According to Phil Edwards, a researcher from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, “We need to do a lot more to reverse the global trend towards fatness. It is a key factor in the battle to reduce carbon emissions and slow climate change.”

Edwards’ research found that ‘the average overweight person is responsible for an extra ton of carbon dioxide emissions a year, compared with a person of healthier weight.’ Cumulatively, that amounts to an extra one billion tons per year, to use World Health Organization estimates. Fact is ‘food production accounts for about one fifth of greenhouse gases.’

A big chunk of this extra one billion tons per year ‘comes from the fossil fuels required to produce the food needed to sustain a larger person.’ Bigger demand, all the way. Meat, a logical staple in an obese person’s diet, is said to be ‘highly fossil fuel intensive.’ In 2007, the United Nations asserted that ‘animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, more than all forms of transportation combined.’

Obesity is all about overconsumption. Overconsumption is also a mark of richer countries. For the emerging economies such as China and India, the trend has been on increased demand for meat. ‘Researchers are increasingly warning that the obesity epidemic is contributing to global warming, with potentially devastating consequences for people and habitats around the world.

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Via Natural News

As compared to seasonal flu, swine flu has been found to be a more likely cause of potentially life-threatening viral pneumonia. The World Health Organization (WHO) is urging doctors to immediately treat suspected swine flu cases, even the young and those who are otherwise healthy of the infected patients, with antiviral medicine. According to a WHO officer, “It’s not like seasonal influenza. It travels farther into the lungs, where it can “cause very severe disease.” Do not delay treatment. Do not miss this opportunity for early treatment.”

Viral pneumonia from swine flu ‘can cause severe lung damage and a life-threatening condition known as acute respiratory distress syndrome.’

This latest announcement from the WHO ‘came at the conclusion of a special three-day meeting in Washington of more than 100 experts from around the world.’ The meeting was purposely held ‘to review the latest research on the new H1N1 virus and to revise guidelines for treating the infection.’

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) also issued the report that ‘vaccine production was proceeding slower than officials had hoped, meaning less vaccine was probably going to be available by the end of the month than originally projected.’ Health officials hoped for about 40 million doses to be available by the end of October, but the volume is still short ‘by about 10 million to 12 million doses.’

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Via The Washington Post

An unpublished Canadian research study links seasonal flu vaccine shots with possible escalation of risks for swine flu or Influenza A (H1N1). The study has caused considerable international concern. Canadian health authorities are convening an expert panel to assess the data.

‘Drawn from a series of studies from British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario, the findings appear to suggest that people who got a seasonal flu shot last year are about twice as likely to catch swine flu as people who didn’t.’

WHO has asked other countries to verify the study ‘that shows people who received seasonal flu vaccines are more likely to contract swine flu.’ No results been repeated so far.

According to the WHO’s head of vaccine research, Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, “None have been able to find anything like that. The plausibility seems sort of in question. It may be study bias; it may be something real.”

Health authorities in several Canadian provinces such as Saskatchewan and Quebec are considering suspending their flu vaccination programs, pointing towards a trend that ‘the findings are already having implications with public health officials across the country grappling with whether to delay, reduce or scrap altogether seasonal flu shot programs this year.’

Fortunately, ‘while few people appear to have actually read the study, the troubling findings have been a poorly kept secret and many in the public health community in Canada have heard about them.’

Via Google/The Canadian Press

Pandemic diseases, due largely to their alarmist and apocalyptic propaganda, have reduced some humans to a sorry showcase of fears and vulnerabilities. The virus has also revealed weak health care systems, as well as unprepared and incapable medical infrastructure and hospital systems. All these while some people concoct conspiracy theories and accuse giant pharmaceutical multinationals for unleashing a designed virus. This begs the question: what is the ‘defense for the mind games of a virus,’ just as the World Health Organization and the United Nations have already issued the warning for an impending second wave of infection that will be far more devastating?

According to a health official, ‘most people seem to fall into one of two categories when it comes to H1N1. “There’s a group of people who think it’s all gone and over. There’s a group who say, ‘Armageddon is going to happen!’ The trick is getting people to the middle.” Research into human decision-making has shown that if people feel as though they can influence their destiny, they tend to make smarter choices. But if authorities warn them not to panic (as President Obama has done), people may make worse decisions. They feel more frightened — not less — and wonder what they don’t know that might make them panic.’

It seems that people panic more when you tell them not to worry. They readily suspect that something is truly terribly wrong. If people cannot get the pertinent information from authorities, they will look for it somewhere else. This is the gap where mythologies and conspiracy theories tend to breed.

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Via TIME

A leaked ‘UN report says pandemic may result in anarchy unless the rich western countries pay for antiviral drugs and vaccines.’ The amount to shell out is $1.5 billion. The swine pandemic is expected to ‘kill millions’ which would ‘cause anarchy in the world’s poorest nations,’ thereby causing weak economies to completely collapse, unless the West can cough up the ‘subsidy’ for vaccines and antiviral medicines.

The warning and request are hedged on the premise that global health officials will be incapable ‘to stem the growth of the worldwide H1N1 pandemic in developing countries.’

The cautionary report from the United Nations was sent to ‘health ministers around the globe’ so as to avert a humanitarian disaster in the incoming months.

“There needs to be recognition that the whole world is affected by this pandemic and the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. We have seen how H1N1 has taken hold in richer nations and in the southern hemisphere. We have been given fair warning and must act soon,” said Gregory Hartl of the World Health Organization (WHO), requiring an urgent response from rich nations.

The 47-page report details the ‘basic needs of 75 vulnerable countries with the weakest capacity to withstand an escalation of the virus,’ broken down as follows: 6  countries from Latin America, including Cuba and Bolivia, 21 countries from Asia and the Pacific such as North Korea and Bangladesh, and 40 countries from Africa such as Congo and Eritrea. The UN has also ‘identified 85 countries that do not have the ability to access vaccines from any other source.’

Via guardian.co.uk

The vaccine manufactured by Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech Ltd. has received approval from the State Food and Drug Administration’s drug registration department in China. The World Health Organization has stated that the results of clinical trials have been encouraging. The WHO had access to test results and has declared that there is no reason to doubt the reports of Sinovac.

Testing studies conducted involved more than 3,000 people. The company assures that the one-dose vaccine is effective in preventing influenza A (H1N1) in people between three and 60 years of age.

The single dose immunization offered by Sinovac has elicited discussions among experts. Vaccines are usually administered in two doses to provide adequate protection. Sinovac, however, has demonstrated the efficacy of a single dose.

The single dose sufficiency for H1N1 influenza virus immunization would greatly reduce manufacturing needs to cover the entire population. Another Chinese pharmaceutical, Hualan Biological Engineering Inc., is also awaiting approval of their vaccine this week.

Sinovac and Hualan have indicated that production capacity is 30 million and 160 million doses, respectively, in a year. However, the West remains skeptical of Chinese manufacturing after the recent health scandals in China such as the melamine contamination. Although, some countries like Mexico are considering the idea of buying vaccines from the Chinese market because they are 40 percent cheaper.

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Via Yahoo! Health

An Associated Press research based on ‘dozens of studies and interviews with more than 100 sources’ reveal the existence of ‘an underground medical system operating in plain sight, with a different standard than the rest of medical care, and millions of people using it on blind faith.’

The World Health Organization has even reached the point of issuing a warning against the use of homeopathy since ‘alternative medicine has actually become mainstream,’ and ‘finding wider acceptance by doctors, insurers and hospitals.’

What’s more, some reports disclose that people, in fact, are spending ‘for alternative medicine in such a way that can parallel spending done on traditional health care.’ Such cases as hot flashes, insomnia, even cancer and heart disease are now sought to be cured through unconventional therapies and herbal remedies.

People have been pulled to this point because they have become distrusting of ‘drug companies and the government.’ What they actually want and need are natural and safer remedies. ‘Government actions and powerful interest groups have left consumers vulnerable to flawed products and misleading marketing. Dietary supplements do not have to be proved safe or effective before they can be sold. Some contain natural things you might not want, such as lead and arsenic. Some interfere with other things you may be taking, such as birth control pills. Even therapies that may help certain conditions, such as acupuncture, are being touted for uses beyond their evidence.’

It seems that the war is waged more in the realm of perception. While some mainstream medicine and prescription drugs have been pulled from the market due to their serious side effects, a few herbal supplements can, on the other hand, ‘directly threaten health, do not supply what their labels claim, contain potentially harmful substances like lead, or are laced with hidden versions of prescription drugs.’

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Via AP IMPACT

The swine is in the news these days thanks to the swine flu which is spreading fast globally across various countries. The Swine flu getting attention in developed countries is understandable.  Not many killer diseases or killing living conditions stalk people there. But it getting attention in developing nations and even under developed countries is really absurd.

More people die in these countries in fatal road accidents every day than the few who are succumbing to the illness.  WHO has recently released its comprehensive report on global road safety and it does not come as surprise that India is leading with around 105,725 Indians dying per year on the roads here.

WHO keeps releasing figures on malnutrition deaths, deaths due to hunger (nearly 15 children are dying per min worldwide), AIDs, cancer etc. Add to it the deaths due to increasing crimes, suicides, wars and even silent genocides.  Unfortunately none of them gets such media attention like the swine flu has been getting. In fact with India is reeling under drought conditions and countless poor are going to suffer and die in large parts of rural India.

In spite of it all swine flu will continue to hog the limelight maybe for the sheer reason that its stalking large section urban middle class and it is essential for media to gain their TRPs and maybe government, political parties and business establishments too want to divert the attention of educated urban masses from more pressing issues such as recession, lay-offs, inflation etc.  Yeah, the mask definitely works!

In 1976, swine flu vaccine failed, causing paralysis to hundreds of people. This irreparable damage to the nervous system has been named Guillain-Barre syndrome. To this day, medical experts are clueless as to why the 1976 swine flu vaccine paralyzed so many people. They are equally clueless if the 2009 swine flu vaccine can produce the same devastating effect.

The current swine flu vaccine is understandably being rushed since the World Health Organization has declared swine flu a pandemic and has judged the outbreak to be already at uncontrollable status. It is not going through any human testing. It shall go straight to distribution come fall.

The upcoming swine flu vaccine contains adjuvants. An adjuvant is a booster meant to extend vaccine supplies, thereby scrimping and spreading the volume around.  An adjuvant may be a health risk as it can ‘cause an inflammatory response in the body. This is why they are suspected of causing autism and other neurological disorders.’

Vaccine manufacturers will not be held accountable for the failure of the vaccine. ‘The U.S. government has granted drug companies complete immunity against vaccine product liability.’

Some sectors of society are not convinced of the health threat of swine flu, in spite of it being declared a pandemic with all the attendant alarmist propaganda attached to it. Some medical personnel have even decided to decline vaccination completely.

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Via Natural News

Vaxine, which is an Adelaide based pharmaceutical company, began its human trials with 300 adult volunteers and in the case of Melbourne’s CSL, some 200 volunteers are participating in the human trials for the swine flu vaccine, that is expected to last seven months.

According to Nikolai Petrovsky (Research Director, Vaxine),

“We’re in the southern hemisphere, and that is where the problem is right now. The demand was here yesterday. We’re right in the middle of a surge of swine flu cases where perhaps the United States won’t have to worry about it as much until their flu season hits in six months.”

So far, swine flu has claimed over 700 lives globally and in Australia alone, the number of confirmed swine flu cases have reached 14,703. Another outbreak has been predicted by WHO (World Health Organization), who has stated that, the large influx of returning tourists back into the Northern hemisphere would might lead to a new outbreak.

According to CSL Research Director, Andrew Cuthbertson,

“We have a specific vaccine that we believe will be able to protect millions of people against this new H1N1 flu.”

Via Associated Press.