10.10.2009

Update on the Swine Flu VACCINE

This is from Dr. Clark Hansen, NMD in Arizona, and I thought it was VERY WORTHY of sharing.

Swine Flu Vaccine Fears: What Questions Must be Answered?

Lesson we apparently didn’t learn from the Swine Flu Fiasco of 1976

This “60-Minutes”video from 1979 is a video you must watch. The 2009 H1N1Swine Flu Vaccine is being rushed through production so fast that it will not be tested by sufficient numbers or given sufficient time to determine whether or not the vaccine is even safe or effective. This new vaccine could kill more people than the Swine Flu itself, just like the Swine Flu fiasco of 1976, in which the Swine Flu only killed 1 person, but the vaccine killed or injured thousands of Americans and led to billions of dollars in claims of damages for Guillain-BarrĂ© syndrome, a paralyzing neuromuscular disorders that left thousands injured or paralyzed for life.

What Questions Need to be Answered Before Anyone gets Vaccinated?

How severe is the 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu compared to the typical seasonal flu? It may be very contagious but may not be very harmful. How virulent is this Swine Flu?

What’s in the Vaccine? Is the Vaccine safe?

Does the vaccine contain mercury (Thimerosal)? How much mercury does it contain? What other toxic chemicals are in the vaccine? Does it contain formaldehyde, formalin, antibiotics, egg proteins, green monkey kidney cells, insect cell culture remnants, adjuvants like squalene that have been linked to the Gulf War Syndrome from the Anthrax vaccine?

How long does it take for neruological damage or Guillain-Barré syndrome to show up after the vaccine?

Does the Vaccine work? The clinical trials were specifically limited to a very small (100+) number of patients per group for a very short time. Were these studies sufficient to prove safety and effectiveness?

Which will cause a higher percentage of serious harm: the vaccine or the Swine flu?

We Deserve to Know these Answers

What was disturbing in 1976 and today is the speed by which the H1N1 vaccine was developed and rushed to market. The lack of a detailed public explanation is not inspiring confidence. As a result a Consumer Reports poll shows that only 35% will surely get the H1N1 flu shot.

The Food and Drug Administration has formally approved all of the 250 million doses of the Swine flu vaccine purchased by the U.S. Government before studies required to prove their safety or effectiveness have been completed under the cover of The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act).

What are the Results of the Clinical Trials of the Vaccines?

So far, top U.S. health officials have given only vague details about the results of the clinical trials underway to test the safety and effectiveness of the Swine flu vaccine. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is giving only guarded answers.

Vague explanations like the following should make us all ask a lot more questions.

“A single dose of vaccine could be enough to immunize adults against swine flu, Fauci said.”

Preliminary data from our trials indicate that a single 15-microgram dose of … vaccine is well tolerated and induces an immune response in most healthy adults, said Fauci.”

Among children 10 to 17 years old, 76 percent had a “robust” immune response to the vaccine. For children 3 to 9 years old, 36 percent had a robust response. Among children 6 months to 36 months, the immune response rate was 25 percent, Fauci said.

Results of NIH-sponsored clinical trials which began last month showed that a swine flu vaccine produced by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Pasteur produced “a robust immune response” in 96 percent of adults aged 18 to 64 after “the rather short time point of eight to 10 days after vaccination,” Fauci said.

This is all only “preliminary data.” How many individuals were involved in the “preliminary” clinical trials? Only about 100 per study. When will we get the proven final data? The formal clinical trials will not be completed until sometime next year between March and October of 2010.

What is a “robust immune response?” This is intentionally vague and not quantifiable. No one really knows or at least know one is willing to tell the American public. The preliminary clinical trials have not been published and the top U.S. officials are not being frank or forthcoming.

What s “well tolerated mean?”

We Need More Answers!

Fortunately for now the Swine Flu vaccine is not mandatory. However, a declaration of a pandemic by the World Health Organization gives them the authority to make the vaccines manditory and to declare marshal law to enforce them at any time.

Why are the Vaccine Manufacturers Immune from Liability Lawsuits?

Vaccine makers and all federal officials have been granted total legal immunity from any and all lawsuits that may result from the new swine flu vaccine, under a document signed by U.S. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Kathleen Sebelius, in June 2009.

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, has granted vaccine makers total legal immunity from any and all lawsuits that may result from any new swine flu vaccine, because if the governement did not grant them this immunity they would not have made the vaccines.

It turns out that DHHS Secretary Sibelius has not only given immunity to the manufactures of swine flu vaccines, but also the makers of Tamiflu and Relenza for injuries stemming from their use against swine flu. She also granted immunity to future swine flu vaccines and “any associated adjuvants.” The order was published in the June 25, 2009 Federal Register.

Since the 1980s, the government has protected vaccine makers against lawsuits over the use of childhood vaccines. A federal court handles all vaccine injury claims and decides who will be paid from a special fund. Thousands of parents whose otherwise perfectly healthy children developed autism after getting a vaccine are still waiting for compensation. Most have been frankly denied.

The document signed by Secretary Sebelius grants immunity to federal officials and drug manufacturers under the provisions of The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREPA), a 2006 law for public health emergencies.

Vaccine Rush Sacrifices Safety for Profits of Vaccine Manufactures

“Here is the problem,” according to Dr. Meryl Nass, M.D., vaccine expert and board member of the Alliance for Human Research Protection (AHRP):

“Once the PREP Act is invoked to shield manufacturers from liability, the pharmaceutical firms have no financial incentive to make the safest product, and have a negative incentive to test it for safety. As long as they do not deliberately harm consumers of the product, they will not be liable for damages.

Are you following this argument closely? In order to avoid having prior knowledge of possible harm to users of the product, for which they could be found liable, it is in the manufacturers’ best interest to know as little as possible about adverse reactions caused by their product.

Thus manufacturers can be expected to perform minimal testing, as they have been incentivized by PREPA to avoid learning of potential harms related to their product. Thus the speed at which the product will be distributed serves two purposes: it provides the needed excuse to avoid adequate testing, as well as providing rapid vaccine availability.”

Will There Be Enough Vaccine Soon Enough for Everyone?

The vaccine manufacturers are having difficulty producing sufficient quantities of the Swine flu vaccine.

The U.S. government has purchased 250 million doses of the Swine Flu vaccine for $10 Billion dollars. Approximately only 45 million doses will be available by the middle of October. The five pharmaceutical companies making the vaccine for the US hope that they will be able to collectively provide an additional 20 million doses per week from mid October through December. This would deliver approximately 240 million doses.

Since two shots will be required for all of the approximately 20 million children ages 6 months to 9 years, that leaves only 200 million doses for the remaining 285 million Americans. Any possible immunity from the vaccine is not expected to occur for 30 days after the vaccine This would make it the middle of November before the first Americans vaccinated can expect any possible immune protection from the vaccine. If the virus comes a little early, any vaccine may be too late.

9.22.2009

We're at ANOTHER EXPO THIS WEEKEND!!


Better To Be Ready will be at the "What a Woman Wants Show" at the Southtowne Expo Center in Sandy, Utah Friday and Saturday, September 25-26, 2009!! You now have ANOTHER opportunity to come check us out with and have a great time! Remember, we have food samples, other product examples, and GREAT GIVEAWAYS at these! So try to come! Here are the details:

Friday: 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Saturday: 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
9575 South State Street
Sandy, Utah
Click HERE for the official website- for more details, including a map :)

Also, we have 48 FREE TICKETS to the event! We're giving them away on a first come first serve basis. So- if money is your only reason for not showing up... LEAVE ME A COMMENT that you would like one of the tickets and I'll put your name down at will call so you can pick it up!

So come chat with us about food storage, seed banks, 72 hr. kits, HOME PARTIES or ask how you can get your own store! Taste some freeze dried food (so good) and just come have a good time away! We can't wait to see you there!

9.09.2009

Better To Be Ready at the Utah Valley Women's Expo!!


Who: BETTER TO BE READY at the Utah Valley Women's Expo
What: Food sampling, daily give-aways, hands on viewing and testing of products found in our online store!
Where: UVU (Utah Valley University) McKay Events Center, Orem, Utah
When: Friday and Saturday (September 11th and 12th) from 11am-8pm
Cost: $5 per ticket

Come and HAVE A GREAT TIME! If you're in Utah and have never gone to one of these they're great! There's always SUCH FUN STUFF to check out (yes, besides us). AND if you're not really an "online" shopper or are a little hesitant about hosting a party for yourself (even though you get GREAT rewards) then come to test the freeze dried food we sell, as well as some of the other products! This is a GREAT low key opportunity to get to know more about Better To Be Ready and what we offer! SO WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!!!!

PS- this is NOT JUST FOR WOMEN! So if you're a man, don't be thrown off! There will be, maybe few, but yes, some other men there- especially with our business :) So COME CHECK US OUT!

9.04.2009

UN chief visits 'doomsday' seed vault in Arctic

I thought this was interesting so I wanted to share... found this article at Breitbart.com posted on September 2, 2009.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon visited Wednesday a vault carved into the Arctic permafrost, filled with samples of the world's most important seeds in case food crops are wiped out by a catastrophe.

"The world faces many daunting challenges today, one of the greatest of which is how to feed a growing population in the context of climate change," a bundled-up Ban told reporters after he toured the site in the Svalbard archipelago some 1,200 kilometres (745 miles) from the North Pole.

"The seeds stored here in Svalbard will help us do just that. Sustainable food production may not begin in this cold Arctic environment, but it does begin by conserving crop diversity," he said.

Aimed at safeguarding biodiversity in the face of climate change, wars and other natural and man-made disasters, the seed bank has the capacity to hold up to 4.5 million batches of seeds, or twice the number of crop varieties believed to exist in the world today.

The vault was inaugurated in February 2008, and so far some 25 international and national institutes from 22 countries have deposited some 400,000 batches, according to the Norwegian government.

Overlooking a fjord, the vault forms a long trident-shaped tunnel bored deep into the Svalbard sandstone and limestone.

Metal shelves lining three cold chambers will eventually be stacked with airtight bags filled with seed samples.

After passing through an airlock designed to keep temperatures inside the main vault at minus 18 degrees Celsius (minus 0.4 Fahrenheit), Ban looked on with interest as he was shown plastic boxes filled with samples.

"This site, collated by all the countries, is really creative. I'm inspired by this vision to sustain the world in the future," he said.

He seemed also taken with the chilly temperature in the vault.

"It's very cold, even colder than the Arctic. My lips are frozen."


Pretty interesting, huh? I never knew that the countries in this world had something like that, makes me impressed. Did you know you can buy your OWN survival seed bank? Just click HERE and read all the details about it! It's a GREAT thing to include amongst all your emergency preparedness items!

9.01.2009

Homemaking

NOT JUST TO SAVE MONEY
BUT FOR EMERGENCIES TOO!!


What would you do if you couldn't go to the store for awhile do to lack of supply in the stores or because it just wasn't safe for one reason or another? Do you have enough of EVERYTHING?! Yes, I'm not just talking about water and food, but do you have enough soap and kleenex and baby wipes and toilet paper and laundry detergent?

Well, if not, you may want to think about stocking up on a few simple items along with a bunch of spray bottles, etc. and making your own cleaning supplies at home. (As well as stocking up on toilet paper- cause who really wants to run out of that in an emergency?) I believe the biggest reason for doing this when times are GOOD is so that you can have practice and a stock pile for when times are BAD.

Here are two FABULOUS recipes from makingcentsofsavings.blogspot.com that can help you make a stock pile of laundry detergent and handsoap for when times are bad. If you do your handsoap this way- you'll automatically have a stock pile SO FAST! I LOVE doing it this way because, well, we use A LOT of soap around here- so now I KNOW I have a long back up supply with my refill bottles from Costco!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Ingredients:

1 bar Fels Naptha soap

1 cup washing soda (arm & Hammer)

1 cup of 20 Mule Team Borax

*Grate the bar of Fels Naptha with a cheese grater. Place the grated Fels Naptha in a saucepan and cover with 6-8 cups of water. Heat on low until dissolved.

*Add 1 cup of washing soda and 1 cup of Borax and mix well. Pour mixture into 5-gallon bucket. Fill the bucket with warm water, and stop when you get within 3 inches from the top. Stir well.

*As it cool, it will thicken. Use 1/2 - 1 cup per wash load. Safe for H.E. Washers too.

Yields approx. 75 cups



Once your laundry detergent cools, stir it one more time with a wisk. You might have to put your hand in there to reach the bottom. It will look kind of like egg drop soup, but the more you stir it the more pasty it will look. You can either use the detergent right out of the 5-gallon bucket, but if your like me....you prefer less mess. I had saved a couple of my empty laundry detergent bottles (and then asked friends and family for some of theirs) and then poured my detergent into the empty bottles. Make sure to rinse them out first before you start pouring in your homemade stuff.



My total on my 3 items where:

1 box Borax-$3.49 (can make up to nine 5-gallon buckets worth)

1 box Wash soda-$2.73 (can make up to six or seven 5-gallon buckets worth)

1 Fels Naptha Bar-$1.06

I figured out that one 5-gallon bucket of homemade laundry detergent approx. costed me $2.00 to make and that each wash load will only cost me $0.03-$0.04. Now that's definitely saving money!

Posted by Stephanie at 7:53 PM

Homemade Laundry Detergent Tips


First off, I want to let everyone know that all of my frugal posts will be true, tried, and tested. That way you know that everything that I post on here will be proof that it really does work and it's not just something that I heard about.

My mother in law is the one who gave me the recipe for the homemade laundry detergent. She has made it several times and uses it all the time. She no longer buys store bought laundry detergent, which is so great. Here's some questions that people have asked me about the laundry detergent.

1. Can you scent your own laundry detergent?

Yes! I spoke with my mother in law and she said that you can use essential oils. She tried a lemon scented oil and it smelled fantastic. But......there is a but! You need to use an entire bottle of essential oil to scent one bucket of laundry detergent. That can get a little pricey, but if you want to do it, YOU CAN! So, rock on! I made my first batch of detergent yesterday and I'll let you in on a secret. This detergent smells fantastic just by itself. While I was making it on the stove, my whole house smelled wonderful. The smell is so clean, fresh, and crisp. I don't think it needs any extra scenting, but that's my opinion.

2. How many empty detergent jugs will it make?

It depends on the size of your detergent jugs. If you use regular sized jugs, you'll get about 2 to 4 filled full.

3. How do I make my detergent look really creamy?

Stir, stir, stir! With a wisk of course. The more it cools and the more you stir, the creamier it will become. But, if you don't really care what it looks like, that's cool too. It works no matter what you do to it. Here's another little secret that I figured out. If you don't like stirring (which I don't because I get a little impatient) just pour your detergent into your old empty detergent jugs and shake them. The more you shake....WaaLaa! Creamy detergent!

Posted by Stephanie at 2:11 PM

Labels: Cleaners, Food Storage, Laundry, Tips

May 12, 2009


Homemade Foaming Hand Soap

As you know I love to save $$, and my favorite frugal tips are the simple ones! Following is how I keep the costs down on hand soap...

My favorite soap for the bathrooms and kitchen are the Bath & Body Works antibacterial foaming soaps. The big fluffy suds that come out are so fun the kids even enjoy washing their hands!

So one day I got creative, and attempted to make my own refill for my existing bottle.

Guess what... it worked! I've been doing this for about 5 years now, and have saved loads of money with this simple trick.

What You'll Need: Liquid Antibacterial Soap (Softsoap, Dial, etc.) & 1 empty bottle of Bath & Body Works Antibacterial Gentle Foaming Hand Soap (the other styles of bottles will not work).



Step #1: Fill up the bottle with about 1 inch of antibacterial liquid soap. {I buy the large bottles from Costco}



Step #2: Slowly fill the rest of the bottle with tap water, put lid back on, and gently tip upside down and back and forth to mix the soap and water together. Don't shake ~ it will get too sudsy.



And there you have it! I love that it is a diluted version of antibacterial soap, and is much gentler on my family's sensitive skin. I also love that one big bottle of antibacterial soap literally lasts us years... and years... and years!

How's that for frugal?!?


That's all from makingcentsofsavings- I hope this helps you stockpile some important household items for yourself. I've also found some recipes for other homemade cleaners on other sites, I haven't tried them yet, but if you would like those too, just leave a comment and let me know! I can post on it or email them to you to try out if you leave your email address :)

5.03.2009

Get yourself a RAIN BARREL

Rain barrels are AWESOME! You can buy them from TONS of companies and stores (below is a rain barrel pictured from Gardeners Supply Company that holds 75 gallons!) or make one on your own. They are basically water barrels that you put under the gutter of your house so that when it rains your barrel collects all that free water for you to use! They are SO fabulous!!! For drought times, for emergencies, for anytime really- get a rain barrel! You could use the water from your barrel for watering your garden, plants, or grass in a drought, OR washing your dishes, or flushing your toilets in an emergency. Or even for drinking water if you filter it! Some rain barrels come with spouts and hoses too! I highly suggest getting one, and if you can't afford it (most are over $100) then make one yourself :) It's one thing that would be TOTALLY worth the effort.


Your rain barrel doesn't have to look frumpy in your yard either, there are SO MANY styles! Google "rain barrel" and see what you can find! Below is another version from Gardeners Supply Company, just to show you how attractive some versions can be if you want to spend the money :)


Go HERE to watch a You Tube Video about rain barrels. If you want to make your own, but that quick little video wasn't enough information on how to do it, go HERE for more details on how to make your own :)

ENJOY COLLECTING THE RAIN :)

4.27.2009