Inflating Influenza Mortality to Sell Flu Vaccine
It’s that time of the year again when drug companies, doctors, government officials and media conduct a national advertising campaign to sell flu shots to every American. You can’t pass by a pharmacy,4 enter a supermarket, shop in a “big box” store or catch a plane without seeing the “flu shots for sale” signs trolling for customers. The pharmaceutical industry is cutting…
The Cost of Avoiding Vaccines: The Flawed UNC Study
A new study published in the journal Health Affairs pegged the cost to the U.S. economy of people opting not to vaccinate against vaccine-preventable diseases at $7.1 billion in 2015. The study, performed by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and funded by Merck & Co., based the figure on estimates of medical and lost productivity costs related to being sick.
Moving Out of the House That Fear Built: Zika
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt On a recent trip to Costa Rica I discovered that fear has found its way to my “happy place”—or rather it infected it with Zika virus hysteria. This had been coming, I suppose—with the influx of ex-pats come modern conveniences and the comforts […]
Bernadine Healy: The Question of a Link Between Vaccines and Autism is Unanswered
The late Bernadine Healy, MD was an American cardiologist and internist. She was professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Hospital and dean of Ohio State University Medical School. She was president and chief executive officer of the American Red Cross. She was health editor for the magazine U.S. News & World Report. She also served as director…
Power Grids, Vaccines, and Immunity
The other day, I was sorting through some old magazines before throwing them out, when that thing that cements my status as “nerd girl” happened—I started reading articles. Peter Fairley’s “Averting the Blackout of the Century” in Discover magazine chronicling the journey of a trio of power engineers and physicists as they developed new…
CDC Aims for Unprecedented Expansion of Policing Powers
With its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in the Federal Register on Aug. 15, 2016,1 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has moved to dramatically expand the power of the U.S. government over the lives of the American people. This may be the clearest example to date of an agency gone amok.