Anyone remember the swine flu in NJ (1976)

[rainbow4321]

I do. Vaguely. I was 11 years old at the time and I remember standing in a loooonnnnggggg line waiting to get the swine flu vaccination.

Interesting to read the full history now...I just remember the panic that everyone had back then and the vaccinations that were being given out.


http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no01/05-1007.htm

Reflections on the 1976 Swine Flu Vaccination Program

In 1976, 2 recruits at Fort Dix, New Jersey, had an influenzalike illness. Isolates of virus taken from them included A/New Jersey/76 (Hsw1n1), a strain similar to the virus believed at the time to be the cause of the 1918 pandemic, commonly known as swine flu. Serologic studies at Fort Dix suggested that >200 soldiers had been infected and that person-to-person transmission had occurred. We review the process by which these events led to the public health decision to mass-vaccinate the American public against the virus and the subsequent events that led to the program's cancellation. Observations of policy and implementation success and failures are presented that could help guide decisions regarding avian influenza.

(snip)


What NIIP did not and could not survive, however, was the second blow, finding cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) among persons receiving swine flu immunizations. As of 1976, >50 "antecedent events" had been identified in temporal relationship to GBS, events that were considered as possible factors in its cause. The list included viral infections, injections, and "being struck by lightning." Whether or not any of the antecedents had a causal relationship to GBS was, and remains, unclear. When cases of GBS were identified among recipients of the swine flu vaccines, they were, of course, well covered by the press. Because GBS cases are always present in the population, the necessary public health questions concerning the cases among vaccine recipients were "Is the number of cases of GBS among vaccine recipients higher than would be expected? And if so, are the increased cases the result of increased surveillance or a true increase?" Leading epidemiologists debated these points, but the consensus, based on the intensified surveillance for GBS (and other conditions) in recipients of the vaccines, was that the number of cases of GBS appeared to be an excess.

Had H1N1 influenza been transmitted at that time, the small apparent risk of GBS from immunization would have been eclipsed by the obvious immediate benefit of vaccine-induced protection against swine flu. However, in December 1976, with >40 million persons immunized and no evidence of H1N1 transmission, federal health officials decided that the possibility of an association of GBS with the vaccine, however small, necessitated stopping immunization, at least until the issue could be explored. A moratorium on the use of the influenza vaccines was announced on December 16; it effectively ended NIIP of 1976. Four days later the New York Times published an op-ed article that began by asserting, "Misunderstandings and misconceptions... have marked Government ... during the last eight years," attributing NIIP and its consequences to "political expediency" and "the self interest of government health bureaucracy" (7). These simple and sinister innuendos had traction, as did 2 epithets used in the article to describe the program, "debacle" in the text and "Swine Flu Fiasco" in the title.

On February 7, the new secretary of DHEW, Joseph A. Califano, announced the resumption of immunization of high-risk populations with monovalent A/Victoria vaccine that had been prepared as part of the federal contracts, and he dismissed the director of CDC.

[ohheckyeah]

1. I was in Tucson

and I didn't get the vaccine.

I seem to remember that quite a few elderly people died from the vaccine.

[enlightenment]

2. I was 18 - got the shot at the Denver county health building.

Made it out of the building and onto the steps before it hit me. The shot made me sicker than the disease, I think. Put me off flu shots for a couple of decades.

[Mojorabbit]

4. Me too.

It took me years and years before I would get another one.

[Mojorabbit]

3. I was a graduate nurse

and I got the injection. I also had the worst flu I have ever had in my life that year. No panic where I was at.It was the prudent thing to do in my profession to get vaccinated.

[enlightenment]

9. The only time I've ever actually had influenza was after getting

the annual flu jab in the mid-90s. I don't think it gave me the illness, of course - but it didn't protect me from it, either. Having the actual illness did clarify the difference between things we tend to call 'the flu' and influenza. Aside from major surgery, I've never been so sick . . . two weeks of conversation with Charon and at least 2 months of lingering symptoms.

I am VERY particular about what I call the 'flu' these days!

[southerncrone]

5. Yep. I got the vaccination along with numerous others here in TN.

I was a college student then, & as I recall the MSM & AMA was calling for EVERYONE to get the shot. A fellow student who I had know since elementary school was CRIPPLED by the vaccine. There were others also crippled. He was in a wheel-chair after. Not sure what happened to him after we graduated 2 yrs. later. He was bound for law school, but don't know his final outcome. I often wonder about his "life" after that.


Add on edit.

I've wondered years later if this was not a precursor of sorts to HIV & other scare diseases that they are pushing vaccines for. A "trial run", so to speak.

[seemslikeadream]

6. March 24, 1976: Ford Orders Swine-Flu Shots for All

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/03/dayintech_0324

March 24, 1976: Ford Orders Swine-Flu Shots for All
By Tony Long 03.24.08


October 12, 1976: Nurse Jacqueline Spaky administers a swine-flu injection with an injector gun on the first day of the immunization program in New York City.
Photo courtesy Bettman/Corbis 1976: President Gerald Ford orders a nationwide vaccination program to prevent a swine-flu epidemic.

Ford was acting on the advice of medical experts, who believed they were dealing with a virus potentially as deadly as the one that caused the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic.

The virus surfaced in February at Fort Dix, New Jersey, where 19-year-old Pvt. David Lewis told his drill instructor that he felt tired and weak, although not sick enough to skip a training hike. Lewis was dead with 24 hours.

The autopsy revealed that Lewis had been killed by "swine flu," an influenza virus originating in pigs. By then several other soldiers had been hospitalized with symptoms. Government doctors became alarmed when they discovered that at least 500 soldiers on the base were infected without becoming ill.

It recalled 1918, when infected soldiers returning from the trenches of World War I triggered a contagion that spread quickly around the world, killing at least 20 million people. Fearing another plague, the nation's health officials urged Ford to authorize a mass inoculation program aimed at reaching every man, woman and child. He did, to the tune of $135 million ($500 million in today's money).

Mass vaccinations started in October, but within weeks reports started coming in of people developing Guillain-Barré syndrome, a paralyzing nerve disease, right after taking the shot. Within two months, 500 people were affected, and more than 30 died. Amid a rising uproar and growing public reluctance to risk the shot, federal officials abruptly canceled the program Dec. 16.

In the end, 40 million Americans were inoculated, and there was no epidemic. A later, more technically advanced examination of the virus revealed that it was nowhere near as deadly as the 1918 influenza virus. The only recorded fatality from swine flu itself was the unfortunate Pvt. Lewis.

History's verdict of the program is mixed. Critics assail Ford, accusing him of grandstanding during an election year -- it did him no good, because he lost anyway -- while kowtowing to the pharmaceutical companies. Supporters laud the ability of the nation's health bureaucracy to mobilize so effectively

[PCIntern]

7. I was in dental school and although

it wasn't mandatory, it was clearly advised that we go get the vaccine - my first gun-accination. Pretty neat.

Unless I'd come down with Guillain-Barre...then it wouldn't have been so 'neat'.

[southerncrone]

10. I never knew there was a link between the Swine Flu Vaccine & Guillain-Barre Syndrome

until reading this thread. I find that very interesting because I received the vaccine in Dec. 76 and was then diagnosed w/chronic fatigue syndrome in 1999. My test results then showed I had the Guillain-Barre Virus in my system. This makes me wonder if that wasn't a result of the shot in '76? I don't trust the vaccine program in our country anymore, there are just too many odd things associated w/it. Gulf War Syndrome, Autism, MMR, etc. :tinfoilhat:

[Mz Pip]

8. I remember it

because I was pregnant at the time and knew I wouldn't be able to take the shots.

I can only hope that this flu turns out to be a dud like the '76 one was.