December 16, 2003 - Health officials warn parents to watch flu-stricken children closely - StarNewsOnline - "With two more North Carolina boys dying of influenza complications, state health officials are urging parents to keep a close watch on their children when they seem to recover from the flu...Both boys had flu symptoms for several days and appeared to be recovering until their condition worsened and they died, said State Health Director Dr. Leah Devlin...Autopsies showed the boys died from secondary infections, one a pneumococcal infection and the other a meningococcal infection...'Secondary infections from the flu can be quite dangerous, because the person is already in a weakened state," Devlin said.'"

Issues 2004 - A Net of Control - Unthinkable: How the Internet could become a tool of corporate and government power, based on updates now in the works - Newsweek via MSNBC - "Picture, if you will, an information infrastructure that encourages censorship, surveillance and suppression of the creative impulse. Where anonymity is outlawed and every penny spent is accounted for. Where the powers that be can smother subversive (or economically competitive) ideas in the cradle, and no one can publish even a laundry list without the imprimatur of Big Brother. Some prognosticators are saying that such a construct is nearly inevitable. And this infrastructure is none other than the former paradise of rebels and free-speechers: the Internet."

December 15, 2003 - Parents Concerned About Vaccine Safety - Most Docs Surveyed Had Parents Who Refused Vaccinations for Their Kids - WebMDHealth - "'Parents are asking more questions about the safety of the vaccines their children are getting, and that is a good thing,' researcher Sarah J. Clark, MPH, tells WebMD. 'Our findings point to a need to get the safety message out there, and not let the alarmist [antivaccine] groups frame the debate.'"

December 16, 2003 - Flu, staph infection deadly - Newhouse News Service via Bridgeton News via www.nj.com

December 16, 2003 - Government To Purchase FluMist at A Discount - Deal Could Give Boost To MedImmune Vaccine - The Washington Post - "The company that makes FluMist, the needle-free influenza vaccine, agreed to sell up to 3 million doses to public health officials at less than half the $46 wholesale price amid a shortage of flu vaccine, the federal government said yesterday, which may ultimately boost faltering sales of the drug."

December 16, 2003 - New support for MMR doubts - www.femail.co.uk - "The safety of the MMR vaccine has again been called into question as a study appeared to back the British doctor who first linked it to autism and bowel disease...Dr Andrew Wakefield's findings have been dismissed as flawed by Government scientists and the Department of Health, who say they have not been replicated by other researchers...But experts at New York University School of Medicine have found independent support for his concerns over the measles, mumps and rubella jab."

December 13, 2003 - Taking your medicine - Gary Hughes and Liz Minchin follow the big pharmaceutical money trail to reveal who is really behind the health advice we are getting. - The Age - "Many of us with chronic health problems rely on advocacy groups and peak medical bodies for independent advice and support. But just how independent is that advice and are we being given the full picture?...The Age has found that many advocacy groups are becoming hooked on sponsorship dollars from drug companies and these international corporations are in turn using them to promote their products in Australia's booming $5 billion drug market."

December 12, 2003 - More accurate, speedy flu vaccine years from distribution - Denver Post via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - "Top influenza researchers have developed a vaccine that they say can more accurately target any flu strain, even mutants like the Fujian bug that is sweeping mercilessly across the country...And scientists say drug companies could develop the vaccine much faster than the current flu shot by growing it in animal cells instead of eggs, where today's vaccine is born."

Comment: Given what we are learning about cross-species transfer of diseases and the difficulty in identifying and removing pathogens, is this really such a good idea?

December 12, 2003 - Flu likely a factor in deaths of elderly - Rocky Mountain News - "Several hundred of Colorado's elderly likely have died of flu-related complications in the past 30 days, a Denver geriatrician said Thursday..."It's very much underreported, even by doctors," said Dr. Greg Gahm, who tracks influenza at Colorado nursing homes. "If they meticulously tracked every death in the last month, they'd find several hundred elderly deaths, maybe more," attributable in part to the flu."

Comment:  If they haven't been tracking it meticulously, how do they know when there are more or less flu deaths among the elderly?

December 14, 2003 - Vaccine for deadly flu scrapped - Experts alerted to dangerous Fujian strain, but found shot too risky - San Mateo County Times - "A leading national expert on infectious diseases told a Food and Drug Administration committee in February and again in March that it would be a mistake if this year's vaccine didn't guard against a potentially lethal strain of influenza that was beginning to emerge in the Southern Hemisphere... Dr. Peter Palese warned that the flu strain -- known as A-Fujian/411/2002 -- seemed likely to hit the United States and that drastic measures were required to protect public health. Creating a vaccine that offered only moderate safeguards against the new strain was a bad idea, he warned, according to official transcripts of FDA meetings earlier this year."

December 14, 2003 - Flu vaccine injects a dose of confusion - Questions are raised over its usefulness against the virus. - The Sacramento Bee - "'People who get vaccine have a much lower chance of dying,' said Dr. Roger Baxter, an infectious disease consultant with Kaiser Permanente. 'Vaccine is to prevent death, not to prevent flu.'"

Comment:  Where on earth did he come up with that 'fact'?  The only way of getting even close to knowing that would be to compare matched populations that did and did not get the flu vaccine.  Although they clearly should be conducted, such studies simply are not being done.

Comment:  And all of a sudden the vaccine is not to prevent the flu?  What's that all about?

December 12, 2003 - Doctors say flu outbreak not a cause for panic - The News-Times - "In the past, parents didn’t worry about their kids getting the flu. This year, for a variety of reasons — the deaths of 23 children nationwide, a shortage of vaccine, saturation coverage of the flu outbreak on cable news shows — they are...Dr. Jack Fong, chairman of pediatrics at Danbury Hospital, is trying to make sure unease about the disease doesn’t balloon into any real panic...Fong added that because of the communication revolution — cable TV, the Internet, all-news stations — people hear about any unusual illness much sooner than in the past."

Comment:  First, there is only a shortage because of increased demand due to the creation of a panic atmosphere.  And if there is, in fact, no need for panic, the following question should be asked: Is there anyone who serves to gain from a panic and increased demand for flu vaccine?

December 14, 2003 - Let it flow, let it flow? - by Molly Ivins - Star-Telegram - "I can't tell whether this administration is flaunting its cynicism, its contempt for science or its conviction that, when in power, you help your contributors and fry your enemies -- although how millions of small children and unborn fetuses came to be enemies of George W. Bush & Co. is beyond my political or theological understanding...We are talking about the rollback announced last week in regulating mercury pollution. Except, of course, that it wasn't announced as a rollback -- it was announced as a great step forward."

December 10, 2003 - Nasal Spray Vaccine - A Better Flu Vaccine? New Data Suggest Nasal Spray Vaccine May Give More Protection Against "Drifted' Strains. Such Strains Are Now Circulating, Says Saint Louis University Doctor Who Helped Develop the Vaccine -  www.healthnewsdigest.com

December 16, 2003 - Toddler Dies Of Flu Complications - www.whiotv.com "Doctors said Trevor Hamilton's missing pituitary gland and cleft pallet had an impact on his immune system. That put him at high risk for the flu."

December 13, 2003 - Cot deaths not affected by sleeping position - www.medilexicon.com - "Making babies sleep on their backs may not prevent cot deaths, a specialist claims today...The fall in cot deaths seen around the world over the last two decades may instead be the result of the natural variation witnessed in all diseases, a review of research indicates."

December 11, 2003 - Aetna to Cover Flumist^® During the 2003-2004 Flu Season - Actions Enable Healthy Individuals to be Vaccinated, While Allowing Health Workers to Redirect Limited Supplies of Injectable Influenza Vaccine to High-Risk Individuals - www.aetna.com