►January 7, 2004 - Judge OKs military anthrax vaccinations - A federal judge cleared the way Wednesday for the Pentagon to resume vaccinating military personnel against anthrax after lifting his injunction against the mandatory inoculation program. - CNN - U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan granted a motion from Defense Department attorneys to limit the effect of his vaccine ban to the six plaintiffs who are suing the government...'In the absence of a proven correlate of immunity between humans and animals, specific to anthrax infection, the FDA's Final Rule's reliance on animal data is illegal, and reflects an arbitrary and capricious decision. Therefore, the government's victory today may only be fleeting,' said attorney Mark Zaid."

►January 7, 2004 - 'Do not fear the flu shot' - CHR officer says vaccinations vital - The Calgary Sun

Comment:  Note how this journalist did not buy into everything the CHR officer said.

►January 7, 2004 - Rhode Island receives funding for child immunization program - www.abc6.com

Comment:  What will be expected from the state in exchange for having received this funding?

►January 6, 2004 - Anthrax Vaccine Litigants To File Class-action Complaint Against DOD (requires subscription) - www.insidedefense.com - "Plaintiffs challenging the Pentagon’s 5-year-old mass inoculation program against anthrax will amend their complaint within the next 24 hours to include a class-action certification, according to one of the lead attorneys...The move constitutes the latest salvo in a legal tit-for-tat with the Bush administration following a federal judge’s Dec. 22 injunction against mandatory anthrax inoculations, which the Defense Department gives military personnel serving abroad in regions where they may face a biological threat."

►January 7, 2004 - Autism Fears over MMR Unnecessary, Says Blair - The Scotsman

Comment:  This is a good example why medicine and politics don't (or shouldn't) mix.  What makes Blair an expert on this subject and competent to meaningfully reassure the public about their MMR/autism fears? 

►January 7, 2004 - Scandals: Is the excitement about a new meningitis vaccine warranted or is it premature? - by Sandy Mintz

►January 6, 2004 - Vaccine Would Halt Nicotine's Pleasurable Effects - Vaccine Undergoing Human Trials - www.click2houston.com

Comment:  As long as this vaccine is restricted to willing users (and actually is safe and effective), it might be an example of a reasonable product because it is targeted at people who already have (and recognize they have) a problem.  Compare that to the childhood vaccines, which are forced on healthy children who may or may not (most likely will not) have a problem with the disease the vaccine is alleged to (safely) prevent.

►Rh Factor in Pregnancy - http://pregnancy.about.com

Comment:  Rhogam, given to counteract the effects of Rh Factor in pregnancy, has been a traditional source of mercury exposure for both mother and baby.

►January 1, 2004 - Study By UCSD Researchers Gives New Insight Into How Anthrax Bacteria Can Evade A Host’s Immune Response - University of California, San Diego via www.innovations-report.com

►January 7, 2004 - A Plague For The Ages Book Recounts Horror Of 1918 Pandemic That Killed At Least 20 Million Worldwide - book review - Hartford Courant via www.ctnow.com - "This winter's nasty outbreak of influenza carries only the faintest echo of one of the deadliest plagues in the history of humanity - the 1918 influenza pandemic..Contemporary news photos of long lines of people waiting for vanishing flu vaccine shots shows the public has not lost all fear of influenza, which kills about 36,000 people annually. Reports of an apparently higher than normal number of deaths among young children are heart-rending and nerve-wracking for all parents...Yet it is nearly impossible today to fully comprehend the scope of the 1918 catastrophe. What would be the reaction today to the deaths of 1.75 million Americans - the equivalent of the 675,000 U.S. lives claimed by 1918 pandemic - or a global death toll that has been estimated to be between 20 million to 100 million lives?"

Comment:  But what actually caused the pandemic?  Did it have anything to do with the privations caused by and experienced in WWI?  Were there other relevant and important factors that no longer apply?  Rather than rush willy-nilly to take the latest drug or vaccine, these and many other questions are in great need of study and answers. But who, other than the drug companies and the government, have an incentive to pay for such studies?  And can we trust government sponsored studies now that it is in the business of pushing vaccines?
 

►January 6, 2004 - Vitamins, hydrotherapy can fight symptoms of flu - Alternative Medicine via www.billingsgazette.com