►January 26, 2004 - Web sites can give patients info they need for decisions - Credible Internet resources were found to be helpful for patients needing to make informed choices on cancer screening. - www.ama-assn.org

►January 20, 2004 - U.S. parents increasingly question vaccine wisdom - Reuters via www.signonsandiego.com - "For instance, measles makes as many as 40 million people around the world sick every year and kills 745,000, according to the World Health Organization..'If vaccinations were stopped, each year about 2.7 million measles deaths worldwide could be expected,' the CDC says."

Comment:  And yet, when measles was routine in the United States, prior to vaccination, there were annually only around 500 deaths (see note) among the approximately 5,000,000 cases each year.  Why do the authorities continue to try and create hysteria in developed nations by using statistics derived from poor, malnourished, developing ones?  Could it be to sell vaccines?  For more on the misuse of measles statistics, go to Scandals: “He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts—for support rather than illumination.” - Andrew Lang - More confusing disease stats.

►January 20, 2004 - Critics ask why flu shot doesn't match strain - Mercury in vaccine found to be 250 times higher than recommended - by Kelly Patricia O'Meara - Insight Magazine via www.worldnetdaily.com - "Nevertheless, the CDC website says, 'the benefits of influenza vaccine with reduced or standard thimerosal content outweighs the theoretical risk, if any, of thimerosal,' which is of course the source of the mercury...The CDC website also states: 'Based on guidelines established by the FDA, the EPA and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, no child will receive excessive mercury from childhood vaccines regardless of whether or not their flu shot contains thimerosal as a preservative.'...Is there a disconnect in communications between federal agencies? Certainly the EPA and the FDA don't think the risk from exposure of children to high levels of mercury is 'theoretical'."

Comment:  As always, Kelly Patricia O'Meara has written a clear, "insightful", important article.

►January 19, 2004 - Death In The Air - CBS/AP via www.cbsnews.com - "A 19-year-old British woman died Monday on board a Virgin Atlantic flight from Miami to London's Heathrow Airport, the airline said...A day earlier, two passengers on a British Airways flight from Miami to Heathrow died, including one from suspected viral meningitis."

►January 18, 2004 - Unknowns about meat linger in study of mad cow, related diseases - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via www.sanluisobispo.com

►January 18, 2004 - Proper therapy can do so much for children with autism - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via http://mentalhelp.net - "One unique thing about children with autism is that with early intensive intervention, they can make astonishing strides to the point where they are far less affected by the disorder.  This is not typical for most developmental disorders, and it saves taxpayers tens of millions of dollars per child over the child's life span.  These types of gains are never seen in autistic children who do not receive early intensive behavioral intervention."

►January 18, 2004 - More than just a job: Real-world work program puts autistic student on path to independence - King County Journal

►January 19, 2004 - Douglas County school to reopen after mercury spill - www.rgj.com - "More than 800 students at a Douglas County school will return to classes Tuesday, two weeks after the school was shut down because of a mercury spill."

►January 20, 2004 - Food safety call as study says salmon is safer than other fish - The Herald, UK - "Environmental  groups have called for a new food safety investigation after it emerged that there are six fish types with greater concentration of toxic chemicals than salmon."

►January 20, 2004 - Organ scandal families sue NHS - The Herald, UK - "More than 2000 families are taking the NHS to the high court for removing organs of dead patients without consent."

►January 19, 2004 - Anti-vaccine advice worries health officials - www.cbc.ca - "Jason Busse, a licensed chiropractor who is going for his doctorate in epidemiology, wonders why chiropractors are giving advice on vaccinations...'We're not taught to administer it or manage it in any clinical or managerial way. I don't understand why chiropractors feel they should be offering advice on this.'"

►January 20, 2004 - Bird flu: The hunt for a vaccine may be surprisingly short - www.channelnewsasia.com - "Scientists in Britain and the United States, working under the aegis of the World Health Organisation (WHO), last year readied a potential vaccine against H5N1, the codename for the bird flu virus, just two months after the disease hit Hong Kong...'If we are lucky, in the best-case scenario, the viruses will be found by the end of this week to be very similar, which means we will already have a prototype vaccine,' Klaus Stoehr, head of the WHO's global influenza programme, said from Geneva."

►January 20, 2004 - China to test human SARS vaccine - CNN

Comment:  Do never vaccinated, breastfed babies have 8-12 colds a year?  And, if to work "baby's system needs to be exposed to different kinds of sicknesses so it can store knowledge about them and use that knowledge to battle those invaders in the future", is it safe to assume exposure to vaccine antigens has the same effect on baby's immune system as the actual diseases?