VOLUNTEERS SOUGHT FOR H1N1 VACCINE TRIAL

BIG VACCINE MAKERS, EMORY AND INOVIO,
TAKE LEAD IN SWINE FLU FIGHT

Indianapolis USA - Researchers have an H1N1 vaccine to test and those picked to get the first shots are volunteers carefully selected by a company conducting the nationwide test. They're asking for volunteers for the six-month study. The rush is on to produce a swine flu vaccine by fall. The U.S. government's goal would be to vaccinate everybody, but first, the vaccine must be tested and proven safe for adults and children. Thousands of people are already willing to be the first in line. Volunteers will be paid, too. More than 200 adults and 200 seniors will get the vaccine at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Adults getting the vaccine say the risk of fever and flu like symptoms are worth the knowledge that could help save lives. The U.S. government aims to have as many as 160 million doses of swine flu vaccine available by sometime in October.

As the fall-winter flu season approaches, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are racing to make sure vaccines are available before swine flu can wreak havoc on the global population. The first line of defense against the pandemic – H1N1 influenza – will be a group of vaccines from established flu-shot makers, which are using their proven technology to make H1N1-specific vaccines. The major vaccine makers start with trials to determine the optimal doses and evaluate safety. Emory researchers administered a trial H1N1 flu shot to many volunteers as one of the eight Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units supported by the National Institutes of Health, Emory is delivering the vaccine to two age groups of approximately 100 volunteers each – healthy adults aged 19 to 64 and seniors 65 or older. On the other hand, San Diego company Inovio is trying to develop a “universal” vaccine that would work against swine flu, bird flu or new types of influenza that emerge. The company said that "the problem is that the virus is mutating rapidly, so the virus that's in the vial may not be the virus that's attacking you in October or November.”

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

The devotees of the Lord, who are in Krishna consciousness, offer food to Krishna and then eat — a process which nourishes the body spiritually. By such action not only are past sinful reactions in the body vanquished, but the body becomes immunized to all contamination of material nature. When there is an epidemic disease, an antiseptic vaccine protects a person from the attack of such an epidemic. Similarly, food offered to Lord Vishnu and then taken by us makes us sufficiently resistant to material affection, and one who is accustomed to this practice is called a devotee of the Lord. Therefore, a person in Krishna consciousness, who eats only food offered to Krishna, can counteract all reactions of past material infections, which are impediments to the progress of self-realization. On the other hand, one who does not do so continues to increase the volume of sinful action, and this prepares the next body to resemble hogs and dogs, to suffer the resultant reactions of all sins. The material world is full of contaminations, and one who is immunized by accepting prasadam of the Lord (food offered to Vishnu) is saved from the attack, whereas one who does not do so becomes subjected to contamination.

Srila A.C. BV Swami Prabhupada:
"Bhagavad-gita As It Is - Chapter 3 - Verse 14"