Vaccination NewsLetter: Top Stories - posted January 12-18, 2004

Vaccination NewsLetter: Top Stories - posted February 9-15, 2004

FREEDOM OF CHOICE IS NOT FREE

Vaccination News, A Non-Profit Corporation

Picks of the Day Archives

All the News (includes Breaking News) - a running tab of everything posted on this website since October 29, 2003

Other archives

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

Notes

Previous newsletters

Picks of the week - updated 2/18/04

The Newsletter is now linked to the new Hot Topics section here and to specific categories and sub-topics below

Alternatives

Alternative treatments/prevention

►February 12, 2004 - Human proof that Cod Liver Oil really can slow the onset of osteoarthritis - Experts reveal 'Granny's remedy' could hold key to cutting waiting lists, saving the NHS millions - Cardiff University via www.eurekalert.org

►February 14, 2004 - Heartbreaker, painmaker - The Guardian via Hindustan Times - "While physical stress (such as eating fatty foods) may be an obvious cause for making heart disease one of the biggest global killers, cardiologists, psychologists and other scientists around the world have been gradually gathering evidence that emotional stress from heartbreak is sometimes also a factor in exacerbating heart disease and other illnesses. Sometimes, this can even lead to death."

►February 10, 2004 - WHO Issues Herbal Medicine Guidelines - AP via The Herald-Sun

►February 10, 2004 - Gene therapy jab burns off fat - New Scientist

►February 9, 2004 - 'Respiratory etiquette' cuts spread of disease - Evansville Courier & Press via Healthy News

Breastfeeding (vs. formula)

Nutrition/diet

►February 11, 2004 - Americans Advised to Cut Salt, Follow Thirst - Report Lowers Recommended Salt Intake, Eases Water Rules - WebMD Medical News

►February 11, 2004 - No Consensus on Salt Restriction - press release - The Salt Institute via US Newswire

►February 11, 2004 - Salt and Water Intake: Press Release - Institute of Medicine via Newsday

Comment: Note the three different titles.

Big pharma

Conflict of Interest

Drug Development

►February 9, 2004 - Helping the less fortunate - Company advances drugs to cure little-known diseases, not to make a profit - AP via The Buffalo News

►February 8, 2004 - Medicine Hunter Tracks Promising Plants - AP via The Herald-Sun

Ethics

Funding/money matters

►February 12, 2004 - MedImmune thinking twice about staying in vaccine business - CNS via www.sunherald.com - "The research chief of Gaithersburg-based MedImmune told a House committee Thursday that the company may get out of the vaccine-production business, following disappointing sales of its nasal-spray vaccine this flu season."

Comment: "BL Fisher Note (from the NVIC newsletter): When America's free enterprise system is allowed to work properly, without government coercion, then those products the public needs and wants will be purchased and consumed and those the public does not need or want will not be purchased and consumed. That leaves the way open for other manufacturers to build a better mousetrap and persuade the public to use that better mousetrap, which is as it should be...A good example is the Prevnar vaccine. The Prevnar vaccine, without any government mandates, was the best selling new drug/biological in 2001. Wyeth can't make the product fast enough to satisfy public demand...In any given year, only about one quarter of the US population has voluntarily chosen to purchase and consume flu vaccine of any kind. Only when government interferes and mandates use of a vaccine or subsidizes manufacturers of vaccines is America's free enterprise system not allowed to work as it should. At the end of the day, the public should not be forced to use a product it does not want...There were very good reasons why the FDA did not approve FLUMIST for use in children under five or adults over 50. MedImmune and Wyeth both know why. MedImmune is wise to read the writing on the wall rather than ask for government bailout of a vaccine that the public, for whatever reasons, obviously does not want."

Pharmaceutical industry

►February 12, 2004 - Pop That Pill - PopMatters via AlterNet.org - "Around 20 years ago, the word 'patient' began evaporating eerily – like the photo of Michael J. Fox in 'Back to the Future' – from the dictionaries of the drug companies. And in its place came the term, 'medical consumer.' Twenty years ago. That's when drug manufacturers began marketing prescription medications directly to the lay public...It used to be that drug ads were directed only toward physicians, mostly in the dry pages of medical journals. And for good reason. Prescription drugs are complex things; each has risks and benefits. There is no such thing as a harmless medicinal drug. In Hebrew, the word for medicine is samim, or poison. Every drug is a poison."

►February 9, 2004 - Drug Company Attacks Developing Nations' Diseases - AP via The Tampa Tribune - "Victoria Hale is chief executive of the ultimate oxymoron: a nonprofit drug company...From her office in San Francisco, she hopes to wipe out diseases that plague developing nations but are ignored by Western drug companies for lack of profit possibilities...Hale's prescription is to gain marketing rights to promising drug candidates that are owned by drug companies but sit undeveloped in labs."

Pharmaceutical industry/FDA oversight

►Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee - FDA/CBER - meeting alert - February 18 - 19, 2004

►February 11, 2004 - Network of NHS watchdogs launched - An independent network of NHS watchdogs is to be launched aimed at giving the public a greater say over healthcare. - BBC

►February 10, 2004 - WHO Issues Herbal Medicine Guidelines - AP via The Herald-Sun

►February 10, 2004 - FDA on Drug Ads: Less Is More - (requires registration) - Washington Post

►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."

PR/advertising

►February 10, 2004 - FDA on Drug Ads: Less Is More - (requires registration) - Washington Post

Research conduct

Conferences, workshops, seminars, courses

►February 13, 2004 - CDC's 18th Annual Chronic Disease Prevention Conference Feb. 18-20 - press release - conference alert - CDC via US Newswire

►Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee - FDA/CBER - meeting alert - February 18 - 19, 2004

Diseases and their vaccines (current and in the pipeline)

AIDS/HIV/AIDS vaccine

►February 13, 2004 - Thailand responds to HIV vaccine critics - Science via Science and Development Network

►February 11, 2004 - Drug to stop HIV spread to babies may harm moms - The treatment used in poor countries to prevent the spread of HIV from mothers to their babies may have a serious drawback: It can make the women resistant to the AIDS drugs they may need later on, disturbing new research shows. - AP via CNN

►February 13, 2004 - Aussie Vaccine 'Blocks Out' HIV - Australian via www.immunizationinfo.org (abstract)

►February 12, 2004 - It's Back to Basics After AIDS Vaccine Setbacks - Wall Street Journal via www.immunizationinfo.org (abstract) - "Due to frequent mutation, resistance to neutralizing antibodies, and the ability to hide from the human immune system, developing a vaccine against HIV-1 is proving difficult. The most innovative vaccines currently in development are likely to fail, according to Harvard Medical School professor Ron Desrosiers. To be successful, researchers must slow down development and concentrate on basic science questions concerning how HIV-1 interacts with the immune system, says Desrosiers."

►February 13, 2004 - Aust scientists develop therapeutic HIV vaccine - PM via www.abc.net.au

►February 11, 2004 - Scripps scientists say genetic mutation doesn't protect against HIV and plague - Scripps Research Institute via www.eurekalert.org

►February 12, 2004 - Vaccine research: back to the drawing board? - www.aidsmap.com - "The major presentations on HIV vaccines at the Eleventh Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in San Francisco were dominated by one question. Is it reasonable to press ahead with large-scale clinical trials, such as the one now underway in Chon Buri and Rayong provinces, Thailand? Or should the emphasis and funding for vaccine research shift more strongly back to basic immunology and experiments in animal models?"

►February 12, 2004 - Australian HIV vaccine gains international attention - National Nine News via http://news.ninemsn.com.au

►February 13, 2004 - New vaccine hailed as HIV breakthrough - Herald Sun - "Medical experts are thrilled by early results from the injection, which kick-starts the body's immune system to fight HIV...Doctors say if the HIV level can be kept low, patients will avoid AIDS and live long and relatively healthy lives."

Comment: But what if, as some believe, HIV has nothing to do with AIDS?

►February 11, 2004 - Black Death Not Reason for Anti-HIV Gene Mutation - Nature via Reuters Health - "People with a genetic variation in a receptor on immune cells, called the CCR5-delta-32 mutation, are resistant to infection with HIV. The mutation is much more common in people of Northern European descent than in other populations, and it seems to have arisen some 800 years ago...Researchers have suggested that it became so common as a result of selective pressure by the Black Death plague in the Middle Ages, meaning that people with the mutation were more likely to escape the contagion...As plausible as the theory seems, it's apparently unfounded, researchers conclude in an article in this week's issue of the science journal Nature."

►February 9, 2004 - HIV therapy raises drug resistance - USA Today

►February 11, 2004 - Lipid Sciences' Data: A Model for a New Therapeutic Vaccination Strategy Against HIV Infection - Data Presented at Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections - Lipid Sciences, Inc. via Yahoo!

►February 8, 2004 - Antiretrovirals' Benefits far Outweigh Their Side Effects - Sunday Times via www.allafrica.com

Comment: Where have we heard that before. And what if HIV has nothing to do with AIDS. Can it reasonably be said, if that is the case, that the known risks of anti-retrovirals are outweighed by a meaningless benefit?

►February 10, 2004 - A Global Battle's Missing Weapon (requires registration or subscription) - Op-Ed - The New York Times - "Of all the mind-numbing statistics about H.I.V. and AIDS, the most staggering — and important — is this: 95 percent of those infected worldwide do not know they are harboring the most deadly virus in history, and are therefore spreading it, however unintentionally. The primary reason for this is that routine AIDS testing is virtually absent in most countries during the long period — it averages eight years — when people don't know they have the disease because they have no visible symptoms."

Comment: But what if, as some believe, HIV has nothing to do with AIDS?

►February 10, 2004 - Infant Drugs for H.I.V. Put Mothers at Risk (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times

Comment: Ditto.

►February 9, 2004 - Stopping Newborn AIDS May Harm Mothers - AP via The Herald-Sun

Alzheimer's disease/vaccine

►February 6, 2004 - Compound May Be Effective In Reducing Alzheimer’s Plaques - journal article (Psychiatric News)

Anthrax/anthrax vaccine/Gulf War Syndrome

►February 10, 2004 - Anthrax Spores Can Germinate, Grow and Reproduce in Soil - University of Michigan Health System via Newswise

►February 13, 2004 - Man Exposed to Anthrax Sues Government - www.nbc25.com

►February 10, 2004 - Granville soldier deployed without vaccine - AP via The Advocate - "The Army dropped one charge against an Ohio National Guard member convicted once and charged again with disobeying a lawful order after he refused to take the anthrax vaccine, then deployed the soldier to Iraq without the shots."

►February 11, 2004 - Anthrax alert lost in rush to war - The West Australian - "THE Australian navy deliberately rushed sailors to war in the Gulf without first warning them they would need anthrax shots and without recording the details of vaccines they were given, a secret defence investigation has found."

Asthma/allergies

►February 13, 2004 - Antioxidants Cut Asthma Risk in Children - Reduction most dramatic among those exposed to secondhand smoke - HealthDayNews

►February 12, 2004 - OHSU researchers hope to prevent childhood asthma with new eczema drug - Fifty percent of babies with eczema, family history of allergic disease may develop asthma - Oregon Health & Science University via www.eurekalert.org

►February 9, 2004 - Early Fevers Associated with Lower Allergy Risk Later in Childhood - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease - "Infants who experience fevers before their first birthday are less likely to develop allergies by ages six or seven, according to a new study funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study, published today in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, lends support to the well-known "hygiene hypothesis," which contends that early exposure to infections might protect children against allergic diseases in later years."

Comment: And what about immune response via vaccination that occurs without fever? Might it predispose TO allergies? (One small study suggests that the vaccinated may have more allergies. For more on this go to Out of Control: "Childhood vaccinations and the risk of asthma" - a CDC study.)

►January 2004 - The effect of environmental tobacco smoke on eczema and allergic sensitization in children - journal article (British Journal of Dermatology)

►February 10, 2004 - Treatments: Flaws Found in Food Allergy Files (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "Hospital emergency rooms routinely mishandle patients who arrive with acute, potentially fatal allergies to food, researchers reported yesterday."

►February 9, 2004 - Study: Early fevers lower allergy risk later - Babies who develop several fevers in their first year are less likely to develop allergies later in life, researchers said on Monday. - Reuters via CNN

Comment: In the same way, is experiencing childhood infectious disease protective in one's later years?

►February 10, 2004 - Study: Dogs Build Infants' Immunity - Newsday

►February 10, 2004 - Allergy surge to be investigated - Scientists are to look at whether diet affects people's risk of developing an allergy. - BBC

Autism

►February 14, 2004 - Increase in autism is due to changes in diagnosis, study claims - journal article (BMJ)

Comment: For other perspectives on this, see what the M.I.N.D. Institute had to say about this, as well as F. Edward Yazbak, MD (at the Online Autism Conference at www.redflagsdaily.com).

►Autism A.L.A.R.M. - CDC, AAP et al via www.medicalhomeinfo.org - "Autism is prevalent...1 out of 6 children are diagnosed with a developmental disorder and/or behavioral problem...1 in 166 children are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder"

Comment: Note that it is the CDC and AAP that are saying this.

►January 29, 2004 - Coolidge v. Riegle - court of appeals decision re: autistic child who acted aggressively against his teacher

►February 12, 2004 - Making All Faces Familiar for Those With Autism - HealthDayNews via www.14wfie.com - "University of Washington researchers have discovered that the brains of people with autism function differently than the brains of normal people when they see pictures of unfamiliar people...The study of 11 adolescents and adults with autism and 10 age-matched controls also found that when people with autism see a picture of a familiar face, their brain activity is similar to that of other people...The researchers say these findings indicate that in people with autism, a brain region called the fusiform gyrus that's associated with face processing has the potential to function normally, but may need special training to do so."

►February 9, 2004 - Special Training May Help People with Autism Recognize Faces - press release - University of Washington via Newswise

►February 9, 2004 - Coping With Autism - Ivanhoe Newswire - "The most recent statistics show autism affects between one and three of every 500 people. It’s a lifelong disorder that makes social interaction and every day communication tough. It also causes aggression in many people. Now different therapies can help ease that autistic aggression."

Autism/mercury

►February 13, 2004 - Parents push for vaccine options - Parksville Qualicum News - "Alternatives are available to parents concerned about the additive thimerosal in their kids' flu shots...Vaccines with trace amounts of the preservative, or none at all, are available through public health services - but at an extra cost, says Dr. Monika Naus, associate director of epidemiology services at the BC Centre for Disease Control."

►February 13, 2004 - MMR vaccine and autism - No link - Major Study - Medical News Today - "Lead author Frank DeStefano of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said: 'Children with autism received their first MMR vaccine at similar ages as children without autism, so this study supports the weight of the evidence from previous studies that didn't find an association between the MMR vaccine and autism.'"

Comment: I don't know that anyone is suggesting that it is because the MMR is occurring at a particular age that it may be causing autism. And given the varying lengths of time it takes to recognize and/or diagnose autism, the arbitrary cut-off times only serve to obscure, rather than shed light on, the question. The relevant comparisons are children who have not had the MMR vaccine and those who have had no vaccine, ever. This study says nothing about whether or not MMR causes autism in some susceptible children. (If, after comparing the vaccinated to the never vaccinated it becomes apparent that the MMR vaccine, with or without other vaccines, causes autism, it might then be interesting to see if there are ages that are more susceptible than others. But to assume a known cut-off point and age at diagnosis, without having determined what, if any, such factors are meaningful, is a good example of poor research design. Besides, the average age at which a diagnosis is made and the MMR is given says nothing about the actual ages these things occur.)

►February 11, 2004 - NAA's Response to the Wall Street Journal Editorials - www.nationalautismassociation.org

►February 13, 2004 - Heat rises on mercury issue - www.idsnews.com

►February 13, 2004 - CDC Knew of Potential Link between Vaccines, Autism - First Coast News - "The Centers for Disease Control published a study last fall repudiating any possible link between thimerosal and developmental problems like autism in children. However, First Coast News has obtained non-published documents that show the CDC DID have data supporting such a link-- but kept it from the public."

Comment: Another fine article.

►February 12, 2004 - ASU autism study needs samplings of baby hair - The Arizona Republic

►February 12, 2004 - School worker in Michigan charged with mercury spill (requires registration) - The Chicago Tribune

►February 12, 2004 - Mercury worries rising - Proposals that let polluting industries set the rules - opinion - Sarasota Herald Tribune

►February 12, 2004 - Mercury found in sink at school - Two Middletown High School students discovered a small amount of mercury Wednesday morning in a school laboratory, which prompted several city and state officials to respond. - Middletown Press

►February 12, 2004 - Orange City senator offers bill to ban immunizations containing mercury-based preservatives (requires subscription) - Sioux City Journal

►February 10, 2004 - Cartoon in the Victoria Times Colonist (right click to open in new window)

Comment: This would be funnier if it weren't so true. (It seems as if this editorial cartoonist "gets it", where most of the mainstream journalists do not.)

►February 10, 2004 - Scientists Fail to Agree on Vaccines, Autism Link - ScoutNews, LLC via www.healthcentral.com - "Does a preservative used in some childhood vaccines increase a recipient's risk of autism? Researchers on both sides of the issue faced off Monday at a National Institute of Medicine (IOM) meeting investigating a possible connection...While a host of scientists reported that large studies in the United States and Europe have failed to find a link between thimerosal and the poorly understood brain disorder, others said they were increasingly convinced of an association between the two, reports the Washington Post."

►February 9, 2004 - When Judges Play Doctor - Wall Street Journal via www.immunizationinfo.org (abstract) - "Paul A. Offit, the chief of infectious diseases at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, says in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal that the spate of lawsuits filed by parents that allege their children's medical problems were caused by the vaccine preservative thimerosal could lead to judges and juries deciding whether the mercury-based preservative actually caused harm, taking that decision away from researchers who could prove or disprove the idea using science."

Comment: Sometimes judges are forced to play doctor when the doctor doesn't abide by the "first, do no harm" first principle.

►February 10, 2004 - Federal Panel Hears Testimony on Vaccinations and Autism (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "Medical experts squared off Monday before a federal panel trying to determine whether a mercury-based preservative once common in routine childhood vaccines was behind the rising rates of autism in the United States...Most of the epidemiologists who testified said they doubted that the preservative, thimerosal, was responsible. But a few toxicologists said they had become more and more convinced of a potential link...Representative Dave Weldon, Republican of Florida, accused the Centers for Disease Control of ignoring potential links and said it was blocking access by outside researchers to a vaccine database it maintained with a group of managed-care organizations."

►February 10, 2004 - Experts Weigh Possible Autism, Vaccines Link - Reuters, UK - "But Amy Carson, co-founder of Moms Against Mercury, said the government and others were trying to "shift the blame" from thimerosal to other sources...'I think they want to be able to say those children were already damaged in utero and that it didn't have anything to do with vaccines,' said Carson, whose 7-year-old son has autism."

►February 10, 2004 - E.P.A. Raises Estimate of Babies Affected by Mercury Exposure (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "More than one child in six born in the United States could be at risk for developmental disorders because of mercury exposure in the mother's womb, according to revised estimates released last week by Environmental Protection Agency scientists."

►February 9, 2004 - Do vaccines which have a mercury preservative cause Autism? - Medical News Today

►February 9, 2004 - Vaccines (mercury) and Autism – Link? More information - Medical News Today

►February 10, 2004 - Small tuna found to hold less mercury - A study finds wide variation between West Coast albacore and larger fish in big brands (requires registration) - The Oregonian

►February 10, 2004 - No link found between autism, vaccine - UPI via The Washington Times

►February 9, 2004 - Study Links Vaccine to Autism - opinion - by Dr. Martha Collins - Planet Chiropractic - "From the National Post: In tests on human brain cells, researchers found two natural chemicals—one compound that stimulates cell growth and also dopamine, which transmits nerve signals—are key to a process in the brain called methylation. Methylation helps DNA work properly and is crucial to the normal development of the brain. The team found thimerosal, ethanol and mercury all interfere with methylation. What’s more, thimerosal not only did so in amounts typically found after a child is vaccinated, but even at doses 100 times lower than a child would receive after a single shot with a thimerosal-containing vaccine. 'It was by far the most potent,' says investigator Dr. Richard Deth, a professor of pharmacology at Northeastern University in Boston. 'Some would consider (thimerosal) a smoking gun,' he said. 'I think it is.'"

►February 9, 2004 - Scientists suggest mercury-autism link, recommend action - www.timesrecordnews.com - "Vaccines containing mercury may be contributing to the rise in autism even though population studies have not shown a connection between vaccines and the disorder, scientists told the National Academies of Science Monday...Several large population studies in the United States, the United Kingdom and Sweden have found no increased prevalence of autism among children who received vaccines containing the mercury-based preservative thimerosol, scientists told a special panel of the National Academies of Science's Institute of Medicine examining vaccine safety...However, a review of several other studies shows there is strong evidence that children with autism may suffer from an inherited condition that prevents them from efficiently excreting mercury from their bodies, said toxicologist Vasken Aposhian, a professor the University of Arizona and an expert on mercury who was a member of the national academies' mercury panel in 2001."

►February 9, 2004 - Autism and Links to Vaccines Containing Mercury To Be Re-examined by Independent Experts at the Institute of Medicine - Medical Expert Jeff Bradstreet M.D., Presenting His Findings at the Panel Held by the IOM, and Parents of Autistic Children Available to Comment - press release - Autism Recovery Consortium via PRNewsire - "Dr. Bradstreet will introduce new information on possible links between autism (a rapidly rising epidemic among children throughout the United States), the mercury preservative thimerosal, and the Measles Mumps Rubella (MMR) vaccine. Dr. Bradstreet, who is also the father of a child recovering from autism, has the largest patient population of children with ASD (autistic spectrum disorder) in the U.S."

►February 9, 2004 - CDC Orders Premature IOM Meeting on Vaccine Autism Link - CDC Conflict of Interest Hinders Scientific Research on Autism - press release - Safe Minds via PRNewswire

►February 9, 2004 - CDC Vaccine Safety Data Leads Scientists To Shocking Discovery - press release - National Autism Association

►February 8, 2004 - Mercury damage 'irreversible' - USA Today - "Scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health have found that methyl mercury contamination of seafood can cause heart damage and irreversible impairment to brain function in children, both in the womb and as they grow...'If something happens in the brain at development, you don't get a second chance,' says lead researcher Philippe Grandjean."

Autism/MMR

►February 10, 2004 - Caution call on 'maverick' claims - Scientists should think twice before courting publicity for their "minority views", says an ethics expert. - BBC - "Professor Udo Schuklenk, writing in the Journal of Medical Ethics, warns patients may be led to refuse treatment most experts think safe...For example, some parents rejected the MMR jab after suggestions it causes autism - even though most scientists believe the vaccine is safe...But other experts said science only develops if assumptions are challenged...He (Schuklenk) said there were cases where a minority view had turned out to be correct, but that this was rare...In order to prevent confusion, Professor Schuklenk says ethical guidelines should be drawn up governing how scientists present their work to the public."

Autism therapies/education/medicine (including the cost of care)

►Alternative therapies for autism - WebMD

►What Medications are Available (for autism) - NIMH

Autism and vaccines (general, or re: both MMR & thimerosal)

►February 9, 2004 - Biological Evidence of Significant Vaccine Related Side-effects Resulting in Neurodevelopmental Disorders. - Presentation to the Vaccine Safety Committee of the Institute of Medicine, The National Academies of Science, February 9, 2004. - by Jeff Bradstreet, MD, ICDRC

►February 13, 2004 - Again, No Link Seen Between MMR Vaccine and Autism - Pediatrics via Reuters Health

Comment: Good grief. Have these reporters no shame? For more on why this and other reports on the IOM meeting re: autism and vaccines are literally "not to be believed", click here.

►February 11, 2004 - Researchers Closer To Answers About Vaccines And Autism - www.kirotv.com - "Scientists disagree on a link between vaccines and autism. While some studies suggest there's no connection, one report just out concludes mercury may interfere with brain activity in a way that could cause autism...Still Ricci King is doubtful the panel will bring her and other parents closer to the answers they need...'What will resolve the issues for parents is to see adequate funding directed toward the cause of autism how to treat it. How we as parents and families are to support our children for you know, a lifetime,' said King."

Comment: Indeed, how are they to care for them?

►February 11, 2004 - The Irresponsible Media Coverage of the Institute of Medicine Meeting on Autism and Vaccines - by RFD Columnist Sandy Mintz in the Online Autism Conference at www.redflagsdaily.com

►February 9, 2004 - Statement of Rep. Dave Weldon, M.D., Member of Congress, Before the Institute of Medicine, February 9, 2004

Comment: This is a must-read.

►February 10, 2004 - Autism: experts weigh possible vaccines link - A panel of independent experts are re-examining the possibility that vaccines may cause autism. - CommentWire - "The Institute of Medicine is examining a rash of new studies on the link between vaccines and autism. The conflicting research comes at a time when parental concern over the causes of autism is leading to a reduction in the number of children receiving important childhood vaccinations. However, the point remains that the disease risk of not vaccinating far outweighs the risk of developing autism."

Comment: I wonder how they know that the risk of not vaccinating far outweighs the risk of developing autism. Autism is a lifelong disorder, with huge costs associated with it (both "opportunity" and direct financial). As many as 1 in around 50 children (in some places) have acquired it, although it tends to occur in around 1 in 150 or so. Yet most of the diseases for which there are vaccines are not normally deadly or with long-term consequences if you are a child living in a developed nation. There may even be benefits to getting the infectious diseases of childhood. Chronic disease is on the rise, and may be attributable at least partly to increasing use of vaccines. But that is their mantra, and they are sticking to it, no matter what. (For more on the many concerns re: vaccination and why we really don't know if the benefits outweigh their risks, click here.)

►February 10, 2004 - Researchers dispute risk of autism from vaccines - Cox News Service via The Contra Costa Times

Comment: This is a shocking example of media bias. Note that although there were almost the same number of researchers who supported the claim that vaccines cause autism as opposed it, there was not even a hint of that fact in this article. Also note that Mark Geier, a geneticist with both an MD and a PhD, who with his son presented compelling evidence against the vaccines (and who has been thwarted in his efforts by the CDC - see below), was not only NOT called a researcher, but was referred to right after this sentence: "Some people who attended the meeting refused to accept those findings." "Some people"? "Refused to accept those findings" when their own research contradicted it? 'Nuff said.

►February 10, 2004 - Studies Find No Evidence That Vaccines Inflate Risk of Autism - The Washington Post - "Scientists cast new doubt yesterday on suspicions that vaccines increase the risk for autism, saying large studies conducted in Denmark, Britain and the United States have failed to find a link between the childhood shots and the brain disorder...Other researchers, however, questioned the findings and presented evidence they said supported the theory that mercury used as a preservative in some vaccines may increase the risk for autism in at least some children...The conflicting research came at a day-long meeting sponsored by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, which is investigating a possible link between vaccines and autism at the request of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta."

Comment: Given that the research was admittedly conflicting, why the one-sided title?

►February 9, 2004 - Autism and Vaccines - Wall Street Journal via www.immunizationinfo.org (abstract) - "An editorial in the Wall Street Journal was written after a surprising response the paper received from a previous editorial about vaccines, in which the editorialist had noted that although there is concern that the preservative thimerosal, once used in vaccines, may be the cause of the rise in autism cases in children over the past 30 years, there is no scientific data to reflect that presumption. Letters and e-mail messages subsequently written to the paper accused the editorialist of "fraud," a "terrorist act," and presenting an industry profit promoting agenda,' language that is also being used in other arenas by a relatively small minority of the population that uses its voice to stifle others that have an opposing view."

Comment: And then again, maybe these writers are not trying to stifle an opposing view, but are reasonably objecting to an unfounded one.

►February 9, 2004 - Vaccine debate simmers - USA Today - "A long-running debate over what role, if any, vaccines play in causing autism or other developmental disorders continued Monday with a series of new studies that did little to settle the question."

Autoimmunity/autoimmune disease

Behavioral disorders, chronic disability

►February 12, 2004 - Test fails the needs of many special students - Standard Democrat via http://news.mywebpal.com

►February 9, 2004 - Brain Scans Being Used to Study Dyslexia - Scientists Are Looking Inside Children's Brains to See if They Can Learn More About Dyslexia - AP via ABC News

►February 10, 2004 - Agencies struggle with state on behalf of developmentally disabled - Sun Sentinel

►February 12, 2004 - Health law made stricter - Declaring quarantine can be done faster - The Cincinnati Enquirer - "Local health commissioners have more power to confine people during a public health emergency under revisions to Ohio's quarantine laws that take effect today. Inspired by modern risks of a bioterror attack, the changes give health commissioners the authority to declare a quarantine without having to wait for full approval from their boards of health."

►February 10, 2004 - U.S. plans for 'hot labs' split scientific community - New York Times via International Herald Tribune

►February 10, 2004 - New Germ Labs Stir Debate Over Secrecy and Safety (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "A flood of federal money has led to a building boom for high-security "hot labs," where the world's deadliest germs and potential bioterrorist weapons can be studied...The laboratories would more than triple the space to develop vaccines and treatments for anthrax, plague, hemorrhagic fevers and other killer pathogens, officials estimate."

Cancer/cancer vaccines

►February 12, 2004 - NNMC and NCI study possible vaccine for ovarian cancer - The National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) are currently investigating vaccine therapy that may prove to be effective against ovarian cancer. - NNS via The Dolphin

►February 11, 2004 - Childhood Cancer Survivors Need More Screening - Cancer via Ivanhoe

►February 12, 2004 - Jefferson Researchers Find Immune Response, Dosing Keys to Vaccine's Success Against Melanoma - Journal of Clinical Oncology via A Scribe Newswire

►February 11, 2004 - Gene mutation in US started 13 generations ago - German immigrant - Medical News Today

►February 10, 2004 - Imaging technique discovered at Stanford monitors cancer cell proliferation - Stanford University Medical Center via www.eurekalert.org

►February 9, 2004 - Study: Optimism no help against cancer - A positive attitude does not improve the chances of surviving cancer and doctors who encourage patients to keep up hope may be burdening them, according to the results of research released Monday. - AP via CNN

Cardiac

►February 12, 2004 - 'Peptide' may help predict early heart disease - A protein produced by overstressed heart muscle appears to be a strong indicator of heart disease, offering doctors a quick and cheap test for diagnosing patients in the ER and a potential new way to spot heart trouble well before symptoms appear. - AP via CNN

►February 11, 2004 - Peptide May Help Predict Heart Disease - AP via The Herald-Sun

►February 9, 2004 - Another gene linked to heart attack risk - A team of researchers said it has found a simple genetic mutation that doubles the risk of heart attack and stroke. - Reuters via CNN

►February 9, 2004 - Study firms up depression, heart risk link in women - Depression in older women is strongly linked with a higher risk of dying from heart disease, according to research on more than 90,000 women. - AP via CNN

Chickenpox/chickenpox vaccine

►February 11, 2004 - Gene mutation in US started 13 generations ago - German immigrant - Medical News Today

►February 9, 2004 - Panel urges widespread chicken pox vaccinations - www.ctv.ca

►February 9, 2004 - Chicken Pox Linked to Flesh-Eating Disease - National Post (CAN) via www.immunizationinfo.org (abstract) - "Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization is recommending widespread vaccination against chickenpox after a study conducted by Ontario infectious disease specialists found a link between the disease and necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating bacterial infection."

Comment: Is the chickenpox linked to necrotizing fasciitis, or is it the use of analgesics and/or other medications during chickenpox that is responsible?

Diabetes

►February 13, 2004 - 600,000 unaware they are diabetic - Bay Area health officials cautioning women, minorities about disease - Alameda Times-Star

►February 12, 2004 - Warning signs of diabetes: All in your head? - "Above the neck" signs may help identify those at risk - Academy of General Dentistry via www.tulsaworld.com

►February 12, 2004 - Diabetes doubles risk of liver disease and liver cancer - American Gastroenterological Association via Medical News Today

►February 10, 2004 - High Iron Levels May Signal Diabetes Risk - AP via The Herald-Sun

Diphtheria/diphtheria vaccine

Ebola/ebola vaccine

Flu/flu vaccine

►February 14, 2004 - US agriculture leaders hit out Asian countries banning American poultry imports - Channel News Asia

►February 14, 2004 - Thailand's PM confident bird flu is beaten - www.abc.net.au

►February 15, 2004 - Concern as bird flu makes the jump to other species - Taipei Times

►February 14, 2004 - China's bird flu claim suspect - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

►February 14, 2004 - Flu jabs scandal puts old at risk - icBirmingham.co.uk - "Half a million elderly people in the Midlands are at risk of catching killer flu because of a vaccination flop...The prediction comes after it was revealed that less than HALF the primary care trusts in the region had hit Government targets for offering the life-saving jabs."

Comment: Is the government ignorant of the fact that this year's flu vaccine probably doesn't work, or do they just don't care?

►February 13, 2004 - Bird flu strain in Pennsylvania said no threat to humans - Reuters via Forbes

►February 13, 2004 - New Flu Vaccine Provides Insight into Immunity Development, Says Stanford Researcher - Stanford University Medical Center via Business Wire

Comment: Wouldn't it be better to understand immunity prior to using vaccines, rather than use them under the assumption that they both work and are safe?

►February 14, 2004 - Bird flu eradication 'may take years' - AFP via The Australian

►February 12, 2004 - Chiron to Testify to Congress on Influenza Vaccine - President and CEO Howard Pien to Appear at U.S. House of Representatives Government Reform Committee Hearing Today - PRNewswire-FirstCall via http://interestalert.com - "'"Chiron is committed to meeting demand for flu vaccine in the United States, today and tomorrow,' said Mr. Pien...'Strengthening our public health infrastructure -- to increase immunization rates in the inter-pandemic years -- is the single most important initiative today to prepare for tomorrow's pandemic.'"

►February 12, 2004 - Flu bugs more dangerous than terrorists, county officials told - Billings Gazette

►February 13, 2004 - Bird Flu Vaccine Is Called Feasible - Boston Globe via www.immunizationinfo.org (abstract)

►February 10, 2004 - Indonesia Importing Bird Flu Vaccine From China, Despite Concerns About Its Quality - AP via www.intelihealth.com

►February 13, 2004 - Bird flu viruses have geographic features - Xinhuanet via China View

►February 13, 2004 - Bird flu victim's father sues Thai government - Financial Times - "The angry father of a six-year-old Thai boy who died of bird flu has filed a legal complaint against the Thai government, accusing it of covering up the lethal disease, with fatal consequences for his son...Chamnan Bounmanut, whose son Captan was the first of five Thais to die from the H5N1 bird flu virus, says the boy would be alive today if the government had issued public warnings that bird flu was sweeping through Thai poultry and could infect people."

►February 13, 2004 - Avian Flu Found Beyond Delaware (requires registration) - Reuters via The Los Angeles Times - "A strain of bird flu that is devastating to commercial chicken flocks but not harmful to humans has spread into Pennsylvania and more cases may be found in Delaware, agriculture officials in both states said Thursday."

►February 13, 2004 - Canada: Flu Pandemic Plan a World Away from South's Preparations - The release of Canada's multi-million-dollar plan to prepare for a global flu outbreak highlights how tough it would be to fight a pandemic in the developing world, says an expert here. - IPS via Inter Press Service

►February 13, 2004 - Bird flu confirmed in Shanghai - China has confirmed seven new outbreaks of bird flu in four regions including one on the financial centre, Shanghai, previously just a suspected case. - BBC

►February 13, 2004 - Planning for a nightmare - Health Canada outlines strategy in case of a flu pandemic - Experts prepare for staggering hardships and losses - The Toronto Star

►February 13, 2004 - Officials Say Avian Flu Poses No Threat in New Jersey (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times

►February 13, 2004 - New Zealand not to ban cold and flu medicine - Xinhuanet via China View - "The New Zealand government has decided not to ban common cold or flu medicines on pharmacy shelves in the country, New Zealand Press Association reported Friday...Pseudoephedrine, a major ingredient in many medicines, not onlysoothes cough and cold but also is used in the manufacture of the illegal drug methamphetamine (speed), which was reclassified as a Class A drug last year."

►February 13, 2004 - WHO bird flu study finds virus infects humans fast, kills quickly - AFP via www.channelnewsasia.com - "The first study of Asia's bird flu cases shows the virus has an alarmingly high fatality rate and that victims typically die less than two weeks after falling ill with raging fever and breathing difficulties...The World Health Organisation (WHO) survey of 10 human cases of bird flu in Vietnam, where 14 people have died of the disease, found that of the group eight died, one recovered and another remains in a critical condition."

►February 13, 2004 - FAO: bird flu not under control yet - Xinhuanet via China View

►February 13, 2004 - Leopard Dies of Bird Flu - A leopard has died from bird flu in a Thai zoo, it was disclosed today. - The Scotsman - "An official at the zoo said the leopard’s death 'may have been as a result of it eating chicken infected with bird flu'...The World Health Organisation said it had little information about the case – but if confirmed it could be the first time the disease has jumped to exotic animals or members of the cat family."

►February 13, 2004 - Vietnam rejects WHO criticism over handling of bird flu outbreak - AFP via www.channelnewsasia.com

►February 12, 2004 - Avian flu found at four New Jersey live chicken markets; officials say no danger to humans - AP via The Hannibal Courier-Post

►February 13, 2004 - Bird flu short incubation: study - AP via The Australian

►February 13, 2004 - WHO assurance on bird flu scare - The World Health Organisation (WHO) has dispelled fears of bird flu being transmitted by humans in Vietnam. - Aljazeera.net

►February 12, 2004 - MedImmune thinking twice about staying in vaccine business - CNS via www.sunherald.com - "The research chief of Gaithersburg-based MedImmune told a House committee Thursday that the company may get out of the vaccine-production business, following disappointing sales of its nasal-spray vaccine this flu season."

►February 12, 2004 - Drug company greed hurts effort on flu (requires registration) - opinion - The Central Florida Future - "What Bush's privatization plan would essentially do to the U.S. pharmaceutical landscape is put our unenviable drug dependency more in the hands of companies whose sole interests are profits. That almost definitely will result in a drop in vaccine availability nationwide."

►February 12, 2004 - Flu Vaccine Makers Say Gov't Must Increase Demand - Reuters, UK - "Vaccine makers can not guarantee enough future supplies of flu vaccines unless the government can help ensure profitability, drug company officials told U.S. Congress on Thursday...Unless the market is expanded -- either by ensuring that more at-risk people get vaccinations for influenza or simply more people in general, companies have little incentive for innovation, the executives said...'Raising demand is key to raising supply,' Howard Pien, president and chief executive officer of Emeryville, Calif.-based Chiron Corp. said...'A universal recommendation... will in turn provide the impetus on the part of vaccine manufacturers to increase their production capacity to meet routine demand,' James Young, president of Research and Development at MedImmune, said."

Comment: Can this really be happening? Are they going to get away with it? If history is any judge, they just well may. For more on the flu and the flu vaccine, go to Dr. Sherri Tenpenny's articles at www.redflagsdaily.com .

►January 15, 2004 - Jury Still Out On Flu Vaccine - HealthDay via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - "The CDC is still urging flu vaccination, especially for such high-risk persons as children and older people, because history shows that the vaccine probably is preventing the disease in many cases and reducing the incidence of complications in those who develop the disease, says Dr. Nidhi Jain, a CDC epidemiologist..."Remember, there are three different strains in the vaccine," Treanor says. "One of those strains could pop out later this year...And the record of past years in which there was a mismatch between the virus used for the vaccine and the most common strain in the population shows that the vaccine did reduce the number of infections and the potentially life-threatening complications in those who developed influenza, Jain says."

Comment: Even though the CDC says "This study does not provide data that permits an assessment of the effectiveness of TIV (trivalent inactivated vaccine) against laboratory-confirmed influenza and its complications. Additional studies to provide such data are under way. Because TIV was effective against laboratory-confirmed influenza and influenza-related complications in previous years in which it was not effective against ILI (8,9), and because influenza B and influenza A (H1N1) viruses might cause serious illness later this season, influenza vaccine continues to be recommended for persons at increased risk for influenza-related complications, their household contacts, and health-care personnel.", it is still difficult to see how the CDC can continue to recommend this vaccine. This is particularly true given that their own preliminary studies confirm that it appears the vaccine is not likely to be protective. (After all, it is not as if there are no adverse flu vaccine-associated reactions reported to VAERS. Between 1990 and now there have been 20,174, probably at a minimum representing over 200,000.) That is, it is hard to fathom unless they view their primary job to be protecting the vaccine manufacturers rather than the public. And unless they have conducted studies comparing those who were vaccinated to those who were not vaccinated against the flu (breaking it down by "never vaccinated" and all the various vaccine combinations), there is simply no basis for the argument that a mismatched flu vaccine offers at least some protection against the flu.

►February 12, 2004 - Call for bird vaccinations - Chickens may get the jab to stop spread of bird flu. - Nature

Comment: But if a recent article in New Scientist is correct, vaccinations may be part of the problem, rather than part of the solution.

►February 11, 2004 - Avian Influenza - Advice from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Travel VideoTelevision News

►February 11, 2004 - Spinoff of vaccine firm raises doubts on flu plan - Canadian Press via the Toronto Star - "The backbone of the federal pandemic flu plan, which will be released Thursday, is a contract to buy enough vaccine to inoculate all Canadians. But a question mark is hanging over the future of the vaccine manufacturer, leaving some to wonder how firm that backbone really is...A crucial feature of the federal plan is that Canada has secured a domestic supplier of vaccine, Shire Biologics of Laval, Que. Having a domestic supplier ensures flu shots bought, paid for and destined for Canadian arms couldn't be nationalized by another government desperate to protect its own citizens from an influenza pandemic sweeping the globe...But the British company that owns Shire Biologics is in the process of divesting itself of the vaccine manufacturer, a move that has drawn purchase offers from a number of other companies. That situation is prompting questions about how iron-clad the procurement contract is."

►January 5, 2004 - Nasal Flu Vaccine Safe for Kids - HealthDay via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - "Here's some good news for parents who have to drag their kids kicking and screaming to get their annual flu shot...It turns out an influenza virus vaccine delivered as a nasal spray protects healthy children against certain strains of influenza, says a report in the January issue of The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine...Doctors at the Scott & White Memorial Hospital and Clinic in Temple, Texas, found children who received the nasal vaccination were protected against influenza infection during the 2000 flu epidemic."

Comment: Note that the results of this study do not mean the nasal flu vaccine was protective against this year's flu. Nor, in all likelihood, was it protective against this year's flu. (Why they failed to make sure parents understood this, is beyond me.)

►February 11, 2004 - Vaccines Stockpile urged - New Zealand warning - Otago Daily Times - "Two University of Otago graduates have warned New Zealand must ready itself for the bird flu by stockpiling vaccines for the deadly disease...Dr Robert Webster and Dr Richard Webby - who now head a Memphis-based World Health Organisation laboratory for animal influenza viruses - have said there is a worldwide shortage of two drugs which can help fight bird flu, One News reported last night."

►February 11, 2004 - Genetic analysis probes bird flu's history - New Scientist - "Recent work also reveals that the virus has been mutating rapidly in response to 'unusual selective pressure' from an unknown source. Prominent virologists have warned that widespread vaccination of poultry against bird flu - as has been the case in China - could have this effect."

Comment: How many new diseases are a result of vaccination? How many researchers are even looking into this possibility? How many diseases caused by vaccination are we now seeking to develop vaccines to prevent in the future? How many of these new diseases are more serious, with humans less adapted to them than the original disease for which the vaccine was designed?

►February 11, 2004 - Thailand rejects WHO criticism over handling of bird flu outbreak – www.channelnewsasia.com

►January Supplement 1, 2004 - Vaccination for pandemic influenza: a six point agenda for interpandemic years. - journal article (Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal)

►February 11, 2004 - A timely account of the 1918 flu pandemic - The Boston Globe

►February Supplement 2, 2004 - Pneumococcal resistance in perspective: how well are we combating it? - journal article (Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal)

►February 2004 - Safety of cold-adapted live attenuated influenza vaccine in a large cohort of children and adolescents - journal article (Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal)

►February 11, 2004 - Bird flu two years to control: WHO - The deadly bird flu sweeping Asia could take two years to get under control, the World Health Organization has warned. - CNN

►February 10, 2004 - Tests Show Avian Flu on Second Del. Farm - Delaware Officials Order Quarantine, Chicken Slaughter After Second Bird Flu Case Found - AP via ABC News

►February 10, 2004 - Bird flu linked to 1918 pandemic - The Telegraph, UK

►February 10, 2004 - Bird Flu Rattles U.S. Poultry Officials (registration required) - AP via The Kansas City Star

►February 9, 2004 - WHO says bird flu problem may take couple of years to contain - Canadian Press via http://cnews.canoe.ca

►February 9, 2004 - With diseased animals, disposal isn't simple - New York Times News Service via www.abs-cbnnews.com

►February 9, 2004 - Wyeth Sniffs at U.S. Warning That Grounded Flu Drug Sales - Financial Times via www.immunizationinfo.org (abstract)

►February 9, 2004 - 'Respiratory etiquette' cuts spread of disease - Evansville Courier & Press via Healthy News

►February 9, 2004 - Where's the Flu Bug? - www.kndu.com - "This is usually the time of the year when the flu bug is hitting the hardest...But after an early start, and a run on flu shots, we haven’t seen the big outbreak that was feared. It came early, and it looks like it might have left just as quickly."

►February 9, 2004 - As bird flu spreads, global health weaknesses are exposed - NY Times News Service via www.abs-cbnnews.com

►February 10, 2004 - More Singaporeans taking flu inoculations - Channel NewsAsia via Yahoo!

►February 10, 2004 - Despite drop in flu, vaccinations still encouraged - The Robesonian - "Even though the worst of the national flu epidemic seems to have passed, the Robeson County Health Department is urging at-risk individuals to take advantage of the limited number of flu vaccines still available...Bill Smith, health director, said flu season typically runs through March, and data from the past two winters show that flu activity has peaked during February and March."

Comment: And in spite of the fact that they apparently do not work, even according to the CDC.

►February 10, 2004 - WHO wants more tests to ensure bird flu cannot be passed among humans - Channel News Asia

►February 10, 2004 - WHO raps Asia over handling of bird flu crisis as China reports new cases - AFP via www.channelnewsasia.com

►February 10, 2004 - EU warns Asian countries against bird flu cover-up - EU Business

►February 9, 2004 - Confidence the key in fight against bird flu - China Daily - "As the highly contagious bird flu virus spreads across Asia, the affliction has become embedded in the popular lexicon through media reports and ordinary conversation...The new crisis appeared when many in the region were still reeling from the bitter memories of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), and it has unavoidably triggered public panic in some places."

►February 9, 2004 - China official threatens HK media over flu reports - Reuters AlertNet - "A Chinese official has threatened to take legal action against Hong Kong's journalists over their reporting of bird flu outbreaks on the mainland, newspapers here reported on Monday...Zhong Yangsheng, executive vice governor of China's southern Guangdong province, also insisted there was no outbreak in the province's Chaoan county although it has been confirmed by the central government."

►February 8, 2004 - Wyeth says warnings hurt flu drug sales - Financial Times - "Wyeth has blamed the US authorities in part for the poor performance of FluMist, its flu vaccine...Robert Essner, chief executive of Wyeth, said warnings by the government and health groups had triggered 'folklore' that the weakened, but live flu virus used in FluMist could be transmitted to other people, causing sickness. He said Wyeth was conducting a comprehensive review of its strategy for the product."

►February 8, 2004 - No human-to-human link, says WHO - Follow-up tests on Vietnamese sisters show no human genes in virus, meaning it has not mutated to a more lethal form - The Straits Times

►February 9, 2004 - WHO says Vietnam flu is not new - Taipei Times - "The WHO said the bird flu that killed two people in Vietnam was not a new, more contagious strain, and officials here rejected claims that pigs now have the virus...Meanwhile, China has confirmed three more outbreaks among birds...The UN agency said on Saturday that 'reassuring' test results from the two Vietnamese sisters, who died earlier this month, show 'both viruses are of avian origin and contain no human influenza genes.'"

►February 3, 2004 - Ferret shortage may cause a 'bottleneck' in pandemic vaccine production: WHO - Canadian Press via www.canada.com - "Efforts to create a prototype vaccine to protect humans in the event of a H5N1 influenza pandemic may be facing an unusual problem: a shortage of flu-free ferrets...The head of the World Health Organization's global influenza program says efforts to create what's called the viral seed for a pandemic vaccine are moving along at the expected pace, but there's been a delay in getting the ferrets needed to test whether the genetically altered virus is safe to work with."

►February 3, 2004 - Asia should change lifestyle to avoid bird flu: WHO - Xinhuanet via China View

►February 2, 2004 - Public health expects fewer vaccines next year - The Gillette News-Record

Haemophilus Influenza/Hib Vaccine

►January 2004 - Are economic evaluations of vaccines useful to decision-makers? Case study of Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccines. - journal article (Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal)

►January 2004 - Outbreak of Haemophilus influenzae type b disease among fully vaccinated children in a day-care center. - journal article (Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal) - "Conclusions. Although immunization against Hib has resulted in a reduction in the incidence of this disease in the UK, individual protection cannot be assumed to be infallible. The importance of timely chemoprophylaxis of close contacts of a child with invasive Hib disease is reinforced."

►February 2004 - Case-control studies of the effectiveness of vaccines: validity and assessment of potential bias - journal article (Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal) - "Because case-control studies of the effectiveness of vaccines are nonexperimental, it is difficult to assure that bias does not affect the validity of the results...Conclusion. With the use of a virtually identical study design, vaccines against Hib were shown to be highly effective in preventing invasive Hib infections but were not effective in preventing invasive infections due to S. pneumoniae. Case-control studies are a valid method of assessing the effectiveness of vaccines."

Hepatitis A/hepatitis A vaccine

►February 10, 2004 - State probing possible secondary hepatitis case at McDonalds - The state Health Department is trying to determine if a McDonald's cashier infected with hepatitis A caught it as part of an outbreak linked to green onions at a Chi-Chi's Mexican restaurant less than a mile away, a newspaper reported for Wednesday's editions. - AP via NEPA News

►February 10, 2004 - One Person Blamed for 16 Cases of Hepatitis - KGBT4 News - "The Hepatitis "A" outbreak has been raising a lot of questions...Recently the Cameron County Health Department authorities determined out of 26 confirmed cases, 16 have been linked to one person."

Hepatitis B/hepatitis B vaccine

►February 13, 2004 - Why parents should immunize their babies against the hepatitis B virus - letter - Houston Chronicle - "Second, even children from uninfected parents are at risk of becoming infected...In fact, most children who become infected with hepatitis B are born to mothers who are not infected with hepatitis B...Approximately one-third of hepatitis B infections among children and adolescents occur among those with no known risk of infection, and many carriers of the virus show no apparent symptoms...There simply is no way to know which children eventually will be exposed to hepatitis B. That's why medical experts recommend that all children be vaccinated to protect against developing a hepatitis B infection and its consequences...If a parent thinks about what a baby has to gain and what he or she may lose, there's really no argument."

Comment: There is really no argument if you ignore the adverse reactions to hepatitis B vaccine, that is. If you don't ignore them, however, giving ALL babies a potentially harmful vaccine, when hardly ANY babies get hepatitis B, is a highly questionable policy. (By the way, 1/3 of a small number is an even smaller number still.) For more on the problem with estimates of hepatitis B incidence and universal infant hepatitis B vaccination policy go to Scandals: For No Good Reason: The Utterly Misguided Universal Infant Hepatitis B Vaccination Policy and Scandals: The CDC and “The New Math”, where 1 + 1 does not equal 2.

►February 10, 2004 - Denver Hepatitis Vaccine May Be Faulty - AP via Newsday - "Hepatitis vaccines given to about 4,300 babies born at a Denver hospital may have frozen while in storage, rendering the shots ineffective against the liver disease, officials said...Although there is no evidence the vaccine was ineffective, "we just can't assume they're all OK," Sarah Ellis, a spokeswoman for University Hospital, said Monday. She recommended infants who received the shots for hepatitis B be revaccinated."

Comment: Unless an infant was born to a Hepatitis B positive mother, there is no reasonable justification for getting this vaccine. For more on this, go to Scandals: For No Good Reason: The Utterly Misguided Universal Infant Hepatitis B Vaccination Policy.

►February 10, 2004 - Thousands Of Babies Need To Retake Hepatitis B Shot - Vaccine May Be Ineffective Because It Was Frozen, Doctors Say - www.thedenverchannel.com

►February 10, 2004 - Storage disables hep B vaccine - 4,300 kids may need shots again - Denver Post

►February 10, 2004 - Faulty hepatitis B shots may mean revaccination for tots - Rocky Mountain News

►February 10, 2004 - Babies and hepatitis B - Rocky Mountain News

Hepatitis C/hepatitis C vaccine

►February 12, 2004 - Drug Cocktail Might Fight Hepatitis C - Two Drugs May Be Better Than One In This Case - Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. via www.wnbc.com

►February 8, 2004 - Hepatitis C-infected Austrians 'sue Aventis' - AFP via Expatica

►February 10, 2004 - Breakthrough in Efforts to Create a Hepatitis C Vaccine - www.woai.com

Herpes/herpes vaccine

IBD (inflammatory bowel diseases)

Lyme disease/lyme disease vaccine

►February 15, 2004 - Expert says ticks causing Lyme's Disease epidemic - The Town Talk

Mad Cow Disease/CJD

►February 14, 2004 - Federal Panel Recommends More Testing for Mad Cow (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "Joining a growing chorus, federal advisers on Friday urged the government to increase testing for mad cow disease greatly to better gauge if the United States has a problem, and if so, how widespread it is...The panelists said that without that data, there was no way to minimize the risk to humans who might be exposed by eating meat, or through drugs, vaccines, cosmetics and dietary supplements that contain raw materials from cattle."

Comment: For more on the problem of vaccine contamination with bovine viruses, go to Scandals: On "mad cows" and sick monkeys: From the people who brought you SV40 in vaccines....

►February 10, 2004 - BSE Advisory Group Recommends Further Ban on Risk Materials - Also suggests USDA approve more labs to do testing - http://usinfo.state.gov

Meningitis/meningitis vaccine/Prevnar/pneumonia/pneumococcal vaccine

►February 12, 2004 - Health Groups Recommend Temporary Suspension Of Pediatric Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine Dose - press release - CDC

►February 13, 2004 - Shortage of Meningitis Vaccine May Delay Booster Shot for Some - Wall Street Journal via www.immunizationinfo.org (abstract)

►February 13, 2004 - Meningitis drugs blunder - Doctors are hoping to finish giving second doses of antibiotics to 80 children at Tiverton High School on Friday after it emerged a mistake had been made over the mixture. - BBC - "Pupils were given antibiotics on Tuesday after the death of a girl from meningitis the day before...But some of the children who were given the drug in liquid form received a dose that had not been properly mixed."

►February 13, 2004 - Health Officials Urge Halt to Meningitis Shots (requires registration) - Times Wire Services via The Los Angeles Times - "U.S. health officials urged doctors and nurses to temporarily suspend routine use of a booster shot that protects children against bacterial meningitis because of a looming shortage of vaccine...Curtailing the fourth dose of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine is not expected to hurt the health of children, officials said."

►February 12, 2004 - Health groups urge change in vaccination procedure - AP via www.nbc25.com - "Health care providers are being urged to suspend temporarily the routine use of a fourth dose of a widely used childhood vaccination...Three major health groups, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, say the move would help conserve vaccine and minimize the likelihood of shortages caused by production and supply problems at Wyeth Vaccines. It's the only supplier in the U-S...The vaccine in question is pneumococcal conjugate (noo-moh-KAH'-kuhl KAHN'-joo-gut) vaccine, pr P-C-V-7. It can help prevent serious pneumococcal disease such as meningitis and blood infections. Health officials say cutting back to three doses from four won't have any adverse health consequences."

Comment: If cutting back to three doses from four "won't have any adverse health consequences", what is the purpose of the fourth dose? (That is, other than to line the coffers of the vaccine manufacturers?)

►February 12, 2004 - Homeless Vaccinated to Prevent Meningitis (requires registration) - The Los Angeles Times

►February 12, 2004 - Letter submitted to the Houston Chronicle re: A Mother's Message - She pushes for meningitis immunizations - as yet unpublished

Comment: It will only be when the death and damage caused by vaccines and diseases both raise the same level of concern that vaccination policy can be viewed as having a moral and ethical base, and those who promote it as having honorable intent. If vaccination policy continues to be supported and administered based on the notion that some unknown, but presumed to be small, number must be sacrificed for someone's notion of the "common good", it will remain a bankrupt, immoral policy. This well-written letter by the mother of a vaccine-damaged child represents the fair-minded, honorable view that current vaccination policy lacks.

►February 11, 2004 - Viral pneumonia reported from 27 provinces and cities - Vietnam News Agency

►February 11, 2004 - Prevention of viral pneumonia enhanced - Vietnam News Agency - "According to the Health Ministry, the country had by Feb. 11 had 197 viral pneumonia patients in 27 provinces and cities, 18 of whom contracted the strain of H5N1 virus. Thirty-five died, including 14 H5N1 virus carriers."

MMR/measles,mumps,rubella

►February 13, 2004 - MMR rebels run clinics - Evening Mail via http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk - "Parents will be offered a chance to protect their children with individual measles and mumps jabs this weekend...A private clinic is coming to the West Midlands for parents concerned over the safety of the triple MMR jab and its links to autism and bowel disease."

►February 2004 - The Child With Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura: Is Pharmacotherapy or Watchful Waiting the Best Initial Management?: A Panel Discussion From the 2002 Meeting of the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology - journal article (Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology)

Comment: Click here to see the 70 "thrombocytopenic" reactions reported to VAERS. Note also that a relationship between the MMR vaccine and thrombocytopenic purpura has been reported in the medical literature.

Other diseases

►February 12, 2004 - Targeting hard-to-kill fungal infections - Society of Nuclear Medicine via www.eurekalert.org

Other vaccines/vaccines in the pipeline

►February 11, 2004 - Malaysian scientists in vaccine breakthrough - www.abc.net.au - "Malaysian scientists, working with French colleagues, have developed a trial vaccine for Nipah virus, a new and deadly disease...The researchers injected hamsters with the experimental vaccine, which then developed neutralising antibodies that prevented infection...Nipah produces flu-like symptoms and often leads to encephalitis and coma...The disease originally affected fruit bats but it has since jumped the species barrier, first to pigs and then to humans in Malaysia in October 1998."

Pet vaccines

Pneumonia/pneumococcal/Prevnar - see Meningitis/meningitis vaccine/Prevnar/pneumonia/pneumococcal vaccine

Polio/polio vaccine

►February 12, 2004 - The Mop-Up: Eradicating Polio From the Planet, One Child at a Time - New Yorker via www.immunizationinfo.org (abstract)

►February 10, 2004 - Muslims Fear Polio Vaccines Are U.S. Conspiracy - www.thebostonchannel.com

►February 3, 2004 - Q: Can polio recur in adult hood? - The Boston Globe

Rabies/rabies vaccine

►February 11, 2004 - Rabies more deadly than SARS in China - UPI via http://interestalert.com

SARS/SARS vaccine

►February 11, 2004 - Rabies more deadly than SARS in China - UPI via http://interestalert.com

►February 8, 2004 - Science a passion for SARS-fighter - With last year's SARS outbreak and the battle against bird flu making headlines, Su Ih-jen, director-general of the Center for Disease Control (CDC), has been widely quoted as an expert on disease prevention. Su was appointed head of the center at the height of the SARS outbreak in May to help eradicate the disease. He spoke to `Taipei Times' reporter Joy Su about the battle against infectious diseases - Taipei Times

►February 2, 2004 - Immune Protein Might Fight SARS - Scientists say "good fortune" led to a promising therapy against the killer virus. - HealthDay via www.healthcentral.com

SBS (Shaken Baby Syndrome)/SIDS

►February 12, 2004 - Central Florida medical examiner barred from doing autopsies - AP via www.theledger.com - "Gore was investigated for his testimony that contributed to the conviction of Alan Yurko, of Orlando, who was sentenced to life in prison for shaking his 10-week-old son to death...The commission determined Gore committed eight errors in the autopsy of Alan Ream-Yurko, who died Nov. 24, 1997. Yurko said the baby stopped breathing and took him to the hospital where he died. The father was arrested days later...Yurko is seeking a new trial, saying that Gore botched the child's autopsy. He suggests his son died after an adverse reaction to a vaccination." (click here for complaint filed by Francine Yurko on behalf of her husband Alan Yurko)

Smallpox/smallpox vaccine

►February 13, 2004 - Genetic AIDS immunity traced to smallpox, not plague - www.gay.com

►February 14, 2004 - Surveillance and containment would be effective intervention against deliberate smallpox attack - Emory University Health Sciences Center via www.eurekalert.org

►February 14, 2004 - Smallpox vaccine tested in Missoula - The Missoulian

►February 10, 2004 - Breastfed Baby Exposed to Smallpox Vaccine Virus - Reuters Health - "Breastfeeding women who live with someone who has been recently vaccinated against smallpox should take extra precautions to prevent their infants from being exposed to the virus used in the vaccine, according to a new report...Doctors at the Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington, have documented the case of a breast-fed infant who was exposed to the vaccinia virus, which is used in the smallpox vaccine...The baby's mother had not been vaccinated against smallpox but her husband, a soldier, was given the vaccine soon before the baby developed symptoms."

►February 10, 2004 - Smallpox Vaccine Spread Virus Through Family - HealthDay Reporter via www.lifeclinic.com - "By his accounts and those of his 27-year-old wife, the soldier followed all precautions. Although he slept in the same bed as his spouse, he washed his hands, kept the site covered with gauze until it had fully healed and had limited contact with his 5-month-old daughter who was still breast-feeding...Nevertheless, in mid-May, the wife developed red, tender swelling around both her nipples. The area blistered, then ulcerated, leaving open sores around the nipple area. No one, including her doctor, suspected it was a vaccinia reaction, so she continued breast-feeding until May 29, when it became too painful...On the day she stopped breast-feeding, her baby developed a tell-tale blister on her upper lip, which turned into a pustule and formed a crust. The next day, she developed a similar lesion on her left check. On June 2, a pediatrician saw the facial lesions as well as one on her tongue and diagnosed her with suspected vaccinia. She was transferred to Madigan Army Medical Center, where she came under Fairchok's care...No one knows exactly how the transmissions occurred."

►February 3, 2004 - Smallpox vaccine study is seeking volunteers - Local researchers hope to get 80 participants for national study. - The Wichita Eagle

TB/TB vaccine (BCG)

►February 12, 2004 - Immune to the romance of TB - The Victorians considered it an aphrodisiac, but with its incidence rising, the good news is that there is a new vaccine - Times Online, UK

►February 12, 2004 - Gates Foundation Commits $82.9 Million to Develop New Tuberculosis Vaccines - Grant is the Largest Ever to Support TB Vaccine Research and Development - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation via PRNewswire via Yahoo!

►February 16, 2004 - New TB vaccine advances - www.ama-assn.org - "A new vaccine, made with several proteins from the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, will soon enter the first phase of human testing. It is the first TB vaccine tested in the United States in more than 60 years...A recombinant vaccine, it combines two TB proteins known to stimulate strong human immune responses. The proteins were initially identified by screening blood taken from volunteers who never became ill with tuberculosis despite long-term infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The TB proteins were fused and then combined with adjuvants."

Tetanus

West Nile virus/vaccine

►February 13, 2004 - NIH may grant firm exclusive rights on West Nile vaccine - Capital News Service via www.sunherald.com

Whooping cough/DPT vaccine

►February 11, 2004 - Whooping Cough Comeback - www.wivb.com - "When was the last time you heard of someone with whooping cough? The disease became nearly non-existent with the vaccine but as News 4's Victoria Hong reports, the childhood killer has started making a comeback...It is extremely contagious and though anyone is susceptible, it is most dangerous in infants 6 months and younger because they haven't been completely immunized...Though treatable with anti-biotics, the push is on for a vaccine for teens and young adults. That, Dr. Judelsohn says would rid us of whooping cough for good and help keep babies like Sam and Nick healthy."

Comment: Although it is true that the DTP/DTaP vaccine(s) are not recommended before two months old, the fact is that whooping cough is simply more dangerous to babies than to older children, vaccinated or not. And while it may be a laudable goal to rid the world of whooping cough (depending on the other health consequences of doing so), where is the data to support the notion that vaccinating teens and young adults would rid the world of the disease for good?

Legal/political

Compensation/VICP

Funding/incentives/other money matters

Laws

Lawsuits

►February 11, 2004 - Man Gets $850,000 After Wrong Surgery - AP via The Herald-Sun

►February 8, 2004 - Hepatitis C-infected Austrians 'sue Aventis' - AFP via Expatica

Legislation, including re: malpractice/the need for malpractice reform

February 14, 2004 - Doctor immunity key to secrecy - The West Australian - "THE State's Deputy Coroner wants doctors and other health professionals to be shielded from legal action in a bid to ensure all information is gathered during the investigation of unexpected deaths...Evelyn Vicker said doctors would be more inclined to reveal vital information if they didn't fear being sued. Ending secrecy also would help to restore public confidence in the health system."

►February 12, 2004 - Orange City senator offers bill to ban immunizations containing mercury-based preservatives (requires subscription) - Sioux City Journal

►February 11, 2004 - Obesity Immunity Bill - AP via www.wtol.com - "Lawmakers on Wednesday recommended passage of a bill to protect burger joints and other food suppliers from lawsuits filed by people who claim they got fat eating the companies' products."

Comment: Sometimes judges are forced to play doctor when the doctor doesn't abide by the "first, do no harm" first principle.

Malpractice and other class-action lawsuits

Parental/health rights/exemptions/mandatory/privacy/health freedom

►February 10, 2004 - House passes state immunization registry - AP via http://kobtv.com

Politics

Power/abuse of power

Miscellaneous

Book reviews/New Books

Inspirational stories

Letters From Parents &others

Medical "mysteries", not including autism

Other

Pregnancy/childbirth

►February 12, 2004 - Expert: Shots when pregnant? - The Capital Times

RECALLS/bans

Research

About research/science, research in general

Ethics

►February 13, 2004 - Excessive heat kills lab animals - Thirteen monkeys and dozens of hamsters died over the weekend at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton after they were housed in 100-degree heat for several hours due to a heater malfunction. - Helena Independent Record

Funding

Other research results

►February 12, 2004 - Hormone released by bone marrow cells may hasten recovery from brain injury - University of South Florida Health Sciences Center via www.eurekalert.org

►February 15, 2004 - Cloning cures are a long way off, scientists say - Scientists say crusading advocates and passionate patients are desperate for something that they cannot provide: therapeutic cloning. - New York Times Service via The Miami Herald

►February 15, 2004 - Despite Advance in Cloning, Scientists Are Tempering Hope With Reality (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times

►February 12, 2004 - Talking to bacteria - Researchers teach cells a new language. - journal article (Nature)

►February 11, 2004 - Survey Shows Impact of Psoriasis is More Than Skin Deep - Self-confidence, Relationships, Work/School, and Social Interactions Affected - PRNewswire via Yahoo!

►February 10, 2004 - Accutane makes severe acne vanish, but its sometimes severe side effects give patients and doctors pause - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

re: Publishing

(The) Wacky World of Changing/Conflicting Research Results

►February 11, 2004 - Americans Advised to Cut Salt, Follow Thirst - Report Lowers Recommended Salt Intake, Eases Water Rules - WebMD Medical News

►February 11, 2004 - No Consensus on Salt Restriction - press release - The Salt Institute via US Newswire

►February 11, 2004 - Salt and Water Intake: Press Release - Institute of Medicine via Newsday

Comment: Note the three different titles.

Science, government, industry, medicine clearly 'run amok'

Better late than never?

No kidding...

Science, government, industry, medicine clearly 'run amok'

►February 11, 2004 - Hospitals under fire for infecting patients - The Sydney Morning Herald

"The Condition Our Condition Is In" (The State of Medicine/Science), including "errors"

►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

What's THAT About?

You've GOT To Be Kidding

Vaccine-related issues

Adverse reactions/VAERS

►February 14, 2004 - Vaccine risk acceptance depends on what you do and don't know - Georgia Institute of Technology Research News via www.eurekalert.org - "Beyond describing the factors that affect individual choices regarding vaccine risk acceptance, Bostrom also will discuss the sometimes-controversial public decision-making process on vaccination policy...'Controversy isn't always a bad thing,' she explains. 'Conflicts of interest can be real, and both scientific and policy processes should be scrutinized. Science, and in particular the science that has enabled vaccine development, has given us much longer, healthier lives. But engineering our immune systems is no mean task, and thinking broadly about that bigger picture is important.'

►February 14, 2004 - How well do scientists communicate with the public about vaccine safety? - Vaccine expert to address measles vaccine/autism controversy - Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia via www.eurekalert.org - "WHO: Paul A. Offit, M.D., director of the Vaccine Education Center and chief of Infectious Diseases at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, is an internationally prominent expert on immunology and vaccine safety."

Comment: Paul Offit is paid by the vaccine manufacturers to "explain" to doctors about the safety of vaccines.

...and the media

Changing epidemiology/serotypes/resistance

Conflict of interest, specifically re: vaccines

Disease in general, including chronic disease/emerging disease

►February 15, 2004 - Journey of discovery - When she asked experts to crystal ball-gaze about the future of our biggest killers, Donna Chisholm found it's a case of the more we know, the more we need to find out. - Sunday Star Times via www.stuff.co.nz - "The story of health research in the past 20 years has been peppered with words such as 'breakthrough' and 'cure'...In the story of the forecast for health research in the next 20 years, the excitement is somewhat muted...Replace breakthrough with a glacial shuffle, cure with complexity...Forget magic bullet - in many cases, we're still trying to figure out how to fire the gun."

Comment: But question what is known and/or beneficial about vaccines, and you are labeled by many as a fanatic.

►February 13, 2004 - CDC's 18th Annual Chronic Disease Prevention Conference Feb. 18-20 - press release - conference alert - CDC via US Newswire

►February 13, 2004 - Fight chronic illnesses with a good disease management strategy: Balaji - www.channelnewsasia.com

►February 12, 2004 - Infectious disease deaths up sharply in China - Infectious diseases claimed 6,474 lives on the Chinese mainland last year, up nearly a quarter on figures for 2002. - People's Daily, China

►February 10, 2004 - Making Us (Nearly) Sick - A Majority of Americans Are Now Considered to Have at Least One 'Pre-Disease' or 'Borderline' Condition. Is This Any Way to Treat Us? - (requires registration) - Washington Post

Comment: How does this compare to the pre-vaccine era?

Effectiveness/herd immunity/coverage

►February 11, 2004 - Children at risk - Colorado last in child vaccinations - AP via The Hannibal Courier-Post

Comment: Not everyone agrees with this assessment. For more on this, read a letter from NVIC rep, Cindy Loveland, to the governor of Colorado.

►February 9, 2004 - Colorado Last in Child Immunization Rate - AP via The Herald-Sun

Comment: Not everyone agrees with this assessment. For more on this, read a letter from NVIC rep, Cindy Loveland, to the governor of Colorado.

Ethics

Funding

►February 13, 2004 - Medicine Gets Cheaper - Whatever it cost to develop the whooping cough vaccine or to distribute it free, the cost must surely have been dwarfed by the economic gains that came from freeing up mothers to engage in other pursuits. - Forbes

Genetics (vs. Environment)/includes individual differences

►February 13, 2004 - Destiny: Is it in the Genes? Battle of the Sexes - Ivanhoe - "When they started to look at women, UCLA psychologist Shelley Taylor, Ph.D., and colleagues found a difference they didn't expect. 'Humans, but especially females, cope with stress in large part by caring for their offspring, getting them out of harm's way, ensuring that nothing bad happens to them and by affiliating with a social group,' Taylor tells Ivanhoe...She calls this 'tend and befriend' and says it may be one reason why women live longer. 'When people give or get social support in response to stress, it down regulates stress hormones. What that means is that there's lesser wear and tear on the body.'"

►February 11, 2004 - Destiny: Is it in the Genes? Does Parenting Matter? - Ivanhoe

►February 16, 2004 - Nothing plain about it: High-tech medicine in a low-tech world - The Amish people are known for shunning technology. But because their closed community has high rates of genetic disorders, they sometimes find themselves tied to sophisticated medical science. - American Medical News

Immunity/Immune system

►February 12, 2004 - Immune system's attack dogs kept on genetic leash - Loss of restraint may contribute to lupus, other autoimmune disorders - Washington University School of Medicine via www.eurekalert.org - "When they're not busy battling invaders, some of the cells that act as the attack dogs of the mouse immune system have to be kept on a genetic leash to prevent them from mounting inappropriate attacks on the mouse's own tissues, researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found...'We used to think of mature immune cells like T cells and B cells as metabolically inactive when waiting for infections or other signals that trigger an attack,' says Stanford Peng, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of internal medicine and of pathology and immunology. 'We're now thinking these resting cells actually are very metabolically active, and they are kept in a quiescent state by genes actively working to shut down activating proteins.'"

►February 11, 2004 - Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? - The Health Report - During the winter months it always seems that people are "getting sick" more so than during any other time of the year. And why is it that some people are always under the weather and others are not? The answer is in the body's ability to fight off disease, or in other words, the strength of your immune system. - The Orange Bulletin

►February 10, 2004 - Cold got you miserable? Those symptoms might be healing you - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - "Let that runny nose run. Cough and sneeze away. A little fever? Let it rise. Just say 'no' to decongestants, antihistamines, cough drops, Advil, aspirin, and everything else that might bring blessed relief to those miserable symptoms...The best medicine for cold and flu symptoms may be no medicine...A relatively new field called evolutionary or Darwinian medicine argues that treating symptoms of some diseases may actually make the illness worse."

Comment: What does this say about how health promoting "symptomless" immune reactions via vaccines are?

►February 10, 2004 - Study: Dogs Build Infants' Immunity - Newsday

Miscellaneous

►February 15, 2004 - Putting your body to the test - From the moment a child is born there are tests and check-ups which can be done to monitor and maximise well-being. That doesn't always mean you need to see a doctor: some tests can be carried out at your local pharmacy. - Sunday Star Times via www.stuff.co.nz

►February 15, 2004 - Prescription drugs will work only if you take them - The Seattle Times

Public Health/health care in general

►February 12, 2004 - Infant Deaths Up for First Time Since '58 - AP via The Herald-Sun - "U.S. infant mortality has climbed for the first time in more than four decades, in part because more women are putting off motherhood and then having multiple babies via fertility drugs, the government said...At the same time, U.S. life expectancy reached an all-time high of 77.4 years in 2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. Life expectancy in 2001 was 77.2 years."

►February 11, 2004 - Life Expectancy Box - New federal data show Americans' life expectancy has increased to an all-time high. - AP via The Herald-Sun

►February 11, 2004 - Obesity turning into major threat for nation's kids - The Seattle Times via Fort Wayne News Sentinel

Recalls

Tracking

►February 14, 2004 - NIH launches new medical database - UPI via http://interestalert.com

►February 10, 2004 - House passes state immunization registry - AP via http://kobtv.com

Vaccine/blood/environment ingredients/additives & contaminants

►February 3, 2004 - Special syringes at govt clinics - The Times of India - "The health department of the Delhi government has bought about three lakh auto-disposable syringes to be used at the city’s 175 state government dispensaries. The syringes will be used for immunisation purposes...Senior health department officials said that the move was prompted by ‘‘persistent reports of re-use of syringes’’ in hospitals and dispensaries, especially in the far-flung areas of Delhi...The move, he added, would provide additional safeguards against possible transmission of viruses like HIV and those of hepatitis B and C. It could prove to be of immense help in the state government’s initiatives to control the spread of these diseases."

Comment: For more on the re-use of syringes and the spread of so-called "vaccine-preventable" disease, 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")

Vaccine Ingredients - CDC (pdf)

Vaccine incentives/promotion

Vaccine shortages/production

►February 9, 2004 - Vaccine supplies dwindle for many diseases - The Washington Times - "The recent shortage of flu shots received much attention, but vaccine stocks have also dwindled in the past few years for such diseases as meningitis, mumps, measles and diphtheria...The problems with supply are blamed on a number of interrelated factors — the low prices the federal government pays for childhood vaccines, the dwindling number of vaccine producers, and others."

Vaccine testing/clinical trials/science

Vaccines - combined

►February 2004 - Tolerability and immunogenicity of an eleven valent mixed carrier Streptococcus pneumoniae capsular polysaccharide-diphtheria toxoid or tetanus protein conjugate vaccine in Finnish and Israeli infants - journal article (Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal)

Comment: Where are the studies on the combined safety effects? What about the problem with antigens recombining? For more on this see Pediatric Infectious Disease Issues: Smallpox, Combination Vaccines and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Highlights of the American Academy of Pediatrics Annual Meeting - Medscape - "However, the combination of multiple vaccine antigens presents several challenges. It should be recommended that the components of the vaccine be administered at the same time. However, the reactogenicity and potential side effects of the combined antigens have not yet been determined. Since there is the potential for physical and chemical interaction among the vaccine components and the buffers and preservatives, the immunogenicity of each component needs to be addressed to determine whether these are similar to and as effective as the components given individually.^[10] and my comment: From the horse's mouth. But not only should the "reactogenicity and potential side effects of the combined antigens" be determined, as well as the immunogenicity of each component be compared to combined ones, the potential for lethal and otherwise harmful combinations should be researched. For a highly disturbing study, in which harmless viruses recombined with lethal results, click here. (Note that while affirming the potential risk of such combinations occurring, the only apparent concern in this paper was for the immunogenicity of the components, not any safety issues which might occur as a result of them interacting.)

Vaccines in general/overview/vaccine research

►February 12, 2004 - Vaccine Update February 2004 - www.detnow.com - "It would be irresponsible to leave children at risk of diseases that can kill, and not every vaccine that can provide protection is laced with the toxic substance that so many have questioned, but no matter what you may hear from the people you depend upon to protect your health, the safety of some vaccines is still questionable...'Everybody wants vaccines to be as safe as they possibly can,' U-M Chief of Pediatrics Dr. Gary Freed, M.D. has said, but medical experts at the respected University of Michigan are among those who continue to downplay any real concerns. Following our first reports about the issue on Action News last Fall, the university website countered our broadcasts with what it said was 'the truth about vaccines,' labeling the concerns we reported as mere 'rumor and speculations,' claiming its professional staff is trained to handle such concerns, despite the fact they gave our producer what they later admitted was patently inaccurate information to her questions on the phone. Regardless of which shot is given, one nurse wrongly informed the producer, there will not be mercury in the shot...Even today, U-M’s website wrongly claims 'no harmful effects have been reported' from the mercury in vaccines except for minor redness and swelling where needles have been injected."

Comment: This article, by Steve Wilson, is just about as good as it gets, and should not be missed. Thank you, Steve Wilson, for having the courage and integrity that so many journalists lack.

►February 12, 2004 - Vaccine Update February 2004: Part 2 - by Steve Wilson - XYZ: Investigations via www.detnow.com - "Many in so-called mainstream medicine are upset that Action News is even reporting this controversy. As we have shown, some of the most respected health care professionals have decided there is no problem with any vaccines, even though they’ve never read studies which strongly suggest there is."

Newsletter Archives - use this link to access old newsletters, including those whose links may have changed

Return to Vaccination News Home Page (for best results, right click to "open in new window")

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.

Primary Links

User login

Vaccination NewsLetter: Top Stories - posted January 12-18, 2004