What Are The Ingredients In The Flu Vaccine?

[Jcrowley]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2163175142473074044

[Jed Dilligan]

1. Crushed up dead viruses are the active ingredient

I take oscillococcinum when I start getting flu symptoms--it's an extract of duck spines and gall bladders (sorry vegetarians!) Works very well. Apparently ducks have most known viruses in their system.

[Jcrowley]

2. Remedy

Considered the best remedy against the flu (scientifically proven) is Sambucol - an active substance of the concentrated juice of elderberries.

Also recommended as prevention: as much Vitamin-C as possible. If you get sick, 1,5 - 2 grams per hour till you get better/well.

During the manufacturing process, antibiotics (neomycin, polymyxin B and gentamicin) are added to eliminate stray bacteria found in the mixture. The final solution can contain the following additives in any combination: Triton X-100 (a detergent); polysorbate 80 (a potential carcinogen); gelatin; formaldehyde; and residual egg proteins. In addition, many of the influenza vaccines still contain thimerosal as a preservative. Thimerosal (mercury) is being investigated for its link to brain injury and autoimmune disease.

:hi:

[Jed Dilligan]

3. I got a flu shot once

It hurt like a mo-fo and I still got sick that winter.

I like my homeopathic remedy combined with Emergen-C--I'll look for sambucol next time (hopefully not too soon!)

[Rainscents]

4. sambucol is best for both cold and flu!

I use it, when, first sign of any illness.

[elehhhhna]

19. ooooh...love that stuff!

[Crunchy Frog]

15. I used to give that to sick baby animals

when I worked in wildlife rehab. I'm pretty sure it was effective in some instances where nothing else would have been.

We also tried some alternative remedies for distemper in some young raccoons that had been exposed and were beginning to display symptoms. We normally would have just euthanized all of them, but the treatment worked and they all ended up okay.

I'm not against conventional medicine and vaccines, but I'm not against trying alternatives either.

[mainah]

5. My son got a flu shot one year

He was about 8 (he is now 11) and has asthma. That night after he was given the flu shot he had night terrors. It was horrific - he had NEVER had them before. They lasted about 6 months. I have never had him have another since and he has never had another night terror. I have always thought the flu shot caused the night terrors but can not prove anything.

[drm604]

8. How often has he gotten needles?

Is it possible that getting stuck with a needle frightened him and caused night terrors?

[mainah]

14. It could be

But he has had shots before and since and not reacted like that. Thanks for the thought.

[Horse with no Name]

23. Not to discount your son's experience

however, the shot may have caused terrors--or most likely, the person giving the shot.
However, the medication didn't cause the terrors.
Anyhoo--glad to hear that he is over them now.

[newyawker99]

27. Hi mainah!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[drm604]

6. "Crushed up dead viruses are the active ingredient"

That's a bit misleading. From here: http://www.hida.org/document.asp?document_id=10083

How is flu vaccine created?

After VRBPAC determines the formulation, manufacturers begin production of the vaccines. The viruses are then cultivated by manufacturers in chicken eggs. During the process, the virus is “killed” and parts of the outer coat of the virus are purified. After a person is injected with the vaccine, this process simulates protective antibodies.

So the vaccines contain purified proteins from the outer coat of the virus. That's a little different than "Crushed up dead viruses", which makes it sound like they're put through a meat grinder and the entire result then injected into people.

[elehhhhna]

20. thank you . was getting a mental pic of

dried snot in a cofee grinder.

[Critters2]

7. Those ingredients would have worked better holding up ducks

and distributing their gall. As they were intended to do.

[Jed Dilligan]

12. Yes, you're better than me.

I freely admit it. Oh well.

[Critters2]

13. Well, as long as we're clear..... ;) nt

[Critters2]

9. They're made with egg albumen nt

[Avalux]

10. That's funny, but complete misinformation.

Telling people to not get the flu shot is dangerous; thousands of people die every year from human influenza and there are no homeopathic remedies that have been proven to prevent or treat human influenza.

And yes, those ingredients are used in the development/manufacturing process of making the vaccine - in such minute amounts they're insignificant. The information is readily available on the web, it's not kept secret:

Fluogen (Influenza Virus Vaccine, Trivalent, Types A and B) is a sterile product for intramuscular injection composed of the antigens of the strains of influenza virus recommended for vaccine use by the US Public Health Service. It is formulated to contain no less than 45 micrograms of hemagglutinin antigen (HA) content per 0.5 mL dose in the recommended ratio of 15µg of HA of the A influenza virus component representative of A/New Caledonia/20/99 (H1N1), 15 µg of HA of the A influenza virus component representative of A/Panama/2007/99 (A/Moscow/10/99-like) (H3N2), and 15 µg of HA of the B influenza virus component representative of B/Yamanashi/166/98 (B/Beijing/184/93-like).

Influenza virus is propagated in embryonated chicken eggs using an inoculum containing approximately 1 mg/mL streptomycin sulfate. The allantoic fluids containing the virus are harvested, clarified by filtration, and concentrated and refined by ultracentrifugation and zonal centrifugation. Polysorbate 80, USP, is added to the refined concentrate, which is subsequently extracted with ethyl ether to disrupt the virus and allow removal of a high proportion of pyrogenic substances. The extracted concentrate is inactivated with formaldehyde. The vaccine is diluted to its final volume with phosphate-buffered-saline solution. Thimerosal (mercury derivative) 0.01% is added as a preservative. Streptomycin sulfate is undetectable (less than the limit of detection of the assay) in the final product.

http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic2/fluogen.htm

[Jcrowley]

16. There's no misinformation there

Noone's telling anyone anything and it is certainly healthy to inject humor into any debate. If anything the medical establishment is telling everyone what to do and using scare tactics to do so. Another interesting thing is how on numerous leaflets that are distributed these days to "inform" people about this the flu is being called a disease. Not only is that fallacious but those are scare tactics which are prevalent in many areas of the medical establishment.

[Avalux]

18. Human Influenza A (and B) ARE diseases.

They are contagious infectious diseases caused by viruses. These viruses, if not controlled by vaccines, would kill thousands upon thousands of people every year. Those are the facts, not fallacious statements and/or scare tactics.

[Jcrowley]

22. Better to understand the milieu

One thing I have learned through the years is the futility of discussing the deep flaws in the medical establishment's concept of disease with those who are betrothed to that rigid and inaccurate ideology.

Endosymbiotic Theory
This theory was proposed by Lynn Margulis. This theory says that eucharistic cells evolved by a symbiosis between different species of prokaryotes. It is suggested that larger species engulfed smaller ones. The smaller ones continued to live and function in the in the larger species, the host cell, and eventually lost all possibility of having independence from the host. Two organelles that are believed to have entered larger cells in this kind of way are mitochondria and chloroplasts. Both Margulis and her theory were ridiculed by mainstream biologists for many years, but now it is accepted as a plausible theory.

"Concepts which have proved useful for ordering things easily assume so great an authority over us, that we forget their terrestrial origin and accept them as unalterable facts. They then become labeled as 'conceptual necessities,' etc. The road of scientific progress is frequently blocked for long periods by such errors." - Einstein

In 1970 Margulis was not only denied funding but also subjected to intense scorn by reviewers at the NSF. "I was flatly turned down," Margulis said, and the grants officers added "that I should never apply again." Textbooks today quote her discovery as fact; that plant and animal cells are really communities of cooperating bacteria. But they make no mention of the barriers erected by the biological community against these new ideas. Even today Margulis' ideas about cooperation in Evolution are not widely accepted, and are only making slow headway against the assumption that Evolution exclusively involves absolute selfishness and pure competition.

She's a friend of mine.

[Avalux]

24. Yes, there is futility in discussing a topic others do not understand.

And that's exactly why I am ending this conversation.

[drm604]

26. What does this have to do with influenza?

:shrug:

[drm604]

21. How in the hell is the flu not a disease?

:shrug:

[VeggieTart]

25. Problem is...

...if you're allergic to chickens or eggs, or if you're vegan, a flu shot is out of the question. It would be nice if they could culture it on something besides the reproductive secretions of chickens.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

11. I started getting flu shots fifteen years ago.

Up until that time, I suffered from the flu once or twice a season, and most seasons the flu turned into bronchitis or pneumonia. I work in the tourism industry, and have a lot of contact with people from all over the world who bring their own brands of germs to my small island.

I have not had the flu since the first shot. I joke to my family that I would crawl on my knees to the clinic to get my annual flu shot, if that was the only way. It has been a really GOOD thing for me. :bounce:

[bleedingheart]

17. I am an asthmatic who receives the flu vaccine every year

so do my children...I am happy to get it.

I had two great-great aunts who died in the 1918 flu epidemic..both in their mid thirties.
My grandmother died due to complications of the flu in 1969.

I will gladly get the vaccine and tell others to do so as well.

[BuddhaGirl]

28. I have gotten flu shots in various years

but not in the last five or so...the shots did not prevent me from getting the flu. To hell with them.

I started taking Oscillo - it has worked great for me.