Reward offered for proof H1N1 vaccine works
There’s been a lot of debate in recent months over the validity and effectiveness of the H1N1 flu vaccine and while the financial benefits to the pharmaceutical companies is obvious, the usefulness to the patient has always been a contentious issue.
Apparent lack of testing and the rushing through of licences was unconvincingly explained away by government’s panic to stop an endemic spreading through the UK – but how many other medicines would be allowed through what has always been an incredibly difficult and long winded process? Very few is probably the answer.
There are thousands of websites claiming the vaccine to be a complete scam, a government conspiracy to siphon tax payers money to their friends in the big pharms, but how many would actually gamble their own money on their claims? Probably none, until today that is, when the very popular site Natural News, in partnership with ConsumerWellness.org have well and truly thrown down the gauntlet to industry, and government, claims that the vaccine is actually a valid preventative approach to dealing with swine flu.
They are offering a $10,000 reward to..
“any person, company or institution who can provide trusted, scientific evidence proving that any of the FDA-approved H1N1 vaccines being offered to Americans right now are both safe and effective.”
The report goes on to state..
“Vaccine promoters keep citing their “science” in claiming that H1N1 vaccines are safe and effective. NaturalNews and the CWC ask one simple question: Where is this science?
The $10,000 reward will be issued to anyone who can produce scientific evidence meeting the following criteria:
• A scientific paper, published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, describing the results of a minimum of two Phase III trials structured as randomized, placebo-controlled scientific clinical trials of an FDA-approved H1N1 vaccine currently in distribution, carried out on a minimum of 1,000 people (for statistical significance) for a duration of at least 90 days. The inclusion criteria for both clinical trials must be properly randomized so that the participants are representative of the entire U.S. population and not merely a desired sub-group selected to skew the research outcome. Inclusion criteria must be provided to NaturalNews for verification.
• At the same time, the vaccine must be scientifically demonstrated to be effective at reducing H1N1 swine flu infections. Scientifically speaking, it must be demonstrated to reduce the death rate from H1N1 infections by a minimum of 50 percent (relative numbers, not absolute, since so few die from H1N1 in the first place). In other words, if 100,000 people get infected with H1N1 and 100 might normally die, the study must show that fewer than 50 vaccinated people die. This would equate to a 50 percent reduction in mortality from swine flu. If the vaccine is less than 50 percent effective, then it doesn’t really offer much benefit for such a mild flu with extremely low fatality rates.”
