Swine Flu Shot Safety Program

From today’s news:

(Lakshmi Singh) There’s been a dramatic increase in the number of people who’ve died from the new H1N1 swine flu. It’s not that the flu has suddenly become more deadly–the estimates are just more “precise”. NPR’s Joanne Silberner has more.

(Joanne Silberner) Last week the pediatric death count was 129, between late April and mid-October. This week the estimate is 540 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new estimate comes from the same numbers–tallies by select doctors and hospitals–but it takes into account that not all flu deaths are identified as such. Sometimes a flu test isn’t done, or it’s wrong, or the death is attributed to a different infection that came after the flu.

“We will decide who has the flu!”

The Austrian politician Karl Lueger was notorious for his politically expedient racism. As mayor of Vienna, Lueger was fond of anti-Semitic rhetoric, even though his own frequent dinner companions were Jewish. He dismissed this logical incongruity with the statement, “I will decide who is a Jew!”

Today, the CDC seems to employ similar tactics. Quoting their press release:

The estimated ranges of cases, hospitalizations and deaths generated by this [new] method provide a sense of scale in terms of the burden of disease caused by 2009 H1N1. It may never be possible to validate the accuracy of these figures. The true number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths may lie within the range provided or it’s also possible that it may lie outside the range.

Why is it impossible to validate the accuracy of infection figures? The CDC advised states to stop testing for H1N1 in July, reported CBS News.

When CBS News analyzed the state-by-state test results from the months prior to July, they found that the vast majority of “swine flu” cases were misdiagnosed.

So…after refusing for months to cooperate with the CBS investigation (as required by the Freedom of Information Act), how does the CDC finally respond to this stunning news? By inflating their own faulty estimates!