Today's Top Stories (all those selected for the Home Page)

November 25, 2003 - New wave of young diabetics - The West Australian - "WA children as young as 12 are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, putting them at risk of kidney, eye and heart problems in their 20s...Diabetes Australia says the disease - once referred to as mature age onset diabetes - is hitting more teenagers, even children, and is fuelled by higher rates of obesity and inactivity."

For another perspective on what is causing this epidemic of diabetes, go to Classen Immunotherapies Inc. Release: More Proof Published That Common Childhood Vaccines Are The Cause Of The Diabetes Epidemic, Data Identifies Children Eligible For Compensation
 

December 8, 2003 - Relief That May Be Too Risky - Hormones: About 9 million women use hormones, down from 15 million last year - Newsweek via www.msnbc.com - "For 15 years Sidney Constien of Malvern, Pa., took hormone therapy for symptoms of menopause. “I kept asking the doctor, ‘How long do I have to take this?’ He kept saying, ‘How long do you want to live?’...bolstered by the widespread belief that hormone therapy prevented heart disease in postmenopausal women, Constien stayed on it. Then, in the spring of 2002, she was diagnosed with breast cancer."

November 30, 2003 - Flu shots for kids a judgment call - New strain hits children hard.  Little ones tend to be heartier than adults but there are many reasons to immunize - CP via www.canada.com

December 1, 2003 - Spate of child flu deaths sparks alarm - All children may be offered vaccine next year

December 1, 2003 - Epidemic is attacking the roots of society - The International Herald Tribune - "For all the scientific advances in dealing with AIDS, however, scientists in the laboratory that first discovered the virus say only one new thing has been learned in 20 years...'The only important thing we have learned about AIDS since our lab discovered the virus in 1983 is humility, said Jean-Louis Virelizier, head of the viral immunology laboratory at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. 'We now know that knowing the virus is not enough to fight it.'"

Comment:  Perhaps the reason that so little is known, after all these years, is that HIV has nothing to do with "AIDS".  For more on this go to the Rethinking Aid$ website.

December 1, 2003 - GPs under pressure after vaccine shortages - The Scotsman - "A vaccine to prevent potentially fatal infections has had to be imported from Germany because there are insufficient stocks to meet a nationwide immunisation programme...The Scottish Executive has had to look abroad for the pneumococcal vaccine because health boards did not anticipate demand for the jab - despite a publicity campaign offering it free to the over-65s."

Comment: For another perspective on use of the pneumococcal vaccine in those over 65, go to Scandals: Something Rotten In The State Of Research - The Twisted Tale Of Pneumonia Vaccine For Adults.
 

November 30, 2003 - Health Department Pushes Vaccinations As Flu Cases Rise - www.ny1.com

Comment: I wonder if the Health Department is disclosing that the current flu vaccine is not the same strain as the current flu, and that it is only speculated that it will work. For more on this, see CDC News Conference Transcript.

November 25, 2003 - Patients: Oklahomans used as human 'guinea pigs' - www.kfor.com - "A cancer research project may have used Oklahomans as human guinea pigs...In late 1996 a Tulsa doctor concocted a vaccine designed to fight deadly skin cancer. Sources close to the doctor say he believed in his research. He tested it on about 100 people, mostly Oklahomans, some of whom now believe that research nearly killed them."

Barbara Loe Fisher note: "Unfortunately, the common myth that vaccines are harmless, that doctors are infallible and that medical researchers are seldom unethical contributed to the blind trust that caused this tragedy. The "sacred cow" status of vaccines must be replaced with a more realistic understanding that every experimental or licensed vaccine, like every experimental or licensed drug, can carry significant risks for individuals. The right to informed consent to taking a risk with a medical intervention, such as vaccination, should be considered a human right because each human being has the moral right to voluntarily choose what they are willing to die for." - From the NVIC newsletter. 

December 1, 2003 - Country not Prepared for the Flu - Ivanhoe - "Researchers from the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital say two different outbreaks of bird flu were transmitted to humans this year and caused fatal infections. They say these bird-to-human transmissions may suggest certain flu viruses are evolving quickly enough to pose a serious threat the humans. These types of virus transmissions were unheard of before 1997...Although researchers have recently developed new, quicker ways to make vaccines, they say the time it takes to test and approve the new vaccines would still take a good amount of time."

November 25, 2003 - Coroner links veteran's death to the Gulf war - The Independent, UK - "The widow of a Gulf war veteran claimed a landmark victory last night after a coroner decided that his military service in the conflict had contributed to his death."
 

December 1, 2003 - Mass vaccination of adults against hepatitis B 'inappropriate' - The Times of Oman - "The NIH executive director said it was unusual for those infected later in adult life to become chronic carriers of the virus. The argument, therefore, forms the basis of having a mass immunisation programme for infants to protect them from this deadly disease."

Comment:  But very few infants run any risk of contracting Hepatitis B.  And those that do, whose mothers are Hepatitis B positive, can be screened for it.  For more on this go to Scandals: For No Good Reason: The Utterly Misguided Universal Infant Hepatitis B Vaccination Policy.

For more on the incidence of Hepatitis B and actual risk of contracting it or becoming chronically infected, see Scandals: The CDC and “The New Math”, where 1 + 1  does not equal 2.

November 30, 2003 - Bad produce producing bad results - Boston Herald via Milford Daily News

November 30, 2003 - Chi-Chi's outbreak raises questions about FDA's ability to screen produce - AP via pennlive.com

Comment:  In The Scientist's November 17, 2003 editorial "Vaccination Undermined", people who are concerned about the safety and effectiveness of vaccinations were maligned in the following way: "The antivaccine lobby strikes me as ignorant. A simple Web search turns up numerous sites that are virulently antivaccination.¹ Often these sites have a veneer of scientific respectability, but a more than cursory glance reveals otherwise. They are run by health nuts, conspiracy theorists, or misguided physicians who indulge in the logical fallacy of coincidental correlation."

For a considerably more fair-minded assessment of the "anti-vaccine" movement, go to BMJ's "Anti-vaccinationists past and present": "These comparisons emphasise that, regardless of how the medical establishment feels about anti-vaccinationists, it is important to understand that they have deeply held beliefs, often of a spiritual or philosophical nature,¹¹ and these beliefs have remained remarkably constant over the better part of two centuries. The movement encompasses a wide range of individuals, from a few who express conspiracy theories, to educated, well informed consumers of health care, who often have a complex rationale for their beliefs, related to a "mixture of world views held about the environment, healing, holism . . . and a critical reading of the scientific and alternative literature."¹² "

November 24, 2003 - Assessing the risk of vaccination your cat - "Without treatment she will die within a year" (requires registration) - www.khou.com - "'With treatment hopefully we will get 18 months'...According (to) a task force, scientific research has shown a 1-10 per 10,000 rate of vaccine-related scarcoma (sic) in cats that have received vaccinations...What bothers Shotwell is that even with all the research did she any point did get any suggestion that there was a potential danger to her animal from the vaccination."

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