►January 26, 2004 - Make vaccine voluntary - editorial - Army Times - "Five years after the Defense Department began forcing service members to roll up their sleeves for the anthrax vaccine, the battle over whether the shots are safe, effective or even legal still rages...But there’s another question that gets far less attention: Has anyone reassessed the potential threat that prompted the vaccine program in the first place?...More than eight months after major combat operations ended in Iraq, U.S. officials have failed to find a single drop of the thousands of gallons of anthrax supposedly stockpiled by Saddam Hussein."

►January 27, 2004 - New smallpox vaccine being tested in the Valley - www.kesq.com - "'Only half of the population of the United States is immune to small pox right now and should something go wrong, everyone should be vaccinated.'...Kelly Morris, who's researching the test, says there is not enough of the old smallpox vaccine for everyone in this country. So now the goal is to find a new more effective vaccine then make more of it."

►January 26, 2004 - Concern About Bird Flu, But Where Is The Concern About Using Avian Cell Cultures To Create Vaccines? - Comment by RFD Columnist, Sandy Mintz - www.redflagsdaily.com

►January 26, 2004 - Bacterium That Causes Food Poisoning May Lead To Better Anti-viral Vaccines - American Chemical Society via www.sciencedaily.com

►January 16, 2004 - Recommended Childhood and Adolescent Immunization Schedule --- United States, January--June 2004 - MMWR/CDC

►January 26, 2004 - AFGHANISTAN: Major polio campaign aims to vaccinate five million -  IRIN

►Safety Data-Vaccine Excipient & Media Summary with Material Data Safety Sheet (MSDS) information and Vaccine Inserts. - Critical Decisions Count

►IOM Immunization Safety Review Committee Meetings - http://www4.nas.edu 

►January 26, 2004 - Central African Republic: Polio Case Detected in Bossembele - IRIN via www.allafrica.com - "A case of "wild" polio has been detected in the Central African Republic (CAR) town of Bossembele, 157 km north of the capital, Bangui, three years after the last reported case in the country, the head of the Pasteur Institute's polio laboratory, Didier Menard, told IRIN on Monday..."The laboratory confirmed on Friday that it was a case of wild polio," Menard said...He said the girl had a doubtful immunisation background and was first suspected on 16 December 2003 of having polio."

►January 26, 2004 - Hearing to examine role of vaccines in autism cases - Contra Costa Times - "Testimony next month will revisit the controversial issue of whether childhood vaccinations have anything to do with the calamity of autism...Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., a physician by trade, has pushed to have the hearing postponed, arguing that 'it does not appear to be a serious effort to examine these critical issues.'"

Comment:  To read Congressman Weldon's statement, click here.  To read an earlier letter from Congressman Weldon to the head of the CDC, Dr. Julie Gerberding, click here.

►January 21, 2004 - Rights group joins fight to extend autism treatment - Hearing set in case of 8-year-old Toronto boy - The Toronto Star

►January 26, 2004 - Health Agencies Discuss Mercury Levels In Fish - Pregnant Women, Children Should Avoid High Mercury Fish - www.thesandiegochannel.com

►February 2004 - Autism Calendar - Schafer Autism Report

►January 27, 2004 - Mercury fears with dead dolphins - The Australian - "Record levels of mercury have been found in dozens of dead dolphins recovered from South Australia's Spencer and St Vincent gulfs...'There's no such thing as a good (heavy metal) level,' Dr Bossley said.

Comment:  Why is this point so hard for the unquestioningly pro-vaccine camp to understand?

►January 26, 2004 - Americans Who Eat Canned Albacore Tuna Ingest Too Much Mercury, New Data Shows - www.commondreams.org

Comment:  Ingesting mercury is not okay, but injecting it is.  Right. (Oh, yes, I forgot.  Not to worry - it's the good kind of toxic mercury that we are injecting.)

►January 26, 2004 - Officials now required to report chicken pox cases - Public health department monitoring disease to determine need for vaccine - The Craig Daily Press - "Despite a lax attitude many parents hold regarding chicken pox, Bowler said the disease can lead to severe complications and even death. If pregnant women contract the disease, it can lead to a fetal mortality rate as high as 30 percent, Bowler said...'Yeah, a lot of kids get it and don't have problems,' Bowler said. 'When it's your child who has complications, it's no longer just a routine childhood illness.'"

Comment:  Chickenpox used to be universally considered a benign disease.  If it has now become a more serious disease, why is that?

Comment:  And when it's your child who has complications as a result of vaccination, it's no longer just a routine vaccination.

►January 27, 2004 - Anthrax kills nine cows in western Saskatchewan, farm quarantined - Canadian Press via http://cnews.canoe.ca

►January 27, 2004 - Gov advises against complacency at launch of Meningitis awareness campaign - www.politics.ie

►January 27, 2004 - Influenza deserves more respect as killer  - Kalamazoo Gazette via www.mlive.com - "One illness -- influenza -- kills as many as 30,000 Americans every year and scores of thousands worldwide... The other -- SARS -- didn't kill a single American last year and killed just 813 worldwide."

►January 27, 2004 - Pandemic influenza plan ready: Official - Program to focus on vaccine, not anti-virals or antibiotics, official  says - Canadian Press via The Toronto Star

►January 27, 2004 - Meridian Bioscience Awarded New Rubella Patent - Business Wire

►January 27, 2004 - Early Virus Likely Set Stage for Bird Flu - AP via www.kansascity.com - "A virus that weakens the immune system of chickens is likely to have set the stage for the rampant spread of bird flu across Asia, a Hong Kong scientist said Tuesday...Frederick Leung, a zoology professor at the University of Hong Kong, said his studies conducted since 1996 showed that Hong Kong chickens hit by bird flu were usually struck by the infectious bursal disease virus, or IBDV, about six months earlier."

►January 27, 2004 - Flu a bigger threat than Aids? - www.news24.com - "World health officials have a store of evidence to back their warning on Tuesday that if bird flu mutated into a more contagious form it could kill millions of people...That assertion may seem overblown to those for whom influenza is just a cold with attitude - a bad case of the snuffles with fever, headache, coughing and muscular aches thrown in for good measure...But the truth, say researchers, is quite darker...Flu is a changeling, a survivor, a stealthy assailant which, in its most pathogenic strain, could rip around the world."

►January 27, 2004 - Bird flu has not infected humans in Pakistan - Pak Tribune

►January 27, 2004 - Deadly Bird Flu Leaps Into China; Kills Thai Boy - Reuters

►January 26, 2004 - Study Links Ear Drops With An Increase In Resistant Bacteria - Temple University via www.sciencedaily.com -  "Eardrops, widely prescribed for the treatment of pediatric ear infection, can lead to an increase in resistant bacteria and fungi in the ear, according to Glenn Isaacson, MD, professor and chair of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery, Temple University School of Medicine. Isaacson presented his findings yesterday (January 25, 2004) at the Eastern Sectional Meeting of the Society of Laryngology, Otology and Rhinology...Traditionally, doctors have prescribed oral antibiotics for the treatment of ear infection, one of the most common disorders in children. In 1998, however, eardrops containing a very broad-spectrum antibiotic, fluoroquinolone, were introduced and billed as the treatment of choice. Recently, experts have raised concerns about overuse of the ear drops and the development of resistant bacteria."

►January 2004 - Diet and Dioxins (pdf) - NIH

►January 26, 2004 - Fat Cells Boost Immune System - HealthCentral

*Note:  Starting December 10, 2003 news will be posted in the "daily news" pages based on when it was posted on this website, not by publication date.