DEAD swine flu cells used to make the seasonal flu vaccine could be triggering a nine-fold increase in febrile fits among toddlers, Nobel Prize laureate Peter Doherty said yesterday.
The head of Australia's investigation into the spate of serious side-effects from the suspended pediatric vaccine said one hypothesis was that the killed-off cells were causing a "cytokine storm" -- a severe overreaction to the vaccine by healthy children's immune systems.
Such reactions have been blamed for the death toll from the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Professor Doherty told The Australian the vaccine "could be doing something along those lines".
Global infrastructure manager Peter Doherty of CP2 in Sydney. Picture: Bob Finlayson
