Every day, I come across a number of interesting news items and stories related to the topics of this site but I cannot report on them all. This is a new kind of post that brings you the links to stories I find interesting, grabbing them as I go. Some of them are only links, others come with a short comment...
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Chinese Proverb
U.N. chief: Hunger kills 17,000 kids daily
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon laid out this sobering statistic as he kicked off a three-day summit on world food security Monday in Rome.
Urgent action is critical, Ban said. In 2050, the world will need to feed 2 billion more mouths -- 9.1 billion in all.
The steps Ban proposed included providing farmers with seeds and land and offering them access to better markets and fairer trade.
"These small-holder farmers are the heart and soul of food security and poverty reduction," he said. "Our job is not just to feed the hungry but to empower the hungry to feed themselves."
H1N1 a 'dud' pandemic, Ont. health official says
"It's really not causing — and is not going to cause and nowhere has caused — significant levels of illness or death," said Dr. Richard Schabas, Ontario's former chief medical officer of health.
"But governments moved ahead regardless. They ramped up their response, spent a huge amount of money on vaccines and other things. I'm not sure the $1.5 billion includes the cost of new ventilators, the cost of Tamiflu stockpiles … the huge investment that's been put into planning for what has ultimately turned out to be, from a pandemic perspective, a dud."
Flu, Viruses, and Vitamin C Megadoses
Like most Americans, throughout most of my life I have occasionally been down with a virus. But for a long time, a simple cold for me started as a headache, sore throat and congestion in my nasal passages, and typically progressed to prolonged infection in my lungs, and a terrible cough. The whole experience took up to two weeks for recovery from the virus, and several more weeks for my lungs to recover.
Vaccines Didn't Save Us
It is a common misconception that vaccines eradicated the diseases that plagued humanity. In actual fact, it was not vaccines, but better sanitation and hygiene in the cities that prevented the spread of diseases. These charts, from official sources, show us that vaccines (1) were not responsible, and are not necessary, for eliminating infectious diseases, (2) are not effective, and (3) are dangerous.
CDC Will No Longer Require HPV Vaccine for Immigrant Girls / Women
The Associated Press reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will no longer require immigrant girls and women to be vaccinated against the human papilloma virus (HPV). The CDC's discriminatory administrative directive MANDATING immigrant girls who posed no risk to the community to be vaccinated with Merck's HPV Gardasil vaccine was put into effect, July, 2008.
Acute heart attack patients receiving high ionizing radiation dose
Acute heart attack patients received an average total dose of ionizing radiation equal to 725 chest X-rays from medical tests during their hospital stay, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2009.
Physicians tend to focus on the radiation dose of each procedure rather than the cumulative dose a patient will receive, he said. "This makes the risk seem smaller to patients than it actually is. The risk at an individual level is small with one test, but with multiple tests the risk likely increases.
What Obama's Health Care Reform is Missing
A lot of very smart people I know think that the so-called Swine Flu "pandemic" is a simple marketing ploy created by the foreign owned pharmaceutical industry to sell, nearly useless, and untested, dangerous vaccines to an unsuspecting US public. In fact, it looks as though about 50% of the people in North America think so.
I don't disagree with that - but I think there is more to this. I think this "pandemic" campaign is a not-so-subtle threat to President Barack Obama and the US Congress...
An Odd Mix: Health Care Reform & Higher Drug Prices
Even as drug makers promised to support health care reform by slashing $8 billion annually from drug costs, wholesale prices of prescription drugs rose by about 9 percent - and this can add more than $10 billion to the nation’s drug bill, which could exceed $300 billion this year, The New York Times reports.
'Superweeds' jam the pesticide treadmill
Palmer amaranth has become resistant to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's flagship herbicide Roundup. Amaranth and other so-called "superweeds" have thrown a wrench in the machine of industrial agriculture.
The qualities that make amaranth a particularly pesky weed are the same ones reasons it has been cultivated as a food source by Indigenous peoples in the Americas since 3400 BC: it is prolific (producing up to 10,000 seeds at a time), drought resistant, reaches maturity quickly, and has an extended period of germination. It is also exceptionally nutritious; containing 30% more protein than other cereals and, like other native grains such as quinoa, it is a complete protein. The Aztecs used it as a food staple but when the Spanish priests discovered that they were also using it in religious ceremonies, they banned the sale, consumption, and cultivation of amaranth.
Book:Understanding Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
It is not so long ago that the medical world had no compassion for those suffering from the effects of the ever growing pollution in the environment, telling them nothing was really wrong with them. "It's all in your mind" was the mantra and the "treatment most often administered to overcoming the accompanying immense fatigue was to tell people to exercise, with predictably mediocre results.
Els Valkenburg's book provides a personal view of multiple chemical sensitivity and environmental illness and related research. In a question-and-answer format, the effects of exposure to perfume, smoke, air fresheners, cleaning products, exhaust, and other air contaminants are examined and linked to symptoms such as headaches, allergies, asthma, and fatigue. The book contains additional testimony and reports from 37 sufferers, as well as listings of resources and an index of related scientific articles.
The Family of Rethinking AIDS
RA2009, the conference held by Rethinking AIDS (RA) in Oakland, 6-8 November, was an extraordinary success in every possible way. It exceeded wildly any reasonable expectations.
We come away from RA2009 with renewed determination, as well as with a number of new ideas and plans for constructive action (plans for actions DEstructive of HIV/AIDS theory and practice). I found myself wondering what might have happened if some mainstreamers had been in attendance; surely their baseless and mistaken beliefs would have become somewhat unsettled, at the very least subconsciously.
British Government To Limit Antipsychotic Use For Dementia
Bloomberg reports on the British government taking steps to drastically reduce the use of antipsychotics in treating elders with dementia. A recent report estimated that upwards of 1,800 Brits die each year after getting the drugs for dementia and another 1,620 suffer strokes. Keep in mind that all that dementia-Rxing would be off-label both in the UK and USA.
France - 70% Refusing Swine Flu Vaccine
An online poll carried in today’s issue of French daily Le Figaro, which tends to draw an informed, educated readership, asks “H1N1: Should we get (our) children vaccinated?”
Currently running 70 percent “non” (no) the non-scientific poll has drawn not only comments negative toward the vaccine, but often virulent attacks against the vaccination policy.
Swiss left unimpressed by swine flu policy
Government calls for at-risk individuals to get vaccinated against H1N1 have fallen largely on deaf Swiss ears, with many believing the threat is exaggerated.
A doctor in Bern told swissinfo.ch that the Federal Health Office's policy was "catastrophic", and at a drop-in centre for children not one parent could be found who intended to vaccinate either themselves or their children.
US: Nearly half of adults don’t plan to get H1N1 vaccine
The top reasons adults have found to skip the vaccine include concern about the safety of the vaccine and a general sense that they simply do not need the vaccine. Of those surveyed, 38 percent are worried about the vaccine’s safety, and 32 percent feel they don’t need it.
14 Year-Old Boy Jumps From Apartment Window After Taking Tamiflu
A South Korean teenager who took Tamiflu, an antiviral drug, leaped from an apartment window after suffering from auditory hallucination, China's Xinhua news agency said citing a local media report on Saturday.
Child of two and woman of 18 die after getting swine flu shot in Finland
At least two people have died in Finland after getting the swine flu jab. A two-year-old child died one week after getting the shot. According to the local media, the shot "came too late and couldn't save the child."
In addition, an 18-year-woman died in the Päijät-Häme Hospital District in Lahti one week after getting the jab, according to the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, which, however, attributes the death to the swine flu virus and not the vaccine.
What the Inventor of the Flu Shot NOW Thinks of the Vaccine
Increasing numbers of scientists and doctors are issuing harsh criticisms of the government's plan to vaccinate virtually the entire U.S. population with a poorly tested vaccine that is not only ineffective against swine flu, but could cripple and even kill many more people than it helps.
Codex Alimentarius takes a step back on Nutrient Reference Values
November 2-6, 2009, the 31st Session of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) met in Dusseldorf, Germany to continue its work in developing standards for global nutrition. Some 260 delegates were in attendance, comprised of various countries’ functionaries and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) representatives...
Projected Food supplement ban in 2010 may contravene EU law
The Alliance for Natural Health said it was mystified why sulphur was excluded from the list of allowed minerals when the Directive already allowed a number of sulphate salts of minerals, all of which delivered sulphur to the body. The continued exclusion of sulphur means that key supplemental forms of sulphur, such as MSM (methyl-sulfonyl-methane) that is used to support, among other things, healthy joints, skin, nails and energy levels, cannot be properly legitimised in the EU.
The ANH submission also slammed the contrasting approaches to risk assessment used by the EU’s scientific evaluation body for foods, EFSA. The ANH was surprised to see that selenious acid, a highly toxic form of selenium used in ‘gun blue’ solution that has been responsible for the death of a number of children following its consumption, had been approved. In constrast, selenocysteine, a naturally occurring form of selenium found in a variety of foods such as mushrooms, was not.
Nanoparticles can cause DNA damage across a cellular barrier
The damage is mediated by a novel mechanism involving transmission of purine nucleotides (such as ATP) and intercellular signalling within the barrier through connexin gap junctions or hemichannels and pannexin channels. The outcome, which includes DNA damage without significant cell death, is different from that observed in cells subjected to direct exposure to nanoparticles.
Antimicrobials: Silver (and copper) bullets to kill bacteria
Dana Filoti of the University of New Hampshire will present thin films of silver and copper she has developed that can kill bacteria and may one day help to cut down on hospital infections. The antimicrobial properties of silver and copper have been known for centuries -- last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officially registered copper alloys, allowing them to be marketed with the label "kills 99.9% of bacteria within two hours." Copper ions are known to penetrate bacteria and disrupt molecular pathways important for their survival.
How the internet reshapes healthcare
This video has been made to inform and inspire about the possibilities and challenges the internet and social media are offering to help in changing healthcare into Participatory Healthcare. It was used as opening video for Reshape 2009 in The Netherlands.
"The greatest concern to parents,” he said, “should be that their children do not get completely off their heads with alcohol because it can kill them ... and it leads them to do things which are very dangerous, such as to kill themselves or others in cars, get into fights, get raped, and engage in other activities which they regret subsequently. My view is that, if you want to reduce the harm to society from drugs, alcohol is the drug to target at present."
How about learning from history and coming to the point where we abandon prohibition of drugs altogether. Prohibition has never worked - we saw it on alcohol and gambling, when in the 1920 and 30s prohibition led to the rise of organized crime, we see it now on marijuana, where prohibition tends to push people to use a now legal but more damaging drug - alcohol. Drugs are not a matter for law enforcement - they are a personal decision to take or stay away from. The choice should be each individual's.
CDC revises autism rates to 1% of US children
In 2007, the reported numbers were 1 in 150. Today, those numbers have skyrocketed to 1 in 100, and some say the numbers are closer to 1 in 89. According to David Kirby, the data is due to be released any day now.
It is interesting that the modification occurred yesterday, Friday, the day traditionally known for burying news that the media doesn’t publicize. I don’t want to say there is a conspiracy, but why hide the data? Is the CDC trying to bury these numbers? Why isn’t the media shouting this from the rooftops? Exactly how common does autism have to get in order to get the attention, research and funding for programs it needs?
According to the report, when a company-funded study's primary finding wasn't favorable, that result was usually buried and something else positive was highlighted, without disclosing the switch.
USA: Rulings stop mandatory vaccination for Iowa hospital employees
If, as the NEJM reported, the live nasal flu vaccine used last winter was only 29% effective in adults, mandatory vaccination of employees who use this vaccine will still leave 71% susceptible to the flu and all that may imply regarding occupational spread. What kind of hubris mandates such an ineffective therapy, claiming it is critically important to protect patients?
Blackout: US Military Personnel Banned From Accessing H1N1 Critical Vaccine Sites
According to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, the only blocking of websites Pentagon-wide was in 2007, when a number of heavy-trafficked sites that "used lots of bandwidth" had to be denied to reduce the wear on networks "to ensure they continued to be available for mission requirements."
Miscarriages after Swine Flu Vaccine?
U.S. health authorities have made pregnant women one of the highest priority groups for getting the H1N1 swine flu vaccine, but is it actually safe for pregnant women and their babies? Well, the truth is that miscarriage reports from pregnant women who have taken the H1N1 swine flu vaccine are starting to pour in from all over the nation.
Cardiovascular Risks from Swine Flu Vaccines
Now, researchers at Mainz University Medical Center in Germany led by Sucharit Bhakdi have added cardiovascular risks that are not generally appreciated. Animal experiments and epidemiological data suggest that over-stimulation of the immune system may accelerate atherogenesis (the build-up of fatty deposits or plaques on the inner wall of arteries).
A major hurdle to addressing the dangers is the lack of specificity in the self-destructive processes perpetrated by an over-stimulated immune system. It is now recognized that the innate, relatively non-specific immune mechanisms are just as culpable as the specific, adaptive immune mechanisms in the pathology of some of the most widespread human diseases including atherosclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, demyelinating disease and non-infectious arthritis; and the list is ever growing.
Italian Physicians Refuse Swine Flu Vaccine For Patients
According to a recent survey conducted, six out of every ten Italian family physicians do not prescribe the A/H1N1 vaccine for their patients particularly those with heart diseases.
A member of the European Association for Quality in General Medicine (EQUIP), Gianluigi Passerini told L'espresso that he would not advise vaccination for his patients, adding, "This virus is not aggressive and there is no reason to force individuals to get immunized against the virus."
New York Swine Flu Vaccine Clinics Deserted
While the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, said the clinics had the staff and enough vaccine to accommodate about 500 middle- and high-school students per clinic per hour — or as many as 31,500 vaccinations a day — a department spokeswoman put the total vaccinations administered on Saturday at 1,701.
So on Sunday, the clinics, operating out of public schools in all five boroughs, began offering the vaccine to pregnant women and increased the age limit for others to 24 from high school age. Still, the turnout was low: 1,749.
Poland Not Buying Swine Flu Vaccination Unless Properly Tested
Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday that his government won't buy vaccines for swine flu that have not been properly tested or from producers who won't take responsibility for possible side effects. Tusk told reporters that vaccine producers were pressuring governments to buy, but were also demanding that all responsibility and compensation for possible negative side effects fall upon government shoulders.
US: House Poised to Vote on Government Take-over of Health Care
For those of you living in the US: check out what the National Health Federation has to say about the coming expansion of the health care or rather disease care system and its projected effects on freedom of choice. The reform bill is to be voted on in the House of Representatives on Saturday 7 November. You might want to call your representatives to give them a piece of your mind...
Don’t enclose our broccoli! (No Patents on Seeds and Animals campaign)
“The continuing patenting of seeds, conventional plant varieties and animal species leads to far-reaching expropriations of farmers and breeders: farmers are deprived of their rights to save their seeds, and breeders are under strong limitations to use the patented seeds freely for further breeding. The patent holder controlls the sale of the seeds and the planting, decides about the use of herbicides and can even collect royalties at the harvest – up to the finished food product.
Our food security is increasingly dependent on a few transnational chemical and biotechnological companies.”
Why This Doctor Questions Flu Vaccination
2009 may be the year of the vaccine show-down, the moment when enough of us start questioning all we're being told about vaccines. A survey published in the BMJ in August reported that less than half of healthcare workers in Hong Kong were willing to accept "pre-pandemic" flu vaccination. And that was before a letter from the Health Protection Agency to 600 United Kingdom neurologists on July 29th warning them to be on the alert for an increase in cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome following the vaccination campaign.
If nurses and doctors start questioning vaccination for themselves, sooner or later we'll have to advise patients to make their own minds up. They seem to be doing so anyway. A poll by Fox News
Eating, drinking and lifestyle changes can boost immunity to ward off seasonal flu
"It's really pretty simple," says Connie Diekman, RD, director of University Nutrition and immediate past president of the American Dietetic Association. "There are three key things to think about. Number one is hydration. Number two is foods and Number three is lifestyle issues."
The topic of this book is of pivotal significance. The pharmaceutical companies and top scientists rake in enormous sums of money by attacking germs and the media boosts its audience ratings and circulations with sensationalized reporting (the coverage of the New York Times and Der Spiegel are specifically analyzed). Individuals pay the highest price of all, without getting what they deserve and need most to maintain health: enlightenment about the real causes and true necessities for prevention and cure of their illnesses. “The first step is to give up the illusion that the primary purpose of modern medical research is to improve people’s health most effectively and efficiently,” advises John Abramson of Harvard Medical School. “The primary purpose of commercially-funded clinical research is to maximize financial return on investment, not health.”
The foreword to this book was written by Etienne De Harven, Professor Emeritus of Pathology at the University of Toronto and Member of the Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, New York (1956 - 1981). You can find it here in PDF format.
CODEX MEETING IN GERMANY BEGINS AMID DISPUTES OVER NUTRIENT REFERENCE VALUES FOR CONSUMERS AROUND THE WORLD
The regular session of CCNFSDU [the Codex Nutrition Committee] begins on Monday morning, November 2nd; however, the Physical Working Group on the Development of NRVs [Nutrient Reference Values] Associated with Increased or Decreased Risk of Non-Communicable Diseases (an offspring of CCNSFDU) held its one-day session on Saturday, October 31st, with the NHF’s president Scott Tips in attendance.
“The purpose of this Working Group was to develop in advance of the general meeting some of the principles, concepts, and wording to be used in the creation of Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs) affecting non-communicable diseases. The meeting got off to an ironic start when the U.S. delegate Barbara Schneeman proposed adding into NRV language wording that would make sure the NRVs did not exceed an acceptable ‘Upper Limit.’ Twice, the European Commission delegate, Basil Mathioudakis, correctly questioned the need for this. In turn, I also spoke out three times emphatically against the appropriateness of such language, supporting the EC’s challenge and also telling the Group that it was mystifying that the USA could even take this position given that it is contrary to US law.”
This is an extremely important brochure that has been composed and sponsored by the Competence Initiative, an alliance of scientists and medical doctors who are concerned with electromagnetic pollution of our environment. The negative impact of cellphone technology on insects and birds is posing an extremely grave risk on the environmental health of the planet. Human beings are not immune. Several mechanisms of damage are known in Medicine. Cellphone technology was never safety tested and now both animals and humans around the world are paying the consequences of this criminal neglect sponsored by the World Health Organization and the ICNIRP (the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection).
This one is a long read at over 40 pages, but it is the best compilation of the science regarding radiation damage to insects, birds and mammals I have yet seen. Explains the problem in layman's terms but also provides all the scientific references for who wants to delve deeper into the rabbit hole.
FDA Hid Research Damning to Aspartame
The sweetener is still widely used as a low-calorie alternative to sugar, recommended for diabetics and anyone who wants to lose weight. Although many consumers are aware of the dangers of this sweetener, we believe the FDA should come clean and admit what happened. It should revoke the approval for aspartame and issue an international communication detailing its adverse health effects. The sweetener should no longer be used for human consumption, although perhaps, with appropriate warning, it could be sold as an effective ant poison...
The new alchemy: Mixing doctors and journalists to spin gold
A recent example of inflated claims the media made for one drug, based on a study reported in The Lancet, illustrates the problem. The glowing reports reflect not only media vulnerabilities, but also the way the hidden hand of industry exploits those vulnerabilities, through prepublication news releases that amplify optimistic claims made by researchers in scientific journals, while minimizing or ignoring risks and failing to report scientific dissent and financial conflicts of interest.
Hospital-acquired Infections Linked to nearly 100,000 Deaths Annually
Thanks to concerned citizens, such as former Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey of New York, whose Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths was established in 2004, attention has been drawn to the fact that there are 2 million cases of hospital-acquired infections each year, resulting in 100,000 deaths and an additional $33 billion in healthcare costs (www.hospitalinfection.org).
Video:Why I Left Mainstream Medicine - From A Nurse
I'm a nurse who is no longer willing to practice modern medicine due to what I've learned about the medical field. These are quotes from an interview I did on why I refuse to continue practicing. The actual interview is much more thorough than this. You may read it at my blog: Red Pill Reich
Is there a link between antidepressants and violence?
In 2006, David Crespi, a former banking executive with no criminal record or history of violence, killed his twin five-year-old daughters, stabbing them multiple times with a kitchen knife. He then called the police and sat with his daughters, blood all over him, until they arrived. Crespi, who was living with his wife and family in Charlotte, North Carolina (they have three other children), pled guilty to avoid the death penalty and is now serving a life sentence for the murders.
What wasn't mentioned at the time is the fact that Crespi was taking Prozac when he killed his daughters, along with the sleeping pill Ambien. He was taking the drugs (and had previously taken Zoloft and Paxil) because he couldn't sleep and was very anxious about losing his job with Wachovia Bank. Crespi became agitated and delusional on Prozac, according to his wife, Kim. Seven days after starting the drug, he killed their twin daughters, Tess and Samantha.
Swine flu Vaccine - I think I'll .... nope not for me ....
At this point in time though, I am in mourning over the missed opportunity we had to yet once again, teach our fellow human beings how to stay healthy. We've been extolled to wash our hands, get the vaccine. It goes much deeper than that. We should be sending flyers to homes about eating healthy, getting out in the fresh air, exercising .... No, instead we are opting for the "quick fix solution" - which really isn't a fix at all.
Rebecca Campbell files federal lawsuit over WHO flu scam in Seattle
This is a suit filed at the US District Court of Washington State in Seattle against Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of DHSS, Thomas Frieden, Director of the CDEC and Francis Collins, Director of the NIH as well as Margaret Ann Hamburg, Commissioner of the FDA.
The suit charges that a level 6 pandemic has been declared without proper cause, in the face of a very mild flu outbreak, that mass vaccinations are planned and can be enforced by US law, that vaccine maker Baxter has produced vaccine material contaminated with live virus, that vaccines contain toxic preservatives and adjuvants, and that martial law might be declared to enforce vaccination.
There is a demand for an injunction, and "that any officials of the federal government be thereby forbidden, now or in the future, to commit perjury concerning the alleged benefits or efficacy of any suspiciously derived/designed mandatory or voluntary vaccination". It also asks that a grand jury investigation be ordered "to prevent any possible injury to the American people by means of any aforementioned possible federally mandated martial law, with enforced vaccinations/ quarantines/ detentions, that a RICO (racketeering) investigation be conducted; and that an investigation by the US Attorney be ordered of several named officials, so as "to prevent any planned enforced bioweaponized vaccinations".
Video:USA: Swine Flu Government Data Scam
"If you've been diagnoses with probable or presumed 2009 H1N1 or swine flu in recent months, you may be surprised to know this: The odds are you didn't have H1N1 flu and probably didn't have flu at all. That's according to state by state test results obtained in our 3 months long CBS investigation..."
Amid all the disastrous swine flu news, here is a different point of view to consider:
"I would like to point out that S. and myself published on the effective technology of Washing hands about 3 years back. We also predicted the failure of all the "approved" technologies.
Now! I have good news. The Flu epidemic is OVER folks. It will be a memory before the vaccinations get a chance to work. Within the next 3 weeks the epidemic will be reduced to a mere 15% fraction of its current level. It has already spiked over and is rapidly dropping off. You can get the facts by Google (Key Words: Flu, Map). Once the spike drops it is over folks. The Vaccine wagon has sailed into ineffective status.
The other good news is that despite the fairly high rates of infection mortality has been trivial. Deaths from the Flu have not reached even marginally the levels normal for "seasonal flu." We may still get the "seasonal flu" this winter but I suspect not. Track the deaths for yourself if you want but normally the flu kills between 35,000 and 65,000 a year in the USA. We are no where near on trend for 5,000 dead yet and the epidemic is dropping off."
This quote is from a friend in the US... don't take it as gospel, but start watching for news that would confirm or deny this development.
Swine Flu Update – Epidemic hysteria revisited (PDF)
If someone told you that 98 to 99% of people diagnosed with swine flu actually did not have it, you would probably say they were misguided or had simply lost their senses. However, that is what a 3 month CBS investigation found, just published three days ago, on October 21, 2009. Furthermore, in 86 to 93% of these “probable” or “presumed” swine flu cases, regular seasonal influenza did not cause the symptoms, either. The vast majority of people diagnosed with the swine flu today most likely have a viral syndrome similar to the common cold.
Unfortunately, good news about the swine flu is a topic that people do not want to hear about. That is why it does nothing to generate ratings, sell newspapers, or sell vaccines, and, therefore, is widely ignored. It is also unfortunate that the fear and anxiety created by this campaign undermines people’s health, probably having a greater impact on public health than the swine flu, itself. When subjected to chronic stress and anxiety, it is hard for people to get through routine illnesses, and makes it more likely that a routine illness will turn into a severe illness.
Bird flu, influenza and 1918: The case for mutant avian tuberculosis
Traditionally, ‘‘flu’’ does not kill. Experts, including Peter Palese of the Mount School of Medicine in Manhattan, remind us that even in 1992, millions in China already had antibodies to H5N1, meaning that they had contracted it and that their immune system had little trouble fending it off.
Dr. Andrew Noymer and Michel Garenne, UC Berkely demographers, reported in 2000 convincing statistics showing that undetected tuberculosis may have been the real killer in the 1918 flu epidemic.
Video:WHO 'spins' pandemic: Does vaccine actually spread the flu?
WHO states it wants to 'spin' the influenza pandemic to maintain political interest so that governments will want to invest in vaccine production and stockpile vaccines.:
19 October 2007
WHO HQ, Geneva, Switzerland - A major risk factor is the underlying assumption that there will in fact be a pandemic. If there is not a pandemic within the next five years, there may be loss of interest and political awareness, and other public health needs may shift investment away from pandemic influenza. Therefore, it is critical to identify the best possible strategy to maintain political commitment.
"The main priorities for WHO for the year 2008 should be to choose the appropriate spin to be placed on the business plan in association with the right marketing strategy. WHO also needs to establish a detailed operational plan and to define financial resources i.e. donors, countries, and other stakeholders."
German doctors refuse to be bullied by authorities into giving "swine flu" jab
Fredrich Hoffmann, the head of Germany's national vaccine commission, has told doctors that they should give the untested "swine flu" jab to their patients no matter what their opinion about it might be, but German doctors are refusing to bow down and be bullied.
Dr Jürgen Seefeldt, a specialist in internal medicine from Paderborn, sent an open letter to the Dr Susanne Stöcker, an official from the German drug regulator, the Paul Ehrlich Institute, pointing out the reason why her statement in the media that the "swine flu" jab was not risky was an "infamous lie".
Seefeldt systematically lists the dangers of squalene and mercury citing relevant scientific literature. He also notes that these toxic ingredients are not necessary for making a vaccine.
"For this reason, Swissmedic has not yet authorised the administration of Pandemrix to pregnant women, children under the age of 18 and adults over 60," the regulator said in a statement.
Pandemrix was one of two vaccines approved by European Medicines Agency (EMEA) in September.
More than half of Chinese 'don't want swine flu shot'
But only 30 percent of those polled by the China Daily said they definitely would like to receive the shot. About 15 percent said they would make a decision based on what other people did.
It has long been known, for example, that mercury may bioaccumulate in the brain if not eliminated from the body, and that mercury is toxic to young, developing brains even at minute levels of exposure. It also has been acknowledged that dietary zinc is an essential mineral for maintaining the metabolic processes required to remove mercury from the body.
Less recognized, however, is evidence that diets including high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and other food additives may also lead to deficiencies in zinc and other trace minerals in humans.
Low Vitamin D Levels Linked to Renal Failure
Low levels of vitamin D may account for nearly 60 percent of the elevated risk of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in African Americans, according to a report in the December Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). "Our study adds to previous evidence linking vitamin D deficiency to the progression of kidney disease and the need for dialysis," comments Michal L. Melamed, MD, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Bronx, NY). "It also explains a fair amount of the increased risk of ESRD in African Americans."
EU - Poland: Food supplements industry attempts to tackle "borderline" products problem
The Polish Council for Supplements and Nutritional Foods (KRSiO) on 23 October submitted a legislative proposal that amends several provisions of the Food and Nutrition Safety Act regarding the classification of products as medicines vs. food supplements. The move is a last-ditch attempt by the industry to avoid potentially damaging effects of what it says is a flawed transposition of an EU directive specifying which food supplements may be sold in Europe, due to take effect on 1 January 2010.
Putin’s Proposed Reform Worries Drug Producers
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has promised to ban pharmaceutical makers from sending representatives to doctors’ offices, a practice they spend up to 50 percent of their revenue on and one of the last open channels for companies to promote prescription drugs.
“We should get rid of these so-called pharmaceuticals representatives working in medical institutions,” Putin said Oct. 9 at a meeting on the development of the drugs industry. In the past 10 years, Russia has seen the rise of “a clearly abnormal type of interaction” between medicine producers, particularly foreign companies, and parts of the medical community, he said.
It is impermissible to have “pharmaceutical holdings paying specialists to prescribe patients substances produced by these companies,” Putin said.
Patients, having adopted guidelines of their health care provider and internalized his images, are fearful of freedom. Freedom would require them to eject this image and replace it with autonomy and responsibility.
Patients suffer from duality; the conflict lies in choice between…following prescriptions or having choices; between being spectators or actors.
Journal of Participatory Medicine Launches at Connected Health
Patient engagement and patient empowerment are popular topics, with hundreds of thousands of Google hits, but there’s precious little information on how to do them well. A new academic journal being launched this week, the Journal of Participatory Medicine, aims to change that.
Participatory Medicine is a new approach that encourages and expects active patient involvement in all aspects of care. It builds on the work documented at the e-patients.net blog, whose slogan is “Because health professionals can’t do it alone.” The group’s landmark 2007 paper “E-Patients: How They Can Help Us Heal Healthcare” tells many stories of engaged, empowered e-patients who substantially improved their own outcome and the outcomes of others by supplementing or even going beyond what their physicians alone could do.
When a cell phone tower connects with a cell phone, electromagnetic radiation is created. When the cell phone is held against the ear, this radiation penetrates the brain.
Health study links mobile phone use to four kinds of cancer
The research, which has taken 10 years and cost £20million, found that heavy mobile users suffered up to 50 per cent more tumours. Scientists now say there is a "significantly increased risk" of people developing three different kinds of brain tumour and one of the salivary gland.
Alasdair Philips, of campaign group Powerwatch, said: "Mobile companies hide the figures on how much radiation they give off in the back of manuals.
"But modern phones give out 217 electromagnetic pulses every minute into your head. Primary school children should not have them, secondary school children should be encouraged to text rather than call, and males should not keep them in a pocket because they drastically affect fertility."
This should read 217 electromagnetic pulses per second, because that is the frequency with which "packets" of data are sent, which are then decoded at the receiving end. So we not only have microwaves at a frequency of one or more gigahertz (billions of cycles per second) but a very low frequency component as the on-off frequency of sending packets of information. Apparently it is the low frequency component of cell phone radiation that can interfere with biological processes, making mobile phone technology a great but still not exactly quantified health risk.
Do Terahertz Waves Tear Apart DNA?
… Great things are expected of terahertz waves, the radiation that fills the slot in the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and the infrared. Terahertz waves pass through non-conducting materials such as clothes , paper, wood and brick and so cameras sensitive to them can peer inside envelopes, into living rooms and “frisk” people at distance.
Alexandrov and co have created a model to investigate how THz fields interact with double-stranded DNA and what they’ve found is remarkable. They say that although the forces generated are tiny, resonant effects allow THz waves to unzip double-stranded DNA, creating bubbles in the double strand that could significantly interfere with processes such as gene expression and DNA replication.
AstraZeneca Pays $520M To Settle Seroquel Probes
This was predictable. After Lilly and, more recently, Pfizer settled long-running investigations into off-label marketing practices of their various drugs - notably, antipsychotics - it was expected that AstraZeneca would follow suit. And so AstraZeneca has agreed to pay $520 million to settle two federal investigations and two whistleblower lawsuits over its Seroquel antipsychotic.
What's wrong with this picture? To me, it seems like nothing changes. There is no "death penalty" for corporations, so as long as they can make more money from illegal activities than it costs them to settle, they will continue to do so, no matter the rethoric:
An AstraZeneca spokesman says the drugmaker “is committed to strong, effective compliance programs, both in the U.S. and globally, to embed a culture of ethics and integrity in all our business practices. It has been and remains a key goal.”
Psychiatric Drugs & Suicides in Sweden 2007 investigation by Janne Larsson
There is no reason to believe that the reporting system for adverse drug events work
better in other countries. The catastrophic state of these “surveillance systems”
makes it possible to keep destructive drugs on the market year after year. All it takes
is for pharmaceutical companies to show that many persons have been exposed to
these drugs, and that almost no adverse event reports have been submitted; the
drugs must be “safe and effective”.
This example from Sweden shows that in 338 cases persons committed suicide after
having been prescribed psychiatric drugs – and none of these cases were reported
to the registry for adverse drug events. Instead of Eli Lilly claiming that the drug
Zyprexa was involved in 0 cases of suicide in Sweden 2007, the fact was that the
drug was involved in 52 cases in this subgroup of 338 persons. Instead of Wyeth
claiming the same for Effexor, the fact was that the drug was involved in 41 cases in
this group.
USA: Amgen Pharmaceuticals Sued By 15 States Over Kickbacks
The companies encouraged health care providers to bill third-party payers such as Medicaid for free Aranesp in hopes of taking business away from Johnson & Johnson’s Procrit. Amgen also conspired with INN and ASD Healthcare to provide sham consultant agreements, weekend retreats and other services to get them to purchase and prescribe Aranesp.
“Drugs should be prescribed to patients on the basis of need, effectiveness, and safety, not on a corporate giant’s promise of an all-expense paid vacation. In an egregious violation of the law, Amgen allegedly bribed medical providers and left taxpayers footing the bill for free drug samples,” Cuomo says in a statement.
The Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex: A Deadly Fairy Tale
When we speak of the pharmaceutical industry complex, it does not refer solely to private drug manufacturers. The complex, like a Matrix that holds captive the health of the nation in medical slavery by its own design and manipulation, is a consortium, a spiders’ web woven with financial attachments throughout the medical profession. In addition to the pharmaceutical and medical device firms, this complex includes every government health agency...
If any one of us committed manslaughter, we would be behind bars instead of walking a crimson carpet into the offices of our elected officials in the Congress and Senate or past the gates guarded by the nation’s Cerberus, Rahm Emmanuel, to lobby the White House. Yet if we are a pharmaceutical executive, or a lobbyist representing a drug company who has collected a litany of charges including medical fraud, criminal salesmanship, gaming the insurance industries, repeated lying to federal officials, and manipulation of data regarding life-threatening adverse effects of drugs that have killed so many people, we can walk away with a fine, a surge in the stock market after a settlement, a financial bonus, and the personal satisfaction in not having to apologize so we can continue business as usual.
US: House Health Care Bill Contains MOTHERS Act
Minus the original bill's prologue about depression in new moms, much of the Act's provisions are in the House bill, but with slightly softened language. Postpartum depression screening is no longer, in essence, mandatory but is now something that "may" be included in a national education campaign for health professionals and the public. The bill also calls for research on the causes and treatments for PPD, studies of differences in PPD between different ethnicities, "[t]he development of improved screening and diagnostic techniques, Clinical research for the development and evaluation of new treatments."
So that ought to make Big Pharma and the Act's proponents happy.
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