How Plumbing (Not Vaccines) Eradicated Disease
Vaccines get all the glory, but most plumbers will tell you that it was water infrastructure—sewage systems and clean water—that eradicated disease. And they’re right. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europeans despised all things Roman, including bathing. There was a widespread belief that getting wet caused illness. This contempt and fear of bathing persisted through the Dark Ages. Some Europeans defied local customs by bathing,
Sanofi Pasteur Will Deliver 65 Million Doses of Flu Vaccine to U.S.
Vaccine maker Sanofi Pasteur SA of France announced that it has released to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the first dozes of its Fluzone influenza vaccine for the 2015-2016 flu season. In a press released picked up by MarketWatch, the company said that it will ultimately produce more than 65 million doses of Fluzone for the U.S. market. Health care providers…
The French National Debate on Vaccine Safety
In response to growing skepticism in France about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, the French Minister of Social Affairs and Health Marisol Touraine has called for a national debate this fall on the future of vaccination in that country. Touraine, who is concerned that there is greater suspicion and “even defiance” toward vaccines among the French people, seems…
Congressman Wants CDC Investigated for Tampering With MMR Study
It’s troubling to me that in a recent Senate hearing on childhood vaccinations, it was never mentioned that our government has paid out over $3 billion to a Vaccine Injury Compensation Program for children who have been injured by vaccinations. Regardless of the subject matter, parents making decisions about their children’s health deserve to have the best information available to them. They should be able to count on federal agencies…
Sanofi Nears Launch of World’s First Dengue Vaccine
After 20 years of research and development on a vaccine against the mosquito-borne viral disease known as dengue, pharmaceutical firm Sanofi Pasteur SA of France has now produced a vaccine it believes will be both effective and extremely profitable, according to The Financial Times. In a recent article, the newspaper quoted Sanofi Pasteur’s chief executive, Olivier Charmeil, as saying, “The dengue vaccine will be in the high end of profitability among our vaccines.”
CDC Advisory Committee Votes Against Universal Use of MenB Vaccines
The Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met on June 24 and voted against universal recommendations for MenB vaccines. These vaccines were recently approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for use in adolescents and young adults. Considerations used by the ACIP when making universal (Category A) recommendations for vaccines include disease incidence, and benefit…