Polio Eradication Stalls with More Wild-Type and Vaccine Strain Polio Outbreaks
After 65 years of global polio mass vaccination campaigns, on Oct. 24, 2019 (“World Polio Day”) the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that, along with wild type 2 poliovirus declared eradicated in 2015, wild type 3 poliovirus has been eradicated from the earth.1 The credit for the achievement was given to the Global Polio Eradication […]
Samoa’s Measles Outbreak and Response
(updated to reflect new outbreak figures released by AFP on Nov. 25, 2019)—A total of 2,194 cases of measles have been reported in Samoa this year. The government has declared a state of emergency and closed all schools, including the nation’s only university. Samoan health authorities are developing plans to implement compulsory MMR (mumps, measles, […]
California Special Ed Spending Up 20 Percent to $13 Billion
California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has issued a report revealing that public spending on special education students in California has risen by more than 20 percent during the past 10 years, from $10.8 billion to $13 billion. One out of every eight students in California’s public school system now requires special education services, with the […]
Medical Errors Kill Five People Per Minute, 2.6 Million People Every Year
A new report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 2.6 million people die annually in low-and middle-income countries from medical errors, and that most of those deaths are related to misdiagnosis and administration of pharmaceutical products. According to the WHO, “Four out of every ten patients are harmed during primary and ambulatory […]
Millennials Are Sick and Getting Sicker, Increasing Health Care Costs
A recent report by Moody’s Analytics found that Americans born between 1981 and 1996—”Millennials”—are suffering from poorer physical and mental health than the previous generation known as “Gen-Xers,” born between the early-to-mid 1960s to the early 1980s.1 2 3 4 The 32-page report, titled “The Economic Consequences of Millennial Health” and prepared for Blue Cross […]
No, Bill Maher Did Not Say That Vaccines Cause Autism
Opinion | In a recent article in Forbes magazine titled “Bill Maher Supports Vaccine-Autism Connection,” Nina Shapiro, MD attacked comedian Bill Maher, the host of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” for his interview with Jay Gordon, MD on Nov. 1, 2019 regarding vaccines.1 There were other similar articles published in the HuffPost, the Daily Mail, The […]