IMPORTANT NOTE: The Newsletter is
now linked to the new Hot Topics section
here and to specific categories and sub-topics below (e.g., if
you click on the subtopics, e.g., "alternative treatments/prevention" , you will
be taken to previous weeks' selections for that "hot topic").
►January 22, 2004 - Dr. Jill Miehe:
Laughter and Wellness -
www.garnernews.net - "In the ‘80s a man
by the name Norman Cousins was diagnosed with a life threatening illness. He
refused to give up hope, although his doctor told him there was little if any.
He researched on his condition and devised a plan. He was going to fight this
with knowledge and a positive attitude. His plan included nutrition, humor, and
visualization. He watched funny movies for many hours of the day, using humor as
therapy to help him beat this. He detailed his experience in the books Anatomy
of an Illness and Head First written in 1989 and 1990."
►January 19, 2004 - Skin
cancer treatments debated - A non-surgical treatment for basal cell skin
cancer results in better cosmetic results but might be less effective than
surgery at preventing the disease from returning, a study found. - AP via CNN
►January 20, 2004 - Study:
Vitamins C, E cut Alzheimer's risk - High daily doses of vitamins E and C
taken together reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease among elderly people, a
new study suggests. - Reuters via CNN
►January 20, 2004 - 'Homeopathy
can cure SARS' - www1.mid-day.com
- "As SARS cases reappear and reseachers work overtime to contain the virus,
Indians doctors say the cure could lie in ancient 'nosode therapy' and
homeopathy...According to a paper published in the Indian Journal of Clinical
Physiology (IJCP), SARS can be effectively cured by using an ancient 'Nosode
Therapy' which uses the patient's own pooled serum. It is a type of isotherapy
which involves the preparation of medicine from the patient's own blood, after
diluting it...Nosode therapy is an established therapy for treatment of most of
the diseases in animals."
►January 25, 2004 - Sunny
D - It's the great cancer cover-up. Panicked into avoiding sunlight by
health experts, we are now dying in our thousands from diseases linked to
deficiencies of vitamin D. But still the exaggerated warnings come. Oliver
Gillie reveals how sunbathing can save your life - The Independent, UK
►January 25, 2004 - Sunny
D (part 2) - Diseases caused by vitamin D deficiency - The Independent, UK
►January 22, 2004 - Body
Talk: Candida: The Hidden Weight Loss Culprit! -
Not only is it hard to lose weight with candida, poor digestion and
mal-absorption can set the stage for serious nutritional deficiencies, further
diminishing the body's immune defenses. -
www.africana.com
►July/August 2003 - Three
reasons to return to traditional diets - In the 1930s US dentist Weston
Price travelled the world to study the diets of 'primitive' peoples. He found a
startling lack of disease and proof that a system of environmentally-friendly
local food production is the best way to ensure human health -
www.infochangeindia.org
►January 15, 2004 - Study
Finds Huge Variability in Vitamin E Absorption - Oregon State University - "The
research may explain, Traber said, why many past research studies done with
vitamin E have varied findings. It's quite possible, she said, that the manner
in which people took vitamin E supplements and the variation in its
bioavailability from person to person have yielded widely inconsistent results
about the value of this nutrient in heart disease and other degenerative
diseases."
►January 22, 2004 - Panel
Says Zoloft and Cousins Don't Increase Suicide Risk (requires registration
or subscription) - The New York Times - "Adding to the debate over using
antidepressant drugs for depressed teenagers and children, a group of prominent
researchers issued a report yesterday saying that Zoloft and similar medicines
did not increase children's suicide risk...The group, drawn from members of the
American College of Neuro- psychopharmacology, also found that the drugs were
effective in treating children's depression...Critics pointed to weaknesses in
the report...Critics of the medicines noted that 9 of the 10 task force members
had significant financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry, although such
ties are common among prominent researchers. The panel said no industry money
financed the report."
Comment: Give me a
break. 9 out of 10 have financial ties but "no industry money financed the
report". What do they think we are, stupid?
►January 23, 2004 -
Medical Research Dealings Explored by a Senate Panel (requires registration
or subscription) - The New York Times - "Senators sharply questioned health
officials on Thursday about a possible need for stricter limits and disclosure
requirements for government medical researchers who enter into lucrative
consulting deals with drug and biotechnology companies."
►Winter 2003 -
An
Interview with Dr. Reginald Finger, ACIP member - The ITAT Sharpshooter -
"Q
...Do you intend to stay involved here in Colorado? A Dr. Finger: Yes, I
especially enjoy being part of the Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition.
If Colorado is going to climb out the cellar with its immunization rates, some
insights from the national level may be helpful along the way. There are at
least three other national leaders in immunization here in Colorado too, not
counting Tom Vernon from Merck who has strong ties here. If we all work as a
team, maybe some really good things will happen!"
Comment: Isn't this a
teeny, tiny conflict of interest?
►January 23, 2004 - NIH
defends consulting deals - (requires registration) - At Senate hearing, top
officials deny wrongdoing; Zerhouni appoints review panel cochairs - The
Scientist - "Senior officials at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
yesterday denied committing any improprieties when they accepted lucrative
consulting contracts from pharmaceutical and biotech companies that had dealings
with the agency. Testifying before a Senate subcommittee, one institute director
called the allegations,
reported by the Los Angeles Times, “'misleading, grossly inaccurate, and
filled with false innuendo.'”
►January 20, 2004 - Drug
Companies Get Too Close for Med School's Comfort
(requires registration or subscription) - commentary - The New York Times - "Our
psychiatry department at the University of Arizona is divided over these
interactions. On one hand, a number of professors and a few residents have grown
concerned that the department is allowing the pharmaceutical industry to teach
our residents to embrace newer, more expensive drugs. On the other, many
residents have argued against restrictions, suggesting that they should learn to
respond to the marketing now and that prohibiting contact would leave them
unprepared for the future. A minority have argued that academic freedom gives
the faculty and residents the right to speak with whomever they choose."
►January 18, 2004 - Probe
Sought Into NIH Officials' Outside Work
Three House Democrats ask the investigative arm of Congress to look into
'potential conflicts of interest' stemming from drug-firm payments. (requires
registration) - The Los Angeles Times - "Citing details from a Los
Angeles Times article published last month, the House members called for an
"investigation into potential conflicts of interest" at the federal government's
center for medical research on humans...In an interview, Waxman said, 'It is
evident that there is a real problem at NIH, when researchers can make hundreds
of thousands of dollars consulting, at the same time they're doing research paid
for by the public.'"
►January 14, 2004 -
Doctors lash out at cancer society over HRT
- The Globe and Mail - "Obstetricians and gynecologists are lashing out at the
Canadian Cancer Society, questioning its scientific expertise and commitment to
women's health...The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada is up
in arms because the cancer society urged women last week not to take
hormone-replacement therapy for menopause symptoms, except in rare instances,
because the health risks outweigh the benefits."
Comment: Remind me,
whose interests are the obstetricians and gynecologists representing? Ah,
perhaps the answer can be found below....
►January 19, 2004 -
When kids take the risks - Children enrolled in clinical trials usually do
not directly benefit and may suffer health consequences. (requires registration)
The Los Angeles Times - "Some physicians and medical ethicists are warning that
a new push to include kids in drug trials could endanger the health of the
children who sign up for them."
►January 24, 2004 -
Whistleblower vows to fight on - journal article (BMJ) - "A Canadian
haematologist at the centre of a cause célèbreover academic freedom
and research funded by a drug companyvowed this week to continue her
crusade after failing in herattempt to challenge the European
marketing authorisation grantedfor the thalassaemia drug deferiprone."
►January 23,
2004 - Pfizer
sets aside $403m for possible settlement - 4th-quarter
charge is aimed at closure in drug fraud cases - The Boston Globe - "If Pfizer
settles the criminal and civil cases for close to that amount, it would be one
of the largest settlements for drug fraud in US history. In June, drug maker
AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals agreed to pay $355 million to resolve criminal and
civil allegations that the company inflated the price of its prostate cancer
drug and bribed doctors to prescribe it."
►December 2003 -
Prescription Drugs -
OxyContin Abuse and Diversion and Efforts to Address the Problem (pdf) - GAO
►January 17, 2004 - Anti-Counterfeit
Steps By Drugmakers Sought - Legislators' Goal Is to
Halt Illegal Sales - Washington Post - "Congressional lawmakers asked five of
the nation's largest drugmakers yesterday to explain what they are doing to stop
counterfeit drugs from entering the marketplace. The letters are part of a
widening effort in Congress and among federal agencies to crack down on the
illegal distribution of prescription drugs."
Comment: But what if, as many believe, HIV has nothing
to do with AIDS? Then what do these diagnoses mean, other than an spelling an
opportunity to create fear and sell toxic drugs?
►January 22, 2004 -
Researcher Ho Retracts Claim About AIDS Development
- www.quicken.com - "A clue to the most
enduring mystery of the AIDS epidemic - why some people infected with the human
immunodeficiency virus never develop the disease - has just crumbled...In a rare
published retraction in the journal Science, researcher David Ho, the AIDS
world's nearest thing to a rock star, said he erred in a September 2002
announcement that he had found the mysterious protection factor - an immune
booster secreted by special white-blood cells called CD8 cells."
►January 4, 2004 -
AIDS: A Death Cult - by
John Lauritsen - www.altheal.org - "This
article has been hard to write. I've taken a break from "AIDS" for several
years, and returning to the topic now, I've been in shock over what has been
done to us. My opinions have not changed: I still regard "AIDS" as the greatest
blunder and the greatest hoax in medical history -- an epidemic of incompetence
and an epidemic of lies...As long as there has been "AIDS" there have been
critics of the orthodox AIDS model: "AIDS dissidents". For the most part our
voices were silenced. As AIDS became a religion, a death cult -- with sacred
commodities, dogmas, rituals, and sacrifices - any expression of skepticism was
tantamount to blasphemy."
►January 21, 2004 - CDC
to ask for probe into HIV positive party goers - The China Post - "The
Center for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday announced that 28 of the 92
homosexuals nabbed by the police at a drug party last week are HIV
positive...According to the CDC, only one party goer admitted to the police that
he is HIV positive. The police later identified 27 more reported AIDS cases
after checking with the health authorities...They were all caught while
attending the infamous drug and sex party, known as the "Home Party" in the gay
community."
Comment: What's THAT about?
►January 20, 2004 - Biggest-ever
AIDS vaccine trial draws stinging criticism - USA Today - "When the
world of AIDS vaccine research erupts into controversy, as it did again last
week, the source is often pent-up frustration over the snail's pace of progress
and the best use of research money...More than 20 years into the epidemic, only
one vaccine has completed two large-scale clinical trials. It failed both. The
latest flap centers on yet another test of that vaccine as part of a two-shot
combination with another experimental vaccine."
►January 20, 2004 - Study:
Vitamins C, E cut Alzheimer's risk - High daily doses of vitamins E and C
taken together reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease among elderly people, a
new study suggests. - Reuters via CNN
►January 25, 2004 -
Legal
fight puts Marine in limbo - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - "For the
last three years, Ocean Rose of Marietta has been trapped in the military
version of purgatory...In January 2001, the Walton High School graduate pleaded
guilty to disobeying a superior officer. Busted to private, he was drummed out
of the Marine Corps with a bad conduct discharge...The refusal of all of them
stems from their concern about the safety and effectiveness of the shots. Yet
their punishment has been far from uniform."
►January 21, 2004 - BIOLOGICAL WAR-FEAR:
FDA
fails to halt anthrax anxiety -
After judge
stopped controversial vaccine feds declared it safe - by Timothy W. Maier
- Insight magazine, viawww.worldnetdaily.com - "'Only
after the issuance of an injunction, up pops a federal rule,' Sullivan declared
with acid sarcasm to Justice Department attorney Shannen Coffin, who is
representing the Pentagon in the lawsuit filed by the six John Does. 'And you're
telling me it's coincidental?'...'I'd stand on a stack of Bibles and tell you
it's coincidental,' Coffin replied to Sullivan...'That's an amazing
coincidence,' Sullivan shot back."
►January 21, 2004 -
Local
company testing anthrax vaccine - www.wtvw.com
- "Bioterrorism is a constant threat, and now the
government wants a new vaccine to protect us from anthrax...Now the race is on
to find a safer vaccine. That's where federal researchers and those at GFI, a
research company, come in...'What they've actually developed now is not only a
vaccine that's been on the market for years, we're actually involved in a trial
on a new vaccine to potentially protect the public,' said Dr. Randall Stoltz, Medical Director
of GFI."
Comment: Gee, why
would we need to race to produce a "safer" vaccine? And here I thought the one
they were using was already plenty safe.
►January 24, 2004 - Autism
seems to be increasing worldwide, if not in London - letter - F. Edward
Yazbak, paediatrician - journal article (BMJ) - "Taylor's raw data have
remained inaccessible since 1999, whenhe first denied any connection
between autism and measles, mumps,and rubella vaccination, in a
study that neither had a populationbased cohort design nor
sufficient statistical power to detectan association."
►January 21, 2004 - Autism reaching 'epidemic' levels
- www.tcpalm.com - "It's
one of the worst nightmares a parent can imagine - without warning, a child is
abducted from his bed in the middle of the night, never to return...Now, imagine
that instead of taking the whole child, only his mind is stolen and his body -
the hollow shell of his being - is left behind."
►January 20, 2004 - A
World Apart From Autism - Asperger syndrome challenges experts to
distinguish its symptoms and treatments - Newsday - "When Eric Schissel was a
boy, ZIP codes fascinated him. And he had magnificent obsessions with
mathematics, dictionaries, penguins and foreign languages. He was master of an
amazing party trick: Pick any date in history, and he could tell you what day it
landed on. But Eric Schissel wasn't invited to any parties."
Comment: The authorities will close a school for two
weeks because of external exposure to mercury. But we are supposed to believe
them when they say injecting mercury is safe.
►January 20, 2004 - Food
safety call as study says salmon is safer than other fish - The Herald, UK -
"Environmental groups have called for a new food safety investigation after it
emerged that there are six fish types with greater concentration of toxic
chemicals than salmon."
►January 23, 2004 -
Pediatrician
John Cohen -
www.thebostonchannel.com - "Should parents worry about giving children the
MMR vaccine because of worry over autism?...The fact of the matter is that the
study was done years ago and was actually recanted by the doctor that did it.
The MMR vaccine is safe and doesn't cause autism and people should pay attention
to their doctors."
Comment: This issue has hardly been settled. To get a
taste of some of what has been happening, click
here.
►January 2004 -
MMR And
Nurseries - BBC Radio - "Day nurseries may be considering excluding children
if they haven't had the MMR vaccine. Some parents whose children are not yet old
enough for the vaccine are worried that mixing with children who are not
immunised may be putting their babies at risk. The director of public health in
the North West, John Ashton, and Magda Taylor from the Informed Parent helpline
discuss parents are right to consider immunisation as a factor when choosing
childcare."
►January 25,
2004 - Irish
grant to fund new MMR vaccine refuels safety fears -
Sunday Herald, UK - "The Irish government has given a leading scientist around
£482,000 to develop a safer measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab...The grant to
a head virologist at Trinity College Dublin has prompted claims that confidence
in the controversial vaccine, which has been linked to bowel disease and autism
in some children, is waning at the highest level."
►January 17, 2004 - Single-jab
clinic sees 60 infants - This Is Local London - "Parents fearful of the
effects of the controversial MMR vaccine got a chance to give their children
separate jabs...The children will have the same vaccines injected into them as
the triple MMR but by nine separate injections over a longer period of time
instead of the single MMR administered in one go."
►January 25, 2004 -
Difficult choices - Variety of treatments face parents of autistic children
- The Boston Globe - "Anke Kriske's 14-year-old son, Derek, has been on
medications such as Ritalin, Adderall, and Prozac. He is on a special diet that
limits yeast, wheat, and milk. And recently, he has been trying neurofeedback,
where sensors on his head monitor and stimulate brain waves...The approaches may
be diverse, but the intention has been uniform: helping Derek overcome his
autism."
►January 22, 2004 - Future
looks bright for Mariposa School - The Cary News - "The Mariposa School, for
children with autism, was in danger of closing its doors in 2002. But the school
is still open, making a difference and planning to expand...The school has 15
students enrolled in the building and its staff consults with six other
children. Cindy Peters, executive director, said that Mariposa has been
fortunate to have the support of many people. When the school was running low on
funds in 2002, doing everything possible to publicize it helped pull Mariposa
out of trouble."
►January 21, 2004 - Ontario
mother calls on government to keep promise to fund autism treatment -
Canadian Press via www.medbroadcast.com
- "An Ontario mother is asking the province to keep its promise to fund
treatment for autistic children beyond the age of six, pointing to submissions
by the Ontario Human Rights Commission that say the policy is
'discriminatory.'...Refusing to pay for therapy for older children 'is
discriminatory to children with autism over the age of six,' said the
commission's pleadings in the case that it has referred to the Human Rights
Tribunal of Ontario.
Comment: If it turns out to be true that
vaccines are a cause of autism, the life-time cost of caring for the one out of
250 or so (maybe even more) autistic children needs to be factored into any
costs associated with vaccination (particularly when compared to the costs
associated with the disease(s) the vaccines are designed to "prevent").
►January 18, 2004 - Proper
therapy can do so much for children with autism - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
via http://mentalhelp.net - "One unique
thing about children with autism is that with early intensive intervention, they
can make astonishing strides to the point where they are far less affected by
the disorder. This is not typical for most developmental disorders, and it
saves taxpayers tens of millions of dollars per child over the child's life
span. These types of gains are never seen in autistic children who do not
receive early intensive behavioral intervention."
►January 18, 2004 - Evolving
empathy: Through a workshop, South Butler students gain a better
understanding of a life with disabilities - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
►January 14, 2004 - Coping
With Autism Many Moms Left Straining For Services - Daily News via
YellowBrix - "For parents, there is little relief in sight...'The
increase in autism is causing an increase in demand in services,' said Steve
Graff, director of the Tri-County Regional Center in Simi Valley, which offers
referrals to parents. 'And there are only so many people out there that can do
that kind of service.'"
Comment:
If true, while it is all well and good to identify
a brain chemical associated with a behavior disorder, it is at least equally
important to figure out why that brain chemical exists in the brains of those
with the disorder. If there is an external/environmental cause, i.e.,
something that can be avoided, determining what that is should be of paramount
concern.
►January 20, 2004 -
Paying Attention To Parents Of ADHD Kids - New Study Reinforces Importance
of Testing Parents of Kids Who Are Diagnosed With Attention-Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder - Washington Post
►January
25, 2004 -
Front lines local in bioterror war -
State dependent on county agencies to take lead in fighting health emergencies -
www.ljworld.com - "When
a bioterrorism attack happens in Kansas, officials say, local health
departments will be on the front lines, and Douglas County is no exception."
Comment: "When", not "if"?
Is this merely careless speech or reporting? Do they know something we
don't, but should, know? Or is this just more scare-mongering?
►January 23, 2004 - NHS
to get 'dirty bomb' detectors - NHS hospitals and ambulance crews are to get
radiation equipment to enable them to detect dirty bombs. - BBC
►January
23, 2004 -
Biodefense Agency Urged for Safety of U.S. Troops - Lack
of New Vaccines Points to Need, Report Says - The Washington Post - "The
Pentagon has not developed a single new vaccine against biological agents since
the 1991 Gulf War and should create a new biodefense agency to respond to the
growing threat of biological attacks on U.S. forces, according to a
congressionally mandated report released yesterday."
►January 22, 2004 -
Blueprint on Way for
Vaccine Factory to Combat Terror Strikes - The Scotsman -"Plans
for a Government-owned factory to produce large amounts of vaccine in the event
of a terrorist strike could be finalised within weeks, it emerged today...The
rapid response facility would produce vaccine for people contaminated by a
chemical or biological attack."
►January 25, 2004 - Sunny
D - It's the great cancer cover-up. Panicked into avoiding sunlight by
health experts, we are now dying in our thousands from diseases linked to
deficiencies of vitamin D. But still the exaggerated warnings come. Oliver
Gillie reveals how sunbathing can save your life - The Independent, UK
►January 24, 2004 - Study
Links Some Hair Dyes to Kind of Cancer (requires registration or
subscription) - The New York Times - "Scientists have found more evidence for a
possible link between non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and long-term use of dark hair dye.
A study of more than 1,300 women in Connecticut shows that those who began
coloring their hair before 1980 increased their chance of developing the disease
by 40 percent."
►January 23, 2004 - Cancer cases
in children rise by 20% - The Herald, UK - "Medical
experts are baffled by the increasing number of young people struck by the
disease."
Comment: Apparently the "experts" consider it far
better to allow the increase to continue unabated than to consider that the
sacred cow of vaccination might play some role in this. For one perspective on
the role just one vaccine contaminant, SV40, may play in cancer, go to
Scandals: The Institute of Medicine
Review Of SV40 Contamination of Polio Vaccine and Cancer
►January 19, 2004 - Skin
cancer treatments debated - A non-surgical treatment for basal cell skin
cancer results in better cosmetic results but might be less effective than
surgery at preventing the disease from returning, a study found. - AP via CNN
►January 20, 2004 - Viruses
that kill cancer - The Boston Globe - "The first clue that viruses could
fight cancer came around the turn of the last century, when a woman with
cervical cancer was bitten by a dog. She was injected with live, crippled rabies
virus; her cancer shrank."
►January 22, 2004 - Astronauts
Can Be Grounded by Shingles - Reuters Health - "Even
astronauts with the right stuff and at the peak of health may be laid low by
shingles, brought on by stress, it seems...Shingles is a sometimes painful rash
caused by the reactivation of the virus that causes chickenpox. The virus
remains dormant in nerve cells after the chickenpox clears up, but it may be
reactivated decades later by physical trauma, although it is relatively rare in
healthy young adults...However, a study has found that the mental stress of
space travel reactivates the culprit virus, varicella zoster, in a substantial
proportion of astronauts."
►January 19, 2004 - Coffee
lowers diabetes risk - China Daily - "People who gulp several cups of coffee
a day can greatly lower their risk of developing diabetes later in life, even if
they are overweight, according to a US Study published on Tuesday...The study of
125,000 people suggests that caffeinated coffee - not caffeine-free - may affect
the body's metabolism in positive ways, the researchers at the Harvard School of
Public Health said."
►January 25, 2004 - Other
deadly avian diseases - Avian influenza is only one of several deadly
diseases which have the potential to devastate poultry populations and the
communities that rely on the poultry industry for their livelihood - Bangkok
Post
►January 25, 2004 - Scientists'
nightmare: Bird flu will evolve into human pandemic - Canadian Press -
"Their foreboding: A catastrophe they say is among the worst imaginable, a
global outbreak of an entirely new form of human flu...There is no clear sign
that will happen. Nevertheless, avian influenza's sudden sweep through Asia,
along with its tendency for wholesale mutation, leave many wondering about the
bug's potential for rampant spread among humans. It is a possibility the medical
journal The Lancet calls 'massively frightening.'"
►January
26, 2004 - Flu
outbreak is instructive - Bangkok Post - "The government has learned a
costly lesson from its attempt to cover up the presence of bird flu in the
country...The Agriculture Ministry initially attributed the death and culling of
millions of chickens to fowl cholera and bronchitis. But it was forced to accept
the truth after the Public Health Ministry confirmed that two people had
contracted bird flu, one in Kanchanaburi and the other in Suphan Buri...One
cannot hide the truth, particularly when it involves an incurable disease. China
learned this the hard way when it tried to cover up last year's outbreak of Sars."
►January 25, 2004 -
Thai Government Suspected Bird Flu Two Weeks Ago - The
Scotsman - "Thailand’s prime
minister admitted today that his government suspected “a couple of weeks” ago
that bird flu had hit its billion-dollar poultry industry, but did not tell the
public in order to avoid panic."
Comment: Ah yes, the
tried and true, "Ostrich Policy".
►January 25, 2004 -
WHO Is Alarmed by Spread of Avian Flu in Southeast Asia
Vietnam's most recent fatality shows that the virus leaped from the north of the
country to the south. Officials say it could outstrip SARS. (requires
registration) - The Los Angles Times
►January 25, 2004 -
Bird flu hits Indonesia, WHO concerned over drug resistance
- AP via www.startribune.com -
"Scientists believe people get the disease through contact with sick birds,
raising concerns it might mutate and link with regular influenza to create a
form that could be transmitted from person to person, fostering the next human
flu pandemic...Concerns are particularly high because the bird flu virus caught
by humans appears resistant to amantadine and rimantadine, the cheaper
anti-viral drugs used to treat regular influenza."
►January 24, 2004 - Bird
flu, regular influenza called risky combination - The Seattle Times -
"People hit by the bird-flu outbreak in Asia should be quarantined to avoid
contact with sufferers of regular influenza, because a combination of the two
viruses might accelerate the spread of the disease, the World Health
Organization said yesterday...However, a senior official at the U.N. agency said
he saw no need for the kind of travel warnings WHO issued during last year's
SARS epidemic."
►January 25, 2004 -
Thailand Brings in Troops to Fight Bird Flu
(requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "Provincial
governments in west-central Thailand dispatched hundreds of soldiers and
prisoners today to slaughter chickens in flocks infected with avian influenza,
as hospitals across southeast Asia remained on high alert for further human
cases of the disease."
►January 23, 2004 -
CDC: U.S. Flu
Activity Continues Decline - CDC Says U.S. Flu Cases Have Declined, With
Only Five States Reporting Widespread Illness - AP via ABC News
►January 22, 2004 - Long
illness takes life of CB 8's Katz - Times Ledger via FreshMeadowsTimes.com
via www.zwire.com - "Katz,
who lived in Jamaica Estates, was a community leader and a fifth- and
sixth-grade teacher at PS 131 for 25 years before she retired in 1991. Three
years later she developed Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a rare neurological disease
that causes impermanent paralysis, after taking a flu shot."
►January 24, 2004 - Thais
Infected With Bird Flu; Virus Spreads (requires registration or
subscription) - The New York Times - "Human cases of avian influenza, contracted
from birds, have turned up in a second Asian country, Thailand, showing the
virus has spread in recent weeks. The announcement, made by the Thai government
on Friday, has deepened fears of a global epidemic if the virus combines with
another that can be transmitted from person to person."
►January 23, 2004 - Human Bird Flu Cases Confirmed in Thailand
- Reuters - "But the World Health Organization was clearly
alarmed...It said in a statement the near simultaneous bird flu outbreaks in
Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and now Thailand and Cambodia were 'historically
unprecedented' and it was worried a new, virulent strain of influenza could
sweep around the world.
Comment: The experts have long been concerned
about a flu pandemic which it is expected would be caused by cross-species
transfer of flu. Wonder why more concern hasn't been aroused about the
potential problems re:
contamination of
vaccines with avian viruses.
►January 24, 2004 - Thailand,
Cambodia confirm bird flu -
www.theage.com.au - "Once birds or humans develop antibodies against a
particular incarnation of H5N1, 'the virus has to change to escape that immunity
... that's what it does,' he said...'It's constantly changing,' Webster said in
Hong Kong, where he is conducting research at a local university.
Comment: What does
this say about the viability of vaccination? Doesn't this suggest that vaccines
solve nothing, and instead may inherently create the need for more vaccines?
This may not be a problem for the vaccine manufacturers. But is it good for the
rest of us?
►January 23, 2004 - The
Vaccine That Missed - Sales of Pricey FluMist Disappoint
Wyeth, MedImmune - The Washington Post - "Wyeth yesterday gave its first
official reckoning of just how badly FluMist failed to meet the expectations of
the New Jersey drug company."
►January 22,
2004 - Demand for
flu vaccine decreasing, local officials say - The Garden City Telegram -
"The Finney County Health Department didn't apply for any of the FluMist nasal
influenza vaccine announced last week as being available through the Kansas
Department of Health and Environment, but health department Immunization
Coordinator Donna Marley said demand for immunizations has slowed...'It kind of
calmed down when we ran out, darn it,' she said."
Comment: "Darn it?" She's disappointed that demand
didn't exceed supply? What's that about?
►January 21, 2004 -
Vietnam last on flu vaccine list - The
New Scientist - "Drug company contracts and intellectual property rights are
impeding efforts to ensure an outbreak of bird flu in Vietnam does not result in
a deadly human pandemic...All the victims so far got the disease from poultry,
but the big fear is that the virus could turn into a form capable of spreading
from person to person. A flu vaccine that might help prevent this will soon
become available, but instead of going to Vietnam it will be sent to rich
countries to fulfil existing contracts."
Comment: Might this
constitute evidence that the purpose of vaccines is solely financial and has
little to do with hoping to prevent the spread of disease?
►January 21, 2004 - Did
the government lay an egg? - Food sector lashes out about inaction on
avian flu - The Japan Times - "The recent outbreak
of avian flu in Yamaguchi Prefecture has not only shocked restaurants and the
fast-food industry, but has highlighted the government's inability to prevent
such deadly diseases from emerging in Japan...Many were shocked by the outbreak
of avian influenza -- the first in Japan since 1925 -- that occurred at the Win
Win chicken farm in the town of Ato, especially as it came after the government
banned the import of U.S. beef in December following the discovery of the first
case of mad cow disease there."
►January 16, 2004 -
Flu vaccine futile? - Nature - "A preliminary study suggests
that this season's flu vaccine is virtually ineffective against the strain that
struck hard this winter. But experts are urging caution over the study, saying
that the results will need to be checked."
►January 19, 2004 -
Bird Flu Deaths
Prompt Asia Health Alert - Asia Goes on Health Alert Vs. Bird Flu As Fifth
Person in Vietnam Dies From Chicken-Borne Virus - AP via ABC News
►January 20, 2004 - Critics
ask why flu shot doesn't match strain -
Mercury in vaccine found to be 250 times
higher than recommended - by Kelly Patricia O'Meara -
Insight Magazine via
www.worldnetdaily.com - "Nevertheless, the CDC website says, 'the
benefits of influenza vaccine with reduced or standard thimerosal content
outweighs the theoretical risk, if any, of thimerosal,' which is of course the
source of the mercury...The CDC website also states: 'Based on guidelines
established by the FDA, the EPA and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry, no child will receive excessive mercury from childhood vaccines
regardless of whether or not their flu shot contains thimerosal as a
preservative.'...Is there a disconnect in communications between federal
agencies? Certainly the EPA and the FDA don't think the risk from exposure of
children to high levels of mercury is 'theoretical'."
Comment: As always,
Kelly Patricia O'Meara has written a clear, "insightful", important article.
►January 20, 2004 - Bird
flu: The hunt for a vaccine may be surprisingly short -
www.channelnewsasia.com - "Scientists
in Britain and the United States, working under the aegis of the World Health
Organisation (WHO), last year readied a potential vaccine against H5N1, the
codename for the bird flu virus, just two months after the disease hit Hong
Kong...'If we are lucky, in the best-case scenario, the viruses will be found by
the end of this week to be very similar, which means we will already have a
prototype vaccine,' Klaus Stoehr, head of the WHO's global influenza programme,
said from Geneva."
►January 19, 2004 - Bird
flu vaccine may come too late - Daily Yomiuri Online - "Concerns are rising
among researchers that if the bird flu that is spreading on chicken farms
throughout Asia mutates into a human influenza virus, the international medical
community will be hard-pressed to come up with enough doses of an effective
vaccine in time...The difficulty stems partly from the fact that most of the
relevant patent rights deemed necessary for the development and production of an
effective vaccine are held separately by various venture businesses around the
world, according to a researcher."
►January 25,
2004 - The
slow unfolding of Hepatitis C -
www.paktribune.com - "People infected
with hepatitis C through blood transfusions they received shortly after being
born had remarkably slow disease progression after 35 years, says an Italian
study in the January issue of Hepatology ."
►January 20, 2004 - Brain-wasting
diseases date to 18th century - Ailments like mad cow disease are believed
to be caused by rogue proteins that have been defying medical sleuths. - The
Miami Herald
Comment: In spite of publicity and claims to the
contrary, it has not been established that prions cause mad cow disease. (For
more on this, go to the
Online
Mad Cow Disease Conference at
www.redflagsdaily.com
.) So isn't cloning for for mad cow free cattle a bit premature? And if prions
have positive aspects (see
Proteins 'may help
memories form'), might not this effort also be
misguided?
►January 20, 2004 - The
Whole Cow and Nothing but the Whole Cow (requires registration or
subscription) - editorial observer - The New York Times - "In fact, the list is
nearly endless. Vaccines are often prepared in media that may contain byproducts
from slaughtered cattle. Until recently, heparin, a widely prescribed
anticoagulant, was made from bovine mucosa and lung, and steroids come from
adrenal glands. Chemicals derived from bovine tissue appear in plastics, paper
coatings, rubber and asphalt. Glycerin appears in countless products. Collagen
is a bovine byproduct...Some of these products — vaccines, for instance — are
strictly regulated, and many of the industrial uses of cattle parts derive from
cow parts that are not associated with mad cow disease."
►January 19, 2004 - Proteins
'may help memories form' - Proteins which behave like those linked to vCJD
and BSE may play a role in forming memories, scientists claim. - BBC - "Prions,
abnormal proteins which change normal proteins into copies of themselves, are
thought to cause neurodegenerative diseases...But researchers at New York's
Columbia University say a protein which behaves in the same way may help make
memories...Writing in Nature magazine, they say prions may perform other
beneficial roles in the body."
Comment: How much do we really know about these
prions? Might we be barking up the wrong tree and in an effort to neutralize
the alleged negative effect of prions end up doing some damage instead?
►January 21, 2004 - Bacterial
Meningitis risk appears small - Officials
get word out after death
- Tri-Valley Herald Online -
"'It's
important to emphasize that it really requires ongoing, close intimate contact
with somebody that has been diagnosed with meningococcal meningitis to put you
at risk for exposure,' said Dr. Peter Dietrich, medical director of Berkeley's
University Health Service. 'So casual exposures like eating in the same dining
hall together or attending a class together, or going to the training room or
the weight room or passing each other on the campus is not the type of exposure
we're worried about.'"
►January 23, 2004 -
Vaccine close
to release - International pharmaceutical company
Chiron Corporation is speeding up the manufacture of the new vaccine designed to
combat the deadly meningoccocal B epidemic hitting New Zealand. -
www.stuff.co.nz
►October 1, 2003 - Global
Vaccine Coalition Backs Un Immunization Strategy For Measles - An
international coalition for immunization has endorsed a plan by the World Health
Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to reduce
child deaths from measles by increasing the opportunities for vaccination early
in childhood. - www.europaworld.org
►January 23, 2004 - Zim
anti-polio vaccines dwindle - The Zimbabwe Independent - "STOCKS of
anti-polio vaccine BCG have begun to dwindle at a number of government-run
medical centres in the country which has forced the government to scout for
international bidders to supply the medicine, it emerged this week."
Comment: The problem is, BCG is the anti-TB vaccine.
►January 20, 2004 (broadcast date) -
Shot in the arm: the chiropractic dispute over childhood vaccinations - CBC
News - "Who hasn't heard the media message to get a flu shot? After SARS, a lot
of us are pretty scared of getting sick. But not everyone. Some people are
more concerned about the risk of severe side effects from getting
vaccinated...They're arguing that children should not be vaccinated for anything
- not measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, not even polio."
►January 20, 2004 - 'Homeopathy
can cure SARS' - www1.mid-day.com
- "As SARS cases reappear and reseachers work overtime to contain the virus,
Indians doctors say the cure could lie in ancient 'nosode therapy' and
homeopathy...According to a paper published in the Indian Journal of Clinical
Physiology (IJCP), SARS can be effectively cured by using an ancient 'Nosode
Therapy' which uses the patient's own pooled serum. It is a type of isotherapy
which involves the preparation of medicine from the patient's own blood, after
diluting it...Nosode therapy is an established therapy for treatment of most of
the diseases in animals."
►January 20, 2004 - Wider
cot deaths review considered - Thousands of parents whose children were
taken into care may have their cases re-opened as part of a wider review of cot
death legal cases. - BBC
►January 25, 2004 - Ministers
told child harm theory was flawed - The Guardian, UK - "Ministers were
warned that the controversial scientific theory Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy (MSBP)
was responsible for serious miscarriages of justice as far back as 1996,
according to documents seen by The Observer...Our investigation has uncovered a
systematic failure on the part of the health authorities, social services and
scientific advisers to question the validity of Professor Sir Roy Meadow's
theory, which claims that some parents harm their children to draw attention to
themselves."
►January 24, 2004 -
Parents convicted of killing to have their cases reviewed
- journal article (BMJ)
- "Major changes in England and Wales relating to the handlingof cases in which mothers are suspected of killing their babies
were announced this week by the Court of Appeal and the attorney
general...Hundreds of parents convicted of killing their babies are
tohave their cases urgently reviewed, said the attorney generalafter the appeal court called for an end to the prosecutionof
parents when experts' opinions on the cause of death differ."
►January 2002 -
Was the Baby Shaken? - letter - by Alan Clementson, MD (Professor Emeritus,
Tulane University Medical School) - Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients -
"Child abuse laws have given rise to many accusations of "Shaken Baby Syndrome,"
which has become a popular diagnosis to explain infant deaths, and even for
living infants who are brought to an emergency room following a fall. Much is
made of the finding of pinpoint petechial hemorrhages in the retina at the back
of the eye, but the existence and the extent of such hemorrhages are dependent
on the capillary strength or fragility, the strength or weakness of the smallest
blood vessels, which can be affected by many different conditions. In fact, an
infant can die with extensive retinal hemorrhages, a blood clot under the
capsule of the brain, extensive bruises, broken bones and sores that will not
heal, due to Barlow's disease, without having been subjected to anything but the
tenderest of loving care."
Comment: Normally I don't put anything but the most
recent news in the breaking news and on the front page, but I am making an
exception in this case.
►January 19, 2004 -
Convictions in 250 'cot death' cases to be reviewed - The Independent, UK -
"The Attorney General today announced a review of more than 250 cases in which
parents have been convicted of killing children under the age of two...Lord
Goldsmith announced the review after the Court of Appeal called for a halt to
the prosecution of parents for murdering their babies when expert evidence
points to the possibility of 'cot death'."
►January 25, 2004
- How
smallpox affected our cemeteries - Corsicana Daily Sun- "My
only experience with smallpox occurred when I was vaccinated as a child for the
disease. My memory of the incident is that the vaccination left an ugly round
scar on my shoulder. I also remember everyone saying don't touch or scratch the
scab until it was completely healed. As a teenager, I was very self conscious of
the scar especially when we went swimming. I really don't know why I had these
thoughts since everyone I knew had a similar looking mark."
►January 24, 2004 - Shots
Have Healthy Repercussions Smallpox Vaccination Effort
Helped Officials Learn How To Prepare For Disaster, Doctors Say - The Hartford
Courant - "A year ago today, with the impending war with
Iraq as a backdrop, three Connecticut doctors rolled up their sleeves and kicked
off the nation's smallpox vaccination program...Anxiety about a smallpox attack
and the vaccination program itself have almost disappeared. In retrospect, say
those who were involved, it wasn't the vaccination effort that was important but
the act of preparing for disaster."
►January 22, 2004 - Little
interest shown for small pox vaccines - The
small pox inoculation is coming up small among first responders, according to
the Montgomery County health department. - The Mercury
►January 22, 2004 -
Compo warning over vaccines - The West
Australian - "The Federal Government
could face huge compensation claims if children get sick because their parents
could not afford to pay for vaccinations, a consumer group has warned."
►January 24, 2004 -
Parents convicted of killing to have their cases reviewed
- journal article (BMJ)
- "Major changes in England and Wales relating to the handlingof cases in which mothers are suspected of killing their babies
were announced this week by the Court of Appeal and the attorney
general...Hundreds of parents convicted of killing their babies are
tohave their cases urgently reviewed, said the attorney generalafter the appeal court called for an end to the prosecutionof
parents when experts' opinions on the cause of death differ."
►January 23,
2004 - Pfizer
sets aside $403m for possible settlement - 4th-quarter
charge is aimed at closure in drug fraud cases - The Boston Globe - "If Pfizer
settles the criminal and civil cases for close to that amount, it would be one
of the largest settlements for drug fraud in US history. In June, drug maker
AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals agreed to pay $355 million to resolve criminal and
civil allegations that the company inflated the price of its prostate cancer
drug and bribed doctors to prescribe it."
►January 19, 2004 -
Convictions in 250 'cot death' cases to be reviewed - The Independent, UK -
"The Attorney General today announced a review of more than 250 cases in which
parents have been convicted of killing children under the age of two...Lord
Goldsmith announced the review after the Court of Appeal called for a halt to
the prosecution of parents for murdering their babies when expert evidence
points to the possibility of 'cot death'."
►January 20, 2004 - Organ
scandal families sue NHS - The Herald, UK - "More than 2000 families are
taking the NHS to the high court for removing organs of dead patients without
consent."
►January 21, 2004 - Groups
to fight bill to limit class-action - The Hill - "A
coalition of groups opposed to a Senate bill aimed at limiting class-action
suits has stepped up its efforts to derail the legislation...The initiative
comes despite an agreement reached late last year that won more than 60 Senate
sponsors on behalf of the legislation."
►January 24, 2004 - Researchers
accuse WHO and Global Fund of malpractice - journal article (BMJ) - "An
international group of 13 malaria researchers has accusedWHO and the
Global Fund of medical malpractice for supportingthe use of
ineffective malaria treatments. This practice, saysthe group, at the
very least 'wastes international aid money,and at most, kills
patients who have malaria.'"
►January 24, 2004 - Rx
for Growth - Merck is moving to bolster its pipeline and forge alliances.
Its stock looks cheap (requires subscription) - The Wall Street Journal
-"Although rivals like GlaxoSmithKline are working on similar vaccines, Rubin
thinks Merck might get there early. She says the product could be especially big
if it were required for admissions from middle-school through college, as other
vaccinations are already. In fact, some analysts put potential annual sales at
$4 billion."
Comment: Nothing like forcing a product on consumers
to spell big sales for a company!
►January 21, 2004 -
'Supervaccines'
Developed To Combine Childhood Shots - Required Vaccines Cover 10 Diseases
With Multiple Shots -
www.thebostonchannel.com - "For a lot of parents, keeping track of their
children's immunizations can be a full-time job. The mandatory number of
vaccinations covers 10 diseases with multiple shots, and according to health
experts, that number may double over the next decade."
Comment: The number of
mandatory vaccinations "may double over the next decade"? When is enough going
to be enough? When are parents going to "just say no" to vaccines?
Comment: Whether or not vaccines can be safely
combined has not been adequately tested, either in the long or short-term. But
there are clearly reasons to be concerned. For instance, in a 1986 Sciencearticle, when combined in the bodies of mice, two
harmless herpes viruses recombined and killed 62% of the mice.
►January 19, 2004 - Blue
Tongue: Storace, Stop Mandatory Vaccinations - Today in Italy (Special
service by AGI on behalf of the Italian Prime Minister's office - "Lazio
regional president Francesco Storace is calling for the consideration of
immediate suspension of the mandatory vaccination of sheep and goats against
'blue tongue' in a letter sent to Health Minister Girolamo Sirchia asking for an
'urgent, authoritative and resolute action'. The Lazio president is asking
Sirchia 'to avoid both the dangerous institutional counter-position and the
concrete risk of farmer's concerns and backlash'. They - wrote Storace - are
exasperated by the harm already done by previous vaccinations and have no
reassurance for the future'."
►January 23, 2004 -
Rethinking Regulation of Engineered Crops
(requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "The proposed
changes, announced on Thursday, would toughen regulation in some cases and relax
it in others."
►January 23, 2004 -
Medical Research Dealings Explored by a Senate Panel (requires registration
or subscription) - The New York Times - "Senators sharply questioned health
officials on Thursday about a possible need for stricter limits and disclosure
requirements for government medical researchers who enter into lucrative
consulting deals with drug and biotechnology companies."
►January 23, 2004 - Trials
'do not benefit patients' - There is little proof that taking part in
clinical trials alone is enough to improve outcomes for cancer patients,
research has found. - BBC
►January 25, 2004 -
Center probes mind's mystery - The Boston Globe - "Researchers at the
34-year-old center are conducting some 40 projects aimed at understanding
neurological and behavioral development...The center focuses on such topics as
how important brain systems assemble themselves; the effect of genetic and
environmental factors on neurological and behavioral development; and the social
policy implications of advances in genetics."
►January 23, 2004 - Antibiotics
in food production investigated - A new article raises concern that the
banning of antibiotics in food animals may harm both human and animal health.
The report, published this month in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy,
argues there is little to no scientific evidence to suggest that the use of
antibiotics in food animals negatively impacts human health. - NOVIS via
www.foodproductiondaily.com
►January 25, 2004 - Ministers
told child harm theory was flawed - The Guardian, UK - "Ministers were
warned that the controversial scientific theory Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy (MSBP)
was responsible for serious miscarriages of justice as far back as 1996,
according to documents seen by The Observer...Our investigation has uncovered a
systematic failure on the part of the health authorities, social services and
scientific advisers to question the validity of Professor Sir Roy Meadow's
theory, which claims that some parents harm their children to draw attention to
themselves."
►January 24, 2004 - Rx
for Growth - Merck is moving to bolster its pipeline and forge alliances.
Its stock looks cheap (requires subscription) - The Wall Street Journal
-"Although rivals like GlaxoSmithKline are working on similar vaccines, Rubin
thinks Merck might get there early. She says the product could be especially big
if it were required for admissions from middle-school through college, as other
vaccinations are already. In fact, some analysts put potential annual sales at
$4 billion."
Comment: Nothing like forcing a product on consumers
to spell big sales for a company!
►January 24, 2004 - Researchers
accuse WHO and Global Fund of malpractice - journal article (BMJ) - "An
international group of 13 malaria researchers has accusedWHO and the
Global Fund of medical malpractice for supportingthe use of
ineffective malaria treatments. This practice, saysthe group, at the
very least 'wastes international aid money,and at most, kills
patients who have malaria.'"
►January
23, 2004 -
The Sweet and Lowdown on Sugar (requires registration or subscription) -
op-ed - The New York Times - "The United States Department of Health and Human
Services should have applauded, but instead it produced a 28-page, line-by-line
critique centered on, of all things, what it called the report's lack of
transparency in the scientific and peer-review process. Although the department
framed the critique as a principled defense of scientific integrity, much
evidence argues for another interpretation — blatant pandering to American food
companies that produce much of the world's high-calorie, high-profit sodas and
snacks, especially the makers of sugars, the main ingredients in many of these
products."
►January 19, 2004 -
Convictions in 250 'cot death' cases to be reviewed - The Independent, UK -
"The Attorney General today announced a review of more than 250 cases in which
parents have been convicted of killing children under the age of two...Lord
Goldsmith announced the review after the Court of Appeal called for a halt to
the prosecution of parents for murdering their babies when expert evidence
points to the possibility of 'cot death'."
►January 21, 2004 - No
Foolproof Way Is Seen to Contain Altered Genes(requires
registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "A new report
commissioned by the government suggests that it will be difficult to completely
prevent genetically engineered plants and animals from having unintended
environmental and public health effects."
Comment:
What, if anything, are the implications re: vaccines? And, if after thoroughly
studying the question, adverse vaccine effects are discovered, they should be
factored into any risk/benefit analysis of vaccination.
►January 20, 2004 - Organ
scandal families sue NHS - The Herald, UK - "More than 2000 families are
taking the NHS to the high court for removing organs of dead patients without
consent."
►January 22, 2004 - Pseudoscience
and Globesity -
www.techcentralstation.com - "When
the Bush administration announced last week it will demand significant changes
to the World Health Organization's initiative against global obesity, it sparked
a flurry of international
protest from special interest groups accusing him and the food industry
of putting corporate interests ahead of the obesity crisis. The WHO report,
Obesity - Preventing and Managing the Global Epidemic, was produced with the
International Obesity Task Force,
whose stated mission is 'to convince world leaders that something can be done to
address the problem [of globesity].' The Administration stated the plan was
based on faulty scientific evidence and succeeded in blocking its approval.
Tuesday, WHO
decided to table it until the end of February to allow for changes to the
text."
►January 21, 2004 - CDC
to ask for probe into HIV positive party goers - The China Post - "The
Center for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday announced that 28 of the 92
homosexuals nabbed by the police at a drug party last week are HIV
positive...According to the CDC, only one party goer admitted to the police that
he is HIV positive. The police later identified 27 more reported AIDS cases
after checking with the health authorities...They were all caught while
attending the infamous drug and sex party, known as the "Home Party" in the gay
community."
Comment: What's THAT about?
►January 14, 2004 -
Doctors lash out at cancer society over HRT
- The Globe and Mail - "Obstetricians and gynecologists are lashing out at the
Canadian Cancer Society, questioning its scientific expertise and commitment to
women's health...The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada is up
in arms because the cancer society urged women last week not to take
hormone-replacement therapy for menopause symptoms, except in rare instances,
because the health risks outweigh the benefits."
Comment: Remind me,
whose interests are the obstetricians and gynecologists representing? Ah,
perhaps the answer can be found below....
►January 22, 2004 - Panel
Says Zoloft and Cousins Don't Increase Suicide Risk (requires registration
or subscription) - The New York Times - "Adding to the debate over using
antidepressant drugs for depressed teenagers and children, a group of prominent
researchers issued a report yesterday saying that Zoloft and similar medicines
did not increase children's suicide risk...The group, drawn from members of the
American College of Neuro- psychopharmacology, also found that the drugs were
effective in treating children's depression...Critics pointed to weaknesses in
the report...Critics of the medicines noted that 9 of the 10 task force members
had significant financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry, although such
ties are common among prominent researchers. The panel said no industry money
financed the report."
Comment: Give me a
break. 9 out of 10 have financial ties but "no industry money financed the
report". What do they think we are, stupid?
►January 22, 2004 -
Making Way for Designer Insects - Risks and Benefits of
Gene-Altered Bugs Merit Thorough Study, Report Says - The Washington Post - "The
insect world could shortly undergo a genetic makeover in the laboratory.
Scientists are at work developing silkworms that produce pharmaceuticals instead
of silk, honeybees resilient enough to resist pesticides and even mosquitoes
capable of delivering vaccines, instead of disease, with every
bite...Researchers are tinkering with insect genes to develop more than a dozen
new varieties, offering potentially broad social benefits while posing
complicated new health and environmental risks."
Comment: If this isn't scary, I don't know what is.
►Winter 2003 -
An
Interview with Dr. Reginald Finger, ACIP member - The ITAT Sharpshooter -
"Q
...Do you intend to stay involved here in Colorado? A Dr. Finger: Yes, I
especially enjoy being part of the Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition.
If Colorado is going to climb out the cellar with its immunization rates, some
insights from the national level may be helpful along the way. There are at
least three other national leaders in immunization here in Colorado too, not
counting Tom Vernon from Merck who has strong ties here. If we all work as a
team, maybe some really good things will happen!"
Comment: Isn't this a
teeny, tiny conflict of interest?
►January 24, 2004 -
New
infectious diseases will continue to emerge - journal article (BMJ) - "Dozens of new infectious diseases are
likely to emerge over the next 25 years unless humans acquire an ecological
perspective on infectious diseases rather than seeing microbes as simply an
invading entity that should be blindly attacked with antibiotics or used as a
tool for biological warfare, a conference was told last week."
Comment: Note that there was no mention of possible
problems with using vaccines to "blindly attack" microbes. This is
particularly telling in light of the recent admission that
'the
virus has to change to escape that immunity...' in
reference to the development of antibodies to a particular virus.
►July/August 2003 - Three
reasons to return to traditional diets - In the 1930s US dentist Weston
Price travelled the world to study the diets of 'primitive' peoples. He found a
startling lack of disease and proof that a system of environmentally-friendly
local food production is the best way to ensure human health -
www.infochangeindia.org
►January 19, 2004 - Death
In The Air - CBS/AP via www.cbsnews.com
- "A 19-year-old British woman died Monday on board a Virgin Atlantic flight
from Miami to London's Heathrow Airport, the airline said...A day earlier, two
passengers on a British Airways flight from Miami to Heathrow died, including
one from suspected viral meningitis."
►January
25, 2004 -
Officials to begin immunization push - Galveston
County Daily News - "Doctors and health officials have long worried that the low
childhood immunization rates on the island were a quietly ticking time
bomb...Less than half of the children up to age 2 on Galveston Island were fully
immunized, according to county health district estimates from 2002, the most
recent data available...'The only reason I can see why people would permit this
is people don’t understand their children are at risk,' said Dr. Martin Myers,
an associate director of the Sealy Center for Vaccine Development at the
University of Texas Medical Branch and a professor of pediatrics and preventive
medicine."
Comment: But maybe they DO know they are at
risk, only they see the risk coming from the vaccine more than from the diseases
they are designed to prevent.
Comment:
Colorado is not in last place according to NVIC's
Colorado State Contact, Cindy Loveland. To read her letter to the governor on
this issue, click
here.
►January 21, 2004 -
Colorado whooping
cough rate soars; poor vaccination rate blamed - AP via
www.9news.com - "Colorado children are nearly
three times more likely to get whooping cough than children nationwide, and the
state's poor vaccination rate is to blame, experts said...'We've got a serious
problem in Colorado,' said Dr. James Todd, chief epidemiologist at The
Children's Hospital in Denver. 'There is a correlation between low vaccine rates
and actual disease.'...Only 62.7 percent of Colorado children got timely
vaccinations for whooping cough and other childhood diseases in 2002, the lowest
rate in the nation, federal authorities said last summer."
►Winter 2003 -
An
Interview with Dr. Reginald Finger, ACIP member - The ITAT Sharpshooter -
"Q
...Do you intend to stay involved here in Colorado? A Dr. Finger: Yes, I
especially enjoy being part of the Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition.
If Colorado is going to climb out the cellar with its immunization rates, some
insights from the national level may be helpful along the way. There are at
least three other national leaders in immunization here in Colorado too, not
counting Tom Vernon from Merck who has strong ties here. If we all work as a
team, maybe some really good things will happen!"
Comment: Isn't this a
teeny, tiny conflict of interest?
►January 22, 2004 -
Compo warning over vaccines - The West
Australian - "The Federal Government
could face huge compensation claims if children get sick because their parents
could not afford to pay for vaccinations, a consumer group has warned."
►January 21, 2004 - Some
savings cited by Gov. Riley - AP via The Tuscaloosa News -
Save $955,474 by reducing nursing staff in immunizations and
child health programs, reducing school lunchroom inspections, and reducing
health education programs in schools.
►January 21, 2004 - Vaccine
changes confuse parents - The West Australian - "WA
parents wanting to have their children immunised are confused and out of pocket
because of recent changes to government-funded vaccines, say experts...They have
warned this could lead to lower coverage rates and a resurgence in dangerous
diseases."
►January 21, 2004 - No
Foolproof Way Is Seen to Contain Altered Genes(requires
registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "A new report
commissioned by the government suggests that it will be difficult to completely
prevent genetically engineered plants and animals from having unintended
environmental and public health effects."
Comment:
What, if anything, are the implications re: vaccines? And, if after thoroughly
studying the question, adverse vaccine effects are discovered, they should be
factored into any risk/benefit analysis of vaccination.
►January 23, 2004 - UI
scientists study effects of alcohol on immune system - The Daily Iowan - "In
ongoing efforts to study the effects of chronic alcoholism on the human immune
system, which makes users more susceptible to infectious diseases, UI Hospitals
and Clinics scientists have conducted the first successful experiments in the
country using mice for research involving long-term alcohol use."
►Your
Baby's Developing Immune System - How baby's
immunities mature -- and illnesses to watch for. - "Most babies average between
8 and 12 colds a year. That's because children are born with an immature immune
system that isn't very effective at fighting illness. To work, baby's system
needs to be exposed to different kinds of sicknesses so it can store knowledge
about them and use that knowledge to battle those invaders in the future."
Comment: Do never vaccinated, breastfed babies have
8-12 colds a year? And, if to work "baby's system needs to be exposed to
different kinds of sicknesses so it can store knowledge about them and use that
knowledge to battle those invaders in the future", is it safe to assume exposure
to vaccine antigens has the same effect on baby's immune system as the actual
diseases?
►January 21, 2004 - Bacterium
that causes food poisoning may lead to better anti-viral vaccines - American
Chemical Society via www.eurekalert.org
- "A new vaccine formulation that utilizes an unusual protein derived from a
bacterium that causes food poisoning — Listeria — could paradoxically be
used to improve the safety and effectiveness of vaccines for a variety of viral
diseases. These could include HIV, smallpox and influenza, according to
researchers at the University of Michigan...Conventional vaccine formulations
typically use live or weakened viruses to boost the immune response. The
Listeria formulation uses viral protein components along with the bacterial
protein, reducing the possibility of accidental viral infection. In preliminary
animal studies, the new vaccine also appeared to boost the immune response
better than a conventional vaccine, according to the researchers."
►January 21, 2004 -
'Supervaccines'
Developed To Combine Childhood Shots - Required Vaccines Cover 10 Diseases
With Multiple Shots -
www.thebostonchannel.com - "For a lot of parents, keeping track of their
children's immunizations can be a full-time job. The mandatory number of
vaccinations covers 10 diseases with multiple shots, and according to health
experts, that number may double over the next decade."
Comment: The number of
mandatory vaccinations "may double over the next decade"? When is enough going
to be enough? When are parents going to "just say no" to vaccines?
Comment: Whether or not vaccines can be safely
combined has not been adequately tested, either in the long or short-term. But
there are clearly reasons to be concerned. For instance, in a 1986 Sciencearticle, when combined in the bodies of mice, two
harmless herpes viruses recombined and killed 62% of the mice.
►January 19, 2004 - Anti-vaccine
advice worries health officials - www.cbc.ca
- "Jason Busse, a licensed chiropractor who is going for his
doctorate in epidemiology, wonders why chiropractors are giving advice on
vaccinations...'We're not taught to administer it or manage it in any clinical
or managerial way. I don't understand why chiropractors feel they should be
offering advice on this.'"
►January 20, 2004 - U.S.
parents increasingly question vaccine wisdom
- Reuters via www.signonsandiego.com
- "For instance, measles makes as many as 40
million people around the world sick every year and kills 745,000, according to
the World Health Organization..'If vaccinations were stopped, each year about
2.7 million measles deaths worldwide could be expected,' the CDC says."
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
"What's the point of vaccination if it doesn't protect you from the unvaccinated?"
-- Sandy Gottstein
"Who gets to decide what the greater good is and how many will be sacrificed to it?"
Three House Democrats ask the investigative arm of Congress to look into
'potential conflicts of interest' stemming from drug-firm payments. (requires
registration) - The Los Angeles Times - "