H1N1 Vaccine – Tested in Animals First | Care2 Causes

H1N1 Vaccine – Tested in Animals First | Care2 Causes:

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Am I the only one who thinks monkeys would be a better test subject than ferrets? And when are they going to give monkeys ALL the shots kids get, and see what happens? Just because one vaccine doesn't mess a kid up, doesn't mean 66 combined vaccines won't. Frequent exposure to infectious disease is KNOWN to cause immune and thyroid problems. Vaccines would be considered frequent exposure, right?

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The CDC called for a massive public vaccination program and pharmaceutical   companies went to work.  They were able to develop a vaccine quickly and experimental trials were performed on animals.  But the results were disastrous when the vaccine was delivered to the American public.

Some people became sick with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a disease that makes the immune-system attack itself.  “GBS is relatively rare in the general population but 10 times more prevalent among those who received the swine flu vaccine – particularly those whose immune systems may have already been compromised”, stated Medpage Today.

Ultimately the inoculation program was called off due to the risk and because the swine flu pandemic never materialized.  The program was a key example of how experimental tests on animals doesn’t always translate to good medicine for humans.

As required by law the new vaccine was tested on live animals.  Novavax used a group of ferrets for their trial series.  Apparently ferrets are the “closest animal to humans when it comes to being infected with influenza.” 

“The ferrets received a 3.75, 7.5, or 15 microgram dose of the 2009 H1N1 virus-like particle vaccine or a placebo and were boosted with a second dose after three weeks,” the company said in a press release.

Researchers infected the ferrets with a virus taken from a patient who was confirmed to have the swine flu. Then three weeks later, the ferrets that received the vaccination were exposed again to the H1N1 virus from a female patient with “severe respiratory disease.”  

“By day five after challenge, immunized ferrets at all vaccine dose levels had cleared the H1N1 virus and showed no sign of disease,” said a Novavax representative. 

“Demonstrating that our influenza VLP vaccine candidate protects against the pandemic H1N1 virus in an animal model is another milestone for us to have met,” said Dr. Gale Smith VP of Vaccine Development."