«The A/H1N1 vaccine is being produced by three companies, none of which has been able to assess its long-term effects. Their testing lasted a relatively short amount of time. It is not known whether [the vaccine] is safe for children and pregnant women«, the health minister explained at a press conference last week.
Critics of the minister’s decision expressed surprise that the European Commission’s clearance of three of the swine-flu vaccines for distribution in early October had not been enough to win her trust. Nor was the World Health Organization’s October 30 recommendation of the vaccines, including for pregnant women. Vaccinations, meanwhile, have already begun in France, Italy, Germany and the Czech Republic.
At the same time, there seems to be little cause for panic. Many specialists have stressed that the swine flu virus is in fact more benign than seasonal flu. According to Poland’s National Institute of Public Health, 193 cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Poland to date, with no deaths.
«There are currently eight cases of A/H1N1 in Warsaw«, Wiesław Rozbicki, spokesperson for the Voivodship Sanitary and Epidemiological Station in Warsaw, told WBJ. Cases of swine flu are expected to become more common between January and March.
The situation across the border
In Ukraine, the swine flu outbreak caused nationwide panic –schools were closed, travel restricted and public meetings banned. Although conflicting assessments abounded, a late-week statement by Ukrainian authorities put the number of registered cases of flu at 478.000, with 81-87 deaths. The government had had problems determining how many of these were actually swine flu; there were 17 confirmed cases of A/H1N1, with four deaths.
Although the WHO has not recommended the closure of borders or travel restrictions to Ukraine, calling these ineffective measures, Slovakia closed two pedestrian crossings with Ukraine and introduced medical check-points at others.
Polish PM Donald Tusk called on the European Union to help Ukraine fight A/H1N1 last week. «The character of this threat demands that rapid action be undertaken at the EU level«, Mr Tusk wrote in a letter to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.
Video: H1N1 Influenza Polish Minister of Health Rejects WHO sponsored Vaccine
Global Research, November 15, 2009
The Polish Health Minister Eva Kopacz today told Parliament during a heated debate on the swine flu vaccination that she, as a qualified family doctor with more than 20 year of experience, will not authorise the use of untested vaccines on millions of people in Poland when there is inadequate information about the safety of the jabs.
She said the secret contract that the Polish government was supposed to sign with pharmaceutical companies had more than 20 clauses which are against the law.
Kopacz noted that governments in Western Europe had signed secret agreements with pharmaceutical companies, but suggested that the prosperity of the people of Poland was more important to her than the profits of Big Pharma.
Finally, she called on the people of Poland to show their support for her as she comes under growing pressure from the pushers of the «swine flu» jab to give the people the dangerous and untested jab.
