Today's Top Stories - February 25, 2003Today's Top Stories (all those selected for the Home Page, Plus Other important news) Vaccination News Breaking News Archives - each day's breaking news from December 1, 2003 (check here for breaking news you might have missed and breaking news that didn't ever hit the "front page") More News - all the news most recently posted on this website All the News - a running tab of everything posted on this website since October 29, 2003 Daily News Archives - all the news posted on this website each day (beginning with April 2001) Hot Topics - selected stories, by category Return to Vaccination News Home Page (for best results, right click to "open in new window") Subscribe to the Vaccination NewsLetter View past & current Scandals (columns by Sandy Mintz) Search This Site using keywords click here to download Adobe Reader click here for Picks of the Week click here for the old "Recommended List"
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Posted February 25, 2004:
*For most of the Wakefield "conflict of interest" articles posted on the site, click here (check periodically for updates) ►February 24, 2004 - Letters: Controversy over accusation of research bias on MMR (free for first week) - www.timesonline.co.uk - "Sir, The hysterical reaction to the disclosure that Dr Andrew Wakefield was funded by the legal aid authorities to undertake research in relation to litigation by parents at the same time that he submitted his seminal paper on MMR to The Lancet (report, February 23) reveals a remarkable divergence between current legal and medical views of what constitutes bias." ►February 25, 2004 - Government's double standards over MMR - The Daily Mail via www.femail.co.uk - "But health chiefs were immediately accused of hypocrisy by parents and campaigners - who pointed out that many of the Government's top scientific advisers have links with drug firms that make or supply the vaccine...At least 19 experts have interests in firms involved in the measles, mumps and rubella triple vaccine, campaigners said...They sit on two key committees which declared the vaccine safe: the Committee on Safety of Medicines and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation." Comment: Excellent article. ►February 24, 2004 - Blair will be to blame if there's a measles epidemic - opinion - The Telegraph, UK - "The Government seems to believe that it has won the argument over the MMR jab. Andrew Wakefield, the scientist who first suggested a possible link between the triple vaccine and autism, has been villified by the scientific establishment. Parents stand accused of over-reacting and of selfishly putting the health of the nation at risk. Vaccination rates have dropped below 60 per cent in some areas...But the scare over the triple vaccine is not the fault of over-anxious parents, who cannot be blamed for wanting to protect their children. Nor can all the blame lie with Dr Wakefield and his research paper published six years ago in the Lancet. Dr Wakefield has been "discredited" because he was taking money from the Legal Aid Board at the time of his report...The board was paying him to discover, on behalf of parents hoping to sue for damages, whether the jab was harmful to their children. But this does not necessarily mean his research was biased. He should have disclosed his interest; but many scientists are paid for research by drugs companies." ►February 24, 2004 - The Sleaze Behind Our Science - The Conflicts of Interest Revealed by the MMR Story are Everywhere - www.dissidentvoice.org ►February 23, 2004 - Inside the world of medical journals - One of the world's most respected medical journals says it should never have published a controversial paper on MMR. - What steps do journals take to ensure studies are robust and trustworthy? - BBC - "The Lancet maintains it should have been told that Dr Wakefield was being paid to carry out another similar study...It says Dr Wakefield should have been aware of the potential conflict of interest after reading the journal's guidelines on the issue... In 1998, these stated: 'The conflict of interest test is a simple one. Is there anything...that would embarrass you if it were to emerge after publication that you had not declared it?'" ►February 24, 2004 -
Mercury plan falls
short, say activists - Coalition from Ohio, other states to tell EPA
proposal may do harm - Akron Beacon Journal via
www.ohio.com ►February 24, 2004 - Alaska
Vulnerable to World Health Woes - Anchorage Daily News via
www.immunizationinfo.org
(abstract) Comment: The problem re: vulnerability
of adults is also relevant to other so-called "vaccine-preventable" diseases,
including measles. For more on this go to
Scandals:
Playing With Fire - It's Not EASY
To Fool Mother Nature Comment: Unless they compared
people who were vaccinated against the flu vaccine to those who have not been
vaccinated against the flu, including those who have never been vaccinated at
all, they simply do not know what is going on. Comment: The panel did not use
data from the CDC. The
Geiers presented data from the CDC's Vaccine Datalink to the panel. ►February 17, 2004 -
Faint
Warning - Generation RX - CBC News Disclosure
►February 24, 2004 - Nevada leukemia cluster baffles scientists - For three years, scientists prodded the dust, dirt and water in this rural community and tested the blood of dozens of its residents -- all in hopes of uncovering why children were developing leukemia. - AP via CNN - "Yet despite the work, scientists revealed Monday that they haven't been able to determine what caused the disease that has sickened 16 children and killed three since 1997." ►February 18, 2004 - Exposure
To Low-Level Magnetic Fields Causes DNA Damage In Rat Brain Cells, Researchers
Find - University of Washington via biocompare ►February 24, 2004 - Chemical PBDE Showing Up in Breast Milk - AP via The Herald-Sun ►February 24, 2004 - Low Carb Lowdown: Sorting out the truth and judging the tastes of products born of the latest diet craze - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ►February 24, 2004 - They Can Dance to It - One Small but (Alas) High-Priced Facility Is Taking New Steps in Alzheimer's Care (requires registration) - Washington Post
Comment: Note that according to one source, "The severity of side effects among all vaccine recipients was low, though Jelinek cautioned that people with autoimmune diseases like lupus and Graves disease should be careful, as stimulation of the immune system by vaccines can cause episodes of their diseases." ►February 24, 2004 - Flu shots for all could become goal - Cox News Service via Longview News-Journal - "This is long overdue,' said Dr. Paul Offit, chief of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, who served on ACIP until last summer. 'Influenza is an infectious disease than can be prevented easily and safely, and it should be.'" Comment: First, it is important to bear in mind that Paul Offit is highly conflicted, counting among his various financial ties to the vaccine industry, being paid by them to tout their safety to doctors. Second, while the claim is made that it can be prevented easily and safely, in truth, no one knows whether the benefits of flu vaccine outweighs its risks. The benefits are assumed, and the risks either dismissed or ignored. Let's see some long-term studies comparing the flu vaccinated to the never vaccinated and then we'll have some idea whether or not the benefits outweigh their risks. ►February 24, 2004 -U.S. will pay for study to seek cause of autism - USA Today - "A major U.S.-financed study designed to unearth the roots of autism will track 100,000 babies in Norway to identify biological and environmental factors that could combine to cause autism and other developmental disorders...Researchers will collect information on exposures to toxins, including mercury, which has been suspected as a factor in autism, as well as diet, vaccines, babies' birth weight and head circumference, and volumes of other data that can be analyzed to compare children who develop autism with those who do not." ►February 24, 2004 -Medical Malpractice Bill Fails To Clear Hurdle - Critics Say Bill Is Bailout For Insurance Companies - www.ksat.com - "Senate Republicans failed Tuesday in their latest effort to limit medical malpractice awards...They fell 12 votes short of the number needed to force the Senate to consider the bill, which would have capped malpractice awards against obstetricians and gynecologists...But Democrats say the bill is a bailout for insurance companies who have made bad investments and that a cap on damages doesn't lead to lower insurance premiums. They called the bill an election-year ploy, arguing that capping damages has no impact on insurance costs." ►February 24, 2004 - What do you think of setting limits on malpractice awards? - online poll - www.ksat.com ►March 2004 - You Should Worry About Vaccine Safety - Coastal Post Online - "But industry has the trump card. Marin County receives enough monies from the vaccination program that its officials wish only to 'Hear No Evil.'..Eventually the tide must turn. But at what cost? Across how many more coffins containing infant and toddler bodies must the shadow of vaccination fall?" ►February 24, 2004 - Lifting the Veils of Autism, One by One by One (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times
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