INFLUENZA and The Apollo Fraud
Was a person exposed to the flu guaranteed to get it or was the vaccine not completely effective? You've said both things, sometimes in the same post.
Do you think that one of the symptoms of the flu might have been an inability to distinguish fantasy from reality in order to protect a fragile ego?
Your second question I quite honestly do not understand Loss leader.
With regard to the first, you simply are not understanding my points about INFLUENZA......But sincerely, I do appreciate your efforts, most fair. I’ll go over some points with respect to INFLUENZA in general here that I believe you and the others will find helpful, and then given that as background, show why it is that INFULENZA is surprisingly a topic of great relevance in the world of Apollo, and in particular, why the subject has relevance with regard to demonstrating Apollo fraudulence.
Understanding INFLUENZA is not difficult in a general sense, though it requires more than straight forward medical textbook skills in evaluating patients. Historical perspective is critical with regard to performing well as a front line clinician when confronted with a possible case of INFLUENZA. Epidemiologic concerns are critical here, even more so than when dealing with HIV associated problems.
The subject is vast, so I’ll cover that which I view as most germane, and can return to the subject if/as needed to clarify points later.
To begin with, all Apollo considerations aside, a few fundamental facts/points
1) INFLUENZA is different from a common cold. It has the potential to cause a much more serious illness. Even young healthy people can get so sick that they die once infected.
2) In 1968/1969, once sick, a patient with INFLUENZA could not be treated in any specific sense. There were no specific, anti-INFLUENZA antivirals available. Supportive care was the only thing available. Even now, specific antivirals for treatment of influenza are not gangbusters effective.
3)In the US, INFLUENZA is "seasonal". People get sick typically during a certain time of year, October through April. Often times January and February are the month's featuring the most cases.
4) No one knows for sure how many people die each year due to INFLUENZA infection because infections, even lethal ones, require sophisticated laboratory testing to CONFIRM the virus as responsible. As such, the United States' CDC is dependent on statistical methods to estimate the numbers of deaths each year "due to"(really statistically estimated as due to)INFLUENZA. That number is on the order of 30,000 per year give or take. 30,000 people die each year according to US Public Health officials due to INFLUENZA infection and its associated complications. This is a statistically based estimate. Again, these are not deaths in individuals that have INFLUENZA confirmed by viral specific assay. Most people with genuine INFLUENZA, including those who die due to an INFLUENZA infection, never are tested specifically for it. The annual US death toll is a statistical estimate, and often times, INFLUENZA is a clinical diagnosis, or viewed as a clinical possibility.
5) We do test people in the hospital for INFLUENZA, typically by nasopharyngeal swab assay. Blood tests may also be employed. The swab test is far from fool proof. False negatives are common.
6) INFLUENZA is transmitted via respiratory secretions, DROPLETS IN THE AIR. After a couple three days, then you’ll get sick and stay sick for a week or so. Most people recover, no problem. People get fever, chills, headache, muscle ache, cough. Sometimes people look as though they have nothing more than a common cold. Diarrhea can be seen with INFLUENZA, though more typically with children. Sometimes people with INFLUENZA get bacterial pneumonia on top of the INFLUENZA infection. We see that particular problem a lot of times in my hospital. A patient comes in with a bad bacterial pneumonia, we test them for INFLUENZA and find out that is what started it all.
7) Sometimes INFLUENZA is PANDEMIC, that is, it spreads WORLDWIDE outside the context of a simple seasonal pattern. Consider the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918-1920. The world population at the time was 1.8 billion and roughly one third of the world’s population ultimately became INFLUENZA infected. A common mortality figure is 50-100 million deaths due to the Spanish Flu. For the sake of argument, let’s call it 75 million. That is 4 percent of the entire world’s population DEAD on the basis of INFLUENZA and it’s complications. That is five times as many deaths as those occurring in World War I.. 60 million people were killed in World War II, 2.5 % of the then world population give or take. Nothing compared to the Spanish Flu Pandemic. From 1980 to current, 25 million people have died from AIDS. By way of comparison, the AIDS Epidemic looks like a wine and cheese party. The Spanish Flu Pandemic was an eye opener. The vast majority of people that died were under 65 years of age and people 20-50 years of age, the most robust/healthy people in the world seemed most vulnerable. IT WAS THEY WHO DIED IN THE GREATEST NUMBER. Presumably, because what ailed these folks was the response of their immune systems. The more robust your response, the sicker you got, and the more likely it would be that you’d die.
8) Doctors have big time respect for INFLUENZA. We are aware of the Spanish Flu story and have all taken care of young people that have died, or nearly died due to infection with INFLUENZA. By the way, as a general rule, it is the elderly, infirmed and very young viewed most at risk to get very ill and die due to an INFLUENZA infection. That said, there is this special concern, this special lesson as provided by the Spanish Flu experience, with 4% of the world’s relatively young people DYING, and so docs worry about the flu, not excessively, but as they should. We have a healthy respect for INFUENZA. The crazy bug has killed a lot more patients than HIV/AIDS.
9) Nothing comes close to the Spanish Flu, though there have been lesser INFLUENZA pandemics in the 20th Century. The one with relevance here is the Hong Kong Flu epidemic of 1968/1969. The outbreak began in Asia in 1968‘s early summer. The virus reached the states, California in particular, by September of ‘68. Many epidemiologists believed then and believe to this day that INFLUENZA found its way to my home state by way of Vietnam Vets. Not a bad thought, but a point impossible to confirm. Worldwide, perhaps one million people died due to the 1968/1969 version of Hong Kong Flu. American epidemiologic reports indicated that when all was said and done, roughly 30,000 Americans died due to 1968/1969 Hong Kong Flu infections and their complications. Unlike the case with the Spanish Flu, most Hong Kong Flu victims were NOT young. They were over 65 and tended to be of the group we typically view as most vulnerable; very young, elderly, chronically ill. OF course millions of people became ill worldwide during this pandemic. Most survived, no problem. The case-fatality ratio for pandemic 1968 Hong Kong Flu is never reported over 0.5%. That is fewer than 1 in 200 acquiring the infection died on account of it. That said, when an epidemic/pandemic begins, physicians, public health personal, are not aware of how bad things are until they indeed “were” and enter the world of our past tense. One assesses the impact of something like this from a rearview mirror, looking back once the dust and aerosolized particles have settled.
10) In a broad sense, vaccinating against INFLUENZA is beneficial to a community as a whole. INFLUENZA vaccines prevent illness and deaths and when administered to a population judiciously, the upside outweighs the downside, benefits out weigh risks of vaccination overall. That said, there is a down side to vaccination. One might have an allergic reaction, an anaphylactic reaction even, and die. You might spend and waste a ton of money vaccinating elderly people and because of their weak immune systems, the vaccines won’t elicit a protective response. All that time, all that energy, all that health care dough for nothing. Many investigators believe this now to be true with regard to INFLUENZA vaccinating the elderly, or at least a significant number of highly regarded epidemiologists/vaccine specialists think there is a good chance this may be the case. Still, INFLUENZA vaccination for the elderly, especially nursing home residents, is a main stream recommendation and there are studies showing benefits. Details regarding vaccine effectiveness are hard to get at . This, despite the employment of modern scientific methods in an effort to ascertain data regarding immunization efficacy and effectiveness. I’ll make some general comments about immune effectiveness/efficacy here just to give a general sense for how the situation is viewed by many in the main. INFLUENZA vaccine cannot be viewed as providing fool proof protection/immunity against infection. They provide no guarantee that once vaccinated, the so vaccinated will not get sick, will not die. The older one is, the less well vaccines work as the vaccine is being offered to a less than enthusiastic immune system. With regard to immunizing people under the age of 65, an INFLUENZA vaccine may elicit an antibody response in roughly 70% of those to whom it is administered. That is, with regard to responding to the vaccine’s challenge, roughly 70% of those vaccinated seem to do what they are supposed to do, produce antibodies and presumably find themselves to have a girding of their INFLUENZA specific immunity in other regards as well. Of those responding appropriately, of the 70% of the healthy , youngish , INFLUENZA vaccine antibody producers, something on the order of half or so may be CLINICALLY PROTECTED by virtue of the vaccine. In other words, only one of two vaccinated individuals who have indeed produced antibodies in response to the vaccine’s challenge when exposed to the virus with a large inoculum, a dose sufficient to typically cause infection, only one person of the two will find himself/herself protected by virtue of the vaccine he/she received. The Other person so exposed will get sick. The vaccine, despite its having elicited an antibody response, will nevertheless have done an inadequate job for some reason or other in terms of ultimately providing the vaccinated person with the so hoped for immunity. The Hong Kong Flu vaccine of 1968/1969 when studied by Public Health personal post epidemic was found to have been not very effective/efficacious at all. It was viewed as “disappointing” in terms of the epidemic’s outcome.
Now I’ll go on and say a few things as regards Apollo and INFLUENZA, and in particular the Hong Kong Flu.
The Hong Kong Flu pandemic was acknowledged to be a genuine problem in the early summer of 1968. By September of 1968, the virus was causing problems with infection in California. Some military personal had confirmed infections. As the pandemic was Asia based, the thinking was that Vietnam Vets were the ones responsible for the flu’s presence in the states.
A major vaccine production program was undertaken. I believe Merck was the major player here in the states. By late November the vaccine was available in limited, although increasing supply. Military personal, elderly and infirmed were given priority as vaccinees initially in the context of early on limited supply.
In the case of the Apollo 7 Mission, were the interaction between the astronauts and physicians meaningful/genuine, the dialog between the astronauts and docs would have been other than it was as revealed by a reading of the Apollo 7 transcript. In October of 1968, the flight surgeons charged with the care of astronauts were well aware of the Hong Kong Flu pandemic. Indeed, the general population of the US was aware the virus had reached American shores well before the October 11 launch date of Apollo 7. Once the astronauts on board Apollo 7 reported cold like symptoms, real physicians would be expected to ask pointed questions in an effort to convince themselves one way or the other as to whether or not this problem was INFLUENZA based or due to a “simple” garden variety cold virus. Were the astronauts, one of them to become fairly ill due to an INFUENZA based problem, the potential for disaster would be enormous. The exotic conditions of the zero G space capsule could complicate the problem beyond belief. The Apollo 7 astronauts had not been vaccinated. There was no vaccine in October 1968. And even if they had been vaccinated, they could easily have still acquired the infection, vaccination not a guarantee of immunity. The doctors charged with the care of the Apollo 7 astronauts did not behave as a garden variety mom and pop clinic primary care doc even would have, let alone a top flight flight surgeon. No effort was made to include/exclude INFLUENZA as a diagnosis. One may conclude, this was not a genuine astronaut/doctor interaction. The interaction is inauthentic and consequently, so too is the Apollo 7 Mission generally. Specifics, details, to be determined.
The same is true with regard to the Apollo 8 utter debacle. No honest effort was made on the part of the alleged evaluating physicians to include/exclude INFLUENZA. Ridiculously, the only “evaluation” offered was the insanely bogus claim that the astronauts were immunized and so not vulnerable. The fact with regard to vaccination’s not guaranteeing immunity would be a fact well known by Dr. Charles Berry and his associates, the physicians charged with the care of the Apollo 8 astronauts. Indeed, there was a full blown worldwide INFLUENZA pandemic in full swing at the time of the Apollo 8 mission. It was in all the papers, take a look for yourselves. The man in the street knew about the Hong Kong Flu, and a reasonably intelligent one would ask himself/herself whether the sick astronauts might not have it as well. The Apollo fraud perpetrators realized they had botched this one big time. Now what? They said no one had to worry about INFLUENZA because the crew was vaccinated. The doctors of course would know otherwise, and indeed, one so identifies the docs, at least one, Charles Berry, as a perpetrator as a consequence. Now everyone here at JREF knows that vaccination does not guarantee immunization and that Berry is a fraud.
If Berry is a fraud, if Apollo 8 is fraudulent, one may conclude all of Apollo fraudulent as well.
And there is nothing they can say. My analysis is sound, TRUE. This is proof positive, absolute proof positive that ALL OF APOLLO IS FRAUDULENT.
Any aerospace engineers there at NASA know anything about INFLUENZA and want to debate me on this point? Any NASA doc want to debate me on this point? Bring it on, bring it on…….
