Not surprisingly, Chiron received final approval yesterday from the FDA to ship its first batch of Fluvirin, a flu vaccine that still contains mercury. The 1.5 million doses expected to hit the United States next week represent just a fraction of the 26 million expected from Chiron by early December.

However, Chiron's share of the flu vaccine stockpile makes up only a quarter of the expected 97 million vaccines to be available in this country, as Sanofi Pasteur will produce the bulk of the flu vaccines (50-60 million).

So, if you've seen signs popping up at grocery stores to get a flu shot, that's just the first indication we're about to be bombarded with the same old fear campaign from medical "experts" telling us to get vaccinated. In fact, one CDC official pushed October and November as the optimal months for vaccination, although December and January aren't "too late" either.

Just remember, federal officials claimed 36,000 people died from the flu in 2002, although a major investigation found that number to be completely false. The actual number of flu-related deaths was less than 800. And two recent studies I posted recently showed how ineffective flu vaccines really are.

USA Today October 13, 2005