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Hot Topics - Science, government, industry, medicine clearly 'run amok'Hot Topics - Big trouble - Science, government, industry, medicine clearly 'run amok' FREEDOM OF CHOICE IS NOT FREE Vaccination News, A Non-Profit Corporation All the News (includes Breaking News) - a running tab of everything posted on this website since October 29, 2003 Return to Vaccination News Home Page (for best results, right click to "open in new window") View past & current Scandals (columns by Sandy Gottstein aka Mintz) Subscribe to Scandals Search This Site using keywords click here to download Adobe Reader
The Topics: *Alternatives *Big pharma *Big trouble *Conferences *Conflict of interest *Diseases and their vaccines *Legal/political *Miscellaneous *Research *Vaccine-related issues Science, government, industry, medicine clearly 'run amok' March 1-7, 2004 ►March 4, 2004 -
4 subjects
challenge Lilly over drug trial - Outside overseer says he found no
indication that suicide victim was depressed - Indianapolis Star via
www.indystar.com - "Four participants in
an Eli Lilly and Co. drug trial in California said the clinic's staff told them
that Traci Johnson, who committed suicide last month during the same study in
Indianapolis, had a history of depression...But Dr. Rafat Abonour, chairman of
the institutional review board that reviews all Lilly drug trials at Indiana
University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said his review of Johnson's records
showed no such history." ►March 8, 2004 - Safety
reporting now in Senate's hands (opinion) - Congress should finish
what it started and pass medical error reporting legislation this year. -
www.ama-assn.org ►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 - 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
►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 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." February 23-29, 2004 ►February 29, 2004 - AIDS Tots Used As 'Guinea Pigs' - New York Post Online - "The state Health Department has launched a probe into potentially dangerous drug research conducted on HIV-infected infants and children at a Manhattan foster-care agency, The Post has learned...Some 50 foster kids were used as "guinea pigs" in 13 experiments with high doses of AIDS medications at Manhattan's Incarnation Children's Center, sources said...Most of the ICC experiments were funded by federal grants and in some cases, pharmaceutical companies." Comment: This is just one of many examples pointing to the fact that we should not blindly give power over our health to the government or the pharmaceutical companies. Clearly, we cannot simply assume they have our best interests at heart. ►February 23, 2004 - Television ads aimed at kids must change, psychologists say - USA Today ►February 2004 - Gouging the Poor - editorial - The Progressive via www.truthout.org ►February 19, 2004 - Bush Administration Distorting Science? - Transcripts of Paula Zahn Now - CNN ►February 25, 2004 - FDA requires scanners in hospitals - USA Today ►February 24, 2004 - Mich. Hospital Trying to Eliminate Errors - AP via The Herald-Sun ►February 26, 2004 - Just 5 docs to care for 623,000 patients at night - Evening Times - "JUST five doctors will be on duty for overnight home visits to cover more than 623,000 people in Lanarkshire under a new GP contract, it was revealed today." ►February 26, 2004 - Bar Codes Favored to Cut Hospitals' Drug Errors - Health Chief Maps Rules To Encourage Their Use (requires registration) - Washington Post ►February 25, 2004 - Hopkins
group had pattern of errors - Drug mix-ups, unqualified staff led to broader
probe; Child died after home care lapse - The Baltimore Sun ►February 26, 2004 - Anti-MMR parents threatened with being branded child abusers - Medical News Today - "The Daily Mail (UK newspaper) says that parents who blame the MMR vaccine on their children’s autism are being accused of Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy. This means they are deliberately harming their children to bring attention to themselves." ►February 26, 2004 - Superflu is being brewed in the lab - New Scientist - "After the worldwide alarm triggered by 2003's SARS outbreak, it might seem reckless to set about creating a potentially far more devastating virus in the lab. But that is what is being attempted by some researchers, who argue that the dangers of doing nothing are even greater...We already know that the H5N1 bird flu virus ravaging poultry farms in Asia can be lethal on the rare occasions when it infects people. Now a team is tinkering with its genes to see if it can turn into a strain capable of spreading from human to human. If they manage this, they will have created a virus that could kill tens of millions if it got out of the lab." ►February 25, 2004 - Resisting child immunization leads to prosecution - Prof - GNA via www.ghanaweb.com - "Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, Director-General of the Ghana Health Services (GHS) on Wednesday said every child must be immunized against Polio in the forthcoming immunization exercise, warning that legal action would be taken against any individual or organisation that would prevent a child from being immunized...He said it was within the laws of Ghana that all children under five years old in each house or community should be immunized against polio to guarantee that Ghana became polio free." ►February 25, 2004 - Medication Errors in Children Common - Ivanhoe ►February 26, 2004 - Social workers 'right to question parents' - This is London - "The row over the MMR "witch-hunt" deepened today as social workers defended their right to interview the mothers of autistic children...They insisted some parents could be harming their children to draw attention to themselves, and admitted subjecting one mother to an eight-week investigation before accepting she had done nothing wrong...It came after the Evening Standard revealed up to 20 parents of autistic children faced accusations that they were suffering from Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy." Comment: It's hard to believe this could be happening given that Roy Meadows, who has now been discredited, was the champion of this apparently ill-conceived theory. How much tragedy and suffering must the parents of autistic children endure? (And any old excuse in an attempt to detract from the real issue, i.e., does MMR contribute to autism?) ►February 17, 2004 - Faint Warning - Generation RX - CBC News Disclosure ►February 24, 2004 - Mich. Hospital Trying to Eliminate Errors - AP via The Herald-Sun ►February 23, 2004 - Uses and Abuses of Science (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "Although the Bush administration is hardly the first to politicize science, no administration in recent memory has so shamelessly distorted scientific findings for policy reasons or suppressed them when they conflict with political goals. This is the nub of an indictment delivered last week by more than 60 prominent scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates. Their statement was accompanied by a report published by the Union of Concerned Scientists, listing cases where the administration has manipulated science on environmental and other issues." ►February 23, 2004 - LIFE WITH BIG BROTHER - Bill forces shots on all children - Homeschoolers fight state legislation that criminalizes parents who object - WorldNetDaily - "Commented Euteneuer in a statement: "Along with Mississippi, West Virginia is the only state to forbid religious vaccine exemptions. This bill goes even further by prohibiting physicians from granting medical exemptions according to what they believe is best for each patient. Senate Bill 439 would also make West Virginia the only state to force homeschoolers to be immunized." ►March 2004 - Death by Medicine - by Gary Null, PhD, Carolyn Dean, MD, Martin Feldman, MD, Debora Rasio, MD, and Dorothy Smith. PhD - LE Magazine - "Natural medicine is under siege, as pharmaceutical company lobbyists urge lawmakers to deprive Americans of the benefits of dietary supplements. Drug-company front groups have launched slanderous media campaigns to discredit the value of healthy lifestyles. The FDA continues to interfere with those who offer natural products that compete with prescription drugs…These attacks against natural medicine obscure a lethal problem that until now was buried in thousands of pages of scientific text. In response to these baseless challenges to natural medicine, the Nutrition Institute of America commissioned an independent review of the quality of 'government-approved' medicine. The startling findings from this meticulous study indicate that conventional medicine is 'the leading cause of death' in the United States.” ►February 23, 2004 - GMC to probe drug clinic doctors - Seven doctors who worked at a private clinic for heroin addicts are facing charges of serious professional misconduct. - BBC February 16-22, 2004 ►February 12, 2004 - Medicare for lobbyists - editorial - Palm Beach Post - "Rep. Billy Tauzin delivered a $540 billion prescription-drug benefit for Medicare. Now, the Louisiana Republican is leaving Congress for a $2 million-a-year job in the drug industry. When it comes to exposing your principles, Rep. Tauzin makes Janet Jackson look coy." ►February 16, 2004 - Letter from Dr. Jane Orient of the AAPS to Colorado's Senate HEWI committee (and read on the Senate floor February 16, 2004) re: Senate Bill. 04-139, “Concerning notification to persons of immunizations for their children under specified circumstances.” - www.aapsonline.org - "Public health departments are stretched thin nationwide. Scarce public health dollars should not be diverted to Big Brother functions. Your constituents are smart enough to make their own vaccine decisions. Governmental resources are better spent on informing citizens than on monitoring them." ►February 18, 2004 - Wrong diagnoses are killing patients - New Scientist - "Many patients in intensive care units are being wrongly diagnosed, according to a study in a UK hospital. Some are dying because doctors fail to spot major conditions such as heart attacks, cancer and pulmonary embolism. The reason, experts say, is not incompetence but that so few post-mortems are now performed that doctors cannot learn from their mistakes." ►February 18, 2004 - Beaverton clinic urges parents to have their children revaccinated - The Oregonian via www.oregonlive.com - "A Beaverton clinic will begin mailing notices today to the parents of about 3,000 babies and toddlers who received a vaccine that might not be effective because it was improperly stored." ►February 19, 2004 - Smear Test Scandal - Doc under fire after dirty equipment put hundreds of women at risk of HIV virus - Daily Record, UK ►February 18, 2004 - Hygiene concern at GP's practice - An inquiry has been launched into how unsterilised equipment was used for internal medical examinations on women. - BBC - "Last year, the medical practice operated by Dr Tahira Idrees was investigated over out-of-date vaccines." ►February 17, 2004 - The link between funding and the disclosure of clinical trial results - www.vidyya.com - "There have been several conflicting reports in the medical literature about whether industry funding influences research findings and conclusions...In this week's issue of CMAJ, Bhandari and colleagues reveal the results of a study of 332 randomized trials published between January 1999 and June 2001 that show that industry-funded trials were more likely to be associated with statistically significant pro-industry findings. They state this conclusion is not limited to trials of medical treatments -- it applies to trials of new surgical interventions as well." ►February 18, 2004 - Facing the evidence: antidepressant treatment in children and adolescents - journal article (CMAJ) - "It is clear that our efforts to establish a scientific basis for the treatment of childhood depression are severely compromised by both unpublished research and the uncritical acceptance of published data. It is disturbing to note that there has been no formal response to this crisis from opinion leaders in child psychiatry, many of whom were investigators in both published and unpublished trials." February 9-15, 2004 ►February 11, 2004 - Man Gets $850,000 After Wrong Surgery - AP via The Herald-Sun ►February 10, 2004 - Seniors Given Dangerous Drugs, CDC Warns - AP via The Herald-Sun ►February 9, 2004 - Study examines inappropriate medication prescribing for elderly patients - JAMA and Archives Journals Website via www.eurekalert.org - "Medications considered 'inappropriate' were prescribed at approximately eight percent of outpatient visits by elderly patients, with pain relievers and central nervous system drugs accounting for a large share, according to an article in the February 9 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals...According to the article, inappropriate medication use in patients 65 or older has been linked to many adverse drug reactions, poor physical functioning, and excess health care utilization." ►February 11, 2004 - Hospitals under fire for infecting patients - The Sydney Morning Herald January 26 - February 8, 2004 (2 weeks combined due to illness) ►February 5, 2004 - Discussion in Scottish Parliament re: Measles, Mumps and Rubella Vaccine and "To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the Irish Government's decision to fund nearly £500,000 of scientific research into creating a safer MMR vaccine, what its position is on whether calls for further research into MMR should be resisted. (S2O-1256)...Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): I suggest that the minister read "A Public Enemy" by Ibsen, in which a character was in the same position as the minority of scientists and was proved to be right...Given that there is no conclusive evidence that MMR contributes to or causes autism, does the minister accept that there is no absolutely conclusive evidence that it does not? Is it not time for the Executive to take a more humane and flexible approach to the problem until there is conclusive evidence one way or the other?...Mr McCabe: I stress that the approach of the Executive is not only humane but based on the best principles of public safety and health. I suggest to Mr Neil that he think carefully before making the kind of statements that can cause confusion for parents of young children and possibly drive down the uptake of the vaccines. When the uptake is driven down to a point at which an outbreak is possible, we will all have the opportunity to reflect on what we have said." ►January 29, 2004 - Army won't review medication in suicides - UPI ►February 5, 2004 - Vaccines Containing Aluminum Appear Safe - Planet Ark - "To investigate the safety of aluminum-containing DTP vaccines, Dr. Tom Jefferson, from Cochrane Vaccines Field in Rome, and colleagues reviewed eight studies that recorded patient outcomes following vaccination and the amount of aluminum in the vaccine...'Despite a lack of good-quality evidence we do not recommend that any further research on this topic is undertaken," the authors conclude." Comment: That just about says it all. (If the studies used for the review are the same kind of short-term, small sample, no genuine control group study normally used to vindicate vaccines, don't bet on them being meaningful or proving anything, other than that you can "prove" anything you want.) ►January 9, 2004 - Firefighters given tetanus instead of TB shots - Reno Gazette-Journal ►February 4, 2004 - Physicians publish groundbreaking book on medical mistakes - UC News Wire - "Nearly five years after an Institute of Medicine report put medical mistakes on the public's radar screen, two UCSF Medical Center physicians have published a groundbreaking discussion of why errors occur and what health care providers and leaders must do to cure this epidemic...The book, Internal Bleeding: The Truth Behind America's Terrifying Epidemic of Medical Mistakes, was published today by Rugged Land Publishers, New York." ►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." Comment: Why don't the "experts" concern themselves with the fact that the pathogens being "prevented" by vaccine also seem to develop such "resistance"? It's obvious, however, why some of them wouldn't. Those with ties to the industry don't have any incentive to do so because resistance to vaccines simply creates the opportunity for them to cook up demand for new ones. ►January 25, 2004 - Fears Grow as Drug Firms Quit Antibiotic Research - Reuters - "With 'superbugs' stalking hospitals and old killers such as tuberculosis re-emerging, the world badly needs more powerful antibiotics...Yet the pipeline of new treatments is drying up as drug firms -- citing poor financial returns -- focus instead on chronic conditions, such as high cholesterol, where medicines are taken for years rather than curing patients in one or two weeks...The shrinking of the medical armory is a growing worry for healthcare officials and has sparked a debate between regulators and pharmaceutical companies over ways to kick-start investment." Comment: Is it really poor financial returns which are keeping the pharmaceutical industry from developing new antibiotics? Or is it the knowledge that we will make it worth their while if they balk at doing so? ►January 22, 2004 - Agent Orange study finds raised cancer risks - Air Force veterans exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War have a higher-than-average risk of prostate and skin cancer, military researchers reported on Thursday. - Reuters via CNN Comment: Better late than never, I guess. ►February 6, 2004 - Cancer research center accused of not telling patients enough about risks - AP via www.kgw.com - "A lawyer for cancer patients' families told jurors Thursday that the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center's doctors did not fully inform patients about the risks of an experimental treatment...'Had they provided all the information, no reasonably prudent person would ever have consented to participate,' attorney David Breskin said in his opening statement in a civil lawsuit alleging negligence and fraud by the center and three doctors...The five patients, who all had leukemia and who all died, underwent bone marrow transplants with an experimental treatment known as T-cell depletion." ►February 6, 2004 - Warning to patients over dirty equipment - The Herald, UK - "Hospital patients have been offered screening for blood-borne viruses after being examined with unsterilised equpiment." ►February 2, 2004 - FDA Panel to Weigh Safety Of Mood Drugs for Children - Some Data Link Use of Antidepressants, Suicidal Thoughts - The Washington Post - "A government panel of doctors will meet today to weigh disturbing but ambiguous evidence that widely used antidepressants may make some children suicidal, concerns that peaked in December when British authorities warned doctors not to prescribe the drugs to children...Clinical trials conducted by the drug industry in recent years have produced a steady drumbeat of data suggesting that suicidal thoughts and behavior are slightly more likely to develop in depressed children who take antidepressants such as Paxil, Zoloft and Effexor than in children who get dummy pills, according to several scientists who have analyzed many of the studies." ►February 8, 2004 - A Mother's Ordeal Forces Britain to Review Crib Deaths (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "Angela Cannings spent 20 months in prison, convicted of smothering two of her babies, before an appeals court declared it was all a grave mistake — the murder charges, her trial, her conviction and her life sentence...The court ruled that her conviction relied almost entirely on a tidy presumption of guilt, rather than on solid evidence...The appeals court ruling, along with similar decisions in two other cases last year, constitutes a watershed in Britain for parents who have lost children through crib death and who have been accused and convicted of murdering them on the basis of conflicting opinions, delivered by expert witnesses." Comment: One can only hope that the United States will not be far behind in re-examining the evidence against parents now incarcerated, even facing possible death, for the alleged murder of their children. To learn more about this serious and highly charged issue, go to the Online SBS Conference at www.redflagsdaily.com and visit Alan Yurko's website, the Yurko Project. (Alan Yurko is in prison for the highly questionable shaken baby death of his infant son.) ►February 4, 2004 - Pill-popping replaces healthy habits (opinion) - USA Today - "U.S. pharmacies dispensed more than 3 billion prescriptions in 2003, up from about 2 billion a decade ago. We love our medicines. And why not? They are so easy, and they usually work. We take more and more of them, even as we complain bitterly about their prices and rail against the pharmaceutical industry...But another perspective goes down less easily: Although many Americans don't get the medicines they need, as a nation, we are fast becoming overly reliant on a slew of drugs that essentially substitute for a healthy lifestyle." ►February 6, 2004 - Legislation takes on medical secrecy - A case in which a doctor's addiction was kept secret spurs legal changes - Seattle PI - "When doctors make mistakes, they must report the errors to the state -- but they don't have to tell the patients or families who were harmed...That legally sanctioned secrecy has forced many families to file malpractice lawsuits in the hopes of learning what happened to their loved ones." Comment: Doctors cry the blues when they are sued (perhaps sometimes unfairly), yet many insist on taking implied responsibility for all decisions, particularly when they do not want to give parents one of the most basic rights - i.e., the right to decide whether or not to accept vaccine or disease risks for your children. Some will even go so far as to refuse them further pediatric care, sometimes abandoning them at their time of greatest need. If doctors are unwilling to show even that most basic respect for their patients, they shouldn't be surprised when they and their mistakes are viewed harshly. ►February 1, 2004 - When surgical instruments are left behind - in patients: In the Phila. area, about 80 mistakes are made a year. - The Philadelphia Inquirer - "About 80 times a year in the Philadelphia region, the tools of surgery - gauze, scalpels, needles, retractors and the like - are found left behind in patients...This mistake occurs about once in every 3,800 surgeries in Southeastern Pennsylvania, an Inquirer analysis of hospital billing data has found...The problem has changed little in recent years, occurring on average about once a year per hospital. No one has come up with a regional estimate until now." ►February 2, 2004 - Antidepressant Strengthened Warnings About Pediatric Suicidality Risk Needed Immediately, Cmte. Says - FDA - The committee heard from 65 speakers during the meeting's public hearing, many of whom were parents of children who had committed or attempted suicide or homicide after a short time on antidepressants. Many described severe behavioral changes in their children. January 19-25, 2004 ►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. ►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 15, 2004 - Why Doctors Lashed Out At Cancer Society Over Hormone Replacement Therapy - By RFD Columnist, Lise Cloutier-Steele - www.redflagsdaily.com ►January 2004 - Reducing medical errors requires computerized information systems (requires registration) - Data standards are crucial to improving patient safety, according to a new report. - www.infectiousdiseasenews.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 accused WHO and the Global Fund of medical malpractice for supporting the use of ineffective malaria treatments. This practice, says the 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 22, 2004 - Cot deaths and the adversarial justice system - letter - The Herald, UK ►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 12-18, 2004 ►January 14, 2004 - Magazine Bares All, Has Shop Covering Up Cover - The Santa Fe New Mexican - "Increasing the number of women who nurse their babies is a goal of the U.S. government. But pictures of breast-feeding, which is as old as humankind and strongly recommended for infant health, is apparently offensive to some...After receiving several complaints about the latest issue of Mothering magazine, which shows a nursing mother and contented baby, the Vitamin Cottage on Cerrillos Road covered the offending breast with paper." Comment: This kind of thing is a big part of what's wrong with health in America. And at a vitamin shop, of all places. ►January 13, 2004 - New MMR jab scare - www.femail.co.uk - "Safety fears over MMR have been increased still further by a study which detected signs of a chronic viral infection in the bowels of children who became autistic after the jab...The virus - feared to come from the measles component of the injection - appears to have sparked an abnormal response of the immune system similar to that in patients with HIV...In October last year his former colleague Dr Simon Murch insisted that he had always supported the vaccine...However, he is a co-author with Dr Wakefield of the latest paper which concludes there is further evidence of a new form of bowel disease in children with 'regressive autism' - losing the power of speech and becoming autistic." Comment: What's the deal with Dr. Murch? ►January 11, 2004 -Ambiguous Gifts: When Patients Give and Doctors Take (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "A LAWSUIT last week evoked a distressing image of the former Beatle George Harrison, weak and exhausted, near the end of his life, being coerced into signing autographs by the doctor who was treating his cancer...Dr. Gilbert Lederman of Staten Island University Hospital has denied through a spokesman that any coercion took place, saying that he and his patient had become close and that Mr. Harrison had freely autographed a guitar belonging to Dr. Lederman's son."►January 5, 2004 - The Vietnam Example, Guinea Pigs and Systemic Abuse - Axis of Logic via World Crisis Web ►January 17, 2004 - Meningitis deaths unrelated, officials say - AP via www.thestate.com - "A high school student who died Jan. 9 was thought to have meningitis, but tests came back negative. Officials think the tests may have been affected by antibiotics given before a spinal tap was done." Comment: How often do things like this happen? ►January 15, 2004 - Recommendations to Reduce Medication Errors in Non-Health Care Settings - U.S. Pharmacist ►January 13, 2004 - Stages: Many Miss Out on 'Good Death' - (requires registration or subscription) The New York Times - "About a fifth of those interviewed said the patients had not always been treated with respect. Compared with a private home, this was two and half times as likely to occur in a nursing home and three times as likely to occur in a hospital. Survivors often said that they, too, did not receive enough emotional support." ►January 15, 2004 - Doctors giving MMR 'by stealth' - www.femail.co.uk - "Family doctors have been accused of administering the MMR jab by stealth to children coming into their surgeries to receive other vaccinations...At least 50 horrified parents have complained that their GPs have 'mistakenly' given their children the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, it has emerged." ►January 12, 2004 - Young Doctors Working Too Many Hours (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times ►January 12, 2004 - Is Signed Consent for Influenza or Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Vaccination Required? - journal article (Archives of Internal Medicine) - "Obtaining signed consent prior to administering the vaccines represents an obstacle to achieving the Healthy People 2010 goals for vaccinating individuals against influenza and pneumococcal disease. Signed consent is neither legally mandated nor a guarantee that the patient (or proxy) has given informed consent...The authors have no relevant financial interest in this article." Comment: Wouldn't want to let a little thing like informed consent interfere with achieving our goals, now would we? And what exactly is an irrelevant financial interest? January 5-11, 2004 ►January 10, 2004 - Immunologist accused of misconduct is allowed to relocate - journal article (BMJ) - "The leading Sydney specialist in immunology, Bruce Hall, who was accused of scientific misconduct, will escape any punishment after a controversial decision by his university to allow him to relocate his laboratory and staff." ►January 8, 2004 - U.S. Awards Tenet Whistle-Blowers $8.1 Million (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "Federal prosecutors announced yesterday that the government had awarded $8.1 million to two men who filed the first whistle-blower suit contending that unnecessary cardiac procedures were being performed at a California hospital owned by Tenet Healthcare."►January 8, 2004 - An Issue Comes to a Head - www.commondreams.org - "One mad cow is messy; two are messier. And in the next few months, if and when North American regulators actually begin to gather some real science by testing thousands of cows, the picture will likely get even dirtier...Many experts on bovine spongiform encephalopathy now suspect that BSE/mad cow has been in North America for at least a decade, that the beef industry and regulators have fought proper regulation from day one, that the current surveillance system is a don't-look-don't-find model and that the public-health risk from contaminated meat could be greater than most are prepared to admit." ►January 7, 2004 - Vaccines: New Campaigns Against Scepticism, Says Sirchia - "'We must launch new vaccine campaigns, despite the recent scepticisms' said today health minister Girolamo Sirchia, in Genoa to attend the 'Children and the Mediterranean conference. 'The fact that a measles epidemic has killed three people in Campania and that flu kills thousands of people each year is a crime, just as ignoring that a vaccine exists is. There is an anti-scientific behaviour which establishes that the vaccine causes the disease. We have gone back to step 1, when Jenner and Pasteur were considered plague-spreaders'. According to the minister, the fear of vaccines is due to a lack of information: 'the more scientific development advances, the more anti-scientific movements come about. Today's vaccines are completely safe - concluded Sirchia - even the one against smallpox. There are no risks whatsoever'.
Comment: If it's not obvious by now that politics and medicine shouldn't mix, I don't know when it will be. "NO RISKS WHATSOEVER"? And why are these politicians (like Blair earlier today) suddenly speaking out, and so confidently and vociferously? What's up or about to be? ►January 5, 2004 - Needless appendix surgery cited - The Boston Globe - "Surgeons needlessly remove the appendixes of thousands of children who don't have appendicitis -- a problem most acute at hospitals that perform the operation infrequently -- according to a new study that raises difficult questions about improving pediatric care." ►January 5, 2004 - Computerized ordering cuts medication errors - www.tennessean.com ►January 4, 2004 - A Suicide Side Effect? - What parents aren't being told about their kids' antidepressants - www.sfgate.com - "'If there was a warning that said 'Caution: this drug may cause suicide in some people,' then doctors are going to know about it,' Farber says...Instead of warning people, Farber charges, Glaxo-SmithKline tried to hide the true numbers. 'They cooked the books,' says Farber during a recent interview. 'They cheated on the results. And the FDA is part of this.'" Comment: Sound familiar? December 29, 2003 - January 4, 2004 ►December 30, 2003 - Ephedra Ban Comes Too Late; FDA Should Have Acted Much Sooner - Statement of Dr. Sidney Wolfe, Director of Public Citizen's Health Research ►December 29, 2003 - HRT Should Be Stopped at Breast Cancer Diagnosis - Cancer via Ivanhoe Comment: No kidding. ►December 31, 2003 - Daft science cashing in on the bleeding obvious - People who are sick die sooner and drunk gamblers lose more, according to recent research - www.timesonline.co.uk - "PERHAPS it is time for research into why university personnel continually attract funding for studies with blindingly obvious conclusions...There must be an art to it. How else to explain the work of Amos Zeichner, director of the psychology clinic at the University of Georgia, who proved that 'alcohol facilitates aggression among those who express anger outwardly'. " ►January 5, 2004 - Physician shortage predicted to spread - The AMA becomes the latest of many expressing concern that there might not be enough physicians to go around, now or in the future. - www.ama-assn.org►January 4, 2004 - Unruly Students Facing Arrest, Not Detention - The New York Times - "The 14-year-old girl arrived at school here on Oct. 17 wearing a low-cut midriff top under an unbuttoned sweater. It was a clear violation of the dress code, and school officials gave her a bowling shirt to put on. She refused. Her mother came to the school with an oversize T-shirt. She refused to wear that, too...It was a standoff. So the city police officer assigned to the school handcuffed the girl, put her in a police car and took her to the detention center at the Lucas County juvenile courthouse. She was booked on a misdemeanor charge and placed in a holding cell for several hours, until her mother, a 34-year-old vending machine technician, got off work and picked her up." Comment: Booked on a misdemeanor for violating a school dress code? Yikes! ►December 29, 2003 - Doctors: Learn Manners or Fail - Ivanhoe - "Up until 1964, medical students were actually tested on their bedside manner. Forty years later, that concept is back with an updated test. Starting with the class of 2005, all future doctors will be tested on their ability to communicate with a patient." December 22-28, 2003 ►December 22, 2003 - Scandals: Senator Frist Frivolously Dismisses Vaccine Damage by Sandy Mintz - Vaccination News ►December 28, 2003 - Inquiry after error over baby MMR - An investigation has been launched after a baby was accidentally given the controversial MMR injection. - BBC - "The three-month-old girl was supposed to have received a meningitis jab. It is understood the mistake was made at Gorbals Health Centre in Glasgow...Guidelines state babies should be at least 13 months old before they get the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine...Public health experts said the incident should not cause any long-term problems for the child...Politicians described the mistake as appalling." ►December 28, 2003 - Millions at risk from script errors - The Australian - "Australian doctors are making potentially deadly mistakes in more than 4½ million prescriptions each year...Almost one in 40 prescriptions contain errors, ranging from simple administrative mistakes to dangerously incorrect drug types and doses...Decimal points placed in the wrong spot, illegible handwriting, adult drugs given to children and wrong instructions are some of the mistakes putting lives at risk." ►December 24, 2003 - French doctors face manslaughter charges - The Guardian, UK - "Six top staff, including two surgeons, at one of Paris's leading public hospitals are facing manslaughter charges over the death of a patient who contracted gangrene after undergoing surgery...The case, in which, coincidentally, the deceased had been the hospital's chemist overseeing internal hygiene, has come amid a mounting crisis in France's public health system. Hailed in Britain as a model for the NHS, the French service has been criticised at home for poor hygiene after reports that 10,000 patients a year died from infections contracted in the country's 1,500 state medical institutions." ►December 22, 2003 - Are Nurses Cleaner than Doctors? - Ivanhoe - "Studies show health care workers who wash their hands frequently can reduce the rate of hospital-acquired infections. Now, a researcher publishing in this week’s issue of the British Medical Journal says nurses are more likely than doctors to practice good hygiene." ►December 23, 2003 - Nebraska Receives $624,085 for Immunizations and Vaccines Program - Southwest Nebraska News ►December 19, 2003 - NIH avoiding peer review? - Small $7.5 million measure would be awarded at NIH director's discretion - The Scientist - "The $328.1 billion US omnibus spending measure, which funds the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) and is now in the hands of the Senate, includes a small but unusual $7.5 million appropriation. That amount would be distributed at NIH director Elias Zerhouni's discretion, would be dedicated to research projects whose focuses fall outside traditional interests, and, researchers and advocates say, could help establish how science will be conducted in the future." ►December 25, 2003 - Interviews for HIV study were fabricated - But none of the data from 3 UM employees was used in published report - www.sunspot.net - "Three former University of Maryland employees engaged in scientific misconduct by fabricating 18 interviews with adolescents as part of a study on HIV risk reduction, the federal government has found...The study, which involved 817 youths, was published in the January 2003 issue of the journal Pediatrics, but only after all suspect interviews were deleted from the results, said principal investigator Dr. Bonita F. Stanton, who now heads the pediatrics department at Wayne State University." ►December 22, 2003 - Small Businessman Whistleblower Risks it all in the Name of Conscience - Common Dreams - "Imagine a businessman, consumer advocate and whistleblower all in one person. He is John Munsell, owner of the family business Montana Quality Foods, Inc...Mr. Munsell charged that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) tried to drive him out of business because he exposed the department's failure to act on evidence that the giant ConAgra beefpacking company was shipping E. coli contaminated ground beef carrying the USDA's own seal of approval as wholesome...The USDA's aggressive "do not look, do not tell" non-interference policy with ConAgra backfired when it was finally required to recall over 19 million pounds of ground beef and related trim during the summer of 2002. The reason: Laboratory tests confirmed E.coli 0157:H7 -- the same deadly germ that had taken lives and hospitalized many in previous contamination tragedies." ►December 29, 2003 - Call to stop deadly viruses getting into wrong hands - www.smh.com - "Ian Ramshaw...was critical of US researchers who have genetically modified cowpox virus, which can infect humans, in a way that is likely to make it extremely deadly...The team at the University of St Louis has said the research is necessary to understand what terrorists might achieve. "But I cannot see any scientific justification for it," Professor Ramshaw said...Sufficient knowledge could be obtained by restricting studies to mousepox virus, which is similar to cowpox but cannot infect humans, he said." ►December 27, 2003 - Berkeley scientists create tuberculosis 'superbug' - Virulent bacteria results from attempt to render TB harmless - Oakland Tribune -- "In trying to make tuberculosis less infectious, Berkeley scientists created a superbug that killed every lab mouse it touched...Scientists say their mutant could be a guide to the strange pathogenicity of TB, which can live dormant in humans for decades before triggering disease." Comment: How many deaths that the "experts" refuse to consider attributing to vaccines are caused by "inactivated" or "attenuated" pathogens? ►December 22, 2003 - Invalid Vaccine Doses Would Cost Millions To Fix - Center for the Advancement of Health - "Children who receive some of their vaccine doses too soon may need to be revaccinated, at an extra cost of $10 to $18 million a year, according to a new study...'The cost of revaccinating these children is substantial and may impact parents, physicians and vaccine purchasers,'...Stokley and colleagues’ sample of national immunization records reveals that 10 percent of children received at least one invalid vaccine dose in 2002. Invalid vaccines are doses administered five or more days before the minimum age for the first dose or before the minimum time between doses has elapsed...Invalid doses need to be repeated to ensure that children are adequately protected from disease, according to the researchers." Comment: What does this all mean? Among the questions that need to be asked are the following: 1) If so many vaccines have been given incorrectly, does that mean they are not responsible for declines in disease incidence attributed to their use? 2) If the declines occurred in spite of these incorrectly administered vaccines, does that mean far fewer are required for "herd immunity"? 3) If the declines occurred in spite of these incorrectly administered vaccines, does that mean they are unnecessary? ►December 23, 2003 - The Ghost of Medical Atrocities: What's Next, After the Unveiling? (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "Ever since 1972, when the American public first learned about the Tuskegee syphilis research that subjected African-American men to scientific experiments without their consent, the medical profession has had much explaining to do about its past...Since then, several disturbing instances have come to light. In those cases, scientists, physicians and the government-sanctioned research or treatments that we would today consider unethical, like trials of untested vaccines or medications on mentally retarded children and prisoners." Comment: What has really changed? ►December 26, 2003 - Schneider: Drug industry uses 'blackmail' - Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune - "An area lawmaker has asked a state legislative committee to hold hearings on efforts by American pharmaceutical companies to prevent governments from buying less expensive drugs in Canada...State Rep. Marlin Schneider, a Democrat from Wisconsin Rapids, said he has asked the Republican chairmen of the Assembly's Public Health Committee to investigate what he called "blackmail" by the drug industry...'At a time when senior citizens, businesses and state and local governments are facing ever-increasing health-care costs and insurance premiums, it is outrageous that these drug companies should be able to force Canada into denying cheaper drugs to American consumers,' Schneider said in a news release." ►December 27, 2003 - Florida needs strict rules not to reduce toxic threat of mercury - Herald-Tribune guest columnist - "Mercury is extremely toxic, and there is no safe level of exposure for humans. It can cause brain damage, particularly in children under the age of 6. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that one in 12 women in the United States has absorbed enough mercury to pose a threat to a developing fetus."Comment: What, no mention of vaccines? ►December 24, 2003 - Court Blocks U.S. Effort to Relax Pollution Rule (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times►December 22, 2003 - Pharmacists warning on ibuprofen - www.news.com.au - "Pharmacists said the wider availability of the medicine gave the false impression it was safe for everybody...'The only winners are the manufacturers of ibuprofen who have lobbied long and hard to make their products available everywhere, to everyone.'...Currently available only at chemists, ibuprofen is commonly used for headaches, period pain, backaches and other muscular pain." Comment: Isn't that fascinating. Ibuprofen was not sold over-the-counter in Australia until recently.....
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