►January 13, 2004 - Stress, Personality Weaken Resistance to Illness - Washington Post via The Ledger Online

►January 13, 2004 - Blood test may predict miscarriage - Vanguard Online

►January 13, 2004 - Autism and Mercury - Psychology Today - political action alert - rate this article

►April 21, 2003 - Vaccination: A Grant of Immunity - www.cbc.ca - "What the BMJ calls 'a vocal minority of parents' in Britain are opposing vaccination, believing that the vaccination itself could be more dangerous than the disease. But, as the journal points out, diseases such as measles, diphtheria and polio are still common among unimmunized populations and could spread easily among a family or community that forgoes immunization."

Comment:  As seems to be the norm, the long-term consequences of vaccination are being compared to the mere incidence of disease.  Except in those cases where there are long term consequences of disease, there may be little reason to avoid a disease, and some considerable reason to experience it.  (For more on this, see, for instance, Scandals: Prescription For Disaster - Is Vaccine Policy A "House of Cards"?)  Either the incidence of vaccination should be compared to the incidence of disease, in which case the incidence of vaccination might win out, but would, of course, be meaningless; or the long-term consequences of vaccination needs to be compared to the long-term consequences of disease.  About that we know little since we have never compared the two in any meaningful way (see, for instance, comments re: No solid evidence links vaccines, autism below).

►January 13, 2004 - Granville soldier still embroiled in anthrax dispute - The Newark Advocate - "As a battle over the safety of anthrax vaccines heats up, Spec. Kurt Hickman of Granville is left with few clues on how his refusal to take the vaccine will affect his military future...'I think it is only a matter of time before he is asked to take it again,' said Hickman's attorney Kenneth Levine. And if Hickman again refuses -- and Levine would expect him to -- he could face a second court martial hearing, this time by the Army."

►January 13, 2004 - FDA Advances Consumer Health and Safety in 2003 - PharmaLive - "At the heart of the Pharmaceutical Industry" - "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today released a white paper highlighting some of FDA's priorities and major initiatives to protect and advance consumer health and safety in 2003, and describing how the agency intends to build on many of these initiatives in 2004...The major consumer achievements noted in the paper, "Protecting and Advancing Consumer Health and Safety," include efforts to: bolster consumer safety through major industry regulations and risk communications; combat new forms of terrorism and emerging diseases; crack down on false products and false claims; reduce preventable medical errors; speed access to safe and affordable medicines; and help consumers improve their health through better information and greater 'health literacy.'"

►January 13, 2004 - No solid evidence links vaccines, autism  - www.nwitimes.com - "I've been a physician for more than 30 years, and ever since I can remember, vaccines have been accused of causing a multitude of diseases such as diabetes and hepatitis. I continue to be amazed by the rapidity with which unfounded postulations spread and take on a life of their own. Yet, when objective studies using the best current scientific methods and data examine each claim, evidence has never been found to validate these assertions. It is important to realize that no single study has ever been perfect or irrefutable."

Comment:  Including the many apparently designed to vindicate (as opposed to study objectively) vaccines.  Were they designed to objectively study vaccines, they would have, just for starters, always included "never vaccinated" children as controls.  For more on this go to e.g., Scandals: Thank You, Congressman Shays; Out of Control; Scandals: - Shoot First, Don't Ask Questions Later; Scandals: Infant Vaccine Deaths - But Who's Counting? (No news is NOT good news.); Scandals: Why We Won't Take No* For An Answer (*No relationship between MMR and autism)

►January 13, 2004 - Nonfood use of cow parts faces review - www.sacbee.com - "Now that the United States has mad cow disease, federal regulators are reconsidering long-held policies aimed at prohibiting importation of products or ingredients with bovine tissue or blood from countries with documented cases of the illness...The products include vaccines, nutritional supplements and cosmetics, all of which can contain ingredients derived from cows."

Comment:  For more on the presence of bovine products in vaccines, go to Scandals: On "mad cows" and sick monkeys: From the people who brought you SV40 in vaccines....

►January 13, 2004 - VaxGen gets big boost - Government gives firm $80.3 million anthrax contract - www.sfgate.com

►Nov/Dec 2003 - Autism and Mercury- Psychology Today - "The spike in autism prevalence is apparently not linked to a kind of mercury once used in childhood vaccines, according to a study in the journal Pediatrics."

Comment:  Repeat after me:  "Studies bought and paid for, or influenced in any way, by vaccine manufacturers and those with financial ties to them, should not be accepted at face value."  This study, published in Pediatrics, is no different.  It has been widely and soundly criticized for its methodology, analysis and conclusions, including in this critique by Mark Blaxill of Safe Minds.  When are the "experts", and the mainstream media reporting on them, going to stop buying the party line and start doing some real thinking?  For more on the media, go to Scandals: Tiptoeing Through The Minefield of Possible Vaccine Reactions - Mainstream Media's Sins Of Omission

►January 13, 2004 - An Ecodetective's Journey Into the Center of Neurodegenerative Disease - by RFD Columnist, Mark Purdey in the Online Mad Cow Disease Conference at www.redflagsdaily.com

►January 13, 2004 - Animal and human DNA link may give AIDS clue - The Sydney Morning Herald - "Human and animal DNA can combine naturally in a living body, a new study has shown...The dramatic discovery, in which pigs developed human and hybrid cells in their blood and organs, could help explain the origin of AIDS."

Comment:  It's certainly looking more and more like using animal cell cultures for human drugs and biological products may have been a dangerously misguided venture.  For more on their use go to Scandals: On "mad cows" and sick monkeys: From the people who brought you SV40 in vaccines....  Perhaps it's time to take seriously the notion that what we don't know can hurt us.

►January 13, 2004 - Scientists restore crucial myelin in brains of mice - University of Rochester Medical Center via www.eurekalert.org - "Scientists for the first time have restored a crucial substance known as myelin in a widespread area of an animal's brain, opening the door toward new ways to improve treatment of an assortment of "demyelinating" diseases as well as the side effects of such common conditions as high blood pressure and heart disease."

►January 13, 2004 - FluMist Prices May Be Reduced - Winter Sales Were Lower Than Expected for MedImmune - Washington Post

►January 13, 2004 - New MMR jab scare - www.femail.co.uk - "Safety fears over MMR have been increased still further by a study which detected signs of a chronic viral infection in the bowels of children who became autistic after the jab...The virus - feared to come from the measles component of the injection - appears to have sparked an abnormal response of the immune system similar to that in patients with HIV...In October last year his former colleague Dr Simon Murch insisted that he had always supported the vaccine...However, he is a co-author with Dr Wakefield of the latest paper which concludes there is further evidence of a new form of bowel disease in children with 'regressive autism' - losing the power of speech and becoming autistic."

Comment:  What's the deal with Dr. Murch?

►October 2003 - Lymphocytic vasculitis associated with the anthrax vaccine: case report and review of anthrax vaccination. - journal article (J Emerg Med)