UK: GMC Advises UK Docs To Commit Fraud over MMR

The GMC is Britain's medical ethics council that is currently trying Andrew Wakefield over alleged ethics violations in regards to his research on the MMR.

Apparently they are encouraging doctors to remove children who refuse the MMR from their list of patients to fraudulently raise the MMR uptake statistics.

The docs can then get payments for seeming to have met the governments MMR uptake goals.

So the GMC, whose job it is to maintain ethical medical practices, is apparently giving the nod for docs to commit fraud to prop up vaccine uptake stats and to get cash payments.

I am sure that Wakefield will get a fair hearing.

From UK Lawyer, Clifford Miller:

GMC Advises UK Docs To Commit Fraud over MMR

Is medicine institutionally corrupt? Here you will see the UK's General Medical Council advising UK medical doctors how to commit fraud on the UK's National Health Service for personal financial gain.

The GMC's role is to protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public by ensuring proper standards in the practice of medicine by medical doctors. This includes prosecuting UK medical doctors when their behaviour may bring the medical profession into disrepute. Dishonesty, financial impropriety and fraud fall within its purview. This link [1] provides an example of a decided case from its website.

The GMC is a statutory body independent (allegedly) of the NHS and of Government, with responsibility for maintaining the medical register for the United Kingdom. The GMC has statutory powers under the Medical Act 1983 to take action where there are concerns about the fitness to practise of a registered medical practitioner. Where the GMC finds that a doctor is not fit to practise, it has powers to erase that doctor's name from the medical register, to suspend the doctor from the register or to place conditions on the doctor's practice. These restrictions apply to practice in any sector of employment in any part of the UK. [2]

In the UK if doctors meet target levels for numbers of MMR and other vaccinations administered they can claim bonus payments for doing so. If they fail, they cannot claim those payments. One way of claiming the payments is to make a false return.

So how can it be that the GMC advises doctors on how to commit fraud? The GMC pose the question "Can GPs remove some children from their lists, temporarily, for the purpose of calculating the MMR target payment?" Here you will see that its currently available advice is to the effect that "it's OK provided you have patient consent" [3], [4]. It seems it also happens to be OK if it helps to increase the MMR uptake figures. The advice does not appear to be offered for other vaccinations.

And notice how they fail to make any mention of the financial and moral impropriety of doing so when they answer the question they pose like this:-

"This must not be done without the parents' agreement. Parents must be given a full explanation of what was proposed and why, their child's rights as an NHS patient, and the implications for their child's future care. Doctors working within the NHS must treat all patients entitled to NHS services on an equal footing. So temporarily removing a child from a GPs list must not adversely affect their care, for example in accessing secondary care and out-of-hours services, or in providing relevant information to ensure continuity of care and allow effective working with other agencies. Doctors must act honestly in their financial dealings. So GPs must ensure that any arrangement to remove a child from their list and re-register them for ‘immediately necessary treatment', or on some other basis, would be in line with their contractual obligations to the NHS."

Notice that provided the doctor does what the GMC advises and ensures "that any arrangement ... would be in line with their contractual obligations to the NHS" it is fine as "Doctors must act honestly in their financial dealings". Am I missing something or is this starting to look like we need the "men in white coats" to take away the men in white coats?

Not only that but the GMC advice is that if the evidence is available this is not contrary to GMC guidance on good medical practice:-

"Are temporary removals from a GPs list acceptable to the GMC? In the absence of evidence that ‘temporary removals' satisfy the concerns outlined at Q5, we cannot give any reassurance that such arrangements would be seen as consistent with our guidance on good practice."

GMC advice to UK doctors is that doctors "must not ask for or accept any inducement, gift or hospitality which may affect or be seen to affect the way you prescribe for, treat or refer patients." [7] But it seems the GMC do not mind when it comes to MMR, even where the inducement is so strong it encourages fraud on the NHS. But then, the GMC does not seem to mind about that either.

So now you know. If it concerns getting MMR uptake up, fraud is fine. But you had better make sure you implicate the parents and what better way to do that than to pressure them into agreeing their children become temporary patients possibly for emergency treatment only or else be dumped from the patient roster completely. Naturally, I am not saying that is happening nor am I saying the GMC advice is taken to suggest that be done - as it does not, but it could encourage that kind of behaviour. As a lawyer advising pro bono I have direct experience of patients being removed from an NHS doctor's roster after objections to childhood vaccinations.

The GMC has an agreement on cooperating and coordinating with the NHS Counter Fraud service [5]. And "GMC Today" newsletter carried a story ironically titled "Is the NHS immune to fraud?" about reducing and reporting fraud in the National Health Service [6]. The story gives a number to call the confidential NHS Fraud and Corruption Reporting Line and an email address too. It reports:-

"If you have a concern about a fraud taking place within the NHS, please call the confidential NHS Fraud and Corruption Reporting Line on 0800 028 40 60. All calls will be dealt with by trained staff and professionally investigated. Lines are open Monday to Friday 8 am–6 pm. You can also email us at nhsfraud@cfsms.nhs.uk at any time."

I haven't got the heart to tell 'em. Have you?


[1] http://www.gmc-uk.org/concerns/hearings_and_decisions/ftp/ftp_panel_islam_20061013.asp

[2] http://www.gmc-uk.org/about/partners/national_health_service_counter_fraud_service.asp

[3] http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/current/library/targeting_preventative_measures.asp

[4] http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/archive/Target_payments_for_preventative_health_measures_2003.pdf

[5] Memorandum of Understanding between the General Medical Council (GMC) and the National Health Service Counter Fraud Service (NHS CFS)

[6] Is the NHS immune to fraud? - GMC Today - Oct 2005

[6] Paragraph 74 Good Medical Practice

New Biomedical Support Group in Rockport Maine

From Laura Plorude of the Portland Maine biomed support group:

The new midcoast support group will be starting the 27th of October and will always be the last Saturday of the month. It will be held from 10 to 12 at Namaste Institute in Rockport.

This is on Beech Hill road across from Hobokin garden on Rt 1. It is about one mile up that road on the left. A little black sign is at the foot of the drive. (for the local MOMs)

The directions are also at Namasteinstitute.com

Dan Olmsted Is Back

... and calling out the CDC's shenanigans on The Rescue Post.

If you have not already made The Rescue Post a part of your regular blog reading, time to grab the feed.

TACA Offers A Guide To Your Journey With Autism

Jenny has brought biomedical autism treatment to the forefront of the country's mind, and my blog stats are through the roof, so for all those parents and friends that are new to the world of autism treatment, I wanted to point you in TACA's direction.

Talk About Curing Autism, the group that Jenny McCarthy represents, has a get started guide that my husband and I wish had existed when we started out on this journey three years ago. It covers all the bases.



It is a great one stop for what you need to know to get your child the help they need. If you are the friend or family member of someone with a child with autism, get one for them and one for yourself. They will need lots of help in the journey, and you can't claim that you really love them if you don't shoulder their burden.

Head's Up. More CDC CYA/BS Commin' Our Way

The CDC truly has no shame.

They didn't even include autistic children in this study. How much you wanna bet that dispite this fact, we will be reading media headlines that say, "new CDC study proves that vaccines not linked to autism".

[Update: That didn't take long. "New Study Results: Vaccines Not Tied to Autism"]

Exclusion of low birth weight babies, 70% participant drop out rate, focusing on blood mercury levels and ignoring brain mercury, conclusions not backed up by the data, conflicts of interests with all the researchers and on and on...

It is like a greatest hits of all the bad research done in the last decade wrapped up in one convenient package.

This thing looks to be Verstraeten all over again.

Thanks to A-CHAMP for the heads up.

Dear A-CHAMP subscribers:

On September 27, 2007 the New England Journal of Medicine will publish a study entitled, "Early Thimerosal Exposure and Neuropsychological Outcomes at 7 to 10 Years." For more than two years we at A-CHAMP have been hearing rumors of a new study that "exonerates" thimerosal, despite the fact that the study results were supposed to be kept strictly confidential.

Now the rumors have been turned into hype - another government funded study that tries to spin data and clear thimerosal of any suspicion of causing neurodevelopmental disorders. The study authors claim in their "Conclusions" that "[o]ur study does not support a causal association between early exposure to mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines and immune globulins and neuropsychological functioning at the age of 7 to 10 years."

The statement is plainly false. The study's conclusions do not reflect the study's data or the limitations of the study,

Unfortunately we have come to expect misleading statements – some might say fraudulent statements – from studies emanating from the CDC and their associates. It is not merely the fact that the authors of the study are burdened by large conflicts of interests - almost all of the 18 study authors have worked for vaccine manufacturers, received money from them, or performed research on their behalf. What is truly shocking about this study is that it does, indeed, find significant associations between thimerosal-containing vaccines and tics, speech, executive functioning and attention, but irresponsibly dismisses the associations. The study did not even look at children with autism – that is the subject of another uncompleted study – and children who might be more vulnerable to mercury, like low birth weight babies and children from families with lower incomes, were excluded or under-represented in the study sample

Fortunately, an advocate from our own community was an external consultant to the study, participated in its development from the outset, and is intimately familiar with the data and methodology. She has dissented from the study's conclusions. In addition, our colleagues and fellow parents at SafeMinds will be issuing a critique of the study in the near future. We are also told that the study data will be made publicly available so that independent researchers may examine it and draw their own conclusions.

Although detailed analysis of the study is beyond the scope of this letter, below are some key points that cause us to distrust this study as another attempt to manipulate the scientific and public debate on thimerosal to the detriment of the health and safety of America's children:

1. The Study's Claim of No Causality is Contrary to the Study's Data

The study authors claim that the data disproves causality when in fact, several findings show a negative effect on neuropsychological functioning warranting more study. At least one such adverse association was also found to be associated with low dose thimerosal exposure in other studies. As with earlier studies hyped by vaccine promoters, the study is unable to prove or disprove causality. The blanket dismissal of the troubling neuropsychological outcomes in this study is disingenuous and misleading.

2. Children with autism were excluded from this study

The early media contacts we have received suggest that this study shows no association between thimerosal and autism. In fact, the study specifically did not look at children with autism as the sample size was too small and the testing is impossible to complete for the typical child with autism. The exclusion of children with autism from the study may have undermined the power of the study to draw any conclusions about thimerosal.

3. The Study's Authors Misrepresent Previous Toxicokinetic Studies of Thimerosal

The study authors falsely claim that research by Burbacher et al. at the University of Washington (distribution of thimerosal as compared with methylmercury in infant monkeys) shows that ethylmercury is safer than methylmercury. But the authors focus only on the blood "half-life", ignoring data, showing twice as much inorganic mercury trapped in the brains of monkeys than from same dose of methylmercury.

4. The Study's Methodology has Serious Limitations Negating Any Conclusions Drawn

Major flaws that that causes a large underestimation of neurological adverse effects burden the study: 70% of the families recruited for the study failed to participate. This kind of bias in epidemiological studies is well known to distort even large studies of health effects. (See , for example, NY Times Magazine, "Do We Really Know What Makes Us Healthy" by Gary Taubes 9/16/07). It is well established that people who choose to participate in this kind of study are probably very different than those who refuse to participate (the "healthy person" or "complier" effect); especially when the ones who refused to participate said they were too busy.

Simply put: if you have a kid with ADHD or mild ASD or other neurodevelopmental disorders, you are likely to be busier, more stressed, and less available than the mother of a healthy normal child. This phenomenon serves to amplify the effect of the "complier", the "healthy families," - those who do cooperate with the study - confounding or confusing the study's results. The cooperative parents included in the study were more likely to be those with relatively trouble-free kids

5.Major Conflicts of Interest Burden Almost Every One of the 18 Study Authors

Many of the study authors have either worked for or received money from vaccine manufacturers. Others are employed by the CDC, which has been criticized by an IOM committee for its inherent conflict of interest in promoting vaccines while simultaneously monitoring safety. Many of the remaining study authors have conducted studies for vaccine manufacturers. The conflicts of interest cast doubt on the validity of the study, especially of the clearly biased final conclusions.

6. The High & Low Thimerosal Exposure Groups Too Small to Draw Conclusions

In addition to the number of children of the study being too small to draw statistically significant conclusions, the numbers of children in the high exposure group and the low exposure group were far too small to draw conclusions. Yet the study ignored this limitation and drew sweeping conclusions of no causality.

7.Vulnerable Children Were Excluded from the Study; Early Intervention Was Ignored

Children with a birth weight under 5 lbs. 8 oz. were excluded from the study further skewing the results, as these children are likely more vulnerable to thimerosal than larger babies. In addition, the fact that early intervention may have reduced deficits such as speech delay detected by neuropsychological testing of children aged 7-10 was not accounted for in the study results. There also was no analysis of combined prenatal and postnatal mercury exposures. Only 103 mothers who were exposed to mercury from prenatal immune globulins participated in the study, far too small a group for researchers to draw conclusions regarding the safety of thimerosal in these products.

8. The Study Fails to Account for the Subset of Children with "Efflux Disorder"

Only approximately 1000 children participated in the study, out of more than 3000 that were recruited. In addition to the "complier" bias discussed above, the study sample size is too small to accurately estimate the adverse effect of Thimerosal on the subset of the population who have a problem in mobilizing and excreting mercury. While the study's author's focus on the average time it takes for mercury to clear from the blood, itself misrepresented, we know that in 15% of the population this average is greatly exceeded. It is these children who are vulnerable to the effects of mercury from thimerosal. This study fails to account for the effect of mercury from vaccines on this subset of children.

These are but a few of the serious problems with the study and the way the data have been presented. We look forward to the forthcoming SAFEMINDS critique of the study and thank them for their continued close monitoring and analysis of the scientific research that affects our children.

In the meantime, if you see headlines stating that "Vaccines Cleared in New Study" or "New Study Finds Thimerosal Safe" know that we are all again being played, and that those who we should be able to trust are compromising the truth and the health of our children.

Sincerely,
Bob Krakow, for A-CHAMP

America, Meet Your Unvaccinated Kids

The Rescue Post is calling your attention again to the first study of vaccinated v. unvaccinated children and their risk for disorders like Autism, ADHD, Asthma and the like. The study was released in June and ignored by the mainstream media.

Those of you who are here because you saw Jenny MCCarthy, our new autism spokes mom, on the tele should take a look at the survey.

If you vaccinated your son, they have a %155 higher chance of having a neurological disorder had you chosen not to vaccinate.

The question that we have been screaming at the CDC for years, and they will not answer, is this:

Are we trading curable communicable diseases for incurable neurological diseases by over vaccinating our children, and by not screening to see which children cannot tolerate vaccination.

Best Summer Ever: An Update on Chandler’s Progress

I have been away from blogging for the last two months because we spent the summer focusing on getting our boy better. And hell yeah is he better!

After a break from chelation of more than a year, we tested him to find that his lead levels were through the roof. Our DAN doc was alarmed and he recommended that we go straight to IV Calcium EDTA chelation (CaEDTA).

Previously, I had wanted to remain cautious and used the much slower method of oral DMSA, but seeing the results that Chandler had from just 10 sessions this summer, I could not regret my decision more. I wish I had done this for him three years ago.

(So much has been made of the accidental death of the autistic child in PA who was mistakenly given the wrong form of the drug, Na2EDTA, while undergoing chelation for lead, and I wanted to take a moment to link to the CDC’s review of three chelation deaths. These tragedies were medical accidents and not the result of the administration of CaEDTA which is the standard and safe treatment for children with lead poisoning.)

His results have been wonderful. Cautioning, he is still autistic, but his speech is really starting to flow, his eye contact has shot up, he is connecting with the kids in the neighborhood, he is beginning to make little jokes, and get my little jokes, and – miracle of miracles – hold on to your butt – HE IS POTTY TRAINING!!!

The change in him over the first five sessions were the most dramatic. Our neighbors, whom we have been close friends with since before the kids were born, and whose kids play with our kids practically daily, went away for two weeks at the beginning of his IV chelation. We had not told them what we were doing. When they came back, their family was outside with my husband and Chandler. After about 20 minutes I came out and the mom said to me, “What is up with Chandler, he is acting like a different kid?” I told her about the chelation and she said that it was like we had adopted a new child.

His lead levels are still rising, and he still has mercury tucked in there behind the lead (chelators bind to lead first and you have to clear it before you can get the mercury out adequately), so we will be doing this for a while. After a month long break, we will be starting up again and I will give more frequent updates on his progress.

But for now, I wanted to share with everyone our wonderful news of our beautiful boy’s progress.

Thank you to all of the encouragement that so many have given us over the years.

Jenny McCarthy on Oprah: Vaccine Injury Finally

(Update 2009 - This has become a very popular blog post, especially for those who are looking for information on just what Jenny McCarthy is talking about when she writes about vaccine injury and autism treatment. Much disinformation is out there on what she is 'preaching'.

No she is not advocating the abandonment of vaccination, but a reexamination and easing off of the overly aggressive/untested CDC vaccine schedule, and stricter safety standards of individual vaccines. Currently the vaccine schedule has more than tripled since I was a child, as it has gone from 10 vaccines to 66 vaccines, and 36 alone in the first 18 months of life. There is no safety testing of the vaccine schedule as a whole, and public health agencies have refused to do any, despite parent protests. Safety standards are very poor and Pharma is asking for even regulatory standards to even be lowered for them.]

She is also advocating medical treatment for children with autism. No these are not HER treatments, they are emerging treatments that began to be put into use at least 15 years ago, and now are in use by most parents of young children with autism. (She is just the most well known and vociferous advocate of these medical interventions) For example, CDC now recommends that children with autism be screened for gastrointestinal damage. Treating this damage often improves the cognition and functioning of people with autism.

In short, in case after case that is properly medically investigated, doctors are finding that children with the behavioral diagnosis of "autism" have neuro immune disease. These kids have an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system has attacked the central nervous system. Onset is often directly following vaccination (or other environmental insults), and we know that vaccination causes autoimmune disorders (check the VCIP "vaccine encepalopathy" and individual vaccine package inserts for details). At issue is whether many cases of "autism" are in fact neuroimmune disease in a genetically vulnerable subset of the population, triggered by an over reaction of the immune system to the ingredients in the vaccine.

The testing that would prove or disprove this theory have never been done.

Further, most of these children have serious GI damage that causes malabsorption of nutrients, resulting in further damage to the brain and related systems.

Jenny McCarthy's book about autism treatment is a collaboration between Jenny, and a very well respected physician in the autism community, Dr. Jerry Kartzinel. "Healing and Preventing Autism: A Complete Guide" is a book in which Dr. Kartzinel discusses the treatments and McCarthy discusses her experience of the treatments.

For more information on environmental causation and treatments feel free to explore this site or contact me personally. My son has been on said treatments for five years and has responded very well.

Recommended posts for you to visit:

• Maine CDC Autism Conference - GI dysfunction in autism, Environmental causation in autism, Vaccine causation in autism.
• Julie Gerberding Tells CNN that Vaccines Trigger Autism
• An article on just how bad the research is that CDC uses to exonerate vaccines in autism causation.
• Jenny's book with Dr. Kartzinel on autism treatment was directed at parents, but this could be considered the companion piece for physicians on the state of research into the treatments that are successful in recovering children from autism: Changing the Course of Autism. If you are serious about finding out why Jenny's message has resonated with so many parents, but don't think that she is a credible source of medical information, please read Dr. Jepson's book. This is the book that Martha Herbert of Harvard mentions in her speech at the Maine CDC autism conference.
• The head of the AAP's very easily disprovable lie that vaccines do not cause long term damage.
• Contradictory rulings in the Vaccine Court that vaccines cannot cause autism, but the MMR absolutely did cause Baily Bank's autism. The media did not pick up the Banks ruling.
• A partial list of research for those who have come here under the assumption that the only evidence of the link between vaccines and autism is temporal correlation and who are tempted to comment and make the "correlation does not prove causation" arguement.

Thank you for visiting and enjoy the site.)

Jenny McCarthy on Oprah
Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:

When she was not yet a superstar or even broadcasting nationally, in early 1985 a friend gave Oprah a copy of "DPT: A Shot in the Dark," which was the first report of an association between autism and vaccination. "We're waiting until it comes out in paperback," a producer told her friend. The paperback version was published in 1986 but, by then, Oprah had starred in "The Color Purple," her show had been nationally syndicated and the vaccine safety debate had become a heated controversy. Over the last two decades, many parents of vaccine injured children have written letters to Oprah in hopes that she would do a show about vaccine risks.

Yesterday, after 22 years, Oprah finally talked about vaccine injured children when she interviewed Hollywood Moms, Jenny McCarthy and Holly Peete. Jenny has written a book on her experience of watching her two and a half year old son regress into autism after an MMR shot.

On the show, Jenny talked about the increases in autism among children and asked what parents of vaccine injured children have been asking for a quarter century: "What number will it take for people just to start listening to what the mothers of children who have seen autism have been saying for years, which is, 'We vaccinated our baby and something happened."

Jenny says even before Evan received his vaccines, she tried to talk to her pediatrician about it. "Right before his MMR shot, I said to the doctor, "I have a very bad feeling about this shot. This is the autism shot, isn't it?' And he said, 'No, that is ridiculous. It is a mother's desperate attempt to blame something,' and he swore at me, and then the nurse gave [Evan] the shot," she says. "And I remember going, 'Oh, God, I hope he's right.' And soon thereafter-boom-the soul's gone from his eyes."

The CDC's prepared response to a query from the Oprah Show staff about whether there is a link between autism and vaccines was "CDC places a high priority on vaccine safety and the integrity and credibility of its vaccine safety research. This commitment not only stems from our scientific and medical dedication, it is also personal-for most of us who work at CDC are also parents and grandparents. And as such, we too, have high levels of personal interest and concern in the health and safety of children, families and communities. We simply don't know what causes most cases of autism, but we're doing everything we can to find out. The vast majority of science to date does not support an association between thimerosal in vaccines and autism. But we are currently conducting additional studies to further determine what role, if any, thimerosal in vaccines may play in the development of autism. It is important to remember, vaccines protect and save lives. Vaccines protect infants, children and adults from the unnecessary harm and premature death caused by vaccine-preventable diseases."

It is curious that the CDC would confine its response regarding the autism-vaccine connection to thimerosal, when MMR vaccine has been strongly associated with regressive autism and live virus MMR vaccine never contained thimerosal. The National Vaccine Information Center, which has operated a Vaccine Reaction Registry since 1982, continues to receive reports from parents describing how their children regressed after receiving live virus or non- mercury containing vaccines, often after being given 8 to 12 vaccines on one day. The most heart-breaking stories are when children are vaccinated over and over again despite deteriorating health because their pediatricians are in denial about vaccine risks.

Jenny McCarthy gave a star turn on Oprah when she clearly, simply and passionately described what happened to her son after vaccination and how she was empowered by information she found on the internet to find ways to cure his vaccine-associated regressive autism. She listened to her mother's instinct and pursued a course of treatment that involved nutrition and other alternative therapies. It is a story of a mother's love and determination to heal her son after he was given the diagnosis of autism, a neuroimmune disorder that so many pediatricians are taught is untreatable.

In the early 1990's, a mother in California, Cindy Goldenberg, was the first Mom to cure her son of regressive autism by listening to her mother's instincts and doing her own research into vaccine-induced neuroimmune dysfunction. Her son experienced regressive autism after receiving MMR vaccine. Cindy sought out IVIG therapy as well as nutritional and probiotic therapies that she said "healed his gut." Her son was soon in a regular classroom and this year he graduated from high school.

As of last night, there were nearly 2,000 messages, primarily from Moms, for Jenny and Holly posted on Oprah's website at http://www.oprah.com/community/thread/1812

Bravo, Oprah. You allowed Jenny to tell it like it is. You have helped millions of Moms across America understand what happened to their children, who changed physically, mentally and emotionally after getting vaccinated, and now suffer with autism and other kinds of vaccine-induced brain and immune system dysfunction such as learning disabilities, ADHD, seizure disorders, asthma, and diabetes.

If your child stopped speaking, wouldn't look you in the eye and completely ignored the world around them, what would you do? In her new book, Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism, actress Jenny McCarthy shares her emotional story of diagnosis, hope, faith and recovery-a journey many thousands of parents now face.


National Vaccine Information Center
email:news@nvic.org
voice: 703-938-dpt3
web: http://www.nvic.org

Looks Like Autism Speaks is Faking Us Out Again

Autism Speaks, who we in the biomed community have been praising in the last few weeks for beginning to put money into researching the treatments that are actually helping our kids, might just be doing it for show.

The Rescue Post is reporting that rumors point to Eric London of NAAR being put in charge of the biomed research at AS. This would turn the program into an instant joke.

If this happens, we can all just close the door on AS and move on with our lives.

Read the Post article. And the rest of them while you are at it. Blogging will continue to be light here for a while. But they are consistently on the ball.

CDC Schedule: 43 vaccines in the first 18 months

For those of you keeping track, Hep A and Rotovirus have been added to the CDC schedule for 2007 and we are now up to 43 vaccines in the first 18 months of life.

Would you want 43 vaccines over the course of the next 18 months?

UPDATE: I forgot the flu shot! So with the prenatal and yearly flu shots that are recommended, the total is actually at 46.

Tonsil Removal May Cure ADHD in Kids

Huh. Who'da thunk it?

Tonsil removal may cure ADHD behavior in kids
10:59 PM CDT on Saturday, August 11, 2007
Contra Costa County Times

TUCSON, Ariz. — Little T.J. was a monster. There's no other way to say it.

Extremely hyperactive, the toddler ran around in circles, destroying everything in his path. He got kicked out of day care and banned from friends' homes.

His own grandmother called the 2-year-old a "monster." Friends told his family that T.J. — short for Terence Johnson — was destined to be "the next serial killer."

"He was so out of control, I was at my wits' end," said his mother, Heather Norton. "It is hurtful to realize nobody likes your child."

That was then. Today, as T.J. gets ready to turn 3, he is a changed boy. Lively, to be sure, but affectionate instead of mean.

"It's a total turnaround — this is a different child," Ms. Norton said. "Everybody notices the difference."

A frontal lobotomy? Electroshock therapy? Powerful drugs?

No, T.J. had his tonsils out.

The removal of a child's tonsils can, in some cases, significantly improve, even cure, severe hyperactivity often diagnosed as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Now affecting more than 2 million U.S. children, ADHD most often is treated with psychoactive drugs, sometimes for a lifetime.

But in some children, simply removing the tonsils also has removed the diagnosis, by restoring normal behavior.

"Sometimes you get really great results, sometimes you see partial results in these children," said Dr. Damian Parkinson, the psychiatrist who suggested T.J.'s behavior might be related to his tonsils.

The key to making that connection is how the child sleeps. Snoring, restlessness, apnea, and gasping for breath during the night are clearly linked to hyperactive daytime behavior in very young children. And enlarged or infected tonsils and adenoids — immune-related tissue masses in the throat — most often are the cause of "sleep-disordered breathing."

In one recent study, at the University of Michigan, 22 children with ADHD and sleep-disordered breathing had adenotonsillectomies. After one year, 11 no longer battled ADHD.

"These improvements are remarkable because hyperactivity and inattention generally are expected to be chronic features in affected school-age children," the researchers wrote in a report published last year in Pediatrics.

As a result of this and other recent studies, "doctors conducting healthy-child checkups should always ask about snoring, poor sleep, behavioral and learning problems, and look for physical signs such as enlarged tonsils and adenoids," reads a summary published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in June.

Johnson & Johnson Shows Their True Colors

These guys are unbelievable.

Newsflash for J&J:

In the hearts and minds of everyone on this planet, this logo:



Means the Red Cross. Your piece of paper will never make it mean Johnson & Johnson.

This logo:



Is the only one that means Johnson & Johnson. But you already know that. I know that you know that because it is the only one on your web site. I can't find the red cross anywhere on it.

I didn't even know you guys had a red cross as your logo until you filed this lawsuit. Great PR move though. I guess you picked the Red Cross to sue because Mother Theresa was dead?

Just change your damn logo and let the Red Cross go back to driving into war zones to save lives.

Selfish idiots.

I plan to purge my house of all J&J products today.

UPDATE:

HA!

"In a related story, rumors persist that Johnson & Johnson is considering a similar suit against the Catholic Church, as well as major Christian denominations, who persist in using the company's trademark cross in their religious ceremonies."

UPDATE:

My cute husband's comment, "In other legal news, the Cavemen from the Geico ad file a law suit against Ford Motor company claiming that Ford has infringed upon their claim to the invention of "The Wheel®".

Pharmaceutical giant sues Red Cross over logo
By David Crary, Associated Press

Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical giant that uses a red cross as its trademark, sued the American Red Cross on Wednesday, demanding that the charity halt the use of the red cross symbol on products that it sells to the public.

NEW YORK - Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical giant that uses a red cross as its trademark, sued the American Red Cross on Wednesday, demanding that the charity halt the use of the red cross symbol on products that it sells to the public.

Johnson & Johnson said that it has had exclusive rights to use the trademark on certain commercial products -- including bandages and first-aid cream -- for more than 100 years.

It contends that the Red Cross is supposed to use the symbol only in connection with nonprofit relief services.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, marked the breakdown of months of behind-the-scenes negotiations and prompted an angry response from the Red Cross.

"For a multibillion-dollar drug company to claim that the Red Cross violated a criminal statute ... simply so that J&J can make more money, is obscene," Red Cross President Mark Everson said.

Johnson & Johnson began using the red cross design as a trademark in 1887 -- six years after the creation of the American Red Cross but before the organization received its congressional charter in 1900. The lawsuit contends that the charter did not empower the Red Cross to engage in commercial activities competing with a private business.

"After more than a century of strong cooperation in the use of the Red Cross trademark ... we were very disappointed to find that the American Red Cross started a campaign to license the trademark to several businesses for commercial purposes," Johnson & Johnson said in a prepared statement.

It said the products include baby mitts, nail clippers, combs, toothbrushes, hand sanitizers and humidifiers.

The Red Cross said that many of the products in question were part of health and safety kits, and that profits from the sales -- totaling less than $10 million -- went to boost Red Cross disaster-response efforts.

The suit asks the Red Cross to turn over the products in question to New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson for destruction and also seeks unspecified punitive damages.

"The Red Cross products that J&J wants to take away from consumers ... are those that help Americans get prepared for life's emergencies," Everson said. "I hope that the courts and Congress will not allow Johnson & Johnson to bully the American Red Cross."

Fisher-Price Recalls Toys for Lead

Seriously? We took the lead out of life like 30 years ago. Why are we suddenly sliding back into this. First lunch boxes, then Thomas the Train, and now Big Bird and Dora.

[see update at bottom. Head of Chinese company that supplied the toys committed suicide. Paint supplied by his best friend. It is so sad to see how many lives are destroyed by people who cheat just to make a few bucks.]

Fisher-Price to recall nearly 1M toys
By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO and NATASHA T. METZLER,
Associated Press Writers Wed Aug 1, 9:33 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Toy-maker Fisher-Price is recalling 83 types of toys — including the popular Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego characters — because their paint contains excessive amounts of lead.

The worldwide recall being announced Thursday involves 967,000 plastic preschool toys made by a Chinese vendor and sold in the United States between May and August. It is the latest in a wave of recalls that has heightened global concern about the safety of Chinese-made products.

The recall is the first for Fisher-Price Inc. and parent company Mattel Inc. involving lead paint. It is the largest for Mattel since 1998 when Fisher-Price had to yank about 10 million Power Wheels from toy stores.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, David Allmark, general manager of Fisher-Price, said the problem was detected by an internal probe and reported to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The recall is particularly alarming since Mattel, known for its strict quality controls, is considered a role model in the toy industry for how it operates in China.

Fisher-Price and the commission issued statements saying parents should keep suspect toys away from children and contact the company.

The commission works with companies to issue recalls when it finds consumer goods that can be harmful. Under current regulations, children's products found to have more than .06 percent lead accessible to users are subject to a recall.

Allmark says the recall was "fast-tracked," which allowed the company to quarantine two-thirds of the toys before they even made it to store shelves. In negotiating details of the recall, Fisher-Price and the government sought to withhold details from the public until Thursday to give stores time to get suspect toys off shelves and Fisher-Price time to get its recall hot line up and running. However, some news organizations prematurely posted an embargoed version of the story online.

Allmark said the recall was troubling because Fisher-Price has had a long-standing relationship with the Chinese vendor, which had applied decorative paint to the toys. Allmark said the company would use this recall as an opportunity to put even better systems in place to monitor vendors whose conduct does not meet Mattel's standards.

He added: "We are still concluding the investigation, how it happened. ... But there will be a dramatic investigation on how this happened. We will learn from this."

The recall follows another high-profile move from toy maker RC2 Corp., which in June voluntarily recalled 1.5 million wooden railroad toys and set parts from its Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway product line. The company said that the surface paint on certain toys and parts made in China between January 2005 and April 2006 contain lead, affecting 26 components and 23 retailers.

"Anytime a company brings a banned hazardous product into the U.S. marketplace, especially one intended for children, it is unacceptable," said Nancy Nord, acting chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. "Ensuring that Chinese-made toys are safe for U.S. consumers is one of my highest priorities and is the subject of vital talks currently in place between CPSC and the Chinese government."

Carter Keithley, president of the Toy Industries Association, praised Mattel's quick response to the problem, and suggested Mattel will use this setback as a lesson for not only the company but for the entire industry. However, he expressed concern about how the recall and other toy recalls will play out in consumers' minds in advance of the holiday season.

"We are worried about the public feeling," said Keithley, adding he observed how toy companies are embracing strict controls during a recent toy safety seminar in China. "We have thought all along that (consumers) can be confident in the products," he said. "But if companies like Mattel have this, then you have to ask how did this happen?"

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., introduced a bill last month that he contended would dramatically expand the product safety commission's ability to protect consumers. In a statement Wednesday night, Durbin also called for better safety standards for products imported from China.

"Sadly, this is the most recent in a series of disturbing recalls of children's toys. While the toys may be different, they have one thing in common — they were manufactured in China," he said. "With the current tools and resources the Consumer Product Safety Commission has, it cannot adequately protect American consumers."

Owners of a recalled toy can exchange it for a voucher for another product of the same value. To see pictures of the recalled toys, visit http://www.service.mattel.com. For more information, call Mattel's recall hot line at 800-916-4498.

UPDATE:

China toy boss kills self after recall
By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 15 minutes ago

BEIJING - The head of a Chinese toy manufacturing company at the center of a huge U.S. recall has committed suicide, a state-run newspaper said Monday.

Zhang Shuhong, who co-owned Lee Der Industrial Co. Ltd., killed himself at a warehouse over the weekend, days after China announced it had temporarily banned exports by the company, the Southern Metropolis Daily said.

Lee Der made 967,000 toys recalled earlier this month by Mattel Inc. because they were made with paint found to have excessive amounts of lead. The plastic preschool toys, sold under the Fisher-Price brand in the U.S., included the popular Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego characters.

It was among the largest recalls in recent months involving Chinese products, which have come under fire for globally for containing potentially dangerous high levels of chemicals and toxins.

The Southern Metropolis Daily said that a supplier, Zhang's best friend, sold Lee Der fake paint which was used in the toys.

"The boss and the company were harmed by the paint supplier, the closest friend of our boss," a manager surnamed Liu was quoted as saying.

Liu said Zhang hung himself on Saturday, according to the report. It is common for disgraced officials to commit suicide in China.

"When I got there around 5 p.m., police had already sealed off the area," Liu said.

A company official who answered the telephone at the Lee Der factory in the southern city of Foshan on Monday said he had not heard of the news. A man at Lee Der's main office in Hong Kong said the company was not accepting interviews and hung up.

According to a search on a registry of Hong Kong companies, Zhang — whose name is spelled Cheung Shu-hung in official documents — is a co-owner of Lee Der. The other owner, Chiu Kwei-tsun, did not return telephone messages left for him.

The recall by El Segundo, California-based Mattel came just two months after RC2 Corp., a New York company, recalled 1.5 million Chinese-made wooden railroad toys and set parts from its Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway product line because of lead paint.

The maker, Hansheng Wood Products Factory, was also included in the export ban announced Thursday by the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, one of China's quality watchdogs.

The administration also ordered both companies to evaluate and change their business practices.

Lead poisoning can cause vomiting, anemia and learning difficulties. In extreme cases, it can cause severe neurological damage and death.

The quality watchdog also said police were investigating two companies' use of "fake plastic pigment" but did not give any details. Such pigments are a type of industrial latex usually used to increase surface gloss and smoothness.

Telephones rang unanswered at the public security bureau in Foshan and at Dongxing New Energy Company, which is the paint supplier.

In its report, the Southern Metropolis Daily said Zhang, who was in his 50s, treated his 5,000-odd employees well and always paid them on time.

The morning of his suicide, he greeted workers and chatted with some of them, the newspaper said.

Chinese companies often have long supply chains, making it difficult to trace the exact origin of components, chemicals and food additives.