Bush-Blair (and now Obama) assault on civil liberties being overturned in the UK/ Glen Greenwald

Over the past months, I have been dismayed, and then alarmed, by the continuing erosion of civil liberties in the United States.  My recent op-ed noted that of the ten guaranteed freedoms granted by our Founders in the Bill of Rights, at least four have been regularly trampled (if not completely trashed) by the federal…

Anthrax vaccine recipients in Israel developing Crohn’s Disease/ Haarretz

From Haaretz: The (Israeli) Defense Ministry has recognized a former soldier who participated in the army’s experiments on an anthrax vaccine as a disabled veteran after he developed Crohn’s disease. For two years, it denied similar recognition to another veteran who has the same disease, which causes severe bowel infection (sic), and participated in the…

How much swine flu vaccine was truly used? What does CDC’s numbers game tell us?

Here are some anomalies in CDC’s reported data.  Note that all the data come from information provided by CDC on April 1-2, 2010 (using the same dataset) and were said to reflect information through January (MMWR) or February (per Schuchat) 2010. 1.  Local reporting (May 18) has it that New Jersey used 1.14 million doses…

Expert panel to view confidential swine flu papers/ AP

From tha Associated Press and Washington Post: GENEVA — An expert panel investigating the World Health Organization’s response to last year’s swine flu outbreak said Wednesday it wants to see confidential exchanges between the U.N. body and drug companies. The 29-member panel will seek WHO records and correspondence from before and after the H1N1 strain…

1987: Smallpox vaccine caused AIDS — 2010: Lack of smallpox vaccine increased AIDS

The London Times – May 11, 1987   The BBC, 2010: Smallpox demise linked to spread of HIV infection.  Both (directly opposed) conclusions came from studying the same phenomenon:  smallpox vaccinations used widely in Africa in the mid 1970s, followed by an explosion of AIDS a few years later. Smallpox vaccinations followed a ‘ring’ strategy,…

Adverse events following influenza vaccination in Australia–should we be surprised? BMJ Rapid Response

From the May 7 BMJ Online, authored by Peter Collignon, Peter Doshi, Tom Jefferson There have been large numbers of major adverse reactions to this year’s seasonal influenza vaccine in Australia, and the vaccine has been suspended for use in children aged five and under… Assuming all convulsions were in children, about one child in…

Billions wasted on swine flu pandemic that never came/ The Independent

From today’s Independent: … Against a background death toll from seasonal flu of up to 500,000 [worldwide], the new H1N1 strain was invisible [18,036 documented deaths through May 9, per WHO]. Professor Ulrich Keil, a World Health Organisation (WHO) adviser on heart disease, said the decision to declare a pandemic had led to a “gigantic…

Flu expert urges pre-vaccination against possible pandemic strains/ AP

Helen Branswell reports on “a bold proposal on how to circumvent too-slow production and too-little output of influenza vaccine during a pandemic.” You saw it here and here first, when I blogged about what pandemic “experts” talk about when they don’t have a pandemic: so-called “pre-pandemic” vaccinations.  It would be a great idea if we…

Better educated parents vaccinate their children less/ Canadian Press

<img width=”1″ height=”1″ src=”http://s.clickability.com/s?19=990&14=0&6=92807664&7=400599&18=0.3629032722800133″> From Helen Branswell at the Canadian Press: It might seem counterintuitive but it also appears to be true:  Parents with more education were less likely to get their daughters vaccinated against HPV during the first year of British Columbia’s free school-based program, a new study shows.   The finding of the study,…

UPDATE: How much did governments spend on Swine Flu vaccines and drugs?

According to Kalorama Information (which will sell you their research compilation for $1200): Makers of H1N1 vaccines reported sales of $3.3 billion in 2009, according to company reports reviewed for its title, “H1N1 ‘Swine Flu’ Vaccine Market Review.” Kalorama believes the contracting, production and distribution of this vaccine will be a model for future pandemic…

EU parliament urged to investigate H1N1 outbreak/ The Parliament.com

From The Parliament.com More than 200 deputies have signed a proposal calling for a special committee on the H1N1 pandemic. The members, who come from across the political divide, said one of its aims would be to evaluate the EU’s dependence on the World Health Organisation. Speaking at a news conference in parliament on Wednesday,…

WA launches flu vaccine inquiry / Sydney Morning Herald

From the SMH (Good on ya, Ozzies, for taking this seriously’): The West Australian government has launched an inquiry into the flu vaccinations that caused adverse reactions in hundreds of children across the nation. WA Health Minister Kim Hames said the inquiry would scrutinise systems used to identify public health risks, including vaccine side-effects and…

Grassley seeks full accounting of H1N1 purchase by government/ Senate website

Press Release from Senator Grassley, asking many previously unasked questions about the vaccine supply; its cost; safety studies; efficacy data; and government oversight, given the PREPA liability shield: WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley has asked the Secretary of Health and Human Services for additional information about the government’s supply of the H1N1 vaccine, based on…

Army: Broken procedures led to lab infection/ Frederick NewsPost

 According to the April 9, 2010 Frederick NewsPost: An Army lab at Fort Detrick said Tuesday it did not follow proper procedures last November when a researcher infected herself with the tularemia bacteria. The researcher at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases was exposed to the bacteria between Nov. 13 and 17,…

Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratory (BL4) March to Irrelevance/ HuffPo

While millions of gallons of oils are spewing from under the earth’s mantle in the Gulf of Mexico, and no one has a sure-fire idea of how to stop the river of oil, we have the perfect backdrop for a discussion of Boston’s Highest-Containment (BL-4) biodefense lab. The lab has been built but is still…

Australian parents describe flu vaccine reactions/ ABC

But many of the parents had trouble getting their children’s reactions reported to the authorities and followed up.  Asking parents to report directly to government should reveal much more about adverse events following this vaccine.  Hopefully, the system developed to receive reports will remain in place after this flu season, so that enhanced adverse event…

Illinois Public Health spends $2 Million to advertise swine flu vaccinations in April/ Chicago Tribune blog

Chicago Tribune blogger Eric Zorn wondered what was up with a “shock radio” commercial for swine flu vaccine this month.  So he investigated.  Apparently the US Government is not sufficiently in debt:  it made grants to all the states to educate us about swine flu.  Is there anyone left who needs to be educated?  Zorn…

How much did Swine Flu Cost?/ Business Week

The US and UK won’t tell what they spent.  But the US bought vaccine from 5 different manufacturers (Glaxo, Novartis, CSL, Astra-Zeneca (MedImmune was acquired by A-Z in 2007 after passing through multiple owners) and Sanofi-Pasteur, and bought antiviral drugs from 3 (Tamiflu (Roche), Relenza (GSK also) and Peramivir (BioCryst)).  They will have to report…

Seasonal flu risk–benefit/IBT Australia

Why so many reactions following seasonal flu vaccination?  Some have suggested it is due to children who had had earlier, subclinical flu infections.  Such silent infections would have left them with robust immunity.  They may then have responded to vaccination with an excessive response, triggering fever, convulsions and potentially death.  This idea remains a theory at…

Untitled Post

Launch Party:  ANTHRAX WAR By Bob Coen and Eric Nadler May 3,   7pm Melville House Bookstore Come celebrate the paperback release of Anthrax War: Dead Silence . . . Fear and Terror on the Anthrax Trail by Bob Coen and Eric Nadler. An in-depth look into the new biological arms race, Dead Silence conveys the…

H1N1 vaccine study investigating hints of complications from vaccine/ Washington Post

Rob Stein at the Post discusses a “hint” that swine flu vaccine may have caused increased cases of Guillain Barre Syndrome, Bell’s Pallsy and thrombocytopenia. The US CDC, unlike its counterpart in Australia, manages the news on vaccine adverse events closely, especially for swine flu.  Remember that CDC hosted a meeting for invited journalists and…

Don’t give children flu jab: chief medical officer/ Sydney Morning Herald

Australia’s chief medical officer halted seasonal flu vaccinations for children under five, due to a high number of children in Western Australia experiencing fever and convulsions after the shot.  This will give the country time to ascertain whether the problem is due to “bad batches” or whether the makeup of the immunization itself is the…

Colleague Rebuts Idea That Suspect’s Lab Made Anthrax in Attacks/ NY Times

The New York Times’ Scott Shane reports on the testimony of Henry E. Heine, former Ivins colleague, at the National Academy of Sciences panel reviewing the FBI’s science at its meeting today. … Asked by reporters after his testimony whether he believed that there was any chance that Dr. Ivins, who committed suicide in 2008,…

OPINION: Anthrax letters: Was Bruce Ivins hounded to death?/ UPI

Op-Ed piece by Col. Lawrence Sellin, Ret. …Reinforced by a number of armchair detectives from academia, the FBI produced a profile of the anthrax mailer who was described as a lone person living within the United States, who had experience working in labs and was smart enough to produce a highly refined and deadly product. …

Jury still out on swine flu handling a year on/ Agence France Presse

From AFP: But a year on, questions linger as to whether a decision by the World Health Organization to declare swine flu a pandemic, thereby unleashing the slew of health measures, was over-dramatic or even tainted by commercial interests “It’s a decision which costs huge amounts of money, which frightened people throughout the world unnecessarily,”…

Unlearned lessons from the Steven Hatfill case/ Salon (Glen Greenwald)

From Glenn Greenwald’s blog at Salon.com: … It requires an extreme level of irrationality to read what happened to Hatfill and simultaneously to have faith that the “real anthrax attacker” has now been identified as a result of the FBI’s wholly untested and uninvestigated case against Bruce Ivins.  The parallels are so overwhelming as to be self-evident….

Setting the Record Straight [when Glaxo Fakes the Data] / JAMA

Steve Nissen, head of Cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic, authored an editorial in JAMA last month on the means by which GlaxoSmithKline tried to cover up increased cardiac events in patients on its drug Avandia (Rosiglitazone).  JAMA’s editor, Catherine DeAngelis, wrote her own editorial on this issue, noting: According to the article by Nissen,1 the…

U.S. doctors, minorities still wary of shots: official (Sibelius)/ Reuters

Men enter the Arlington Convention Center to receive their H1N1 flu vaccinations in Arlington, Texas November 24, 2009. Credit: Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi From Reuters: Doctors and minorities still have a dangerous mistrust of vaccines that became painfully clear during the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Monday… In…

Pharmaceutical firm spied on top FDA official/ Politico and Mercola.com

From Politico, this story of how over $100,000 was spent to dig up dirt on the head of FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research: For more than two months in late 2008, private investigators working for a drug company gathered information on a high-ranking official at the Food and Drug Administration — unearthing details about…

Gulf War Syndrome: Institute of Medicine Report/ Washington Post

David Brown, M.D., described the most recent Institute of Medicine report on Gulf War Illnesses this week.  Brown tried to deny the existence of the illness back in 2006, with reporting that was either uninformed or misleading.  Here’s what he wrote in 2006: As recently as September, a panel of the National Academy of Science’s Institute…

Disposing of excess swine flu vaccine: government pays again

This article from the Bucks County Courier Times doesn’t address how the 25 mcg. mercury-containing doses (in multidose vials) will be handled, since release into landfills and rivers is not safe or acceptable. Most swine flu vaccine used in the US was packaged in multidose vials, including a mercury preservative, with small stocks of single…

Experts Debate Extent of FDA Reform in Wake of Whistleblower Testimony/ Medscape

From the April 5 Medscape: … The testimony repeated charges that Dr. Nicholas made in a letter last December to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and FDA Commissioner Hamburg. He disclosed that he had sought an FDA warning label on the CT scanner in question that would highlight the risk for radiation-induced cancer, noting that between…

More Mandatory Vaccinations Planned for Healthcare Workers/ Inf Disease News

From Infectious Disease News: ATLANTA, March 18, 2010 — Mandatory vaccination policies increased the number of health care workers who received the influenza vaccine during the 2009-2010 influenza season, according to results from two studies presented here at the Fifth Decennial International Conference on Healthcare-Associated Infections… Researchers in the first study analyzed the outcomes of…

Gardasil trial stopped in India after 4 girls aged 10-14 die/ dnaIndia

According to DNAIndia, … The programme was marred by controversy after four deaths and complications among 120 girls were reported after vaccination. The girls complained of stomach disorders, epilepsy, headaches and early menarche… More from The Hindu: Dr. Katoch said a memorandum was signed with PATH-International in February 2007 for a project allotted to it…

Canada: We Were Right. Prior (non-swine) flu shots increased risk of getting swine flu infection/ US News

The traditional seasonal flu vaccine may have increased the risk of infection with pandemic H1N1 swine flu, according to the results of four new studies by Canadian researchers, published in PLOS Medicine. If accurate (and now there are at least 6 studies that agree with this conclusion), this is not an anomaly.  Licensed vaccines have…

Facts about H1N1 epidemic and vaccine in Australia/ Australian Prescriber

Professor Peter Collignan provides us with facts (finally we get to see some unvarnished information) on how bad the H1N1 virus was for healthy people, as well as learning of much higher adverse event rates for the vaccine than have been previously reported.  However, the CSL vaccines used in Australia were almost certainly different than…

Tories will reopen probe into Dr Kelly’s ‘suicide’ (if they win election)/ Mail Online

From the Daily Mail, excerpts follow: The investigation into the death of Dr David Kelly would be re-opened under a Tory government, according to a senior Conservative.  Shadow Justice Secretary Dominic Grieve said the public has ‘not been reassured’ that the Whitehall scientist took his own life. Mr Grieve said that, if the Tories take…

Maine Voices: U.S. intelligence reform top priority/ Portland Press Herald

Op-Ed written by Meryl Nass, published April 6: A surprising tug of war has erupted between the Obama administration and Congress over transparency and oversight of the intelligence agencies.  In September 2009, the Senate passed the 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act, and on Feb. 26 the House passed a similar bill. They were about to be…

Health Care Costs (Large Savings Await for a Gov’t that Wants to Save)/NYT

Recall that FDA’s Device Center was recently shown to make political decisions re medical device approvals, and to grandfather in devices on the basis of earlier approvals of very different devices.  GAO wrote several damning reports including this one from June 2009: Shortcomings in FDA’s Premarket Review, Postmarket Surveillance, and Inspections of Device Manufacturing Establishments. …

Technologies Underlying Weapons of Mass Destruction/Office of Technology Assessment

In 1993 the US Government knew that silicon was used to enhance dispersal of powdered microbial agents and toxins.  OTA produced some very useful research, but the agency no longer exists. U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Technologies Underlying Weapons of Mass Destruction, OTA-BP-ISC-115 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, December 1993). CHEMICAL ADDITIVES The…

The Anthrax Attacks and the System That Perpetrated Them — Barry Kissin _on Guns & Butter

This show was broadcast March 29, 2010. It is now archived here  (But note that the linked website has an annoying “radio” in the upper right corner that turns itself on several times during the radio interview, and must be turned off immediately so the interview can be heard.)

Health official charged in flu vaccine buy/ UPI

SOFIA, Bulgaria, April 2 (UPI) — Bulgarian Health Minister Bozhidar Nanev resigned after being charged with corruption in the purchase of unnecessary H1N1 flu vaccine doses. Nanev, 57, was charged with overspending on 200,000 doses of vaccine from the highest bidder weeks after a flu epidemic had ended, The Sofia Echo reported. Prosecutors allege Nanev…

Anthrax Investigation: Silicon Mystery Endures in Solved Anthrax Case/ Science

Science 19 March 2010: Vol. 327. no. 5972, p. 1435 News of the Week Yudhijit Bhattacharjee What about the silicon? That question has confounded investigators throughout the probe into the 2001 anthrax letter attacks, which the U.S. government formally concluded in February. Scientists inside and outside the government say there is clear evidence that the…

Millions of H1N1 vaccine doses may have to be discarded/ WP

From the WaPo: Despite months of dire warnings and millions in taxpayer dollars, less than half of the 229 million doses of H1N1 vaccine the government bought to fight the pandemic have been administered — leaving an estimated 71.5 million doses that must be discarded if they are not used before they expire…(and 25 million…

Gardasil: 49 US deaths reported to VAERS/ Washington Examiner

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…

CDC officials continue to urge H1N1 vaccination/ Infectious Disease News

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…

Israel: Soldiers sue government over anthrax shots

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…

Swine Flu Fallout

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…

Most Likely Source of Silicon in Anthrax Attack Spores Argues Against Production by Ivins

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…

HOLT DEMANDS OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SUPPORT FURTHER AMERITHRAX INVESTIGATION

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…

Anthrax Investigation: What About the Silicon?/ Science

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…

Letter from OMB to Chairs and Ranking Members of House/Senate Intelligence Committees

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.)

New way to be compensated for anthrax/smallpox vaccine injuries

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…

Admin Spin Docs Working Overtime

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…

Obama threatens to veto greater intelligence oversight/ Glenn Greenwald (Salon)

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…

Reconstruction of a Mass Hysteria: The Swine Flu Panic of 2009/ Spiegel

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,…

Old WP editorial requesting Independent Commission or DOJ IG review of FBI anthrax case

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…

Anthrax Vaccine and EMS: Beware of Waytes Bearing Gifts

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…

Jean Duley emerges from undisclosed location after 18 months to bolster FBI’s case against Ivins

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…

NAS Report: Weaknesses Found in Safety Assessment of Planned Fort Detrick Biodefense Lab/ GSN

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,…

Nadler Renews Call for Independent Investigation of Anthrax Attacks

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…

HOLT CALLS FOR CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION INTO FBI HANDLING OF ANTHRAX ATTACKS

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…

The FBI’s Anthrax Case/ NYT

From the February 27 NY Times … More problematic is the investigative work that led the F.B.I. to concludethat only Dr. Ivins, among perhaps 100 scientists who had access to the sameflask, could have sent the letters. The case has always been hobbled by a lack of direct evidence tying Dr. Ivins to the letters….

VA to Reconsider Benefits for Ill Gulf War Vets/ WP

In a hearing today, Feb. 26, VA Secretary Shinseki said he would be reviewing disability claims for Gulf War-related illnesses to be sure they were handled correctly. How this will be done was not specified. New training for personnel re how to evaluate claims is needed. New training and guidelines for doctors treating ill veterans…

Bill for more investigation of ’01 anthrax case passes House

From the Baltimore Sun: A measure requiring further federal investigation into the 2001anthrax attack that killed five people was approved Thursday by the House of Representatives. It was proposed by two skeptics of a recently closed FBI probe that blamed the deadly attacks on Bruce Ivins, a microbiologist at the Army biodefense lab at Fort…

US House Seeks Further Review Of Anthrax Attacks/AP

From WJZ and the Associated Press: WASHINGTON (AP) ― The House of Representatives is seeking further review of the 2001 anthrax mailings that killed five people. House members approved an amendment to an intelligence authorization bill Thursday that would require the government to look for credible evidence of foreign involvement in the attacks that killed…

Kissin Memo: Piecing Together the Anthrax Letters Story

The Frederick News-Post has posted a long memorandum by Attorney Barry Kissin, a resident of Frederick, Maryland on its website. Attorney Kissin has no professional connection to USAMRIID or Dr. Ivins. Yet he has followed the anthrax letters story closely, and has written a cogent and thoroughly documented though controversial paper discussing what various people…

FBI and Sandia were unable to produce an identical spore preparation: so how could they prove Ivins made the spores on Fort Detrick equipment??

Audio and Text from the National Academy of Engineering Anthrax Close-up, Part 2 12/14/2008 The FBI says spores from the anthrax attack letters are genetically linked to spores in a flask controlled by Fort Detrick researcher Bruce Ivins. But high-tech microscopic analysis shows what might be a key difference. Listen Randy Atkins: The chemical element…

No reason to assume the anthrax powder was produced in the week before the letters were sent/ GSN

From Global Security Newswire, including material from the Frederick News-Post: The fact that Ivins kept very late laboratory hours in the days before the letters were mailed is not as unusual as the FBI contends, said former USAMRIID head of bacteriology Gerry Andrews. Ivins was working on multiple projects at the time could have kept…

Additional details emerge to challenge the FBI’s anthrax letter scenario

Today’s NY Times carries an article by Richard Bernstein, “Haste Leaves Anthrax Case Unconcluded.” Edited only slightly for brevity, the article follows: … an article in Aerosol Science and Technology published in March 2008 has acquired considerable significance in light of the announcement by the F.B.I. last week that it would close its nine-year investigation…

Media Called for an Independent Investigation; New FBI report fails to assuage their concerns

Washington Post Editorial, September 19, 2008“Anthrax Suspicions: Why an independent look at the FBI probe is essential” THERE’S NO better proof of the need for an independent review of the FBI’s anthrax investigation than the words of Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.)… Mr. Leahy rejected the agency’s assertion that government scientist Bruce E. Ivins acted…

Federal Bureau of Invention: CASE CLOSED (and Ivins did it)

But FBI’s report, documents and accompanying information (only pertaining to Ivins, not to the rest of the investigation) were released on Friday afternoon… which means the FBI anticipated doubt and ridicule. And the National Academies of Science (NAS) is several months away from issuing its $879,550 report on the microbial forensics, suggesting a) asking NAS…

England drowning in swine flu vaccine; Poland has none and explains why/ BBC

From Fergus Walsh, BBC Medical correspondent: By my reckoning (and this is an estimate only) around 5.25 million people have been vaccinated in Britain. That means there is an awful lot of vaccine – tens of millions of doses – going spare. I’m told an announcement is likely in around 10 days regarding what will…

Another Attempt to Delay Release of David Kelly’s Autopsy Records/ Daily Mail

In January, the Daily Mail revealed that Lord Hutton ordered David Kelly’s post-mortem records to be barred from public access for 70 years. Hutton then responded that he would make the records available to physicians conducting a public inquiry on the death. Instead, the UK’s Ministry of Justice said the request for information would be…

Large Mumps Outbreak Ongoing in Vaccinated Hasidic Jews

Snippets from Business Week. One solution being used in Orange County is to keep vaccinating with a third dose of the same vaccine, though the MMWR editor notes that no data exist to support this approach. Isn’t the appropriate answer to develop a better vaccine? According to the MMWR, “Among patients aged 7–18 years, the…

CDC paid Harvard School Public Health for Multiple Polls of swine flu vaccine uptake, though it already knew the answer/ CDC

After paying for many polls of how many people got vaccinated, you can see that all were an unnecessary waste of taxpayer dollars by CDC, here–because CDC knew how many vaccines were given on a weekly basis: The National Pandemic Influenza Plan calls for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies, specifically the…

Most Americans Think Swine Flu Pandemic Is Over, a Harvard Poll Finds / NY Times

Looks like the school-based swine flu vaccinations may have been a pilot program that CDC wants to become “routine.” Excerpts from the NYTimes article: Most Americans do not intend to get the swine flu vaccine, assume the pandemic is over and think the flu threat was overblown, according to a poll released Friday by the…

Lancet vs. Wakefield

I love the Lancet. I have my own subscription, and it isn’t cheap. However, the Lancet took a cheap shot last week, when it retracted a paper on autism by Wakefield et al. immediately following a ruling by the UK’s General Medical Counsel. The Lancet has been embroiled in controversy (and repeatedly tried to extract…

Measles vaccine can cause encephalopathy 8-9 days post injection/ DHHS

I was hoping to avoid joining the Andrew Wakefield/Lancet fray, but so many inaccurate statements have been published in the last few days that I had to jump in. There is clearcut evidence for a syndrome of brain injury (and sometimes death) occurring after measles vaccine (and not after rubella or mumps vaccines). Who discovered…

Hard sell: If you go to the doctor for anything the doctor will be offering free swine flu vaccine

From the UK’s Daily Telegraph, excerpts from a story about Australia’s new push to use up its swine flu stockpile. The multidose vaccine vials need to be used within 24 hours of opening. DOCTORS have been told to issue the swine flu vaccine throughout summer in order to deplete the Government’s stockpile before millions of…

Make Adult Vaccinations as Widespread as Those for Children, Say Immunization Advocates (Sponsored by Pharma)/ Medscape

A report claiming “dangerously low” adult levels of vaccinations just came out, sponsored by Trust for America’s Health (TFAH), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). TFAH focused on “emergency preparedness” and “pandemic preparedness” as the first two subjects covered in its last 2 annual reports (2005 and 2006)…

WHO challenged at public hearing on the handling of the Swine Flu pandemic/ Council of Europe

From the Council of Europe’s website: “Are decisions on pandemics taken on the best scientific evidence only?” was the question asked today at a public hearing of PACE’s Committee on Social, Health and Family Affairs into the handling of the H1N1 pandemic. The World Health Organisation’s flu chief defended his organisation, saying its advice was…

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