"Autism-Sucks" Parents Dominating Jerry Seinfeld Autism Analysis
Before reading this post read Paula C. Durbin-Westby's recent blog post on media framing of autism stories and the real harm this is causing to autistic people. Jerry Seinfeld by David Shankbone via Wikipedia And once again, the parent of an autistic person is given space in a newspaper or magazine to spout off about how awful their lives are, what "real" autism is like and crucially, how dare Jerry Seinfeld claim he has anything in common with their lost and damaged offspring.First out of the blocks on November 10 it was teacher of creative writing, Marie Myung-Ok Lee in Salon telling us all that...
Source: The Voyage - November 17, 2014 Category: Child Development Source Type: blogs
" Autism-Sucks " Parents Dominating Jerry Seinfeld Autism Analysis
Before reading this post read Paula C. Durbin-Westby ' s recent blog post on media framing of autism stories and the real harm this is causing to autistic people. Jerry Seinfeld by David Shankbone via Wikipedia And once again, the parent of an autistic person is given space in a newspaper or magazine to spout off about how awful their lives are, what " real " autism is like and crucially, how dare Jerry Seinfeld claim he has anything in common with their lost and damaged offspring.First out of the blocks on November 10 it was teacher of creative writing, Marie Myung-Ok Lee in Salon telling us all ...
Source: The Voyage - November 17, 2014 Category: Child Development Source Type: blogs
Top stories in health and medicine, November 7, 2014
From MedPage Today:
Old COX-2 Inhibitors Tied to Stroke Mortality. New use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs of the first generation that selectively inhibits the cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) enzyme, such as diclofenac and etodolac, was associated with increased 30-day mortality following ischemic stroke in a Danish database analysis.
Edoxaban Reversal Agent in the Works. A small molecule agent appeared promising as a reversal agent for the novel anticoagulant edoxaban (Savaysa), based on early-stage results.
Speed Is Ebola Vaccine Trial Goal. Results from trials of Ebola vaccines and therapeutics will be analyzed cons...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - November 7, 2014 Category: Journals (General) Authors: MedPage Today Tags: News Heart Infectious disease Neurology Source Type: blogs
Ebola Update: New Bill to Fast Track Ebola Treatment; FDA Focuses on Importance of "Randomized Trials"
On Wednesday, November 12, HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson will appear before the Senate Appropriations Committee to testify on the government’s response to Ebola. CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, as well as other officials from the State Department, Defense Department, USAID and the Joint Chiefs of Staff are also expected to testify.
Challenges and Incentives for Development
The companies that are working to come up with vaccines and treatments for Ebola are faced with several challenges that...
Source: Policy and Medicine - November 7, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Is it Ethical to give Ebola-Sufferers a Placebo?
<p style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;">Recently prominent bioethicists have voiced disagreement over whether it could be ethical to test experimental Ebola vaccines in placebo-controlled randomized trials. Such trials would involve taking a group of people currently infected with Ebola and randomizing half of them to an arm that receives the experimental vaccine (plus, let us assume, the best current standard of care for Ebola), and the other half of them to an arm that receives a placebo instead of the vaccine (plus the same standard of ...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - November 3, 2014 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Hayley Dittus-Doria Tags: Health Care Research Ethics consent Research Methods resource allocation syndicated World Health 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
Could Reston virus be a vaccine for Ebola virus?
I have received many questions about whether immunizing with Reston virus could protect against infection with Ebola virus. Usually the question comes together with the statement ‘because Reston virus does not cause disease in humans’. I can think of two reasons why a Reston virus vaccine is not a good idea.
There have been very few confirmed human infections with Reston virus (4 according to Fields Virology 6th Edition), and although these individuals did not show signs of disease, the number is too small to make any conclusions. For example, if the case fatality ratio of Reston virus in humans were 1%, we mi...
Source: virology blog - October 23, 2014 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information Bundibugyo ebola virus ebolavirus Reston Sudan Tai Forest vaccine viral Source Type: blogs
How Firestone controlled Ebola virus disease in Liberia
When the first case of Ebola virus infection was detected at the Firestone Liberia, Inc. rubber tree plantation in March of this year, the company needed to prevent the virus from spreading among their 8,500 employees. The company established an incident management system, developed procedures for early detection of infection, enforced infection control guidelines, and provided different levels of management for contacts depending on their exposure. The company did a remarkable job of isolating and caring for patients and limiting transmission to health care workers and family members. A description of this program, just i...
Source: virology blog - October 21, 2014 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Information ebola virus ebolavirus Firestone Liberia Inc. infection control rubber tree plantation viral virology Source Type: blogs
Time to set some heads a-rollin'
I still maintain that ebola virus is a very minor public health concern in the United States, it is a very big public health concern in west Africa and possibly eventually elsewhere; and it is a very big threat to the global economy and to U.S. politics. But . . .We will never persuade the American people or the ignoramuses in the corporate media that our attention and our resources should be focused on west Africa, not Kennedy Airport, if it does not appear absolutely and transparently true that our medical and public health infrastructure is fully competent to protect us. And no, it doesn't look like that. The medical di...
Source: Stayin' Alive - October 17, 2014 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
WHO assessment of experimental Ebola virus vaccines
The World Health Organization held a conference to assess the status of testing and eventual licensing of two candidate Ebola virus vaccines. The agenda and list of participants and the final report are available. I was interested in the following list of key expected milestones:
October 2014:
Mechanisms for evaluating and sharing data in real time must be prepared and agreed upon and the remainder of the phase 1 trials must be started
October–November 2014:
Agreed common protocols (including for phase 2 studies) across different sites must be developed
October–November 2014:
Preparation of sites in affected countri...
Source: virology blog - October 15, 2014 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information ebola virus ebolavirus epidemic outbreak vaccine viral WHO world health organization Source Type: blogs
Would we have an Ebola virus vaccine if not for NIH cuts?
Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, believes that we would have an Ebola virus vaccine if not for the past ten years of flat budgets for life science research:
NIH has been working on Ebola vaccines since 2001. It’s not like we suddenly woke up and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, we should have something ready here.’ Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support, we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would’ve gone through clinical trials and would have been ready. (Source: Huffington Post)
I do understand that Collins needs to be...
Source: virology blog - October 15, 2014 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Commentary Information budget clinical trial ebola virus ebolavirus Francis Collins National Institutes of Health NIH vaccine viral Source Type: blogs
Epic Fails And Deadly IT Cultures (An OPINION Piece)
The Ebola Virus...Image courtesy of scienceblogs.comIt's bad enough that a fellow from Liberia by the name of Thomas Eric Duncan through hubris, stupidity, or simply bad luck brought Ebola to our shores. He did ultimately seek medical attention in the Emergency Room of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas when he became symptomatic with the characteristic fever and pain of an Ebola infection. In fact, he presented twice to the Dallas ER. In between his two visits, Mr. Duncan was set loose on a city of well over a million souls while his disease was at its most infectious level. (He has since died of the disease, an...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - October 13, 2014 Category: Radiologists Source Type: blogs
New Yorkers like their science from scientists
I cannot pass up the opportunity to point out this wonderful quote by Ginia Ballafante in her NY Times piece, Fear of Vaccines Goes Viral. The article starts by noting an article on plummeting vaccination rates in Los Angeles:
The piece had the virtue of offering New Yorkers yet another opportunity to feel smugly superior to their counterparts in L.A., because of course here on the East Coast we like our science to come from scientists, not from former Playboy models and people who feel entitled to pontificate about public health because they drink kefir.
As a scientist who works in New York, I can’t help but think ...
Source: virology blog - October 12, 2014 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Information anti-vax ebola virus enterovirus D68 immunization vaccination vaccine viral virology Source Type: blogs
21st Century Cures Update: Ebola Hearing October 16, FDA's LDT Draft Guidance
This past July we wrote about the 21st Century Cures initiative and its efforts to bridge the gap between medical advances and the regulatory policies that govern them. The initiative, a bipartisan collaboration between Rep. Fred Upton (R–MI), chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Representative Diana DeGette (D–CO), one of the panel's senior Democrats, aims to examine the “full arc” of the innovation process to get new treatments and cures to patients more quickly and streamline the drug and device development process. Some of the initiative’s recent activity is summarized below.
Antibiotic resistance ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - October 10, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
