►January 2004 - Use
of cough and cold products - (registration required) - This month’s column
will review the use of these products in children and the published evidence of
their efficacy. - Infectious Diseases in Children
Comment: And when
will there be a crackdown on the false claims of the drug companies and their
merchants, the medical profession? Even they know their drugs often do not
work, yet where is the outrage, the clamping down, over that? For a recent
article on this, go to
The drugs don't work.
►January 14, 2004 - Magazine
Bares All, Has Shop Covering Up Cover - The Santa Fe New Mexican - "Increasing
the number of women who nurse their babies is a goal of the U.S. government. But
pictures of breast-feeding, which is as old as humankind and strongly
recommended for infant health, is apparently offensive to some...After receiving
several complaints about the latest issue of Mothering magazine, which shows a
nursing mother and contented baby, the Vitamin Cottage on Cerrillos Road covered
the offending breast with paper."
Comment: This
kind of thing is a big part of what's wrong with health in America. And at
a vitamin shop, of all places.
►January 12, 2004 -
The un-cola - The Globe and Mail - "Soft-drink purveyors say they will
remove colas and other carbonated drinks from vending machines in Canadian
elementary and middle schools by the start of the next school year. While
insisting that all its products are suitable for kids -- a dubious claim at best
-- the industry acknowledges that it is responding to increasing health
concerns...It is obvious, though, that this voluntary action is designed to
forestall the sweeping bans being imposed or considered by an increasing number
of governments alarmed by soaring rates of childhood obesity."
Comment: Click
here to learn about A
Miracle in Wisconsin.
►January 17, 2004 - Puzzle
of delay in exposing report - The Scotsman - "ONLY
two weeks into new year, and the first significant health scare story of 2004
was shown to be seriously flawed in its scientific methodology...Just as the
concern prompted by a study which claimed to "prove the link" between the MMR
jab and autism was shown to be incorrect and a case of bad science, so the
evidence of toxic contaminants in salmon has been shown to be seriously
wanting...Minute scrutiny of the report, written in scientific language that
tends to obfuscate rather than elucidate, was diverted. Thus everybody missed
the final footnote of the article which revealed: 'This research was initiated
and supported by the environmental division of the Pew Charitable Trusts', and
questions that should have been asked about the organisation were not."
Comment: Would that they
would apply the same high standards of scrutiny to the alleged proof that an
MMR/autism link had been disproved.
►January 14, 2004 - Foregone
conclusions - The public is being regularly deceived by the drug trials
funded by pharmaceutical companies, loaded to generate the results they need -
The Guardian, UK - "How then do companies usually manage to fund research that
is favourable to them? An answer is supplied in a recent issue of the BMJ by
Dave Sackett and Andy Oxman, two tireless campaigners for the better use of
scientific evidence in medicine...The trick is in the question asked and the
design of the trial."
Comment: And if you think none of this has anything to do with the
validity of vaccine safety and effectiveness research.....
►January 12, 2004 -
Researchers
try to cut new path to pharmacy (requires subscription) - Wall Street
Journal via www.healthleaders.com
- "A growing number of universities and hospitals are moving beyond basic
science and into limited drug development in an attempt to generate interest
from risk-adverse drugmakers."
The
Medical Industry's Practice of Giving Gifts to Doctors
- How Should the Law and Professional Regulations Address it? - FindLaw's Writ -
"As part of their multi-billion dollar marketing
efforts, many companies in the medical industry give gifts to doctors. They do
so in order to gain a competitive edge: For the companies, doctors' choices are
key. Nearly two-thirds of all patient visits in the United States end with the
doctor writing a prescription. And for the medical industry, doctors'
prescriptions control sales...Gifts to doctors may have negative effects."
Comment: My guess, my
opinion, is that that is a huge understatement.
►January 17, 2004 - Shooting
up on hype - The chief executive has a chequered past. The biggest
shareholder is elusive. Ben Hills investigates a company that claims it has
found the Holy Grail. - The Sydney Morning Herald - "Alan Shortall plunges a
hypodermic into an orange and injects it with one millilitre of water. He then
carefully extracts it and releases the plunger, to demonstrate how the needle
automatically retracts into the transparent barrel of the syringe and flips to
one side so it can't be reused...'This is the Holy Grail of syringe technology,'
he recites for the thousandth time, 'Of course, it's different when you are
injecting a person, but you can see that it works. This is not a rort, this is
not a scam, we are building a legitimate business.'
►January 14, 2004 - Biotech's
Babies: Doing Well by Doing Good -
As Big Pharma pulls out of the low-margin vaccine
business, upstart outfits are exploiting new technologies to tap niche markets
- Business Week Online
►January 13, 2004 - Putting
a Price on a Good Night's Sleep (requires registration or subscription) -
The New York Times - "Americans are about to be reminded again how much they
need sleep — and sleeping pills...A new effort appears to be developing to
expand the use of sleeping pills, which because of their potential for abuse
have long had a reputation as being in some ways more dangerous than the
insomnia they are meant to treat."►January 13, 2004 -
VaxGen gets big boost - Government gives firm $80.3 million anthrax contract
- www.sfgate.com
Comment: And when
will there be a crackdown on the false claims of the drug companies and their
merchants, the medical profession? Even they know their drugs often do not
work, yet where is the outrage, the clamping down, over that? For a recent
article on this, go to
The drugs don't work.
►January 14, 2004 - U.S.
rethinking rules on importing bovine tissues - Abilene Reporter-News - "Now
that the United States has mad-cow disease, federal regulators are reconsidering
long-held policies aimed at prohibiting importation of products or ingredients
with bovine tissue or blood from countries with documented cases of the
illness...The products include vaccines, nutritional supplements and cosmetics,
all of which can contain ingredients derived from cows."
Comment: Interesting dilemma. If the ban is continued, we now would
be unable to use our own products (at least, theoretically).
►January 13, 2004 -
FDA Advances
Consumer Health and Safety in 2003 - PharmaLive - "At the heart of the
Pharmaceutical Industry" - "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today
released a white paper highlighting some of FDA's priorities and major
initiatives to protect and advance consumer health and safety in 2003, and
describing how the agency intends to build on many of these initiatives in
2004...The major consumer achievements noted in the paper, "Protecting and
Advancing Consumer Health and Safety," include efforts to: bolster consumer
safety through major industry regulations and risk communications; combat new
forms of terrorism and emerging diseases; crack down on false products and false
claims; reduce preventable medical errors; speed access to safe and affordable
medicines; and help consumers improve their health through better information
and greater 'health literacy.'"
►January
15, 2004 -
Scientists warn big AIDS vaccine trial in Thailand will fail - AP via
www.sfgate.com - "A massive human
experiment testing an AIDS vaccine now underway in Thailand is bound to fail and
the U.S. government is wasting $119 million funding it, 22 leading HIV
researchers charged...The scientists allege the 16,000 Thai volunteers who are
expected to receive a shot over the next two years will receive a cocktail made
of two antiquated AIDS vaccines, each of which failed previous human tests."
►January
15, 2004 -
Experts: Halt HIV Vaccine Trial - HealthDayNews via The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution - "Continuing a U.S. government-sponsored, large-scale
trial of an HIV vaccine in Thailand is throwing good money after bad, a team of
leading experts claims...The U.S. government defends the trial, saying this
combination has not been tested on humans before now and it should at least be
attempted."
►January 15, 2004 - Clinton
Gets Five Companies to Reduce the Cost of AIDS Tests (requires registration
or subscription) - The New York Times - "Former President Bill Clinton announced
yesterday that his foundation had negotiated deals with five major medical
companies to steeply discount the price of two crucial diagnostic tests for
H.I.V./AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean."
Comment: But what if
HIV has nothing to do with AIDS, as many
believe?
►January 14, 2004 -
Conmen Cash in On
HIV/Aids Scourge - The Herald (Harare) via
www.allafrica.com - "'Diagnosed with
Aids? Look no further, we have holy water and herbs that cure the virus
and boost the immune system!...The increase in the number of people succumbing
to the deadly HIV/Aids has resulted in an upsurge of 'miracle cures'."
Comment: Given that
there have never been long-term studies comparing those with either HIV or AIDS
to those given or not given the toxic AIDS drugs, what makes the "approved"
drugs any different? And at least holy water isn't in itself harmful,
unlike the AIDS drugs, which are known to be toxic (but allegedly worth the
risk).
►January 13, 2004 - Animal
and human DNA link may give AIDS clue - The Sydney Morning Herald - "Human
and animal DNA can combine naturally in a living body, a new study has
shown...The dramatic discovery, in which pigs developed human and hybrid cells
in their blood and organs, could help explain the origin of AIDS."
►January 12, 2004 - The
blame game - The strategies for reducing HIV rates in Australia seemed to be
working. But now, Jock Cheetham reports, the experts are wondering what went
wrong. - The Sydney Morning Herald - "HIV rates are rising again after
years of decline, dragging NSW into line with many other states and
international trends. The AIDS Council of NSW is searching for the best response
after years of safe sex messages that may have missed their targets."
Comment:
But what if, as many
believe, HIV has nothing to do with AIDS.
►January 15, 2004 - Ohio
National Guard soldier again refuses anthrax vaccine - Mansfield News
Journal - "An
Ohio National Guard member again refused an anthrax vaccine Wednesday, an action
that could trigger his court-martial or administrative discharge, his lawyer
said...Spc. Kurt Hickman said he feels it’s illegal for the government to force
his vaccination, lawyer Kenneth Levine said."
►Anthrax
Vaccine is Dangerous - The following warning on the pending anthrax vaccine
also recalls the hazards of aspartame, the artificial sweetener. Not
coincidentally, the current U.S. Secretary Of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, was the
influential head of GD Searle, the pharmaceutical company that won FDA approval
for aspartame after the FDA advisory committee had recommended AGAINST approval
of aspartame –- also known as Nutrasweet™. -
www.naturodoc.com
Comment: It is
not clear that it is "not coincidentally". That is sheer speculation, in
my opinion.
►January 14, 2004 - Veterans
to lobby Govt on vaccine illness link - The Canberra Times, Australia - "Now
out of the army, Mr Romer said he and others suffered from debilitating
intestinal and skin conditions they believed were caused by the medication...'It
scares the hell out of me,' he said...'I'm not there to sue them, I'm not that
sort of a bloke. I just want something to be done over all this. Surely to God
they can do something to help us.'"
►January 13, 2004 -
Granville soldier still embroiled in anthrax dispute - The Newark Advocate -
"As a battle over the safety of anthrax vaccines heats up,
Spec. Kurt Hickman of Granville is left with few clues on how his refusal to
take the vaccine will affect his military future...'I think it is only a matter
of time before he is asked to take it again,' said Hickman's attorney Kenneth
Levine. And if Hickman again refuses -- and Levine would expect him to -- he
could face a second court martial hearing, this time by the Army."
►January 12, 2004 -
Vaccine link to Gulf War syndrome - AFP via The Australian - "GULF
War syndrome was probably caused by vaccines administered to soldiers before
their departure to the region, according to a medical report whose findings are
published in today's edition of The Times newspaper...The confidential
report by senior army specialist Lieutenant Colonel Graham Howe, who examined a
British soldier who suffered osteoporosis and depression after the Gulf War,
found that 'secret' injections he received before his expected deployment to the
Gulf 'most probably led to the development of autoimmune-induced
osteoporosis'...The theory has extra credibility because the soldier in
question, ex-Corporal Alex Izett, did not end up going to the Gulf. His
regiment, based in Germany, was not deployed there."
Official report links vaccine to Gulf War syndrome (requires registration or
subscription) - www.timesonline.com -
"For 13 years, the Ministry of Defence has denied that the vaccines , some of
which were classified as “secret”, could be blamed for the wide range of
debilitating diseases...A copy of the report, dated September 22, 2001, but
never made public, has been handed to The Times by Mr Izett, who won a landmark
ruling at a war pensions appeals tribunal in July last year which awarded him a
50 per cent disability pension. ..The MoD did not appeal against the ruling but
maintained that the vaccines could not be the cause of any Gulf War syndrome of
illnesses.
Comment: How many secrets are we going to have to
discover before realizing we have not been told the truth about vaccines?
For a recent letter from a Congressman concerning a possible CDC cover-up, click
here
(pdf).
VACCINES
administered to Australian troops before their departure to the first war
against Iraq may have caused long-term symptoms known as Gulf War Syndrome...A
British medical report has found a link between a pre-deployment immunisation
program and long-term medical problems...Australian Gulf War Veterans
Association yesterday seized on the British report as evidence that Australian
troops also suffered permanent side-effects from their vaccination program."
►January
12, 2004 - Jabs
linked to Gulf War Syndrome - A Ministry of Defence doctor has said a
cocktail of vaccines may be to blame for a range of debilitating illnesses known
as Gulf War syndrome. - BBC - "Mr Izett, 33, who now lives in Bersenbruck, near
Bremen in Germany, was inoculated like other troops against anthrax, botulism
and other biological agents...He said he went public with the confidential
report, dated September 22, 2001, so that other soldiers vaccinated with the
same 'secret' injections could claim compensation for the physical and mental
illness they may have suffered as a result."
►January 2004 - “DoD
and the Anthrax Vaccine” - message from William Winkenwerder, Jr., MD,
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs -
www.anthrax.mil - "I want to address
the recent controversy created by a U.S. District Court decision December 22 to
order a preliminary injunction against our anthrax program and the subsequent
lifting of that injunction, January 7. Although the litigation has not been
finally resolved, we are pleased the Court lifted the preliminary injunction.
DoD is now vaccinating service members again to protect them against the threat
of anthrax. The facts, the best medical science, and the FDA’s December 30 final
rule, fully support all of DoD’s actions and speak for themselves."
►January 11, 2004 - Finding
may lead to better asthma treatment - Researchers have found a compound that
blocks the production of excessive mucus, which could point the way to better
treatments for asthma, chronic bronchitis, cystic fibrosis and other diseases. -
AP via CNN
►January 18, 2004 - Children
with disability at risk of victimisation - Sunday Herald, UK - "Children who suffer from conditions such as autism or attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD) could be wrongly caught up in the criminal justice system as a
result of the Scottish Executive’s Anti-social Behaviour Bill...According to the
proposed law, anti-social behaviour is anything that is likely to result in the
alarm or distress of a third party, but the campaigners warn that certain
repetitive or unusual behaviour by children with autism or ADHD could be
misinterpreted to mean exactly this."
►January
18, 2004 -
Autism rise may be a myth (requires subscription) - The Sunday Times, UK -
"A leading medical team claims to have solved the mystery of Britain’s fourfold
rise in cases of childhood autism — and it has nothing to do with the MMR ..."
►January 14, 2004 - Tall
in the saddle - Disability is no barrier for determined young cowboy -
Star-Telegram
►January 14, 2004 - Autism
fears over disorder bill - A leading charity has claimed that a new law on
anti-social behaviour could be used against autistic children - BBC
►January 12, 2004 -
Science getting to roots of autism - USA Today - "High on the list of
priorities is finding the genes associated with autism. At the meeting, the
private autism research alliance and the public National Institutes of Health
announced a partnership to do just that. The NIH is contributing $2.5 million,
and the alliance is contributing $2 million to start the project, which will
help to link the work of 170 researchers around the world, Shih says."
C
omment
from
Professor Jon Kabara,
BS, MS, PhD (link to
references): "A seductive notion, but not to the point. In
research if you don't ask the right question you'll never get the right answer.
If genetics were most important then why has autism gone from
one in thousands to one in hundreds, maybe
even one in less than a hundred? I don't think that the gene pool has changed that
drastically to account for this pandemic rise in diagnoses. If
medicine/government would look in the mirror, it might find that over and
inappropriate vaccine/drug use could be the main problem. Parents with autistic
children have enough to deal with without the burden of genetic guilt."
►January 11, 2004 -
Autism's
full spectrum - USA Today - "When researchers study autism today,
they are studying a more broadly defined spectrum of disorders than was once
recognized...People with autism spectrum disorders can be severely impaired —
mute, retarded, caught up in a world of obsessive and seemingly meaningless
behaviors — or they can be so intelligent and verbal that they appear merely
quirky to an untrained observer."
►January
17, 2004 - Tuna could soon carry mercury
warning - Naples
Daily News - "As the federal
government mulls slapping a mercury advisory on tuna, Southwest Florida seafood
retailers say some customers are concerned that the food they thought was
healthy could be hurting them...Experts say there's cause for concern,
particularly for pregnant women and young children."
►January
16, 2004 - Mercury: The Latest
Green Scare Campaign -
www.anxietycenter.com - "The Greens have mastered the ability to
conjure up a scare campaign about almost anything to such perfection, one almost
forgets that they are a lying bunch of lowlifes whose past lies have harmed the
timber industry, those engaged in ranching and agriculture, those who provide
the chemical building blocks of everything we use every day, and those
responsible for providing the energy this nation requires to function."
►January 14, 2004 - Students
tested for mercury on Sunday - The Record-Courier - "Investigators
from the Center for Disease Control and Nevada Department of Health offered
urine analyses over the weekend for students involved in the mercury
contamination at Pau-Wa-Lu Middle School...'We'll keep cleaning until we reach
300 parts per trillion -- which is about the amount given off from dental
fillings,' said Douglas County School District Superintendent John Soderman on
Sunday...'The danger is being overplayed, most definitely,' said his half sister
Carmen Daniels, who is visiting from Pine Grove, Calif...Ricky's father, Richard
Padovani, disagreed...'You can't over react
with something like this. Mercury is pretty dangerous.'"
Comment: Note
that this is external exposure. Not ingested. Not injected.
POISONOUS VAPORS: EPA cleaning up mercury spill - Levels of mercury
inside house six times greater than what is considered safe - Las Vegas
Review-Journal - "An Environmental Protection Agency emergency response team
began cleaning up a liquid mercury spill Sunday at a house on Saylor Way where a
17-year-old boy inhaled the poisonous vapors...EPA officials spent Sunday trying
to save the family's dog, Snowball, who was seriously sickened by the mercury
exposure."
Comment: Do not inhale. But feel free to
inject? Right...
►Nov/Dec 2003 -
Autism and Mercury- Psychology Today - "The spike in autism
prevalence is apparently not linked to a kind of mercury once used in childhood
vaccines, according to a study in the journal Pediatrics."
Comment:Repeat
after me: "Studies bought and paid for, or influenced in any way, by
vaccine manufacturers and those with financial ties to them, should not be
accepted at face value." This study, published in Pediatrics, is no
different. It has been widely and soundly criticized for its methodology,
analysis and conclusions, including
in this critique by Mark
Blaxill of Safe
Minds. When are the "experts", and the
mainstream media reporting on them, going to stop buying the party line and
start doing some real thinking?
For more on the media, go to
Scandals:
Tiptoeing Through The Minefield of Possible Vaccine Reactions - Mainstream
Media's Sins Of Omission
►January 13, 2004 -
Autism and Mercury - Psychology Today -
political action alert - rate this article
Comment: For some of what has been written on the
recent controversy between the two previously aligned doctors, click
here.
►January 13, 2004 - New
MMR jab scare - www.femail.co.uk
- "Safety fears over MMR have been increased still further by a study which
detected signs of a chronic viral infection in the bowels of children who became
autistic after the jab...The virus - feared to come from the measles component
of the injection - appears to have sparked an abnormal response of the immune
system similar to that in patients with HIV...In October last year his former
colleague Dr Simon Murch insisted that he had always supported the
vaccine...However, he is a co-author with Dr Wakefield of the latest paper which
concludes there is further evidence of a new form of bowel disease in children
with 'regressive autism' - losing the power of speech and becoming autistic."
Comment: What's the deal with Dr. Murch?
►January 12, 2004 -
Parents' anger over MMR threat to GPs - Leeds Today - "Doctors used to
receive bonuses for achieving targets on vaccinating children with the triple
measles, mumps and rubella jab...But now, a new policy set down by the
Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), states that GPs will LOSE money if they
fail to convince enough parents to have the inoculation."
►January 12, 2004 -
Fury
as doctor denies MMR autism link (editorial) - The Ham & High - "A ROYAL
Free doctor has provoked a storm of protest after defending the controversial
MMR vaccine in the Ham&High...A flood of letters in response to last week’s
article – including several from the USA – accused Professor Brent Taylor of
bias in casting doubt on a link between an increase in autism and bowel disease
with the Measles Mumps and Rubella vaccine."
►January 15, 2004 - Love
of horses, children in woman’s blood - Sun Current - "Though Jodi Townsend
may receive a state award this year, she feels rewarded almost daily watching
young children ride horses on her ranch...Townsend, 33, operates Majestic Hills
Ranch in southern Lakeville. The ranch functions as a place where children with
special needs can ride horses as a form of therapy. Townsend and her team of
volunteers have operated the ranch since 1997."
►January 15, 2004 - Room
is ray of hope for brain-damaged kids - Adopting a therapy that originated
in the Netherlands, Jackson Memorial Hospital unveils a new multisensory room to
treat children with brain injuries. - The Miami Herald
►January 13, 2004 -
No solid evidence links vaccines, autism -
www.nwitimes.com - "I've
been a physician for more than 30 years, and ever since I can remember, vaccines
have been accused of causing a multitude of diseases such as diabetes and
hepatitis. I continue to be amazed by the rapidity with which unfounded
postulations spread and take on a life of their own. Yet, when objective studies
using the best current scientific methods and data examine each claim, evidence
has never been found to validate these assertions. It is important to realize
that no single study has ever been perfect or irrefutable."
►January 18, 2004 - Children
with disability at risk of victimisation - Sunday Herald, UK - "Children who suffer from conditions such as autism or attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD) could be wrongly caught up in the criminal justice system as a
result of the Scottish Executive’s Anti-social Behaviour Bill...According to the
proposed law, anti-social behaviour is anything that is likely to result in the
alarm or distress of a third party, but the campaigners warn that certain
repetitive or unusual behaviour by children with autism or ADHD could be
misinterpreted to mean exactly this."
►January 6, 2004 - The
symmetry of schizophrenia - (requires registration) - BioMedNet Magazine -
High-resolution mapping of brain areas that are altered in schizophrenia has
highlighted regions associated with language and personality. The results lend
support to a theory that schizophrenia might be the evolutionary price we pay
for language.
►January 14, 2004 - Can
popping fish-oil pills stop this tantrum? - Since a compelling experiment
was shown on the BBC's Child of Our Time last week, sales of Omega-3 supplements
have rocketed. But, asks Ian Sample, are behavioural problems so easily solved?
- The Guardian, UK
►January 15, 2004 -
Mad cow as bioterrorism?
- Scientists worry that US gov't
classification of BSE prions as 'select agents' could hinder research -
The Scientist
►January
17, 2004 -
The real reason women smokers are at greater risk
- The Globe and Mail - "Should cancer of the lung be added to the list of health
risks women face just because they are women?...A study presented recently at
the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago
showed that women who smoke are twice as likely to develop lung cancer as their
male counterparts. As a risk factor for smokers, female gender appears to
outweigh age and amount smoked. Some researchers point fingers at the female
hormone estrogen, but there is strong evidence implicating a more likely
culprit: the bottling up of emotions, particularly anger."
Low-Tar
Cigarettes Dangerous - BMJ via Ivanhoe - "A new study shows the risk
for lung cancer is the same for people who smoke medium-tar cigarettes, low-tar
cigarettes, or very-low-tar cigarettes."
►December 8, 2003 - A
Step Past Chemotherapy - Cancer: The five-year survival rate for all cancers
is 62 percent. Specially-targeted drugs hone in on cancer cells, leaving healthy
cells untouched - Newsweek via MSNBC
►January 13, 2004 - Heart
Study Prompts Call for Change (requires registration or subscription) - The
New York Times - "A therapy that increases patients' survival rate to 4.7
percent from 1.5 percent may not sound like a breakthrough, but that is how an
editorial in a medical journal last week described a new treatment to revive
people whose hearts had suddenly stopped."
►January 17, 2004 - 'This
could be way worse than SARS' - A deadly avian flu in
Vietnam raises fears that it will be transformed into an infectious human
killer. - The Globe And Mail - "When a handful of people in Vietnam
recently began dying of a flu spread by birds, it set off alarm bells in the
offices of infectious-disease specialists around the world...Could this be the
start of a global flu pandemic, just like the one that swept the planet after
the First World War, killing between 20 million and 40 million people?"
►January 16, 2004 - Officials
Puzzle Over Flu Deaths Among Children - Newhouse News Service - "A
first-ever federal analysis of influenza-related deaths among children has
surprised public health experts, who are trying to understand why nearly half of
young victims had no underlying medical conditions...Also notable, experts said,
is the flu's high toll on older children, who have more mature disease-fighting
immune systems than infants and toddlers."
►January 14,
2004 -
Bird flu 'may be worse than Sars' - Bird flu could be "worse than
Sars", if it mutates so it can spread between humans, experts have warned. - BBC
Comment: Continuing to
recommend a vaccine that they admit probably does not work? What more proof do
we need that the CDC is on the side of industry and not the consumer?
Comment: What did
I say earlier about this being used to fuel hysteria about a possible flu
pandemic?
►January 15, 2004 - Health
Department will decline free FluMist vaccines -
www.ljworld.com - "Counties and private
health care providers can place orders for the vaccine through the Kansas
Department of Health and Environment until noon Friday. But the Lawrence-Douglas
County Health Department isn't trying to get a piece of the pie...'We have not
requested any because of all the other providers in the community that have
given the FluMist,' said Barbara Schnitker, the Health Department's director of
nurses. 'We typically are concerned about access to vaccines and health care,
and if something is being provided by another provider, we don't necessarily
feel we need to offer it.'
►January 15, 2004 - State
lifts vaccine restrictions - Fayetteville Online - "The state has lifted
restrictions on flu vaccinations...Health departments no longer have to limit
treatment to people meeting 'high-risk criteria,' said Sharon Stanley, a nursing
supervisor with the Cumberland County Health Department. The decision was made
Wednesday by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, she said...'We
can use our supply for any age and for anybody that wants to have a flu shot,'
she said."
►January 15, 2004 - Proper
nutrition could help boost seniors' immunity to influenza -
www.wistv.com - "Every
year more than 30,000 people in the US die from influenza, and senior citizens
could face the greatest risk. Researchers now say seniors can fight the flu just
by eating right...Immune function declines as people get older, making it easier
for viruses like the flu to put older people in the hospital. Some researchers
have suggested a lack of essential nutrients as one possible reason for that
drop in immunity."
►January 14, 2004 - Influenza
on the decline in Illinois -
www.qctimes.com - "The number of Illinoisans suffering with influenza is on
the decline, state health officials said, but Iowa still is reporting
'widespread,' or the highest level, cases of the flu...Kevin Teale, the
communications director for the Iowa Department of Public Health, said there
still is concern about flu outbreaks across the state since students generally
have not yet returned to college campuses from winter break...He said the health
department plans to wait and see how those and other students fare over the next
couple of weeks before deciding whether the state can be ranked in a lesser
category."
Comment: I thought they hadn't decided whether or not this year's flu was
more severe than other years. According to the New York Times article
Flu Has Killed 93 Children, but Comparisons Are Difficult,
"Influenza has killed 93 children since
October, but there is no way to determine whether this season is more severe for
children than earlier years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said
yesterday."
According to the
CDC,
however,
mathematical modeling predicted about 92 influenza related deaths each year for
the period 1990-1999 just among children less than 5. Although not based
on serological confirmation, it suggests that the recent numbers are still below
what might be predicted or expected.
►January 15, 2004 - Vaccine
Is Said to Fail to Protect Against Flu Strain (requires registration or
subscription) - The New York Times - "A small study conducted by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention has found that this season's influenza vaccine
failed to protect against the Fujian strain that has caused most
cases...Depending on the way the data were analyzed, the vaccine protected zero
to 14 percent of participants in the study, said a scientist briefed on the
study who would not allow his name to be used...Officials of the centers said
last night that they hoped that continuing studies to be completed in the spring
would show that the vaccine offered more protection than this study indicated."
Comment: The CDC is
to be congratulated for revealing the results of this small study. On the
other hand, the "experts" who so cavalierly and eagerly recommended widespread
use of this year's flu vaccine, in spite of there being plenty of reason to
believe it would not protect against this season's strain, and no data in
support of it doing so, have some 'splainin' to do.
►January 14, 2004 - Docs:
Vaccines help even if they don't match flu strain
- Times Record - "CDC Director Julie
Gerberding said studies of the current vaccine's effectiveness are under way.
Based on animal studies, she said, 'there does appear to be a good promise of
cross-protection, but how much efficacy with this particular situation remains
to be seen.'
Comment: So much for animal
studies if the
recent CDC study cited just below, showing failure of
the flu vaccine to protect, holds up in later studies.
►January 2004 - Influenza
continues steady march across U.S. - (registration required) - Influenza
activity is highest in the western United States, and the CDC is expecting even
more cases as the season progresses. - Infectious Diseases in Children
►January 2004 -
Influenza 2004 - (registration required) - Early outbreaks, deaths in
children, not enough vaccine — this is shaping up to be an interesting flu
season. - Infectious Diseases in Children
►January 14, 2004 -
Flu nasal spray
vaccine to be available soon - - "The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) has 250,000 doses of a nasal spray vaccine, some of which will
be given to state health departments free."
Comment: Of
course, nothing is "free". This vaccine will be paid for by the taxpayers.
►January 14, 2004 -
Landrieu, Bayh announce plan to prevent future flu vaccine shortages -
Leesville Leader -
"As this flu season progressed
into a deadly epidemic, Louisianians waited in long lines to receive vaccines in
short supply...To prevent such future supply and demand problems, Sens. Mary
Landrieu (D-La.) and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) announced their proposed Flu Protection
Act, which would prevent future shortages by providing a system for recommending
the number of shots needed each year and for removing economic disincentives now
facing vaccine manufacturers."
Comment: Those lucky dogs (the vaccine
manufacturers). They are apparently making plenty on vaccines (see
Healthy
Defence). Unlike most markets, which are limited
to those that need the drug, vaccines are targeted at entire populations, need
them or not. So just think, the entire world universally getting an
endless number of vaccines! They have their liability covered. They
get to do the research that supports the use of their products and creates
demand, and no one blinks an eye (or at least almost no one). The
government and media collude in pushing their products. And now the
government will guarantee sales. It's the dream business plan to end all
dream business plans.
►January 12, 2004 - Bird
flu spreading in Asia -
www.promedmail.org - "The World Health Organization says an outbreak of bird
flu among chickens in Vietnam may be linked to the deaths of 10 people. The bird
flu has also sickened and killed thousands of chickens in South Korea and
Japan."
►January 12, 2004 -
WHO Says
No Evidence of Bird Flu Jumping to Humans - Reuters via Yahoo! - "The World
Health Organization (news
-
web sites) (WHO) is waiting for tests on an outbreak of bird flu in Vietnam
but said on Tuesday there was no evidence it was behind the deaths of 12 people
who fell ill with influenza...'We're investigating any possible link. We have no
evidence of the link at the moment,' Peter Cordingley, a spokesman for the WHO's
Western Pacific headquarters in Manila, told Reuters."
►January 13, 2004 - FluMist
Prices May Be Reduced - Winter Sales Were Lower Than Expected for MedImmune
- Washington Post
Comment: Will this be described as the likely
beginning of a pandemic?
►January 12, 2004 - Increasing
Flu Vaccine in High-Risk Children - Pediatrics via Ivanhoe - "A
simple reminder call significantly increases the number of children with a
high-risk medical condition who receive a flu vaccine, according to new
research. The study used billing data to identify children with high-risk
conditions and evaluated whether a phone call could increase the number of
children with a high-risk condition who actually get the flu vaccine."
►January 12, 2004 - For
Health Officials, Flu Shot Is an Annual Gamble -
Washington Post - "This winter marks only the second time in 15 years that the
flu vaccine given to tens of millions of Americans does not specifically protect
against the strain of flu circulating in the population...In
that sense, this year's flu shot -- ironically, one of the more sought-after
injections in years -- is a failure. How big a failure the shot is, and how many
people may pay for the failure with their lives, will not be known for a while.
The country could still get lucky. It might turn out a vaccine that is
technically "wrong" may be right enough for the real world."
►January
12, 2004 - Chiron
delivers additional vaccine doses - East Bay Business
Times - "Emeryville
drug maker Chiron Corp. has delivered an additional 363,200 doses of its
Fluvirin flu vaccine to U.S. health regulators in an effort to address vaccine
shortages in the midst of a nasty flu season."
Comment: Whoa. That's a lot of vaccine to
suddenly come up with.
►January
12, 2004 - Florida
Health Officials Say More Flu Vaccines On The Way -
State To Receive 17,000 Doses Next Week -
www.nbc6.net
- "State Health Department officials said the vaccine will arrive just in time
for the peak of Florida's flu season. Last week the state received an extra
8,000 doses of flu vaccine for infants and young children...Once you get the
shot, it takes about two weeks for the vaccine to provide protection...State
health officials say it is not too late to get your flu shot now. Florida's flu
season usually peaks in February and March."
Comment: What of
suggestion, including from the
CDC, that it may have already peaked in many places? And what if
interest has also peaked?
►January
17, 2004 -
Hepatitis sufferers win appeal and state redress - The Japan Times - "The
Sapporo High Court ordered the government Friday to pay a combined 16.5 million
yen to three people who said they contracted the hepatitis B virus in their
childhood through then-mandatory vaccinations...Presiding Judge Kenji Yamazaki
said in handing down the ruling that it is reasonable to believe the
inoculations caused their infections. The ruling overturned a lower court ruling
dismissing the claim...'The government naturally was able to predict the risk of
such infections but failed to take preventive measures,' he said."
►January 16, 2004 - China:
Killer Inspires Drive Against Hepatitis Bias - Los Angeles Times via
www.aegis.org - "Zhou Yichao, rejected for a
public servant job in Jiaxing because he tested positive for
hepatitis B,
killed one official who denied his application and seriously wounded another.
The plight of Zhou - now on death row - has inspired a national movement against
discriminatory hiring practices and lack of legal redress...More than 120
million people in China
- about 10 percent of the population - are chronic carriers of hepatitis B.
Many, like Zhou, show no symptoms and should not pose a threat to co- workers.
Hepatitis B is spread through the exchange of bodily fluids and cannot be
contracted through casual contact such as shaking hands. Hepatitis B can lead to
liver failure and death. More than a million people die from it every year,
about a third of them Chinese...Hepatitis B is incurable but preventable with a
vaccine."
►December 31, 2003 -
Hepatitis B Rates on the Decline in U.S. - AP via The Herald-Sun - "Hepatitis
B infections have declined by two-thirds in the United States in the past
decade, reflecting the routine use of childhood vaccinations against the
liver-attacking virus, the government said Wednesday...However, infections are
still on the rise among adults, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
said. Since 1999, hepatitis B cases have risen by 5 percent among men ages 20 to
39 and by 20 percent and 31 percent, respectively, for men and women 40 or
older."
►January 16, 2004 -
Gov't
ordered to pay hepatitis B sufferers 16.5 mil. yen
-
Mainichi Daily News, Japan - "Three people who launched a damages
suit against the government after becoming infected with hepatitis B following
group immunizations were Thursday awarded 16.5 million yen in compensation...In
a Sapporo High Court decision that altered an earlier district court ruling, the
court accepted the causal relationship between the immunization of the victims
and their contraction of the virus."
►January 13, 2004 - Health
bosses criticised over Hepatitis B - Health officials in Bristol have been
criticised for their handling of an outbreak of Hepatitis B. - BBC - "The Health
Protection Agency urged the city's primary care trusts to deal with an increase
in cases of the liver disease in 2002...But it has been claimed that health
managers in the city did not come up with the cash to tackle the outbreak for
almost a year."
►January 13, 2004 - New
MMR jab scare - www.femail.co.uk
- "Safety fears over MMR have been increased still further by a study which
detected signs of a chronic viral infection in the bowels of children who became
autistic after the jab...The virus - feared to come from the measles component
of the injection - appears to have sparked an abnormal response of the immune
system similar to that in patients with HIV...In October last year his former
colleague Dr Simon Murch insisted that he had always supported the
vaccine...However, he is a co-author with Dr Wakefield of the latest paper which
concludes there is further evidence of a new form of bowel disease in children
with 'regressive autism' - losing the power of speech and becoming autistic."
►January
16, 2004 -
Action Needed To Prevent Spread Of vCJD
- BMJ via
www.intelihealth.com - "Dr
Sheila Bird argues that the death of the first probable victim of vCJD from a
blood transfusion means that steps must be taken to define the rights and
responsibilities of those at risk, as well as the general public...Because there
is no way of testing blood for vCJD, people who have received products that may
be contaminated need to be managed as if the disease had been diagnosed."
Comment: If this
assessment is correct, doesn't it imply that anyone who has had a blood
transfusion should not be allowed to donate blood?
►January 15, 2004 -
Mad cow as bioterrorism?
- Scientists worry that US gov't
classification of BSE prions as 'select agents' could hinder research -
The Scientist
►January 16, 2004 - Mad
People Disease (opinion) - The Jewish Journal - "In the Torah’s story about
Joseph, Pharaoh has a dream in which seven sickly cows consume seven healthy
cows. Joseph interprets this, and Pharaoh’s other dream of seven withered ears
of corn consuming seven full ears of corn, to indicate that there will be seven
years of plenty in Egypt followed by seven years of severe famine...Today, we do
not have a Pharaoh’s dreams to warn us of impending dangers, but we have a
somewhat comparable situation in which cows with 'Mad Cow Disease' in England,
Canada, the United States and other countries are having devastating effects on
cattle industries in these countries."
►January 15, 2004 - Public
Citizen Press Releases - 1. Mad Cow Disease an
Accident Waiting to Happen; 2. Public Citizen Report Describes Some of
Maryland's Dangerous Doctors as Physicians Gear Up for a March on Annapolis
►January 14, 2004 - Mad
cow's untold story - Studies quietly raise questions about threat to humans
- Rocky Mountain News - "from government and the cattle
industry that mad cow disease poses no threat to public health, a small universe
of scientists working on a family of related illnesses are finding disturbing
evidence to the contrary...Several little-publicized studies, as well as ongoing
research at a government laboratory in Montana, continue to spark questions
about human susceptibility not only to mad cow, but to sister diseases such as
chronic wasting disease that mainly affects deer and elk, and to scrapie, which
infects sheep."
►January 13, 2004 -
Nonfood use of cow parts faces review -
www.sacbee.com - "Now that the United States has mad cow disease, federal
regulators are reconsidering long-held policies aimed at prohibiting importation
of products or ingredients with bovine tissue or blood from countries with
documented cases of the illness...The products include vaccines, nutritional
supplements and cosmetics, all of which can contain ingredients derived from
cows."
Guess what's coming in dinner - Mad cow disease scare, salmon warning have
consumers wondering what on their plates is safe to eat - Tri-Valley Herald
Online
Comment: As well they should. But what about showing the same
concern for what is injected into their bodies?
►January
16, 2004 -
Life-saving baby jabs running low - The Herald Sun - "THOUSANDS
of newborn Australian children will miss out on shots against the deadly
pneumococcal disease as a global vaccine shortage takes effect...Australian
supplies of the Prevenar vaccine will not be fully restored until at least
April, according to manufacturer Wyeth...The drug company has been forced to
halt production of Prevenar at its US plant amid an upgrade to meet increased
international demand."
►January 15, 2004 - Doctors
giving MMR 'by stealth' - www.femail.co.uk
- "Family doctors have been accused of administering the MMR jab by
stealth to children coming into their surgeries to receive other
vaccinations...At least 50 horrified parents have complained that their GPs have
'mistakenly' given their children the combined measles, mumps and rubella
vaccine, it has emerged."
►January 13, 2004 - Scientists
restore crucial myelin in brains of mice - University of Rochester Medical Center
via www.eurekalert.org - "Scientists
for the first time have restored a crucial substance known as myelin in a
widespread area of an animal's brain, opening the door toward new ways to
improve treatment of an assortment of "demyelinating" diseases as well as the
side effects of such common conditions as high blood pressure and heart
disease."
►January 12, 2004 - Possible
Relief For Fibromyalgia Sufferers
- Study Shows Mystery Of Disease Lies In
Brain, Not Muscles - www.cbs2chicago.com
- "'We have found out that in patients with
fibromyalgia, norepinephrine and serotonin are reduced in these patients,' Dr.
Cutler said...And that reduction -- in theory -- makes the body more sensitive
to pain. That's why Dr. Cutler is investigating a drug that raises the levels of
both neurotransmitters, hoping it can help those with the disease."
►January 18, 2004 - Nigerian
state upholds ban on polio vaccinations - AP via The Times of India - "Officials
of a heavily Islamic northern Nigerian state said Saturday they wouldn't lift a
ban on polio immunizations, after local tests failed to assuage fundamentalists'
fears that the doses contain ingredients to render Muslims infertile."
►January
17, 2004 -
Fanatics declare war on vaccines - The Daily News -
"Northern Nigeria has
been swept by a wave of Islamic fundamentalism. Muslim clerics have been urging
people not to take the polio vaccine, which they say makes girls sterile...They
also allege that the vaccine is contaminated by HIV, all as part of an
American-abetted plot to control the population of the Third World and
especially the number of Muslims...Much of this is driven by sheer anti-U.S.
spite. Several Muslim leaders told a Boston Globe reporter they knew nothing was
wrong with the vaccine but were willing to risk crippling children because they
hated the United States so."
►January
16, 2004 -
Are
fears over polio vaccine valid?
- The World Health Organisation (WHO) is accusing Nigeria of frustrating efforts
to eradicate polio. - BBC - "Join the BBC's Africa Live debate Wednesday, 21
January at 1630 & 1830GMT."
►January
16, 2004 -
6 Nations to Intensify Polio Vaccinations
(requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "Health ministers
from the six countries where polio is now spreading said yesterday that they
would intensify efforts to immunize 250 million children against the crippling
disease by the end of this year...If they succeed, they would move up the World
Health Organization's goal by one year."
►January
16, 2004 -
Immunisation drive could wipe out polio by end of 2004 - The Guardian, UK -
"Polio, which used to kill and disable many thousands of children every year,
could be eradicated by the end of 2004 in one final last ambitious push to
immunise 250 million children several times each, the head of the World Health
Organisation's campaign said yesterday...'We really do have a one-time
opportunity to get it finished,' said Bruce Aylward, its global coordinator.
'The goal is to finish it by the end of 2004, but we may still be mopping up at
the beginning of 2005...If we are still dealing with widescale transmission in
2005, the world will have squandered that opportunity.'"
►January 16, 2004 - Polio
Eradication Under Gun - Atlanta Journal-Constitution via
www.immunizationinfo.org
(abstract) - "The World
Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) say that to eradicate polio entirely from the planet, at least 250 million
children in several high-risk areas must be vaccinated at least three times
during 2004, lest the 15-year program to eliminate the disease be for nothing."
►January 15, 2004 - Polio
Vaccine: the Great Deception - This Day (Lagos) - "Not
too long ago, Professor Hussein Akande Abdulkareem of the Lagos State University
gave a public to the Nigerian Council of Islamic Scholars lecture which was
widely publicized in Nigerian newspapers. In the lecture, a lot of disturbing
and misleading issues concerning the polio vaccine and the process of
vaccination in general which could jeopardize the global polio vaccination
programme in Nigeria were raised. If a Nigerian Biochemist in the 21st century
could be claiming that vaccines could not be relied upon to boost the human
immune system 205 years after Edward Jenner discovered the concept of vaccine
and vaccination, it is rather unfortunate. It portrays the speed with which we
are developing backwards."
►January 13, 2004 -
WHO
Renews Effort to Wipe Out Polio - New
Infections Emerge in Previously Polio-Free Countries - NPR - "The World
Health Organization hopes to eradicate polio worldwide by next year, using the
oral polio vaccine. But last year, health officials started to see a dangerous
trend: The disease spread from Nigeria to six other West African countries where
polio had been eradicated."
Comment: How is it
that the oral polio vaccine, which is live and can
cause polio,
is thought to be able to eradicate polio?
►January 14, 2004 - Polio
on rise as Nigerian clerics block vaccinations - The Globe and Mail - "The
World Health Organization has confirmed new outbreaks of polio in two African
countries that were polio-free -- just as the global effort to eradicate the
disease was believed to be on the brink of success...New cases have been
confirmed in Cameroon and Benin, and both were caused by a strain from Nigeria
that is spreading after Muslim leaders in the north of that country blocked
vaccination efforts, saying they were part of a U.S. plot to make Muslim women
infertile.
►January 12, 2004 - Supreme
Court upholds secret detentions - MSNBC - "(The court)
Rejected an appeal from St. Louis University in a case involving a polio
vaccine. The university was ordered in 1991 to pay $16 million to the family of
a baby who contracted polio and was paralyzed after receiving vaccine. The
university tried to recover the money from the government and American Cynamid
Co., the vaccine maker. The university claimed the vaccine Orimune, which was
given to Danny Callahan, violated government regulations. The case is St. Louis
University v. American Cynamid Co., 03-557."
►January 14, 2004 -
Bird flu could be worse than SARS
- Aljazeera.net - "The bird flu spreading through Southeast Asia could turn out
to be far more devastating than SARS if it links up with human influenza, an
expert said on Wednesday...'The
pandemics that occured in the previous century, the 20th century, were really
devastating, especially the Spanish flu. We had that in 1918 and 40 million died
of that. We should worry. It kills. It kills.'"
Comment: Here we go.
And spreading fear about a pandemic sells. It sells (flu vaccine).
►January 14, 2004 -
SARS may not be alone
- Antibodies to a SARS-like virus hint at repeated
infections. - Nature - "A virus similar to that responsible for severe
acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) infected people in Hong Kong 18 months before
SARS reared its head, a recent study says. But some experts say the result is
tentative and needs to be confirmed by larger studies...The result suggests that
the leap from animals to humans was not a one-off event, infectious-disease
experts say...In most cases, these coronaviruses probably infect human cells
only weakly, perhaps triggering a passing sniffle. Zheng believes that the SARS
virus mutated in animals or humans so it can readily jump between people,
generating the potentially fatal infection."
►January 13, 2004 - Train
Passengers Tricked into Paying for Fake SARS Vaccine -
Central News Agency via The Epoch Times - "A group
of people posing as 'train station medical staff' recently had train passengers
in the Guangzhou Train Station in China take 'SARS vaccination shots' that cost
150 yuan each [approximately 20 dollars]. The World Health Organization has not
yet been able to develop a vaccine to prevent Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome,
and no such vaccine is known to exist. The Guangzhou disease prevention unit
said that there will be severe repercussions for anyone who commits this type of
crime."
►January 12, 2004 - China
Hunts Source of SARS - 3rd Possible Case Reported as
Officials Investigate Outbreak
- Washington Post
►December 21, 2003 -
SIDS -
serotonin insufficiency during sleep? - (requires registration) BioMedNet
Magazine - Should sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) be renamed in light of
evidence for the importance of the serotonergic system in unexplained infant
death? Some US researchers certainly think so.
►January 15, 2004 -
New Study
Reinforces SIDS Prevention Guidelines - HealthDay via Yahoo! - "The risk is
greatest for babies who sleep on their stomach; whose mothers smoke; who are
covered with bedding; and who sleep in the same bed as the mother. The
researchers found six of 10 SIDS cases were attributable to babies lying on
their stomachs or their sides. As for sleeping in the same bed as the mother, 77
percent of those SIDS cases involved a mom who was a smoker."
Comment: This is a good example of
researchers not digging deep enough to get at answers. If is true what
they are saying about sleep position, then the important question is why a baby
lying on its stomach or its side would die of SIDS. There is probably some
underlying health issue already going on with that baby. It's hard to
believe a healthy baby couldn't handle these positions.
►January 19, 2004 -
Smallpox mixes make a stir- USNews.com - "To many
public-health experts, it's disturbing enough that plain old smallpox lives on,
albeit under lock and key, at the CDC and a second lab in Russia. Now the World
Health Organization's committee on smallpox research is grappling with what to
do about strange variants of the deadly virus. While urging the CDC to get rid
of the old-fashioned hybrids, the panel is weighing proposals to create new
smallpox chimeras using the powerful tools of genetic engineering."
►January 13, 2004 - Smallpox Scare at Pioneer
Valley Hospital - KSL News - "A simple
case of Chicken Pox brought out the health department and caused quite a stir at
West Valley's Pioneer Valley Hospital...It's not everyday a common childhood
disease attracts so much attention. But that's all changed in our post September
11th world with worries over terrorists, getting their hands on chemical and
biological agents."
►The
Dangers of Smallpox Vaccination -
www.naturodoc.com - "The
public is now getting lots of medical propaganda about the eradication of
smallpox through vaccination. But in fact, the consensus among leading medical
historians that have studied the question have maintained that the eradication
of the zymotic, or "filth" diseases, like cholera, dysentery, typhus, plague, in
the past that are popularly attributed to mass vaccination campaigns, had
actually been due to improvements in diet, hygiene, sanitary measures,
non-medical public health laws, and to a host of new non-medical technologies,
like refrigeration, faster transportation, removing horse manure from cities,
and the like (McKinlay, 1977; McKeown, 1979; Moberg & Cohen, 1991;
Oppenheimer, 1992; Dubos, 1959)."
►January 12, 2004 -
Parents' anger over MMR threat to GPs - Leeds Today - "Doctors used to
receive bonuses for achieving targets on vaccinating children with the triple
measles, mumps and rubella jab...But now, a new policy set down by the
Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), states that GPs will LOSE money if they
fail to convince enough parents to have the inoculation."
►January 18, 2004 - Children
with disability at risk of victimisation - Sunday Herald, UK - "Children who suffer from conditions such as autism or attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD) could be wrongly caught up in the criminal justice system as a
result of the Scottish Executive’s Anti-social Behaviour Bill...According to the
proposed law, anti-social behaviour is anything that is likely to result in the
alarm or distress of a third party, but the campaigners warn that certain
repetitive or unusual behaviour by children with autism or ADHD could be
misinterpreted to mean exactly this."
►January 14, 2004 - Autism
fears over disorder bill - A leading charity has claimed that a new law on
anti-social behaviour could be used against autistic children - BBC
►January 14, 2004 - High
Court Won't Let States Out of Suits - The Washington Post - "The Supreme
Court made it far more difficult Wednesday for state officials to renege on
court-approved promises to improve such things as nursing home care, prison
conditions or health services for the poor."
►January 12, 2004 - Supreme
Court upholds secret detentions - MSNBC - "(The court)
Rejected an appeal from St. Louis University in a case involving a polio
vaccine. The university was ordered in 1991 to pay $16 million to the family of
a baby who contracted polio and was paralyzed after receiving vaccine. The
university tried to recover the money from the government and American Cynamid
Co., the vaccine maker. The university claimed the vaccine Orimune, which was
given to Danny Callahan, violated government regulations. The case is St. Louis
University v. American Cynamid Co., 03-557."
►January 19, 2004 -
Litigation
Could Make Vaccines Extinct - Congress must act--it has the legislative
model in hand (requires registration) - The Scientist - "Vaccines have
eradicated some killer diseases and protected against others. But they face
eradication themselves--by litigation. As the United States rushes to defend
itself against bioterrorism by developing vaccines against biological agents,
Congress must pass legislation to ensure that vaccines themselves do not become
extinct...All vaccines carry risks, including side effects such as encephalitis.
For example, severe allergic reactions, such as breathing problems and shock,
can occur in less than one in a million doses of diphtheria, tetanus and
pertussis vaccine.1"
Comment: Why is it almost always assumed there is
no good reason for these lawsuits? Perhaps there is ample reason to be
concerned about vaccines. For instance, perhaps the incidence of vaccine adverse
reactions is far higher than what is admitted to by the "experts". For
more on the incidence of vaccine-associated adverse reactions go to
Scandals:
Avoidance Of Vaccine Truth But Not Consequences - Are We "Knee Deep in the Big
Muddy"?
And what of the statistical methods to analyze the
data? One commonly used tactic, using doses, as in the above example,
skews the results whenever multi-dose vaccines are used. For instance, in
the above example cited in The Scientist, given that children receive 4-5
DOSES of DPT vaccine, severe allergic reactions would then be thought to occur
in at least one in 200,000 to 250,000 CHILDREN. If you factor in
under-reporting, thought by even the FDA and at least
one vaccine manufacturing company to be considerable, the numbers re: severe
allergic reactions alone are not so reassuring and could be as frequent as
100/200,000 or 1 in 2,000 CHILDREN. For more on this go to
Scandals: Contemporary Legends - How To Lie With Statistics I
►January 16, 2004 - Corporate
CEOs Call Tort Costs a National Economic Problem - Insurance Journal - "The
high cost of the U.S. tort system makes products more expensive for all
Americans and inhibits investment that can create jobs. It is not an insurance
industry problem, but a national economic problem, industry leaders told
insurance executives attending the eighth annual Property/Casualty Joint
Industry Forum, held this week in New York City."
►January 15, 2004 - Public
Citizen Press Releases - 1. Mad Cow Disease an
Accident Waiting to Happen; 2. Public Citizen Report Describes Some of
Maryland's Dangerous Doctors as Physicians Gear Up for a March on Annapolis
►January 14, 2004 -
Landrieu, Bayh announce plan to prevent future flu vaccine shortages -
Leesville Leader -
"As this flu season progressed
into a deadly epidemic, Louisianians waited in long lines to receive vaccines in
short supply...To prevent such future supply and demand problems, Sens. Mary
Landrieu (D-La.) and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) announced their proposed Flu Protection
Act, which would prevent future shortages by providing a system for recommending
the number of shots needed each year and for removing economic disincentives now
facing vaccine manufacturers."
Comment: Those lucky dogs (the vaccine
manufacturers). They are apparently making plenty on vaccines (see
Healthy
Defence). Unlike most markets, which are limited
to those that need the drug, vaccines are targeted at entire populations, need
them or not. So just think, the entire world universally getting an
endless number of vaccines! They have their liability covered. They
get to do the research that supports the use of their products and creates
demand, and no one blinks an eye (or at least almost no one). The
government and media collude in pushing their products. And now the
government will guarantee sales. It's the dream business plan to end all
dream business plans.
Doctors
to march on Capitol - In February, they will meet here to press for changes
in Virginia's malpractice laws - Times Dispatch - "Virginia
doctors are blaming huge increases in malpractice premiums and policy
cancellations for a growing erosion of patient services and access to care...In
a rare public demonstration next month, hundreds of white-coated physicians will
march on Richmond and argue for changes in the state's medical-malpractice laws,
once regarded as among the country's most protective of doctors."
Pa.
courts asked to collect malpractice suit data - AP via Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette - "The state Supreme Court's chief justice wants local court
officials across the state to report the number of medical-malpractice claims
filed in the past four years and monitor new cases as they come in...Doctors'
groups have complained that skyrocketing insurance rates are forcing them to
leave the state and have lobbied aggressively for reforms that would lessen
their insurance burden."
►January 14, 2004 - Immunization
Policy to Booster Shot - Lowell Sun via
www.immunizationinfo.org
(abstract) - "With only 92
percent of students in Massachusetts-based Lowell Public Schools up-to-date on
all of their required immunizations, School Committee member Regina Faticanti
believes language in a state law that allows students to attend classes without
immunizations should be altered. Currently, students attend classes after
providing evidence that efforts are underway to receive immunizations. Faticanti
believes only a doctor's appointment should be considered evidence, rather than
just a verbal agreement as is permitted now."
►January 15, 2004 - Immunization
policy to booster shot - Lowell schools vow strict enforcement - Lowell Sun
Online - "It's always been the policy in Lowell Public Schools, but last night
Superintendent Karla Brooks Baehr vowed to crack down on students who do not
have all their required immunizations...Only 92 percent of the student body is
up to date on immunizations. School Committee member Regina Faticanti pointed
out at a December meeting that state law requires all students to have complete
vaccinations before entering a classroom, and Lowell has some catching up to
do...Currently, students are allowed to register for school without complete
immunization records, as long as they provide evidence that efforts to get the
vaccinations are under way."
The
Power of Movements - www.oneworld.net
- "Successful movements have internal leadership, a powerful voice for the
perspectives of those most affected, and a strong people’s role in agenda
setting and decision making. These are intrinsic components of what makes
movements successful and their results sustainable...This is not to suggest that
we do not develop new vaccines and other scientific solutions to some very
serious development issues. Of course we should. But those “solutions” will work
only in combination with social movement processes."
►January 17, 2004 - Women
of World War II knew how to persevere - Contra Costa Times -
"Children's health problems were always close to the surface. When our oldest
started school in first grade, she brought home measles, whooping cough and
mumps. The shortage of doctors was acute, since most had been drafted into the
service."
►January 14, 2004 - Tall
in the saddle - Disability is no barrier for determined young cowboy -
Star-Telegram
►January 16, 2004 - Doctors
disagree over boy's illness - North Lake Tahoe Bonanza - "Controversy
and disagreement are as endemic in the medical field as in any other. One recent
example is the recent diagnosis of Incline Elementary School fourth-grader
Nathan Shuey."
►January 14, 2004 - Biotech's
Babies: Doing Well by Doing Good -
As Big Pharma pulls out of the low-margin vaccine
business, upstart outfits are exploiting new technologies to tap niche markets
- Business Week Online
►December 23, 2003 - Human
stem cells show abnormalities - (requires registration) - BioMedNet Magazine
- The first report of chromosomal abnormalities in human embryonic stem (ES)
cells has appeared, prompting concern that the phenomenon may be more widespread
than has been recognized until now. It suggests that caution should be taken
over developing stem cell-based therapies in future.
►January 15, 2004 - Navy
Enlists Microbes To Cut Costs - SpaceDaily - "Microbes
have been exploited for thousands of years to help us make bread and alcohol,
and more recently, to make antibiotics and clean up toxic spills. Now the Office
of Naval Research is hoping the one-celled organisms will reduce the costs of
producing a missile propellant, and in the process, lead to a new age of 'bioproduction.'"
►January 2004 - Use
of cough and cold products - (registration required) - This month’s column
will review the use of these products in children and the published evidence of
their efficacy. - Infectious Diseases in Children
►January 13, 2004 - House
of horrors - Sperm counts are falling and cancer levels are rising.
Something is very wrong somewhere, but what? The answer, says Hilary Freeman,
may be uncomfortably close to home ... - The Guardian, UK - "Buying organic and
filtering your water may make you feel more secure, but it does little to
protect you or your family from environmental toxins. Forget traffic pollution:
the average Briton's home is almost certainly swimming in a cocktail of
chemicals, many of which have been linked to allergies, cancers and
infertility."
►January 14, 2004 - Disgust
is good for you, shows study - New Scientist - "The purpose of disgust has
been quantitatively demonstrated for the first time - it is an evolved response
that protects people from disease or harm."
►January 12, 2004 - Cutting-edge
science - www.palmbeachpost.com -
"Scripps holds a patent on another promising technology: 'pharming,' or
implanting human genes into corn and other crops so their tissues will contain
disease-fighting antibodies."
►January 15, 2004 - Doctors
giving MMR 'by stealth' - www.femail.co.uk
- "Family doctors have been accused of administering the MMR jab by
stealth to children coming into their surgeries to receive other
vaccinations...At least 50 horrified parents have complained that their GPs have
'mistakenly' given their children the combined measles, mumps and rubella
vaccine, it has emerged."
►January 12, 2004 - Is
Signed Consent for Influenza or Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Vaccination
Required? - journal article (Archives of Internal
Medicine) - "Obtaining
signed consent prior to administering the vaccinesrepresents an
obstacle to achieving the Healthy People 2010goals for
vaccinating individuals against influenza and pneumococcaldisease.
Signed consent is neither legally mandated nor a guaranteethat the
patient (or proxy) has given informed consent...The authors have no relevant
financial interest in this article."
Comment: Wouldn't want to let a little thing like
informed consent interfere with achieving our goals, now would we? And
what exactly is an irrelevant financial interest?
►January 13, 2004 -
Stages: Many Miss
Out on 'Good Death' - (requires registration or subscription) The New York
Times - "About a fifth of those interviewed said the patients had not always
been treated with respect. Compared with a private home, this was two and half
times as likely to occur in a nursing home and three times as likely to occur in
a hospital. Survivors often said that they, too, did not receive enough
emotional support."
►January 13, 2004 - New
MMR jab scare - www.femail.co.uk
- "Safety fears over MMR have been increased still further by a study which
detected signs of a chronic viral infection in the bowels of children who became
autistic after the jab...The virus - feared to come from the measles component
of the injection - appears to have sparked an abnormal response of the immune
system similar to that in patients with HIV...In October last year his former
colleague Dr Simon Murch insisted that he had always supported the
vaccine...However, he is a co-author with Dr Wakefield of the latest paper which
concludes there is further evidence of a new form of bowel disease in children
with 'regressive autism' - losing the power of speech and becoming autistic."
Comment: What's the deal with Dr. Murch?
►January 11, 2004 -
Ambiguous
Gifts: When Patients Give and Doctors Take (requires
registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "A LAWSUIT last week evoked
a distressing image of the former Beatle George Harrison, weak and exhausted,
near the end of his life, being coerced into signing autographs by the doctor
who was treating his cancer...Dr. Gilbert Lederman of Staten Island University
Hospital has denied through a spokesman that any coercion took place, saying
that he and his patient had become close and that Mr. Harrison had freely
autographed a guitar belonging to Dr. Lederman's son."
►January 14, 2004 - Magazine
Bares All, Has Shop Covering Up Cover - The Santa Fe New Mexican - "Increasing
the number of women who nurse their babies is a goal of the U.S. government. But
pictures of breast-feeding, which is as old as humankind and strongly
recommended for infant health, is apparently offensive to some...After receiving
several complaints about the latest issue of Mothering magazine, which shows a
nursing mother and contented baby, the Vitamin Cottage on Cerrillos Road covered
the offending breast with paper."
Comment: This
kind of thing is a big part of what's wrong with health in America. And at
a vitamin shop, of all places.
Comment: As seems to be the norm, the long-term
consequences of vaccination are being compared to the mere incidence of disease.
Except in those cases where there are long term consequences of disease, there
may be little reason to avoid a disease, and some considerable reason to
experience it. (For more on this, see, for
instance,
Scandals:
Prescription
For Disaster - Is Vaccine Policy A "House of Cards"?)
Either the incidence of vaccination should be
compared to the incidence of disease, in which case the incidence of vaccination
might win out, but would, of course, be meaningless; or the long-term
consequences of vaccination needs to be compared to the long-term consequences
of disease. About that we know little since we have never compared the two
in any meaningful way (see, for instance, comments re:
No solid evidence links vaccines, autism).
►January 14, 2004 - New
threats to health predicted - The Guardian, UK - "'We should not be
surprised if the microbial world responds if it wishes to survive,' Prof
McMichael said after addressing a Royal Society conference in London. 'In the
1970s, eminent people were saying it was the end of the infectious disease era.
We now find after the experience of the 1980s and 1990s we are sadder and
wiser.'... He said that injudicious use of antibiotics had created opportunities
for microbes to develop resistance, while 'hyper-hygienic' living in developed
countries might explain the rise of asthma and other auto-immune diseases."
►January 17, 2004 - Puzzle
of delay in exposing report - The Scotsman - "ONLY
two weeks into new year, and the first significant health scare story of 2004
was shown to be seriously flawed in its scientific methodology...Just as the
concern prompted by a study which claimed to "prove the link" between the MMR
jab and autism was shown to be incorrect and a case of bad science, so the
evidence of toxic contaminants in salmon has been shown to be seriously
wanting...Minute scrutiny of the report, written in scientific language that
tends to obfuscate rather than elucidate, was diverted. Thus everybody missed
the final footnote of the article which revealed: 'This research was initiated
and supported by the environmental division of the Pew Charitable Trusts', and
questions that should have been asked about the organisation were not."
Comment: Would that they
would apply the same high standards of scrutiny to the alleged proof that an
MMR/autism link had been disproved.
►January 12, 2004 -
Parents' anger over MMR threat to GPs - Leeds Today - "Doctors used to
receive bonuses for achieving targets on vaccinating children with the triple
measles, mumps and rubella jab...But now, a new policy set down by the
Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), states that GPs will LOSE money if they
fail to convince enough parents to have the inoculation."
►January 2004 - Incoming
AAP President Johnston outlines goals for the coming year - (registration
required) - In a special Q&A, Infectious Diseases in Children spoke with Carden
Johnston, MD, about the coming year and challenges facing pediatricians. -
Infectious Diseases in Children
►January 2004 - Scientists
have 14 challenges to conquer - (registration required) - The science
community has 14 medical challenges to focus on as part of the Grand Challenges
in Global Health initiative. - Infectious Diseases in Children
►January 14, 2004 - New
threats to health predicted - The Guardian, UK - "'We should not be
surprised if the microbial world responds if it wishes to survive,' Prof
McMichael said after addressing a Royal Society conference in London. 'In the
1970s, eminent people were saying it was the end of the infectious disease era.
We now find after the experience of the 1980s and 1990s we are sadder and
wiser.'... He said that injudicious use of antibiotics had created opportunities
for microbes to develop resistance, while 'hyper-hygienic' living in developed
countries might explain the rise of asthma and other auto-immune diseases."
►January 13, 2004 - Interlink
Gives Shot in the Arm to Global Vaccines Initiative -
PRNewswire via Yahoo! Finance - "Interlink
Healthcare Communications has aligned with an organization designed to
streamline the process of getting life-saving vaccines to the world's poorest
children. Interlink has begun branding efforts for the Pneumococcal Accelerated
Development and Introduction Plan-PneumoADIP for short -- which is a $30 million
project sponsored by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI)."
►January
16, 2004 -
Kathy Sykes: We need to see the human side of scientists and their role in
society (opinion) - Independent, UK - "Finally, school science should equip
people with skills they need to tackle ethical issues involving science, such as
the MMR debate. People need to be able to find out information, to assess
different points of view. They need to see their way through some tricky ethical
debates to make wiser decisions. And scientists similarly need to be equipped to
discuss ethical issues around their work in a world where it is no longer
acceptable for them to say 'deciding how the science is used is not my
business'."
►January 15, 2004 - Doctors
giving MMR 'by stealth' - www.femail.co.uk
- "Family doctors have been accused of administering the MMR jab by
stealth to children coming into their surgeries to receive other
vaccinations...At least 50 horrified parents have complained that their GPs have
'mistakenly' given their children the combined measles, mumps and rubella
vaccine, it has emerged."
►January 12, 2004 - Is
Signed Consent for Influenza or Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Vaccination
Required? - journal article (Archives of Internal
Medicine) - "Obtaining
signed consent prior to administering the vaccinesrepresents an
obstacle to achieving the Healthy People 2010goals for
vaccinating individuals against influenza and pneumococcaldisease.
Signed consent is neither legally mandated nor a guaranteethat the
patient (or proxy) has given informed consent...The authors have no relevant
financial interest in this article."
Comment: Wouldn't want to let a little thing like
informed consent interfere with achieving our goals, now would we? And
what exactly is an irrelevant financial interest?
►January 16, 2004 - State
Health Director Redirects Funds For Use For Immunizations - Colorado
Department of Public Health and Environment - "Colorado's
15 local health departments recently received nearly $400,000 in additional
funds to help enhance their efforts to provide immunizations to children to
protect them from childhood diseases...Douglas H. Benevento, the executive
director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said that
he directed that the funds, which were to have been used for other public health
purposes, be used instead to improve and expand immunization programs across the
state."
►January 15, 2004 - Health
data hint cuts may be made - State officials say
document uses outdated figures - The Boston Globe - "Public health advocates
yesterday released a document they say shows the state is weighing deep cuts in
the budgets of such core medical initiatives as childhood immunizations and
community health centers."
►January
17, 2004 -
The real reason women smokers are at greater risk
- The Globe and Mail - "Should cancer of the lung be added to the list of health
risks women face just because they are women?...A study presented recently at
the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago
showed that women who smoke are twice as likely to develop lung cancer as their
male counterparts. As a risk factor for smokers, female gender appears to
outweigh age and amount smoked. Some researchers point fingers at the female
hormone estrogen, but there is strong evidence implicating a more likely
culprit: the bottling up of emotions, particularly anger."
►January 14, 2004 - How
does the immune system work? - The immune system is the body's silent but
powerful defense mechanism against "foreign invaders". - Arizona City News via
www.zwire.com - "How
do we build the immune system? There are several factors involved in building
and maintaining a super immune system. These include exercise, rest, mental
attitude and optimal immune system nutrition. Americans and their animals are
generally weak in all four areas."
Comment: It's
nice to see an article in the mainstream press that deals with the true cause of
illness, and doesn't buy into the pill and/or vaccine for every ailment.
But if sickness is due to the absence of immunization, then we're "in like
Flint"!
►January 17, 2004 - Women
of World War II knew how to persevere - Contra Costa Times -
"Children's health problems were always close to the surface. When our oldest
started school in first grade, she brought home measles, whooping cough and
mumps. The shortage of doctors was acute, since most had been drafted into the
service."
►Mass
Vaccination Clinics - California Distance Learning Health Network -
Thursday, March 18, 2004
►January 16, 2004 - Fine-featured
foes are for the birds - Daily Record - "As if we didn't have enough to
worry about!...Carbon monoxide, radon, asbestos, mad cow disease, global
warming, interest rates that may soar, a stock market that's anything but
cheap...Now you can add bird droppings to the list. And three culprits in
particular: pigeons, starlings and English sparrows. (Lesser felons: crows and
gulls.)"
►January
17, 2004 - Tuna could soon carry mercury
warning - Naples
Daily News - "As the federal
government mulls slapping a mercury advisory on tuna, Southwest Florida seafood
retailers say some customers are concerned that the food they thought was
healthy could be hurting them...Experts say there's cause for concern,
particularly for pregnant women and young children."
►January
16, 2004 - Mercury: The Latest
Green Scare Campaign -
www.anxietycenter.com - "The Greens have mastered the ability to
conjure up a scare campaign about almost anything to such perfection, one almost
forgets that they are a lying bunch of lowlifes whose past lies have harmed the
timber industry, those engaged in ranching and agriculture, those who provide
the chemical building blocks of everything we use every day, and those
responsible for providing the energy this nation requires to function."
►January 14, 2004 - U.S.
rethinking rules on importing bovine tissues - Abilene Reporter-News - "Now
that the United States has mad-cow disease, federal regulators are reconsidering
long-held policies aimed at prohibiting importation of products or ingredients
with bovine tissue or blood from countries with documented cases of the
illness...The products include vaccines, nutritional supplements and cosmetics,
all of which can contain ingredients derived from cows."
Comment: Interesting dilemma. If the ban is continued, we now would
be unable to use our own products (at least, theoretically).
►January 14, 2004 - Students
tested for mercury on Sunday - The Record-Courier - "Investigators
from the Center for Disease Control and Nevada Department of Health offered
urine analyses over the weekend for students involved in the mercury
contamination at Pau-Wa-Lu Middle School...'We'll keep cleaning until we reach
300 parts per trillion -- which is about the amount given off from dental
fillings,' said Douglas County School District Superintendent John Soderman on
Sunday...'The danger is being overplayed, most definitely,' said his half sister
Carmen Daniels, who is visiting from Pine Grove, Calif...Ricky's father, Richard
Padovani, disagreed...'You can't over react
with something like this. Mercury is pretty dangerous.'"
Comment: Note
that this is external exposure. Not ingested. Not injected.
►January 13, 2004 - House
of horrors - Sperm counts are falling and cancer levels are rising.
Something is very wrong somewhere, but what? The answer, says Hilary Freeman,
may be uncomfortably close to home ... - The Guardian, UK - "Buying organic and
filtering your water may make you feel more secure, but it does little to
protect you or your family from environmental toxins. Forget traffic pollution:
the average Briton's home is almost certainly swimming in a cocktail of
chemicals, many of which have been linked to allergies, cancers and
infertility."
►January 13, 2004 -
Nonfood use of cow parts faces review -
www.sacbee.com - "Now that the United States has mad cow disease, federal
regulators are reconsidering long-held policies aimed at prohibiting importation
of products or ingredients with bovine tissue or blood from countries with
documented cases of the illness...The products include vaccines, nutritional
supplements and cosmetics, all of which can contain ingredients derived from
cows."
►January 12, 2004 -
Guess what's coming in dinner - Mad cow disease scare, salmon warning have
consumers wondering what on their plates is safe to eat - Tri-Valley Herald
Online
Comment: As well they should. But what about showing the same
concern for what is injected into their bodies?
►January 12, 2004 -
Parents' anger over MMR threat to GPs - Leeds Today - "Doctors used to
receive bonuses for achieving targets on vaccinating children with the triple
measles, mumps and rubella jab...But now, a new policy set down by the
Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), states that GPs will LOSE money if they
fail to convince enough parents to have the inoculation."
►January
16, 2004 -
Life-saving baby jabs running low - The Herald Sun - "THOUSANDS
of newborn Australian children will miss out on shots against the deadly
pneumococcal disease as a global vaccine shortage takes effect...Australian
supplies of the Prevenar vaccine will not be fully restored until at least
April, according to manufacturer Wyeth...The drug company has been forced to
halt production of Prevenar at its US plant amid an upgrade to meet increased
international demand."
►January 14, 2004 -
Dow Announces Deal to Develop Vaccines - AP via The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution - "Dow Chemical Co. announced a four-year, $5.7 million
research agreement with the National Institutes of Health to develop plant-based
vaccines that it says will be cheaper and easier to produce than existing
vaccines."
►January 15, 2004 - Study
Links Leukemia, Gene Combination - Science Magazine via AP via The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution - "Two children who developed leukemia after receiving gene
therapy for an inherited disease may have been victims of a rare combination of
genes that is unlikely to happen in gene therapy for other disorders, a study
says...Researchers at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Md.,
discovered that a gene in a virus used to treat the children, who had an
inherited immune system disorder, can combine with another gene to cause
leukemia in mice."
Comment: Wonder
what, if anything, this implies re: the the potential for genes in vaccine
viruses combining with genes in specific children and causing adverse reactions?
►January 13, 2004 - Doctors
Answer Questions About Children's Health - Supervaccines Could Cut Number Of
Shots - www.nbc4.com - "Because
pediatricians are tired of making their patients "human pincushions",
researchers are now working on a number of supervaccines that would combine
existing inoculations into one shot...The most recent supervaccine takes the MMR
vaccine, which already combines mumps, measles and rubella and adds chickenpox,
polio, whooping cough, tetanus, diphtheria, hepatitis B and meningitis."
Comment: Given the potential for antigens in
vaccines to
recombine and form new, more lethal pathogens, is this
really such a good idea? For this reason, are any combined vaccines a good
idea?
►January 19, 2004 -
Litigation
Could Make Vaccines Extinct - Congress must act--it has the legislative
model in hand (requires registration) - The Scientist - "Vaccines have
eradicated some killer diseases and protected against others. But they face
eradication themselves--by litigation. As the United States rushes to defend
itself against bioterrorism by developing vaccines against biological agents,
Congress must pass legislation to ensure that vaccines themselves do not become
extinct...All vaccines carry risks, including side effects such as encephalitis.
For example, severe allergic reactions, such as breathing problems and shock,
can occur in less than one in a million doses of diphtheria, tetanus and
pertussis vaccine.1"
Comment: Why is it almost always assumed there is
no good reason for these lawsuits? Perhaps there is ample reason to be
concerned about vaccines. For instance, perhaps the incidence of vaccine adverse
reactions is far higher than what is admitted to by the "experts". For
more on the incidence of vaccine-associated adverse reactions go to
Scandals:
Avoidance Of Vaccine Truth But Not Consequences - Are We "Knee Deep in the Big
Muddy"?
And what of the statistical methods to analyze the
data? One commonly used tactic, using doses, as in the above example,
skews the results whenever multi-dose vaccines are used. For instance, in
the above example cited in The Scientist, given that children receive 4-5
DOSES of DPT vaccine, severe allergic reactions would then be thought to occur
in at least one in 200,000 to 250,000 CHILDREN. If you factor in
under-reporting, thought by even the FDA and at least
one vaccine manufacturing company to be considerable, the numbers re: severe
allergic reactions alone are not so reassuring and could be as frequent as
100/200,000 or 1 in 2,000 CHILDREN. For more on this go to
Scandals: Contemporary Legends - How To Lie With Statistics I
Comment: With the benefits of vaccines
overstated, and the risks either ignored or dismissed, it is a myth that we know
anything, really, about whether or not the benefits of vaccines (far) outweigh
their risks. For an
overview
on this, click here. You can also go to the
Online
Vaccines Conference at
www.redflagsdaily.com
and read Scandals
to learn more.
►January 13, 2004 -
Hyping Vaccines: An Investigation - Chickenpox, Lyme, Rotavirus, And A
Highly Revealing Analysis Of Flu Statistics - by
RFD Columnist, Dr. F. Edward Yazbak in the
Online Vaccines
Conference at www.redflagsdaily.com
- "Years ago, the description of diseases used to be accurate. Smallpox
was a very dreaded, serious, and often fatal illness. Certainly, no parent
wished smallpox on his children. Chickenpox on the other hand was a relatively
benign illness: a low-grade fever, an itchy rash and a week out of school. Like
all childhood illnesses, it was worse in adults and parents were actually hoping
that their children could “catch chickenpox” and be finished with it for the
future."
Comment: As seems to be the norm, the long-term
consequences of vaccination are being compared to the mere incidence of disease.
Except in those cases where there are long term consequences of disease, there
may be little reason to avoid a disease, and some considerable reason to
experience it. (For more on this, see, for
instance,
Scandals:
Prescription
For Disaster - Is Vaccine Policy A "House of Cards"?)
Either the incidence of vaccination should be
compared to the incidence of disease, in which case the incidence of vaccination
might win out, but would, of course, be meaningless; or the long-term
consequences of vaccination needs to be compared to the long-term consequences
of disease. About that we know little since we have never compared the two
in any meaningful way (see, for instance, comments re:
No solid evidence links vaccines, autism below).
Newsletter Archives - use this link to access old newsletters, including
those whose links
may have changed
DISCLAIMER: All
information, data, and material contained, presented, or provided here is for
general information purposes only and is not to be construed as reflecting the
knowledge or opinions of the publisher, and is not to be construed or intended
as providing medical or legal advice. The decision whether or not to vaccinate
is an important and complex issue and should be made by you, and you alone, in
consultation with your health care provider.
"A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth."
-- Albert Einstein, letter to a friend, 1901
"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William C. Jarvis, September 28, 1820
Free Shipping Everyday - Visit babyearth.com today for innovative products and free shipping with minimum purchase.
