Last week, the British government announced that it would concentrate on immunising vulnerable groups, such as pregnant women and health care professionals, against the H1N1 “swine” flu strain, before considering whether to extend the vaccination program across the wider population. Westminster is reported to have contracts in place for 132 million doses of the vaccine, enough to immunise the entire UK population. Whether they use it or not remains to be seen.
Unfortunately, the vaccination program has attracted the attention of Internet crackpot and former son-of-god David Icke, who contends that the swine flu vaccine is a conspiracy by the Illuminati to cull vast portions of the human population.
Oh dear.
Ignoring the comically absurd hyperbole of his introduction, let’s start with his first, real, scientific claim.
The swine flu virus was created in a laboratory to generate mass panic with the specific intention of forcing everyone to have the vaccine. Problem-Reaction-Solution. This ‘natural’ swine flu virus apparently contains genes from humans, birds and pigs from several continents.
Okay, that’s quite a big claim, so I’m going to split it into two parts. Claim 1 is that the swine flu virus was created in a lab. Claim 2, presented as evidence to support Claim 1, is that the swine flu virus contains genes from humans, birds and pigs. No evidence is presented to back up either claim, which appear to have been pulled right out of Icke’s backside.
Being charitable, I’m going to assume that what Icke meant to say is that the swine flu virus contains genes from human flu, bird flu, and pig flu from several continents. This claim makes slightly more sense and, to my understanding, is indeed true. That fact in itself is in no way sinister, nor does it support Icke’s claim that the virus was engineered in a laboratory. In fact it serves only to demonstrate Icke’s ignorance of how Influenza reproduces.
Most viruses have a genetic code made up of a single piece of RNA or DNA. Influenza, however, has a segmented genome, which means it can quite freely mix and match segments. Generally speaking, viruses target specific receptors in the host organism, which makes it difficult for them to cross species. So pigs catch pig flu, birds catch bird flu and humans catch human flu. Unfortunately for the pigs, however, they are very occasionally susceptible to the human and bird varieties of flu as well as their own. If an unlucky pig catches bird flu, human flu and pig flu, all at the same time, then the viruses are free to swap genetic segments between themselves, creating new strains featuring aspects from each. No laboratory or Illuminati conspiracy required.
Icke’s inference that the swine flu must have been engineered because it contains aspects from three different varieties of flu falls at the first.
We are told that the drug companies and the World Health Organisation have been working at fever pitch to develop a vaccine for the ‘new’ swine flu strain known as H1N1, but … wait for it … Baxter International filed a patent for the H1N1 vaccine on August 28th 2008 [...] The patent was published in March 2009, a month before the virus was released in Mexico in April, but it was filed seven months before this ‘new strain’ was officially known about. It is the most blatant set-up you could ever see.
Bzzzz. Wrong. Icke seems to think that Influenza A called H1N1 is some new-fangled thing, when actually it’s been around forever. The H and N refer to haemagglutinin and neuraminidase, the two large proteins on the outside of the influenza virus. The numbers refer to different subtypes of those proteins. There are sixteen subtypes of haemagglutinin and nine of neuraminidase, although only a handful of those are commonly found in human influenza. H1 and N1 are two of those commonly found proteins.
If Icke had taken some time to research his diatribe, he would have discovered that the Spanish Flu of 1918 was also an H1N1 strain; quite possibly the direct ancestor of the H1N1 which is now spreading under the name “swine flu”. The virus has simply been hiding out in the pig population for the last 90 years, until it had mutated enough to jump back into the human population.
H1N1 has been endemic in humans for decades; and is frequently responsible for the seasonal flu. It is no surprise that Baxter filed a patent for a vaccination against such a common type of flu.
Wayne Madsen, a former US Naval Intelligence officer [...] writes: “Past swine flu outbreaks have been spread from pigs to humans, who then passed the flu on to other humans. However, with A-H1N1, there have been no reported infections of pigs.”
This appears to be a Red Herring. As I’ve already indicated, it is uncommon for a virus to be able to jump species. In the rare circumstance that it happens, there is no reason to think it’s going to be readily able to jump back again. I don’t know if the swine flu strain that infects humans is also endemic in pigs. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. It doesn’t really matter either way, because it lends no weight to the idea of a conspiracy at all.
The fake swine flu scare of 1976 was a trial-run for what is happening now. These events are planned way in advance and these sick people are extremely thorough in their preparations.
The 1976 swine flu scare was a government over-reaction to an outbreak of H1N1 (yes, David, it was around in the 70s too) in Fort Dix, New Jersey. No confirmed cases were recorded outside Fort Dix, and the outbreak lasted only a couple of weeks. In no way is it comparable to the current pandemic, which has already killed hundreds and hospitalised thousands worldwide.
If Icke’s claims were true, then at best the 1976 swine flu scare could be said to have tested how well the American public would react to a mass vaccination programme. This information is, of course, completely useless outside of the United States. Where were the disease hoaxes perpetrated by the Illuminati to see how the British public would react to mass vaccination? Or the Chinese? Or the Indians? Indeed, how did they even know that the US public of 2009 would react in the same way as their 1976 counterparts?
The “dry run” idea just doesn’t make any sense. It is the usual social paranoia you expect from Icke, who likes to make wild assertions about some grand conspiracy, with nothing offered to back them up besides accusations of naivety if you don’t believe him.
Most people will line up with their children like good little sheep. They will accept the blatant lies without question and the authorities will use those people to target others who refuse. You will hear nonsense like ‘You are putting my children at risk’. In fact, it is the programmed people who stand in line who are putting all children at risk. The authorities will claim that those who decline are preventing ‘herd immunity’ when all they have done is withdraw from the herd mentality.
This is the comment that makes me sick to my stomach, because this is the comment that is going to lead real people really dying because they listened to this wingnut. To link “herd immunity” with “herd mentality” is an association fallacy. Herd immunity is a real phenomenon, which genuinely helps protect vulnerable people (who often can’t be vaccinated themselves) from falling ill and possibly dying of a preventable disease. When you refuse to vaccinate, you are putting other people’s children at risk, as well as your own. For Icke to decry vaccination based upon his own absurd paranoid delusions about what is “really going on” is just obscene.
Demonstrate what you’re saying is true first, David, then you can start telling people that vaccination will hurt their kids. If you can prove that vaccination is an elaborate Illuminati conspiracy to cull the population, please do so. If you can’t, then shut your mouth before you get someone killed.
I think I preferred you when you were pretending to be the son of god.