Dr. Andrew Moulden: Every Vaccine Produces Harm

An Open Letter to Legislators Currently Considering Vaccine Legislation from Tetyana Obukhanych, PhD in Immunology

Posted on April 17, 2015 by Thinking Moms' Revolution

Re:  VACCINE LEGISLATION
Dear Legislator:
My name is Tetyana Obukhanych.  I hold a PhD in Immunology.  I am writing this letter in the hope that it will correct several common misperceptions about vaccines in order to help you formulate a fair and balanced understanding that is supported by accepted vaccine theory and new scientific findings.
Do unvaccinated children pose a higher threat to the public than the vaccinated?
It is often stated that those who choose not to vaccinate their children for reasons of conscience endanger the rest of the public, and this is the rationale behind most of the legislation to end vaccine exemptions currently being considered by federal and state legislators country-wide.  You should be aware that the nature of protection afforded by many modern vaccines – and that includes most of the vaccines recommended by the CDC for children – is not consistent with such a statement.  I have outlined below the recommended vaccines that cannot prevent transmission of disease either because they are not designed to prevent the transmission of infection (rather, they are intended to prevent disease symptoms), or because they are for non-communicable diseases.  People who have not received the vaccines mentioned below pose no higher threat to the general public than those who have, implying that discrimination against non-immunized children in a public school setting may not be warranted.

1. 

   State Senator Richard Pan of California, sponsor of vaccine legislation
   IPV (inactivated poliovirus vaccine) cannot prevent transmission of poliovirus (see appendix for the scientific study, Item #1). Wild poliovirus has been non-existent in the USA for at least two decades. Even if wild poliovirus were to be re-imported by travel, vaccinating for polio with IPV cannot affect the safety of public spaces.  Please note that wild poliovirus eradication is attributed to the use of a different vaccine, OPV or oral poliovirus vaccine.  Despite being capable of preventing wild poliovirus transmission, use of OPV was phased out long ago in the USA and replaced with IPV due to safety concerns.

2. Tetanus is not a contagious disease, but rather acquired from deep-puncture wounds contaminated with C. tetani spores. Vaccinating for tetanus (via the DTaP combination vaccine) cannot alter the safety of public spaces; it is intended to render personal protection only.

3. While intended to prevent the disease-causing effects of the diphtheria toxin, the diphtheria toxoid vaccine (also contained in the DTaP vaccine) is not designed to prevent colonization and transmission of C. diphtheriae. Vaccinating for diphtheria cannot alter the safety of public spaces; it is likewise intended for personal protection only.

4. The acellular pertussis (aP) vaccine (the final element of the DTaP combined vaccine), now in use in the USA, replaced the whole cell pertussis vaccine in the late 1990s, which was followed by an unprecedented resurgence of whooping cough. An experiment with deliberate pertussis infection in primates revealed that the aP vaccine is not capable of preventing colonization and transmission of B. pertussis (see appendix for the scientific study, Item #2). The FDA has issued a warning regarding this crucial finding.[1]

• Furthermore, the 2013 meeting of the Board of Scientific Counselors at the CDC revealed additional alarming data that pertussis variants (PRN-negative strains) currently circulating in the USA acquired a selective advantage to infect those who are up-to-date for their DTaP boosters (see appendix for the CDC document, Item #3), meaning that people who are up-to-date are more likely to be infected, and thus contagious, than people who are not vaccinated.

State Senator Elizabeth Steiner-Hayward of Oregon, sponsor of vaccine legislation

5. Among numerous types of H. influenzae, the Hib vaccine covers only type b. Despite its sole intention to reduce symptomatic and asymptomatic (disease-less) Hib carriage, the introduction of the Hib vaccine has inadvertently shifted strain dominance towards other types of H. influenzae (types a through f). These types have been causing invasive disease of high severity and increasing incidence in adults in the era of Hib vaccination of children (see appendix for the scientific study, Item #4).  The general population is more vulnerable to the invasive disease now than it was prior to the start of the Hib vaccination campaign.  Discriminating against children who are not vaccinated for Hib does not make any scientific sense in the era of non-type b H. influenzae disease.

6. Hepatitis B is a blood-borne virus. It does not spread in a community setting, especially among children who are unlikely to engage in high-risk behaviors, such as needle sharing or sex. Vaccinating children for hepatitis B cannot significantly alter the safety of public spaces.  Further, school admission is not prohibited for children who are chronic hepatitis B carriers.  To prohibit school admission for those who are simply unvaccinated – and do not even carry hepatitis B – would constitute unreasonable and illogical discrimination.

In summary, a person who is not vaccinated with IPV, DTaP, HepB, and Hib vaccines due to reasons of conscience poses no extra danger to the public than a person who is.  No discrimination is warranted.

How often do serious vaccine adverse events happen?
It is often stated that vaccination rarely leads to serious adverse events.  Unfortunately, this statement is not supported by science.  A recent study done in Ontario, Canada, established that vaccination actually leads to an emergency room visit for 1 in 168 children following their 12-month vaccination appointment and for 1 in 730 children following their 18-month vaccination appointment (see appendix for a scientific study, Item #5).
When the risk of an adverse event requiring an ER visit after well-baby vaccinations is demonstrably so high, vaccination must remain a choice for parents, who may understandably be unwilling to assume this immediate risk in order to protect their children from diseases that are generally considered mild or that their children may never be exposed to.

State Senator Kevin Mullin of Vermont, sponsor of vaccine legislation

Can discrimination against families who oppose vaccines for reasons of conscience prevent future disease outbreaks of communicable viral diseases, such as measles?
Measles research scientists have for a long time been aware of the “measles paradox.” I quote from the article by Poland & Jacobson (1994) “Failure to Reach the Goal of Measles Elimination: Apparent Paradox of Measles Infections in Immunized Persons.” Arch Intern Med 154:1815-1820:
“The apparent paradox is that as measles immunization rates rise to high levels in a population, measles becomes a disease of immunized persons.”[2]
Further research determined that behind the “measles paradox” is a fraction of the population called LOW VACCINE RESPONDERS.  Low-responders are those who respond poorly to the first dose of the measles vaccine.  These individuals then mount a weak immune response to subsequent RE-vaccination and quickly return to the pool of “susceptibles’’ within 2-5 years, despite being fully vaccinated.[3]
Re-vaccination cannot correct low-responsiveness: it appears to be an immuno-genetic trait.[4]  The proportion of low-responders among children was estimated to be 4.7% in the USA.[5]
Studies of measles outbreaks in Quebec, Canada, and China attest that outbreaks of measles still happen, even when vaccination compliance is in the highest bracket (95-97% or even 99%, see appendix for scientific studies, Items #6&7). This is because even in high vaccine responders, vaccine-induced antibodies wane over time.  Vaccine immunity does not equal life-long immunity acquired after natural exposure.
It has been documented that vaccinated persons who develop breakthrough measles are contagious.  In fact, two major measles outbreaks in 2011 (in Quebec, Canada, and in New York, NY) were re-imported by previously vaccinated individuals.[6]^–[7]
Taken together, these data make it apparent that elimination of vaccine exemptions, currently only utilized by a small percentage of families anyway, will neither solve the problem of disease resurgence nor prevent re-importation and outbreaks of previously eliminated diseases.

Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, sponsor of federal vaccine legislation

Is discrimination against conscientious vaccine objectors the only practical solution?
The majority of measles cases in recent US outbreaks (including the recent Disneyland outbreak) are adults and very young babies, whereas in the pre-vaccination era, measles occurred mainly between the ages 1 and 15.  Natural exposure to measles was followed by lifelong immunity from re-infection, whereas vaccine immunity wanes over time, leaving adults unprotected by their childhood shots.  Measles is more dangerous for infants and for adults than for school-aged children.
Despite high chances of exposure in the pre-vaccination era, measles practically never happened in babies much younger than one year of age due to the robust maternal immunity transfer mechanism.  The vulnerability of very young babies to measles today is the direct outcome of the prolonged mass vaccination campaign of the past, during which their mothers, themselves vaccinated in their childhood, were not able to experience measles naturally at a safe school age and establish the lifelong immunity that would also be transferred to their babies and protect them from measles for the first year of life.
Luckily, a therapeutic backup exists to mimic now-eroded maternal immunity.  Infants as well as other vulnerable or immunocompromised individuals, are eligible to receive immunoglobulin, a potentially life-saving measure that supplies antibodies directed against the virus to prevent or ameliorate disease upon exposure (see appendix, Item #8).
In summary: 1) due to the properties of modern vaccines, non-vaccinated individuals pose no greater risk of transmission of polio, diphtheria, pertussis, and numerous non-type b H. influenzae strains than vaccinated individuals do, non-vaccinated individuals pose virtually no danger of transmission of hepatitis B in a school setting, and tetanus is not transmissible at all; 2) there is a significantly elevated risk of emergency room visits after childhood vaccination appointments attesting that vaccination is  not risk-free; 3) outbreaks of measles cannot be entirely prevented even if we had nearly perfect vaccination compliance; and 4) an effective method of preventing measles and other viral diseases in vaccine-ineligible infants and the immunocompromised, immunoglobulin, is available for those who may be exposed to these diseases. 
Taken together, these four facts make it clear that discrimination in a public school setting against children who are not vaccinated for reasons of conscience is completely unwarranted as the vaccine status of conscientious objectors poses no undue public health risk. 
Sincerely Yours,
~ Tetyana Obukhanych, PhD
Tetyana Obukhanych, PhD, is the author of the book Vaccine Illusion.  She has studied immunology in some of the world’s most prestigious medical institutions. She earned her PhD in Immunology at the Rockefeller University in New York and did postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA and Stanford University in California.
Dr. Obukhanych offers online classes for those who want to gain deeper understanding of how the immune system works and whether the immunologic benefits of vaccines are worth the risks:  Natural Immunity Fundamentals.

Appendix
Item #1. The Cuba IPV Study collaborative group. (2007) Randomized controlled trial of inactivated poliovirus vaccine in Cuba. N Engl J Med 356:1536-44
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17429085
The table below from the Cuban IPV study documents that 91% of children receiving no IPV (control group B) were colonized with live attenuated poliovirus upon deliberate experimental inoculation.  Children who were vaccinated with IPV (groups A and C) were similarly colonized at the rate of 94-97%.  High counts of live virus were recovered from the stool of children in all groups.  These results make it clear that IPV cannot be relied upon for the control of polioviruses.

Item #2. Warfel et al. (2014) Acellular pertussis vaccines protect against disease but fail to prevent infection and transmission in a nonhuman primate model. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 111:787-92
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24277828
“Baboons vaccinated with aP were protected from severe pertussis-associated symptoms but not from colonization, did not clear the infection faster than naïve [unvaccinated] animals, and readily transmitted B. pertussis to unvaccinated contacts. By comparison, previously infected [naturally-immune] animals were not colonized upon secondary infection.”
Item #3. Meeting of the Board of Scientific Counselors, Office of Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tom Harkins Global Communication Center, Atlanta, Georgia, December 11-12, 2013
http://www.cdc.gov/maso/facm/pdfs/BSCOID/2013121112_BSCOID_Minutes.pdf
Resurgence of Pertussis (p.6)
“Findings indicated that 85% of the isolates [from six Enhanced Pertussis Surveillance Sites and from epidemics in Washington and Vermont in 2012] were PRN-deficient and vaccinated patients had significantly higher odds than unvaccinated patients of being infected with PRN-deficient strains.  Moreover, when patients with up-to-date DTaP vaccinations were compared to unvaccinated patients, the odds of being infected with PRN-deficient strains increased, suggesting that PRN-bacteria may have a selective advantage in infecting DTaP-vaccinated persons.”
Item #4. Rubach et al. (2011) Increasing incidence of invasive Haemophilus influenzae disease in adults, Utah, USA. Emerg Infect Dis 17:1645-50
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21888789
The chart below from Rubach et al. shows the number of invasive cases of H. influenzae (all types) in Utah in the decade of childhood vaccination for Hib.

Item #5. Wilson et al. (2011) Adverse events following 12 and 18 month vaccinations: a population-based, self-controlled case series analysis. PLoS One 6:e27897
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22174753
“Four to 12 days post 12 month vaccination, children had a 1.33 (1.29-1.38) increased relative incidence of the combined endpoint compared to the control period, or at least one event during the risk interval for every 168 children vaccinated.  Ten to 12 days post 18 month vaccination, the relative incidence was 1.25 (95%, 1.17-1.33) which represented at least one excess event for every 730 children vaccinated.  The primary reason for increased events was statistically significant elevations in emergency room visits following all vaccinations.”
Item #6. De Serres et al. (2013) Largest measles epidemic in North America in a decade–Quebec, Canada, 2011: contribution of susceptibility, serendipity, and superspreading events. J Infect Dis 207:990-98
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23264672
“The largest measles epidemic in North America in the last decade occurred in 2011 in Quebec, Canada.”
“A super-spreading event triggered by 1 importation resulted in sustained transmission and 678 cases.”
“The index case patient was a 30-39-year old adult, after returning to Canada from the Caribbean.  The index case patient received measles vaccine in childhood.”
“Provincial [Quebec] vaccine coverage surveys conducted in 2006, 2008, and 2010 consistently showed that by 24 months of age, approximately 96% of children had received 1 dose and approximately 85% had received 2 doses of measles vaccine, increasing to 97% and 90%, respectively, by 28 months of age.  With additional first and second doses administered between 28 and 59 months of age, population measles vaccine coverage is even higher by school entry.”
“Among adolescents, 22% [of measles cases] had received 2 vaccine doses.  Outbreak investigation showed this proportion to have been an underestimate; active case finding identified 130% more cases among 2-dose recipients.”
Item #7. Wang et al. (2014) Difficulties in eliminating measles and controlling rubella and mumps: a cross-sectional study of a first measles and rubella vaccination and a second measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination. PLoS One 9:e89361
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24586717
“The reported coverage of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine is greater than 99.0% in Zhejiang province.  However, the incidence of measles, mumps, and rubella remains high.”
Item #8. Immunoglobulin Handbook, Health Protection Agency
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140714084352/http://www.hpa.org.uk/webc/HPAwebFile/HPAweb_C/1242198450982
HUMAN NORMAL IMMUNOGLOBULIN (HNIG):
Indications

1. To prevent or attenuate an attack in immuno-compromised contacts
2. To prevent or attenuate an attack in pregnant women
3. To prevent or attenuate an attack in infants under the age of 9 months

[1] http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm376937.htm
[2] http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=619215
[3] Poland (1998) Am J Hum Genet 62:215-220
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9463343
“ ‘poor responders,’ who were re-immunized and developed poor or low-level antibody responses only to lose detectable antibody and develop measles on exposure 2–5 years later.”
[4] ibid
“Our ongoing studies suggest that seronegativity after vaccination [for measles] clusters among related family members, that genetic polymorphisms within the HLA [genes] significantly influence antibody levels.”

[5] LeBaron et al. (2007) Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 161:294-301
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17339511
“Titers fell significantly over time [after second MMR] for the study population overall and, by the final collection, 4.7% of children were potentially susceptible.”
[6] De Serres et al. (2013) J Infect Dis 207:990-998
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23264672
“The index case patient received measles vaccine in childhood.”
[7] Rosen et al. (2014) Clin Infect Dis 58:1205-1210
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24585562
“The index patient had 2 doses of measles-containing vaccine.”

Calling all activists (again!) ACTIVISTS - MALE - FEMALE - ALL AGES IMPORTANT

Calling all activists
(again!)

New post on Refugee Resettlement Watch

Calling all activists (again!) by Ann Corcoran Since your numbers are growing so rapidly, I can't keep track of you all; and because we now need to step-up the resistance by becoming better organized locally and within states, the Center for Security Policy has offered to help me/us find you.   Right now we just want to locate those of you wishing to get more deeply involved in this all-important issue. We have had a very good response and hope to soon be able to start helping you find each other.  If you haven't signed up yet, please do! Here is the Center for Security Policy: In response to growing interest in spreading knowledge about our deeply flawed refugee resettlement policy, and building resistance to it, we have started to collect contact and geographical data from those who wish to stay engaged. Fill out only the fields you are comfortable filling below. At this time we are collecting data to gauge interest and we will keep you updated with news and action items as they come in. In the near future we hope to use this data to connect activists in their local areas to run with their own initiatives going forward. In the meantime, take advantage of the following resources: Ann Corcoran’s Refugee Resettlement Watch blog, monograph Refugee Resettlement and the Hijra to America and YouTube videos on the subject. Also check out Jim Simpson’s drill-down on the topic on Kindle: The Red-Green Axis: Refugees, Immigration and the Agenda to Erase America. A paperback version of the book and a promotion YouTube video will be available very soon. Thank you so much for your interest. Now please go to the website and send us your contact information. Please know that this is not for fundraising purposes.  It is to facilitate organizing on a state-by-state basis. We will never begin to reform or roll-back this out-of-control immigration program without your help, so please step up and join the fight! Traveling again! I'll be away from my computer tomorrow and Thursday (sorry won't be able to post your comments).  If you are arriving here for the first time, just use our search bar in the top left hand side bar, enter a few key words (you might try your state or city first) and see what we have said over the last eight years on that topic. Ann Corcoran | July 15, 2015 at 4:56 am | Tags: Center for Security Policy | Categories: blogging, creating a movement, Pockets of Resistance, Refugee Resettlement Program | URL: http://wp.me/p5sGi-uNg

Congress Must Investigate Planned Parenthood for Selling Aborted Baby Parts - Online Petition

Congress Must Investigate Planned Parenthood
for Selling Aborted Baby Parts - Online Petition

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Congress Must Investigate Planned Parenthood

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Planned Parenthood’s top doctor describing
how the abortion business sells the body
parts of aborted babies.

New undercover footage shows Planned Parenthood Federation of
America’s Senior Director of Medical Services,  Dr. Deborah Nucatola,
describing how Planned Parenthood sells the body parts of aborted
unborn children and  admitting she uses partial-birth abortions to supply
intact body parts.

Federal law prohibits the sale of body parts of aborted babies. In fact,
the sale or purchase of human fetal tissue  a federal felony punishable
by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000 (42 U.S.C. 289g-2).

Petition:

Because Planned Parenthood is violating federal law, we call on Congress
to investigate Planned Parenthood, the nation's biggest abortion business,
and to hold it accountable for potentially violating federal law by selling
body parts from aborted babies.

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>>>Banking Cartel "Look To" Takeover Greece <<<<>>>> " THE PEOPLE LOSE ????

Banking Cartel Look To Takeover Greece 7/13/15

 On this Monday, July, 13, 2015, edition of the Infowars Nightly News: Humiliated and subjected to “mental waterboarding”, Greece’s Prime Minister Tsipras left an all night meeting looking like a whipped dog according to witnesses. The Greek people, after standing firm against economic blackmail last week, will now be robbed of their assets & sovereignty by the bankers if the agreement is ratified on Wednesday.

Will the same thing happen in other EU countries? Will it happen in America? The secret multinational TTIP treaty quietly moved ahead in Europe as the Greek humiliation was being played out.

We also look at the ease with which the population can be whipped into a surreal frenzy of hatred by the media and channeled into irrational hatred and intolerance in the name of tolerance while European & American governments work to outlaw encryption and freedom of speech.

                                                                          MUST LISTEN !

VIDEO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6etVgbnqyLY

Highly Contagious MRSA Has Jumped Species / MRSA Epidemic From CAFO Meat Be Just Around the Corner?

Deadly New Outbreak: Please Avoid These Popular Foods, Unless They're Organic

A new, highly contagious outbreak which over 12,000 people have contracted suggests a worldwide epidemic may be just around the corner. Out of 100 samples of this food in grocery stores, nine tested positive for this deadly strain of bacteria...

Highly Contagious MRSA Has Jumped Species /

MRSA Epidemic From CAFO Meat Be Just Around the Corner?

CAFO = CONFINED ANIMAL FEEDING OPERATIONS

CAFO Collapse - How Factory Farms are Failing Fast

THE "PIG SUPERBUG" AND THE "BABY"

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16:46

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The pig superbug and the baby – video

By Dr. Mercola

The first large-scale animal factories appeared in the early 1970s,¹ and while these initial confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) were for egg laying hens, pork and beef producers soon followed suit.

Today, most meat sold in the US (beef, pork, chicken, turkey, etc.) is raised in a CAFO.

It's a corporate-controlled system characterized by large-scale, centralized, low profit-margin production, processing, and distribution systems, built around efficiency — producing more for less.

By 1980, chicken, pig, beef, and dairy CAFOs were firmly established, and over the following decade, processed fast food became the norm, courtesy of abundant inexpensive meats.

We are now experiencing the consequences of manufacturing animals on factory farms rather than raising them properly.  Antibiotic-resistant disease is one serious consequence that now claims the lives of about 23,000 Americans every year.

Highly Contagious MRSA Has Jumped Species

The featured video discusses the emergence of livestock associated methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA) in babies, apparently introduced via the umbilical cord during gestation, and the potential hazard of contaminated meats.

As reported by The Guardian:²

"[MRSA] has been associated with poor hygiene in hospitals, but the main factor behind the spread of MRSA has been the over-prescription of antibiotics...

CC398, a new variant of MRSA, emerged in animals and is found in intensively farmed animals (primarily pigs, but also cows and chickens), from where it can be transmitted to humans.

While government attempts to limit MRSA infections in hospitals have met with some success, there has been little comparable effort in combating MRSA infections among livestock."

LA-MRSA is highly contagious, and can be contracted by touching a contaminated animal. Hence pig farmers are particularly at risk, and they can then carry it and spread it to others.

LA-MRSA can also be contracted by handling raw contaminated meat. In Denmark, a major producer of pork in Europe, 12,000 people have contracted LA-MRSA. Five LA-MRSA related deaths have been recorded.

During the record-breaking month of August, 2014, 127 people contracted LA-MRSA infection, leading to broad news coverage. Seventy percent of Danish pig farms tested for MRSA CC398 were found to be infected, and one in five pork products tested were found to be contaminated with the antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Could Worldwide MRSA Epidemic From CAFO Meat Be Just Around the Corner?

According to a study led by an international team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, people who live near livestock are at increased risk of acquiring MRSA.³ Another study⁴ looking at the link between CAFOs and MRSA in Pennsylvania concluded that:

"Proximity to swine manure application to crop fields and livestock operations each was associated with MRSA... These findings contribute to the growing concern about the potential public health impacts of high-density livestock production."

In Denmark, an estimated 60-70 percent of pig farmers carry the infection, and experts are warning that LA-MRSA in Denmark is an out-of-control epidemic. Despite such warning signs, the UK and many other countries do not test farms and pork products for MRSA, as the threat is downplayed as being minimal.

In a recent investigation by The Guardian, out of 100 pork samples purchased in British grocery stores, nine tested positive for MRSA. Eight of them originated in Denmark, and one came from Ireland.

Considering the fact that food is exported between nations across the globe, the health risks associated with CAFO foods are by no means localized.

US Swine Population Affected by Novel Pig Virus

MRSA isn't the only hazard swine CAFOs have to contend with. Between 2013 and 2014, nearly 10 percent of the entire swine population in the US was wiped out by Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv)⁵ — a highly lethal virus traced back to pig's blood used in piglet feed.⁶

Reports indicate the American swine industry has recovered as of June this year,⁷ but this outbreak, which spread to 30 states,⁸ areas of Canada, and Mexico, is yet another example of the inherent dangers of the factory farm model.

It specifically illustrates why the "cannibal" solution, i.e. feeding animal parts back to the same species of animal is such a bad idea.

Mad Cow is another disease spread by the cannibal feeding model, and some researchers are now proposing some cases of Alzheimer's may be a slow-progressing human form of Mad Cow disease.

The PED virus can be transmitted in a number of different ways, including from pig to pig; via contact with pig manure; and via contaminated trucks and other equipment, in the case of the disease spreading from one farm to another.  

As noted by Dr. Dick Hesse in the following video, the PED virus has traditionally been a relatively mild pathogen. Only recently did it suddenly evolve into a far more aggressive version — with a mortality rate of nearly 100 percent among affected animals.⁹

DIAGNOSTIC  RESEARCHER EXPLAINS PEDV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=g1z8q_KI6r0

So we now see that, besides antibiotic-overuse, which poses a direct threat to human health, CAFOs also promote severe animal diseases that simply would not occur in the organic model, through the wholly unnatural diets used in the CAFO setting.

Avian Flu Outbreak among Chickens — What This Disaster Can Tell Us About Our Food Production

This year, we've also seen the largest outbreak of avian flu in US history, resulting in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin declaring states of emergency. More than 40 countries also imposed partial or total bans on US poultry.

According to a recent report, nearly 50 million birds were killed by the outbreak — 31.5 million of them in Iowa alone. Nearly eight million turkeys were also killed,¹⁰ and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently warned there may be a shortage of fresh Thanksgiving turkeys this year.¹¹

According to Fortune Magazine:¹² "The cost of dead poultry stands at $191 million; the total economic damage of the outbreak in Iowa alone is estimated at $957 million."

While there are safeguards in place to contain deadly disease outbreaks from spreading, those strategies apparently failed as the influenza managed to spread across 14 states in five months. This is one of the most troubling aspects of CAFOs, and it clearly demonstrates the vulnerability of the system.

It's also a demonstration of the inevitable — you simply cannot cram animals together in unsanitary living quarters and feed them an unnatural diet and depend on drugs to keep them healthy. Disease is inevitable in the CAFO model, as it actively promotes it.

Adding insult to injury, US taxpayers bailed out and paid for all of these diseased birds that were destroyed, rather than making the CAFO industry take the loss and accept the fact that their confined operations are the cause of these outbreaks. Unless the system is changed, more of these kinds of deadly outbreaks are to be expected, and it may just be a matter of time before one of them takes its toll in the human population...

Animal Diseases May Be Used as Biological Weapons,

Experts Warn

Livestock acquired diseases may in fact become the next generation biowarfare, according to some health experts. This issue was recently brought to the fore when the World Health Organization (WHO) and national defense officers called for increased cooperation between nations to prevent the spread of animal diseases that could be used as biological weapons.¹³

According to said Bernard Vallat, director general of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), "60 percent of human diseases come from animal agents and 80 percent of the agents that could be used for bio terrorism are of animal origin... So we are calling for further investment to be made at national level on bio security."

Last year a number of biosecurity breaches came to light, raising serious questions about "experts" ability to contain the lethal microorganisms kept in labs around the world. So while increasing cooperation between nations to tighten security around animal diseases capable of being turned into bioweapons is a good idea, I doubt it's possible to rule out security breaches altogether.

Not to mention the fact that should an animal disease jump species, as we're seeing with LA-MRSA, the CAFO model will virtually ensure that contaminated foods will spread the disease far and wide in a very short amount of time. We certainly do not need terrorists to create a devastating scenario!  According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), animal manure is another way of transmission of animal diseases,¹⁴ and CAFO manure is used on farm fields — including some organic ones.

This is why non-animal foods, like vegetables, such as spinach, have caused outbreaks of food borne disease. The fact that animal diseases — many of which are now developing antibiotic resistance — can spread via manure also raises concerns about CAFO runoff polluting waterways, as this effectively makes drinking water a potential route of exposure as well. It's also having devastating environmental effects.

CAFOs Are a MAJOR Source of Pollution

CAFOs create massive amounts of waste that pollutes lakes, rivers, and groundwater. In the town of Eileen by Lake Superior, where Reicks View Farms wants to build a massive hog farm, residents are concerned about what such a facility might do to the water quality. As reported by the Daily Press:¹⁵

"Lake Superior holds 10 percent of the world's fresh surface water and as such, any industry looking to set up in the Lake Superior Basin needs to be held to an extremely high level of scrutiny,' said FNF co-founder and Bayfield county citizen Mary Dougherty...

'The Wisconsin DNR, the main regulatory agency for CAFOs, lacks the staff and funding to protect our shared natural resources and as a result, Farms Not Factories was formed to address these threats and protect our great lakes way of life,' Dougherty said...

The proposed facility would house 26,000 hogs, making it the largest hog CAFO in Wisconsin and the first hog CAFO in the Lake Superior Basin. It also would produce nine million gallons of manure annually... 'To put that massive amount of manure into perspective, we're talking about the amount of raw sewage a city the size of La Crosse produces annually,' she said. That sewage will be injected untreated into clay soil eight miles from Lake Superior. 'The risk of runoff is real and can't be overstated."

In a 2014 letter¹⁶ to Kewaunee CARES, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future discuss some of the many hazards associated with CAFOs, writing in part:

"The Center engages in research, policy analysis, education, advocacy, and other activities guided by an ecologic perspective that diet, food production, the environment, and public health are interwoven elements of a single complex system. We recognize the fundamental importance of food animal production in these issues as they relate to the U.S. food system.

We are writing to present some of the concerns associated with the generation and management of manure from intensive livestock operations, particularly regarding the health of Wisconsin's rural citizens. These health and environmental concerns include:

• The spread of infectious disease, including antibiotic-resistant bacteria, to nearby communities.
• Groundwater and surface water pollution, and associated health and ecological impacts.
• Air pollution, odors, and associated health and social impacts.

... A growing body of evidence has implicated the generation and management of manure from intensive livestock operations in the spread of infectious disease (including antibiotic-resistant strains), introduction of microbial and chemical contaminants into ground and surface waters, impacts to air quality, and the wide range of adverse health, social, ecological, and economic outcomes that result from these events."

All Lakes in Southwest Minnesota Unfit for Fishing and Swimming, Due to Farm Runoff

The southwest of Minnesota offers a grim picture of this reality, as here there is not one lake that meets state water quality standards for fishing and swimming left.¹⁷ Ninety out of 93 streams in this area are also too polluted for such activities. Bacteria and nitrates are the primary culprits — both of which have agricultural origins. According to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), addressing the water quality will require limiting runoff and drainage from farms, and reducing pollutants associated with modern farming practices.

Similarly, research¹⁸ published in 2013 showed that well water in northeastern Wisconsin contains nitrate, fecal bacteria, and endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). The fact that CAFOs are not taking their impact on environmental and human health seriously enough is evidenced by the growing number of lawsuits filed against CAFOs over the hazardous pollution they generate and allow to disperse into the environment.

Most recently, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation filed a lawsuit against water protection officials in Virginia, demanding CAFO livestock be kept safely out of waterways that drain into the Chesapeake Bay, where a multibillion-dollar water restoration project is underway. According to a local news source:¹⁹

"The lawsuit argues that the [Virginia Department of Environmental Quality] and the [State Water Control Board] erred in March 2014 when they approved a new 10-year pollution abatement permit governing large dairy, cattle, pig and poultry farms. The suit states that water protection officials declined to require Virginia's largest livestock operations to fence off streams to protect them from wandering farm animals.

They instead backed "buffer zones" where manure cannot be applied to fields. The foundation maintains that isn't enough and livestock should not have unfettered access to rivers and streams. 'We believe Virginia's Constitution and state law require the board to protect state waters for all of its citizens,' Jon Mueller, the Bay Foundation's vice president of litigation, said..."

Rethink Your Shopping Habits to Protect Your Family's Health

I believe the movement toward sustainable food and ethical meat is very important, both in terms of human health and animal welfare. Organic, grass-fed, and finished meat that is humanely raised and butchered is really about the only type of meat that is healthy to eat. 

By purchasing your meat from smaller farms that raise their animals in a humane fashion, according to organic principles, you're promoting the proliferation of such farms, which in the end will benefit everyone, including all the animals. The organic industry also tends to favor far more humane butchering practices, which is another important part of "ethical meat." The following organizations can help you locate farm-fresh foods — including organic grass-fed and finished meats — in your local area:

1. Local Harvest -- This Web site will help you find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies.
2. Farmers' Markets -- A national listing of farmers' markets.
3. Eat Well Guide: Wholesome Food from Healthy Animals -- The Eat Well Guide is a free online directory of sustainably raised meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs from farms, stores, restaurants, inns, and hotels, and online outlets in the United States and Canada.
4. Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) -- CISA is dedicated to sustaining agriculture and promoting the products of small farms.
5. FoodRoutes -- The FoodRoutes "Find Good Food" map can help you connect with local farmers to find the freshest, tastiest food possible. On their interactive map, you can find a listing for local farmers, CSA's, and markets near you.

Also, when looking for antibiotic-free meat, it's best to familiarize yourself with the various labels²⁰ currently in use, as some are useful, while others can be downright deceptive:

NOTE:  STUDY THESE LABELS... if you can't remember these - print or copy this

                                                    and carry with you when shopping !!

100% USDA Organic label offers excellent assurance that antibiotics have not been used at any stage of production.

"No antibiotics administered" and similar labels also offer high assurance that antibiotics have not been used, especially if accompanied by a "USDA process Verified" shield.

"Grass-fed" label coupled with USDA Organic label means no antibiotics have been used, but if the "grass-fed" label appears alone, antibiotics may have been given.

"American Grass-fed" and "Food Alliance Grass-fed" labels indicate that in addition to having been raised on grass, the animal in question received no antibiotics.

The following three labels: "Antibiotic-free," "No antibiotic residues," and "No antibiotic growth promotants," have not been approved by the USDA and may be misleading if not outright fraudulent.

"Natural" or "All-Natural" is completely meaningless and has no bearing on whether or not the animal was raised according to organic principles. "Natural" meat and poultry products can by law receive antibiotics, hormones, and genetically engineered grains, and can be raise http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/07/15/cafo-system-collapse.aspx?e_cid=20150715Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20150715Z1&et_cid=DM81821&et_rid=1035680360

Grexit or Jubilee? How Greek Debt Can Be Annulled

Grexit or Jubilee? How Greek Debt Can Be Annulled

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Ellen Brown

The crushing Greek debt could be canceled the way it was made – by sleight of hand. But saving the Greek people and their economy is evidently not in the game plan of

the Eurocrats.

Greece’s creditors have finally brought the country to its knees, forcing President Alexis Tsipras to agree to austerity and privatization measures more severe than those overwhelmingly rejected by popular vote a week earlier.

No write-down of Greece’s debt was included in the deal, although the IMF has warned that the current debt is unsustainable.

Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis calls the deal “a new Versailles Treaty” and “the politics of humiliation.” Greek defense minister Panos Kammenos calls it a “coup d’état” done by “blackmailing the Greek prime minister with collapse of the banks and a complete haircut on deposits.”

“Blackmail” is not too strong a word. The European Central Bank has turned off its liquidity tap for Greece’s banks, something all banks need, as explained earlier here. All banks are technically insolvent, lending money they don’t have. They don’t lend their deposits but create deposits when they make loans, as the Bank of England recently confirmed. When the depositors and borrowers come for their money at the same time, the bank must borrow from other banks; and if that liquidity runs dry, the bank turns to the central bank, the lender of last resort empowered to create money at will. Without the central bank’s backstop, banks must steal from their depositors with “haircuts” or they will collapse.

What did Greece do to deserve this coup d’état? According to former World Bank economist Peter Koenig:

[T]he Greek people, the citizens of a sovereign country . . . have had the audacity to democratically elect a socialist government. Now they have to suffer. They do not conform to the self-imposed rules of the neoliberal empire of unrestricted globalized privatization of public services and public properties from which the elite is maximizing profits – for themselves, of course. It is outright theft of public property.

According to a July 5^th article titled “Greece – The One Biggest Lie You’re Being Told By The Media,”

the country did not fail on its own. It was made to fail:

[T]he banks wrecked the Greek government, and then deliberately pushed it into unsustainable debt . . . while revenue-generating public assets were sold off to oligarchs and international corporations.

A Truth Committee convened by the Greek parliament reported in June that a major portion of the country’s €320 billion debt is “illegal, illegitimate and odious” and should not be paid.

How to Cut the Debt Without Loss to the Bondholders

The debt cannot be paid and should not be paid, but EU leaders justify their hard line as necessary to save the creditors from having to pay – the European taxpayers, governments, institutions, and banks holding Greek bonds. It is quite possible to grant debt relief, however,

without hurting the bondholders. US banks were bailed out by the US Federal Reserve to the tune of more than $16 trillion in virtually interest-free loans, without drawing on taxes. Central banks have a printing press that allows them to create money at will.

The ECB has already embarked on this sort of debt purchasing program. In January, it announced it would purchase 60 billion euros of debt assets per month beginning in March, continuing to at least September 2016, for a total of €1.14 trillion of asset purchases. These assets are being purchased through “quantitative easing” – expanding the monetary base simply with accounting entries on the ECB’s books.

The IMF estimates that Greece needs debt relief of €60 billion – a mere one month of the ECB’s quantitative easing program. The ECB could solve Greece’s problem with a few computer keystrokes. Moreover, in today’s deflationary environment, the effect would actually be to stimulate the European economy. As financial writer Richard Duncan observes:

When a central bank prints money and buys a government bond, it is the same thing as cancelling that bond (so long as the central bank does not sell the bond back to the public).

. . . The European Central Bank’s plans to create €1.1 trillion over the next 20 months will effectively cancel the combined budget deficits of the Eurozone national governments in both 2015 and 2016, with a considerable amount left over.

Quantitative Easing has only been possible because it has occurred at a time when Globalization is driving down the price of labor and industrial goods. The combination of fiat money and Globalization creates a unique moment in history where the governments of the developed economies can print money on an aggressive scale without causing inflation.

They should take advantage of this once-in-history opportunity to borrow more in order to invest in new industries and technologies, to restructure their economies and to retrain and educate their workforce at the post-graduate level. If they do, they could not only end the global economic crisis, but also ensure that the standard of living in the developed world continues to improve, rather than sinking down to third world levels.

That is how it works for Germany after World War II. According to economist Michael Hudson, the most successful debt jubilee in recent times was gifted to Germany, the country now most opposed to doing the same for Greece. The German Economic Miracle followed massive debt forgiveness by the Allies:

All domestic German debts were annulled, except employer wage debts to their labor force, and basic working balances. Later, in 1953, its international debts were written down.

Why not do the same for the Greeks? Hudson writes:

It was easy to write down debts that were owed to Nazis. It is much harder to do so when the debts are owed to powerful and entrenched institutions – especially to banks.

Loans Created with Accounting Entries Can Be Canceled with Accounting Entries

That may be true for non-bank creditors. But for banks, recall that the money owed to them is not taken from the accounts of depositors. It is simply created with accounting entries on the books. The loans could be canceled the same way. To the extent that the Greek debt is owed to the ECB, the IMF and other financial institutions, that is another option for canceling it.

British economist Michael Rowbotham explored that possibility in 1998 for the onerous Third World debts owed to the World Bank and IMF. He wrote that of the $2.2 trillion debt then outstanding, the vast majority was money simply created by commercial banks. It represented a liability on the banks’ books only because the rules of banking said their books must be balanced.  He suggested two ways the rules might be changed to liquidate unfair and oppressive debts:

The first option is to remove the obligation on banks to maintain parity between assets and liabilities, or, to be more precise, to allow banks to hold reduced levels of assets equivalent to the Third World debt bonds they cancel.  Thus, if a commercial bank held $10 billion worth of developing country debt bonds, after cancellation it would be permitted in perpetuity to have a $10 billion dollar deficit in its assets.  This is a simple matter of record-keeping.

The second option, and in accountancy terms probably the more satisfactory (although it amounts to the same policy), is to cancel the debt bonds, yet permit banks to retain them for purposes of accountancy.

The Real Roadblock Is Political

The Eurocrats could end the economic crisis by writing off odious unrepayable debt either through quantitative easing or by changing bank accounting rules. But ending the crisis is evidently not what they are up to. As Michael Hudson puts it, “finance has become the modern-day mode of warfare. Its objectives are the same: acquisition of land, raw materials and monopolies.” He writes:

Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy and other debtor countries have been under the same mode of attack that was waged by the IMF and its austerity doctrine that bankrupted Latin America from the 1970s onward.

Prof. Richard Werner, who was on the scene as the European Union evolved, maintains that the intent for the EU from the start was the abandonment of national sovereignty in favor of a single-currency system controlled by eurocrats doing the bidding of international financiers. The model was flawed from the beginning. The solution, he says, is for EU countries to regain their national sovereignty by leaving the euro en masse. He writes:

By abandoning the euro, each country would regain control over monetary policy and could thus solve their own particular predicament. Some, such as Greece, may default, but its central bank could limit the damage by purchasing the dud bonds from banks at face value and keeping them on its balance sheet without marking to market (central banks have this option, as the Fed showed again in October 2008). Banks would then have stronger balance sheets than ever, they could create credit again, and in exchange for this costless bailout central banks could insist that bank credit – which creates new money – is only allowed for transactions that contribute to GDP in a sustainable way. Growth without crises and large-scale unemployment could then be arranged.

But Dr. Werner acknowledges that this is not likely to happen soon. Brussels has been instructed by President Obama, no doubt instructed by Wall Street, to hold the euro together at all costs.

The Promise and Perils of Grexit

The creditors may have won this round, but Greece’s financial woes are far from resolved. After the next financial crisis, it could still find itself out of the EU. If the Greek parliament fails to endorse the deal just agreed to by its president, “Grexit” could happen even earlier. And that could be the Black Swan event that ultimately breaks up the EU. It might be in the interests of the creditors to consider a debt jubilee to avoid that result, just as the Allies felt it was in their interests to expunge German debts after World War II.

For Greece, leaving the EU may be perilous; but it opens provocative possibilities. The government could nationalize its insolvent banks along with its central bank, and start generating the credit the country desperately needs to get back on its feet. If it chose, it could do this while still using the euro, just as Ecuador uses the US dollar without being part of the US. (For more on how this could work, see here.)

If Greece switches to drachmas, the funding possibilities are even greater. It could generate the money for a national dividend, guaranteed employment for all, expanded social services, and widespread investment in infrastructure, clean energy, and local business. Freed from its Eurocrat oppressors, Greece could model for the world what can be achieved by a sovereign country using publicly-owned banks and publicly-issued currency for the benefit of its own economy and its own people.

____________

Ellen Brown is an attorney, founder of the Public Banking Institute, and author of twelve books including the best-selling Web of Debt. Her latest book, The Public Bank Solution, explores successful public banking models historically and globally. Her 300+ blog articles are at EllenBrown.com.

http://ellenbrown.com/2015/07/14/grexit-or-jubilee-how-greek-debt-could-be-annulled/