Create Opportunity – Challenge Potential – Choose Excellence.

Pitsel Pandemic News (03|11|09)

Conspiracy Theories

While investigating the Baxter Contamination story it's been impossible to avoid the attendant flurry of conspiracy theorists. Typically, following any news-worthy event, especially health or wealth related, several theorists jump into the fray with their I-told-you-so's, and listen-to-me-now's.

The Internet is an obvious and accessible platform for anyone to post opinions and comments, and for the most part, the reasonable and legitimate sources are easy to extract from the uninformed.

A good search engine will usually eliminate the Angels on Mars, and Alien Resistance sites. The ranters and ravers with well-seasoned profanity reveal their level of credibility fairly quickly, along with others who "publish" under the umbrellas of obvious self-interest groups who are selling their own brand of snake oil.

There are the occasional sites that creep into mainstream reportage using real or imagined credentials of professional degrees or official status. These views are often crafted with some sophistication and may appear legitimate. Our advice, when judging whether a source is credible or not, is to ask yourself, "What do they want from me?" Are they selling something? Do they want numbers of followers - power? legitimacy?

The facts of the Baxter news story are that Baxter International, Inc., a vaccine manufacturer, made an experimental vaccine that was contaminated with the deadly H5N1 avian flu virus. Of course this is not supposed to happen. And here's where some turn right, and others turn left. Baxter claims it was an accident, and others claim such an "accident" is impossible.

The contaminated vaccine was then distributed to an Austrian biotech lab, which then supplied it to Czech Republic for testing on ferrets. It is a common practice to test vaccines for human flu types on ferrets. Ferrets are susceptible to human flu strains, but they don't die from those infections.

The H3N2 virus, an ordinary human flu virus, was altered in the vaccine so it couldn't replicate, however ferrets inoculated with the sample died. It was then found that the sample also contained live H5N1 virus, which is lethal to ferrets. The two viruses seem to have been mixed in error. No human was infected because the samples were handled at a high level of containment.

If someone had been exposed to the sample mixture of the two viruses, and had subsequently been co-infected with H5N1 and H3N2, that person could have become an incubator for a new hybrid virus that easily transmits from human to human. This would mark the achievement of reassortment, the mixing process of two viruses combined in one infected individual, to produce a viral strain that easily converts to a human as host. This is one of only two ways pandemic viruses are created.

Officials are trying to get to the bottom of how the contamination happened, and their efforts are being closely watched by the World Health Organization, and the European Centre for Disease Control. When Baxter realized its error it helped the various companies destroy the contaminated material and clean up their facilities. Staff who had been exposed to the contaminated product were assessed and monitored by infectious diseases doctors. They were also offered the antiviral drug Tamiflu.

Unanswered questions are fueling the conspiracy theorists, and the causes of the Baxter incident are still unclear. The logic of the theories is convoluted and often difficult to follow. Their suspicions are that the "accidental" contamination of vaccine with live avian flu virus is virtually impossible, so it had to be intentional.

Intended by whom? The more lucid of the theorists claim there is an occult hierarchy that seeks to dominate the world. They say this cabal wants to keep the world population reduced, and are using the respect for Nature movement as an excuse to keep population levels low. They further claim that the term sustainable development is code for de-population, which is why "they" will release the pandemic on the world, to achieve this reduction in human numbers.

The proof that this occult hierarchy is out to reduce the world's population is that the American government has passed laws that legislate compulsory vaccination for during the time of the pandemic. And this vaccination, itself, will consist of this mix of the H5N1 virus with an H3N2 seasonal flu virus to make it more human friendly and render it, "with a 60% kill rate, one of the most deadly biological weapons on earth."

Sigh. So, pick your sources, and be careful out there. If we're not at risk of one type of contamination it may be another. With pathogens of the human form however, it's usually revealing to look for their motive.

This will be WEEK #6 of the Pandemic Preparation challenge. Personal care items; toothpaste, floss, deodorant, shampoo, contact lens solution, etc. Suggested 3 months supply of each.

Stay well. Take care.

© 2009, Pitsel and Associates Ltd.
Distribution and forwarding is encouraged for no-charge, non-profit use only, and with all attribution, notices and contact information intact.

If this idea has helped you, please feel free to pass this e-letter on!