health officials did follow-up, and worked closely with the WHO and Austrian health authorities to ensure their laboratory was safe and secure, and the virus was not airborne.  Maxine also said that a press release was not issued to the public because the event wasn’t as immense as most thought.

1. H1N1 has been around since the ’30s….these were just testing materials.”  

The Illinois company does distribute the H1N1 vaccine, but only to five European countries.

“The process of making the vaccine was patented, not the virus.  Right now we have a contract with five European countries to disperse the vaccine,” said Maxine. 

When questioned as to why the American based company is not distributing the caccines to the U.S., Maxine replied that their current vaccines are not FDA approved in the U.S.

Even with a valid argument, Dr. Ephtimios said that what the world is undergoing right now is a pandemic, which he said the world undergoes every 10 years on average. 

“In 1918, the H1N1 Spanish Flu killed over 500,000 Americans and nearly 50 million people worldwide,” said Dr. Ephtimios. 

Right now, the U.S. has seen a number of cases, and the death toll from the flu recently nicked the 1,000-person mark.

Last Saturday, President Obama labeled the pandemic a national state of emergency and urged a swift course of action to disperse the vaccines. 

“President Obama designated this as a national emergency because the cases are rising dramatically,” said Dr. Ephtimios. 

The doctor displayed a map of the severity of cases in Florida, and Santa Rosa was pictured as having an over abundance of cases.

“Right now this is very widespread in West Florida,” said Dr. Ephtimios.  “More people are being hospitalized at a younger age, and we’re trying to get vaccines to them first.”

A member from the Santa Rosa Health Department was unavailable for comment on the PJC presentation or a vaccine update as of press time.