Science

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.

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.

Arkansas Teachers Avoided Evolution Under Huckabee

Huckabee never publicly intervened in the state's Department of Education guidelines, but while governor he created an atmosphere that emphasized creationism over evolution.

 

Articles Criticize Merck on Vioxx

Merck didn't pull the plug on a trial, despite a clear signal that patients taking Vioxx were dying of heart attacks at higher rates, the authors of a major medical journal say.

Bad News, Beer Lovers

Bad news for beer lovers and brewers. Climate change is likely to drive beer prices up even further over the next 30 years, according to New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. Climate scientist Jim Salinger said today that shifting climates will likely cause a decline in the production of malting barley, especially in New Zealand and Australia. This means beer production could take a serious hit as land gets drier and water supplies decrease. Breweries can adapt by switching to different malt varieties.

Big Oil Defends Profits

Gas prices and profits are largely out of their control, oil executives tell Congress.

Breakthroughitis

Here’s a good post by science writer Merrill Goozner  on a new, possibly unworthy early screening test for prostate cancer. In taking down a celebratory front-page article last week in The NY Times by Gina Kolata, Goozner notes that there are already problems with the existing biomarker screen, the PSA, or prostate specific antigen—which Kolata herself noted in 2004.

Burger King to Tomato Pickers: Have it Your Way

After its executives spied on immigrant farmworkers and slandered them on-line to fight a grass-roots campaign for better pay and working conditions, Burger King Corp. abruptly reversed course Friday. The company caved into the workers’ demands, agreeing to pay them an extra penny a pound for tomatoes that go on Whoppers and other BK products, according to a joint news release with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

Bush Definition of 'Transparency'

When the head of the EPA and OMB say "transparency," they don't mean public paper trails, answers or accountability. Instead, it's about the White House.

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.

CDC to FEMA: Empty The Trailers Before They Get Hot

The Centers for Disease Control on Thursday urged FEMA to evacuate hurricane refugees from 38,000 trailer homes they've been occupying for up to two years. It warned that formaldehyde levels in the trailers were up to 60 times higher than normal and averaged about five times the normal level. "Long-term exposure to levels in this range can be linked to an increased risk of cancer," said CDC Director Julie Gerberding. "We think it's wise for people to be relocated before the hot weather arrives in summer." She added that the elderly, children, and people with respiratory illnesses should be moved first. Higher temperatures cause the release of more formaldehyde into the air from the trailers' wood panels.

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?

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.

Choke the Whistleblower

Leading House science committee members on Thursday issued a scathing attack on the administration for apparently retaliating against a senior scientist who drew attention to the cancer threat of a substance in the 40,000 trailers in which Hurricane Katrina and Rita survivors are living. Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn) and subcommittee chairs Brad Miller (D-NC) and Nick Lampson (D-Texas) demanded that Centers for Disease Control director Julie Gerberding take steps to protect Dr. Christopher De Rosa, who was demoted in October from his job at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). The Atlanta-based agency is under CDC's wing.

Coming to a Shopping Mall Near You

The vaccine scare being stirred up by people who blame vaccines for childhood autistic disorders may be starting to have a serious impact on public health. The Nassau County Department of Health today announced that a child with measles visited seven stores in a Cedarhurst, New York shopping area last Thursday. The county is offering measles hyperimmune globulin--a post-exposure prophylactic--to people who may have been exposed to this most contagious of contagious diseases. According to a public health source, the un-immunized boy was exposed to a sick aunt on a visit to Jerusalem, and became ill a few days after returning to the states.

 

Measles transmission stopped within the United States about a decade ago, but we still get cases imported from less-vaccinated countries--particularly Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Korea and Israel. This is the third outbreak of measles in the past few months linked to unvaccinated children. In San Diego, an outbreak started in January in a community center where many parents of autistic children have been outspoken in their suspicion of vaccines. A second outbreak is going on now in Arizona. 

Conference on Global Warming Skepticism Raises Important Debate

Today, skeptics on climate change--ranging from scientists to economists to industry folks--gather in New York for the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change. The conference is hosted by the Heartland Institute. NYTimes' Andrew Revkin has a good post up about the conference as it fits into the larger debate over climate change, and how that debate informs his coverage of the massive issue of climate change. Revkin explains why he covered this particular conference and why it's  necessary to report on climate change skepticism at the behest of many scientists:

I’m trying to do several things in my articles, where space allows: convey what’s confidently understood about the human influence on the climate and then honestly describe the range of responses (from the individual to the intergovernmental) that might meaningfully limit related risks. I also try to characterize the voices in a story, so readers understand possible motivations beyond simply a search for understanding. There are scientists who are also libertarians, liberals, campaigners or paid promoters

Congress Slashes High-Tech Physics Budget

American physicists awoke from the New Year’s holidays to find that Congress had filched their stockings. Under pressure from Bush to make cross-the-board budget cuts, Congress sliced $400 million out of the $4 billion science budget at the Department of Energy. The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), one of the premier U.S. physics research centers, expected $120 million in high-particle physics money from DOE. Instead it got $95 million, forcing it to lay off 125 people and curtail the activities of Babar, its major high-energy physics experiment.

Conspiracy Theorist Candy

I’m blogging today from Rock Creek Stables, where my daughter is taking a riding lesson, which brings me to the latest manure from the medical conspiracy world. A new ABC TV legal drama, “Eli Stone,” depicts an heroic lawyer, remorseful for all his years spent defending the evil pharmaceutical industry, doing a turn for the good guys by representing a woman who believes her son became autistic because of the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal (they call it “mercuritol”) in his vaccines.

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.

Corn Will Keep Us Competitive

Silicon Valley is apparently none too pleased about the big cuts in the federal Department of Energy's physics research budget I mentioned last week.

 

Craig R. Barrett, chairman of Intel, wrote to Nancy Pelosi that the cuts to physics experiments, as well as science and math education, send a message that his industry isn't keen on hearing.