►January 19, 2004 - Smallpox mixes make a stir - Virus Research - www.usnews.com - "Cleaning out the freezer usually turns up old stuff that's been long forgotten. That holds true even for the supersecure freezers that safeguard vials of deadly smallpox virus deep within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. A recent inventory unearthed unusual chimera viruses created 40 years ago by crudely combining smallpox with other pox viruses...To many public-health experts, it's disturbing enough that plain old smallpox lives on, albeit under lock and key, at the CDC and a second lab in Russia. Now the World Health Organization's committee on smallpox research is grappling with what to do about strange variants of the deadly virus."

►January 8, 2004 - Public Meeting on How to Proceed with Emergency Smallpox Vaccinations in the Northwest Corner will be held Jan. 20 - Kent Tribune

►January 10, 2004 - Yeats May Have Been Autistic, Psychiatrist Says - Reuters via http://entertainment.sympatico.ca - "Some of Ireland's finest minds including poet W.B. Yeats and founder of the Irish Republic Eamon de Valera may have been autistic, a leading psychiatrist said Friday."

Comment:  Here we go again.  Minimizing the very real pain and suffering of those most acutely affected by autism by associating autism with its most benign (and sometimes even beneficial) form.  For more on this, go to Scandals: Adding Insult to Injustice to Injury Redux.

►January 7, 2004 - National Autism Summit Charts a Path Through a Scientific, Clinical Wilderness (requires subscription) - journal article (JAMA) - "Autism advocates say that for decades, all of science has turned away from the mysterious brain disorder, diagnosed now more than ever. Jon Shestack, father of a son with autism and vice president of the advocacy group Cure Autism Now, said he felt like 'someone snuck into my home and stole my one-and-a-half year old's mind, leaving his bewildered body behind.' If 1 in 250 children were actually being abducted rather than diagnosed with autism, "it would be a national emergency," he said...Budget figures bear out such criticism.

►January 7, 2004 - If only he could call Dad - I have only one simple wish for 2004 - to hear my autistic son say 'Daddy' for the first time. It will be music to my ears - The Straits Times, Asia

►January 7, 2004 - Whitbread prize honours children's book - Reuters via www.abc.net.au - "Judges lavished praise on Haddon's winning novel, a murder mystery whose 15-year-old detective and narrator is a boy with Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism."

►January 8, 2004 - Brilliant minds linked to autism - Historical figures including Socrates, Charles Darwin, and Andy Warhol probably had a form of autism, says a leading specialist. - BBC

Comment:  Here we go again.  Minimizing the very real pain and suffering of those most acutely affected by autism by associating autism with its most benign (and sometimes even beneficial) form.  For more on this, go to Scandals: Adding Insult to Injustice to Injury Redux.

►January 8, 2004 - Confused About the Federal Government's Fish Warning? Here Are Some Answers - Newhouse News Service

►January 9, 2004 - Guest opinion: Misleading statements could issue of mercury - www.billingsgazette.com - "The Dec. 20, 2003, guest editorial by Verne Lehmberg and David Ponder chastising EPA for their recent rules regarding mercury emissions from coal fired power plants was misleading and a major distortion of facts...The authors of this article would have us believe that fish in Montana's lakes and streams are unhealthy to eat due to mercury contamination, with the strong implication that this mercury contamination is caused by coal-fired power plants...Mercury is a naturally occurring element that is widespread in the environment. It is released to the environment by the natural processes of leaching of soil and rock by rainfall and groundwater movement, and by volcanic activity."

►January 9, 2004 - CDC begins tests on students, teachers exposed to mercury - Reno Gazette-Journal

Comment:  How nice that the CDC is so concerned about external exposure.  Would that they had the same level of concern for internal exposure, particularly injection, of this toxic substance.

►January 9, 2004 - Nakanishi backs bill to warn of mercury in fish - Lodi News - "Nakanishi is sponsoring a bill that would have the state post signs along all waterways warning of the dangers of eating too much fish because of the levels of mercury...Actually, it's been a warning that's been around since 1994, when the Environmental Protection Agency began warning fishers of the mercury level in some of their catches, particularly the older and darker fish. But the warning hasn't spread throughout the state's waterways where people fish."

►January 7, 2004 - Liquid mercury found in school - The Record-Courier

►January 7, 2004 - Autism Fears over MMR Unnecessary, Says Blair - The Scotsman

Comment:  This is a good example why medicine and politics don't (or shouldn't) mix.  What makes Blair an expert on this subject and competent to meaningfully reassure the public about their MMR/autism fears? 

►January 10, 2004 - County considers tax raise - The News-Gazette - "The Champaign County Board is expected to decide later this month whether to put a proposal on the November ballot to enact a countywide tax of up to 10 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to provide services for the county's 1,700 developmentally disabled residents."

Comment:  This sort of thing can be expected to become commonplace given the burgeoning disabled population.

►January 9, 2004 - Special ed a major part of a school’s work - Press of Atlantic City - "More than one out of every four students in the Pinelands Regional School District requires some form of special-education services, forcing the district to devote 40 percent of its instructional budget to the program...Beside the added cost per student - it can cost twice as much to educate a special-education student - the district employs about 100 special education personnel, about a quarter of its entire staff."

►January 8, 2004 - Parents of Children with Autism Turn to Medical Alternatives - Newswise/Life News via Healthy News - "One in three children recently diagnosed with autism received complementary or alternative medicine treatments and 9 percent used a potentially harmful type, according to a new study of patients in Philadelphia...Latino children were more likely to use complementary and alternative medicine compared to other groupings, according to Susan E. Levy, M.D., and colleagues, while those with additional, non-autistic disorders or deficits in thinking, learning and memory were less likely to do so...'The goal of many of these treatments is most likely not to treat autism per se, but rather to address some of the associated problems faced by these children,' she says."

►January 8, 2004 - Parents facing a difficult choice; Say they will fight to keep gov’t aid for their disabled children - Citizen Online - "Without the Katie Beckett waiver giving the family eligibility for Medicaid, DiMartino said she said her family would essentially be broke..."We want our son to be with us forever," she said as tears welled up in her eyes. 'I want to take care of my son. It would be very hard to do without the safety net of the Katie Beckett waiver.'...However, budget cuts at the state Department of Health and Human Services may jeopardize the current eligibility requirements, leaving many families without access to Medicaid."

►January 6, 2004 - Young And Mentally Ill ; State Services Dwindling For A Disease Few Understand - Rocky Mountain News via http://mentalhelp.net - "Diagnosed with bipolar disorder and Asperger's syndrome, Chelsy bounces back and forth between two emotions - euphoria and rage. When she's happy, she literally believes the animals can sing. When she's angry, she becomes convinced that the sky will fall, and she lashes out at anyone, anything, nearby...Several months ago, it was her mother. Chelsy tried to stab her with a carving knife."

►January 7, 2004 - Judge OKs military anthrax vaccinations - Santa Maria Times - "A federal judge Wednesday allowed the military to resume anthrax inoculations, although he questioned the timing of a government announcement declaring the vaccine safe."

►January 7, 2004 - Judge OKs military anthrax vaccinations - A federal judge cleared the way Wednesday for the Pentagon to resume vaccinating military personnel against anthrax after lifting his injunction against the mandatory inoculation program. - CNN - U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan granted a motion from Defense Department attorneys to limit the effect of his vaccine ban to the six plaintiffs who are suing the government...'In the absence of a proven correlate of immunity between humans and animals, specific to anthrax infection, the FDA's Final Rule's reliance on animal data is illegal, and reflects an arbitrary and capricious decision. Therefore, the government's victory today may only be fleeting,' said attorney Mark Zaid."

►January 7, 2004 - Bacteria Treat & Prevent Gastrointestinal and Allergic Diseases  - Press Release by Kelly Karpa via www.emediawire.com

►January 7, 2004 - Immune System Attack Tied to Birth Defects - A new study bolsters the case for folic acid supplements in women of childbearing age. - HealthDay Reporter via www.healthcentral.com

►January 10, 2004 - County considers tax raise - The News-Gazette - "The Champaign County Board is expected to decide later this month whether to put a proposal on the November ballot to enact a countywide tax of up to 10 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to provide services for the county's 1,700 developmentally disabled residents."

Comment:  This sort of thing can be expected to become commonplace given the burgeoning disabled population.

►January 7, 2004 - Immune System Attack Tied to Birth Defects - A new study bolsters the case for folic acid supplements in women of childbearing age. - HealthDay Reporter via www.healthcentral.com

►January 7, 2004 - New Picture of Rare Childhood Disorder - Brain scan of boy with hyperplexia provides new insight - HealthDayNews via Dr. Koop - "The first use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the brain of a boy with a rare disorder called hyperlexia is described in a Georgetown University study in the new issue of Neuron...The case study of a single child revealed the neural mechanisms that underlie hyperlexia. The findings suggest hyperlexia is the true opposite of the reading disability dyslexia."

►January 8, 2004 - Parents facing a difficult choice; Say they will fight to keep gov’t aid for their disabled children - Citizen Online - "Without the Katie Beckett waiver giving the family eligibility for Medicaid, DiMartino said she said her family would essentially be broke..."We want our son to be with us forever," she said as tears welled up in her eyes. 'I want to take care of my son. It would be very hard to do without the safety net of the Katie Beckett waiver.'...However, budget cuts at the state Department of Health and Human Services may jeopardize the current eligibility requirements, leaving many families without access to Medicaid."

►January 10, 2004 - Jury Tacks on $8 Million in Cancer Death (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "or the first time in New York State, a jury in Brooklyn yesterday said a tobacco company should pay punitive damages for the lung cancer death of an individual smoker."

►January 10, 2004 - Exposure to spouse’s smoking increases risk of lung cancer by over 20% - journal article (BMJ)

►January 9, 2004 - Researchers unlock key secrets showing how tumors hide from immune system - University of South Florida Health Sciences Center via www.eurekalert.org

►January 7, 2004 - Hope for leukaemia vaccine - Successful tests in mice could herald a vaccine treatment for people with a form of leukaemia. - BBC

Comment:  If this vaccine is actually safe and effective, and is only given to those who have leukaemia and choose to take it, just as with the "anti-nicotine" vaccine below, it may have a meaningful role to play.

►January 9, 2004 - Doubts on vaccine patch for children - Sydney Morning Herald - "An adhesive patch hailed as a revolutionary method of mass vaccination may increase a child's risk of developing type-one diabetes and multiple sclerosis, Australian researchers have found."

►January 7, 2004 - 'Do not fear the flu shot' - CHR officer says vaccinations vital - The Calgary Sun

Comment:  Note how this journalist did not buy into everything the CHR officer said.

►January 7, 2004 - A Plague For The Ages Book Recounts Horror Of 1918 Pandemic That Killed At Least 20 Million Worldwide - book review - Hartford Courant via www.ctnow.com - "This winter's nasty outbreak of influenza carries only the faintest echo of one of the deadliest plagues in the history of humanity - the 1918 influenza pandemic..Contemporary news photos of long lines of people waiting for vanishing flu vaccine shots shows the public has not lost all fear of influenza, which kills about 36,000 people annually. Reports of an apparently higher than normal number of deaths among young children are heart-rending and nerve-wracking for all parents...Yet it is nearly impossible today to fully comprehend the scope of the 1918 catastrophe. What would be the reaction today to the deaths of 1.75 million Americans - the equivalent of the 675,000 U.S. lives claimed by 1918 pandemic - or a global death toll that has been estimated to be between 20 million to 100 million lives?"

Comment:  But what actually caused the pandemic?  Did it have anything to do with the privations caused by and experienced in WWI?  Were there other relevant and important factors that no longer apply?  Rather than rush willy-nilly to take the latest drug or vaccine, these and many other questions are in great need of study and answers. But who, other than the drug companies and the government, have an incentive to pay for such studies?  And can we trust government sponsored studies now that it is in the business of pushing vaccines?
 

►January 7, 2004 - Flu vaccine safe for kids, says doc - Edmunton Sun - "A top city doctor has moved to reassure local parents after a Calgary tot died within a month of getting a flu shot...'The vaccine is a very safe vaccine,' said Dr. Marcia Johnson, deputy medical officer of health for Capital Health. "'There have been no deaths of children in Capital Health related to influenza that we are aware of.'...The vaccine poses no risk to kids under the age of two years old, she said."

Comment:  Whew.  That's quite a mouthful.  First, how clever they must be to be able to already know that there is no danger.  And how gullible they must think the public is - no studies, not even fake ones, are deemed necessary before issuing such sweeping, reassuring statements.  And while I'm not sure what is meant by "Capital Health", if Calgary is covered by it, it does seem that they have dismissed the possibility that the death of an infant one month after receiving a flu vaccine could be related to the vaccine.  And "no risk"?  (Even the flu manufacturers don't go that far.) Hmmm, would the "top city doctor" be willing to sign a guarantee? 

►January 7, 2004 - Nasal-spray flu vaccine proves as effective as needle, study shows -  www.globeandmail.com

►January 8, 2004 - New Online Resource Reminds Internet Users To Safeguard Against Hib Disease - PRNewswire via http://nachrichten.boerse.de - "Today the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP) launched Hibdisease.com, a comprehensive online resource for both healthcare providers and parents, which focuses on Hib disease (Haemophilus influenzae type B), a vaccine preventable childhood disease that was the leading cause of bacterial meningitis and post-natal mental retardation prior to the availability of effective vaccines. Hib disease continues to pose a serious threat to U.S. children."

Comment:  For another perspective on Hib and the vaccine designed to prevent it, go to Scandals: Changing Disease Epidemiology Via Vaccines - Are We "Robbing Peter To Pay Paul"?

►January 7, 2004 - UNICEF to Buy LG's Vaccines - Korea Times - "UNICEF will buy Hepatitis vaccines from LG Life Science for $22 million for the next three years...In addition, about 50 billion won worth of the vaccines will be provided the to Pan American Health Organization this year."

Comment: For more on how a "need" for hepatitis B vaccines was created because of unsafe needle practices, go to Scandals: "But Faith, fanatic Faith, once wedded fast To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last."  And for another perspective on hepatitis B incidence statistics, go to Scandals: The CDC and “The New Math”, where 1 + 1  does not equal 2.

►January 19, 2004 - The good news about prions - www.usnews.com - "Last month's discovery of mad cow disease in the U.S. food supply has elevated prions from an obscure biological curiosity to topic A on the talk shows. But just as these villainous, twisted proteins are becoming notorious, researchers are saying: Hold up; they might not be so bad after all. Indeed, prions and their cousin proteins may prove to be benign--even helpful--in normal mental functions like memory."

►January 9, 2004 - State cow farm ID bill attacked by ag groups - AP via GazetteXtra - "Agriculture groups balked Thursday at a bill that would make livestock farmers pay $30 to register their addresses in an electronic farm locater system designed to help trace sick animals and control disease."

Comment:  For more on how short-sightedness re: the "bottom line" has been affecting regulation of the industry, go to Vote blocked ban on ill cows - Analysis Finds Link To Industry Funds - The Mercury News - "Five months before the discovery of ``mad cow'' disease in the United States, Congress narrowly voted to let sick and injured cattle stay in the nation's food supply. Among California representatives, the more money a lawmaker received from the dairy and livestock industry, the more likely he or she was to support the controversial practice of turning so-called ``downer animals'' into hamburger, steak and other meat, a Mercury News analysis has found."

►January 9, 2004 - Mad Cow Disease Transmission Risk For Medical Products To Be Discussed At Feb. 12-13 Meeting - FDAAdvisoryCommittee

Comment:  For a look at the use of bovine products in vaccines, go to Scandals: On "mad cows" and sick monkeys: From the people who brought you SV40 in vaccines....

►January 8, 2004 - An Issue Comes to a Head - www.commondreams.org - "One mad cow is messy; two are messier. And in the next few months, if and when North American regulators actually begin to gather some real science by testing thousands of cows, the picture will likely get even dirtier...Many experts on bovine spongiform encephalopathy now suspect that BSE/mad cow has been in North America for at least a decade, that the beef industry and regulators have fought proper regulation from day one, that the current surveillance system is a don't-look-don't-find model and that the public-health risk from contaminated meat could be greater than most are prepared to admit."

►January 7, 2004 - Could Mad Cow Disease Already be Killing Thousands of Americans Every Year? - by Michael Greger, MD - www.commondreams.org - "Michael Greger, M.D., has been the Chief BSE Investigator for Farm Sanctuary since 1993 and the Mad Cow Coordinator for the Organic Consumers Association since 2001."

►January 10, 2004 - Query on bug vaccine - The Mercury - "The Health Department is investigating whether a meningococcal C vaccine may have failed after a child contracted the illness...Last month there were four suspected cases of meningococcal C...Three of the cases were from one family and the children had received the meningococcal C vaccine. ..Further testing found only one child contracted the illness, while the other two received precautionary treatment."

Comment:  Given the fact that there are no short or long-term, properly designed studies comparing the vaccinated to the never vaccinated (or those vaccinated, but not against meningitis), it is impossible to know how well the vaccine works.  For more on the new meningitis vaccine, and possible ramifications of its use, go to Scandals: Another Unnecessary Vaccine?  Here Comes the Hype for a New Meningitis Vaccine (originally published under another title).

►January 7, 2004 - Scandals: Another Unnecessary Vaccine?  Here Comes the Hype for a New Meningitis Vaccine was Scandals: Is the excitement about a new meningitis vaccine warranted or is it premature?

►December 30, 2003 - Meningitis Cases Have Unrelated Strains - AP via www.intelihealth.com

►January, 2004 - Should physics be more elitist? - Is it best to aim school physics teaching at a talented minority of specialists? Or should it be made more accessible so that people can appreciate the role of physics in society? Opening this special section on education, Mark Ellse argues that physics is an elite activity that only a few will ever appreciate, while Jonathan Osborne believes that we should communicate the excitement of physics to all - http://physicsweb.org - "Most of what the public needs to know not only requires some technical knowledge of science, but also an understanding of how scientific knowledge is achieved, how it is validated and what the associated risks are. Just look at the absurd actions of many parents who refuse to allow their children to be given a single vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) - preferring that the vaccinations should instead be given separately. In the process, these parents are putting their children at the increased risk of infection from measles or rubella."

►January 7, 2004 - Vaccines: New Campaigns Against Scepticism, Says Sirchia - "'We must launch new vaccine campaigns, despite the recent scepticisms' said today health minister Girolamo Sirchia, in Genoa to attend the 'Children and the Mediterranean conference. 'The fact that a measles epidemic has killed three people in Campania and that flu kills thousands of people each year is a crime, just as ignoring that a vaccine exists is. There is an anti-scientific behaviour which establishes that the vaccine causes the disease. We have gone back to step 1, when Jenner and Pasteur were considered plague-spreaders'. According to the minister, the fear of vaccines is due to a lack of information: 'the more scientific development advances, the more anti-scientific movements come about. Today's vaccines are completely safe - concluded Sirchia - even the one against smallpox. There are no risks whatsoever'.

►January 9, 2004 - UN Says Polio is Spreading to Countries Where It Had Been Eradicated - United Nations (New York) via www.allafrica.com - "The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed two new cases of poliovirus in Benin and Cameroon - countries where the disease had previously been eradicated...The spread of the virus across borders shows how fragile progress in its eradication is, the agency said, stressing the urgency of stopping transmission."

►January 9, 2004 - Whooping Cough Increases - WYTV - "Whooping cough, or pertussis, is a serious illness in young children who can develop complications and even die from infection...The disease is increasing, almost triple the number of cases in the past two decades, and that includes the valley...Local epidemiologists think they know why."

►January 8, 2004 - Diphtheria Vaccination Important for Travelers - Reuters Health via www.immunizationinfo.org (abstract)

►January 9, 2004 - B.C. to immunize students against whooping cough - The Globe And Mail

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