NASA Studying Vaccination and Immune Response During Extended Spaceflight
NASA is conducting research to determine how the human immune system changes during extended crewed spaceflight missions and how to “counterbalance” these changes through vaccination. The study is led by investigator Emmanuel Mignot, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, as part of NASA’s Twins Study. It involves astronauts and identical twin brothers Scott and Mark Kelly—the former of which is currently aboard the orbiting International Space Station (ISS) on a one-year mission, which began on…
More People Opting Out of Flu Vaccine in the United Kingdom
Last year, the flu vaccine in the United Kingdom was even more of a failure than in the U.S. In the U.K., during the 2014-15 flu season the flu vaccine was only 3% effective. The Conversation described this as “one bad year,” but even during a good year the effectiveness is usually around 50%, which means whether or not it will protect you amounts to the flip of a coin. So it’s no wonder that this year the U.K. is seeing low uptake of the vaccine—influenza vaccination rates are down 6% compared to last year. Vaccination rates are even low among groups considered to be most vulnerable to the flu, such as the elderly, children under 5 and…
Flu Shots Urged for Pregnant Women Despite Unknown Effects
The flu vaccine is widely recommended for pregnant women, despite a lack of adequate safety testing. It was around this time in 2014 that a study came out in the New England Journal of Medicine stating the flu vaccine provided partial protection against confirmed influenza in pregnant women and their infants. The media began touting headlines like “flu vaccine safe…
European Agency Declares HPV Vaccines Safe, But Denmark, Japan Skeptical
A handful of countries, like Denmark and Japan, remain skeptical about human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines, even though the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee’s (PRAC) safety review in 2015 did not change the agency’s position that the benefits of HPV vaccinations outweigh the risks. In July 2015, the PRAC in Europe launched a probe to investigate the safety of the three HPV vaccines available both in the United States and to countries in the European Union—Merck and Co.’s Gardasil and Gardasil 9 and GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix. Continuing reports of several HPV-related adverse events prompted the investigation.
Merck’s Peanut Oil Adjuvant
On September 19, 1964, an article titled “Peanut Oil Used In A New Vaccine” appeared in The New York Times. It was written by Stacey V. Jones. The piece noted that an influenza vaccine, which had just recently been patented by Merck & Co. Inc.. carried a key ingredient known as Adjuvant 65, which contained peanut oil. The adjuvant, aimed at slowly releasing antigens to “stimulate the creation of antibodies,” was described as “an emulsion of refined peanut oil in water to which are added an emulsifier and a stabilizer.”
Formaldehyde: A Poison and Carcinogen
Warning of the dangers of formaldehyde in the workplace, the government’s own Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) says, “health hazards of formaldehyde are primarily due to its toxic effects after inhalation, after direct contact with the skin or eyes by formaldehyde in liquid or vapor form, and after ingestion” adding that “Ingestion of as little as 30 ml of a 37% solution of formaldehyde (formalin) can result in death” and “Diverse damage to other organ systems including the liver, kidney, spleen, pancreas, brain, and central nervous systems can occur…