This story, detailed by David Willman in the LA Times (and blogged by me 4 weeks ago) has now been re-reported (in great detail for television) by CNN.  It certainly deserves plenty of scrutiny, especially after SIGA’s stock rose 32% yesterday, supposedly due to board member Fran Townsend’s denying company interference with the contract.  DHHS…

Sidney Wolfe, MD, is a well-known drug safety advocate and founder/ director of the organization Public Citizen’s Health Research Group.  FDA finally blessed the quality of his work and reputation by inviting him to join its Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee in 2008. But suddenly FDA has disqualified him from full voting membership…

Half the US GDP was loaned to banks with no collateral.  Recall that (former NY Attorney General and Governor) Eliot Spitzer was investigating the Wall Street banks at the time his indiscretions with call girls led to his resignation, ending any hopes of seeking the presidency.  Not only American, but many foreign banks were bailed…

The Japanese government and TEPCO have released new information (based on simulations, however) on the extent of damage to the Fukushima nuclear reactors.  The Australian reports on the catastrophe: MOLTEN nuclear fuel in one reactor at Japan’s stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant burned through the steel pressure vessel and three-quarters of the surrounding concrete containment vessel…

ABC News reports that a new strain of influenza has appeared in several states.  CDC officials are worrying that it might become the predominant strain this flu season.  Based on modelling, CDC thinks Tamiflu might help.  (However, Tamiflu only shortens bouts of flu by one day, according to the package insert.  It is probably a…

This article is by Natasha Bita, who just won a Walkley journalism prize for her series on flu vaccine dangers in The Australian. UPDATE:  The public’s responses to her story “Virus in the System.”  It is astounding that after the widely publicized problems with last year’s childhood flu vaccine, the Health Minister (a lawyer) has…

… But the [2009 swine] flu was much milder than expected, and this, combined with safety fears over the new vaccine, led to only around seven percent of Germans opting to get the vaccine. Germany actually purchased two different types of swine flu vaccine:  one with a novel adjuvant (that used less antigen and instead…

From the Associated Press, Maureen Stevens settles with the US government for her husband’s death by anthrax, due to lax control of the material at government’s Fort Detrick lab. UPDATE:  From Scott Shane at the NY Times: … A Justice Department spokesman, Charles S. Miller, said he could not comment on why the government was…

More details emerge from this piece by Edward Jay Epstein about the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair at the New York Sofitel hotel.  This does not wrap up the case, but provides additional information about the sequence of events and about the missing Blackberry, which DSK had arranged with his wife to be examined for a security…

Infectious Disease News has posted a report of a paper, “H1N1 pandemic less severe among adults with history of flu.”  The paper suggests that people with preexisting antibodies to different H1N1 strains had more immunity to swine flu H1N1 than those without.  Getting a flu infection (whether or not you actually get sick… since the…

As long as the research is methodologically sound and designed to capture a broad range of possible adverse outcomes from radiation released at Fukushima (where people have been exposed to many different isotopes through skin contact, inhalation and ingestion at widely varying doses), you will probably learn a lot about how the radiation affected health. …

Last month I went to Chicago to do a video interview with Dr. Joe Mercola on bioterrorism issues, anthrax, government responses and some of their ramifications (especially vaccines).  I thought he performed masterfully, asking the right questions and providing perspective.  The material he elicited builds a surprising story, which encapsulates most of my work over…

UPDATE:  Senator Claire McCaskill calls for DHHS IG to investigate the government’s sole-source contract with Siga. If you are unconvinced that government seeks ways to buy products from “insider” companies that tithe to those at the center of government, read David Willman’s article in today’s LA Times.  A few grams of anthrax, grown from stock…

A McClatchy piece I thought was duplicative, but there is more meat than I realized at first glance: … The existing security procedures _ described in two long-secret reports _ were so lax they would have allowed any researcher, aide or temporary worker to walk out of the Army bio-weapons lab at Fort Detrick, Md,…

The Alliance for Human Research Protection has written about the NBSB recommendations for testing anthrax vaccine in children: … The NBSB recommendation was made despite its own report acknowledging that: “Currently, U.S. children are not at immediate risk from anthrax and would not benefit directly from pre-event AVA [anthrax vaccine] administration.” “There is no known…

From the Daily Mail’s Miles Goslett: The death of Dr David Kelly is to be examined at the High Court next month after a senior judge ordered a special hearing as part of  his review of the case. Mr Justice Kenneth Parker is considering an application from retired West Country surgeon David Halpin to challenge…

From the Public Citizen advocacy organization, discussed by periodical The Hill: November 1, 2011 The Honorable Kathleen Sebelius Secretary Department of Health and Human Services 200 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20201 RE: Proposed Clinical Trials Testing the Anthrax Vaccine on Children Dear Secretary Sebelius: Public Citizen, representing more than 225,000 members and supporters nationwide,…

Here is another blog post coming from the long NY Times article on our government’s response to the threat of bioterrorism.  This article is brilliant in its simplicity.  It simply covers the field.  The author interviewed over 100 people who work in biodefense, and he makes clear that the $60+ billion spent on bioterrorism efforts…

Thanks to author Steven Salzberg, who worked sequencing anthrax for the FBI letters investigation, writing in Forbes: The anthrax vaccine is a truly bad idea. The U.S. has wasted billions of dollars on it, and it just seems to go from bad to worse. Now a government panel has recommended that we test the vaccine on…

Why did the most important trial to have been conducted on anthrax vaccine safety (by CDC between 2002 and 2007, with 1564 civilian subjects) only publish an interim report, and never discussed the 229 serious adverse events reported in trial participants?  The trial tested serologic efficacy also.  The investigators published partial data in JAMA on…

I decided to just say briefly what happened yesterday at the NBSB conference call. Every member of the NBSB, with the exception of Iowa’s top public health officer, Patricia Quinlisk, MD, voted in favor of testing anthrax vaccine in children.  Kudos to Dr. Quinlisk for making clear that her public health background precluded agreement. Panel…

  From the Daily News:  Take our Poll Poll Results Do you think an anthrax vaccine should be tested on children? Yes 11% No 80% Not sure 8%

From the NY Times, adapted by Global Security Newswire: … The nation’s preparations for a biological strike face numerous challenges, according to more than 100 interviews with high-level officials at participating federal entities such the National Institutes of Health and the White House, as well as the the Health and Human Services, Defense and Homeland…

From the Palm Beach Post: … While he is legally prohibited from revealing much of what he learned and many of the court documents are sealed, Weisser said he was stunned by the lack of security at the lab. In court papers, the government conceded that before the attacks, Fort Detrick didn’t have cameras to…

From the NY Times, adapted by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, U Minnesota: Oct 28, 2011 (CIDRAP News) – An expert advisory panel today approved a recommendation that the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) develop a plan to study the use of anthrax vaccine in children before an attack…

From the Scottish Press and Journal: Don’t panic, says Scottish government probe launched into drug batch Flu vaccine doses recalled in scare over side effects The Scottish Government is recalling thousands of flu vaccines over fears that the drug is making some people ill, the Press and Journal can reveal. About 300,000 doses of Preflucel…

According to the FDA: As of 2008, an estimated 50 to 60 percent of prescription drugs used to treat children have been studied in some part of the pediatric population. Still, the likelihood that a medicine has actually been studied in neonates—children less than a month old—is close to zero. So nearly a decade into…

The people on the NBSB could only come up with a recommendation to test anthrax vaccine on children if they were ignorant about the vaccine and/or the law’s requirements for testing children under 45 CFR 46.407.  I will have much more to say about this unfolding story over the next few days.  Here is Rob…

Greg Gordon and Stephen Engelberg continue their important series of reports for McClatchy and ProPublica, here focusing on the inadequate security at USAMRIID and potentially wide access to Ivins’ anthrax spores by 419 or more people: The Army laboratory identified by prosecutors as the source of the anthrax that killed five people in the fall…

From the Irish Herald: We need a jab inquiry The link between the Pandemrix swine flu vaccination and narcolepsy in at least 16 children has to be scrutinised. Manufacturers GlaxoSmithKline were indemnified by the State from any liability for side effects as the vaccine was rushed through. We need a full explanation from the Irish…

From the Infectious Diseases Society of America annual meeting comes this [WHO] discussion of how novel adjuvants affect the immune response, and how we can expect to see more of these adjuvants added to vaccines in the US: … Martin Friede, PhD, who heads the Technology Transfer Team within the Department on Innovation, Information, Evidence…

Barry Kissin’s Opinion piece at the Frederick News-Post Back on Aug. 29, 2008, The FNP published a column by Katherine Heerbrandt titled “If not Ivins …” Heerbrandt began with the viewpoint of Norm Covert, a well-known former Fort Detrick public affairs officer: “The anthrax in the mailings, he says, was ‘highly bred, weapons-grade … with…

The Washington Post calls for Congress to perform a definitive investigation of the anthrax letters attacks, adding to the impact of the NY Times’ editorial asking for the same 3 days earlier: BRUCE E. IVINS has been dead for three years, but questions still abound about whether he carried out the 2001 anthrax attacks that…

 What does $60 billion buy in terms of enhanced security?  From CIDRAP we get a detailed look at what our government’s bioterrorism establishment has been shopping for: If someone tried to kill Americans with Bacillus anthracis spores today, the nation would have a better medical tool chest for treating the sick and those potentially exposed than it…

Today’s NY Times wants to know if the FBI’s evidence — linking Bruce Ivins to the anthrax letters — really holds up.  Frontline/ProPublica/McClatchy last week informed us, after reviewing thousands of FBI documents obtained through FOIA, that the FBI misled us.  Ivins’ late-night hours at the lab in September-October 2001 were not really that different…

From Pro Publica: A senior Republican senator says it would take a powerful grassroots movement or startling new evidence to reopen the Justice Department’s investigation that branded a now-deceased Army researcher as the anthrax mailer who killed five people a decade ago. Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and…

David Willman continues to write stories designed to sell his book on Bruce Ivins, and buttress the FBI ‘s Ivins theory.  I thought journalists were required to at least make a stab at even-handedness, but this once-great journalist didn’t bother. Here’s an example:  Willman mentions, then tries to discredit, the paper of Hugh-Jones, Rosenberg and…

From the vaccinexchange website, on October 12, 2011 · Leave a Comment It seems that Emergent BioSolutions, the only manufacturer of the anthrax vaccine in America, has been working aggressively to promote its vaccine throughout our nation. Its efforts have paid off: according to MarketWatch.com, the company has been awarded a $1.25 billion contract to…

In case you were looking for a synopsis of the important parts of the Frontline anthrax letters program, here it is.  This piece was written by the TV show’s investigative team, and details important flaws in the FBI’s case.  Definitely worth a read, and maybe a reread, to feed your anthrax letters obsession.

See Part I of The Anthrax Files.  This terribly important 1 hour documentary uncovered new evidence in the case.  Additional videos related to the case are accessible at the site.  Enjoy.

From the LA Times: California Gov. Jerry Brown stepped into the middle of a debate over parental rights Sunday by signing legislation  giving children 12 or older the power to consent to medical care involving the prevention of sexually transmitted disease. Asssemblywoman Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) sponsored AB 499 with the aim of providing young…

David Zurawik at The Baltimore Sun writes about tomorrow’s important Frontline story on Bruce Ivins and the anthrax letters.  This will be the first episode. Nobody does investigative journalism on TV like Public Television’s “Frontline” — nobody, and week in, week out that includes “60 Minutes.” And Tuesday night at 9, the venerable series revisits…

William Broad and Scott Shane have written a very useful NYT piece on the anthrax letters.  It discusses a new academic paper by Martin Hugh-Jones, Stuart Jacobsen and Barbara hatch Rosenberg, which explores the meaning of the tin and silicon found in the anthrax spore preparation of the anthrax letters. A decade after wisps of anthrax…

From the LA Times: The phony campaign was aimed at helping find and kill Osama bin Laden, but the doctor involved now faces treason charges, and real immunization workers say Pakistanis don’t trust them. …Aid teams heading polio vaccination drives reported that more parents were refusing to allow their children to be vaccinated after news…

 From the University of Wyoming: …  “The scientific evidence clearly shows that the (anthrax) wasn’t produced in our laboratory (USAMRIID),” the two UW professors say. “The FBI based part of its case on unusual activity that took place in our lab for one week. There is no way he could produce that amount of spores…

Let’s do a back-of-the-envelope risk-benefit calculation on swine flu vaccine: In 2009-10, 44 Finns of all ages died of swine flu.  [With 5.3 million Finns, this is one death per 120,000 people of all ages.] About half the population of Finland received Pandemrix.  Had the vaccine been given before the pandemic struck (a near impossibility)…

From Agence France Presse: HELSINKI — The Finnish government and major insurance companies announced Wednesday they will pay for lifetime medical care for children diagnosed with narcolepsy after receiving the swine flu vaccine. “The compensation will provide much-needed financial assistance for the families, although it cannot take away the emotional distress caused by this condition,” Social…

From the Courant: October 5, 2011 After the World Trade Center was destroyed 10 years ago, death arrived once again — in the mail. Anthrax, a terrifying and deadly bacterium that multiplies rapidly when inhaled, began to appear in letters sent to a variety of places. Among these were the New York Post, the offices…

Read it an weep; each American is paying $4.00 for their share of this stockpile of poison. press release Oct. 3, 2011, 7:00 a.m. EDT Emergent Biosolutions Receives Award to Supply 44.75 Million Doses of BioThrax to US Government Over Five Years ROCKVILLE, Md., Oct 03, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Emergent BioSolutions Inc. /quotes/zigman/429174/quotes/nls/ebs EBS…

There is so much written that is dead wrong about this year’s flu vaccine,  another post is needed.  Here are some facts: 1.  This year’s flu vaccine is the same as last year’s vaccine.  If you are healthy and got the vaccine last year, you probably still have antibodies against all 3 strains. 2.  The…

From the BBC:  Link between narcolepsy and flu vaccine investigated  Health officials are investigating a link between narcolepsy and the Pandemrix vaccine in two people who were treated for swine flu. Northern Ireland’s Chief Medical Officer has confirmed to the BBC, that Northern Ireland had become the latest country to report suspected cases of the…

for video click here Despite the report below, CSL is one of six flu vaccine manufacturers licensed to sell flu vaccine in the US in 2011.  The CSL vaccine, Afluria, is labelled for use over 5 years old.  However, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practises recommends that Afluria not be used in children aged…

The following article talks about an important finding, which I mentioned back in a 2002 NY Times interview:  the people who developed inhalation anthrax (or cutaneous anthrax that became generalized) were likely to suffer from the identical symptoms as those who became very ill after anthrax vaccinations.  These symptoms have now lingered for ten years…

Sep 1, 2011 (CIDRAP News) – A final report from Finnish health officials on the link between the 2009 H1N1 Pandemrix vaccine and narcolepsy confirmed the link, finding a greater risk than their earlier estimate and identifying a genetic risk factor in all patients. In a statement on the findings today, a task force from…

From Miles Goslett at the Daily Mail: Doctors are preparing to challenge the Government’s decision not to hold an inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly… This month the doctors were given a 33-page legal opinion by Aidan O’Neill QC, a colleague of Cherie Blair at Matrix chambers in London, indicating that Mr Grieve’s…

From the NY Times Editor: A former top official in charge of ensuring that real secrets are kept secret has delivered a stunning repudiation of the Obama administration’s decision to use the Espionage Act against a whistle-blower attempting to expose government waste and abuse. J. William Leonard, who directed the Information Security Oversight Office during…

The following excerpts from today’s NY Times article point to serious failures of data collection, analysis, and commitment to safety at FDA.  The failures follow lax, politically-driven regulations, which allow products to be licensed without data if they are substantially like other licensed products.  There is no good guideline for how alike the products must…

From Reuters and the NY POst: Prosecutors will ask a judge to dismiss all charges in the [criminal] sexual assault case against former IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn at a court hearing on Tuesday, the New York Post reported on Sunday, citing unnamed sources.   The Manhattan district attorney’s office will file a motion recommending the…

From McNeill and Adelstein at The Independent: It is one of the mysteries of Japan’s ongoing nuclear crisis: How much damage did the 11 March earthquake inflict on the Fukushima Daiichi reactors before the tsunami hit? The stakes are high: if the earthquake structurally compromised the plant and the safety of its nuclear fuel, then…

Well-known arms control/disarmament/nonproliferation expert Jonathan Tucker died last week at 56.  Paul Walker, who follows a similar career trajectory, as arms control advocate and expert, wrote about Tucker’s life and accomplishments.  Regarding Tucker’s views on the anthrax letters case, Paul wrote the following: His intellectual and academic vigor, together with his journalistic instincts, were also…

Someone got inhalation anthrax along the old west cattle trail.  This is where cattle in decades past were herded, and sometimes died of anthrax.  When that happened, the spores entered the soil and even today emerge periodically, during extreme weather conditions, to reinfect cattle. Only problem is, they do not reinfect humans.  The spores only…

Extraneous materials in vaccines is an old story.  Many have been shown to contain unwanted viruses or even bacteria such as mycoplasma.  (I used to have the abstracts posted on my website showing examples.)  Anthrax vaccines had flecks of stopper material and fungi in them, noted on visual inspections by FDA in the late 1990s. …

From the Kansas City Star, a McClatchy paper, Frontline and ProPublica authors: A federal judge has blocked, at least temporarily, a Justice Department attempt to back away from court admissions that appeared to undercut previous FBI assertions that an Army researcher was responsible for the 2001 anthrax attacks. In an order issued Monday, U.S. District…

Thanks to Ed Silverman at Pharmalot for posting on this issue, and for his links. I’ve blogged in the past here and here about how Merck created a complex scheme to market Gardasil vaccine through mandates from state legislatures.  It seemed this was not working, as only one state and the District of Columbia passed such mandates.  After…

According to the European Medicines Agency press release: The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) considered that the epidemiological studies relating to Pandemrix in Finland and Sweden were well designed and the results show an association between Pandemrix vaccination and narcolepsy in children and adolescents in those countries. The results indicate a six- to…

After seriously undercutting the FBI claims about Bruce Ivins’ guilt 5 days ago, the DOJ revised its filing yesterday in the case brought by Bob Stevens’ wife against the government. Marcy Wheeler provides great details and links to the filing and other useful documents.  Scott Shane gives us the usual FBI response when challenged:  “We…

From Mike Wiser, Greg Gordon and Stephen Engelberg come the following story: Justice Department lawyers filed a brief on July 15 that said Bruce Ivins did not have access to equipment in the Fort Detrick hot suites that would have enabled him to make the dried anthrax found in letters to two Senators.  … the…

Marcia Angell completes her tour de force analysis of the underpinnings of psychiatry and its medications in the second part of her article, “The Illusions of Psychiatry” in the NY Review of Books.

From Matt Appuzzo at the AP, published in the Washington Post, comes this amusing piece: WASHINGTON — In his 2009 speech to the Muslim world, President Barack Obama announced a new effort to eradicate polio, which persists in three Muslim countries. One of the biggest hurdles had been persuading some local leaders that vaccination campaigns…

Although the DHHS recently field-tested an informed consent document for parents (whose children were sought for an anthrax vaccine clinical trial in the Washington, DC public schools) it was reported that so far there were no takers.  This information was stated at a public meeting held July 7 by DHHS to discuss the ethics and…

Today, one Irish website (Irish Medical Times) rejoiced that a study just out in the BMJ showed Pandemrix swine flu vaccine, containing a novel GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) adjuvant, did not cause Guillain-Barre syndrome, a life-threatening form of temporary paralysis from which over 90% survive and make partial to full recoveries.  No mention is made in the article of…

I hate to say “I told you so” but here it is, from the NY Times.  Now one may ask, why was DSK presumed guilty and treated abominably at the onset of the case?  Still think this was not a political frame-up in which the USG was a major participant?  From today’s NYT: The sexual…

Finally, members of my profession are fighting back against corrupt doctors and the companies who pay lavishly for their undeserved testimonials.  Respected university bigwigs are just as susceptible as anyone else to 10 or 20 million dollar payoffs:  and they may feel they have no conflict of interest as a result and their work is…

This June 23, 2011 article by Marcia Angell, a former NEJM editor and a Harvard professor of medicine, is a must-read.  Actually, this article is only Part 1, and the second half will come out in two weeks.  Angell reviews 3 books on psychiatry, and asks all the right questions: Why are half of American…

From the Guardian, an article provides new information on how Tony Blair’s administration lied to make the case for war in Iraq. What do you call this crime?  Is it treasonous to start a war under false pretenses, costing your country hundreds of lives and billions of dollars?  And what was it for, anyway? The…

Dr. Annette Hanson penned the following piece on the ethically impaired “Expert Behavioral Analysis Panel” paid for by FBI: In March, a panel chaired by Dr. Gregory Saathoff, commonly known as the expert behavioral analysis panel (EBAP), released a report containing a summary and analysis of the investigation of Dr. Bruce Ivins, the suspected anthrax…

From the Sydney Morning Herald comes this piece that says our FDA found CSL’s “investigation” of why so many children had seizures post-vaccination to be entirely inadequate.  If you don’t find the problem then you don’t have to make any expensive changes to your manufacturing facility.  And you are not liable for willful misconduct, which…

In order to meet the requirements of 45 CFR 46.407, a federal advisory panel must review the proposed pediatric research, agree that it will provide important generalizable knowledge, and that children participating in the research will be protected from taking dangerous risks.  DHHS has convened the necessary panel, which will meet to discuss details of…

Most detailed look yet at the flawed decision-making and terrible information sharing between TEPCO, government bureaucrats, political leaders and outsiders during Japan’s nuclear crisis by the NY Times: Reuters The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, damaged by a tsunami on March 11, became the site of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, as workers successfully warded…

More on America’s widening surveillance state from the NY Times: The Federal Bureau of Investigation is giving significant new powers to its roughly 14,000 agents, allowing them more leeway to search databases, go through household trash or use surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who have attracted their attention. Valerie E. Caproni, the…

After David Cameron recently said a full inquest into David Kelly’s death was unnecessary, it was no surprise that his Attorney General soon afterward echoed his statement.  Excerpts from the BBC: On the day Dr Kelly’s body was discovered, then Prime Minister Tony Blair asked Lord Hutton to conduct an urgent investigation into the circumstances…

 Mines, like this one in  Badahkshan, could lift Afghanistan out of poverty (NPR) From National Public Radio, information on how the Pentagon is working to develop business opportunities in Afghanistan for US corporations: There’s close to a $1 trillion waiting to be unearthed beneath the rocky soil of Afghanistan. The massive deposits of iron, copper,…

See here for a detailed discussion of the expanding anthrax vaccine stockpile, vaccine maker Emergent Biosolutions, and the illegality of shooting up children with an anthrax vaccine potion that is too dangerous for adults. *

From the Washington Post: “After a weeklong meeting on the type of electromagnetic radiation found in cellphones, microwaves and radar, the expert panel said there was limited evidence cellphone use was linked to two types of brain tumors and inadequate evidence to draw conclusions for other cancers.” This whole issue is totally gummed up by…

From the BBC: Germany’s coalition government has announced a reversal of policy that will see all the country’s nuclear power plants phased out by 2022. The decision makes Germany the biggest industrial power to announce plans to give up nuclear energy. Environment Minister Norbert Rottgen made the announcement following late-night talks. Chancellor Angela Merkel set…

In a lead-up to the release of his book in June, David Willman writes about Bruce Ivins’ eccentricities and threats of violence.  The problem is, the story fails to make clear who Willman’s sources are.  How does Willman know Ivins carried a gun on campus?  How does Willman know Psychiatrist David Irwin said Ivins was…

<iframe id=”4dd4d242ee0fe” name=”4dd4d242ee0fe” src=”http://d.thelocal.com/w/1.0/afr?auid=19633&cb=1478387141″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no” width=”468″ height=”90″><a href=”http://d.thelocal.com/w/1.0/rc?cs=4dd4d242ee0fe&cb=1478387141″ ><img src=”http://d.thelocal.com/w/1.0/ai?auid=19633&cs=4dd4d242ee0fe&cb=1478387141″ border=”0″ alt=””></a></iframe> From Sweden’s English language online paper, The Local: Ninety-three people in Sweden, most of them children, have been diagnosed with narcolepsy since taking the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix last winter, according to figures from the Swedish Medical Products Agency (Läkemedelsverket). In 88…

The US government, according to the anthrax vaccine maker, has promised to spend a billion more bucks on a vaccine that makes 1-2% of recipients seriously ill, and that expires after 3-4 years.  44 million new doses are being ordered.  Every American is kicking in about 6 dollars for this scary product that probably no…

Most Americans who got flu vaccine last year don’t need it again.  But CDC and manufacturers are confident of their maarketing prowess, and manufacturers are making 170 million doses for the US market.  Go figure.  From the Associated Press: ATLANTA (AP) — Vaccine makers said this month they plan to make a record amount of…

Another story by Greg Gordon explores the false/misleading answer the FBI provided Rep. Nadler, a House Judiciary subcommittee chairman, when he asked about the silicon content of the anthrax letters in September 2008.  It took 7 months to get the wrong answer. Nadler was told the Leahy letter contained 1.4% silicon (felt to be “naturally”…

David Kelly’s dental records went missing for several days, then reappeared, according to his dentist.  It now turns out there were several sets of unidentified fingerprints on Kelly’s dental file. This is not what the Hutton Inquiry was told years ago, when it was assured there were no extraneous prints on the file. Although borrowed…

Who is the person in the Obama administration who has been most firmly pro-consumer and staunchly in favor of strict banking regulations?  Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law School professor/consumer economist. Professor Warren is trying to clean up the marketplace so consumers will understand what it is they are buying.  She has acknowledged that when reading…

McClatchy’s Greg Gordon has written another excellent piece on the anthrax letters. The focus this time is on the silicon and tin added to the spore prep, and how the FBI resolutely failed to investigate them as a means of solving the case: The existence of the silicon-tin chemical signature offered investigators the possibility of…

From the NY Times‘ editorial page: The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered an overhaul of mental health care for veterans, who are killing themselves by the thousands each year because of what the court called the “unchecked incompetence” of the Department of Veterans Affairs. … delays in treating post-traumatic stress…

UPDATE:  Dominique Strauss-Kahn is “not in a position to run” the International Monetary Fund after his arrest over an alleged sexual assault, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said.  May we remind Mr. Geithner that he was guilty of tax evasion, yet he runs the US Treasury, responsible for collecting taxes.  What was good for…

Partial meltdowns of three reactors and breaches of the containment vehicles are finally acknowledged by TEPCO on May 15.  From the WSJ: Substantial damage to the fuel cores at two additional reactors of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex has taken place, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sunday, further complicating the already daunting task of…

I attended the European Bioelectromagnetics meeting in Helsinki in September 2001, and discovered then that there were dueling bodies of evidence regarding whether electromagnetic fields from cell phones or other sources caused adverse health effects.  Things have not changed a lot since then, although the body of research has considerably expanded.  Because the research paid…