Only One Percent of Vaccine Reactions Reported to VAERS

Only One Percent of Vaccine Reactions Reported to VAERS

Story Highlights The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) was created by Congress in 1986 as part of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. Although health care providers are required by federal law to report specific vaccine reactions to VAERS, less than one percent of adverse events following vaccination are reported. Doctors, medical workers, adult patients […]

Intermittent Fasting to Curb Inflammation

Intermittent Fasting to Curb Inflammation

Story Highlights Unresolved inflammation is common to many chronic conditions and autoimmune disorders including cancer, diabetes type 2, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and digestive disorders, among many others. Intermittent fasting (IF), a nutrition plan in which food intake is severely curtailed either by certain days of the week or for specific hours of every day, […]

Illinois Mandates Insurance Coverage for EpiPens

Illinois Mandates Insurance Coverage for EpiPens

Illinois has become the first state to pass a law requiring health insurance companies to cover the cost of medically necessary EpiPen injectors.​ This is big news in an era when so many families face the daily threat of a potentially deadly allergic reaction. Signed by Governor J.B. Pritzker, the new law will take effect […]

Scientists Find Chronic Brain Inflammation in Children With Autism

Scientists Find Chronic Brain Inflammation in Children With Autism

Story Highlights A new study out of Tufts University suggests that inflammation may be the “main driver” in the development of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Chronic inflammation, of the brain and the gut, have long been recognized as playing a role in ASD, though the relationships played by each remain unsettled. ASD, along with many […]

Quest for Universal Flu Vaccine Boosted by $200M NIH Grant to University of Maryland

Quest for Universal Flu Vaccine Boosted by $200M NIH Grant to University of Maryland

Story Highlights National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the University of Maryland a contract for more than $200 million to develop a universal influenza vaccine. Currently, the influenza vaccine used around the world is developed every year by drug companies based on the “best guesses” made by public health officials at the World Health […]

Silent Carriers of Measles Are Never Diagnosed or Reported

Silent Carriers of Measles Are Never Diagnosed or Reported

Story Highlights The elimination of religious exemptions to vaccination in some states like New York are forcing parents to make the untenable choice between violating their deeply held religious or spiritual beliefs or uprooting their lives and either homeschooling their children or moving to another state. With the focus on a number of measles cases […]

The Dose Makes the Poison in Pet Vaccines

The Dose Makes the Poison in Pet Vaccines

Story Highlights Almost all states in the U.S. require certain core vaccines for companion animals including dogs, cats and ferrets, with many expected to be repeated annually. Vaccine dosages are given on a one-size-fits-all basis, so that Chihuahua puppies and full grown Mastiffs receive the same amount of vaccine. Despite data showing that small breeds […]

Google Joins the Pharmaceutical Industry

Google Joins the Pharmaceutical Industry

Story Highlights Google, the world’s most widely used internet search engine, restructured itself to give semi-independence to its many subsidiary organizations under a new umbrella entity called Alphabet. Two of the divisions are focused on the business of medicine and operate in partnership with some of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies that develop and […]

Vaccine for Inflammation in the Works

Vaccine for Inflammation in the Works

Story Highlights Scientists are working on a vaccine for autoimmune, inflammation-induced mental health issues using soil-derived bacteria. Vaccines have been implicated in increasing the risk for neuropsychiatric issues in children. Vaccines and all other immune-system activators act by provoking an inflammatory response. Christopher Lowry, PhD and a team of researchers from the University of Colorado […]

Asymptomatic Carriers of Diphtheria Identified in Canadian School

Asymptomatic Carriers of Diphtheria Identified in Canadian School

Story Highlights A case of diphtheria has been confirmed in an elementary school in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Three other people, who are asymptomatic carriers of the bacterial disease have been identified and are being treated in isolation. The diphtheria vaccine is only available as a combination vaccine (DT, Td, DTaP, Tdap) and its effectiveness wanes over […]