A Review of Four Approved Swine Flu Vaccines' Ingredients
By Dr. Mercola I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I'm not anti-vaccines, but rather pro vaccine-safety. That means, I strongly believe that we should only inject substances into our bodies, and especially into the bodies of infants and the unborn, that have been rigorously studied and proven safe both short-term and long-term. As it stands now, we've spent decades injecting materials into the bodies of young and old alike, without sufficient amounts of safety testing of the ingredients, and our society is showing the signs of this neglect. Neurological dysfunction and disorders such as autism and Alzheimer's have been growing steadily and show no signs of slowing down. Mercury, in the form of thimerosal, is included in the majority of all flu vaccines as a preservative in multi-dose vials. Thimerosal-free single-dose vials are typically reserved for infants under the age of three, and pregnant women only. I recently published a long list of studies confirming the health dangers of thimerosal -- proof that those who claim "thimerosal has never been shown to cause any damage" are not telling you the truth. There's plenty of evidence to the contrary, and if you missed that article, I recommend you review it now. But thimerosal is not the only questionable and potentially dangerous ingredient in flu vaccines. Adjuvants Explained In order for a vaccine to be considered effective, your immune response to the vaccine should be to produce antibodies to the live or dead viruses in the vaccine (the antigen). An adjuvant is a substance added to a vaccine to improve your immune response to the antigen. The word comes from the Latin adjuvare, which means "to help." By adding adjuvants the vaccine can contain less viral antigens, which reduces production costs. Unfortunately, many of these adjuvants are highly toxic. There are several types of adjuvants. Some of the most commonly used ones include: Other adjuvants include oil-based emulsions such as squalene, Squalene has not been licensed by the FDA for use in vaccines distributed in the U.S. yet, although squalene is an adjuvant used in vaccines distributed in Europe and other countries. GlaxoSmithKline's proprietary formula ASO3™ and Novartis' MF59™ are two examples of squalene adjuvants. As damaging as the neurotoxin mercury is, it's important to realize that aluminum is also a neurotoxin and aluminum-based adjuvants are estimated to be even MORE toxic than mercury. GREAT NEWS -- No Squalene Allowed in US Swine Flu Vaccines! Fortunately, Americans can draw a sigh of relief as it pertains to squalene -- one of the most controversial of the adjuvants -- at least for now. Although vaccine manufacturers were pushing to be allowed to use squalene in many of the swine flu vaccines, and the US Department of Health and Human Services purchased spent more than $400 million of tax payers' money to stockpile the oil-based adjuvant, their efforts have been unsuccessful so far. In order to legally allow unlicensed squalene adjuvants to be included in licensed H1N1 vaccines, the US government would have had to issue an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). There have been small H1N1clinical trials in which experimental squalene adjuvants were included and tested, which have been reported by various media sources, fueling the questions about its use. But that is different from an FDA licensed vaccine that is made available for general public use. To date, no EUA has been issued, so the swine flu vaccines licensed for use in the US do NOT contain squalene. However, it is still unclear whether the National Emergency declaration issued by President Obama on October 23, 2009, will cover adding novel adjuvants like squalene, or whether a separate EUA must be issued to allow the use of unlicensed adjuvants. The best way to confirm the existence of vaccine components is to consult the vaccine product manufacturer inserts. Below, you will find links to the inserts for the four H1N1 vaccines licensed for use in the US. You may also want to review the transcript of the July 23, 2009 meeting of the FDA Vaccines & Related Biological Products Advisory Committee for more information on the discussion about whether the FDA should issue an EUA and allow unlicensed adjuvants in US vaccines. Thankfully, so far, the FDA has declined to approve squalene adjuvants for US H1N1 vaccines, but that does not mean that the drug companies will not continue to press for approval in the future. Beware: European Vaccines May Contain Squalene Unfortunately, vaccine manufacturers have persuaded countries in Europe and elsewhere to add squalene to seasonal influenza and H1N1 vaccines, so if you live outside the US, you will need to do some further research to determine which vaccines may contain squalene. A recent article in the English version of the German news source The Local, for example, warns that the German Defense Ministry has ordered a special stock of H1N1 vaccines for their troops that will contain neither mercury nor adjuvants, whereas the general public will be given vaccines containing both. When checking for squalene, beware that the ingredient called MF59™ is an oil-in-water emulsion of squalene, Tween™80 (polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate), and sorbitan trioleate. MF59 is approved for human use in Europe, but not in the U.S. Four Swine Flu Vaccines have Gained US FDA Approval Below I will review the list of ingredients for the four swine flu vaccines that gained U.S. FDA approval on September 15. (As of this writing, GlaxoSmithKline is the only contracted vaccine manufacturer that has not yet gotten their swine flu vaccine approved.) Please note that there may be additional anti-virals available that are being used to treat swine flu, and/or swine flu vaccines on the market in other countries, but this article only covers the following four vaccines that have received FDA approval for use in the US: These companies, along with GlaxoSmithKline, have all been awarded contracts by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for development and production of more than 195 million doses of swine flu vaccine. For more information, warnings and side effects of each ingredient, please follow the hyperlinks provided. MedImmune MedImmune, which is a subsidiary of London-based AstraZeneca, offers an intranasal spray that contains live attenuated virus. The package insert for MedImmune's intranasal vaccine c