During the Swine Flu outbreak in 1976, I remember some deaths (mostly senior citizens) being linked to the Swine Flu vaccine given at that time.
...HOWEVER, there are ALWAYS some rare deaths related to any flu vaccination -- even from the so called "seasonal flu" vaccination that is given
every year. The normal number of deaths linked directly to the common flu vaccination is 1-in-1,0000,000, most of them elderly people.
The 1976 Swine flu outbreak was limited to soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey, but it prompoted a nation-wide swine flu vaccination effort where
48,000,000 people (or about a quarter of the U.S. population) got vaccinated. Even President Gerald Ford was seen famously getting his shot.
Back during the 1976 Swine Flu outbreak, out of the 48,000,000 people vaccinated, 530 contracted
Guillain-Barré syndrome (linked directly to the vaccine) and 25 died. This is lower than
the 1 death in 1,000,000 vaccinations that usually goes with a flu vaccination.
However, the Swine Flu of 1976 is best known not for the disease itself, but for the way the government mishandled getting the vaccine to the people,
and the way it handled public information regarding the flu and the potential for a pandemic.
By the way, I'm not one for conspiracy theories, and I do NOT believe the stories regarding this vaccine as a "population reducer". Will there be
problems with this vaccine? Sure -- every vaccine has problems and no vaccine is 100% safe. Is there some huge conspiracy to use this vaccine to
thin out the world's population? NO -- I think that is a ridiculous assertion.
Sources:
www.medicinenet.com...
www.iom.edu...
[edit on 8/29/2009 by Soylent Green Is People]