Today's Top Stories - December 3, 2003

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Posted December 3, 2003:

December 3, 2003 - Women's billboard campaign takes aim at vaccine dangers - Citizen Times - "Carson and her friend Angela Medlin of Raleigh asked their families for money this Christmas so they could each put up a billboard with a message...The billboards will say, 'Mercury: It's deadly. Flu shots, vaccines. It's in there. Why?'"

October 1, 2003 - Congressman Dan Burton's statement to the House of Representatives re: the toxicity of thimerosal and exposure via vaccines

Safety of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines: A Two-Phased Study of Computerized Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) Databases - Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) Study - CDC - "At a glance: The study looked at computerized data from 3 HMOS to see whether there were associations between vaccines that used thimerosal as a preservative and a wide range of neurodevelopmental disorders. Results found no consistent significant associations across the HMOs."

For Congressman Weldon's response to the VSD Study, click here.

December 2, 2003 - Autism on rise in schools - The Herald-Mail Online - "Autism affects '10,000 percent' more students across Maryland than it did about 10 years ago, a staggering number that's causing state and county school officials to take a closer look at how children who have the complex disability are taught, a Maryland State Department of Education official said."

Comment:  But aren't the "experts" insisting it's a matter of improved diagnosis?

December 2, 2003 - EU drug watchdog probes Aventis, Glaxo vaccines -  Reuters via www.signonsandiego.com - "The European Medicines Evaluation Agency will start an active surveillance programme of so-called hexavalent vaccines early next year following reports of a small number of sudden unexpected deaths in vaccinated children...'The results will be closely monitored so that timely regulatory action can be taken, if necessary,' the agency said...In the meantime, it reaffirmed its view that the benefits of vaccination far outweighed the possible risks of existing vaccines and that vaccination should be continued according to national vaccination schedules."

Comment:  But, of course.

December 1, 2003 - Berkeley study might explain HIV immunity - Resistance among 10% of European descendants may be linked to gene that blocks smallpox virus - Alameda Times-Star - "Those with immunity or resistance have one or more ancestors who centuries ago survived the scourge of smallpox, the researchers, Alison Galvani, a postdoctoral fellow, and Montgomery Slatkin, professor of integrative biology, believe."

Comment:  Is this not part of the process that makes an entire population stronger in the long run?  If it is true that vaccines are at least partly responsible for the rise in chronic and autoimmune diseases, might it be that we are "weakening the strong to protect the weak"?  If so, might there not be better ways of protecting the weak?

December 2, 2003 - Meet a virus so smart it outwits the experts -  Pretoria News via www.iol.co.za - "It would be hard enough if HIV - human immunodeficiency virus - was all that people were fighting against. For Lisa Price, policy manager for the Terence Higgins Trust, the best-known British Aids charity, it is hard to resist thinking of it as an intelligent and calculating enemy: 'This is one of the smartest viruses that people have ever seen. It changes all the time.'"

Comment:  Maybe HIV is not so smart.  Maybe we are looking at this in the wrong way.  What if, as some believe, HIV has nothing to do with AIDS?
 

November 27, 2003 - Parents look for help on fees - Apple Valley Sun Current -  "For a homeowner, the prospect of selling their house and moving to a new home is often a thrilling, exciting experience. Unless you are Krissa Leitz and her two children...Leitz, who recently closed on her house, is moving to a smaller home in Lakeville in order to continue to afford to send her children, Ryan and Abby, to therapy for their autism...Leitz’s story is not unique."
 

November 29, 2003 - Experts cast bet on flu vaccine -  Imperfect shield beat delivery delay - http://newsobserver.com - "Despite evidence that a flu bug had mutated and was defying the current vaccine, health officials around the world took a calculated risk not to change the formula for this year's flu shots...Part of the reason was that the new strain was difficult to grow in the lab. That could have delayed the vaccine's development and, thus, its availability.  Given two options -- a late but better vaccine or a timely but flawed shot -- health officials chose the latter."
 

November 30, 2003 - Mutated gene may block AIDS - Study finds those whose ancestors survived smallpox are resistant or immune to HIV - The Oakland Tribune via www.thestate.com

How Mercury causes brain neuron degeneration - University of Calgary

Comment:  This is an oldie but goodie.

 

S. Res. 278 - The Bingaman Resolution via www.nvic.org

 

Comment:  IMPORTANT DOCUMENT

 

December 3, 2003 - Calls to axe TV drama on MMR - Doctors say Channel Five film is inaccurate and could cost lives of children, but programme-makers stand firm - The Guardian, UK - "Channel Five is facing demands to pull the plug on a hard-hitting drama favourable to the disputed view that the MMR jab may be linked to autism."

 

Vaccines and Autism (pdf) - by Bernard Rimland, Ph.D. and Woody McGinnis, M.D. of the Autism Research Institute - journal article (Laboratory Medicine) (2002)

 

November 23, 2003 - My Autistic Child in the Balance - The Washington Post - "At 14, my son has reached a major crossroads in his life -- but he doesn't even know it. While other boys his age prepare for high school and ultimately college, he is now being channeled into a strictly vocational track, to a world of lowered expectations and dim hope -- and is losing his academics altogether."

The Case Against Vaccination - Verbatim Report of An Address By Walter Hadwen, J.P., M.D., L.R.C.P., M.R.C.S., L.S.A., Etc (Gold Medalist in Medicine and in Surgery) At Goddard's Assembly Rooms, Gloucester On Saturday, January 25th, 1896 (During the Gloucester Smallpox Epidemic)

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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.