1976 swine flu PSAs attempt to scare citizens into getting shots

An enterprising conspiracy theorist on Monday posted a pair of U.S. government PSAs from 1976, urging citizens to quickly get a swine flu vaccine or risk becoming "very sick"-- although that pandemic never materialized.

The two sensational videos attempt to show that anyone and everyone can get the bug and pass it to children, teachers, postal workers, veterinarians and acquaintances. ("Betty's mother gave it to her best friend Dottie, but Dottie had a heart condition and she died.")

The spots were released by the U.S. Public Health Service, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services partially dedicated to minimizing the spread of infectious diseases. 

The agency, evidently, had a taste for scaremongering. As it turned out, its recommendation was unfounded. Not only did the 1976 swine flu scare result in only 200 cases and a single fatality, but the $135-million vaccination effort did more harm than good: The Centers for Disease Control halted the effort after several days after worrying that the vaccine was causing a rare neurological condition that resulted in the deaths of 25 people.

With that background in mind, these PSAs become shrouded in a grim irony.

-- David Sarno

Comments

[Sean]

Yes, and notice the hidden but in plain sight evidence that todays scare is a campaign of fearmongering - now we are told that the young and healthy are most at risk, but the advice in these is that it is the old and frail.

mmmm.

[Human being]

Swine Flu + Mainstream Media = $$$

[Roxanne]

Isn't interesting with all the flying pig,human, avian flu concoction hysteria,that
hardly a word was mentioned when Baxter International "accidentally"
contaminated conventional flu vaccines - which are already plenty toxic- with avian flu viruses in late Feb. A vaccine that was sent to eighteen countries and only was discovered to be contaminated by an alert Czech tester.

And isn't it interesting that when 21 homeless Polish people died and 300 plus
got ill after submitting to a flu shot trial, that it was only revealled later that
what they thought was a convential flu shot had, in fact, avian viruses in
them.

And is it just a coincidence that Baxter International has been granted the
contract for the latest manufactured disease. This is classic; problem,
reaction, solution ... but to whose benefit $$$ and whose loss? Don't
get me started on the players in Tamiflu and the ill effects it's had on
its victims...

Please google; Eleanora McBean PhD 'Swine Flu Exposed'
and Archie Kalokerinos MD 'The Swine Flu Fiasco' re. what really
happened in 1976.

[Sylvia]

You are absolutely right Roxanne, but most Americans won't see any accounts of Baxter's vaccine contamination fiasco in the U.S. press, but it was reported in the Canadian and European news. But anyone can find the details on the internet.

Can you think of any other type of business that can make such a monumental mistake, but still have the trust of the government? Whether it was gross incompetence or an intentional criminal act, either scenerio would cause any other type of company to go out of business when caught.

But instead they will be trusted with the health of tens of millions of people? No thank you, I think I will pass on that one.

[david thrush]

What they are failing to say is that these shots will contain perservatives or contaminants like mercury and lead. My son already has aspergers syndrome possibly from contaminated vaccines given when he was two. IBD if I will let them stick a needle in my kids again.