Friday, September 11, 2009

Pregnant Women & Swine Flu Tests

A trial of the swine flu vaccine will be conducted at Baylor College of Medicine, Group Health Cooperative Ctr. for Health Studies in Seattle, St. Louis University, Vandervilt University in Nashville, Duke University in North Carolina and Scott & White Memorial Hospital & Clinic in Texas. This study will be conducted and funded, through the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NID).
 
Pregnant women are usually exempt, from medical research, that doesn't involve issues relating to pregnancy. The reason is, to protect them and their babies, from dangerous side-effects of drugs.
 
I take the liberty in this blog, to ask, why a pregnant woman would subject herself and her baby, to an untested fast-tracked vaccine? The arguments used to promote testing are, that pregnant women account for 6% of the deaths, early in the epidemic, although they account for only 1% of the population. My response to that, is, do they have pre-existing disease? If so, it's not a fair statement, to say, that they are at risk. However, if you consider pregnancy a disease, then ...
 
I wonder if these women are being paid? According to the information, they will receive 2 injections, 21 days apart. Researchers, supposedly, will gauge the vaccines effectiveness, by monitoring antibody levels to flu virus. They'll also collect umbilical cord blood, to measure how much antibody circulates from mother to baby, through the placenta. Wow! Talk about invasive! Umbilical cord blood?  From an unborn baby?  Something's wrong here.  Something's fishy.  Who would do that?

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