Are flu vaccines racially targeted? Heightened inflammatory response measured in blacks

Are flu vaccines racially targeted? Heightened inflammatory response measured in blacks

Thursday, April 06, 2017 by: Ethan Huff

Tags: influenza, racism, vaccines

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(Natural News) Is Big Pharma engaged in creating vaccines that are racially targeted? A new study may hold the key to answering this question, as it reveals that influenza vaccines appear to produce a heightened inflammatory immune response in certain ethnic groups.

According to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Wistar University, and Duke University Medical Center, African-American people seem to have a more pronounced inflammatory immune response to flu shots than white people, on average. And to some, this variant efficacy is a sign that vaccines may be developed that display different results when administered to people of different races.

The surprising new findings are published in the journal Oncotarget, and suggest that uniform protection from flu shots is a complete misnomer. The color of one’s skin may be a significant determining factor in whether or not a flu vaccine will be effective or dangerous.

Dr. Raj Kurupati and his colleagues uncovered a heightened immune response in African-American folks who are vaccinated for influenza compared to Caucasian folks, though this heightened response among blacks seems to wane with age. By the time people reach the age of about 65, however, there is virtually no difference in their respective immune responses to flu shots.

Why this is the case could be a factor of circulating B-cells in younger blacks, which may indicate higher basal immune surveillance. In a nutshell, African-Americans, on average, express a more pronounced immune response to flu shots, compared to Caucasians of similar age and health profiles. But too much of an inflammatory response can also lead to adverse events, including seizures and brain damage.
News outlet accuses science of being racist for not taking into account all ethnic groups

All of this would simply be data to most people. But to some, it’s an indicator of what SciNews calls “racial indifference in scientific studies.” In the view of this news outlet, the vast majority of genome-wide association studies looking for genes or polymorphisms related to a particular disease focus on people of European descent, leaving out those of African descent.

Science is racist, in other words, and more needs to be done to fix it. Some believe that blacks are underrepresented in the scientific literature, and are thus not being taken into account when medicines are developed.

Natural News would take the position that vaccines are equally risky to all races. This is especially true for flu vaccines which, more often than not, contain dangerous additives like aluminum and mercury. Nobody of any race should be getting an annual flu shot based on what’s been published about their lack of efficacy and propensity towards causing harmful side effects.

And yet some in the scientific community are splitting hairs over too much, or not enough, representation in the scientific literature of this race or that race. Perhaps the world would be much better off if we all agreed that, race aside, injecting the body with toxic heavy metals and other chemicals alongside live viruses and aborted human fetal tissue isn’t in anyone’s best interest.

Sources:

Sci-News.com

Cell.com