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Archives | (October 2003)
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Unnecessary Risk Part One (cont.)
------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 2 of 4 Beginning in early March, 2003, soldiers in Iraq and elsewhere in the Persian Gulf began to develop a highly virulent form of pneumonia. Out of more than 100 initial cases identified, 15 were so serious that the troops had to be put on ventilators and two died. Even these figures may not reveal the true scope of the problem. In addition to the deaths directly tied to the virulent “pneumonia” that suddenly appeared, there have also been four instances where soldiers have simply been found dead in their quarters. In the one instance where a cause has been reported, the death of 37 year-old Staff Sergeant Richard Eaton, the cause was listed as pulmonary edema – water in the lungs. In other words, the same cause of death as the troops who died from “pneumonia.” What makes these deaths even more significant is Lacy Moses, who never got overseas died from exactly the same cause. The military insists that it couldn’t be the vaccinations the soldiers have received. Colonel John Grabenstein, Deputy Director of the Army’s vaccination program claims that “In 200 years, no vaccine has ever been shown to cause pneumonia and there are many other reasons to believe it played no role.” His assertion, though, is contradicted by other vaccine experts at the Department of Defense. In 1999, Pentagon medical experts told a Committee of the House of Representatives “There have been reports of serious illnesses associated with vaccination … these reports involved hypersensitivity pneumonia.” In other words, pneumonia caused by an allergic reaction to a vaccine. What makes this link even more important is the fact that ten of the twenty soldiers examined by medical investigators trying to determine the cause of the illness had elevated levels of a leukocyte, or white blood cell called “eosinophils.” Most people know that leukocytes, or white blood cells fight disease. When an infection attacks your body, your immune system responds by producing these cells. As a result, one of the most reliable indicators of infection is an increase in a patient’s white blood count. What most people don’t realize, though, is that your immune system produces types of white blood cells to respond to different types of infections. Eosinophils are the type of white blood cell produced to fight parasitic infections and certain allergic responses related to the lungs. In the soldiers examined, the levels of these specialized white blood cells were anywhere from four to ten times normal – far too high to be attributed to the normal variations that exist from one person to the next. Since no parasite was found in these troops, the logical conclusion to draw is that the cells were produced as part of an allergic reaction – like that the Pentagon’s own doctors said vaccines could cause. |
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