Science
Celebs Rally for Vaccine Reform
Evidence suggests vaccines do not cause autism, but anger understandably runs deep amongst many of the parents of the 1 in 150 U.S. children diagnosed with the disorder.
CDC Aims to Appease Vaccine Critics
The case of 9-year-old Hannah Poling, diagnosed with autism, has renewed fervor amongst parent groups who blame vaccines for their children's illnesses.
Big Oil Defends Profits
Gas prices and profits are largely out of their control, oil executives tell Congress.
Show About Discredited Science Airs Tonight
Despite protest from the American Academy of Pediatrics, ABC has decided to air the controversial first episode of its daffy new show "Eli Stone" tonight. It's about a money-grubbing drug company-representing lawyer who has a saintly conversion and helps a winsome momma win $5 million by convincing a jury that the mercury-containing preservative in a flu vaccine--thimerosal--gave her kid autism.
White House Skirts Regulating Greenhouse Gases
Last year Bush ordered the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases, but the anticipated rules still haven't been released.
Celebrity Mommy Wars Over Vaccines Rages On
Move over, Jenny McCarthy. The former Playboy playmate-turned vaccine basher has competition from a Hollywood newcomer, Amanda Peet. In a profile featured on the cover of this month's Cookie magazine, Peet discloses that Dr. Paul Offit, inventor of an important rotavirus vaccine and public enemy-number one of the anti-vaccination crowd, assuaged her anxieties over vaccination after the birth of her baby in 2007. She has fully vaccinated the tot, is quite happy about it, and says that parents who don't vaccinate are "parasites." Peet's comment, and her decision to do a pro-vaccine promotional ad infuriated the vaccine skeptics, some of whom wrote menacing letters to Peet and her retinue. Has the public zeitgeist turned on the activists who, blaming vaccines for autism, urge parents to delay or avoid vaccinating their kids?
Jalapenos, the Real Culprit?
The FDA is reconsidering whether the recent nationwide salmonella poisoning outbreak was caused by tomatoes and not another key salsa ingredient, like jalapenos.
Consumers' Right to Sue Weakening
While the FDA remains a troubled, underfunded agency, the White House is pushing to shield industry by blocking consumers from their last resort -- filing a lawsuit.
McCain Joins Vaccines Cause Autism Fray
John McCain has jumped into the vaccines-cause-autism fray on the side of those who blame vaccines for the "epidemic" of autism. It would be interesting to know who fed him the Kool-aid on this issue, since McCain isn't known to have any familiarity with vaccine safety issues.
Independence of CDC Scientists in Question
Gerberding rocked the CDC by centralizing control and boosting public relations efforts while introducing expensive, often unworkable new management techniques.
Anthrax Vaccine Loses to Lobbying
One of the biggest failures of the $5.6 billion federal Bioshield program, which was supposed to provide drugs and vaccines against terror agents, is the story of the anthrax vaccine.
Senate Passes Plastic Chemical Ban
Research suggests that a group of chemicals known as phtalates, used in bottles and toys, could be damaging baby boys' sex organs.
Of Course Ivins Might Have Been Innocent
Which his lawyer says here. It wouldn't be the first time the Feds had railroaded an innocent man. Hopefully we'll learn more about the evidence soon.
Ignorance Spreads Measles
The United States is suffering its worst measles outbreak in at least seven years, health officials announced Thursday, because parents who fear the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) shot aren't vaccinating their kids--in Israel, Switzerland, and here in the U.S. So far this year at least 70 cases have been reported, more than any year since the 116 cases of 2001. That number will easily be topped by the end of the year, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, head of the CDC's Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. There have been measles cases reported in 10 states this year. In the latest outbreak, eight unvaccinated children in a Washington state family fell ill after relatives attended an international church conference.
An Autism Anomaly
The Hannah Poling autism case continues to enthrall that rarified spectrum of the blogosphere where the debate about vaccines and autism rages. The consensus among reasonable, well-informed people like me and SF-area doc Rahul Parikh (here on Salon.com) is that Poling's case is rare and may not even by linked to vaccines. Others, like the incurable thimerosal flak David Kirby think that the Poling case is the National Treasure of Government Malfeasance. Here's a nice post by a Manhattan lawyer with an autistic child who notes that John McCain, perhaps chastened by his staff, has backed off his endorsement of the vaccines-cause-autism theory.
Worse Than You Thought
The Post reports today that new studies show carbon emissions will have to be cut to zero in a matter of decades to fight a dangerous rise in global temperatures. China generates more man-made CO2 emissions than any other country, and the U.S. comes in at a close second.
Recent Vaccine-Autism Award Not the First
According to two people with intimate knowledge of the vaccine court, the compensation that will be paid to Hannah Poling is not the first paid by the court to a child with symptoms of autism. On Thursday I noted that the award, which has gotten huge media play, was quite unusual and does not mean that the government is acknowledging that vaccines cause most cases of autism--or even this one, which isn't exactly autism. Dr. Edwin Trevathan, director of the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, told reporters that infections are usually what trigger mitochondrial disorders, a condition involving the failure of the energy-generating part of cells. Stress can trigger a failure in various parts of the brain in these kids, including areas involved in autism-like symptoms. Trevathan said he'd never heard of a vaccine triggering mito disease symptoms, but he didn't rule it out. Hannah got very sick a day or two after receiving five shots in a "catch-up" immunization visit with her pediatrician.
Why Do Frenchwomen Find Boy Babies Depressing?
Frenchwomen are more likely to suffer post-partum depression if their babies are male, according to a surprising new study released today.
French psychology researchers interviewed 181 women one to two months after birth, and found that 9.4 percent of them were suffering severe postnatal depression; 22 percent were mildly depressed. Of the 17 deeply depressed women, 13 had given birth to boys. In the mildly depressed group (the ratings were based on answers to questions designed to test physical function, pain, mental health, emotions and social vitality), there were 24 girls and 16 boys. But in both the mildly and severely depressed groups, the mothers of boys were doing worse.
San Jose State Bans Red Cross Over FDA Rule
The university stopped all blood drives until the FDA revises rules that prohibit gay men from donating blood unless they’ve been abstinent since 1977.
Don't Drink the Water: Clean Coal's Downside
Commercials trumpeting the air-quality benefits of "clean coal" never mention the flipside: the dangerous solid waste that ends up in the ground.
