In a previous blog, mention was made of North and South’s rabidly nose-in-the-air provaccine article called “The case for vaccination”. The editor, Virginia Larson stuck her personal stake in the ground, with a scathing editorial, saying, “We did not seek out the extreme anti-immunisation campaigners for “balance” because their arguments aren’t balanced.” and ..... “they’ve already done enough damage by spreading hysteria over the MMR triple jab and are now set on painting the HPV vaccine Gardasil as part of some greater plot to poison or sterilise us.” The article’s author, North and South’s deputy editor Joanna Wane, didn’t mention the questions raised over the efficacy or value of the MeNZB. You would have thought that was deserving enough to be added to the mix of bile? Or perhaps those concerns were well founded? Not according to Perry Bisman. Read Full Blog
Hilary's Desk
"Refusal" to vaccinate
While the medical profession has finally caught on, that the more "educated" a parent makes themselves on the issues around vaccination, the more likely they are to chose not to vaccinate, they are utterly offended that people can chose not to vaccinate. Furthermore, their take on the issue of "choice" is off the wall. Their solution to parents not making the 'right' choice, is to back parents into the wall and take pot shots at them with "Refusal to vaccinate" letters (see bottom), which read like legal documents, but are not. These "refusal to vaccinate" letters come out of such skewed thinking patterns as can be seen in this statement in May this year, from the biggest vaccine defender of them all, Dr Paul Offit: Read Full Blog
There are no vaccine reactions.
How do we know this? Because on page 40 of the June Issue of North and South, Dr Michael Tatley from CARM tells us, “An awfully large number of people have been exposed to vaccines and if they’re as bad as some of the anti lobby are suggesting, there must be a lot of really sick people out there. And we just don’t see them.” No, CARM doesn’t see them, and most of the time, neither do they receive reports about those children, as I mentioned in this blog. Why? Read Full Blog
New Zealanders too wimpy to complain.
As someone who spent some years working in restaurants, I laughed when I read a recent article about how bad New Zealanders are when it comes to complaining about the quality of food in a restaurant. The article talked about how people would whinge in private, complain to their mates, or not go back to the restaurant, but rarely did they have the guts to go to the restaurant and explain what they didn’t like. It’s so true. It was true back in the 70’s and is still true today. Those who do complain are mostly business people who have learned to speak their mind, or overseas people who understand the importance of standing up for themselves. Only a few kiwis have learned that it is right to complain. Read Full Blog
A Pair of pillocks
London Time’s headline shrieks: “Leading scientist accuses doctors of increasing fear of vaccines” When are scientists going to understand that they don’t know everything, and the world doesn’t revolve around their myopic thought patterns? Why is the primary aim of scientists to make everyone conform to their own thinking. Why do they assume that, “For most people it goes back to the primeval: ‘Well my mother had measles, I had measles, so why do I need to take the risk [of vaccinating my child]?’ What they are really saying is, ‘Can I live with myself if something went wrong?’ ” Incorrect, Prof Sir. But because Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, by virtue of his many letters, thinks he’s right, so are his solutions??! Read Full Blog
When in a hole, stop digging, wouldn'tya think?
Why doesn't the World Health Organisation stop making fools of themselves? As reported in the Washington Post two European reports have been very critical of the WHO's handling of the swine flu pandemic. WHO's reply? "The idea that we declared a pandemic when there wasn't a pandemic is both historically inaccurate and downright irresponsible," said WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl in a telephone interview. "There is no doubt that this was a pandemic. To insinuate that this was not a pandemic is very disrespectful to the people who died from it." Read Full Blog
FDA to be made "more" pure and clean
FDA has introduced changes designed “to return to science” with policies to “make things more pure and clean.” You mean, FDA wasn't talking science before? Shock horror. Don't the Ministry of Health, IMAC and others say that the opinion of FDA and CDC, is already the paragon of purity and cleanliness? What's that washing powder slogan?, ... "Whiter than white" Read Full Blog
Little porkies and big porkies
OPEN LETTER : Dear Drs Michael Osterholm, Kris Ehresmann and Ed Belangia; None of you get it, do you? You say you “know the idea that the flu vaccine doesn't prevent deaths in the elderly sounds almost blasphemous” and that you “didn't really want to believe it at first either,” but that the new research is “incontrovertible”? The new research is no less “incontrovertible” than the research done between 1960 and 1976, which showed exactly the same - and Dr J Anthony Morris’s honesty, lost him his job in FDA. Can’t nuke the bread-and-butter of all vaccines, the annual flu-vax till ringer! And yes, that’s what was said! Read Full Blog
Swine flu white elephant makes GSK a healthy profit.
A few days ago, I talked about GSK smacking the UK Minister of Health's hand, and how GSK been done out of lots of money by the UK Government wanting out of the Swine Flu vaccine contract. Worse news has arrived. GSK, according to the UK telegraph only made £698 million pounds from the Swine Flu vaccine that no-one wanted, which sits in the cupboard while people try to get rid of the white elephant. Okay, I whine, after all the headline said, "GlaxoSmithKline profits climb on health sales of swine flu vaccine." Read Full Blog
Ignrance is not bliss: serious Hepatitis B vaccine questions
Recently, I was contacted by a young woman about to complete her midwifery qualifications. She had delivered a baby whose young mother was a hepatitis B carrier. This young aspiring midwife had recently returned a negative blood test for Hepatitis B antibodies, Immediately, concerns had been raised that she may have been exposed to surface antigen from the baby's skin. I started asking questions, like, "Well, was this young mother vaccinated?" and... "Was she just surface antigen positive, or was she core antigen positive and therefore actively infectious?" then... "What information were you given to prove that hepatitis B surface antigen is littered all over this baby's skin?" and.. "Were you vaccinated with the Hepatitis B vaccine?" Read Full Blog