The Emperor's New Clothes
a Parable for Our Times

Many years ago, there lived an Emperor who thought so much of new clothes that he spent all his money in order to obtain them. One day, two swindlers came to his city and declared they could manufacture the finest cloth to be imagined. Their colours and patterns, they said, were not only exceptionally beautiful, but the clothes made of their material possessed the wonderful quality of being invisible to any man who was unfit for his office or unpardonably stupid.

"That must be wonderful cloth," thought the Emperor. "I must have this cloth woven for me without delay." Advancing a large sum of money to the swindlers, he requested they set to work immediately. The master weavers set up two looms and pretended to be very hard at work. They asked for the finest silk and the most precious gold-cloth; all they were given, they secreted away, working at the empty looms until late at night.

"I should very much like to know how they are getting on with the cloth," thought the Emperor. But he felt rather uneasy when he remembered that he who was not fit for his office or unpardonably stupid could not see it. Personally, he was of the opinion that he had little to fear, yet he thought it advisable to send somebody else first to see how matters stood.

So he sent one of his ministers. The good old minister went into the room where the weavers sat before the empty looms. "Heaven preserve us!" he thought, and opened his eyes wide, "I cannot see anything at all!" But he did not say so. Pointing to the empty looms, both swindlers requested the minister to come near, asking him to admire the exquisite pattern and the beautiful colours. "Oh dear," he thought, "How can I be so stupid? I cannot say that I am unable to see the cloth." The minister praised the weavers and exclaimed, "What a beautiful pattern, what brilliant colours! I shall tell the Emperor that I like the cloth very much!"

The swindlers worked about in the air with big scissors, and sewed with needles without thread. "The emperor's new suit is ready now," they said at last. The Emperor and all his ministers came into the hall. The swindlers raised their arms as if they held something in their hands and said: "These are the trousers! This is the coat! And here is the cloak! They are all as light as a cobweb, and feel as if one has nothing at all upon the body; but that is just the beauty of them."

"Indeed!" said all the courtiers. But they could not see anything, for there was nothing to be seen. The Emperor undressed, and the swindlers pretended to put the new suit upon him. "I am ready," said the Emperor. "Does not my suit fit me marvellously?" The Emperor marched in the procession and all who saw him exclaimed: "Indeed, the Emperor's new suit is incomparable! What a long train he has! How well it fits him!" Nobody wished to let others know that he could see nothing, for then he would have been unfit for his office or unpardonably stupid. Never were the Emperor's clothes more admired.

Suddenly, amongst the gathered onlookers, a lone voice was heard. "But Father, the Emperor is naked. He has nothing on at all!" said a little child. "Good heavens! Listen to the voice of the innocent child," said the father. And very soon did the whole people cry, "He is naked! The Emperor is naked! He has nothing on at all!" This made a deep impression upon the Emperor, for it seemed to him that they were right; but he thought to himself, "Now I must bear up to the end." And so it was that the Emperor walked with still greater dignity before the crowd. And with full ceremony did his courtiers carry the train of his garments, the garments that did not exist.

Bird Flu is a Hoax
by Dr Joseph Mercola

If you have been viewing the media you must have seen the scare the media and the president are seeking to orchestrate on you and the public. According to a draft of the government's plan to fight a potentially cataclysmic pandemic, this new bird super-flu could kill nearly 2 MILLION Americans.

But I nearly fell out of my seat in the airplane as I was flying back from a conference in Ft. Lauderdale when I read that in the BEST-case scenario, only 200,000 people might die.

Then they post the frightening picture from the 1918 flu epidemic to heighten the fear. It just amazes me how they can get away with this type of reporting that is so obviously manipulated by the government and drug companies to scare you into taking the flu vaccine.

The popular media continues to reinforce this un-based fear. In the editorial section of the October 17, 2005 issue of the Wall Street Journal, Dr. Henry Miller, former director of the Office of Biotechnology at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), seeks to frighten the U.S. public by telling us that the bird flu virus can jump from birds to humans and produce, and is a fatal illness in 50 percent of those infected.

Ah, there's the rub.

A 50 percent fatality rate sounds pretty scary to me. What Dr. Miller and the other experts fail to explain is how these numbers were derived. Did they examine everyone who contracted the bird flu and use those numbers, or did they examine the sickest of the sick who had come down with the bird flu and determine the mortality rate from there?

Of course, it was the latter, and from the 60 people who have died from this in THIRD-world countries we are being told that anywhere from 200,000, AT BEST, to 2 million people at worst will die from the bird flu.

This is shoddy science at best and beyond belief that any reputable scientist could get away with such nonsense.

Firms' Threat to Limit Bird Flu Vaccine
by Rosie Murray-West

The makers of flu vaccine yesterday threatened not to produce enough bird flu vaccine to deal with an outbreak unless ministers agreed to buy more of their products.

Richard Stubbins, of the UK Vaccine Industry Group, told a House of Lords select committee that it was "unreasonable" for the Government to expect the industry to build new plants to produce enough vaccine for a pandemic then mothball them.

He called for the Government to vaccinate everyone aged over 50 and possibly children against common flu as a matter of routine. That would guarantee that the extra capacity would be used.

The industry group represents all the companies that produce flu vaccine, including the British giant Glaxosmithkline and the French company Sanofi.

A vaccine for a feared bird flu pandemic cannot be created until the strain of the virus that can pass between humans is identified.

Mr Stubbins said the Government wanted 120 million doses of vaccine as soon as it was available but there was "a lot of work to do" before companies could produce enough to meet demand.

"We have to work very closely with the Government to find ways of increasing the productivity of the industry in as short a time as possible," he said.

One way to encourage companies to do so was to increase the use of ordinary influenza vaccines.

At the moment flu vaccination is free and recommended for people over 65 and those with chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes. Mr Stubbins said the industry was asking health officials to increase coverage until two thirds of the population was routinely vaccinated.

The Lords' science and technology committee asked Mr Stubbins and Dr Kevin Bryett, the British head of the leading vaccine company Chiron, how long it would take for a vaccine to be ready if a pandemic emerged.

They said that it could take between 10 and 11 weeks to modify a vaccine to a particular strain of the virus and sent it to the vaccine companies. It would then be four to six months before the vaccine was ready.

Mr Stubbins said the drugs industry was trying to speed up the process by creating mock-up flu vaccines so that as much work as possible was done before a pandemic emerged and the precise strain could be activated and made into a vaccine for it.

The European Commission agreed to ban the import of most live birds for a month. Britain had made an urgent call for the ban after the death of an imported parrot at a quarantine facility in Essex blamed on the H5N1 form of the bird flu virus - although Government vets yesterday admitted a mix-up over tests.

Margaret Beckett, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said she was "very pleased" at the action, while it emerged at the Brussels meeting that Britain had blocked a similar ban in March.

The ban on commercial bird imports is accompanied by restrictions on imports of pet birds.

The European Union Food Safety Agency will advise people today to avoid eating raw eggs and to make sure that poultry is cooked thoroughly.

Herman Koeter, its deputy director, said: "We do not have any evidence that the bird flu virus can be transmitted through food but we can't exclude it either."
The Daily Telegraph, 26th October 2005

New Flu Vaccine is Loaded With Mercury

GlaxoSmithKline's new flu vaccine Fluarix was approved Wednesday for sale in the USA this fall under an accelerated FDA approval process. Another flu vaccine manufacturer, Chiron, moved closer to getting their license back; it was suspended when their flu vaccine was found to be contaminated with bacteria.

Chiron's license was suspended by British regulators in October, and the FDA barred U.S. distribution of the vaccine, cutting the nation's expected supply of flu vaccine in half.

GlaxoSmithKline expects to distribute 8 million doses of Fluarix and will begin shipping immediately. Chiron, if its vaccine is re-approved, could supply 18 million to 26 million doses of Fluvirin.
USA Today August 31, 2005

DR JOSEPH MERCOLA'S COMMENT

It has been six years since the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Public Health Service joined forces in requesting the removal of all mercury-containing preservative thimerosal from vaccines.

A quick surf on the net easily reveals that this new vaccine indeed contains mercury. How is it possible that they can approve vaccines that have a preservative that has been outlawed for six years? Last year I ran an article that documented that flu vaccines still contain mercury. How can the US federal government justify this morally reprehensible behavior and expose your children and you to this well documented neurotoxic poison?

The "Mad Hatter" from Alice in Wonderland wasn't just an idle fancy. In fact, hatters in England went insane with astonishing frequency a couple of hundred years ago, until "mad hatter" became a cliché. Why? Mercury salts were used to make felt for fancy hats.

Mercury exposure can cause a devastating array of problems, including:

Multiple Sclerosis
Central Nervous System Disorders
Autism
Alzheimer's Disease

Is this really something you want injected into yourself, and your children?

Avoid mercury poisoning; don't eat fish, unless you are absolutely certain that it has been tested in a laboratory and shown not to contain detectable levels of mercury and other toxins. To get your vital omega-3 fatty acids, eat high quality fish oil instead. This will also, incidentally, help keep you from getting the flu.

Other ways to avoid getting the flu without taking dangerous shots include:
· Eating a healthy diet by eliminating sugar
· Exercising
· Getting enough rest
· Eating garlic regularly
· Not letting stress become overwhelming
· Washing your hands
To learn more about the dangers of flu vaccines, you might want to consider calling into our telephone clinic on the subject, where you will hear a live discussion I will conduct with my top vaccine advisor, Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, who is widely regarded as one of the most knowledgeable and outspoken physicians regarding the impact that vaccines can have on health.

Finally, Medical Journal Admits the Truth About Bird Flu

The British Medical Journal recently featured an editorial on the bird flu in which they state the following:

The lack of sustained human-to-human transmission suggests that this AH5N1 avian virus does not currently have the capacity to cause a human pandemic.

Theoretical Speculation
While they do go on to say the virus could mutate with a influenza A virus and has the potential to acquire the means for rapid human to human transmission, it does not have this ability now; the preparation and warnings are entirely about a theoretical speculation.

No Lawsuits or Compensation Allowed
Meanwhile, the Bush administration's proposed $7.1-billion pandemic flu plan seeks broad restrictions on lawsuits against producers of vaccines and antiviral drugs, and makes no mention of how those injured or killed by adverse reactions could be compensated.

Yesterday's Wired magazine does an excellent review of detailing why this plan will fail. They conclude: "...it will take at least five years to create enough manufacturing capacity to reach that goal. Then it will take another eight months to create a new vaccine that combats the specific strain that would be killing people. In other words, it would be 2011 at the earliest before every American could be vaccinated against a bird flu pandemic."

The other, even more serious shortcoming of the plan is that it would protect vaccine producers and distributors except in cases of "willful misconduct," a term to be defined later.

Lawsuits Not An Undue Burden
Bush has called "the growing burden of litigation" one of the greatest obstacles to vaccine production. But critics have pointed out that lawsuits against vaccines are relatively rare; a recent study of the subject found only ten lawsuits related to flu vaccine over the past 20 years.
www.mercola.com

British Medical Journal October 29, 2005; 331(7523): 975-976
Los Angeles Times November 4, 2005