The latest screed from Danielle O’Dell for the Money Map Report is aimed at first getting you all fired up about Obamacare, in case you’re one of the seven people in the United States that doesn’t already have a strong opinion about that law’s impending enactment, and then, more importantly, at telling you that she’s got a way for you to profit from Obamacare instead of getting angry about it.
Why? Well, the obvious answer is: writing stuff about Obamacare gets people fired up.
And fired-up people read through long sales letters and are motivated to take action.
Actions like, say, subscribing to newsletters.
I’m sure every single person reading this has their own personal opinion about the troubles with our health care system, and about all possible proposed solutions, and the polls certainly tell us that everyone hates Obamacare even as most of us don’t quite understand how it’s going to end up working — since the rollout of the health care exchanges has been so botched “I hate Obamacare” is certainly an easy opinion to come by even if you generally like some sort of universal or single-payer health care system or a reorganization of the health insurance market, and even if you personally might be a beneficiary of the new system.
So I won’t dwell on Obamacare or on the political aspects of it, and I don’t really much care what Danielle’s opinion is on that or her “countdown to catastrophe” doomsday clock for the enactment of part of the Affordable Care Act on January 1 … we’ll just try to figure out what stock O’Dell is touting as a play on this big change to the health insurance markets.
And yes, in order to even get to the ideas of how to profit from Obamacare we need first to sit through an interminable sales pitch about the free “Beating Obamacare” book that they’ll give you for subscribing — but you could, of course, buy Beating Obamacare
Well, let’s first see what stock or investment they’re promoting as their way to profit from Obamacare — this isn’t the first “Obamacare profits” pitch we’ve heard, and I suspect it won’t be the last, but we’d be delighted to figure out the specifics for you if we can.
The pitches about specific investment ideas come from Keith Fitz-Gerald, one of the analysts behind the Money Map Report and a few other Money Map newsletters, here’s a taste of his spiel after he takes over from Danielle in this ad “presentation”:
“OBAMACARE: DON’T GET MAD, GET RICH!
“Let me give you just one quick example of what you’ll find in this free special report…
“Everybody on Wall Street ASSUMES that Obamacare will hurt companies that depend on hourly-wage workers the most…
“Especially fast-food companies…
“Because fast-food companies are going to have a hard time giving health insurance to millions of employees who barely make minimum wage…
“It makes sense, right?
“But wait…
“The folks who run these giant fast-food chains aren’t stupid…
“If they simply take their 40-hour-per-week FULL-TIME employees…
“And turn them into 30-hour-per-week PART-TIME employees…
“They won’t have to pay a penny in health insurance!
“And all that savings will go right to the bottom line…
“In other words, Obamacare will FORCE these companies to become even more profitable than they are today…”
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So I guess McDonald’s is the “freebie” pick that he’s willing to share with anyone who sits through the ad pitch, and he goes into a bit more detail here:
“So invest in McDonald’s, because unlike many other American companies…
“McDonald’s will not only remain unscathed by Obamacare…
“Obamacare will actually FORCE McDonald’s to become more profitable than it is today!
“But at roughly $90+ a share, it’s not easy for the average investor to take a large position in McDonald’s…
“Nor is it the kind of stock that could double or triple in value over a short period of time…
“Because blue-chip stocks like McDonald’s don’t usually do that…”
I don’t know how much of an impact Obamacare might have on McDonald’s future, but I’d guess that the shares have “taken a breather” over the last six months probably at least as much because they had gotten kind of expensive and the company was generating only about 2% sales growth as because of any health insurance concerns.
And he throws out another (very) thinly veiled idea in fast food:
“HINT…
“In China nowadays, Colonel Sanders’ chicken is more popular than General Tso’s!”
I’m under the impression that General Tso’s Chicken is a “Chinese American” dish popularized entirely in Chinese restaurants in the US, though I’m sure you can now get it in Beijing … but yes, Kentucky Fried Chicken has been a big hit in China, and China was the source of much of their growth over the last decade — though, like McDonald’s, KFC parent Yum Brands (YUM) has had some trouble “breaking through” to new highs over the last 18 months as sales have often come out a bit lighter than expected, in part because of slowed growth in China. Optimism has perked up a bit more recently and YUM is now again trading at a nice stiff premium to the market, with a forward PE of about 20.
I don’t know how anyone on earth can resist fried chicken, so perhaps YUM will take over the world eventually … but I don’t find the stock particularly mouthwatering at this valuation. And of course, we didn’t have to pull the Thinkolator out of the garage for that one — anyone can find the stock ticker for Yum Brands in about 30 seconds, and it might take 30 seconds again to learn that KFC is owned by Yum brands if that wasn’t already part of your mindscape.
Then we get into the one that’s really held out as “secret” — it’s about health care, so it’s probably more specifically relevant to Obamacare. He does say that some pharma companies are going to reap windfalls because of all the new customers, but doesn’t specifically hint about any individual ones … until he talks about vaccines. Here’s a bit of the tease:
“Buried in the 2,572 pages of the Affordable Care Act are two little paragraphs that could make you very rich indeed…
“When you clear away all the government gobbledygook, one of these paragraphs says…
“The federal government may enter into contracts with private companies to buy vaccines…
“And the other paragraph says…
“The government not only will be buying more vaccines, but it also will be promoting their benefits…”
So there’s the profit potential — Fitz-Gerald cites reports that the vaccine market could be growing by 15% a year, which would be a nice big tailwind for any company selling a lot of vaccines. Which stock does he like to benefit from that?
Well, he does mention the large cap vaccine leader …
“… you could buy GlaxoSmithKline, which is the market leader in vaccines with 23% global market share…
“Unfortunately, at roughly $50 a share for GSK, the potential for growth is limited…”
That always gets my goat a little bit — it might be that GSK’s potential is “limited” … but it’s not because the stock is at $50 a share, it’s because it’s a mega-billion-dollar company with a history of ups and downs, and because the vaccine business is a relatively small part of a big company. A $2 company is not necessarily one with better growth potential than a $50 company, you have to look at the size and prospects of the individual company, and though low share prices tend to go with small companies that’s certainly not always the case (for those who don’t know, the market capitalization is the number that really tells you the size of a company — that’s the number of shares times the share price. GSK is not a $50 company, it’s a $125 billion company … or, if you want to take it a step further and be more analytical, it’s got an “enterprise value” of $150 billion — enterprise value means you add the net debt to the market capitalization, it’s the price you’d pay today if you bought all the shares and paid off the company’s debts).
But anyway, I don’t want to get too far off track — the pitch is that there’s a small vaccine company Fitz-Gerald likes:
“… what if I told you there was another stock that’s currently selling at only $1.90 a share…
“And this company actually MAKES their own vaccines in the laboratory by synthesizing them out of DNA…
“So theoretically, they can attack virtually ANY infectious disease around the world…
“From AIDS… to Bird Flu… to Typhoid… you name it!
“Buy 10,000 shares of this company and you’ll pay only $19,000…
“But if Obamacare causes it to rise to $5 a share, your position could be worth $50,000….
“If it goes to $10 a share, you’ll have $100,000…
“And if it goes up to $25 a share, you might be sitting on a quarter of a million dollars!”
So … hoodat? Thinkolator sez it’s Inovio Pharmaceuticals (INO)
Which is indeed a synthetic vaccine company, though it’s not yet a vaccine-selling company so they won’t be benefitting from any increase in insured vaccinations immediately — their most advanced vaccine currently is in Phase II trials.
And yes, their platform does allow for the potential for vaccines that can protect against diseases much more fully than current standard vaccine technology — broadly reaching more of the viruses or cancer cells they’re targeting. The platform is called SynCon, and it is basically a vaccine shell that can be quickly directed toward specific antigens and which is combined with some kind of targeted electrical stimulant — in the case of therapeutic cancer vaccines, that means that it looks like they can generate a lot of T cells quickly to fight off the cancer.
I am not a biotech expert by any means, but Inovio has had a remarkable year filled with extremely promising early-stage studies — there was a wave of insider buying in the shares about six months ago when it was down around 50 cents a share, and then they released a half dozen encouraging studies in infectious disease and cancer and the stock shot up briefly to $3. It’s been quite volatile in recent months, but is currently right at about $1.90.
INO says they have enough cash to get them through about the next year and a half, which is good because they’re in the midst of a large number of studies that will be burning up cash — the have six studies they’ll be initiating next year, according to their recent presentation, and while none of them are the huge Phase III studies they’re still bound to cost millions.
So as with many biotechs, this one is all about a platform and about the future — it’s not about revenues or earnings just yet. There is a nice validation of their platform implied by a big deal with Roche for a couple of their vaccines, and the results have certainly sounded awfully good from their early stage clinical trials this year. I don’t know what hangups there might be in getting synthetic vaccines approved by the FDA, or if there will be issues when we get to large-scale safety trials (Phase III), but the efficacy of at least some of these therapeutic cancer vaccines looks impressive early on. The therapeutic cancer vaccines are the first wave for INO, including their lead candidate for HPV and cervical cancer, but I suspect we won’t see a Phase III clinical trial before the end of 2015 so there’s a long way to go before we start thinking about whether a 15% increase in the vaccines business is going to help them post good revenues.
And that’s about all I know about Inovio — the science and promise are enticing, they are in decent financial shape, but they’re not going to get a boost from vaccine spending in general unless it speeds up their clinical trials over the next couple years. I do have positions in two medical-sector stocks, but neither is a biotech or drug developer in a major way, and only one of them, a REIT, has really been touted as a play on Obamacare (the stocks are Ligand Pharmaceuticals and Medical Properties Trust, just FYI). Have an opinion you’d like to share about these guys, or about the other potential vaccine or health care winners of the next era in US health care? Let us know with a comment below.
Interesting that today, Inovio’s CEO was appointed to the International Vaccine Institute’s Board of Trustees. Also, recent collaboration with Roche.
A minor problem with the Danielle’s spiel about McDonalds is that over 3/4 of their workforce is already part-time, working just less than 18 hours per week (see McDonalds own statements: http://news.mcdonalds.com/Corporate/manual-releases/2010/McDonald-s-and-Health-Care-Senate-Committee). They also go into the extra overhead of having part-time, short-term employees. One would suspect that most other fast “food” establishments are about the same, and won’t be much affected by the ACA.
The premise is also wrong in that McD’s would never be so myopic as to cut employee hours simply to avoid providing insurance. The public repercussions would be way worse than the benefit. A limiting aspect of the healthcare act is the employee co-pay of 9.5%. Most healthy young fast food workers will not give up that much of their pay for insurance. They will simply go without or use the state run options. The result will end up similar to what the author is suggesting, but for a different reason. Still not a good reason to invest. The future top line results will be way more important than this line item focus.
Our http://www.global-investing.com yield portfolio includes GlaxoSmithKline of Britain, the drug major most involved in vaccines. It is developing a new production method, continuous rather than by batch, which may help profits, even for a large cap firm.
My big gripe about US vaccines for wide systemic use, like against flu (I get a flu shot every year because in 1968 I had the flu and it was horrible!) is that every jab is in an individual flask under the USA protocol. GSK makes a 4-variety flu jab that is increasingly replacing the former 3-variety one.
In Europe where people also get flu shots, the injection (against 3 or 4 varieties of flu) comes from a common flask holding something like 20 jabs or in some cases 100. The result is that each shot costs much less. You have to make sure that each injection is administered with a clean sterile needle but I hope we do that anyway in the US.
The packaging overkill costs money that could well be spent on something else. At my local pharmacy (where I don’t get my flu shot) it costs $19.95 which is pretty high.
My local Lutheran Church offers free flu shots to seniors on a certain day but the same single-jab flasks appear, so it is costing money that can be used for feeding the homeless or some other good cause. (I am not a Lutheran; they post notices in the neighborhood.)
ohhhhhh my…my heart sinks when I read comments such as ..” many people need to do their research on the tremendous hazards of vaccines….my God…we are sooo off base. Fear is an interesting thing isn’t it? Just put enough false info out into the world and people can be like sheep…not mind of their own…no interest in getting to the truth…just get in line & get you shot it will take care of everything…the consequences NOW or Later are not even considered by most. My recommendation is that people wake UP** Do your OWN research to get to the TRUTH…that is if you have the courage to do so. However, watch out…you just may find out something is terribly wrong!
be well & Happy
Most parents who do not have their children properly vaccinated should be prosecuted for child abuse.
I am old enough to remember cases of polio. I can remember the que at the county health dept to get one’s polio vaccine was 3 blocks long.
Before you go throwing a blanket over ‘all parents’ you should do your own research on vaccines and see what they are, how they work, why they are ‘needed’ (as said by the government), and the potential for life threatening illness from the vaccine. As my name suggests, I am against vaccines, my child is 20 months old and we have many friends with children between newborn and 7 and our child has gotten sick one time in 20 months. He is the only one out of the group that has not been injected with all the governments blanket vaccines. I would say about 40-50% of the other kids are sick at least every 3 months and the other half about every 6 months. We do a lot of other precautionary measures with his diet etc. but the vaccines are not all needed. Polio is a long gone disease so that soap box is no longer there to stand on.
First, I’m a RN so I have done plenty of research. Against V….. you have a child who just happens to be healthy. My kids never get sick either, ever, but you better believe they have been vaccinated and get flu shots every year. The youngest is now 10 so I have a longer record than your 20 months! Are you trying to tell us that your friends’ kids are running around with Polio, Pertussis, Diphtheria, Measles, Mumps etc…? Part of the reason healthy children are immunized is to protect the children that are immunocompromised, have chronic health conditions etc. and the elderly. We recently had Pertussis show up in our middle school. Of course, I didn’t need to worry, but because of their age either did any of the parents….Because at that age Pertussis is treated very efficiently with azithromycin (or a z-pak). So now I’m sure you are smugly thinking see, right there is a reason not to get vaccinated, because if they happen to get it, there now are antibiotics to treat it! But, consider this. Let us say that your child has been exposed to Pertussis and hasn’t been vaccinated and is not yet coughing or exhibiting signs of the disease because it is still in it’s incubation period. You take that same child over to your friends house to see their newborn baby and since your child is contagious, because you have not had them vaccinated, infects the week old child. THAT CHILD WILL DIE! A human that young cannot fight off Pertussis, they become septic and go into organ failure and die. No if and or buts. Still proud of yourself? What if your child steps on a sharp object? Will you get him a tetanus shot? That In itself is a vaccine….. that in fact now days is given as a DTaP shot because of ignorant people like yourself don’t get their children properly immunized. DTap = Diptheria, Tetanus & Pertussis. Polio is not completely eradicated, but the chances of your child getting it, you are right, are slim. BUT the reason it is no longer feared is because of the invention of a VACCINE for it. So thank all the people and children of the past who rolled up their sleeve or took the oral form of the vaccine, so that your child’s chances of contracting it are small. But, because it still exists, we still vaccinate for it. Mainly to keep it coming back until all children are able to be vaccinated and protected from it around the world. Case in point, Small pox vaccines are no longer given because the CDC and other organizations around the world were able to vaccinate enough people that the disease virtually doesn’t exist anymore except in lab refrigerators. Why don’t they just throw it out then? Have you heard of biological warfare? Another country could get a hold of some of the serum and try and infect different populations. If they acted against our country we would need that refrigerated sample to develop more vaccines for our population that has not been inoculated. If we were unable to do that we would have a pandemic on our hands. I always tell my patients not to “Google” everything because often information on the internet is not factual and one can always find articles to fit and support the way they feel or want to believe. You are being selfish by not vaccinating your child. If he does indeed stay well, it’s thanks to the millions and millions of others who did and do choose to get the required vaccines. By the way, childhood illness such as croup, colds, and earaches have absolutely NOTHING to do with a child being vaccinated properly. Surely you researched that, right?? While every one should and could eat properly, good luck with the diet defense when your child is a teen. You could use a good dose of reality and common sense as well as the ability to care about others and the world population of all children instead of just your own!
I think he means Wendy’s, not McDonalds.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion, even if it is rather radical and ill-informed. Apparently our Creator was negligent in not designing human beings with an “injection portal” for all the chemicals the medical profession and drug companies seem to think we need to be healthy. Anybody who does an unbiased in-depth study of vaccines pros and cons is likely to come away convinced the RISKS outweigh the medical propagandized supposed benefits.
Maybe you should read books like “The Poisoned Needle” by Eleanor Mc Bean who documented THOUSANDS of cases of children damaged by vaccines; from being turned into “vegetables” to actual DEATH, the pictures alone would turn your stomach. Even though it may be only one in 10,000 injections that have SERIOUS side effects that is one too many. If the shoe were on the other foot and some other “healing profession” were offering some herbal medicine or other remedy that killed or even damaged even one child the medical profession would be all over it DEMANDING the business be shut down, the parents jailed and the child taken into protective custody.
In contrast to your position; I would counter that parents who subject a healthy innocent child to inoculation’s with what are essentially “poisons” some with mercury as a preservative, should be charged with ASSAULT!
If vaccines are as “safe” as purported, then WHY did the government secretly pass legislation to provide compensation for children negatively affected and protect drug companies from lawsuits? You have simply been listening to too much “medical propaganda” for example, IF vaccines are as effective as claimed, then why all the hysteria about an unvaccinated child attending school? IF the majority are supposedly protected, then the unvaccinated child should be no threat and probably the wise parents who REFUSE vaccination are also smart enough to make sure their child gets such a healthy diet that their immune system would fight off any disease going around.
Any parent who refuses to get his child properly vaccinated is a fool!
If you actually read my above statement and can still make such a provocative statement then you either haven’t looked at all the available evidence from an unbiased standpoint, or you should look into a mirror before deciding WHO really is the “fool” you use so glibly.
No its you!
Please do not feel like you have to defend statements from people who are not educated on the pros and cons of vaccines. I, like you, have done my research and agree that the pros of vaccines are not even close to the cons that they will cause. Everyone does have the right to their own opinion, the difference is those on the governments vaccine side say things out of sheer brainwashing which has worked on them so they want it to work on you because they cannot think or research for themselves, and those on the research side have done a LOT of reading and studying many different reports from many different people and have made their own educated decision.
My background is in biochem and I have worked in a lab as well as several hospitals. I chose not to vaccinate my child because of the evolution of vaccines. The basic science of vaccination is valid. However, the pharmaceutical giants have gone above and beyond to further the dangers of vaccines. These include the institution of substantial amounts of heavy metals, including aluminum toxicity, and toxins including formaldehyde. Recently, vaccine manufacturers have begun using animal DNA as carriers in the vaccines. Anyone who understands how DNA functions and the basis of cellular division and recombinant DNA would not agree to the use of these vaccines in their own tissues much less their children’s.
The body is designed to break down animal DNA in the gut. However, there is no mechanism for the destruction of foreign DNA by cells. This is how viruses are able to infect a person – through the assimilation of the viral DNA into human cells, thus causing damage to cells creating illness.
You may also be interested in knowing that since 2010, more than $180 million per year has been awarded to verified victims of vaccinations through the National Vaccine Compensation and Injury Program. This program was established by the federal government to afford vaccine manufacturers free reign after their tireless lobbying of Congress. The vaccine manufacturers were being rampantly sued for injuries. They formed an alliance and spent millions lobbying our government for the establishment of the fund. They stated they would refuse to manufacture vaccines if the government did not afford them protection from claims. This literally gave them a “Get Out of Jail Free Card” to begin using sub-par manufacturing ingredients and unsafe chemical additives that reduce costs and increase profits.
What I have found for the most part is people who choose not to vaccinate do so after tremendous amount of research whereas people who call them fools haven’t done any but have been following “what they hear” or the advice of their physician. I read several books, pulled countless research studies and read the vaccination manufacturer inserts provided by my pediatrician before making this decision. It is not an easy decision by any means. When people have challenged my decision, I have recommended they follow the same course I did…read the same books and read the actual manufacturer inserts provided in the vaccinations, including researching each ingredient and additive and the potential dangers of such. Every person who has done this has since chosen not to vaccinate going forward.
It’s also rather shocking that they want to vaccinate newborn girls for sexually transmitted diseases before they are remotely of the age to engage in such activities. What could possibly be the reasoning behind this?
Thank you, Biochem, for a good overview of the negatives on vaccination. I’m of the age to remember getting the oral polio vaccine in mass vaccinations in schools. Polio was a terrible disease and I’ve known people who had it. I can’t imagine such mass administrations now but I understand the people had a genuine fear of the disease. Even though we don’t see it now, polio is still active in Pakistan. One jet passenger away. The companies should know what they are doing is counter productive in the long run, forcing people to reject products they feel unsafe and playing the odds disease won’t show up, but short term profits count more, I guess. Eliminating the subpar ingredients and poisonous preservatives would cost too much. They are always bugging me to get flu shots, but I smile sweetly and say I haven’t had one for for over forty years since I reacted badly to the one they made me take in the military. After I nearly died I was exempt from the shots for the rest of my service. A year later in Korea there was a bad epidemic of a different strain. Without the shot I was just fine and wound up nursing everyone else, Americans and Koreans.
Whatever happened to, “It’s my body!” ?
Oh, its not your body, haven’t you heard:
Melissa Harris-Perry: All Your Kids Belong to Us (Not the Parents)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZoNDYOdmBM
This is how the government thinks these days.
Exactly.
I would not put anything in my body or a child’s body that comes from a company with no liability. As usual, follow the money.
.
Wow.
It’s odd to claim that a position supported by science, and evidenced by declines in deaths and illnesses is radical. A reasonable view would say that a view opposing that is the radical one.
An argument given is that one in 10,000 injections having side effects is too much, but that is countered by the lives saved, and illnesses reduced by the vaccinations. Many would say that saving more than one in 10,000 by injections outweighs the impact of one in 10,000 having side-effects. Almost nothing is risk free. In this case, the benefits outweigh the impact.
It’s not wise to be a free-rider. The fact most people have reduced the risk for everyone is something to be appreciated, not condemned and taken advantage of. At issue though is the objectors weakening the defences for all.
When I was a child we got a small handful of vaccines. Some had three doses like polio. But we did not get twenty or thirty of them in our first 6 months of life before our immune system was up and running. In those early months breastfeeding you get your immunity mostly from your mother’s milk. We got most in elementary school and there were only 6 or so as I remember. We did not get immunized to chicken pox, mumps or measles and were actually encouraged to contract those as children with the effects were mild compared to say getting mumps as an adult when your gonads would become sterile. Parents would take their kids to play with the sick kids so they could get those usually minor childhood diseases out of the way and impart permanent immunity to them. The immune system grew and got stronger with these challenges. Now infants get a barrage of vaccines all at the same time and some get autistic as a result. There is no reason to give so many vaccines all at once so young. Sure some vaccines are worth the risk as they were in my childhood. But vaccines for HPV for all young girls when there is no proof it even prevents cervical cancer, and only controls a few strains of many at that. Or what about mandatory vaccines for elementary children for Hepatitus A that only can be contracted from dirty needles from drug use or sex – not something most second graders need. The fact is we now give way too many vaccines that are not even for deadly diseases or things like polio that so severely debilitate. And we give too many too early in life and a lot all at the same time – it is just insane and as a parent you have to be nuts to allow it. Wait. Get the few you know your really need over time spread out. Moderation in all things. We have gone way too far, and it is all about the money. Follow that and the revolving door at the CDC where if you recommend lots of vaccines you will get an offer for a fat job at a pharm company paying you ten times what the government paid you. The CDC is the one pushing this vaccines and they are in the pocket of big pharma. They are not to be trusted one wit when it comes to vaccines. Read the book “A shot in the Dark”. You will be amazed and discouraged that the CDC we trust cannot be trusted at all. Also check out http://www.nvic.org/ the National vaccine information center,
Finally a balanced reply: “Parents would take their kids to play with the sick kids so they could get those usually minor childhood diseases out of the way and impart permanent immunity to them. The immune system grew and got stronger with these challenges. ” YES and followed up with sound nutrition the immune system would be able to handle anything it might encounter, without having a bloodstream contaminated with a “witches brew” of mercury preserved cow pus. Quoting again: “We have gone way too far, and it is all about the money.”
One more time; “The CDC is the one pushing this vaccines and they are in the pocket of big pharma. ” BINGO! Their propaganda machine covers just about every angle, its not about health, its all about money. Well thats it, I think this is just another case where neither side is going to be persuaded by the other, so I am bowing out.
let me correct my statement to the extent that, M. Martin is attending exactly to the subject of my post…basic nutrition! My dad is an accountant/comptroller with a sign above his desk that reads: “torture the numbers and they will tell you what you want”… perhaps applicable in the realm of ‘scientific’ investigation. Perhaps also, we should attend to our own biases before we interpret the science.
But you just couldn’t help yourself could ya?
getting a bit more basic tothe subject of immune systems, the body develops with proper nutrition and over the last number of generations, say 6-7, our nutrition has been taken over by profit at the expense of health. A trip through any grocery store reveals the massive amount of nutritional toxins that the body has to deal with , starting with the basic ingredients, which have been altered to the point of nutritional unrecognizability by petro based ‘fertilizers, and genetic manipulations that yield non-viable seed out of earth that has been depleted of trace minerals that are essential to growth of disease resistant , vigorous life systems. This is a huge basic subject and, even here not really addressed. People are becoming more aware of this issue in the growing ‘shop local’, ‘know who grows your food’ attention, but the inedrtia which has been spawned by the decades of industrial farming are, first of all, entrenched in our world economy and have resulted in a worldwide decline in overall health that will take some time to reverse.
check your information on hep- A ; it is very contagious and it’s not from needles- these are the hep-B, and hepC. hep-A is through unsanitary conditions
How exactly am I taking advantage? How are the “objectors weakening the defences for all”?
What twisted logic, if the vaccines are effective then the vaccinated should be out of danger!
On the other hand, if I practice good nutrition that strengthens my immune system, then am I not also protected? How then do I or my children pose a threat to others, the logic escapes me? If I am not getting sick because of good nutritional habits and avoidance of junk food, where is the problem in not being vaccinated against diseases that are primarily due to a faulty lifestyle that compromises natural immunity?
There’s no twisted logic. You make a lot of suppositions. I never said ‘the immunized are not out of danger.’ I said it weakens the defences. As the saying goes, a chain is as strong as its weakest link. Instead of having a strong chain, you are advocating a weaker one. And you are taking advantage by being part of a large defended community that shields much, but not supporting it.
Of course, good nutrition also helps. But no, good nutrition is not the cure for anything and everything as you should be well aware. People who have good nutrition can still get a vast array of ailments – including those which are contagious. So no, you are not protected in the same way.
You then try to make equivalent contagious diseases which people get immunized against, with basic health and say that they are attributable to a “faulty lifestyle”. Avoiding junk food isn’t going to stop you getting yellow fever, or measles, and I am surprised that logic escapes you.
You write as if immunization was 100% effective in all cases which even its proponents admit is not true. Statistics I have seen show as little as 25% are protected by some vaccines, then you make the preposterous statement that: “good nutrition is not the cure for anything and everything” emphasis on the “anything” are you not aware that the fastest growing category of diseases is IATROGENIC meaning “doctor caused” from botched operations to doses of drugs that are inappropriate, to improperly labelled and administered, ad nauseum. You also make the ridiculous claim that I am advocating a “weaker chain” when what I am really advocating STRONGER IMMUNE systems by avoiding junk food in favour of good nutrition that STRENGTHENS the immune system.
There ARE elements of society that prove your thesis wrong, such as the healthy HUNZA’s of Tibet visited and written about by my late friend John Tobe who found them to be robustly healthy and working in their fields into their 90,s – 100,s and better, drinking pure glacial water not contaminated with fluorine or chlorine and growing their own organic fruits and vegetables with no western junk food to entice them away from their HEALTHY NATURAL food diet, and no vaccinations.
As a matter of fact, the very THEORY of infectious diseases is still on trial. Just because some bacteria, virus, microbes, germs etc. are found present when some disease named by doctors is diagnosed, does not mean that such are the CAUSE of that manifestation of symptoms, they are just “natures garbage disposal crews” and if the body was not contaminated by undigestible and nutrient poor junk food they would not have proliferated to the point of becoming a problem. Any educated doctor can tell you that our bodies have BOTH good and bad “germs” present at all times and a healthy immune system supported by good nutrition will keep the bad ones in check. Immunization is just a theory that the solution to junk in the body is to add more toxic elements, ore junk.
Anyone can pull one statistic from one article and make it support their point. Your point has no merit as there are many studies that would make your null and void. Not even worth defending against your comment.
What is the name of the small company that owns most of the patents on the Mems that will cure most diseases. that is teased Michael Robinson on Radical Technology
Got to love the anti-vaccine trolls that appear anywhere a vaccine is mentioned. Perhaps a few fractions of a % OF CHILDREN will have some adverse reaction. I’d rather that than risk DEATH BY MEASLES, PERTUSSIS, POLIO, MENINGITIS etc etc. See how effective CAPS are in getting a point across? I’ve read more on this than most, I have a PhD in biology, and have vaccinated myself and my family. Here’s hoping idiots that bash vaccines don’t cause the DEATH of a LOVED ONE by their neglect.
Guess I am just a “lucky idiot” but that epithet can be turned right back on you. What kind of idiot would you consider yourself if you never took a serious look at the literature from many trained M.D.’s who have rejected vaccination based on their own personal experiences and you had a child die, or in one sense even worse yet, turned into a vegetable you had to care for the rest of your life? It cuts both ways, how about NEGLECT of teaching children proper eating habits and indulging them with lots of candy, sugary drinks, ice cream loaded with chemicals, including anti-freeze (ethelene glycol) and other junk, would you label that child abuse as well?
There are a few people who oppose all the scientific or other demonstrated evidence. There are people who deny the Holocaust, and use the same argument. There are people who say 9-11 was a conspiracy. And yes there are people who oppose vaccination.
Finding people with an opposing view is never hard.
For me, I’m going with consensus, and history. That doesn’t deny there are individual side-effects as with most medicine. But, on balance, more gain than lose.
So you would agree with all the lemmings going over the cliff because the answers to controversial issues is simply to go with “consensus” (in other words the majority), but historically, has the majority not usually been wrong?
Hold up….One, Two, Three…YES! There are an inarguably at least Three logical fallacies in that last post. In case anyone doesn’t understand the “hard science” of Logic, simply Google “Logical Fallacies”, one of the first links can be clicked and you’ll see how straight-up basic mathematical equations can be inserted w/in assertions to see if it is mathematically feasible, or just simply zero in terms of logic and reason. It’s actually quite fun, you’ll never look at a news or gov’t report (for example) again. In other words your arguments…cough, cough, next?
PS. On a side note, I actually believe any logic themed courses have been pulled from almost every US skool, which personally I can fully understand as education would certainly clash with the rigorous propaganda machine.
“Prosperity is the greatest protector of principle.” M. Twain
are there any doctors, scientists, etc. who are reading this list who can weigh in on whether or not vaccines are good or bad? I am willing to listen to both sides.
I’m not a doctor, but here’s what I think:
There is absolutely no question that for humanity as a whole, vaccines are an incredible boon. To claim otherwise indicates, to me, either an overwhelming conspiracy attitude about the medical profession or a reliance on anecdotal stories and a complete ignorance of math and statistics. Without vaccinations, particularly for childhood diseases but also for influenza, the average person would have more debilitating illnesses and injury, and die younger. For individuals and for specific vaccines, there have been side effects in small numbers and periodic concerns, none of which, in my understanding, come close to negating the overall positive impact of vaccination for the whole of humanity. I am strongly in favor of all the established childhood vaccinations and grateful that vaccine refusal is low enough in our community that my children aren’t likely to encounter smallpox or whooping cough or mumps and measles, to say nothing of polio and others. The “free rider” problem worries me greatly — since fear of
measles and other diseases is now extremely low, and since my generation hasn’t seen schools succumb to these diseases, parents my age think the diseases are gone forever. Risks of resurgence of these diseases increase as vaccination levels drop.
I was at sea from 1947 to 1980. During that time I had inoculations or vaccinations at 6 month, 1year or 3 year intervals.
After leaving the sea I worked in the offshore industry as a marine consultant in many areas of the world.
At times we would be in some ports where some kind of fever or decease was raging. At no time did I ever come down with any illness.
The only mishap I had was a broken arm.
Travis: It would be interesting if we had reliable and honest statistics totally uninfluenced by monetary concerns comparing whooping cough, mumps. and measles deaths, compared to the actual covered up vaccine related deaths. I can assure you that parents who have first hand experience with losing a child, or having them become a “vegetable” with little or no brain function after supposedly “routine” vaccinations do not shrug their shoulders with a resigned “we did our part for the greater good”, which was the point of my second post, nobody knows the true extent of the problem because most incidences get covered up.
Again, can medical science actually prove that vaccines are totally responsible for any reduction in infectious diseases, or could they be due to better hygiene and nutrition?
I realize it is a complex issue and there is room for disagreement, my main concern is freedom to make such sensitive decisions on a personal basis, not be dictated too because a majority has a different point of view. What if the government decides that they know better than you do how to manage your money and legislated the necessity of having at least some percentage of your savings in government bonds? My point is our personal freedoms are being eroded at a rapidly accelerating pace and I for one am not prepared to give up my right to decide for myself what is best for me or my family.
Government has become too powerful and out of control seeking to regulate every aspect of human life to the point we become slaves of the state.
Government instils community values, where individual freedoms are detrimental to that. We accept laws to control crime – even though some are against them – because they benefit the community overall. And mass immunization and fluoridisation result in an overall increase in community standards and health in the same way.
So I guess your theory is that if 51% of people who are incapable of “critical thinking” (because the government propaganda schools do not teach it) can be induced by enough propaganda from “for profit” corporations with government backing that a certain thing is desirable and even necessary, then it should become a “community standard” that needs to be ENFORCED on the other 49% by legislation
How about armed government goon raids on organic farms and dairies selling unpasteurized milk, which tens of thousands of farmers have been drinking for decades with no ill effects, (me included) I guess you approve of that too? Whatever happened to the “land of the FREE and the home of the brave” envisioned by our forefathers that is now being turned into a mockery of the concept by rapidly deteriorating into a dictatorship style government interfering in private business and family life by proliferating rules and legislation enforced by a bunch of zealous bureaucrats with prejudices of their own?
I don’t need government to legislate my life based on ill-informed, money hungry and out of control corporations that have lobbied their way into a position of preeminence.
Myron, you state that others are allowed to have their own opinion yet go after anyone that contradicts you. Let it go.
I totally agree with Myron, one of the few non sheeple on this site. Hasn’t every single vaccine company been convicted of fraud? Remember sb40? That tidbit was recently purged from the cdc site. Hmmm.
small comment to your statement: “…grateful that vaccine refusal is low enough in our community”…
Vaccines are government enforced by the public school systems in most places, where you must provide evidence of vaccination before you are allowed to bring your child to school. Not exactly voluntary compliance.
Most places provide lots of exemptions, in places I’ve lived you have only to sign a paper to exempt yourself from vaccination requirements for school. In my region, a large percentage of people opt out of vaccination.
while this may be true, in order to get a waiver, you need to get approval, which means that one’s motives, life choices or spiritual beliefs need scrutiny and ‘approval’. While many who enforce the rules can be tolerant and understanding, the results can changed based on who is doing the approving…it’s not an automatic, at least in my experience.
I have 15 years experience in the biotech field, a PhD in Immunology/Biochemistry and am strongly in favor of vaccines. I don’t want to preach about vaccines other than to say they work, and 50+ years of data support this. The introduction of new vaccines leads to significant drops in infections/hospitiliations (http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1209165) and the resurgence in parents opting out of vaccinations because they saw Jenny McCarthy blaming autism on it leads to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases that can by heat-mapped to areas of high vaccine refusal (http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa0806477). Google incidence of diseases like Polio, measles, whooping cough pre and post vaccine. Google the new HPV vaccines that prevent cervical cancer, and make your own decisions.
I certainly expected the kind of response contributed by Manfred, but I wanted to make the point that there are always at least “two sides to any story” but most people don’t get to hear anything that goes contrary to the official government sponsored one. Anybody who has looked into the question in depth, (beyond just the medical inspired one) who decides that the alleged benefits are worth the risk, certainly has the right to make that choice.
My point is that having personally experienced the negative effects, (personally paralyzed after a diptheria shot as a child) and having raised 5 healthy children without a single vaccination as a result, I as a parent should have “free choice” to make a contrary decision after personally checking out the available facts.
My natural foods diet has kept me in good health for 75 years, (along with many others) and never having visited a medical doctor or taken any drug, should my experience be the norm, dictating that everyone else should adopt my dietary habits, by government mandate?
When you “check your brain at the door” by giving bureaucrats the right to dictate your actions, then you enter onto a “slippery slope” that ends in a dictatorship.
Are you prepared to give up your personal freedoms in favour of believing that your government has your best interests at heart and is never mistaken? Are you naive enough to believe that vaccines are 100% effective, even their proponents don’t claim that. As far as “a position supported by science” is concerned, check your history! How long did it take for Semelweiss to convince the medical establishment that they should wash their hands between patients. Medical science, (falsely so called) since it is not a science but an on-going experiment, has many skeletons in its closet, including drugs taken off the market after 10-20 years of use before serious side effects were finally nailed down.
As far as the benefits “out weighing the impact” that is for the individual to judge, not a doctor or a government bureaucrazy. I will leave the final question with everyone to consider. Since the profession with government backing tries to HIDE the actual numbers and cases of severe damage from vaccines, just how many children, dead ,disfigured, or essentially brain dead vegetables are ACCEPTABLE, a couple hundred per million population, a couple thousand, or does it only become of importance when it happens to someone you know and love?
Myron, you had my attention until you rattled on about the slippery slope and dictatorship. It’s so reminiscent of that particular political party that does everything possible to destroy good governance then running on a platform that government is broken and bad. I agree on points brought forward by both sides in this debate, however I am in full agreement that the revolving door between the government agencies intended to protect the greater good and the industries that profit from decisions and policies made by these agencies must be closed to maintain at lease the semblance of controlling conflict of interest. This argument parallels the GMO industry and the US government’s continued support while 60 other nations around the world who maintain independent science to protect their citizens have banned these products. It’s easy to understand why a person could begin feeling the same about immunizations. Our government agencies under the control of industry have little credibility.
Taking the extreme view and telling people they are ill-informed is calculated to provoke a response, so of course you expected one. Some call it trolling.
Hey Myron – the creator did not provide any hospitals either; so I suppose you and the family would not use them?
Fortunately so far we have had no need too, glad professionals are there in case of accident, but I have ZERO faith in drugs to produce health. There is a big difference between “masking symptoms” which is what drugs do, and actually producing a healthy body. When you interfere with “mother nature” (which is essentially what drugs do) then you run the risk of “unintended consequences” which frequently results in NEW SYMPTOMS and diseases that then require a whole new drug regime to control or modify.
Giving the Creator his due, I would suggest that the reason he didn’t provide hospitals is because he provided healing herbs and healing instructions in His Word that could take care of any problem man might encounter without resorting to artificial means of mans own devising.
Wow Myron. I guess since this thread has long ago jumped the tracks, I might as well ride it over the cliff.
In brief response to a couple things:
Your good health and that of your children could just as easily be due to the fact of all those people around you getting their vaccine shots. It is completely unknown. Sure, science is constantly evolving, as it is driven by data. But I think that I would prefer to trust that data in the form of peer-reviewed papers than ancedotal stories.
Relying on “peer reviewed papers” only proves that people of a given mindset have agreed on certain criteria that upholds their financial interests. FOLLOW the MONEY is a good adage.
Your suggestion that my good health and that of my children could just as easily be due to the fact of all these people around me getting vaccine shots is laughable at best. If the vaccine protects them against disease and they are not “carriers” then why is everybody around me complaining about colds, fever, the flue, taking time off work because they don’t feel well etc.?
I haven’t lost a single day off work in at least 55 years, so pardon me if I conclude that my strong immune system is doing a better job than any vaccine ever could. I have many times been exposed to people who are down with the flu, coughing their heads off etc. yet I don’t catch their malady, I suppose that is just coincidence?
“why is everybody around me complaining about colds, fever, the flue, taking time off work because they don’t feel well etc.?”
Because one immunization doesn’t cover everything known to man.
Why would they not still get colds and so on after being immunized. Your argument is that why are people who eat healthily still coming down with other sicknesses and diseases.
Eating carrots won’t stop AIDS. Taking a measles shot won’t stop the flu.
WRONG, if people were as you put it, “eating healthily” they would not be coming down with “sicknesses and diseases” the eating healthy assumption you make is contradicted by the statistics that acknowledge how pathetic the average American diet is in reality, compared even to government advised standards. How many people do you know that are eating ” 10 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables daily” let alone whole grains instead of white flour products that are devoid of at least 80% or better of essential vitamins and minerals contained in the natural whole grains?
I am an MD, board certified in Internal Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology. Several of these posts have already written about the virtues of vaccinating ourselves against a large variety of infectious diseases. Scientific evidence is overwhelming in support of the use of vaccines. Concerns over possibly causing autism due to childhood vaccinations has been determined to not be true. The initial observation was initiated by a Physician in Great Britain who later admitted to falsifying his data. No statiscal correlation has been determined other than the fact that there does appear to be a rise in autism that the causation has not been clearly determined. I am very interested in the use of vaccines for the treatment of cancer as well as the prevention. Use of the HPV vaccine has the potential to save thousands of lives. HPV is a major cofactor in the development of both cervical cancer and cancers in the head and neck region. In the past year, I have seen more cases of head and neck cancer in young people (30s-40s) than I had in my 25 years as a cancer specialist and they all were found to have HPV DNA incorporated in their cancers. Historically use of tumor vaccines for treatment of cancers hasn’t been tremendously successful until the past few years. The medical literature is filled with tumor vaccines that are targeting specific elements of cancers and starting to have dramatic breakthroughs. I don’t have any knowledge about Inovio (at this time), but I am quite optimistic that our scientists are making progress
“I don’t have ANY knowledge but I’m quite optimistic”??!!?! “Our scientists?” Are you perhaps OWNER/ FOUNDER/LEADING SHAREHOLDER (and no, I’m not credentialing exceptional ego bias) of any laboratories leading in this particular research? I could be accused of being maybe 3-4 years behind my rather large and regular diet of scientific data within the healthcare arena, but I’d appreciate some citations for curiosity sake, especially because the last time I looked into this matter not so long ago your assertions just might be excessively overstated. And your personal observation regarding head/neck cancer (and of which sort?) Certainly is too small a sample size to have any weight, not to mention other factors ie. ddx? , and let’s just say there’s a lot to be considered that were absent from your briefing. But there is one factor we all can say with 100% certainty, and that is there will NEVER be any solid study making the case for vaccinations having notable cons against them, as it generates more profit than 99% of most country’s GDP’s. that would be way more devastating than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.
Having being a medical doctor for thirty six years , I find a little insulting when people insinuate that I would betray both my humanity and my medical obligation to accommodate the dictates of any government, if I felt that they were wrong. I have administered childhood vaccination to many thousand children . I have given them to my own four children ,and my three grandchildren. I have no doubt that the benefit far far outweighs the risks. You only have to look at a terrible disease like smallpox which has been wiped out in the world by vaccination .I hav studied the effect and the side effects of vaccination .
I have refused to administer the swine influenza jab,in 2009 ,because I felt it was not properly tested or necessary, I went public with my objection in Ireland where I work ,and will do so again if I disagree with Government policy.
My question would be, given all the progress that medicine has supposedly made in the last 100 years, would it not be appropriate to at least question what has CHANGED in societal practices that could be the CAUSE of the increased levels of “lifestyle diseases” and put the focus on PREVENTION by appropriate lifestyle changes? I guess that would be “radical” to suggest, but them maybe the answer lies in the fact there would be no profit in that.
Me thinks thou dost protest too much, bully for you if you stood up for your convictions and refused to administer the swine flu influenza jab”, so see, we do agree that at least some vaccines can be dangerous. So how do you extract a “bad vaccine” once it has been discovered to be so, and what damage will it do over the next 20-50 years of a persons life circulating in the system or contaminating cells?
So that puts you among the “good guys” who follow their conscience, which is all that I am trying to do, be RESPONSIBLE and stand up to be counted when I do not agree with medical dictates or government policy.
Little did I know that it would the the hot keyword “vaccines” that gets the chatter moving and not “Obamacare.” Go figure.
As a Canadian I am not about to get dragged into the Obamacare debate, but remember I did not start this thread, but when someone suggests parents should be charged with “child abuse” for not following one specific modality as opposed to all others, that gets my dander up. I am an advocate of free choice and free speech, not dictatorship by an elite.
Thanks, Travis for the analysis of a would be or could be a vaccine high flyer. As a one time UM minister, I won’t wax theological though the mythology of the fall gives us more reality than most can handle. Born on the farm in Ohio, a mother for a nurse that frequently saved lives when the doctor that practiced in towns 20 miles away, I saw class mates that got diseases that I didn’t when vaccinations became available. My best friend and cousin became seriously ill with polio just a year before the Salk vaccine or oral treatment became available. He died early. I’m rather healthy going on 83. Just one more observation. I helped with the first round of vaccines for children and finally adults in Haiti. I also helped establish the first and only TB Hospital for children in Haiti in the early 60s, Before the vaccine for TB was provided a full 50% of the children died before 5 years of age and most by TB. Yes, poverty contributed to the malnutrition which also accelerated the contagion of TB, but all has changed dramatically or did after the availability of the TB vaccine. The only benefit of not vaccinating all those people might reduce the population, but that is a cruel benefit I can’t consider. Such has been the level of informative entertainment on this topic, I have not seen for years. Thanks Travis and to all the opines.
I agree with Myron Martin. Most vaccines, if not all, are unnecessary.
It really is just about MONEY!
Let the sheeple line up, but don’t force me or my children to be vaccinated if i choose not to!
NOBODY, (including me) has so succinctly put the issues into so few wise words. Bang on Chris, it really comes down to free choice, and not being dictated too by one methodology the government has chosen to elevate above all others because of the lobbying power of the medical profession, it really does come down to following the money.