California to require booster shots for health care workers

According to the AP. in the US, “the government placed three orders last year for a combined total of nearly 200 million doses — an unprecedented amount and almost double the amount of vaccine made in recent years for seasonal flu.“ About a quarter of the swine flu vaccine produced for the U.S. public has…

Many older vaccines are already approved for this coming flu season, while many others remain in development.  Some have been promised to the public despite complete lack of human trials of the COVID Omicron BA. 4 and BA. 5 variants. It is amusing to watch the media, citing CDC, try to push as many vaccines…

The West Africa Ebola mortality rate with treatment is very high. Normally, mortality drops when doctors gain experience with new diseases and learn how best to care for patients. This seems not to be the case with this Ebola. West African Ebola may be spreading more easily than other Ebola outbreaks.  [Thanks to Washington’s Blog…

Medco (this is the pharmacy benefits company that settled for $155 million over charges of defrauding the federal government and paying kickbacks in 2006) manager Dave Snow has jumped into the healthcare debate. His idea is to force doctors to prescribe pre-selected treatments: if you diagnose A, you treat with B. Obviously, Mr. Snow doesn’t…

Former NY Times journalist and non-practicing physician Elisabeth Rosenthal’s new book, An American Sickness, lists 10 economic “rules” of US medicine that are guaranteed to make money, but not to improve outcomes: More treatment is always better. Default to the most expensive option. A lifetime of treatment is better than a cure. Amenities and marketing…

Deborah Rudacille of the Baltimore Examiner has two more excellent articles exploring the underside of anthrax vaccine; its manufacturer Emergent Biosolutions (formerly named Bioport); and how the anthrax attacks provided life support to both the vaccination program, which was about to be cancelled, and to Emergent, which produced only one product: anthrax vaccine. Exhaustively researched,…