►January 19, 2004 - Researchers step up battle against ongoing anthrax threat - Early detection, quick treatment and a new-generation vaccine are all part of a multipronged effort to disarm the deadly bacterium. - www.ama-assn.org

►January 12, 2004 - Official report links vaccine to Gulf War syndrome (requires registration or subscription) - www.timesonline.com - "For 13 years, the Ministry of Defence has denied that the vaccines , some of which were classified as “secret”, could be blamed for the wide range of debilitating diseases...A copy of the report, dated September 22, 2001, but never made public, has been handed to The Times by Mr Izett, who won a landmark ruling at a war pensions appeals tribunal in July last year which awarded him a 50 per cent disability pension. ..The MoD did not appeal against the ruling but maintained that the vaccines could not be the cause of any Gulf War syndrome of illnesses.

Comment:  How many secrets are we going to have to discover before realizing we have not been told the truth about vaccines?  For a recent letter from a Congressman concerning a possible CDC cover-up, click here (pdf).

►January 13, 2004 - Troops' illness linked to vaccines - Herald Sun - "VACCINES administered to Australian troops before their departure to the first war against Iraq may have caused long-term symptoms known as Gulf War Syndrome...A British medical report has found a link between a pre-deployment immunisation program and long-term medical problems...Australian Gulf War Veterans Association yesterday seized on the British report as evidence that Australian troops also suffered permanent side-effects from their vaccination program."

►January 12, 2004 - Science getting to roots of autism - USA Today - "High on the list of priorities is finding the genes associated with autism. At the meeting, the private autism research alliance and the public National Institutes of Health announced a partnership to do just that. The NIH is contributing $2.5 million, and the alliance is contributing $2 million to start the project, which will help to link the work of 170 researchers around the world, Shih says."

Comment from Professor Jon Kabara, BS, MS, PhD (link to references): "A seductive notion, but not to the point.  In research if you don't ask the right question you'll never get the right answer. If genetics were most important then why has autism gone from one in thousands to one in hundreds, maybe even one in less than a hundred?  I don't think that the gene pool has changed that drastically to account for this pandemic rise in diagnoses. If medicine/government would look in the mirror, it might find that over and inappropriate vaccine/drug use could be the main problem. Parents with autistic children have enough to deal with without the burden of genetic guilt."

►January 17, 2004 - Tuna could soon carry mercury warning - Naples Daily News - "As the federal government mulls slapping a mercury advisory on tuna, Southwest Florida seafood retailers say some customers are concerned that the food they thought was healthy could be hurting them...Experts say there's cause for concern, particularly for pregnant women and young children."

►January 16, 2004 - Mercury: The Latest Green Scare Campaign - www.anxietycenter.com  - "The Greens have mastered the ability to conjure up a scare campaign about almost anything to such perfection, one almost forgets that they are a lying bunch of lowlifes whose past lies have harmed the timber industry, those engaged in ranching and agriculture, those who provide the chemical building blocks of everything we use every day, and those responsible for providing the energy this nation requires to function."

►January 16, 2004 - Mercury Debate Hits JAMA - The Attack of the Bernards * The DanishRoll In a Response - Schafer Autism Report

►January 14, 2004 - Letter to Psychology Today re: Autism and Mercury - "Psychology is a science.  There is nothing scientific about the paper spotlighted by your article."

►January 14, 2004 - Students tested for mercury on Sunday - The Record-Courier - "Investigators from the Center for Disease Control and Nevada Department of Health offered urine analyses over the weekend for students involved in the mercury contamination at Pau-Wa-Lu Middle School...'We'll keep cleaning until we reach 300 parts per trillion -- which is about the amount given off from dental fillings,' said Douglas County School District Superintendent John Soderman on Sunday...'The danger is being overplayed, most definitely,' said his half sister Carmen Daniels, who is visiting from Pine Grove, Calif...Ricky's father, Richard Padovani, disagreed...'You can't over react with something like this. Mercury is pretty dangerous.'"

Comment:  Note that this is external exposure.  Not ingested.  Not injected. 

►January 13, 2004 - Parents complain of inadequate answers after mercury contamination - Reno Gazette-Journal

►November 2003 - Intestinal Lymphocyte Populations in Children with Regressive Autism: Evidence for Extensive Mucosal Immunopathology - by (among others) the now surprising adversaries, Simon H. Murch and Andrew J. Wakefield - journal article (Journal of Clinical Immunology)

Comment:  For some of what has been written on the recent controversy between the two previously aligned doctors, click here.

►January 13, 2004 - New MMR jab scare - www.femail.co.uk - "Safety fears over MMR have been increased still further by a study which detected signs of a chronic viral infection in the bowels of children who became autistic after the jab...The virus - feared to come from the measles component of the injection - appears to have sparked an abnormal response of the immune system similar to that in patients with HIV...In October last year his former colleague Dr Simon Murch insisted that he had always supported the vaccine...However, he is a co-author with Dr Wakefield of the latest paper which concludes there is further evidence of a new form of bowel disease in children with 'regressive autism' - losing the power of speech and becoming autistic."

Comment:  What's the deal with Dr. Murch?

►January 12, 2004 - Parents' anger over MMR threat to GPs - Leeds Today - "Doctors used to receive bonuses for achieving targets on vaccinating children with the triple measles, mumps and rubella jab...But now, a new policy set down by the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), states that GPs will LOSE money if they fail to convince enough parents to have the inoculation."

►January 15, 2004 - Love of horses, children in woman’s blood - Sun Current - "Though Jodi Townsend may receive a state award this year, she feels rewarded almost daily watching young children ride horses on her ranch...Townsend, 33, operates Majestic Hills Ranch in southern Lakeville. The ranch functions as a place where children with special needs can ride horses as a form of therapy. Townsend and her team of volunteers have operated the ranch since 1997."

►January 15, 2004 - Room is ray of hope for brain-damaged kids - Adopting a therapy that originated in the Netherlands, Jackson Memorial Hospital unveils a new multisensory room to treat children with brain injuries. - The Miami Herald

►January 13, 2004 - Kids left hanging as program to treat autism shuts down - Operator blames switch of funding to counties - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

►January 17, 2004 - The real reason women smokers are at greater risk - The Globe and Mail - "Should cancer of the lung be added to the list of health risks women face just because they are women?...A study presented recently at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago showed that women who smoke are twice as likely to develop lung cancer as their male counterparts. As a risk factor for smokers, female gender appears to outweigh age and amount smoked. Some researchers point fingers at the female hormone estrogen, but there is strong evidence implicating a more likely culprit: the bottling up of emotions, particularly anger."

►January 14, 2004 - Cancer Deaths Falling in U.S., Annual Report Shows - Reuters Health via Yahoo!

►January 7, 2004 - Cancer at Record High in UK - (requires registration) - Reuters Health via www.medscape.com

►January 12, 2004 - Increasing Flu Vaccine in High-Risk Children - Pediatrics via Ivanhoe - "A simple reminder call significantly increases the number of children with a high-risk medical condition who receive a flu vaccine, according to new research. The study used billing data to identify children with high-risk conditions and evaluated whether a phone call could increase the number of children with a high-risk condition who actually get the flu vaccine."

►January 12, 2004 - For Health Officials, Flu Shot Is an Annual Gamble - Washington Post - "This winter marks only the second time in 15 years that the flu vaccine given to tens of millions of Americans does not specifically protect against the strain of flu circulating in the population...In that sense, this year's flu shot -- ironically, one of the more sought-after injections in years -- is a failure. How big a failure the shot is, and how many people may pay for the failure with their lives, will not be known for a while. The country could still get lucky. It might turn out a vaccine that is technically "wrong" may be right enough for the real world."

►January 12, 2004 - Lack of flu shots spurs fake vaccines - Los Angeles Times via Knox News

►January 17, 2004 - Hepatitis sufferers win appeal and state redress - The Japan Times - "The Sapporo High Court ordered the government Friday to pay a combined 16.5 million yen to three people who said they contracted the hepatitis B virus in their childhood through then-mandatory vaccinations...Presiding Judge Kenji Yamazaki said in handing down the ruling that it is reasonable to believe the inoculations caused their infections. The ruling overturned a lower court ruling dismissing the claim...'The government naturally was able to predict the risk of such infections but failed to take preventive measures,' he said."

Comment:  For more on the problem of infection via contaminated needles, 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")

►January 16, 2004 - China: Killer Inspires Drive Against Hepatitis Bias - Los Angeles Times via www.aegis.org - "Zhou Yichao, rejected for a public servant job in Jiaxing because he tested positive for hepatitis B, killed one official who denied his application and seriously wounded another. The plight of Zhou - now on death row - has inspired a national movement against discriminatory hiring practices and lack of legal redress...More than 120 million people in China - about 10 percent of the population - are chronic carriers of hepatitis B. Many, like Zhou, show no symptoms and should not pose a threat to co- workers. Hepatitis B is spread through the exchange of bodily fluids and cannot be contracted through casual contact such as shaking hands. Hepatitis B can lead to liver failure and death. More than a million people die from it every year, about a third of them Chinese...Hepatitis B is incurable but preventable with a vaccine."

Comment:  For a different perspective on hepatitis B incidence and severity, go to Scandals: The CDC and “The New Math”, where 1 + 1  does not equal 2.  To learn more about why hepatitis B has spread in developing nations, and why vaccination against it is an arguable strategy, 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").

►January 17, 2004 - The Mad Cows Finally Come Home - Family Farm Defenders via www.infoshop.org

►January 16, 2004 - Action Needed To Prevent Spread Of vCJD - BMJ via www.intelihealth.com - "Dr Sheila Bird argues that the death of the first probable victim of vCJD from a blood transfusion means that steps must be taken to define the rights and responsibilities of those at risk, as well as the general public...Because there is no way of testing blood for vCJD, people who have received products that may be contaminated need to be managed as if the disease had been diagnosed."

►January 15, 2004 - Mad cow as bioterrorism? - Scientists worry that US gov't classification of BSE prions as 'select agents' could hinder research - The Scientist  

►January 16, 2004 - Mad People Disease (opinion) - The Jewish Journal - "In the Torah’s story about Joseph, Pharaoh has a dream in which seven sickly cows consume seven healthy cows. Joseph interprets this, and Pharaoh’s other dream of seven withered ears of corn consuming seven full ears of corn, to indicate that there will be seven years of plenty in Egypt followed by seven years of severe famine...Today, we do not have a Pharaoh’s dreams to warn us of impending dangers, but we have a somewhat comparable situation in which cows with 'Mad Cow Disease' in England, Canada, the United States and other countries are having devastating effects on cattle industries in these countries."

►January 15, 2004 - NU professor advocates testing of all cows for mad cow disease - www.vidyya.com

►January 15, 2004 - Public Citizen Press Releases - 1. Mad Cow Disease an Accident Waiting to Happen; 2. Public Citizen Report Describes Some of Maryland's Dangerous Doctors as Physicians Gear Up for a March on Annapolis

►January 14, 2004 - Mad cow's untold story - Studies quietly raise questions about threat to humans - Rocky Mountain News - "from government and the cattle industry that mad cow disease poses no threat to public health, a small universe of scientists working on a family of related illnesses are finding disturbing evidence to the contrary...Several little-publicized studies, as well as ongoing research at a government laboratory in Montana, continue to spark questions about human susceptibility not only to mad cow, but to sister diseases such as chronic wasting disease that mainly affects deer and elk, and to scrapie, which infects sheep."

Comment:  For more on the mad cow story, go to the Online Mad Cow Conference at www.redflagsdaily.com

►January 13, 2004 - Cow and A: What's the Chance of Finding a Mad Cow Burger on Your Plate? - Washington Post

►January 13, 2004 - An Ecodetective's Journey Into the Center of Neurodegenerative Disease - by RFD Columnist, Mark Purdey in the Online Mad Cow Disease Conference at www.redflagsdaily.com

►January 13, 2004 - Nonfood use of cow parts faces review - www.sacbee.com - "Now that the United States has mad cow disease, federal regulators are reconsidering long-held policies aimed at prohibiting importation of products or ingredients with bovine tissue or blood from countries with documented cases of the illness...The products include vaccines, nutritional supplements and cosmetics, all of which can contain ingredients derived from cows."

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

►January 12, 2004 - Guess what's coming in dinner - Mad cow disease scare, salmon warning have consumers wondering what on their plates is safe to eat - Tri-Valley Herald Online

Comment:  As well they should.  But what about showing the same concern for what is injected into their bodies?

►January 11, 2004 - Amid Mad-Cow Fear, Worries in Md. Death - Lack of Autopsies Hampers Research - Washington Post

►January 11, 2004 - Assessing Risks of Mad Cow - Other Animals Likely Infected, Scientists Say - Washington Post