Here we go again. Another media beat up. Make a huge story out of... what??? An influenza virus which has caused thousands of cases, which in that horribly polluted smoggy lung coughing place called Mexico City, has caused serious pneumonia in some of them, which killed just over 100 of them. Some thousands of cases you say? Maybe. Cruising all the medical reports, it's pretty obvious that there are far more cases than we're being told. More importantly, why call this the "Swine flu pandemic"? Where did the media get that idea from? Maybe some medic whose repeatedly cried wolf, and really needs to justify their job? They made a cash cow out of the non-existent bird flu, so why not bolster Wall street yet again. What a sound-bite to get the adrenalin running! "Swine Flu epidemic here to kill us all"! It's time the media got real, and started doing some real journalism; real reading; and asking some real questions. Like... who called this particular strain a swine flu virus? Why has there been absolutely NO contact with pigs in even ONE case, anywhere in the world? Unlike the media, a professional medical organisation called PROMED has questioned the name "swine flu". They say it's a human flu. But just what sort of human flu? Where did it come from? This is what PROMED has to say: Read Full Blog
Hilary's Desk
Tamiflu garage sale anyone?
You remember all the paranoia about that pandemic cash-cow called bird flu? You remember that the New Zealand humoured whatsisname... Rumsfeld?? ... who profits gazillions from the company that makes Tamiflu, by buying a few million dollars worth of a useless drug, which wasn't necessary, and is now well past it's use-by date? Well, don't hold your breath, about either the value of Tamiflu, or whether Bird Flu will naturally find it's way here any time soon, or that any vaccine with be worth having.
Pinnochio's nose and Peter Flegg
As the UK medical gestapo proclaim 1,000 measles cases a national disaster, and go after parents who have refused to vaccinate their children against measles, there is an interesting "discussion" at the BMJ website. Peter Flegg, an infectious disease specialist has made some extraordinary claims. That's nothing new. He's done that at the BMJ for years. For those who want are keenly following the UK situation, here is the debate. Read Full Blog
Big Brother to police hospital handwashing?
Dr Robert Wachter runs a blog which is well worth adding to your regular reading list. His Bio shows that he’s well qualified to talk about many things, and does so with a degree of candidness you don’t see in this country. A recent blog which interested me was the possibility of putting cameras into hospitals to try to raise the inadequate hand washing amongst staff. It would appear that since many nurses and doctors don’t appear to be motivated to wash their hands, some consider the answer is “Big Brother”. Anyone trained by the medical profession 170 years after hand washing debates started, who doesn’t think washing their hands is important needs their heads looking at. Read Full Blog
4 of 5: My Grandmother's world in my head
So you think about the really bad days in the 19th century and decide to look at your family tree. Looking at the death causation in your 5 century old family tree, you start to wonder how all of your ancestors survived in those REALLY bad old days when diphtheria, polio, measles, mumps, whooping cough and the plague stalked the earth, and they didn’t have vaccines for most of those things. Read Full Blog
3 of 5: Another empty fallacy
1) Given that there is over a 90% vaccination rate for the 6 weeks to 5 months vaccines in this country, wouldn’t you think that all these vaccines create the highly touted herd immunity they are purported to do, so why will your baby drop dead? Read Full Blog
1 of 5 Whose world is in your head?
Have you ever been told by a medical professional looking at your five week old baby, that you can’t take you baby out into that big bad world until the first shots have been given, because otherwise your child might die? Read Full Blog
Whooping cough lies, ad infinitum
Whenever whooping cough breaks out in Australia, the medical profession indulge in their usual lies about why they are having (*yawn*) yet another whooping cough outbreak. This year is no exception except the lies have a little extra bribery and fearmongering twisted into the foment provided to the media. Read Full Blog
Dr Paul Offit - False Prophets
No doubt you have all read book reviews about Paul Offit’s book, “Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure”, like this one here: Read Full Blog