More on Freedumb
I think that in the present political climate, a small history lesson may be in order. The first safe and effective vaccination was discovered by the English physician Edward Jenner in 1796. It depended on the lucky coincidence that infection with the cowpox virus, which causes only mild disease in humans, confers cross-immunity to smallpox, a terrible scourge which had afflicted humanity for thousands of years. (That ' s why we call it vaccination, by the way, from the Latin vacca for cow. Modern vaccination used killed virus and caused no disease.) Nobody knew at the time what a virus was or why this worked, so it would ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - October 9, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Respect for Science
I vaguely remember discussing some of this before, but anyway . . . Throughout most of the 19th Century, despite the dramatic advances of science in many areas, nobody gained any useful understanding of human health and disease, and effective therapies were largely lacking. In fact, physicians -- medical school graduates -- advocated bloodletting and violent purging with mercury based emetics and laxatives. For obvious reasons, most people preferred other healing methods, which didn ' t work either but at least didn ' t kill you. Hospitals were just places where poor people went to die. So what happened to ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 5, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
American Industrial Policy in Action
Scott LincicomeIn case you haven't noticed, U.S. industrial policy is having (yet another) moment. Armed with the latest data and cross-country comparisons, a large and bipartisan cadre of industrial policy advocates in Washington are eager to shovel billions of taxpayer dollars into the open arms of American manufacturers of "essential goods" and "critical technologies." The risks (China, pandemics, whatever), so the theory goes, greatly outweigh any harms that a few, scattered industrial policy failures might cause along the way, so whynot just throw money at the (perceived) problems? These advocates, however, rarely ack...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 8, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Scott Lincicome Source Type: blogs
Planning for Future Pandemics Including Smallpox Outbreaks: Interview with Dr. Phil Gomez, CEO, SIGA Technologies
The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant global consequences, with healthcare systems stretched to their limits, a growing death toll, and economic devastation as economies came grinding to a halt.
The pandemic
and its aftereffects will be with us for some time to come, but this isn’t the
first pandemic humanity has weathered, and it won’t be the last. Given accelerating
advances in medical technology, there is plenty to discuss in terms of how we
can be better prepared for the next infectious disease event.
While COVID-19 is widely thought to have arisen naturally through transmission between an animal and a hu...
Source: Medgadget - May 27, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Exclusive Medicine Public Health Source Type: blogs
Covid-19 Reuters Q & A with William Haseltine
I live-tweeted a fascinating and perhaps rather depressing meeting with William Haseltine via a Reuters Newsmaker Broadcast. His talk was upbeat but the message does not offer a positive outlook unless we can collaborate internationally to identify, trace, and isolate and go back to early antivirals to treat people urgently. A vaccine will probably never be found, we must stay on top of this virus when we get communities under control. Moreover, we must recognise that another emergent pathogen could appear any time.
These are essentially my notes from Haseltines’s talk.
Might we ever achieve herd immunity?
There is n...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - May 20, 2020 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Sciencebase Source Type: blogs
Covid-19 Reuters Newsmaker Broadcast with William Haseltine
I live-tweeted a fascinating and perhaps rather depressing meeting with William Haseltine via a Reuters Newsmaker Broadcast. His talk was upbeat but the message does not offer a positive outlook unless we can collaborate internationally to identify, trace, and isolate and go back to early antivirals to treat people urgently. A vaccine will probably never be found, we must stay on top of this virus when we get communities under control. Moreover, we must recognise that another emergent pathogen could appear any time.
These are essentially my notes from Haseltines’s talk.
Might we ever achieve herd immunity?
There is n...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - May 20, 2020 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Sciencebase Source Type: blogs
What Three Decades Of Pandemic Threats Can Teach Us About The Future
Editor’s Note: This post reflects on a speech on pandemic preparedness Dr. Fauci gave on January 10, 2017 in Washington, DC, hosted by The Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center, the Harvard Global Health Institute, and Health Affairs.
One of the most important challenges facing the new Administration is preparedness for the pandemic outbreak of an infectious disease. Infectious diseases will continue to pose a significant threat to public health and the economies of countries worldwide. The U.S. government will need to continue its investment to combat these diseases whe...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - February 9, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Anthony S. Fauci Tags: Featured Global Health Policy Ebola HIV/AIDS NIH pandemic preparedness Zika Source Type: blogs
Disruptive Technologies Push Bioterrorism To A Whole New Level
Terrorism is and will always be out there as we do not live in a world depicted in the movie Minority Report where crimes can be prevented by foreseeing them. We cannot and we do not want to supervise people’s lives as that would be the death of privacy. Also, disruptive technologies not only enhance the opportunities of true visionaries who want to make the world a better place but also the dreams of the bad guys ready for such dreadful acts as bioterrorism. We need to talk about it.
Biological sabotage campaigns and anthrax attacks: bioterrorism in the past
Although the term bioterrorism was coined in a book entitled...
Source: The Medical Futurist - September 21, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Bioethics 3d printing artificial intelligence biological bioterror bioterrorism digestables GC1 Healthcare Medicine robotics wearables Source Type: blogs
“Ethically Sound” Episode 1: Safeguarding Children
In an effort to share the Bioethics Commission’s work with a wide variety of audiences, we are issuing a new podcast series called “Ethically Sound.” Today’s episode, the first in the series, focuses on the Commission’s report Safeguarding Children: Pediatric Medical Countermeasure Research, which addressed the ethically challenging topic of when and how to test pediatric medical countermeasures for possible bioterrorism agents. When and how, for example, should we test an anthrax vaccine, approved for adults, in children? (Source: blog.bioethics.net)
Source: blog.bioethics.net - September 12, 2016 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Rashmi Borah Tags: Health Care Bioethics in Action Classroom curriculum Human Subjects Protection syndicated Source Type: blogs
Anti-Vaping Researcher Gives Negligent Advice to the Public
An anti-vaping researcher, citing findings solely from anin-vitro cell culture study without clear clinical significance, has claimed that vaping can cause fatal respiratory infections. Based on his extrapolation from anin-vitro study to human disease, this researcher has advised all vapers to be vaccinated for serious bacterial lung infections. However, at the same time, he failed to advisesmokers to be vaccinated against these same serious infections.According to anarticle in theTimes of London, a professor of pediatric respiratory and environmental medicine at Queen Mary University of London " has found that the chemica...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - September 12, 2016 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
"Consider Some History"
As a battered and weary country peers into the hellmouth of Election 2016, contemplating the“bleak choice between a ‘liar’ and your ‘drunk uncle,’” along come two of (Anglo-) America ’s premier public intellectuals with a plan for getting honest, sober policies out of our next president. “We urge the next president to establish a White House Council of Historical Advisers,” Niall Ferguson and Graham Allisonwrite in this month ’sAtlantic. Modeled on the Council of Economic Advisers, the CHA would bring together the country ’s finest historical minds, backed by a professional staff, to help close the ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 31, 2016 Category: American Health Authors: Gene Healy Source Type: blogs
Gulf War Syndrome: Emotional Disorder or Vaccine Injury?
The words of the “Star Spangled Banner” were written during the war of 1812. Amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, wrote the words to what is now our national anthem after a night of watching bombs drop on Fort McHenry. As bombs dropped in the dark of night, flashes of light illuminated our flag. As each bomb dropped, Key would look to Fort McHenry to see if that star spangled banner was still waiving.
As long as our flag was still there, he knew we were maintaining our advantage and holding the Fort. The most famous line of our national anthem is, “Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave, O’er the land of the fr...
Source: vactruth.com - August 30, 2016 Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Sarah Carrasco Tags: Physical Sarah Carrasco Top Stories adjuvant Direct Order Gulf War Syndrome squalene vaccine injury Source Type: blogs
The Scary Facts Most Parents Don’t Know About Vaccine Injury Compensation
Conclusion
Instead of eliminating the preferred methods of submitting vaccine adverse event reports to VAERS, CDC officials must find ways to encourage accurate reporting of vaccine adverse events. Only a tiny percentage of vaccine reactions, injuries, and deaths are ever reported, failing to give parents a true picture of what can actually happen when their child is vaccinated.
The public comment period for this proposal has closed, but you can still make your opinions known about the changes to the VAERS guidelines. Share this article in your social networks to let others know that vaccine injuries and deaths are very re...
Source: vactruth.com - February 19, 2015 Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Missy Fluegge Tags: Logical Missy Fluegge Top Stories truth about vaccines Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) Vaccine Death vaccine injury vaccine injury compensation Source Type: blogs
No, childhood vaccines will not be “made from human tumors”
Every so often there’s an article that starts making the rounds on social media, in particular Facebook and Twitter, that cries out for a treatment by yours truly. Actually, there are more such articles that are constantly circulating on social media that I could work full time blogging and still not cover them all. So… (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - December 2, 2014 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Antivaccine nonsense Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking A549 anthrax cherry picking DNA fda HeLa HIV influenza Marion Gruber NIAID PaxVax PCR quote mining Rebecca Sh Source Type: blogs
Lessons from Ebola: The Infectious Disease Era, And The Need To Prepare, Will Never Be Over
With the wall-to-wall news coverage of Ebola recently, it’s hard for many to distinguish fact from fiction and to really understand the risk the disease poses and how prepared we are to fight it.
Fighting infectious diseases requires constant vigilance. Along with Ebola, health officials around the globe are closely watching other emerging threats: MERS-CoV, pandemic flu strains, Marburg, Chikungunya and Enterovirus D68. The best defense to all of these threats is a good offense — detecting, treating and containing as quickly and effectively as possible.
And yet, we have consistently degraded our ability to respond...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - October 28, 2014 Category: Health Management Authors: Jeffrey Levi Tags: All Categories Global Health Hospitals Pharma Policy Prevention Public Health Research Workforce Source Type: blogs
