Hilary's Desk

We all like things to be safe, and whatever we buy, or accept from a doctor, to not kill people, right?  Read Full Blog

We've all heard how wonderfully safe Gardasil is. The many trials that were done, and blended into one. The literature brims with glowing recommendations, with only a few inconsiderate pesky naysayers getting in the way of the the vaccine publicity machine. Read Full Blog

Everywhere we look, we see nothing but pictures of coloured surgical masks as if these have some paranormal ability to “protect” the wearer. These, we presume, work. Right? After all, they are part of the “national plan” to stop the spread of flu viruses right? We’ve been told that the two main means of infection are contact: as in shake someone’s hand, put hand in mouth; picking up droplets from furniture (fomites), or being directly coughed or sneezed over. Right? Masks supposedly are to contain what the infectious people cough out, to protect others, so wearers also assume that masks protect them from the “environment” around them. Why else would people on the streets of Mexico, and doctors, be wearing them? Right? Wrong, actually, on both counts.  Read Full Blog

Two weeks ago, when CDC, po-faced told us, that this “new” virus, never seen before in pigs…, was a combo of Eurasian/America swine flu/avian/human viruses, you believed them, right? Now, they are back tracking, saying, “No no,no.. only pig. Not human or bird.” Shhh…..  Read Full Blog

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. Read Full Blog

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

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

The e-mails and phone calls have finally stopped.  Thank you everyone.  If interpretations are true, the performance on TV last night, of teenage giggling and Nikki Turner's elation at the introduction of Gardasil in New Zealand was a very happy clappy occasion. Perhaps. However, I had already checked out the two new websites: one put together at Nikki Turner's request by non-questioning AUT students (nothing better than the blind leading the blind - makes for peer-group gullibility and have-the-jab pressure, no doubt!), and the site by the Ministry of Health. The AUT  generated site is marked by it's mottly pink tinkly vacuousness, and the Ministry of Health one, by it's bland sweepingly boring and totally expected inaccuracies. Read Full Blog

Herald readers woke up yesterday to this screaming headline: Enriched milk trial to cut child sickness. Huh, I thought, is this some follow up to this screaming headline in 2001?  Back then Vitamin lacking in 1 of 10 toddlers told us that:  Read Full Blog