Lately, I’ve been working with the local county department of health in my area vaccinating schoolchildren with the Novel A-H1N1 “Swine Flu” vaccine. Initially, there was a lot of fear on the part of parents concerning the preservative Thimerosal contained in the vaccine in order to prolong shelf life. Thimerosal is ethylmercury. In the “dead” vaccine, there is 1 mcg of Thimerosal per 0.5ml dose. This is pretty much across the board in all H1N1 sera now being distributed in the US. In comparison, there is 25mcg of Thimerosal in the Seasonal flu vaccine. Both “dead” vaccines are administered via Intra muscular injections to the deltoid, except in very young children for whom we use the vastis lateralis (a muscle in the thigh). There is also the option of taking the live, weakened or attenuated virus vaccination via a nasal mist, which has no Thimerosal at all.
According to the US Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, who are charged with inspecting the quality of edible fish in the US for market, there is 57mcg of mercury in every 6 oz. can of domestic tuna sold in the US, more if the tuna comes from foreign waters. So, there is approximately as much mercury in one tuna fish sandwich as there is in the seasonal flu shot, and approximately 25 times more mercury in one tuna fish sandwich as there is in the H1N1 flu shot. (I’m estimating that one 6 oz. can will provide two sandwiches, as in my house).
Our team inoculated 35,000 kids in 6 weeks from early October through mid November. School principals have reported no remarkable side effects thus far, except that 48% of the kids reported sore deltoids the following day. We inoculated 700 health department employees using both the live/attenuated and the dead virus. One employee who had received the live virus nasal spray, reported flu like symptoms the following day, lasting three days. The vaccination takes 7 to fourteen days to build antibodies to full effect.
In December, there have been two nationwide FDA product quality recalls for the vaccine, one for 800,000 doses of live attenuated virus with no Thimerosal, and one for 400,000 doses of the dead virus with reduced Thimerosal. The reason for the recall was that it was discovered that both had become weak ahead of schedule due to reduced preservative content and were recalled before they would become ineffective. It should be noted that these recalls were product quality recalls, and not product safety recalls. There have been no product safety recalls as yet for any H1N1 vaccines in the US.
When I was a kid, I was painted heavily with the antiseptic Merthiolate (Mercurochrome) for my many scrapes and cuts, as I was quite active. That was the red stuff they used to dab on skinned knees, etc., to prevent infection and promote healing. I was happy to get Merthiolate, because it’s precursor, Iodine, burned like hell when applied and mom had to blow on it. Merthiolate was painless and mom could save her breath. Interestingly, as it turns out, Merthiolate/Mercurochrome was nearly pure mercury. I survived, and though I might be a bit strange, I am not autistic. However, Merthiolate was removed from the US market in 1998 due to consumer fears concerning mercury poisoning. There have been no studies to show a connection between autism and medically administered mercury as yet.
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