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June 23, 2007
I like Keith Olbermann's TV show, Countdown, and I couldn't care less about Paris Hilton. But watching him last night I was dismayed -- again -- by the meanness and stupidity and exploitative nature of his coverage of Paris Hilton. She isn't news anymore. If he insists on covering her, doing it in…
June 23, 2007
A belated welcome to the progressive blogosphere (and our blogroll) to the Angry Toxicologist but still a very sincere one. The AT is appropriately angry about most of the same things that make us angry. TAT is a toxicologist. We do environmental epidemiology -- in the words of epidemiologist…
June 23, 2007
Show mercy to Scooter Libby but not an illegal immigrant. Sue grandmothers and single parents of ten years olds but let rich twenty somethings admit piracy to a national newspaper with no one making a peep. Justice must have her blindfold off. But I shouldn't have said no one has made a peep. We…
June 22, 2007
With all the concern about contamination of imported food ingredients, especially from a major exporter like China, you'd think the US Food and Drug Administration would be eager to make whatever information it has available to US food producers as quickly as possible. You know what's coming next:…
June 22, 2007
This site has a Creative Commons license on it. Essentially this means anyone can copy, distribute or transmit my blog posts for whatever purpose they want -- even commercial purposes. The only restriction is that this unrestrictive license travels with the post. If you use something from us you…
June 21, 2007
Today there is a terrific post by economist Les Boden of Boston University School of Public Health over at The Pump Handle. It's about something many people here probably aren't interested in -- workers compensation. But the underlying issue should be of interest to everyone in the US and many…
June 21, 2007
The prospect of a influenza pandemic has concentrated the minds of vaccine makers. There has been a lot of new research and development on newer, faster and cheaper ways to make flu vaccines. The antiviral field hasn't been quite as active, although now things seem to be picking up. Until now the…
June 20, 2007
As Declan Butler reports on his blog, the Tripoli 6 case is reaching its final phase. To summarize briefly, The Tripoli 6 are five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor who have been imprisoned in Libya for 7 years and then condemned to death by firing squad on charges they deliberately…
June 20, 2007
Many people have the impression the bird flu menace has receded. Much of this is based on its lack of media visibility. I don't blame the media. There is a lot happening in the world, editors get bird flu fatigue just as the rest of us do, and there doesn't seem to be a lot to say that hasn't been…
June 19, 2007
It's a myth that's hard to bust. The one that says the United States, the country that spends more on health care than any other, has the best medical care in the world to go with it. It hasn't been true for a long time. It doesn't. But it is part of the core belief of most Americans. I wonder who…
June 19, 2007
So much of what goes under the name of pandemic planning at the governmental level iks extremely narrowly construed. Should a pre-pandemic (not precisely matched) vaccine that might offer some cross protection be used? What should be the mix with antivirals (and which one)? Should antivirals be…
June 18, 2007
If you've ever been to Duluth, Minnesota in the wintertime, at the top of the state on Lake Superior, you know how cold it can get. And if you go another 50 miles up the shore you'll come to Silver Bay. Also cold. And dangerous in another way. It is a cancer hot spot for perhaps the deadliest…
June 18, 2007
This past weekend was a historic one in international health. The signal event, the coming into force of new International Health Regulations (the first since 1969), was marked by only a few outside WHO. The remarkable thing about them is the new IHR bring the system of international health into…
June 17, 2007
Opposition to Turkey entering the EU is building and the Turks themselves are apparently ambivalent, but they once were one of the most successful immigrant groups Europe had ever seen. At least that's the conclusion of Professor Alberto Piazza, from the University of Turin, Italy, who is set to…
June 17, 2007
What's the US's largest Protestant denomination? The Southern Baptist Convention. If you want to make a bigoted remark about Islam or atheism, where do you go to do it? The Southern Baptist Convention. Comments about Islam have generated controversy at past Southern Baptist meetings. In 2002, a…
June 16, 2007
When Don Herbert died last weekend, many offered tributes to this television pioneer of science education (our contribution here). Herbert was TV's Mr. Wizard and many of us scientists-to-be loved to watch him. Maybe we should have been out playing stickball or strikeout or whatever (I became…
June 15, 2007
We discussed Tasers quite a bit on the old site (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here) but not since we moved to ScienceBlogs. Tasers are the only widely used "non-lethal weapons," delivering a jolt of 50,000 volts thrugh two small darts connected to the…
June 15, 2007
Spring harvest is over so it is almost Tomato Safety Initiative time. Seems like just yesterday it was Leafy Greens Safety Initiative. I was younger then. My salad days. But now it's Tomato Initiative: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will begin a Tomato Safety Initiative in the Summer of…
June 14, 2007
A newspaper in Taiwan newspaper is telling its readers the Chinese government reports 13% of its chili powder based products failed Chinese safety tests: The products came from 38 companies in 12 provinces and municipalities, including Beijing and Shanghai, the report said without detailing if any…
June 14, 2007
One of the big issues over sharing of viral isolates from Indonesia was the contention, probably well justified, that the poor nations would be last in lie for any vaccine that might be available in the event of a pandemic. While a well matched vaccine has to await the emergence of a pandemic…
June 13, 2007
Don Herbert died yesterday, just short of his 90th year. Don Herbert was host of television's Watch Mr. Wizard, a Saturday morning live TV show that had a run of 547 episodes from 1951 to 1965. He was an important figure in the youth of many of today's scientists. The weekly 30-minute show…
June 13, 2007
Bird flu news tends to be episodic. For long stretches there seems to be little news (unless you deliberately go looking for it; then you find it). Then there are these little spurts as bird flu pops up here and there in the news. Human cases in places where they haven't been for a while tend to be…
June 12, 2007
This was the kind of fallout from the TB case I was most concerned about: States should have the power to restrict the movement of patients with contagious diseases even before they have the chance to disobey doctors' orders, federal health officials say. The need for such authority to order…
June 12, 2007
An extremely interesting article is slated to appear in the American Journal of Epidemiology later this month. I haven't seen it yet but Nature News carried a short piece about it. It comes from a team of experts in seasonal flu patterns at NIH's Fogarty International Center (FIC). The notion that…
June 11, 2007
We all know it is possible for people to hold two contradictory ideas in their head at the same time. Evolution and creationism are a case in point. Apparently in a recent USAToday/Gallup Poll, a majority of my fellow citizens responded they believe both are likely explanations for life on earth.…
June 11, 2007
Two Associated Press articles over the weekend suggest to me the US poultry industry is getting ready for avian flu, in earnest. One story reports how news of bird flu in US poultry would affect consumer habits. One reports on the practical problem of having to kill hundreds of thousands of birds…
June 10, 2007
Maybe you didn't hear about the poison gas attacks on American communities this year. No? Well in January two towns in Kentucky were attacked, a day apart. OK, there weren't exactly not exactly attacked. That part isn't true. But assume for a moment that each of the following two incidents was the…
June 10, 2007
Rudy Giuliani, the erstwhile US Presidential hopeful, had his moment on Tuesday's CNN debate. I'm sure you've seen it. Over and over again. I won't bother doing it here. If you haven't seen it, here is a YouTube version. Rudy is explaining his "Catholic position" on abortion (you know which one,…
June 9, 2007
My defense of the TB guy has drawn a lot of traffic and some of the comments imply my view is colored by a case of misplaced compassion. Since I'm a physician I won't shy away from being called compassionate. Whether true or not in my case, it is a desirable trait for a doctor and nothing to be…
June 8, 2007
CDC is bowing to reality and grudgingly giving their blessing to civilian use of over-the-counter respirators ("masks" in common parlance) should there be an influenza pandemic. I've repeatedly called attention to the lack of evidence that wearing a respirator would be effective to protect people…