From the Washington Examiner:  Cervical cancer accounts for less than 1 percent of all cancer deaths, so it was somewhat surprising when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fast-tracked approval of Gardasil, a Merck vaccine targeting the human papilloma virus (HPV) that causes the disease, in 2006. As of Jan. 31, 2010, 49 unexplained deaths…

Officials with the CDC are continuing to urge people to get the H1N1 vaccine, as a small uptick in H1N1 cases has been reported in the Southeast. Anne Schuchat, MD, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases said seasonal influenza activity is low this season, with H1N1 reported as the predominant…

From YNet News Dozens of soldiers who took part in experiment in early 1990s aimed at determining efficacy of Anthrax vaccine demand $80,000 each in damages. ‘Physical harm was passed down to our children,’ plaintiff says. There is no description in this article of the types of adverse reactions resulting from the vaccine, which may…

Today’s Guardian discusses a draft report by UK MP Paul Flynn on the European response to the swine flu epidemic.  Titled “WHO accused of losing pubic confidence over flu pandemic,” it includes the following: In Britain, says Flynn, the discrepancy between the estimate of the numbers of people who would die from flu and the…

The U.S. Senate must help America get to the bottom of the post-9/11 anthrax attacks. The FBI hasn’t produced convincing answers. It had to pay damages to former government scientist Dr. Stephen Hatfill for wrongly labeling him a “person of interest.” It can’t convict the government scientist it now blames, Dr. Bruce Ivins, because he…

Writing at FireDogLake, Jim White discusses the role of silicon in the anthrax spores.  Apparently, the mechanism for 2 liter cultures of anthrax available to Bruce Ivins did not require an antifoaming agent, and he did not use one.  OTOH, large volume fermenters with compressed air (or a gaseous mixture) pumped into the culture medium…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 18, 2010 Contact: Zach Goldberg 202-225-5801 (office) HOLT DEMANDS OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SUPPORT FURTHER AMERITHRAX INVESTIGATION Also Urges Administration to Reconsider Position on Videorecording of Detainee Interrogations (Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12), Chair of the Select Intelligence Oversight Panel and a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on…

Science Magazine asks, “What about the Silicon?”  The 19 March 2010 issue contains an article by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee detailing all we don’t know about the silicon in the anthrax spores sent to Senators Daschle and Leahy and to the NY Post, and the absence of spores containing silicon in Ivins’ flask.  Excerpts follow: That question…

Here is the letter from OMB detailing the Obama Administration’s objections to the Intelligence Authorization Act passed by the House on February 26, 2010. (Thanks to Steven Aftergood at the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists for posting it, and for his insightful discussion.)

from Vaccine News Daily: … Besides the H1N1 vaccine, countermeasures currently covered by the CICP (Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program of the DHHS’ Health Resources and Services Agency) program include vaccines and drugs for anthrax and smallpox, under HHS declarations made in 2008, according to Bowman. Many members of the U.S. military receive anthrax and smallpox…

fyi, here is a link to the MP3 of a 55 minute interview with Michael Levine and Mark Marshall on the March 15 ExpertWitness radio program.

The ABC News blogger Jacob Tapper  (“Political Punch“) provides more detail about what the administration is complaining about in the intelligence bill, and its anthrax issue.  Yet Tapper points out,  In addition, the Intelligence Authorization bill would commission an agency inspector general to investigate the anthrax attacks, which the FBI has concluded were planned and…

Glenn Greenwald was a constitutional law and civil rights litigator in New York before becoming a writer on political affairs and constitutional law.  He is arguably the most perspicacious journalist offering political commentary today.  His comments on Obama’s threatened veto of the intelligence authorization bill follow. One of the principal weapons used by the Bush…

From the March 12, 2010 Spiegel (my thanks to Jane Bryant’s “OneClick” website for posting the story and to Digital Journal for covering it) What the Spiegel does is to confirm that it was WHO’s decision to move to Pandemic Phase 6 that caused preexisting contracts between nations and large vaccine manufacturers to become active,…

From an Editorial in the December 1, 2008 Washington Post: …The new attorney general also should ensure that an independent commission or the inspector general review the anthrax investigation. In the summer, the FBI identified Fort Detrick scientist Bruce E. Ivins as the lone suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five and sickened…

Tom Waytes, vice president of Emergent BioSolutions, the manufacturer of anthrax vaccine, spoke at a meeting of Emergency Services Personnel at which he suggested that expiring doses of vaccine should be given to Emergency Services personnel for *free* by DHHS: “But with unused doses of already purchased anthrax vaccine sitting in the Strategic National Stockpile…

In terms of the strength of the FBI’s case against Ivins, I would break down an analysis in the following way: 1. To prove that a person committed a crime, they must be shown to have all three of the following: means, motive and opportunity. Has the FBI proven that Ivins had all three? a)…

Jean Duley gave Anderson Cooper the scoop (watch the video!) on Bruce Ivins. Not to put too fine a point on it, but a few facts are in order. Ms Duley was well known to the Maryland police. Her past charges included possessing narcotics paraphernalia, battery, and many DUIs, including a guilty plea 3 months…

Excerpts from Global Security Newswire: The U.S. Army should fine-tune its procedures for determining safety risks in its projects following slip-ups in plans for the new site of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., a National Academy of Sciences committee said in a report issued Thursday (see GSN,…

By Maggie Fox, Reuters. Excerpts: WASHINGTON – First, people were clamoring for H1N1 vaccines, but there were not enough to go around. By the time vaccines were available in any quantity, most of the public had lost interest. And no one knew just how unpredictable the production of vaccines would turn out to be, top…

Thursday, 04 March 2010 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, reiterated his call for an independent investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks which killed five people and sickened 17. He issued the following statement: “Despite the FBI’s assertion that the…

March 3 Letter from Congressman Holt asking for a Congressional Investigation into the government’s handling of the anthrax letters investigation. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett supports this also. A brief excerpt follows, addressed (respectively) to the chairs of the House Homeland Security, Judiciary, Select Intelligence and Oversight and Government Reform Committees: Dear Chairmen Thompson, Conyers, Reyes, and…