Collusion Between Pharmaceutical Industry and Government Deepens

via: Mercola
by: Dr. Mercola
August 2, 2012

There’s no shortage of stories detailing conflicts of interest—so many in fact that you may be getting sick and tired of hearing of them. However, this is a truly important issue that must be tackled, and one of the ways of doing that is by exposing it to the harsh light of day. As long as people remain unaware, or turn a blind eye, it will continue unabated.

The price we pay for not paying attention is the loss of health, as the information disseminated by grossly compromised health agencies is skewed in favor of various industries, with Big Pharma leading the pack as one of the most powerful political and governmental influences.

Here, I will review two important revolving-door cases, and while neither is recent news, many of you may still be unaware of them.

Former CDC Director Now President of Merck’s Vaccine Unit

In the summer of 2011, Merck president Julie Gerberding said in a news interview¹ that she’s “very bullish on vaccines,” as she recounted the various ways she helps Merck sell its products. What she didn’t divulge was her motivation for leaving her job as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—an agency charged with overseeing vaccines and drug companies—and join Merck in the first place, back in January 2010.

If you don’t see the enormity of the influence her former high-level ties to the CDC can have, just consider the fact that Merck makes 14 of the 17 pediatric vaccines recommended by the CDC, and 9 of the 10 recommended for adults, and while vaccine safety advocates are trying to rein in the number of vaccines given to babies, safety concerns keep falling on deaf ears. The vaccine industry is booming, and it’s become quite clear that profit potential is the driving factor behind it.

One of the reasons for this is because vaccine patents do not expire like drugs do, so each vaccine adopted for widespread use has the potential to make enormous, continuous profits for decades to come. Vaccine makers also enjoy a high degree of immunity against lawsuits—and in the case of pandemic vaccines, absolute immunity—so the financial liability when something goes wrong is very low, compared to drugs.

Gerberding has a Long History of Disregard for Vaccine Safety

Joining a parade of other high-ranking government officials who pass through the revolving doors between government and Big Pharma, Gerberding left a trail of controversy behind her when she left the CDC. While a 2009 article by the Institute for Southern Studies lists a number of them², I believe they left out the most important ones, namely her misinformation campaign about the pandemic swine flu vaccine, as well as her naive stance on vaccine safety issues in general.

The CDC disseminated extremely exaggerated data on the 2009 H1N1 “pandemic” and urged almost everyone in the U.S. to take the new, untested vaccines. When questions arose, they blocked CBS’s requests for samples of the swine flu cases and added obstacles to getting information. Despite the many dangers that have since been linked to the hastily developed vaccine—including the confirmed link to narcolepsy—the H1N1 vaccine is now part and parcel of the “regular” seasonal flu vaccine, although most people are completely unaware of this fact. And the CDC is now, for the first time ever, urging the seasonal flu vaccine on everyone in the country, from six months’ of age until death.

Even more disturbing, the CDC withheld data on miscarriages from the H1N1 vaccines under Gerberding’s lead, while insisting that pregnant women be put first in line to receive it. This was a dramatic reversal of its own recommendations. More than 3,500 post-vaccination miscarriages may have simply been ignored by the CDC.

One of Merck’s potentially most dangerous vaccines right now is Gardasil; a vaccine that so far has been linked to thousands of adverse events and at least 49 unexplained deaths. It’s a situation that the FDA and CDC have repeatedly denied, even as the adverse reports mount.

Gerberding’s 2004 report to Congress, ‘Prevention of Genital Human Papillomavirus Infection‘³ likely played a significant role in getting the controversial vaccine approved in the first place. Needless to say, the approval of this questionable vaccine guaranteed her future employer billions of dollars-worth of profits. Gerberding has also been a staunch defender of thimerosal, the mercury-based preservative used in many vaccines, and has consistently denied any links between vaccines and autism.

All in all, Gerberding has repeatedly demonstrated that safety is nowhere on her list of priorities or concerns when it comes to vaccines. It’s easy to see why Merck would want her to head up their vaccine unit. For the rest of us, however, her blatant disregard for provenvaccine safety is bad news indeed.

Continue Reading At: Mercola.com

CDC calls for more government intervention to battle ‘chronic disease,’ obesity

via: NaturalNews
Monday, July 30, 2012
By: Melissa Melton

[NaturalNews] So far, 2012 has offered vast federal nanny state expansion at the American dinner table. From officials inspecting home-prepared school lunches to the war on raw milk, our government is determined to tell America what we can and cannot eat. Now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is openly demanding policy interventions to fight the “chronic disease,” obesity.

In the latest issue of the CDC’s Preventing Chronic Disease, “An Evaluation Framework for Obesity Prevention Policy Interventions” calls for “interventions that extend beyond individual behaviors” to combat obesity. Some methods involve “the need for policy action to create healthier environments” and implementation that “may include activity at multiple levels of the executive branch of government.” The article reinforces the idea that we, as mere individuals, cannot make healthy lifestyle changes, so we need the government to do it for us.

Poisoning People for Profit

There is no doubt food directly impacts health. However, the CDC’s new framework fails to consider (or even mention) several proven obesity contributors.

Many American-grown crops are now genetically engineered, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) comprise 70 percent of most American grocery store fare. Studies continue to highlight GMO consumption’s ill effects on major animal organ systems and processes. Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crops have been altered to withstand the popular Monsanto herbicide glyphosate. Aside from significantly depleting food mineral content, glyphosate residue also kills healthy digestive system bacteria. Research has linked poor gut health to obesity. In addition, despite polls showing most Americans want GMOs labeled, federal regulatory officials continue to stonewall it. Seemingly ignoring public concern, President Obama appointed ex-Monsanto VP Michael Taylor as senior adviser for the Food and Drug Administration in 2009.

Continue Reading At: NaturalNews.com

Portion Sizes in Restaurants Quadruple Since 1950s

via: NaturalSociety
by: Mike Barrett
July 7, 2012

It seems that while obesity rates have risen over the decades, so have portion sizes – not a particularly surprising connection. In fact, an incredibly alarming infographic helps to show that not only have meal sizes increased in size over the decades, but restaurant portion sizes have quadrupled since the 1950′s.

Portion Sizes Grow 4 Times Bigger Since 1950′s

Could this be the reason for the ballooning obesity epidemic? The infographic created by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention shows that hamburgers and french fry meals have tripled in size over the decades, while a cup of fountain soda is a whopping 6 times larger today than it used to be. A 2.4oz portion of french fries has grown to 6.7oz; hamburgers from 3.9oz to 12oz; and soda from 7oz to 42oz.

What may be even worse is that accompanied by this massive increase in portion sizes is the heavy use of harmful and toxic ingredients. While the ingredients used in food used to be minimal, you can find a plethora of toxic substances in the majority of food today, including MSG, aspartame, high-fructose corn syrup, artificial coloring, neotame, caramel coloring, and much more. McDonald’s chicken McNuggets, which would be expected to have nearly 0 ingredients, contains autolyzed yeast extract, dimethylpolysiloxane, sodium phosphate, to name a few ingredients. Even something as simple as ‘strawberry flavor‘ consists of nearly 50 different chemicals. These ingredients along with many more can be found throughout the mainstream food supply.

Honing in on the specific increase in portion sizes along with the average increase in weight, there has been a:

• 28 pound increase in average weight of a man since 1960s
• 24.5 pound increase in average weight of a woman since the 1960s
• 4.56 increase in size of restaurant portion compared to the 1950s
• 1,233 percent increase in chocolate bar size since early 1900s
• 223 percent increase in hamburger size since 1950s
• 500 percent increase in fountain soda size since 1950s

Given the continuous downfall of the average American diet over the decades, it is no surprise to see obesity rates (and subsequently every other illness and disease) skyrocket in recent years. Unfortunately, Americans have some of the worst diets in the world, and everyone knows it! With portion sizes increasing, toxic ingredients making their way into the food supply, and Americans continuing to consume this food, it is estimated that 50% of the population will be obese by 2030, lurking around the 60% nation-wide obesity rates in 2010.

Are Americans consuming too many calories? Unfortunately, yes. What’s more, the massive increase isn’t only leading individuals to experience health problems, but work productivity suffers as well. Obese individuals take more sick days and are less productive than health-weight individuals, with the most obese people taking 5-9 more sick days a year. Not only are hospitals, buses, and airplanes making adjustments to accommodate for large individuals, but employers are also paying the price as well. In many cases this loss is in the form of thousands of 10′s of thousands of dollars each year. Actually, the cost of obesity in this regard is thought to be nearly $73.1 billion annually.

The good news is that with a little calorie management, exercise, and organic living, obesity rates can easily begin to spiral downward.

Additional Sources:

DailyMail

DukeToday

Source: NaturalSociety.com

Neurosurgeon issues public challenge to vaccine zealots: Inject yourselves with all shots you say children should get!

NaturalNews
Friday, March 23, 2012
By: Ethan A. Huff

[NaturalNews] Dr. Russell Blaylock, a neurosurgeon, author and expert on “excitotoxins,” has issued a public challenge to vaccine pushers everywhere to put their money where their mouths are. During a recent interview with Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, about the fraudulent science of the vaccine industry, Dr. Blaylock challenged Dr. Paul Offit, vaccine manufacturer CEOs, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) scientists, and others who insist today’s childhood vaccine regimens are safe to publicly receive these same regimens themselves.
You can watch the full interview between Dr. Blaylock and Mike Adams here:
http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=DFBE7C32CBDBF43B7342333B7D827EB0

The CDC and state health agencies all across the country are persistent in telling the public that childhood vaccine regimens, which now include dozens of vaccines administered all at once, are completely safe. And Dr. Offit, of course, made the brazenly arrogant and astounding claim several years ago that healthy infants “could safely get up to 100,000 vaccines at once” (http://www.whale.to/vaccines/offit23.html).

Well, if these claims are true, then those making them should have no problem publicly demonstrating their validity by getting publicly vaccinated with the very same vaccine schedules, right?

Harm caused by vaccines far greater than we’re being told

Contrary to the claims repeatedly made by vaccine promoters like Dr. Offit, vaccines are not generally safe, and are known to cause all sorts of serious side effects.

“Most of the damage by vaccines is hidden,” says Dr. Blaylock. “We have the […] VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) which is voluntary, but even there we see virtually millions of reactions to vaccines reported” (http://vaers.hhs.gov/data/data).

Vaccines suppress immunity rather than boost it

Rather than promote immunity, vaccines suppress it by confusing the immune system and altering the way it responds to viruses and bacteria.

“If we look at the science of the vaccination process itself, it’s becoming evident that the way they do the immunizations — sticking it into the muscle of your arm or your leg — actually suppresses a lot of the immune system, particularly in young children,” says Dr. Blaylock. “We found out that, in fact, it causes the immune system to switch to what we call a TH2-type cytokine production which inhibits immunity. And your major protection against viruses and particularly the really virulent, deadly viruses and bacteria is your cellular immunity. Well, vaccines don’t stimulate cellular immunity at all, in fact they suppress it.”

Vaccines destroy the body’s ability to develop lifelong immunity to disease

Before the advent of vaccines, human beings developed natural immunity to diseases like polio and measles. But today, because of vaccines, these conditions and others are making a comeback in a much more virulent way.

“They’re giving the impression that before these vaccines existed, these infections were just rampant and massive,” says Dr. Blaylock. “But when we look at the data, the historical data on these infections — and that includes all the childhood infections — all of them were falling drastically before there was even a vaccine invented […] When you get natural infections, over time, the population develops massive immunity to the infection.”

“The polio virus, in fact, was a mild summer virus that had been present forever before […] Well, interestingly, the period at which this virus suddenly changes character to produce paralysis came on the foot of the vaccination for diptheria, and for tetanus, and for pertussis — that’s when they think that the vaccine itself either altered the immunity of these children, or it mutated the virus itself to make it paralytic.”

Be sure to watch the full interview at:
http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=DFBE7C32CBDBF43B7342333B7D827EB0

Source: NaturalNews.com