December 10, 2003 - FDA mercury warnings come under further fire - Knox News - "The Food and Drug Administration has drafted a health advisory to pregnant women and children that isn't strong enough to prevent brain damage from eating mercury contaminated fish, particularly canned tuna, environmental and consumer groups said Tuesday."

Comment:  As for the problem with injecting an adult-sized mega-dose into the tiny bodies of infants via vaccines - it doesn't pass the "straight-face test" to suggest doing so could be in any way benign.

December 10, 2003 - NIH to launch ethics review - Zerhouni promises comprehensive look at lucrative consulting payments to top officials - The Scientist - "The Los Angeles Times on Sunday (December 7) reported that several high-level NIH scientists and officials had received more than $2.5 million in fees and stock options from drug companies for consulting outside of their government work over the past 10 years."

November 1, 2002 - The Victim Friendly National Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensation Act: You've Got to Be Kidding! - by Stanley P. Kops, Esq. - The Litigation Report - www.harrismartin.com via www.redflagsdaily.com -  "Anyone who has yet to engage in practice governed by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensation Act, a step required for all current vaccine injury and death claims as a condition precedent to litigation in a private forum, should proceed with great caution. Though the Congressional intent was to create a victim-friendly statute which provided just and fair compensation quickly and without the uncertainties and proof problems inherent in civil actions, frequent practitioners under the Act are in virtually universal agreement that the program, as it has evolved during the past decade and a half, is a perversion of the Congressional intent."

December 10, 2003 - Vaccines caused my three children's neuro disorders (letter) - The Illinois Leader - "The pharmaceutical companies are so large and almighty that bringing them down is a challenge but one that I and many other parents are slowly doing...I'm not anti-vaccine. I am for safe vaccines - vaccines without known neurotoxins such as thimerosal, and other additives such as aluminum, aborted fetus cells, and formaldehyde."

November 28, 2003 - A shot for the flu, with mercury too - Canadians are getting a dose of something unexpected with their flu shots this season: mercury. - Capital News Online - "Provincial and territorial governments use an influenza vaccine that contains the mercury compound thimerosal as a preservative. They buy it because it's less expensive than vaccines without mercury."

Summer 2003 - The SARS Epidemic: Are Viruses Taking the Rap for Industrial Poisons? - by Jim West for The Weston Price Foundation

December 10, 2003 - A Childhood Killer Once Vanquished Is Returning - USA Today via www.immunizationinfo.org - "Before a vaccine was developed to prevent whooping cough, or pertussis, up to 10,000 people died every year from the disease, particularly infants. Today, the disease is making a dangerous comeback, again striking infants, many of whom may be contracting the illness from teenagers and adults who have lost immunity against whooping cough. Experts say that the best protection could come from immunizing infants at an earlier age, or from giving teenagers booster shots against pertussis; however, there is no vaccine designed for either of those uses, so doctors are left without a system for protecting the very young."

December 10, 2003 - Nasal Spray Flu Vaccine Could Take Off, Boosting Maker - USA Today via www.immunizationinfo.org - "The demand for influenza vaccine has increased due to an outbreak of a strong strain of flu, and Aventis and Chiron have shipped all their inventory of flu shots. This could turn into opportunity for MedImmune, which manufactures the FluMist nasal spray vaccine and whose sales so far have been slow. FluMist's launch was hindered by a number of factors, including its higher price, its limited approval for patients, and the fact that it must be kept frozen. However, MedImmune's marketing partner, Wyeth, has started a freezer distribution program, and higher demand could push sales."

Comment: Is all this a coincidence?  For more on this, go to New Campaign To Market Tough-Sell FluMist® - by Sherri Tenpenny, DO - Online Vaccines Conference @ www.redflagsdaily.com

December 6, 2003 - 700 senior citizens in Singapore get enhanced flu jabs to combat new flu virus strain - Channel News Asia - "Managing Director of Pacific Biosciences, Lloyd Soong, said: 'The elderly are a little different from us healthy adults, so their immunity system is a little different. So if you give the normal flu vaccines then maybe you're protected about 90 percent for healthy adults like us, but for the elderly if you use the so-called normal flu vaccines probably about 30 to 40 percent of the elderly are protected only.'...But while Fluad is also suitable for adults, it is not recommended for young children. They're better off with an ordinary flu vaccine."

Comment:  What's the story on this so-called enhanced flu vaccine?  And how many of the elderly are aware that "normal flu vaccines" probably only protect 30-40 percent of them?

December 2003 - Flu vaccination could mean extra doctor trips - Study reports a high rate of healthy infants who would require and additional visit to receive influenza vaccine. (requires registration) - journal article (Infectious Diseases In Children) - "An important drawback of the recent decision by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to move to a full universal influenza recommendation for healthy young infants in the fall of 2004 is the possibility that the requirement will prompt the need for additional medical visits."

December 10, 2003 - Mother cleared of killing sons - A mother who was jailed for life for murdering her two baby sons, has had her conviction overturned. - BBC - "Ms Cannings, 40, a former shop assistant, always maintained that the two boys died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), or cot death...SIDS was recorded as the cause of death after Ms Cannings' first child, Gemma, died at the age of 13 weeks in 1989...'Still, nobody knows what causes cot death...'"

Comment:  There is good reason to believe vaccinations are implicated in SIDS.  For more on this, go to A Not-So-Perfect Vaccine: The Diphtheria, Tetanus and Acellular Pertussis vaccine: An Investigation - by RFD columnist F. Edward Yazbak, MD, FAAP in the Online Vaccine Conference at www.redflagsdaily.com.

Comment: For more on the question of whether or not parents are being unfairly blamed and incarcerated for the deaths of their infants and children, please visit the SBS (Shaken Baby Syndrome) Online Conference at www.redflagsdaily.com.

December 10, 2003 - A shot in the dark - The U.S. military requires troops to take controversial anthrax shots and court-martials them if they refuse. But critics say the vaccine is too dangerous -- and with Saddam's bioweapons nowhere to be found, needless. - www.salon.com

December 10, 2003 - Bitter medicine - A reaction to vaccinations, including anthrax, probably killed 22-year-old Rachael Lacy -- and her grieving father thinks the Army has a lot of questions to answer. - www.salon.com

December 7, 2003 - Children refused killer flu jabs - The Sunday Mercury - "More children could die of Fujian flu as doctors have been BANNED from giving them vaccinations because of jab shortages...A Sunday Mercury investigation has discovered Midland clinics have been told not to immunise healthy kids from the killer virus - as the government have not provided enough supplies."

Comment:  Given that we don't actually know how many of the children who died from the flu had been given the flu vaccine, perhaps it is a bit premature to draw the conclusion that more children could die unless they get it.

December 7, 2003 - Drama Turns Into A Crisis - The Sunday Mirror, UK - "Docudramas, those half- documentary half-fiction shows beloved of TV programme makers, are usually iffy and dishonest...They are a lazy way of distorting the truth to present a sensational story, while pretending to do some sort of public service...Channel Four did it with The Deal about the - largely inaccurate - relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Now Channel Five has had a go with Hear The Silence, a film about MMR, the triple measles, mumps and rubella jab, and its possible connection with autism, which stars Juliet Stevenson and be screened next Monday."

Comment:  The author, as revealed later in this piece, clearly buys the party line that studies have vindicated the vaccine.  It's a shame that he and others are either unwilling or unable to question the party line and the evidence brought to bear in support of it. 

December 3, 2003 - Boston children's hospital fights new bacteria strain - Increased risk seen for those suffering from cystic fibrosis - The Boston Globe - "A newly identified strain of bacteria has invaded the lungs of at least 20 patients with cystic fibrosis at Children's Hospital, possibly contributing to the death of one woman and prompting hospital officials to begin isolating patients who carry the bug to prevent its spread."

December 3, 2003 - Advocates for limiting Washington malpractice suits promise retribution against opponents - AP via The Olympian - "The Washington State Medical Association and other advocates for reining in lawsuits promised Tuesday an aggressive push in the Legislature next year and vowed to unseat vulnerable lawmakers who dare to stand against them."

December 3, 2003 - Study Questions Some PSA Prostate Tests - AP via Yahoo! - "Almost a third of men over 75 undergo laboratory blood tests each year to check their prostate health, but a new study questions the value of using the PSA test to screen men that old for prostate cancer (news - web sites)...'There is no evidence that screening men of this age would be beneficial to them, so this may not be the best use of health care resources,' said Dr. Siu-Long Yao, a genital-urinary oncologist at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick, N.J. He is senior author of the study appearing this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (news - web sites)."

Comment:  That's certainly an understatement.  If "there is no evidence that screening men of this age would be beneficial to them", why have they been doing it?