Federal health
revere | September 30, 2007Bioterrorism defense dollars seem to be devoted mainly to procurement. This follows President Bush's prescription for how all Americans could defeat the terrorists after September 11: go shopping. Practicing what they preach, the federal government has gone on another buying spree for something we don't need: anthrax vaccine:
The federal government has awarded a $400 million contract to Emergent BioSolutions for another 18.75 million doses of anthrax vaccine, with a bonus to be paid if the company wins approval for extending the vaccine's shelf life.
The 3-year contract for BioThrax vaccine,…
revere | August 28, 2007I like John Edwards and tend to agree with him on poverty and campaign finance, although his Iraq war opposition is weak and ambiguous. But he's got a lot of company there, unfortunately. The one thing you can say about the Republican candidates is their pro-war stance isn't ambiguous. It is explicit -- disgustingly so. But that's not what this post is about. It's about different Edwards disappointment, his newly announced position on cancer policy. For someone who was a plaintiff's lawyer in tort cases and whose wife is a cancer patient, his policy is mostly silent about a public health…
revere | August 8, 2007It is clearly true that those who abstain in sexual intercourse are not at risk of becoming pregnant (with apologies to the Virgin Mary). There is less of a protection against sexually transmitted diseases because there are other ways to have sex besides having intercourse with a partner of the opposite sex while in the Missionary Position (maybe you hadn't heard that. Yes, it's true. I heard it on good authority from a junior high school student). But even for pregnancy, abstinence-only education programs don't work. At all. This has been shown repeatedly. But it doesn't affect Bush…
revere | July 11, 2007I'd like to support someone who speaks out againstmuzzling of science by political hacks. Which is just what Bush's last Surgeon General, Richard Carmona did today at a congressional hearing. But frankly, it's a bit late. Many of us were quite critical of the "invisible Surgeon General," the person who was supposed to be "the nation's doctor" but whom nobody heard or saw. We didn't know if it was because he agreed with the administration on the hot button issues upon which he was utterly silent (e.g., sex education, stem cells, second hand smoke) or whether he buckled to pressure. According…
revere | June 26, 2007The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may be the most incompetent and dysfunctional in the federal government (Katrina is one example; but only one). DHS also has a very expansive view of its role. Almost everything is a matter of homeland security. That includes epidemic disease, where there remains uncertainty as to who will do what to whom in the event of a pandemic. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), they also want to give the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) the bird:
In an effort to prepare for H5N1, the USDA rolled out a series of measures including…
revere | June 22, 2007With 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:
Lee Sanders, a senior vice president with the American Bakers Association, requested FDA documents on imported honey in 2002. The Washington-based association wanted to know about a pesticide in honey imported from China, she said in an interview.
"You would hope that those types of requests would…
revere | June 12, 2007This 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 someone quarantined emerged as lesson No. 1 from the case of the Atlanta lawyer who went to Europe despite having a dangerous form of tuberculosis.
[snip]
"First of all, up front, before the patient left the United States, we believe that we could strengthen our states' ability to restrict the movement of…
revere | May 30, 2007My wiki partner and fellow blogger Melanie Mattson (Just a Bump in the Beltway) alerted me to a whole new pile of crap about Bush's new Surgeon General nominee, James Holsinger, cardiologist and master of biblical studies (Melanie took me to task for saying that's a degree in "theology." I stand chastised. Errr . . . maybe that's not the right word. Errr . . . maybe it is.) We covered some of it in yesterday's post (wingnut homophobia and bigotry and generous campaign contributions to Bush and the Republican Party). But we missed some other stuff (you thought what we did write was enough?…
revere | May 29, 2007It's not as if the Surgeon General was such an important post. The SG's mission is mainly to educate the public and advise the President. No big deal, really. And in fact the past SGs might as well have been invisible. Hell, they were invisible. No use of the position as a bully pulpit to educate the public about good health. Now President Bush has nominated a new Surgeon General to replace the Acting SG who replaced the previous one who did almost nothing his whole tenure except issue a report on the dangers of second hand smoke and shortly thereafter found his appointment not renewed. So…
revere | May 23, 2007A new experiment in flu communications was noted yesterday by my wiki partner and fellow blogger (The Next Hurrah) DemFromCT over at the mega-blog, DailyKos:
Recognizing the need for people to take pandemic flu preparations more seriously, and recognizing that blogging is a powerful and effective two-way communications tool, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt is hosting a Pandemic Flu Leadership Conference in Washington DC on June 13, to which I've been invited (based on work done at Flu Wiki and here). And as part of the effort to reach as many people as possible, a blog has…
revere | May 8, 2007The US government wants to build yet another high containment laboratory to "research" agents of high risk. This one is supposed to replace the aging facility at Plum Island, New York. Maybe your state is one of the ones bidding for this laboratory. You might even have read about it in your local newspaper or heard about in on your local TV station, like this one in North Carolina:
A dozen states including North Carolina are competing for a government research lab full of killer germs like anthrax, avian flu and foot-and-mouth disease -- a prospect some of their residents want to avoid like…
revere | May 5, 2007It may seem to have nothing to do flyways for avian influenza virus, but bear with me. In 1962 there was another flyway that revealed Soviet missiles in Cuba:
It was 0737 in the morning of Sunday 14 October 1962 when Major Richard Heyser began the crossing of Cuba in his U-2. He flew almost due north-on a course some 60 miles to the west of Havana and passed over the northerly beaches six minutes later. In that brief timespan be took 928 pictures, which covered a swath 75 miles wide. The resolution of his best shots was a matter of three feet.
Once past the target, he headed for McCoy Air…
revere | December 22, 2006The Revolving Door. Round and round she goes, where she stops, no one knows.
On January 15, Dr. Scott Gottlieb leaves the FDA as Deputy Commissioner for Medical and Scientific Affairs, returning to his old haunts at the ultra conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Gottlieb was at FDA for about a year and continued to practice medicine on the side, while there. Very demanding job. Practicing medicine. (See posts here and here.)
His replacement has just been announced by newly confirmed FDA Commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach. It is Randall Lutter, Ph.D., who will serve as Acting…
revere | December 14, 2006The FDA has announced that Scott Gottlieb, their guy in charge of science, is leaving, headed back to his spiritual home, The American Enterprise Institute, denizen of right wing ideologues and other apologists for do-nothing government. As the American Enterprise Institue describe themselves:
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is dedicated to preserving and strengthening the foundations of freedom--limited government, private enterprise, vital cultural and political institutions, and a strong foreign policy and national defense--through scholarly research, open…
revere | October 5, 2006In China, "sudden events" like disease outbreaks or chemical spills are state secrets. That's not good for China's health or the health of the world. I'm glad that's not US policy. Not yet, at any rate. But a new bill introduced by Republican Senator Chuck Hagel is a step in that direction.
S. 3898 was introduced on September 14 to little notice. It is a Bill to amend the Homeland Security Act "to provide for the health of Americans by implementing a system that detects and identifies in a timely manner diseases, conditions, and events that represent a threat to humans, animals, food…
revere | October 3, 2006A couple of weeks ago we wrote about the strange disappearance of the already invisible Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Richard Carmona. One day, July 29, he was there. The next day, July 30, gone. Appointment not renewed. Did he jump or was he pushed? We don't know. Lots of commenters here thought that now he was "out from under" the Bush administration, he would do what he didn't do as Surgeon General: say something.
Yesterday we found out where he went in an article in the Wall Street Journal and heard what he had to say. Inspiring:
Richard H. Carmona, who served as surgeon…
revere | September 16, 2006The very first post, ever, on Effect Measure, "The Surgeon General as appetite suppressant" was posted in the morning of Thursday, November 25, 2004. I did it on a lark. Mrs. R. was preparing Thanksgiving dinner and my presence in the kitchen was declared unwanted if not a health hazard. What else was there to do but start a blog?
Since the Surgeon General has just resigned, quietly and without explanation, we bring you some nostalgic excerpts from that very first post and some remarks on his departure:
The United States Surgeon General has a new approach to the obesity epidemic specially for…