Posted
March 1, 2004:
►March 1, 2004 - Allegany
Doctors Create Safety Net for Poor (requires registration or subscription) -
The Washington Post
►February 29, 2004 - HCA
and FedEx top list of Tennessee profit-makers - The Tennessean
►February 29, 2004 - Through
Gaps in System, Nurse Left Trail of Grief (requires registration or
subscription) - New York Times
►March 1, 2004 - Bigger
Is Called Better for MAMSI (requires registration or subscription) -
UnitedHealth Merger Broadens Services - The
Washington Post
►March 1, 2004 - Medicaid
rolls grow despite predicted cuts Record 42.4M people covered - USA Today
►March 1 , 2004 - Sepracor
plans to double staff, launch ads - Insomnia drug get FDA backing - Boston
Globe
►February 29, 2004 - Is
Biotechnology Losing Its Nerve? (requires registration or subscription) -
New York Times
►March 1, 2004 - Hospital
becoming bigger landmark - The Tennessean
►February 29, 2004 - GOP
Still Seeking Afterglow of Vote on Drug Benefits (requires
registration or subscription) - Credit for
Huge Expansion of Medicare Eludes Republican Party as Discontent Appears to
Spread - The Washington Post
►March 1, 2004 - No
Reprieve Likely From Outbreaks -Atlanta Journal-Constitution via
www.immunizationinfo.org
(abstract)
►March 1, 2004 - Polio
in Ivory Coast Started in Nigeria, Tests Confirm - New York Times via
www.immunizationinfo.org
(abstract)
►March 1, 2004 - Unexpected
Lessons Learned This Flu Season - Los Angeles Times via
www.immunizationinfo.org
(abstract)
►March 1, 2004 - WHO
Official on Challenges in SARS Prevention - Xinhua News Agency via
www.immunizationinfo.org
(abstract)
►February 29, 2004 - Infant
Vaccine Supply All Out - Tasmanian Mercury via
www.immunizationinfo.org
(abstract)
►March
1, 2004 - Parents of Vaccine Injured
Children Support West Virginia Religious Exemption -
NVIC
►February 27, 2004 -
Jury still
out on safety of male hormones - New York Times via The Houston Chronicle -
"Given the shocking recent discovery of potentially serious ill effects of
hormone replacement for women, it is hardly surprising that many experts are
warning against assuming that supplemental testosterone is safe and effective
for men experiencing the normal effects of aging."
►February 28, 2004 -
Netherlands
to crack down on complementary medicine - journal article
(BMJ) - "The
Netherlands is considering tougher laws on practitioners of
complementary medicine after government health inspectors who were
investigating the death from breast cancer in 2001 of the actress and
comedienne Sylvia Millecam severely criticised her treatment...The
investigators found that alternative practitioners contradicted the
diagnosis of breast cancer made by her doctors and offered her
instead the prospect of a cure with 'unfounded methods of
treatment.'"
Comment: Would that unfounded allopathic methods
of treatment and misdiagnoses were eyed with the same level of scrutiny.
►February 23, 2004 -
Doctors pressure human guinea pigs - MDs are paid up to $5,000 per patient
to sign up volunteers for drug trials - CanWest News Service via The Vancouver
Sun via www.canada.com
Comment: Wow. If that isn't a conflict of
interest, I don't know what is. This article is chock-full of disturbing
information.
►February 28, 2004 -
Only 6% of
drug advertising material is supported by evidence - journal article
(BMJ)
►February 27, 2004 -
Jury awards $63M for brain-damaged baby born in Boynton Beach - The Palm
Beach Post via www.tcpalm.com
►Mad Cow Disease, Mad Deer
Disease - Chronic Wasting Disease, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy -
feature articles - Organic Consumers Association
►February 29, 2004 - New
Vaccine Shortage - CDC via www.about.com
►March 1, 2004 -
Fowl exposed
to flu used in soup - The Asahi Shimbun
►March 1, 2004 -
Japan
minister livid after bird flu cover-up - Japan's 3rd bird flu outbreak
confirmed - AP via www.etaiwannews.com
►February 29, 2004 -
Peru
bans imports of poultry from bird flu-affected countries - Xinhuanet via
China View
►February 26, 2004 -
Deputies call for state takeover of troubled hospital - AP via The San Diego
Union Tribune via www.signonsandiego.com
►March 1, 2004 - Misreporting
Measles Research - National Electronic Library for Health (archive) -
www.nelh.nhs.uk - "The research study found
that a higher proportion of children with developmental disorder and new variant
inflammatory bowel disease had measles virus in their gut tissue than healthy
children."
Comment: This
analysis tries to make it appear as if there is no evidence linking MMR vaccine
to the measles virus in these children or good reason to believe they might be
connected. As for research, there is
research evidence linking the two. As for good reason, these children
were vaccinated and had never had the measles. So the presence of measles
virus in their gut probably either means that a) it is measles vaccine virus or
b) vaccinated children who get the measles can suffer gastrointestinal problems
which may or may not be related to autism.
►The Exemption Debate -
West Virginians For Vaccination Exemptions
►March 1, 2004 -
Vaccinations: Irrational fear isn't confined to Third World - editorial -
The Dallas Morning News - "Polio is back in northern
Nigeria, thanks to a conspiracy theory spread by some Muslim clerics. They're
telling their people that a United Nations vaccine program is part of a Western
plot to render their women infertile. African children will be left crippled
because of such barbaric nonsense, and a dread disease that could have been
eradicated by scientists will live to maim countless others...But before we
start feeling too superior to the superstitious Nigerians, let's consider how
vulnerable our own irrational fears of vaccines leave our population to
potentially calamitous outbreaks of disease."
Comment: It's only an irrational fear if you
dismiss or ignore the evidence against vaccines.
►February 29, 2004 -
Nil by mouth - For thousands of Britons battling the debilitating effects of
cancer, depression, even eczema, diet is crucial. They view the vitamins and
minerals they take as vital in their fight against sickness. So why does the EU
want to cut off their supply? Rose Shepherd makes the case for rescuing remedies
- The Observer via The Guardian, UK - "In the 21st century we live under siege.
There are concerns about pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, GM, mobile phones,
microwaves, amalgam fillings, falling sperm counts, mad cows, MMR - even milk.
Farmed salmon is a Trojan horse for carcinogens. Obesity and diabetes are on the
march. There is a mass of documentation on all this. So what is the European
Commission's big idea? 'Let's clamp down on vitamins and minerals.'...It would
be funny if it weren't so tragic. While the EU has been busy drafting
legislation, we seem to have been sleepwalking into a situation where chemists
and health stores will be purged of hundreds of nutritional supplements."
►February 29, 2004 -
Parents lobby to ease immunization laws - St. Louis Post-Dispatch - "The
same vaccines that many credit with ushering in a public health miracle were a
curse to 4-year-old Caleb Mueller, his father believes...Keith Mueller of Kansas
City blames a batch of state-mandated vaccines with causing a severe allergic
reaction in his son when the boy was just over 1. Today, the father is certain
that his son's autism is tied to the shots, as well...Mueller is joining several
parents rights advocates this year to support bills in the Missouri Legislature
that would make it easier for parents to exclude their children from
immunizations."
►March 1, 2004 -
Stars leap at chance to raise cash for meningitis - The Scotsman
►March 1, 2004 -
JK boosts meningitis charity £130,000 splash - Evening News via The Scotsman
►February 27, 2004 -
Using soils as filters to prevent 'crypto' from moving to the groundwater -
A study published in the Vadose Zone Journal examines how different soil types
affect Cryptosporidium parvum's transport. - American Society of Agronomy via
www.eurekalert.org
►February 17, 2004 -
Immune Activation and CD8+ T-Cell Differentiation towards Senescence in HIV-1
Infection - journal article (PLoS Biology)
►February 27, 2004 -
Avian influenza A(H5N1) - update 30: Situation (human) in Thailand - WHO
►February 27, 2004 -
Drugs limit deadly side effects of graft-versus-host disease - Could make
bone marrow transplants an option for more cancer patients - University of
Michigan Health System via
www.eurekalert.org
►February 17, 2004 -
pRb Inactivation in Mammary Cells Reveals Common Mechanisms for Tumor Initiation
and Progression in Divergent Epithelia - journal article (PLoS Biology)
►February 17, 2004 -
Treatment of Terminal Peritoneal Carcinomatosis by a Transducible p53-Activating
Peptide - journal article (PLoS Biology)
►February 28, 2004 -
Panel Urges Stricter Limits on Acne Drug - Reuters via Yahoo! News
►February 28, 2004 -
Panel Backs National Accutane Registry - AP via The Herald-Sun
►February 29, 2004 -
Experts Urge Tools for Women's Health - AP via The Herald-Sun
►February 29, 2004 -
Insomnia Drug Gets Tentative Approval - AP via The Herald-Sun
►February 29, 2004 -
Harvard Plans Stem Cell Research Center - AP via The Herald-Sun
►March 1, 2004 -
Doctors Urge Eye Wear for Kids in Sports - AP via The Herald-Sun
►March 1, 2004 -
More Wonder About What's Safe to Eat - AP via The Herald-Sun
►March 1, 2004 -
CDC Says Ads Getting Kids to Play Outside - AP via The Herald-Sun
►February 29, 2004 -
Dismal payout record for radiation-induced illnesses - Government programs
aimed at compensating cancer-stricken nuclear-era workers or survivors
criticized for complexity and heavy denial rate - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
►March 1, 2004 -
Studying Hyperlexia May Unlock How Brains Read - Children With Rare Disorder
Have Heightened Reading, Learning Skills (requires registration) - Washington
Post
►February 29, 2004 -
Religious exemption worries Ripley mother
- Sunday Gazette-Mail - "'How can these groups call themselves
pro-life and pro-family if taking a moral stand against abortions performed in
the 1960s takes precedence over protecting the lives of those with weakened
immune systems today?' she asked."
Comment: As I said in my 2002
speech:
"Public
Health will say that these vaccines must be mandatory or these diseases will
spread. But if the vaccines work, anyone choosing them will be protected. If
they dont prevent the spread of the disease to the vaccinated, what is the
point? It hardly seems right that those who dont want to be vaccinated should
be required to be vaccinated, because vaccines dont always work...And to
whatever extent vaccines are being required because the immune suppressed
cannot be vaccinated, and are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of disease,
while my heart goes out to such people, they are not more important than
children who are harmed by vaccines. Nor should the notion that vaccination may
in itself be creating immune suppression be left out of this equation...Besides
there is documented proof of outbreaks in
100% vaccinated
populations.
Now, whose fault is that?"
►February 29, 2004 -
Twisted conflicts
- (letters) The Observer via The Guardian, UK - "It seems a
scientist, such as Dr Andrew Wakefield (News and Leader, last week), who
uncovers genuine concerns about the safety of a vaccine has to be 'squeaky
clean'...In contrast, scientists who are vocal in support of the vaccine, and
are responsible for checking its safety, are allowed to receive research funding
from the company that produces it and to hold shares in the company, or act as
consultants." (sent by Dr Milton Wainwright, Department of Molecular Biology and
Biotechnology, University of Sheffield)
►February 27, 2004 - Emergency
polio campaign ends, marred by lingering Nigerian Muslim boycott - AP via
San Francisco Chronicle
►February 27, 2004 - Family
exposed to rabies (requires registration or subscription) - Times
Herald-Record
►February 27, 2004 - Alliance
Sets Goal to Increase Child Vaccinations - Reuters via Yahoo! - "The Global
Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and The Vaccine Fund, its
financial arm, hope to raise $400 million annually from governments and private
sources to immunize 30 million children against diseases such as polio,
hepatitis and yellow fever...'Our goal is to allow every child, everywhere in
the world access to immunizations,' Jacques-Francois Martin, the president of
The Vaccine Fund, said at the London launch of the campaign."
►February 27, 2004 - Baxter
and Arriva Pharmaceuticals Complete First Clinical Trial Evaluating the Safety
and Tolerability of Nebulized Recombinant Alpha 1-Antitrypsin -
PRNewswire-FirstCall via
http://interestalert.com
►February 29, 2004 - Kyoto
bird flu outbreak kills 67,500 chickens - The Daily Yomiuri
►February 29, 2004 - CDC,
health officials use innovative ways to fight diseases abroad - AP via
www.accessnorthga.com
►February 27, 2004 - Kyrgyzstan:
Deadly Disease Peril - Cash crisis in health service so acute that specimens
of anthrax are ferried to an infectious diseases laboratory by public transport.
- www.iwpr.net
►February 29, 2004 - West
Nile, A Pregnancy Danger? - CDC via
www.medicinenet.com
►February 27, 2004 - Foot
and mouth disease found in Kyrgyzstan - UPI via
http://interestalert.com
►February 27, 2004 - Doctoral
candidates in S. Florida see Scripps as avenue for jobs - Sun-Sentinel
►February 29, 2004 - Problems
of modern children often take a back seat to the seemingly more urgent problems
of adults - Growing up pains - Times Leader
►February 29, 2004 - Dirty
tricks drug firms use to get publicity - The Scotsman - "SHOCKING
tactics including bribery, fabrication and plagiarism are being used by
unscrupulous drug companies to get their research published in influential
medical journals, according to a damning new report...Only a week after
controversial research on the MMR vaccine was discredited by the journal which
published it following a 'fatal conflict of interest', an influential committee
has revealed the widespread use of underhand tactics by researchers."
►February 29, 2004 - Doctor
demands apology for MMR claims in Lancet - Telegraph, UK - "Andrew
Wakefield, the doctor who first raised fears of a link between autism and the
MMR vaccine, has hired a libel lawyer to demand an apology from The Lancet after
claiming that the medical journal has cast doubt on his honesty...Dr Wakefield's
decision to enlist the support of Carter-Ruck, the London law firm that
specialises in defamation suits, follows the denunciation of his work last week
by The Lancet."
►February 27, 2004 - Alkali
Creek Elementary School special ed teacher forced to move after 25 years -
Billings Gazette
►February 27, 2004 - Technology
suffers in budget - Funds needed for hardware, software upgrades - Watertown
Tab & Press via www.townonline.com
►February 27, 2004 - Chasing
A Hope: Advocates for Mentally Ill See Help in Proposed Sales Tax Increase -
The Ledger
►February 29, 2004 -
Baby
Blair had MMR jab after outcry (requires subscription) - Times Online, UK -
"LEO BLAIR, the prime ministers youngest child, received the MMR jab later than
normal after sustained public and press questioning of his parents, according to
family and political sources...The Blairs and Downing Street have consistently
refused to confirm whether Leo has had the vaccination despite the governments
advocacy of the MMR jab as the best and safest protection against measles, mumps
and rubella."
►February 29, 2004 -
Red tape
delays hepatitis-B vaccination - The Daily Star
Comment:
For a different perspective on both the risk of acquiring hepatitis B as well as
its seriousness, go to
Scandals:
The CDC and The New Math, where 1 + 1 does not equal 2.
For more on the the spread of hepatitis B in developing nations and why
advocating the use of vaccination, under the circumstances, is very revealing,
go to
Scandals: "But Faith, fanatic Faith, once wedded fast To some dear
falsehood, hugs it to the last." - Thomas Moore (Scandals
- update and "flashback").
►February 29, 2004 -
NHS
scornful of Charles on alternative medicines -
www.independent.co.uk - "National
Health Service managers yesterday dismissed calls by Prince Charles for more
complementary medicines to be made freely available on the NHS, saying most of
them did not work...Dr Gill Morgan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation,
the umbrella body for managers, said the NHS could use only those medicines that
had been proven effective, ruling out the majority of complementary therapies."
►February 29, 2004 -
Chicken pox
vaccine not foolproof - Times of India
►February 29, 2004 -
Is Biotechnology Losing Its Nerve? (requires registration or subscription) -
The New York Times - "S a founder of four biotechnology companies, Dennis A.
Carson can practically write an encyclopedia entry on risk. After all, his first
start-up, a gene therapy and vaccine company called Vical, still does not have a
product on the market after 16 years and more than $100 million spent...But now
Dr. Carson, who is also the director of the cancer center at the University of
California at San Diego, is playing it safe, or at least safer. Rather than
develop radical new technology or invent new medicines, his latest venture,
Salmedix, plans to sell drugs licensed from other companies - drugs that are
already on the market or that have at least gone through some clinical trials."
►February 29, 2004 -
Research slowly helping despair give way to hope (requires registration) -
The Arizona Republic - "'Your child has autism.'...More than 10 families contact
the Phoenix-based South- west Autism Research & Resource Center every week after
hearing that devastating diagnosis...I say 'family' because autism not only
affects your child, but every member of the family. How you feel, what you do,
where you eat, how and where you sleep largely depend upon your child with
autism."
►February 29, 2004 -
Key to unlock disorder may lie in genomics (requires registration) - The
Arizona Republic
►February 29, 2004 -
Deadline set to counter flu epidemic - Gulf Daily News
►February 29, 2004 -
More bird flu confirmed in Japan -
www.abc.net.au
►February 29, 2004 -
Autism is a mystery,
not a medical conspiracy - opinion - The Scotsman - "In
contrast to Wakefield, I intend to declare an interest at the outset. My son
Josh is autistic. Like most children, he was given the MMR vaccine at around 18
months. Shortly afterwards, he began exhibiting the first signs of what we now
identify as autistic behaviour. The link between these two events is tempting,
but, for reasons of sanity, I have resisted it...In the vast majority of cases,
autism manifests itself at around two years, or, in other words, just after the
MMR is administered. This coincidence inspired Wakefields study. In 1998, his
team reviewed reports of children with bowel disease and autistic symptoms.
Their research led them to conclude that the MMR shot caused developmental
regression, in some cases within 24 hours of vaccination."
Comment: A temporally related relationship
alone does not prove causation. But a recent event raises a red flag and
is, in fact, the most likely cause. Moreover, the fact that autism didn't
used to occur at two years old, nor did it result in the loss of skills as does
the new, "regressive" form of autism, means cavalierly dismissing the temporal
relationship as "coincidental" is neither wise nor scientific. Sadly,
however, this is characteristic of what happens re: the vaccine issue.
The fact that others are beginning to
corroborate Wakefield's findings, in spite of the difficulty finding funding to
do so, and the potential risks to one's reputation and livelihood, make easy
answers like the ones voiced in the opinion piece above even harder to swallow.
►February 29, 2004 -
Wakefield unlikely to be charged over MMR scare -
www.independent.co.uk
►February 27, 2004 -
Emergency polio campaign ends, marred by lingering Nigerian Muslim boycott -
AP via www.sfgate.com
►February 27, 2004 -
HRT risks 'were known
years ago' - Women could have been told about the risks of taking hormone
replacement therapy years ago. - BBC
►February 26, 2004 -
Mix of Chemicals Plus Stress Damages Brain, Liver in Animals and Likely in
Humans - news release - Duke University Medical Center
►February 22, 2004 - WHO
suppressed scientific study into depleted uranium cancer fears in Iraq -
Radiation experts warn in unpublished report that DU weapons used by Allies in
Gulf war pose long-term health risk - Sunday Herald, UK
►February 26, 2004 -
MMR
medics challenged over child spinal taps - Times Online - "NEW
questions about the ethics of the controversial study that linked the MMR
vaccine to autism in children will be raised in Parliament today, The Times
has learnt..Less than a week after the doctor who pioneered the research was
accused of failing to disclose a £55,000 payment, ministers are to be asked
whether he had received proper ethical approval. The fresh doubts centre on
whether the lumbar punctures to which autistic children were subjected by Andrew
Wakefields team at the Royal Free Hospital were clinically justified."
►February 26, 2004 -
Leslie
Burke is terminally ill. Today he will ask a court for the right to live -
www.independent.co.uk
►February 29, 2004 -
Great Influenza killed quickly, cruelly, perversely - Vivid history of U.S.
epidemic of 1918 is also a cautionary tale for our times (requires registration)
- book review - The Providence Journal
►February 29, 2004 -
Hospital report card - www.newsday.com
►February 29, 2004 -
Japanese chickens test positive for avian flu - Taipei Times
►February 29, 2004 -
Japanese farm to kill 190,000 chickens after H5 virus bird flu confirmed -
AFP via www.channelnewsasia.com
►February 29, 2004 -
Bird flu
outbreak raises fears of chicken consumers - Mainichi Daily News
►February 29, 2004 -
Dirty tricks drug firms use to get publicity - Scotland on Sunday via
www.scotsman.com
►February 25, 1999 -
Antimicrobial
Resistance: The NIH Response to a Growing Problem - National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the
National Institutes of Health
►February 29, 2004 -
'Unless pin-up parents rally round, we will see the return of dread diseases'
- comment - The Observer via The Guardian, UK - "Meet 'John' and 'Jane', pin-up
parents. They insist on organic food for their toddler, bring him to the best
baby group in town, buy him only all-cotton outfits from Baby Gap and won't let
him watch more than three hours of television a week...Despite this perfect
parenting, however, John and Jane put their child's health at risk every day.
They are among the 5 per cent of British parents who have opted out of
vaccinating their child."
Comment: This
argument rests on assuming that the epidemic of autism, the rise in chronic
disease (including cancer, asthma, diabetes), and other concerns raised by
so-called "pin-up parents" could have nothing to do with vaccination and have
been scientifically settled. But condescension does not truth make.
And buying the propaganda generated by the vaccine manufacturers as to the
safety of their product does not prevent harm from being done. To the
contrary, if these parents are right, it merely serves to perpetuate and
compound the damage.
►February 29, 2004 -
Int'l bird flu meeting agrees on help to affected countries - Vietnam News
Agency
►March 1, 2004 -
Flu puts scar on region - The Standard
►February 29, 2004 -
Threat of
bird flu pandemic haunts officials - Los Angeles Times via
www.contracostatimes.com
►February 29, 2004 -
Most `stomach
flu' avoidable - In case you haven't been listening, wash those germy hands!
- AP via Akron Beacon Journal via www.ohio.com
►February 29, 2004 -
School nurses valued, but...Districts that have them plan to keep them, despite
costs; others say life OK without them - South Bend Tribune
►February 29, 2004 -
Health
bosses deny MMR deception - Health bosses have denied university students'
claims that they were tricked into having the MMR vaccine without their
knowledge. - BBC - "A mass inoculation programme against mumps took place at the
University of Kent at Canterbury earlier this month after six students caught
the disease...Now some students have told a national newspaper they were not
told they were being given the MMR vaccine."