►February 10, 2004 - Granville soldier deployed without vaccine - AP via The Advocate - "The Army dropped one charge against an Ohio National Guard member convicted once and charged again with disobeying a lawful order after he refused to take the anthrax vaccine, then deployed the soldier to Iraq without the shots."

►February 11, 2004 - Anthrax alert lost in rush to war - The West Australian - "THE Australian navy deliberately rushed sailors to war in the Gulf without first warning them they would need anthrax shots and without recording the details of vaccines they were given, a secret defence investigation has found."

►February 10, 2004 - Small tuna found to hold less mercury - A study finds wide variation between West Coast albacore and larger fish in big brands (requires registration) - The Oregonian

►February 10, 2004 - WHO raps Asia over handling of bird flu crisis as China reports new cases - AFP via www.channelnewsasia.com

►February 10, 2004 - EU warns Asian countries against bird flu cover-up - EU Business

►February 10, 2004 - No link found between autism, vaccine - UPI via The Washington Times

►February 10, 2004 - Thousands Of Babies Need To Retake Hepatitis B Shot - Vaccine May Be Ineffective Because It Was Frozen, Doctors Say - www.thedenverchannel.com

►February 10, 2004 - Storage disables hep B vaccine - 4,300 kids may need shots again - Denver Post

►February 10, 2004 - Faulty hepatitis B shots may mean revaccination for tots - Rocky Mountain News

►February 10, 2004 - Babies and hepatitis B - Rocky Mountain News

►February 10, 2004 - Breakthrough in Efforts to Create a Hepatitis C Vaccine - www.woai.com

►February 10, 2004 - Despite drop in flu, vaccinations still encouraged - The Robesonian - "Even though the worst of the national flu epidemic seems to have passed, the Robeson County Health Department is urging at-risk individuals to take advantage of the limited number of flu vaccines still available...Bill Smith, health director, said flu season typically runs through March, and data from the past two winters show that flu activity has peaked during February and March."

Comment:  And in spite of the fact that they apparently do not work, even according to the CDC.

►February 10, 2004 - House passes state immunization registry - AP via http://kobtv.com

►February 10, 2004 - Allergy surge to be investigated - Scientists are to look at whether diet affects people's risk of developing an allergy. - BBC

►February 10, 2004 - Study: Dogs Build Infants' Immunity - Newsday

►February 8, 2004 - Medicine Hunter Tracks Promising Plants - AP via The Herald-Sun 

►February 10, 2004 - WHO wants more tests to ensure bird flu cannot be passed among humans - Channel News Asia

►February 9, 2004 - Study examines inappropriate medication prescribing for elderly patients - JAMA and Archives Journals Website via www.eurekalert.org - "Medications considered 'inappropriate' were prescribed at approximately eight percent of outpatient visits by elderly patients, with pain relievers and central nervous system drugs accounting for a large share, according to an article in the February 9 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals...According to the article, inappropriate medication use in patients 65 or older has been linked to many adverse drug reactions, poor physical functioning, and excess health care utilization."

►February 9, 2004 - Colorado Last in Child Immunization Rate - AP via The Herald-Sun 

Comment:  Not everyone agrees with this assessment.  For more on this, read a letter from NVIC rep, Cindy Loveland, to the governor of Colorado.

►February 9, 2004 - Stopping Newborn AIDS May Harm Mothers - AP via The Herald-Sun

►February 10, 2004 - Seniors Given Dangerous Drugs, CDC Warns - AP via The Herald-Sun 

►February 10, 2004 - Accutane makes severe acne vanish, but its sometimes severe side effects give patients and doctors pause - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 

►February 10, 2004 - Cold got you miserable? Those symptoms might be healing you - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - "Let that runny nose run. Cough and sneeze away. A little fever? Let it rise. Just say 'no' to decongestants, antihistamines, cough drops, Advil, aspirin, and everything else that might bring blessed relief to those miserable symptoms...The best medicine for cold and flu symptoms may be no medicine...A relatively new field called evolutionary or Darwinian medicine argues that treating symptoms of some diseases may actually make the illness worse."

Comment:  What does this say about how health promoting "symptomless" immune reactions via vaccines are? 

►February 10, 2004 - FDA on Drug Ads: Less Is More - (requires registration) - Washington Post 

►February 10, 2004 - Making Us (Nearly) Sick - A Majority of Americans Are Now Considered to Have at Least One 'Pre-Disease' or 'Borderline' Condition. Is This Any Way to Treat Us? - (requires registration) - Washington Post

Comment:  How does this compare to the pre-vaccine era? 

►February 9, 2004 - Drug Company Attacks Developing Nations' Diseases - AP via The Tampa Tribune - "Victoria Hale is chief executive of the ultimate oxymoron: a nonprofit drug company...From her office in San Francisco, she hopes to wipe out diseases that plague developing nations but are ignored by Western drug companies for lack of profit possibilities...Hale's prescription is to gain marketing rights to promising drug candidates that are owned by drug companies but sit undeveloped in labs."

►February 8, 2004 - Science a passion for SARS-fighter - With last year's SARS outbreak and the battle against bird flu making headlines, Su Ih-jen, director-general of the Center for Disease Control (CDC), has been widely quoted as an expert on disease prevention. Su was appointed head of the center at the height of the SARS outbreak in May to help eradicate the disease. He spoke to `Taipei Times' reporter Joy Su about the battle against infectious diseases - Taipei Times

►February 9, 2004 - Coping With Autism - Ivanhoe Newswire - "The most recent statistics show autism affects between one and three of every 500 people. It’s a lifelong disorder that makes social interaction and every day communication tough. It also causes aggression in many people. Now different therapies can help ease that autistic aggression."

►February 9, 2004 - Study: Optimism no help against cancer - A positive attitude does not improve the chances of surviving cancer and doctors who encourage patients to keep up hope may be burdening them, according to the results of research released Monday. - AP via CNN

►February 9, 2004 - Study firms up depression, heart risk link in women - Depression in older women is strongly linked with a higher risk of dying from heart disease, according to research on more than 90,000 women. - AP via CNN

►February 9, 2004 - Another gene linked to heart attack risk - A team of researchers said it has found a simple genetic mutation that doubles the risk of heart attack and stroke. - Reuters via CNN

►February 9, 2004 - Where's the Flu Bug? - www.kndu.com - "This is usually the time of the year when the flu bug is hitting the hardest...But after an early start, and a run on flu shots, we haven’t seen the big outbreak that was feared. It came early, and it looks like it might have left just as quickly."

►February 9, 2004 - As bird flu spreads, global health weaknesses are exposed - NY Times News Service via www.abs-cbnnews.com

►February 10, 2004 - More Singaporeans taking flu inoculations - Channel NewsAsia via Yahoo!

►February 9, 2004 - 'Respiratory etiquette' cuts spread of disease - Evansville Courier & Press via Healthy News

►February 9, 2004 - Vaccine supplies dwindle for many diseases - The Washington Times - "The recent shortage of flu shots received much attention, but vaccine stocks have also dwindled in the past few years for such diseases as meningitis, mumps, measles and diphtheria...The problems with supply are blamed on a number of interrelated factors — the low prices the federal government pays for childhood vaccines, the dwindling number of vaccine producers, and others."

►February 9, 2004 - Study: Early fevers lower allergy risk later - Babies who develop several fevers in their first year are less likely to develop allergies later in life, researchers said on Monday. - Reuters via CNN

Comment:  In the same way, is experiencing childhood infectious disease protective in one's later years?

►February 9, 2004 - Helping the less fortunate - Company advances drugs to cure little-known diseases, not to make a profit - AP via The Buffalo News

►February 10, 2004 - Agencies struggle with state on behalf of developmentally disabled - Sun Sentinel

►February 10, 2004 - Caution call on 'maverick' claims -  Scientists should think twice before courting publicity for their "minority views", says an ethics expert. - BBC - "Professor Udo Schuklenk, writing in the Journal of Medical Ethics, warns patients may be led to refuse treatment most experts think safe...For example, some parents rejected the MMR jab after suggestions it causes autism - even though most scientists believe the vaccine is safe...But other experts said science only develops if assumptions are challenged...He (Schuklenk) said there were cases where a minority view had turned out to be correct, but that this was rare...In order to prevent confusion, Professor Schuklenk says ethical guidelines should be drawn up governing how scientists present their work to the public."

►February 10, 2004 - Denver Hepatitis Vaccine May Be Faulty - AP via Newsday - "Hepatitis vaccines given to about 4,300 babies born at a Denver hospital may have frozen while in storage, rendering the shots ineffective against the liver disease, officials said...Although there is no evidence the vaccine was ineffective, "we just can't assume they're all OK," Sarah Ellis, a spokeswoman for University Hospital, said Monday. She recommended infants who received the shots for hepatitis B be revaccinated."

Comment:  Unless an infant was born to a Hepatitis B positive mother, there is no reasonable justification for getting this vaccine.  For more on this, go to Scandals: For No Good Reason: The Utterly Misguided Universal Infant Hepatitis B Vaccination Policy.

►February 10, 2004 - Researchers dispute risk of autism from vaccines - Cox News Service via The Contra Costa Times

Comment:  This is a shocking example of media bias.  Note that although there were almost the same number of researchers who supported the claim that vaccines cause autism as opposed it, there was not even a hint of that fact in this article.  Also note that Mark Geier, a geneticist with both an MD and a PhD, who with his son presented compelling evidence against the vaccines (and who has been thwarted in his efforts by the CDC - see below), was not only NOT called a researcher, but was referred to right after this sentence: "Some people who attended the meeting refused to accept those findings."  "Some people"?  "Refused to accept those findings" when their own research contradicted it?  'Nuff said.

►February 10, 2004 - Federal Panel Hears Testimony on Vaccinations and Autism (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "Medical experts squared off Monday before a federal panel trying to determine whether a mercury-based preservative once common in routine childhood vaccines was behind the rising rates of autism in the United States...Most of the epidemiologists who testified said they doubted that the preservative, thimerosal, was responsible. But a few toxicologists said they had become more and more convinced of a potential link...Representative Dave Weldon, Republican of Florida, accused the Centers for Disease Control of ignoring potential links and said it was blocking access by outside researchers to a vaccine database it maintained with a group of managed-care organizations."

►February 10, 2004 - Experts Weigh Possible Autism, Vaccines Link - Reuters, UK - "But Amy Carson, co-founder of Moms Against Mercury, said the government and others were trying to "shift the blame" from thimerosal to other sources...'I think they want to be able to say those children were already damaged in utero and that it didn't have anything to do with vaccines,' said Carson, whose 7-year-old son has autism."

►February 9, 2004 - Panel urges widespread chicken pox vaccinations - www.ctv.ca

►February 9, 2004 - Do vaccines which have a mercury preservative cause Autism? - Medical News Today

►February 9, 2004 - Vaccines (mercury) and Autism – Link? More information - Medical News Today