Finland stops giving Swine Flu vaccine due to increased cases of Narcolepsy

[Chris Haynes]

...: http://www.whale.to/vaccine/west_edda.html

Scopie's Law

 

[TubbaBlubba]

You must be aware that there were two different types of vaccines. One contained the full amount of antigen to trigger immune response, the other contained 30%-50% of antigene plus an aluminium phosphate based "immune booster" substance. When the vaccine was distributed during the swine flue epidemy, the safety studies for that booster were far from being completed in all patient populations. In particular it was not known to which extent auto immune diseases would be "boostered" in parallel or would become apparent for the first time, mainly in younger patients. The producers obliged the governments of all countries were the boostered vaccine was distributed to keep them free from all civil or criminal liabilties. The full vaccine was sold in the USA and France, the boostered one in Germany and some other countries, which I am not aware of in detail. My choice and advice (as a German physician) was: take the flue. The symptoms you refer to might be related to that agent, as similar symptoms are known since long time: http://www.whale.to/vaccine/west_edda.html

By "German physician", do you perhaps mean homeopathic 'physician?

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

An interesting follow up study has found narcolepsy to be associated with the flu, not the vaccine:

Narcolepsy onset is seasonal and increased following the 2009 H1N1 pandemic in china

Results:
The occurrence of narcolepsy onset was seasonal, significantly influenced by month and calendar year. Onset was least frequent in November and most frequent in April, with a 6.7-fold increase from trough to peak. Studying year-to-year variation, we found a 3-fold increase in narcolepsy onset following the 2009 H1N1 winter influenza pandemic. The increase is unlikely to be explained by increased vaccination, as only 8 of 142 (5.6%) patients recalled receiving an H1N1 vaccination. Cross-correlation indicated a significant 5- to 7-month delay between the seasonal peak in influenza/cold or H1N1 infections and peak in narcolepsy onset occurrences.

Interpretation:
In China, narcolepsy onset is highly correlated with seasonal and annual patterns of upper airway infections, including H1N1 influenza. In 2010, the peak seasonal onset of narcolepsy was phase delayed by 6 months relative to winter H1N1 infections, and the correlation was independent of H1N1 vaccination in the majority of the sample. ANN NEUROL 2011;

For those that want the simpler version: Swine flu, not vaccine, may trigger narcolepsy

Previously, similar rises in cases of narcolepsy – a disorder that causes sleepiness at inappropriate times – have been linked to use of a swine flu vaccine. The cause was presumed to lie in the drug's adjuvants – additives that boost the immune response to the vaccine.

The claim puzzled researchers who saw a concurrent rise in narcolepsy cases in China, where few people had opted to get vaccinated and those who did received a vaccine without adjuvants. Could the flu itself be to blame?

To find out, Fang Han and his colleagues at Beijing University People's Hospital studied the medical profiles of 906 people who had come to the hospital with narcolepsy since 1998.

The group found that, even in the years before the vaccine was introduced in October 2009, the number of narcolepsy cases followed a seasonal pattern – cases dropped significantly around November and spiked in April. The peak was higher than normal in the spring after the swine flu pandemic (Annals of Neurology, DOI: 10.1002/ana.22587).

 

[TubbaBlubba]

Ìnteresting! I suppose it's a textbook case of correlation and causation uncertainty, then.