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The last time that state public health officials instituted widespread isolation and quarantine of citizens was during the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic. The 1918 pandemic reportedly infected an estimated 20 to 30 percent of the world’s population with a 2.5% mortality rate and it has been estimated that between 40 and 100 million people died from complications, including about 500,000 Americans.
Less serious influenza pandemics, like those that occurred in 1957 and 1968, have resulted in a mortality rate of about 0.1%. In 1957 the Asian Flu reported contributed to the deaths of about 68,000 Americans. In 1968, complications from the Hong Kong flu reportedly killed about 34,000 Americans.
There is evidence that both annual influenza and most pandemic influenza outbreaks, with the exception of the 1918 pandemic, are generally mild. (There is also evidence that annual influenza vaccines are not as effective in children and adults as previously maintained by those promoting that all children and adults get annual flu shots).
The CDC states that every year regular influenza is associated with complications that lead to the deaths about 36,000 Americans. However, there has been controversy about whether that figure is accurate or potentially overestimates influenza deaths by including non lab-confirmed cases that resemble influenza but are actually due to flu-like illnesses caused by non-influenza viruses and bacteria. (Only about 20 percent of all flu-like illness is due to type A or B influenza and most people, young and old, recover without serious complications from influenza).
By the week of August 21, 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) had reported 182,166 confirmed cases of new swine (H1N1) influenza worldwide with 1799 associated deaths. The week of July 6 the WHO recommended that lab confirmation of swine flu cases stop being performed in many countries and advised that most symptoms of flu-like illness and pneumonia could be presumed to be caused by the H1N1 swine flu. (This presumption of causation could eventually lead to an overestimation of both morbidity and mortality directly caused by swine H1N1 influenza worldwide and in large nations such as the U.S.).
There are some reports that the H1N1 swine influenza is not as deadly and is not as easily transmitted from person to person as originally predicted by public health officials.
Using the MedAlerts search engine, as of December 31, 2022, there had been 1,735 serious adverse events reported to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) in connection with swine flu (H1N1) cases reported in the U.S. Over 50% of those serious H1N1 vaccine-related adverse events occurring in adults 17-44 years of age. Of these H1N1-vaccine related adverse event reports to VAERS, 143 were deaths, with over 26% of the deaths occurring in adults 44-65 years of age.
There is no information on lab confirmed H1N1 cases because the CDC has stopped recommending that suspected and reported cases be lab confirmed. To view the CDC’s Weekly Influenza Surveillance Report, click here.
During the spring and summer of 2009, for most people the H1N1 influenza virus caused uncomplicated, moderate, typical flu-like symptoms similar to regular influenza: fever, chills, body aches, headache, fatigue, nasal congestion or runny nose, cough, diarrhea, vomiting. But for others, symptoms were more severe and included pneumonia. 5-9% of confirmed cases have been hospitalized.
One third of adults over 60 years of age have been found to have protective antibodies to the H1N1 swine flu virus because they were exposed to H1N1 influenza viruses circulating in influenza epidemics in past decades.
The majority of lab confirmed cases of swine flu in all countries have been in adolescents and young adults under age 30.
Reportedly, approximately half of the patients hospitalized in the U.S. and half of the fatal cases in Mexico were in people between the ages of 20 and 59. The majority of swine flu-related hospitalizations and deaths also occurred in people who were obese or suffering from chronic inflammatory diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and asthma or were pregnant.