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1. One Click Stats - May 2010
We provide our readers with the top fifteen documents and articles read/downloaded by thousands of people from all over the globe during May 2010. Document uptake varies each month on One Click dependent upon which issues the pressure group is currently covering. Romping up the ranks this month and hitting the number one spot has been the article concerning Dr Sarah Myhill and the UK General Medical Council entitled Doc Who Harms No One Is Punished, But Docs Who Killed Can Practice. Happy reading to all.
Information Release, The One Click Group
2. NVIC Public Engagement Alert
NVIC is alerting its Vaccine E-news subscribers and organizations of an important meeting of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) on June 2-3, 2010 and the need for public comment. The NVAC's Vaccine Safety Working Group (VSWG) is currently charged with reviewing the current federal vaccine safety system and developing a White Paper describing different options for what can be done to improve the system. NVIC has been representing consumers on vaccine advisory committees since 1988 and in public engagement initiatives since 2002. It is vitally important that government hear from the public on important issues like improving the vaccine safety infrastructure. We encourage you to participate by making your voice heard and will update our readers on other public engagement opportunities regarding this process as more information from NVPO becomes available.
Barbara Loe Fisher, National Vaccine Information Center
3. Mum Feared Child Would Die After Vaccine
Health Donaldson
Carolyn Flack feared her child could have died when he suffered convulsions after receiving a flu jab. During his ambulance trip to the paediatric emergency care department at Middlemore Hospital, Ms Flack thinks Heath’s temperature rose to 39.8 degrees Celsius. Ms Flack contacted the Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring (CARM) and was concerned to discover Heath’s reaction to the flu vaccine had not been reported. On April 23, Australia’s chief medical officer asked providers to stop giving under-fives the seasonal flu vaccine made by CSL after receiving reports of fever and convulsions in children in Western Australia who had recently been vaccinated.
Times Online, New Zealand
Related Links:
* Australia Launches Flu Vaccine Inquiry As Children Convulse And Die
Cortlan Bennett, Sydney Morning Herald
* Flu Vaccine Early Warning Signs Ignored As Children Convulse And Die
news.com.au
* Parents Hammer Hotline As 250 Adverse Flu Vaccine Reactions Reported
The Australian
* Flu Vaccine Killer Comes From Multiple Vaccine Batches
ABC News
* Toddler Ashley Jade Epapara, 2, Dies After Flu Vaccine
Suellen Hinde, Sunday Mail, Australia
4. Scientists Spin Negative Research To Look Good For Money As People Die
Scientists are no strangers to spinning their research, a new study -- presumably not spun -- shows. More than half of 72 reports examined by French and British researchers had dressed up their conclusions to make it seem as if new treatments were beneficial, even though they weren't according to the statistics in the report. For instance, one study concluded a cancer detection system worked, but couldn't back it up with actual results, Dr Isabelle Boutron of the Universite Paris Descartes in France who worked on the study told Reuters. Earlier research has shown that findings are often spun when money is involved -- for instance when a drug maker funds a study of its own product. In such cases, favorable conclusions may directly contradict the actual results. When a clinical study was published in 2000 comparing Vioxx with an older drug, the authors downplayed the risk of heart attack: Instead of reporting the five-fold increase in risk, they chose to frame it as a protective effect of the older drug. "I supposed it will change the way I review papers," said Dr Boutron.
Frederik Joelving, Reuters
5. GMC Findings: Dr Andrew Wakefield, Professor John Walker-Smith & Professor Simon Murch
From Left: Dr Andrew Wakefield
Professor John Walker-Smith
Professor Simon Murch
The General Medical Council Panel has determined that the names of Dr Andrew Wakefield and Professor John Walker-Smith's should be erased from the Medical Register for serious professional misconduct. The Panel found that Professor Simon Murch is not guilty of serious professional misconduct. Professor Murch is free to continue unrestricted medical practice. One Click publishes the Full Text of the GMC findings.
Information Release, General Medical Council
Related Links:
* Dr Andrew Wakefield, Determination On Serious Professional Misconduct And Sanction
GMC Information Release
* Professor John Walker-Smith, Determination On Serious Professional Misconduct And Sanction
GMC Information Release
* Professor Simon Murch, Determination On Serious Professional Misconduct And Sanction
GMC Information Release
6. Soldier Hero Suffering From Gulf War Syndrome Denied Justice In Death
The family of York hero Terry Walker claim they have been cheated after it emerged that Gulf War Syndrome will not be examined at his inquest. Terry, who served in the Falklands, Northern Ireland and the first Gulf War, died following a failed heart transplant in 2007. His parents, Ted and Hazel, of Wheldrake, believe he only had a weak heart because of the effects of Gulf War syndrome. But they have been been told that his inquest, to be held in Newcastle on July 20, will only examine the heart transplant and not the years of ill-health which Terry suffered leading up to it. Ted said he felt cheated by the system. He said: “I feel very disappointed that they are not going to look at the Gulf War Syndrome.” Mr Walker said the other difficulty with bringing Gulf War Syndrome up at the inquest was that the British Government, unlike the American and Canadian counterparts, had still not accepted the illness existed. In addition, he said it was very unlikely that any coroner would state that Terry’s death was exacerbated by Gulf War Syndrome as this would open the compensation floodgates and would cost the Government millions. But Mr Walker said an inquest which did not examine the effects of Gulf War Syndrome was cheating other soldiers out of justice. He said: “What we were doing was not just for Terry, but all the veterans who served in the first Gulf War. They have just been pushed aside."
Richard Harris, The Press, York
Related Links:
* British Gulf War Veterans Refused Pensions
Press Association
* Gulf War Syndrome Is Real, Concludes Institute Of Medicine
Janet Raloff, Science News
7. UK Babies' DNA Held On Secret Database Without Informed Consent
Blood samples from millions of newborn babies are being stored without their parents’ knowledge, it emerged yesterday. The massive DNA files can be consulted by a range of organisations including the police, coroners and medical researchers, without having to ask the children’s families. In a sinister example of Britain’s slide into a Big Brother society, hospitals have admitted storing the blood samples of four million newborns during routine heel-prick tests. Police and bodies like insurance firms might be able to see the samples. The disclosure of the secret database’s existence prompted calls for an official inquiry into why the information is being stored in such a covert way. Shami Chakrabarti, director of the civil rights pressure group Liberty, said: “If they think that thrusting a leaflet in an exhausted mother’s hand creates informed consent, they can look forward to a flurry of claims under the Human Righ ts Act. Liberty is asking for an investigation.”
Victoria Fletcher, Daily Express
Related Links:
* The UK Database State Scandal
Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust
8. Unfit UK Coalition Government Targeting Disabled As Profit Centres
The UK Department of Work and Pensions has indicated that it intends to roll out radical welfare-to-work reforms that could deny millions of disabled people adequate support, despite evidence of significant piloting failure. Already thousands of disabled people are being denied benefits they may be entitled to on the basis of these, the BBC is reporting. So far, 60 per cent of applicants are being turned down, and the assessments carried out by private providers are accused of lacking thoroughness and expertise. Medical assessments for Incapacity Benefit carried out by public providers were too short and lacked expertise, say critics. They often failed to recognise or acknowledge ‘fluctuation’ (good and bad days) or the impact of long-term problems like Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). Disabled people have now become ‘profit centres’, it seems. And the commercial and political incentives to deny them benefit are likely to worsen the injustice they face under the coalition government's ‘fairness and responsibility’ agenda.
Simon Barrow, Ekklesia
9. UK Digital Economy Coalition Government Mocks Democracy - Next Please
The chief executive of the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST), John Lovelock, has been crowing this week about how glad he is that the Digital Economy Act won't be repealed. Lovelock's support for such a flawed piece of legislation is misguided. The Digital Economy Bill was a massive document and there was no way that parliament had enough time to examine it properly before it was rushed through. The way in which it made it into the statute books made a mockery of democracy and our parliamentary system. The undemocratic passage of the act may have been in the minds of many people on polling day. It was certainly in mine. The Liberal Democrats said that they would repeal the law in the run-up to the election, but I'm hardly surprised that the new coalition government has now said that the act is to be left untouched. It seems that the new government have the same view of proper parliamentary process, human rights and the ridiculously uneven UK- US extradition treaty as the last one. Next please.
Ben Camm-Jones, Webuser
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