“You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know.”
— William Wilberforce
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) last week reported that there have been a total of 22 confirmed cases of vaccine-derived polio paralysis, thus far, in 2019. The latest two cases involve a person from Sichuan province in China and a person in Angola. Other evidence of circulating vaccine strain poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) has […]
Receiving less attention […] is the issue of vaccine failure. … Multiple studies demonstrate that 2–10% of those immunized with two doses of measles vaccine fail to develop protective antibody levels, and […] immunity can wane over time and result in infection (so-called secondary vaccine failure) when the individual is exposed to measles. For example, […]
A new survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) revealed that 45 percent of Americans have doubts about vaccination. The survey, which was given to more than 2,000 adults, asked two questions. Respondents were asked questions about their views on vaccination and, if they had concerns, what kind […]
Cancer is an “abnormal growth of cells.” That is perhaps the most succinct description of the disease, which is really more a group of diseases since there are more than 100 types of cancer. Cancer cells are malignant—meaning that they can invade and spread to different parts of the body, forming solid tumors (masses of […]
Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD has joined the board of directors of Pfizer, Inc.—the world’s largest pharmaceutical company and second largest manufacturer of vaccines. Pfizer, which posted total revenues of $53.7 billion in 2018, announced Dr. Gottlieb’s election to the board on June 27, 2019.1 2 3 4 Dr. Gottlieb, […]
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 […]
Story Highlights Japanese children are recognized as among the healthiest in the world, while American children compare poorly, despite the U.S. spending more than any other country on health care. Japan’s vaccine policy is non-compulsory, with vaccines considered either “routine” or “voluntary” but never forced. High rates of adverse events following MMR and HPV vaccinations […]
A four-and-a-half-month girl died in India on June 15, 2019 a day after she was given the “five-in-one” pentavalent vaccine (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type B) at a rural child care center in the village of Kudluru, India.1 2 Soon after she was vaccinated, the baby developed a fever. When the […]
Sometimes topics for opinion pieces just fall out of the sky. Last week, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that the new estimate for the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine during the second half of the 2018-2019 “flu season” was only nine percent. That’s pretty bad even by influenza vaccine […]
In April 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report estimating the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the United States at 1 in 59 children. The figure was based on a 2014 survey of eight-year-old children across 11 residential communities in the country, so clearly it was out of […]