Saturday, October 31, 2009

Vaccines are the safest kind of medicine, aren't they?

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You may wonder why I keep harping on inadequate testing and safety concerns. In addition to my experience treating patients who became ill f...
4 comments:
Friday, October 30, 2009

What do PREPA and EUAs mean for public health officials?/ Iowa's Asst Attorney General

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Thanks to Eileen Dannemann for obtaining this memo from Iowa's Assistant Attorney General. It includes a very clear explanation from DH...

Medscape and Dr. John Bartlett provide US swine flu vaccine comparisons

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How much mercury? Contraindications? Dosing? It's here in a simple format. And systemic reactions rates are reported to be 45%, sai...

Another BU researcher catches the bug he is studying/Boston Globe

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This week it was Neisseria meningitidis --which can rapidly kill (and spread). The affected grad student diagnosed himself. Last time (200...
Thursday, October 29, 2009

Vaccine delay? Give the government some credit

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The feds have done a lot right in terms of swine flu vaccine production. While they are receiving criticism right now , it's only fair ...
2 comments:

Anthrax investigation still yielding findings: Chemical composition of spores doesn't match suspect flask/Nature

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This is an important short piece from Nature (online February 25, 2009) that I missed last February. It explains why the anthrax letter sp...
1 comment:
Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Does the Vaccine Matter? The Atlantic

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Thanks to Shannon Brownlee and Jeanne Lenzer, well known health journalists, for this erudite piece on the limitations of epidemiological d...

Lost in Transmission — FDA Drug Information That Never Reaches Clinicians

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This NEJM Article points out that, although, "Drug labels are written by drug companies, then negotiated and approved by the FDA,"...
Tuesday, October 27, 2009

H1N1 swine flu vaccination in children

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Parents are concerned about the best way to protect their children, and are asking whether to vaccinate them. Parents have to make their ow...
Monday, October 26, 2009

Possible hidden hazards of mass vaccination against new influenza A/H1N1: have the cardiovascular risks been adequately weighed? (Abstract)

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Med Microbiol Immunol. 2009 Oct 23. [Epub ahead of print] Bhakdi S , Lackner K , Doerr HW . Institute of Medical Microbiology ...
1 comment:
Sunday, October 25, 2009

Non-US swine flu vaccines mock the vaccine approval process

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I apologize for ignoring this subject until now. Celvapan is the Baxter non-adjuvanted swine flu vaccine that is being used in many count...

FDA plans (dated June 26, 2009) for safety evaluation of Swine Flu Vaccines

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Here is an FDA briefing document for the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meeting of July 23, 2009. It lays out...

Prior Approval for ASO3-Adjuvanted Vaccines?

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I was asked if any other vaccines have been approved that contain ASO3. The answer is yes, and no. No licensed US vaccines have ever contai...
Saturday, October 24, 2009

Vaccine Delays: limited info on the problems/Science Insider

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From Jon Cohen and Martin Enserink , excerpts: For proprietary reasons, Lurie would not name the delay issues at each manufacturer, but said...
1 comment:

Germans Unhappy with Alternative Swine Flu Vaccine for Politicians/Spiegel

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From Spiegel Online comes this story about how the German government and army ordered adjuvant-free vaccine for themselves, but adjuvante...

Adjuvanted vaccinations start Monday in Canada/ Globe and Mail

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From the Globe and Mail : Canada's vaccine uses an adjuvant, which consists of squalene (shark liver oil), DL-alpha-tocopherol (vitamin ...

Emergency Use Authorization Issued for new, unlicensed antiviral drug Peramivir

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From the Globe and Mail , Canada:  Peramivir first new antiviral in years . This might be excellent:  it might be just what severely ill p...

New York Ends Flu Shot Mandate for Health Care Workers/ WSJ

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Following issuance of a TRO last week, but possibly unrelated to it, NY State governor Patterson suspended the directive that all health car...

Virginia Officials: H1N1 may have peaked

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I have been waiting for cases to peak and then go away.  Maybe that is what is happening in Virginia.   It is too bad no one is collecting s...
Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Chinese trial of H1N1 vaccines/NEJM

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A 2200 subject trial of Chinese H1N1 vaccines (developed from the same CDC virus as vaccines developed by western manufacturers) was publish...

ASO3 and ASO4 adjuvants--my error

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ASO3 is the GlaxoSmithKline adjuvant being used in some swine flu vaccines. It is not being used in the United States. It does contain sq...
3 comments:
Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Israel: H1N1 flu vaccine not suitable for pregnant women, sick kids/ Haaretz

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Ha'aretz tells us that Israel only has adjuvanted vaccine available currently, and The Health Ministry has decided to hold off on givi...
3 comments:
Sunday, October 18, 2009

The Guillain-Barré syndrome and the 1992-1993 and 1993-1994 influenza vaccines/ NEJM

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As I've said previously, before the 2009 swine flu came along, public health officials knew that vaccinations sometimes led to small inc...
1 comment:

Adjuvants and Thimerosal (aka Thiomersal)

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Adjuvants stimulate increased, nonspecific immunity and are included in many "killed" vaccines. Until October 16, all adjuvants i...

Cervarix: Novel (but NOT Squalene-containing) Adjuvant Approved in US

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Despite data showing twice the rate of miscarriages in women who received Cervarix , FDA approved this new HPV vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline...
2 comments:
Saturday, October 17, 2009

Kids Under 5 Not at High Risk

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Children under 5 years of age are at relatively low risk from Swine Flu , while teens are at relatively greater risk.  CDC finally acknowled...
Friday, October 16, 2009

Judge Halts Mandatory Flu Vaccines for Health Care Workers/ NYT

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from the NY Times : A temporary restraining order has been issued for mandatory vaccinations in New York state. In response, "the St...
Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Dr. Paul Offit Speaks/ NY Times

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Dr. Paul Offit, head of pediatric infectious diseases at Children's Hospital, Philadelphia PA, and originator of a licensed Rotavirus va...

German Army ordered thimerosal-free, adjuvant-free swine flu vaccine for soldiers (Civilians get the vaccine with these additives)

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From The Local, an English-language German newspaper, comes this report.  Interesting.
Sunday, October 11, 2009

My powerpoint presentation to NVIC conference

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The presentation discussed the legal framework for scientific misconduct, other questionable practices in science that are not legally pro...

U.S. school swine flu event shows vaccine challenge/ Reuters

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From Reuters : A U.S. government media event to promote H1N1 school vaccinations on Friday included VIPs, cute kids and a phalanx of telev...
1 comment:

Loyalty Oaths: Still Going Strong

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Senator Joe McCarthy has been dead over 50 years, but the loyalty oaths that became notorious after his fall are alive and well in America t...

Swine Flu: To Vaccinate or Not?

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French physician and pharmacoepidemiologist Marc Girard has written a valuable piece on swine flu vaccines, their risk assessment and their ...
1 comment:
Saturday, October 10, 2009

76 total US child deaths from swine flu in 2009/WaPo

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From the Washington Post : According to the Post, 19 of the 76 deaths occurred during the past week. But according to CDC , the 19 deaths ...
Friday, October 9, 2009

What Pandemic?

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According to the CDC, US deaths from influenza and pneumonia were significantly greater in 2008 than  they have been in 2009, despite all th...

Why Am I Concerned about Safety of Swine Flu Vaccines?

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My friend Mark Crispin Miller has urged me to be more specific about why I am concerned about the safety of swine flu vaccines in the US. I...