Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

Kivalliq Air and the Kivalliq Regional Department of Health are at it again.

It's time for their annual herd drive.

This time, the target is to immunize at least 50 per cent of the Kivalliq population against the so-called flu disease.

A total of 43 per cent took the shot last year.

Due to public panic stirred by nothing more than fear-mongering, people submitted to the vaccine without questioning what was being pumped into their arms just so they'd get a shot at winning free airline tickets.

Well, here's a few points to consider.

The Health Products and Foods Branch of Health Canada is responsible for approving the flu vaccine.

The Fair Labelling Act of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency states that a complete list of nutritional analysis must be shown in both English and French on all prepackaged food.

But this is not the case for vaccines.

This unwillingness to provide such basic information should not cut it any more.

I challenge the Kivalliq Health Board to be more transparent and reveal, in layman's terms, the exact ingredients that make up a flu shot.

We, ("the herd," as referred to by public health nurse Andrea McIntosh) should be informed of any toxins prior to being vaccinated.

In 2001, Shire Biologies signed a $300-million, 10-year contract with the federal government to supply the Fluviral flu shots across the country.

By 2003, Shire was $14.5 million in the hole.

That's when Vancouver-based I.D. Biomedical stepped in and picked up Fluviral, the money-losing vaccine.

Biomedical would end up bankrupt if it listed the ingredients publicly, so it's not going to happen any time soon.

Health Canada provides the vaccines to the provinces and territories.

Nunavut's Department of Health is responsible for the distribution of the influenza vaccine to our local herds.

A list of all the additives - detergent, formaldehyde, ether, mercury, aluminum, sodium chlorine, antifreeze, and chicken embryo to name a few - should come along with the vaccine.

People should be aware these ingredients are actually in the flu shot, so the herd would enter the lottery knowing the real cost.

And, while they're at it, they should also tell people the virus used in the shot is not dead, but only attenuated or weakened.

It's alive in the vaccine and just as able to infect as protect. One has to wonder, with the virus mutating on a yearly basis, who really are the first test subjects?

How large of a herd is required for these tests?

And, finally, who gets the placebo and whose health gets polluted with foreign material?