Action4Canada - July 02, 2022


60 Minutes： Swine Flu 1976 Corruption

Topics
swine flu shot
Hosted by
Tanya Gaw
Mentioned
Judy Roberts Michael Hatwick Dottie Mary Tyler Moore Guillaume Barre David Swanson David Lewis Uncle Sam Ford X53A. Was X53A Henry Kissinger Rudolf Nureyev Walter Cronkite Joseph Califano Edward Kennedy Muhammad Ali Ralph Nader Elton John Guillain-Barre Merrill and 3 more
Scientists Question Safety of Vaccines (WHO Global Vaccine Safety Summit December 2019) Chrystia Freeland on High Gas Prices - Supporting a False Climate Change Narrative

Episode Stats


Length

15 minutes

Words per minute

163.62

Word count

2,588

Sentence count

239

Harmful content

Misogyny

5

sentences flagged

Toxicity

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Remember the swine flu scare of 1976? That was the year the U.S. government told us all that the flu could turn out to be a killer that could spread across the nation, and Washington decided that every man, woman and child in the nation should get a shot to prevent a nationwide outbreak, a pandemic. Well, 46 million of us obediently took the shot, and now 4,000 Americans are claiming damages from Uncle Sam amounting to $3.5 billion.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 The flu season is upon us. Which type will we worry about this year? And what kind of shots will we be told to take?
00:00:10.000 Remember the swine flu scare of 1976? That was the year the US government told us all that swine flu could turn out to be a killer that could spread across the nation.
00:00:20.000 And Washington decided that every man, woman and child in the nation should get a shot to prevent a nationwide outbreak, a pandemic.
00:00:28.000 Well, 46 million of us obediently took the shot. And now 4,000 Americans are claiming damages from Uncle Sam amounting to three and a half billion dollars because of what happened when they took that shot.
00:00:41.000 By far the greatest number of the claims, two thirds of them, are for neurological damage or even death, allegedly triggered by the flu shot.
00:00:49.000 We pick up the story back in 1976 when the threat posed by the swine flu virus seemed very real indeed.
00:00:57.000 This virus was the cause of a pandemic in 1918 and 1919 that resulted in over half a million deaths in the United States, as well as 20 million deaths around the world.
00:01:10.000 Thus, the US government's publicity machine was cranked into action to urge all America to protect itself against the swine flu menace.
00:01:20.000 Influenza is serious business. During major flu epidemics, millions of people are sick and thousands die.
00:01:27.000 Well, this year you can get protection. The vaccines are safe, easy to take, and they can protect you against flu. So roll up your sleeve. Protect yourself.
00:01:39.000 One of those who did roll up her sleeve was Judy Roberts. She was perfectly healthy, an active woman, when in November of 1976, she took her shot. 0.96
00:01:48.000 Two weeks later, she says, she began to feel a numbness starting up her legs.
00:01:52.000 I joked about it at that time. I said, I'll be numb to the knees by Friday if this keeps up. By the following week, I was totally paralyzed.
00:02:02.000 So completely paralyzed, in fact, that they had to operate on her to enable her to breathe. And for six months, Judy Roberts was a quadriplegic.
00:02:11.000 The diagnosis? A neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome, GBS for short.
00:02:17.000 These neurological diseases are little understood. They affect people in different ways.
00:02:23.000 As you can see in these home movies taken by a friend, Judy Roberts' paralysis confined her mostly to a wheelchair for over a year.
00:02:31.000 But this disease can even kill. Indeed, there are 300 claims now pending from the families of GBS victims who died, allegedly as a result of the swine flu shot.
00:02:41.000 In other GBS victims, the crippling effects diminish and all but disappear.
00:02:46.000 But for Judy Roberts, progress back to good health has been painful and partial.
00:02:52.000 Now, I noticed that your smile, Judy, is a little bit constricted.
00:02:57.000 Yes, it is.
00:02:58.000 Is it different from what it used to be?
00:03:00.000 Very different.
00:03:01.000 I have a greatly decreased mobility in my lips. And I can't drink through a straw on the right-hand side.
00:03:10.000 I can't blow out birthday candles. I don't whistle anymore, for which my husband is grateful.
00:03:15.000 It may be a little difficult for you to answer this question, but have you recovered as much as you are going to recover?
00:03:24.000 Yes. This is it.
00:03:26.000 So you will now have a legacy of braces on your legs for the rest of your life?
00:03:31.000 Yes. The weakness in my hands will stay and the leg braces will stay.
00:03:35.000 So Judy Roberts and her husband have filed a claim against the U.S. government.
00:03:39.000 They're asking $12 million, though they don't expect to get nearly that much.
00:03:44.000 Judy, why did you take the flu shot? 0.93
00:03:46.000 I'd never taken any other flu shots, but I felt like this was going to be a major epidemic.
00:03:53.000 And the only way to prevent a major epidemic of a really deadly variety of flu was for everybody to be immunized.
00:04:01.000 Where did this so-called deadly variety of flu, where did it first hit back in 1976?
00:04:07.000 It began right here at Fort Dixon, New Jersey, in January of that year, when a number of recruits began to complain of respiratory ailments, something like the common cold.
00:04:16.000 An Army doctor here sent samples of their throat cultures to the New Jersey Public Health Lab to find out just what kind of bug was going around here.
00:04:25.000 One of those samples was from a Private David Lewis, who had left his sickbed to go on a forced march.
00:04:30.000 Private Lewis had collapsed on that march, and his sergeant had revived him by mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
00:04:35.000 But the sergeant showed no signs of illness.
00:04:38.000 A few days later, Private Lewis died.
00:04:41.000 If this disease is so potentially fatal that it's going to kill a young, healthy man, a middle-aged schoolteacher doesn't have a prayer.
00:04:49.000 The New Jersey lab identified most of those soldiers' throat cultures as the normal kind of flu virus going around that year,
00:04:55.000 but they could not make out what kind of virus was in the culture from the dead soldier and from four others who were sick.
00:05:02.000 So they sent those cultures to the Federal Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, for further study.
00:05:08.000 A few days later, they got the verdict. Swine flu.
00:05:12.000 But that much-publicized outbreak of swine flu at Fort Dix involved only Private Lewis, who died,
00:05:18.000 and those four other soldiers who recovered completely without the swine flu shot.
00:05:23.000 If I had known at that time that the boy had been in a sickbed, got up, went out on a forced march, and then collapsed and died, I would never have taken a shot.
00:05:34.000 The rationale for our recommendation was not on the basis of the death of a single individual,
00:05:40.000 but it was on the basis that when we do see a change in the characteristics of the influenza virus, it is a massive public health problem in this country.
00:05:50.000 Dr. David Sensor, then head of the CDC, the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, is now in private industry.
00:05:57.000 He devised the swine flu program, and he pushed it.
00:06:01.000 You began to give flu shots to the American people in October of 76.
00:06:05.000 October 1st.
00:06:06.000 By that time, how many cases of swine flu around the world had been reported?
00:06:11.000 There had been several reported, but none confirmed.
00:06:16.000 There had been cases in Australia that were reported by the press, by the news media. There were cases in...
00:06:26.000 None confirmed.
00:06:28.000 Did you ever uncover any other outbreaks of swine flu?
00:06:31.000 Anywhere in the world?
00:06:33.000 No.
00:06:34.000 Now, nearly everyone was to receive the shot in a public health facility where a doctor might not be present.
00:06:40.000 Therefore, it was up to the CDC to come up with some kind of official consent form,
00:06:45.000 giving the public all the information it needed about the swine flu shot.
00:06:49.000 This form stated that the swine flu vaccine had been tested.
00:06:53.000 What it didn't say was that after those tests were completed, the scientists developed another vaccine.
00:06:59.000 And that was the one given to most of the 46 million who took the shot.
00:07:03.000 That vaccine was called X53A.
00:07:07.000 Was X53A ever field tested?
00:07:11.000 Uh, I...
00:07:14.000 I can't say I would have to, uh...
00:07:16.000 It wasn't?
00:07:17.000 I don't know.
00:07:19.000 Well, I would think that you're in charge of the program.
00:07:22.000 I would have to check, uh, the records. I haven't, uh, looked at this in some time.
00:07:27.000 The information form, the consent form, was also supposed to warn people about any risks of serious complications following the shot.
00:07:35.000 But did it?
00:07:36.000 No, I had never heard of any reactions other than a sore arm, fever, this sort of thing.
00:07:42.000 Judy Roberts' husband, Gene, also took the shot.
00:07:45.000 Yes, I looked at that document. I signed it. Nothing on this.
00:07:48.000 Said I was gonna have a heart attack or I could get Guillain-Barre, which I never heard of.
00:07:52.000 What if people from the government, from the Center for Disease Control, what if they had indeed known about it?
00:07:59.000 What would be your feeling?
00:08:00.000 They should have told us.
00:08:02.000 Did anyone ever come to you and say,
00:08:05.000 You know something, fellas? There's the possibility of neurological damage if you get into a mass immunization program.
00:08:13.000 No.
00:08:14.000 No one ever did?
00:08:15.000 No.
00:08:16.000 Do you know Michael Hatwick?
00:08:18.000 Yes, ma'am.
00:08:19.000 Dr. Michael Hatwick directed the surveillance team for the swine flu program at the CDC.
00:08:25.000 His job was to find out what possible complications could arise from taking the shot and to report his findings to those in charge.
00:08:33.000 Did you know ahead of time, Dr. Hatwick, that there had been case reports of neurological disorders, neurological illness,
00:08:42.000 apparently associated with the injection of influenza vaccine?
00:08:46.000 Absolutely.
00:08:47.000 You did?
00:08:48.000 Yes.
00:08:49.000 How'd you know that?
00:08:50.000 By review of the literature.
00:08:51.000 So you told your superiors, the men in charge of the swine flu immunization program, about the possibility of neurological disorders?
00:08:59.000 Absolutely.
00:09:00.000 What would you say if I told you that your superiors say that you never told them about the possibility of neurological complications?
00:09:06.000 That's nonsense.
00:09:08.000 I can't believe that they would say that they did not know that there were neurological illnesses associated with influenza vaccination.
00:09:16.000 That simply is not true. We did know that.
00:09:19.000 I've said that Dr. Hatwick never told me of his feelings on this subject.
00:09:25.000 That he's lying.
00:09:27.000 I guess you would have to make that assumption.
00:09:33.000 Then why does this report from your own agency, dated July 1976, list neurological complications as a possibility?
00:09:43.000 I think the consensus of the scientific community was that the evidence relating neurologic disorders to influenza immunization,
00:09:56.000 that they did not feel that this association was a real one.
00:10:01.000 You didn't feel it was necessary to tell American people that information?
00:10:04.000 I think that over the years we have tried to inform the American people as fully as possible.
00:10:13.000 As part of informing Americans about the swine flu threat, Dr. Sensor's CDC also helped create the advertising to get the public to take the shot.
00:10:22.000 Let me read to you from one of your own agency's memos planning the campaign to urge Americans to take the shot.
00:10:29.000 The swine flu vaccine has been taken by many important persons, he wrote.
00:10:34.000 Example, President Ford, Henry Kissinger, Elton John, Muhammad Ali, Mary Tyler Moore, Rudolph Nureyev, Walter Cronkite, Ralph Nader, Edward Kennedy, et cetera, et cetera.
00:10:46.000 True?
00:10:47.000 Uh, I'm not familiar with that particular piece of paper, but I do know that at least of that group, President Ford did take the vaccination.
00:10:54.000 Did you talk to these people beforehand to find out if they planned to take the shot?
00:10:57.000 I did not know.
00:10:58.000 Did anybody?
00:10:59.000 I do not know.
00:11:00.000 Did you get permission to use their names in your campaign?
00:11:02.000 I do not know.
00:11:05.000 Mary, did you take a swine flu shot?
00:11:07.000 No, I did not.
00:11:09.000 Did you give them permission to use your name saying that you had or were going to?
00:11:13.000 Absolutely not, never did.
00:11:15.000 Did you ask your own doctor about taking the swine flu shot?
00:11:18.000 Yes, and at the time he thought it might be a good idea.
00:11:21.000 Um, but I resisted it because I was leery of having the symptoms that sometimes go with that kind of inoculation.
00:11:28.000 So you didn't?
00:11:29.000 No, I didn't.
00:11:30.000 Have you spoken to your doctor since?
00:11:31.000 Yes.
00:11:32.000 And?
00:11:33.000 He's delighted that I didn't take that shot.
00:11:35.000 You're in charge.
00:11:36.000 Somebody's in charge.
00:11:39.000 There are...
00:11:40.000 This is your advertising strategy that I have a copy of here.
00:11:43.000 Who's it signed by?
00:11:44.000 This one is unsigned.
00:11:47.000 But you'll acknowledge that it was your baby, so to speak.
00:11:51.000 It could have been from the Department of Health Education and Welfare.
00:11:54.000 It could be from CDC.
00:11:55.000 I don't know.
00:11:57.000 I'll be happy to take responsibility for it.
00:12:01.000 It's been three years now since you fell ill with GDS, right?
00:12:05.000 Right.
00:12:06.000 Has the federal government, in your estimation, played fair with you about your claim?
00:12:12.000 No.
00:12:13.000 I don't think so.
00:12:14.000 It seems to be dragging on and on and on.
00:12:17.000 And, really, no end in sight that I can see at this point.
00:12:22.000 With respect to the cases of Guillaume Barre, allegedly...
00:12:27.000 Former Secretary of HEW, Joseph Califano, too, was disturbed that there was no end in sight.
00:12:32.000 So, a year and a half ago, he promised that Uncle Sam would cut the bureaucratic red tape
00:12:37.000 for victims suffering from GDS and would pay up quickly.
00:12:41.000 We shouldn't hold them to an impossible or too difficult standard of proving that they were hurt.
00:12:47.000 Even if we pay a few people a few thousand dollars that might not have deserved it,
00:12:52.000 I think justice requires that we promptly pay those people who do deserve it.
00:12:57.000 Who's making the decision to be so hard-nosed about settling?
00:13:02.000 Well, I assume the Justice Department is.
00:13:05.000 Griffin Bell before he left?
00:13:07.000 Well, the Justice Department agreed to the statement I made.
00:13:10.000 It was cleared word for word with the lawyers in the Justice Department by my HEW lawyers.
00:13:16.000 And that statement said, in effect...
00:13:19.000 That statement said that we should pay Guillaume Barre claims
00:13:24.000 without regard to whether the federal government was negligent
00:13:27.000 if they resulted from the swine flu shot.
00:13:31.000 I think the government knows it's wrong.
00:13:33.000 If it drags out long enough, people will just give up. Let it go.
00:13:38.000 I am a little more adamant in my thoughts than my wife is,
00:13:42.000 because I told you to take the shot. She wasn't going to take it.
00:13:46.000 And she never had had shots.
00:13:48.000 And I'm mad with my government because they knew the facts.
00:13:52.000 But they didn't release those facts because if they had released them, the people wouldn't have taken it.
00:13:57.000 And they can come out tomorrow and tell me there's going to be an epidemic.
00:14:03.000 And they can drop off like flies to me. 0.73
00:14:05.000 I will not take another shot that my government tells me to take.
00:14:08.000 Meantime, Judy Roberts and some 4,000 others like her are still waiting for their day in court. 0.99
00:14:14.000 I don't need another flu shot. I had a flu shot last year.
00:14:20.000 A swine flu epidemic may be coming.
00:14:22.000 Swine flu shot? Well, I don't know. I've been thinking about it.
00:14:26.000 It could make you very sick.
00:14:30.000 Swine flu? Man, I'm too fast today to catch me.
00:14:34.000 You'll want to be protected.
00:14:36.000 I'm the healthiest 55-year-old you've ever seen.
00:14:39.000 Hey, I play golf every weekend.
00:14:41.000 Get a shot of protection.
00:14:43.000 The swine flu shot.
00:14:49.000 Joe brought it home from the office.
00:14:51.000 He gave it to Betty and one of his kids.
00:14:54.000 And to Betty's mother.
00:14:56.000 But Betty's mother went back to California the next day. 0.99
00:15:00.000 On her way to the airport, she gave it to a cab driver,
00:15:03.000 a ticket agent, and one of the charming stewardesses. 1.00
00:15:08.000 At school, Joe's kid gave it to some other kids.
00:15:12.000 And Mrs. Merrill got it and gave it to her husband.
00:15:16.000 In California, Betty's mother gave it to her best friend, Dottie.
00:15:20.000 But Dottie had a heart condition and she died.
00:15:23.000 But before she died, Dottie gave it to her girlfriend,
00:15:27.000 the mailman, the paperboy,
00:15:30.000 and the vet when she went to pick up her chihuahua.
00:15:34.000 If a swine flu epidemic comes, this is how it could spread.
00:15:38.000 You'll want to be protected, especially if your elderly are chronically ill.
00:15:42.000 Get a shot of protection.
00:15:44.000 The swine flu shot.
00:15:46.000 The end.
00:15:47.000 You