Fries, Chips Linked to Breast Cancer
October 19th, 2010
FoodConsumer.org
By: David Liu
In the Pink Month- the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we publish a report below to share with readers a study that suggests eating too much chips and fries, which are high in acrylamide, may increase risk of breast cancer.
It should be noted that not all studies are consistent and this study is observational, meaning the results do not prove that eating acrylamide rich foods will definitely raise the cancer risk even though the possiblity may not be excluded either.
High dietary intake of acrylamide may increase risk of certain types of breast cancer, a study published in the July 2010 issue of Breast Cancer Research and Treatment suggests.
Acrylamide, found in certain starchy foods particularly like thermally processed asparagine-rich potatoes like chips and fries, is a potential human carcinogen, which has been proved in animals to cause cancer while studies on the effect of this chemical on human carcinogenesis are few.
For the study, Pedersen G.S. and colleagues from Maastricht University in The Netherlands followed 62,573 women aged 55 to 69 who enrolled in the Netherlands Cohort Study on diet and cancer intiated in 1986 for incidence of breast cancer and dietary intake of acrylamide in the subjects.
During the 13-year follow-up, 2225 incident breast cancer cases were identified with hormone receptor status information for 43 percent of the cases.
Cox proportional hazards analysis showed that when the highest quintile of dietary acrylamide intake was compared to the lowest quintile of intake, no correlation was found for overall brast cancer or receptor negative breast cancer risk, rehardless of smoking status.
However, a statistically nonsignficantly elevated risk of ER positive, PR positive and joint rectpor-positive breast cancer was observed among never-smoking women.
Multivariable-adjusted analyses showed that those with highest intake of acrylamide were 31 percent more likely to develop ER+ breast cancer, 47 percent more likely to develop PR+ breast cancer, 43 perent more likely to acquire ER+PR+ breast cancer compared to those who had lowest intake of acrylamide.
Early laboratory studies revealed that acrylamide can interact with DNA in human breast tissue to form adducts which may potentially increase risk of breast cancer.
Acrylamide is widely present in many types of heat-treated foods. The toxic chemical is formed when an amino acid called asparagine reacts with reducing sugar like glucose.
The researchers of the current study concluded their study showed “some indications of a positive association between dietary acrylamide intake and receptor-positive breast cancer risk in postmenopausal never-smoking women.”
They acknowledged “Further studies are needed to confirm or refute our observations.”
Breast cancer is more commonly found in Western countries where potatoe chips and fries are more commonly consumed. An estimated 175,000 women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 50,000 will die from the disease in 2010.
More reports will be published here in the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month to help readers better understand breast cancer and how to prevent the disease.
Click here for the full report from FoodConsumer.org
Tylenol Recalled Due To Moldy Odor
October 19th, 2010
CNN Health
The maker of Benadryl and Tylenol has added another popular over-the-counter drug to its growing list of recalled products.
The latest recall affects Tylenol 8-hour caplets 50 count, sold in the United States and Puerto Rico. The lot number is BCM155.
Complaints of a musty or moldy odor led to the recall, McNeil Consumer Healthcare said. The odor, the company believes, is caused by the presence of trace amounts of a chemical called 2,4,6-tribromoanisole.
McNeil said the “risk of adverse medical events is remote.”
Adverse event reports are consumer complaints of a serious side effect associated with the use of a medical product, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Adverse events could include death, hospitalization, disability and other health complications.
The Johnson and Johnson subsidiary said customers should call 1-888-222-6036 or use the website www.mcneilproductrecall.com for information on how to receive a refund or replacement product.
The company has issued several recalls this year of non-prescription cold and pain drugs such as Tylenol, Benadryl and Motrin — prompting a Congressional inquiry.
In November, five lots of Tylenol Arthritis Pain 100 count with the EZ-open cap were recalled for unusual odor leading to nausea, stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea.
In December, the recall was expanded to include all product lots of Tylenol Arthritis Pain caplet 100 count bottles with the red EZ-open cap.
In January, the recall was widened to an undisclosed number of Tylenol, Motrin and other over-the-counter drugs after complaints of consumers feeling sick from an odor.
In May, 50 children’s versions of these nonprescription medicines were also recalled because of quality and safety concerns. Following the pediatric medicine recall, Johnson and Johnson suspended production at McNeil’s facility in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, that manufactured the children’s drugs.
Last month, Johnson and Johnson CEO William Weldon delivered both a mea culpa and clear admission to lawmakers that his company let the public down through numerous recent drug recalls.
Click here for the full report from CNN Health
To Rent or Buy, That is the Question
October 19th, 2010
FOX News
By: Molly Line
In the midst of a stalled economy it’s a wonder anyone feels like making a big financial purchase like buying a home — long perceived as a large part of the American dream.
But dismal economic reports, rising foreclosures and plummeting home values have done little to deter the hopes of would-be homebuyers. Some are even looking for a bargain, and to take advantage of low interest rates.
But, is it really wiser to buy during a time of economic uncertainty? Or is renting a better bargain?
Cape Cod real estate expert and agent Danny Griffin says now is a great time to make a home purchase, but only if the prospective homebuyer has the capital to make the investment.
“We do get more calls than we’ve ever had for rentals, but first thing we’re going to tell them, or ask them, is have you ever sat down with a mortgage broker and asked, ‘Can I qualify for a loan? Because there is no better time to consider buying,” said Griffin.
Caitlyn Sweeney and Joe Maddalena are shopping for their first place in Marstons Mills, Massachusetts. Both work full time. Joe is an assistant golf course superintendent and Caitlyn is a teacher. She brings in some additional funds by managing a restaurant on weekends. They are determined to escape the rental market and want to take advantage of plummeting home prices, while also enjoying the satisfaction of owning something.
“You’re putting a lot of money into something that’s not yours. You don’t get to change anything, decorate the way you want to, you don’t have a yard, you don’t have extra rooms,” explains Sweeney, who’s looking forward to making her mark on a new place.
While many homebuyers look forward to creating their own individualized space, Maddalena says their plan to buy is more than an emotional decision. They have their finances in order. “I think we’re both at an age now where our jobs are secure, we’ve saved up some money and houses are at reasonable price,” said Maddalena.
“So the smart buyer is coming in now and saying, okay, finally, I can buy these at a normal price again and it’s affordable for me and I can live within my means,” said Griffin.
“It’s already happening in most of the majorly hit markets in the United States, especially Las Vegas, California, Florida — all of the over-inflated places like that are beginning to hold. You’re seeing people come into that marketplace, whether they be first time homebuyers, second homebuyers, they’re beginning to say ‘Hey, this is a reasonable price and I need to be invested in this now.’”
Despite the desire to own a home, renting does have some obvious pluses say experts: most notably no property taxes, no upkeep costs, no paying for a new roof or dishwasher. Some landlords will even change a light bulb. In some communities renting may be the more affordable option.
Trulia, an online real estate tracking site, released its quarterly Rent vs. Buy Index last week, which looks at the costs of home ownership and renting in America’s 50 largest cities. Trulia’s experts compare the average cost of buying a two-bedroom apartment, condo or town home to the cost of renting using the properties listed on the site. Topping the list where rents are cheaper than buying was New York City, followed by Seattle; Fort Worth, Tex.; Omaha, Neb. and Sacramento, Calif.
Trulia’s experts say these cities share a common denominator: they are major regional employment hubs.
“Homebuyers want to live where jobs are and where they believe they’ll be able to get jobs in the future,” said Tara-Nicholle Nelson, a real estate broker and lawyer who focuses on consumer education for Trulia. The economic draw also pushes up prices, making rental rates a much better deal for some consumers.
The index showed home ownership was more affordable than renting in Arlington, Tex.; Fresno, Calif.; Miami and Mesa and Phoenix in Arizona.
In these types of communities, “we see a real pattern of foreclosure hot spots,” said Nelson. “Prices have dropped a lot in these cities and their rental markets have seen a huge influx of renters.” Nelson is quick to point out the index is just a “snapshot in time,” not an indication of what a given family or individual should do.
“Just because a place is on that list doesn’t mean it’s unwise to buy depending on your personal circumstances,” said Nelson, who believes that equation is much more personal and complicated, involving everything from financial assets to time commitments and stability.
Click here for the full report from Fox News
Whatever Happened to H1N1?
October 19th, 2010
Fox News
By: Colleen Cappon
The H1N1 flu, which surfaced in April 2009—and was blamed for at least 18,449 deaths worldwide—shut down schools, led some countries to quarantine travelers, drove the Obama administration to fast-track a vaccine program that struggled to meet panic-driven demand, and literally changed the way Americans reacted to a simple sneeze and a cough.
What a difference a year makes.
In August, the World Health Organization declared H1N1 no longer a pandemic, and a record supply of an all-in-one vaccine that promises protection against H1N1 plus two other influenza strains is ready, which made much of the public dismiss any thoughts of the virus.
WHO Director General Margaret Chan said the organization’s emergency committee of top flu experts advised her that the pandemic had “largely run its course,” and was going to drop to normal seasonal levels.
But with such a drastic change in warnings about the flu in just one year, how worried does the public need to be?
Dr. Frank Esper, assistant professor of pediatric infectious disease at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, told FoxNews.com a flu season that severe is rare, and cause for concern.
“Last year was a very special year; a new strain of influenza was in circulation. That has only happened every few decades. We were inundated with a lot of information from the media that was not available in the past. Everyone was very hyped up and rightly so,” Esper said.
The U.S. had about 12,000 deaths, 60 million illnesses and 265,000 hospitalizations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The H1N1 strain started as a pandemic and moved across the world as a big wave of disease, infecting a huge number of people in every region.
“Eventually, it moves away and it becomes established as not a new pandemic, but a regular old strain. It will be back this year, but will not be as devastating because we didn’t have any immunity before,” he said.
Because H1N1 has weakened, young people will not be inflicted in the mass numbers like last fall, meaning the people most in danger of getting the flu are 65 and older.
Esper said one of the reasons the public doesn’t need to be as concerned about H1N1 this season is that the pandemic helped to better prepare for this year.
“It was disappointing that more were not able to get vaccinated earlier last year, we weren’t ready,” he said. “We expect plenty to be available this year, and it includes the swine flu shot. Last year you had to get two shots.”
Even though the flu pandemic has been declared over, Esper said the public still needs to get their vaccine and remember that this year’s flu season will still be more severe than years before the pandemic.
“This year, don’t take a backseat. Be vigilant. We want to build off last year and let everyone know the severity of the disease,” he said. “If you are over 6 months, we want you to get immunized. The flu is the number one infectious disease killer and it needs to be a concern every year.”
The CDC stressed that even people who received an H1N1 vaccine last year still need to get one this year.
“Influenza is serious, and anyone, including healthy people, can get the flu and spread the flu,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in a statement. “Flu vaccines are the best way to protect yourself and those around you.”
Click here for the full report from Fox News
Five New Frightening Types of Cyberattacks
October 18th, 2010
AOL News
By: Sharon Weinberger
Worried about e-mails that appear to be from your bank but could well be part of a phishing scam? That may soon be the least of your problems. With concerns about cyberattacks on the rise, computer security experts are looking ahead to what they think might be the next wave of attacks.
What they find is that everything from your car to your computer webcam is vulnerable to attack. Here are five new types of attacks:
1) Social Network Attacks: Malware that steals your e-mail contacts, passwords and other personal information is old news. But a new technical paper by a group of Israeli researchers says the cybersecurity community is ignoring a new, more insidious type of attack: one that preys on your entire social network, working to slowly pilfer information about your behavior and life.
Dubbed “stealing reality,” these types of attacks, the researchers argue, are more insidious because the “victim of a ‘behavioral pattern’ theft cannot easily change her behavior and life patterns.”
“Most likely those attacks are currently happening,” lead author Yaniv Altshuler, a research scientist at Ben Gurion University, told AOL News.
Altshuler says the market for this sort of information already exists. “And If there is a buyer, there is a seller,” he added.
2) Attacks on Cars: Today’s automobiles often come equipped with the equivalent of advanced computer systems, which means that like your home computer, they could be vulnerable to attack. In a new paper, researchers at the University of Washington and the University of California, San Diego, say they have demonstrated “the ability to adversarially control a wide range of automotive functions and completely ignore driver input — including disabling the brakes, selectively braking individual wheels on demand, stopping the engine, and so on.”
Everything from your car’s wireless tire-pressure sensors to its stolen-vehicle tracking and recovery system provides opportunities for hackers to gain control of your vehicle without you even knowing.
3) Medical Devices: Today, wireless pacemakers can send your doctor or hospital real-time data on your heart, showing just how far medical devices have come with the help of modern electronics. But with that new technology comes a new threat: the possibility of someone hacking into your medical device or injecting malicious code that disrupts the lifesaving device. Prosthetic limbs, wireless pacemakers and other implantable medical devices might all be at risk.
“This is very real — the bad guys would buy the pieces and just work on them a little bit,” Greg Hoglund, who heads HBGary, a computer security company, told an audience earlier this year at a Northern California Hospital Cyberterrorism Seminar. “It’s amazing someone hasn’t pulled this off yet.”
4) Hacking Your Webcam: Watch out for the light on your computer that shows the webcam is on, even after you think you’ve turned it off. It could be a Trojan computer program operating the camera, taking pictures or even video, and sending it over the Internet without your knowledge. For those who leave their laptops on and open, that’s the equivalent of having Big Brother in your bedroom or office without you knowing.
There are already cases of this happening, for example, in Germany. “A man has been arrested for spying on more than 150 girls in their bedrooms by hacking into their computers and using their webcams to watch them, provoking warnings that others will be doing the same thing,” DPA, the German press agency, reported earlier this year.
5) Smart Phone Attacks: Most consumers worried about cyberattacks associate the threat with their home PCs or laptops. So they often think nothing of downloading applications to their smart phones, which often contain just as much personal information as their home computers.
“Nobody’s making money at the moment with mobile security,” said Mikko Hypponen, the chief research officer of Finland’s F-Secure, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “But all the players assume that sooner or later we will see a major outbreak or some other major event that will change the situation forever.”
Click here for the full report from AOL
How Much Will Foreclosures Weigh Down Big Banks?
October 19, 2010 by Andrew
Filed under Government
October 18th, 2010
Daily Finance
By: Charles Wallace
The country is in the grip of a home mortgage scandal, with big banks facing investigations, fines and penalties for playing fast and loose during the foreclosure process. There’s no question that the banks will suffer, but will their stocks get hurt as a result?
One indication came on Oct. 18, when Citigroup (C) reported a third-quarter profit of $2.15 billion, easily beating analysts’ expectations and sending the company’s shares higher by 5%. That lifted all banks shares, which had lost $50 billion in valuation at the end of the previous week because of concerns about foreclosure losses.
But Citi indicated that it had managed to sidestep the problems facing banking rivals JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC) and Wells Fargo (WFC), which have announced moratoriums on foreclosures while they study whether they acted improperly in the process of documenting foreclosures prior to sales. “We believe that our overall process is sound, and our reviews indicate that nothing is amiss,” says John Gerspach, Citi’s chief financial officer.
The current mortgage crisis could hurt bank earnings in several possible ways, not all of them directly related to the foreclosure problem.
Investors to Banks: Take It Back
The first is what the banks have termed “putbacks,” but are really repurchases of mortgages. Most banks don’t keep mortgages on their books any more. Instead, they pool home loans together and sell slices of those bundled securities to investors, who assume the credit and interest rate risk on the underlying loans.
When they sell the loans, the banks make “representations and warrants” to the investors that the borrowers meet certain loan criteria, such as the level of their FICO credit scores or their income. If it turns out later that this information is wrong, the investor can force the bank to repurchase the mortgage from the trust that holds them.
JPMorgan analysts said in a report released Oct. 18 that the putback risk to the industry as a whole might be as high as $55 billion to $120 billion. They said those losses would probably be realized over a period of about five years, so the annual total might run at $10 billion to $25 billion.
Squeezing Every Penny
The JPMorgan estimate was different for loans securitized by government-controlled agencies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. With Congress in an uproar about Fannie’s and Freddie’s losses, now estimated at $140 billion, the government will likely try to squeeze every penny out of the banks that it can, given that they’re now making large profits after being bailed out by taxpayers.
The JPMorgan analysts said the agencies are likely to try to force the banks to take back about 25% of defaulted loans, with about 40% of those demands being successful.
With private sector securitization of mortgages, banks have less recourse to complain about fraud and other misstatements, so repurchases of mortgages would have only a 20% success rate, leading to an estimated 5% loss on defaulted loans.
JPMorgan itself acknowledged this last week when it released its own third-quarter earnings and disclosed that it had put aside an additional $622 million in reserves to cover losses from forced repurchases of mortgages. That didn’t seem to have hurt JPMorgan’s stock: It was up 2.5% on Oct. 18.
Potential Fines and Penalties
Al Savastano, banking analyst at Macquarie Securities in New York, says the repurchase problem is likely to fester for years and that it’s hard to know how much each bank faces in losses. “We think it’s going to be an earnings issue, not a capital issue,” Savastano says. ‘We are a lot more comfortable trying to estimate credit losses than this.”
The other potential cost to banks comes from losses the banks suffer because of their actions in the foreclosure crisis. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said last week that the Obama administration opposes any national moratorium on foreclosures, so losses caused by not being able to sell foreclosed homes are likely to be limited in the short term.
“We believe that the big banks have the capacity to withstand potential setbacks from the foreclosure moratoriums and related issues as they currently stand, and we believe these issues should ultimately prove manageable in the context of large bank franchises,” say CreditSights research analysts.
Based on a potential fine of $25,000 for each false affidavit filed — the banks have to attest that they reviewed each loan file, but in many cases, they didn’t — CreditSIghts estimates JPMorgan could face $2 billion to $3 billion in fines, which could possibly be settled for $500 million to $1 billion. The CreditSights analysts say BofA and Wells Fargo also might face a similar amount.
Click here for the full report from Daily Finance
Yale Researchers Find Key Depression Gene
October 18th, 2010
AOL Health
By: Catherine Donaldson-Evans
Researchers at Yale University say they’ve identified a new gene that seems to trigger depression.
The scientists say the gene, MKP-1, might be a key contributor in the development of clinical depression.
“This could be a primary cause, or at least a major contributing factor, to the signaling abnormalities that lead to depression,” study lead author Ronald S. Duman, a professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at Yale, said in a statement.
Duman and his colleagues did genome scans of the brain tissue of 21 deceased people who had been diagnosed with depression and compared them to the genes of 18 people who hadn’t been diagnosed with the condition.
They found that one gene, MKP-1, increased more than twofold in the brains of people who were depressed. That gene blocks a molecular pathway neurons need to survive and function properly, which, when rendered inactive, has been linked to depression and other disorders.
The team also discovered that when MKP-1 is impaired in mice, the mice become resistant to stress, but when it’s activated, they show signs of depression.
University of Pennsylvania psychiatrist Dr. Christos Ballas said the study is flawed.
“You can’t say this is a gene for depression because it’s a gene for only one kind of depression,” he told AOL Health. “It’s a gene for a specific description of depression.”
Ballas said there is evidence that depression is in part genetic, but there are other factors involved in the illness.
“Certainly, there’s probably a common genetic component that makes us susceptible to depression,” he said. “But the problem is the effect of that gene is probably overwhelmed by the effect of everything else that happens in our life, including other genes.”
The findings were published October 17 in the journal Nature Medicine. Researchers say they may inspire a new class of antidepressants.
Doctors and scientists have had trouble pinpointing the causes of depression, which costs the United States $100 billion a year and affects nearly 16 percent of Americans.
Numerous physiological factors are believed to contribute to major depressive disorder, whose symptoms can vary from person to person. Patients given prescription antidepressants often respond differently to the drugs, and up to 40 percent don’t respond at all.
Ballas said that while the Yale research and other studies on depression genes are helpful, such findings aren’t revolutionary or applicable to all those who suffer from the condition.
“It is in no way generalizable to everybody,” Ballas said. “It’s much more useful to give a drug to treat the symptom than finding a gene for this one tiny aspect of depression. The more of these little genetic findings we get that don’t have any immediate usefulness, the more we minimize the environmental impact.”
Click here for the full report from AOL Health
Half of US Teens ‘Meet Criteria for Mental Disorder’
October 14th, 2010
Agence France Presse
Around half of US teens meet the criteria for a mental disorder and nearly one in four report having a mood, behavior or anxiety disorder that interferes with daily life, American researchers say.
Fifty-one percent of boys and 49 percent of girls aged 13-19 have a mood, behavior, anxiety or substance use disorder, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
In 22.2 percent of teens, the disorder was so severe it impaired their daily activities and caused great distress, says the study led by Kathleen Merikangas of the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH).
“The prevalence of severe emotional and behavior disorders is even higher than the most frequent major physical conditions in adolescence, including asthma or diabetes,” the study says.
Mental problems do not get the same attention from public health authorities even though they cost US families around a quarter of a trillion dollars a year, according to the study.
Around nine percent of all US children have asthma and less than a quarter of one percent of all people under the age of 20 have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Merikangas and a team of researchers analyzed data from the National Comorbidity Study-Adolescent Supplement, which surveyed more than 10,000 US teens.
The study is the first to track the prevalence of a broad range of mental disorders in a nationally representative sample of US teens.
They found that nearly a third of the teens met the criteria for the most common mental disorder among US youth, anxiety disorders, which include social phobia and panic “attacks”.
This class of disorder also had the earliest median onset age, occurring in children as young as six years old.
Behavior disorders, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, were the next most common condition (19.1 percent), followed by mood disorders (14.3 percent) such as depression.
Eleven percent of teens with a mood disorder, 10 percent with behavior disorders and eight percent who had anxiety disorders, especially social phobics, met the criteria for severe impairment, meaning their condition affected their day-to-day life and caused them great distress.
Teen mental disorder rates mirror those seen in adults, suggesting that most adults develop a mental disorder before adulthood, say the researchers, calling for earlier intervention and prevention, and more research to determine what the risk factors are for mental disorders in youth.
Click here for the full report from Raw Story
Santa Fe Uses Radio Frequency Tracking Badges
October 18th, 2010
The Galveston Daily News
By: Hayley Kappes
Secondary students in the Santa Fe district are required to wear badges on campus that track their whereabouts using radio frequency identification technology.
School officials issued the badges this fall to ensure student safety and achieve more accurate attendance reporting.
Attendance rates haven’t been an issue in the district, but a reliable reporting system might allow Santa Fe to recover more state money from average daily attendance funding, district spokeswoman Patti Hanssard said. The monitoring system only tracks students on campus.
The district sought the badges after seeing a presentation from Spring Independent School District, which is north of Houston.
Since issuing the tracking badges in 2008, Spring has received a $194,000 increase in attendance funding, Hanssard said.
It’s too early to tell how much money Santa Fe will recover from using the badges, Hanssard said.
Jody Marabella, whose daughter is a senior at Santa Fe, said some parents unreasonably have argued the badges are an invasion of privacy.
“It’s really not as bad as everyone makes it out to be,” Marabella said. “I think people are making a mountain out of a mole hill. If the kids are where they’re supposed to be, what’s the issue?”
The district requires students buy a replacement badge if the one issued gets lost, which Marabella said she disagrees with. The badges cost $5 to replace, she said.
No regulations prohibit school districts from using the technology, Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Suzanna Marchman said.
“We’ve just started finding out about this technology,” Marchman said. “We’re just going to look at this more closely as more school districts begin to use these badges.”
The radio frequency tracking badges come with security risks, Jose Medina, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said.
“Just doing a Google search, there are plenty of instructions about how to crack this RFID technology,” Medina said. “It’s well within the realm of possibility that someone could misuse this technology.”
The monitoring system is secure, and no student information is available through the technology, Hanssard said.
Hanssard declined to comment on the recourse for students who don’t wear the badges. Students have been “very compliant” in wearing the badges, she said.
If a student refuses to wear a badge, disciplinary action might ensue, but a school district can’t deny the student an education, Medina said.
Santa Fe High School parent Keith Gray said he feels safer knowing the school can use the monitoring system to find students who went missing during a fire evacuation for example.
“It’s going to help find kids on campus if there is an emergency,” Gray said. “They’re minors. It’s not like they inserted the badges under a layer of skin.”
Click here for the full report from The Galveston Daily News
Health Chiefs Confirm Link Between Flu Vaccine and Killer Nerve Disease
October 18th, 2010
Infowars.com
By: Anthony Gucciardi
Last year, you would be considered a medical “fraud” if you were to say that the swine flu vaccine may lead to Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a deadly autoimmune disorder that can lead to partial paralysis and death. Now, however, even the government is admitting that the swine flu vaccine may cause Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued a statement regarding the link between Guillain-Barre and the swine flu vaccine.
“Given the uncer tainties in the available information and as with seasonal flu vaccines, a slightly elevated risk of GBS following H1N1 vaccines cannot be ruled out. Epidemiological studies are ongoing to further assess this possible association.”
Unfortunately, this announcement has come far too late. Thousands of vaccines have been given worldwide, with 14,000 children in Oklahoma as test subjects for the experimental first wave of the swine flu vaccines in 2009. There was no shortage of warnings regarding the vaccine, however, with about 50% of doctors refusingto be injected. Citizens and doctors alike were also warned numerous times that the swine flu vaccine had a direct link with Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
Even mainstream media was forced to pick up on the link, with the Times Online offering warning that the vaccine had a “death link”. Neurologists around the world were even warned about the safety of the vaccine by Professor Elizabeth Miller, head of the immunization department for UK’s Health Protection Agency.
“The vaccines used to combat an expected swine influenza pandemic in 1976 were shown to be associated with GBS and were withdrawn from use,” she wrote in a letter to neurologists.
Of course the government was quick to claim that the vaccinations were completely safe, and had met all of the safety requirements.
The department of health was quick to go against Professor Miller and claim that the vaccines had passed all of the required tests: “Appropriate trials to assess safety and immune responses have been carried out on vaccines very similar to the swine flu vaccine. The vaccines have been shown to have a good safety profile.”
If the government was confident regarding the safety of the vaccination, then why were manufacturers given complete legal immunity? This legal immunity made it impossible to sue the manufacturers of the swine flu vaccine. Even if the vaccines were safe to begin with, wouldn’t this enhance carelessness of the manufacturers? With complete legal immunity, the makers could get away with anything.
Why then, would anyone receive the swine flu vaccine? The simple answer is that the swine flu scare drove some citizens to run in fear, with the vaccine as their advertised salvation. In reality, swine flu did not turn out to be the pandemic that it was propagated to be. Citizens would be better off improving their immune system naturally through proper nutrition than to receive a deadly swine flu vaccine.
Click here for the full report from Infowars.com
