New shot for ‘uncommon’ illness not worth the risk

FDA makes millions guinea pigs for ‘rare’ disease vaccine

What happens when you mix media hysteria, Big Pharma, and the FDA together?

Why, you get a new, very risky vaccine.

And, no, I’m not talking about Ebola.

I’m talking about a fast-tracked, unproven, and untested shot for another very rare disease.

And it may soon be making guinea pigs out of millions of us…millions who aren’t at any risk.

In February I told you about the ridiculous “outbreak” the CDC declared.

A small group of college students in New Jersey and California came down with meningitis B. To fight this “epidemic” the CDC allowed an unapproved vaccine made by Novartis to get emergency use status.

The news stories about this meningitis B “plague” were so sensational it sounded like they wanted to quarantine everyone in those states.

Kids in those universities were told to roll up their sleeves for a shot of Bexsero…or else. The reason, of course, was that this was a big, scary, emergency. Why, there were seven whole cases of meningitis B over nine months when the CDC started the hysteria.

But while all this was going on, another drug company was also planning to cash in on the scare.

Pfizer had been tinkering with its own meningitis B vaccine, so it rushed that into FDA fast-track approval under the “breakthrough therapy” label.

And it worked.

But wait until you hear how.

Remember, meningitis B is extremely rare. In 2012 the FDA says there were only 160 cases of it throughout the US.

In fact, the disease is so “uncommon” in the United States that we have no way of knowing if this shot even works. And we may never know.

But Pfizer managed to pull all its strings at the FDA and get the vaccine, called Trumenba, in and out of the FDA’s well-oiled door in under six months.

Trumenba was approved on a roll of the dice. Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t, no one really knows for sure.

And even if it does protect to some degree, how long that protection lasts is another big guess.

To put the icing on the “who knows” cake, meningitis B can be caused by several hundred different strains. Trumenba, according to the FDA, works against only 4.

Now there’s not much information about Trumenba out yet. But I can tell you from my research on that similar kind of “B” vaccine that was rushed into the U.S. in February that it’s likely just as scary.

Making a vaccine for the B strain is risky. There’s the “little” problem of vaccine-induced antibodies attacking the brain.

Also, we don’t know what other ingredients are in it.

I’ve told you recently about how MSG, cow blood, aluminum and even DNA residue from aborted babies can be in these shots. So until Pfizer comes clean and releases all that information, we have no idea what else it may contain.

And the label for this shot already says that epinephrine and “other appropriate agents” need to be on standby for a life-threatening allergic reaction.

When the CDC adds it to its “vaccine list,” that will mean kids and college students all around the country will be herded right into Pfizer’s crosshairs. It might even become one of those mandatory shots needed to get into school or at least to live in a dorm.

After all, Pfizer spent millions alone in payment to the FDA just to get Trumenba approved. And likely a bit extra for the fast-track approval.

Looks like the price of a college education may be about to go up again — but this has nothing to do with tuition.

Sources:
“F.D.A. approves Pfizer’s Trumenba, a vaccine for a rare meningitis” Katie Thomas, October 29, 2014, The New York Times, nytimes.com