From Lew Weinstein’s blog The University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) and The UC Washington Center Cordially invite you to attend a seminar: The Anthrax Mailings Investigation Monday, November 29, 2010, 1:00 – 5:30 pm UC Washington Center, 1608 Rhode Island Ave. NW FBI has closed the 2001 anthrax mailings investigation. …

From Canadian Broadcasting:   “A computer failure caused a break in communication with 50 nuclear missiles at Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming during the weekend, military officials said Tuesday.”  The military did not see fit to inform the President until today, 3 days after the incident.  You didn’t really think Obama was running this…

How the newly released US military files reveal an instruction to ignore detainee abuse by Iraqi authorities; what that meant on the ground; and just how far up the chain of command the order went, from the Guardian.

Excerpts from the Australian: The Health Department has exposed drug company “inconsistencies” but ruled them out as the cause of fits in children given a flu vaccine. CSL’s world-first combination of seasonal and swine flu strains was suspended for the under-fives in April, after it triggered febrile convulsions in young children at nine times the…

Excerpts from Bloomberg: GlaxoSmithKline Plc agreed to pay $750 million to settle a U.S. government false-claims lawsuit over the sale of defective drugs. The affected drugs included the antidepressant Paxil CR and the diabetes treatment Avandamet. “We regret that we operated the Cidra facility in a manner that was inconsistent with current Good Manufacturing Practice…

From the Guardian: [UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was] asked if there should be an inquiry into the role of British troops, [and] said: “I think anything that suggests that basic rules of war, conflict and engagement have been broken or that torture has been in any way condoned are extremely serious and need…

From the Bay Citizen: … An analysis of official death certificates on file at the State Department of Public Health reveals that more than 1,000 California veterans under 35 died between 2005 and 2008. That figure is three times higher than the number of California service members who were killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan…

From TodayOnLine: LONDON – The United Nations has called on United States President Barack Obama to order a full investigation of the involvement of US forces in human rights abuses in Iraq, after the massive leak of military documents by the WikiLeaks website. The intelligence logs show how the US authorities failed to investigate hundreds…

Why are we still turning Afghanistan into chopped liver?  Why are we spending our children’s blood, money we don’t have, and our reputation on Hamid Karzai and his country, which has been the destroyer of empires and may yet destroy ours?  What precisely is the treasure our leaders are seeking?  I feel like the USA…

From the October 20 Guardian (UK): Military contractors’ epic overcharging The government needs to know the true cost of the products it’s purchasing to avoid getting fleeced by unscrupulous suppliers A soldier being inoculated for anthrax in 2000. The Pentagon has paid the manufacturer of BioThrax $1.3bn, for a vaccine that an independent report calculates…

Tony Fauci (head of NIH’s NIAID), alsong with David Morens and Jeffrey Taubenberger, both renowned flu experts, have run the numbers and concluded that a majority of Americans are already immune to swine flu, either from last year’s vaccination (62 million) or a prior exposure.  Most of those exposed never got sick. In a paper…

UPDATE:  From the October 18 MailOnline: Ambulance chiefs face renewed pressure to explain the loss of a key medical record relating to the death of Dr David Kelly after the investigating police force said it had no record of ever having received the document. Bosses at South Central Ambulance NHS Trust were criticised last month…

More material has been released on the anthrax letters case by the Army: https://mrmc.amedd.army.mil/index.cfm?pageid=foia_reading_room.overview Contact for questions (the person overseeing the production) John P Mr CIV USA MEDCOM HQ Peterson   Also see:  http://www.newanthraxandalqaeda.com http://www.blurb.com/books/1443811 From: [redacted] To: [redacted] Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 12:30 PM To: Subject: Question about MRIID (UNCLASSIFIED) Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Caveats:…

People in Australia are waking up to the evidence that in some cases, vaccines cause more harm than good.  Furthermore, the longterm sequellae from a seizure are likely to be more serious than from flu.  From the Sydney Morning Herald Sept 18: PUBLIC health experts have called for an independent body to monitor drug safety…

From Charlie Savage at the NY Times: WASHINGTON – Federal law enforcement and national security officials are preparing to seek sweeping new regulations for the Internet, arguing that their ability to wiretap criminal and terrorism suspects is “going dark” as people increasingly communicate online instead of by telephone. Essentially, officials want Congress to require all…

Although CDC said it would not support mandatory flu vaccinations for healthcare workers (imagine the lawsuits if this were a federal government mandate), various organizations have recently published policy statements* in favor of such mandatory inoculations for all workers in healthcare facilities. What is truly strange about this effort is that you cannot find convincing…

Detailed in a book review  of “Obama’s Wars” by Bob Woodward in today’s Washington Post: We have not declared war against Pakistan, and Congress has not approved making war in Pakistan.  Yet we illegally send drones there to kill, and our CIA runs a mercenary army in Pakistan.  The American Rule of Law is what…

Recently there have been criticisms that BARDA has not spent much of the 6 billion dollars set aside for biological and chemical warfare treatments and preventive strategies after 9/11.  In fact, a plan was introduced to transfer some of the monies into other programs. In good bureaucratic fashion, BARDA responded by spending.  Emergent BioSolutions, aka…

From MEDSCAPE: Like all flu seasons, mortality in the elderly was highest from swine flu during the 2009-10 season Preexisting antibodies were common in the elderly:  present in 88% of those aged 90-99, present in 27% of those aged 79, and present in 4-5% in those younger than 60. Six studies from Canada consistently found…

http://mobile.nj.com/advnj/pm_31088/contentdetail.htm;jsessionid=324CEF6CC147295B74C534B1C27049AB?contentguid=Hg5hcoWW Matt Fair After years of questioning the conclusion and methods of an FBI investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people and sickened dozens of others, Rep. Rush Holt (D-Hopewell) announced yesterday that the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is opening an inquiry into the matter. Holt, along with a handful of…

New Review of FBI’s Work in Anthrax Letters Case By Devlin Barrett, Wall Street Journal The investigative arm of Congress will take another look at the science the FBI used to determine who mailed deadly anthrax-laced letters in 2001. The Government Accountability Office has notified Rep. Rush Holt, a New Jersey Democrat, that the agency…

Despite a recent attempt to paint last year’s swine flu pandemic as more serious than thought, based on its higher attack rates and complications in a younger population, a new study using Wisconsin data, reported by Agence France Presse, calls those conclusions into question: Children, which the 2009 H1N1 pandemic infection appeared to disproportionately affect,…

Excerpts from today’s NY Times: Yet even as regulators investigate the causes of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the broader dangers posed by the industry’s push into deeper waters have gone largely unscrutinized. “Our ability to manage risks hasn’t caught up with our ability to explore and produce in deep water,” said Edward C. Chow, a…

From Therapeutics Daily: …  Although the cases of narcolepsy have been reported in temporal association with the use of Pandemrix, it is at present not known if the vaccine caused the disorder. The Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) will look carefully at all of the available data to determine whether there…

Hmmm.  What exactly is a textbook suicide, Dr. Nicholas Hunt?  The most common suicide in males would be associated with alcohol excess and a gun death.  Suicide attempts do frequently involve use of more than one drug in large quantities, but I have never seen someone try drugs and cutting an artery at the same…

Yes, this vaccine contains the swine flu antigen used last year and now, plus two other flu antigens.  It is very similar to the vaccine banned for children in the UK and Australia, and similar to the vaccine banned last week in Finland and Sweden.  But it will “protect the mission” and prevent parents from…

From the Telegraph: The safety of a swine flu vaccine is to be investigated by European drugs regulators (EMEA, the European Medicines Agency) after it was linked to a rare condition that causes people to fall asleep suddenly. The investigation has been prompted after health officials in Finland announced they were suspending the vaccination programme there…

Agence France Presse reports that Finland and Sweden fear that narcolepsy in children could be a consequence of receiving GSK’s Pandemrix flu vaccine.  Pandemrix is last year’s swine flu vaccine.  Its use has now been halted for all in Finland, despite Finland’s health minister saying last week that the vaccination programme would continue: Finland’s National…

From the UKPA: Former Conservative leader Michael Howard has thrown his weight behind demands for a full inquest into the death of the government weapons expert Dr David Kelly. His call came after a group of prominent experts described the official explanation for the scientist’s death seven years ago as “extremely unlikely”. Lord Howard –…

The 9 new experts wrote to ministers in an open letter to the London Times.  Because the Times charges for access to its content, coverage in the Daily Mail is excerpted below: Fresh doubts: There are calls for an inquest into the death of weapons inspector Dr David Kelly Nine of the country’s leading doctors…

Thanks to the Mail for pursuing this important case.  A more detailed piece the following day is here. Troubling: Dr David Kelly The death of Dr David Kelly still worries many thoughtful people. It is easy to see why. Dr Kelly’s concerns about the Government’s case for war in Iraq began a storm of controversy…

Doctors in the UK and Australia have been instructed not to give flu vaccines this year to children under five years old.  As reported by the Telegraph: The letter to all GPs from Prof David Salisbury, said: “Epidemiological information from Australia indicates that there has been a higher than expected increase in febrile convulsions in…

What a Catch 22: Once the US Government designates someone as a terrorist, it becomes illegal to provide the designee with legal assistance challenging the terrorist designation! The Obama administration announced to the world that it had the right to assassinate an American (Anwar al-Awlaki) citizen without any charges or trial last April. According to…

I have not been able to find the official announcement of this, but according to Medscape, the “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on June 22, 2010 that it would not endorse mandatory influenza vaccination for healthcare workers.“

This summer, Kellogg recalled 28 million boxes of Froot Loops, Apple Jacks, Corn Pops and Honey Smacks.  Dozens of consumers reported a strange taste and odor, and some complained of nausea and diarrhea.  The company blamed elevated levels of a chemical in the packaging. In a Washington Post article titled, US regulators lack data on…

Flu vaccine is being recommended for the entire US population over 6 months of age, starting this year. The (non-live) vaccines will contain 3 antigens, one of which is the antigen used for swine flu vaccines since late 2009. In 2009, DHHS Secretary Sibelius issued a Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act waiver of liability…

Excerpts from today’s NY Times make clear the Afghans we are supposed to be helping do not appreciate us, to put it mildly. KABUL, Afghanistan — The deaths of at least 66 soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen have made July the deadliest-ever month for American troops in the nine-year war in Afghanistan. The tally includes…

 From the Washington Post: The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual’s Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation. … what officials portray as a technical clarification designed to remedy…

Excerpts from the NY Times article titled, “Budget Chief Tried to Tilt Power to Executive Branch” by Matthew Bai: Taken together, all of these proposals would seem to represent a clear exertion of executive power over the legislative branch from an administration that was supposed to have been more deferential to Congressional prerogatives. Somewhere along…

The Dutch health minister overbought swine flu vaccine, ignoring official advice of authorities in Holland.  What did WHO recommend at that point in time?  From Dutch News: Health minister Ab Klink ignored advice from both the Dutch vaccine and public health institutes when he bought 34 million doses of swine flu vaccine last year, RTL…

When we seem to be providing the operating expenses for those who bomb and shoot our children, what is the point of this war? From the Guardian: … The leaks have focused attention on Afghanistan at a time when the Obama administration would rather concentrate on the economy – the main issue among voters –…

From the BBC: Nine billion dollars “from the sale of Iraqi oil and gas, and some frozen Saddam Hussein-era assets” should have been in “a special fund administered by the US Department of Defense, the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI), and was earmarked for reconstruction projects. But the report says that a lack of proper…

Ninety-two thousand Wikileaks documents were provided in advance of their public release today to the NY Times, the Guardian (UK) and Der Spiegel (Germany).  The NY Times opens with this comment:  A trove of military documents made public on Sunday by an organization called WikiLeaks reflects deep suspicions among American officials that Pakistan’s military spy…

From the Express: … Dr Fletcher, a highly ­respected retired pathologist and former chief scientific officer at the Department of Health, said: ‘‘From all the considerable reports I have read, Dr Kelly did not lose enough blood to cause his death. “He would have had to lose three to four pints of blood but all…

There has been almost no swine flu in the southern hemisphere so far this winter.  Finally WHO will announce we are in the post-pandemic phase.  From Bloomberg: … More than $14 billion was spent on vaccines and medicines to fight the germ, which shared features of the Spanish flu of 1918 while causing little more…

An FDA inspection uncovered multiple significant deviations from standard manufacturing processes, termed “good manufacturing practices” at CSL (previously known as Commonwealth Serum Laboratories, and previously an Australian government lab) in its manufacture of flu vaccine for the US market.  As is standard in these cases, a disclaimer was made to the effect that there is…

 Gardiner Harris @ the NY Times follows up on the FDA Avandia review: A federal medical advisory panel recommended Wednesday that Avandia, a controversial diabetes drug, should either be withdrawn from the market or have sales severely restricted because it increases the risks of heart attacks. The panel’s votes, taken after two days of intensive…

A letter to the BMJ questions the rationale for using certain new vaccines in India that fail to “result in significant reduction in disease burden” when older, cheaper and proven vaccines costing less than US $1.00 total per child are not being given to half the children in India. The letter also unmasks a scam…

The NY Times’ Gardiner Harris has covered a crucial issue unpinning the use of drugs in modern medical practice.  As I point out on the left side of this blog:  “Clinical data generated or presented by the manufacturers of drugs, vaccines and devices cannot be trusted: there are hundreds of studies proving this. But this…

French physician and pharmacoepidemiologist Marc Girard has penned a fiery letter to the BMJ about medical experts, clinical guidelines, drug regulation and the role of Pharma in creating a market for swine flu and hepatitis B vaccines.  Not to be missed, here are two excerpts: …how, during the development of a vaccine targeted against a…

Dramatic new testimony has heaped pressure on ministers to reopen the investigation into the death of Dr David Kelly. A female colleague claims that the UN weapons inspector could not have committed suicide as claimed, as he was too weak to cut his own wrist. Mai Pedersen, a U.S. Air Force officer who served with…

From the Washington Post: …frustration with the war is so widespread that two lawmakers in charge of shepherding the bill through the House, Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wisc.) and Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), who heads the Rules Committee that establishes the procedures for votes on legislation, both said that the war is unwinnable and…

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…

From Kyodo News: TOKYO, Jun. 28, 2010 (Kyodo News International) — Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said Monday it has agreed with Swiss drug maker Novartis (NYSE:NVS) AG to cancel part of a deal for H1N1 influenza vaccine because of a larger-than-expected surplus. The cancellation agreement covers around 8.38 million doses, or 33.5…

After decades of discussion, the most important step has been taken by FDA to reduce the emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria. From the WaPo: “We have the regulatory mechanisms, and industry knows that,” he said. “We also think things can be done voluntarily. We’re not handcuffed to the steering wheel of a particular strategy,…

A Financial Times article tells us that Europeans are unlikely to want much flu vaccine this year.   But companies will do well regardless, in part because they will be able to use stocks of influenza antigen (made under contract for last season) in the coming season’s flu vaccines.

UPDATE June 17 from the Times of India: “The imported doses of the swine flu vaccine, specially procured by the Union government for doctors and paramedical staff, have found few takers in Maharashtra. Only 811 of the state’s 34,300 medical staff involved in treating H1N1 patients took the shots…” From The Telegraph, UK: One third…

From the Washington Post June 15: … Senior military and defense officials, none of whom was authorized to discuss relations with the White House, said congressional questions and a series of negative stories in the media have increased requests for explanations… Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who has…

WHO has published a formal response on its website to many of the criticisms published in the BMJ and by the Council of Europe last week. A few important points: 1.  WHO appears to acknowledge lack of disclosure of conflicts of interest by experts involved in its 2004 pandemic plan. 2.  WHO wiggles around the…

UPDATE June 14 (NY Times):  The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials. It turns out that the information on Afghanistan’s level of…

June 9 BMJ article by Luc Bonneux and Wim Van Damme: The decisions to stockpile antivirals and influenza vaccines to control avian flu (2005-6) and swine flu (2009) cost large amounts of money.1 2 Both epidemic threats were mostly iatrogenic pandemics of panic, which caused little human suffering, but the global plans to control them…

Here is the WHO report on current Swine Flu activity wordwide, and below is the CDC report for the US.

Nature’s Declan Butler examines and rebuts the claim that WHO experts’ paid consultancies affected the advice they gave WHO on the swine flu pandemic.  Butler correctly notes that many governments ordered some swine flu vaccine before WHO declared a Level 6 Pandemic.  He further reports that scientists said, “severity is impossible to pin down until…

From the Guardian‘s Randeep Ramesh: Scientists who drew up the key World Health Organisation guidelines advising governments to stockpile drugs in the event of a flu pandemic had previously been paid by drug companies which stood to profit, according to a report out today. An investigation by the British Medical Journal and the Bureau of…

INVESTIGATOR: Australian Nobel Prize winner Professor Peter Doherty is leading an investigation into Australia’s baffling spike in severe side-effects from flu jabs.  From Perth Now: SEASONAL flu shots can trigger febrile fits in young children at nine times the expected rate and should not be given to healthy under-fives this winter, the Chief Medical Officer…

From the Medscape report from the American Thyroid Association Meeting: Multiple genetic and environmental risk factors can trigger autoimmune thyroid disease in humans, according to experts here at the American Thyroid Association (ATA) Spring 2010 Meeting. Gregory A. Brent, MD, professor of medicine and physiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University…

The local Frederick News-Post filed a FOIA to learn the number and type of infectious incidents and injuries that had been reported over the past few years.  Last November an employee was sick with tularemia for 3 weeks before being diagnosed,  Most likely she inhaled the bacteria. Examples incllude the following: Of the 16 reports…

From the NY Times:  Both BP and multiple government spokespersons told the world this am that the top kill procedure was going well.  Not until late afternoon was the truth told:  the process had been aborted the night before: As hour after hour passed after the top kill began early Wednesday afternoon, technicians along with…

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…

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…

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…

The BBC (Imogen Foulkes) asks, ” Was the WHO right to declare a global swine flu pandemic?  Who made the key decisions that led to countries buying millions of doses of vaccine?” In June 2009 the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared swine flu a global pandemic. Governments around the world sprang into…

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…

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,…

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…

Prepandemic vaccinations have been discussed for years, quietly, by the international flu elite.  They were a “win-win” approach:  the elite recommending them would be viewed as heroes when the pandemic came (just as our public health officials assumed that the patina of a Salk or Sabin would rub off on them for saving us from…

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…

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…

<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,…

Both the US government and BP have refused to explain the math behind their spill calculation; and methods for a more accurate estimate of the flow rate have not been applied, according to the NY TImes.  Experts suggest the actual rate may be 5 times as great as the stated rate, 5,000 barrels per day….

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…

Many reports in the past week have claimed that 71 million doses of H1N1 vaccine are being wasted in the US.  Earlier reports, based on telephone surveys, said 70-80 million doses had been used already. The Wall Street Journal, quoting CDC offical Anne Schuchat, M.D., earlier claimed (along with other media outlets) that 251 million…

From the Mail Online: The NHS is being forced to cut services because of the huge costs of the swine flu scare that proved unfounded. A survey has found that as many as one in six health trusts may have to slash services – or already have done so – to recoup costs. The cuts…

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,…

77 second video (online) from Frederick NewsPost

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…

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…

 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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

Bobcast radio show in Frederick, MD

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. …