New Flu Vaccine and GMO Issues

[maeve]

A friend posted this on Facebook.  While, ideally I would like to avoid GMO products, personally I don't see all instances of it as negative.  Besides, while I don't really know enough about the science, this method doesn't seem that different than how many other drugs are created, such as insulin.  Anyway, I thought I'd share (mainly to get CMDeux's take).


http://www.naturalnews.com/039013_flu_vaccine_insect_virus_GMOs.html

[CMdeux]

Well, the article is fairly accurate right up to this point....

But it is also sure to lead to all sorts of serious side effects, including the deadly nerve disease Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GSB), which is listed on the shot as a potential side effect.

Emphasis mine. Yellow journalism, anyone?   

ALL flu vaccines are "genetically modified."  By definition.

If they weren't, they wouldn't be "vaccines" so much as...



er--


biological warfare agents.  KWIM?     This is true of all vaccines, period.  It's also true of all cultivated crops-- so it's not "GMO" that these people are objecting to inherently... it's the methods.  Well, they often argue that there is "no way" that nature could put a fish gene into a caterpillar virus, (just for example)... but my answer to that is the Shawshank Redemption.  "Pressure.... and time."  That's how genetic selection works, and it's always working-- sometimes it's deliberate (plant breeding, molecular biology) and sometimes it is natural (flu virus recombination and evolution). 

Not clear to me WHY GBS was mentioned at all, actually... well, that isn't true.  <sigh>  It was mentioned as a scare tactic.  But the science behind that one pretty much discredits the ENTIRE remainder of the article. 

By the way, GBS is a VERY rare side effect (?) of natural infectious disease, too, and this is actually by far the more common correlation.  Note that I say "correlation" since a causative link has never been demonstrated with pretty much anything.  It's possible that all of those putative causes are unrelated to anything-- maybe GBS is like MS or something, perhaps it's an unidentified pathogen in and of itself... nobody really knows for sure.

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/gbs/gbs.htm

[maeve]

Thank you.  I had the same thought about scare journalism.  Also with the GBS, that's an issue with the current egg-cultured vaccines as well, so I didn't see the point of mentioning it as an issue with the new vaccine; it's not like it's a new concern or one unique to the new vaccine. 

Also love your take on GMO.  I have similar thoughts.  I mean man has bred livestock for centuries to get certain traits (just look at show dogs) and this has been done in botany (red delicious apples come to mind).  That's not to say that there aren't issues with GMO crops; the corn seeds that have been modified for insect resistance and now seeming to have some unintended consequences (creating insecticide resistant insects). 

I posted a link to how insulin is made on this friend's page.  That was one of the first genetically engineered drugs.  I believe there are also cancer drugs on the horizon that are also genetically engineered. 

[Jessica]

I've read that it's more common to contract GBS from a virus than from a shot.

[booandbrimom]

You guys might find this article interesting:

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/02/curing_chemophobia_don_t_buy_the_alternative_medicine_in_the_boy_with_a.html

[CMdeux]

I’m a scientist, which makes me a professionally annoying skeptic. Why? What’s the evidence? How was it obtained? Is it plausible? And above all, what are the risks?—because there are always risks. I’m an equal-opportunity skeptic, as willing to ask these questions of specialists as I am of well-meaning friends of friends.

 This is me.

  Yup.   

I guess most people don't necessarily find these qualities... er.... endearing, do they?   



(ZOMGosh, though.. the COMMENTS section on the link that Boo posted...  oh wow, did I ever need to laugh like that.      )

[maeve]

That's a great article Boo.  What I find amusing is that so many people (including the FB friend who posted the first article), have such a prejudice toward things that are natural, feeling that they're inherently safer or less likely to cause allergies.  However, there are plenty of natural things that aren't safe (foxglove, for example) and mass farmed eggs cause allergies in the same way cage free ones do.