Britannia Radio

READ THE NEWS ON ONE CLICK
http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk

1. Parents Protest As Children Struggle To Survive After Swine Flu Vaccine

About a dozen parents whose children are struggling to survive after different vaccinations including the one against A(H1N1) protested outside the Ministry of Health Tuesday, holding banners and shouting, "We want to see the minister!" The parents said their family life is miserable after their children became ill. One of the parents is Wang Jian, 42, from Jiangxi Province, who has been in despair after his 10-year-old son received the A(H1N1) flu vaccine in January. His son has been diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, or "preleukemia," and is waiting for a bone marrow transplant in Beijing. Wang believes the A(H1N1) flu vaccine caused the disease.
Huang Jingjing, Global Times

2. GlaxoSmithKline Covered Up Deadly Avandia Drug Risks

BRITISH pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline hid the dangers of its top-selling diabetes drug Avandia and secretly wrote scientific articles about it, two US politicians charged overnight. The allegations came as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) opened a two-day meeting of experts who will weigh whether to pull Avandia from the market over safety concerns. In a letter dated on Monday and addressed to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, Senators Max Baucus and Charles Grassley accused Glaxo of covering up scientific studies that found problems with Avandia and of including the drug in a "ghostwriting" program. Their letter to Hamburg cited several Glaxo internal emails which show that the pharmaceutical giant knew that studies had found "problems" with Avandia but ordered that the findings not be made public. Several studies have linked Avandia to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke, but a Glaxo-funded study last year came up with the opposite result.
AFP, Adelaide Now

3. FDA Backs GlaxoSmithKline's Deadly Avandia Drug

GAITHERSBURG, Md. — A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended yesterday that the diabetes drug Avandia be allowed to remain on the market despite a variety of studies that show it poses elevated risks of heart attack. Twenty of the 33 panel members voted to keep the drug on the market, with 17 of those calling for stronger warnings or tighter restrictions on prescribing; 12 members called for its removal from the market. One panel member abstained. The FDA is not bound by the votes of advisory panels, but it typically follows their guidance. The vote was closely watched because it could have wider implications for how government responds to drug safety warnings. In the end, it demonstrated reluctance to remove a drug from the market when there are mixed signals about its safety. Avandia “should not be innocent until proven guilty,’’ said Dr. David Juurlink, a Canadian researcher who has analyzed the drug’s saf ety and who called for its removal in written comments that were added yesterday to a voluminous record of competing claims and conflicting studies. The FDA has itself to blame for the perception that it allowed Avandia safety issues to linger without action, a prominent critic said during the advisory panel meeting this week.
Christopher Rowland, The Boston Globe

4. GlaxoSmithKline Takes $2.4 Billion Charge

GlaxoSmithKline expects to record a legal charge of 1.57 billion pounds ($2.4 billion) for the second quarter after settling the "substantial majority" of claims relating to its controversial diabetes pill Avandia. The move, designed to clear the decks of outstanding legal issues, will wipe out most of the drugmaker's expected earnings for the three months to June but leaves it better placed to grow profits in future. The British drugmaker said on Thursday the charge would cover not only settlements for Avandia but also other long-standing legal cases, including an investigation into its former factory at Cidra in Puerto Rico, and anti-trust and product liability litigation over antidepressant Paxil. Avandia also faces scrutiny from the European Medicines Agency, which has launched a new review into Avandia's risks and benefits and will discuss the matter July 19-22 in London.
Ben Hirschler, Reuters

5. Paedophilia Used As An Excuse To Snoop On Internet Users - Again!

Once again those who wish to impose the “Surveillance Society” upon us are trying to do so by exploiting public fears about online paedophilia. Members of the European Parliament are being asked to sign a written declaration that will, ostensibly, “set up a European early warning system for paedophiles and sex offenders”. In reality, it will extend the Data Retention Directive to search engines. I’m quite sure most of us don’t find any humour in paedophilia or the abuse of civil liberties. The Data Retention Directive is a controversial directive that requires EU members to store citizens’ telecommunications data so that it can be used by police and security services. This new written declaration would extend the Data Retention Directive to cover web searches – e.g. what we type into Google every day. This is a cynical attempt to exploit politicians’ understandable desire to prevent paedophiles plying t heir vile trade. Unfortunately, the reality is that it’ll provide yet more monitoring of honest citizens, further undermining their online civil liberties. There is no evidence presented that paedophiles are using Google to find child pornography. In fact, the likelihood is that they use private bulletin boards and peer-to-peer file sharing networks. I’d do some more research into this, but I really think it would be ill-advised of me to type “distribution of child pornography” into Google, don’t you?
Andrew Tait, Big Brother Watch

6. Delay In Release Of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Study Sparks Outcry

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, citing a need to re-evaluate their data, have delayed publication of a new study believed to provide evidence of a link between chronic fatigue syndrome and a little-known retrovirus. The study, already peer-reviewed, was supposed to appear in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The delay has sparked an outcry on blogs and social networking sites among chronic fatigue patients, who are desperate for answers about their debilitating illness and fear that important scientific data are being suppressed. Word of the findings from the N.I.H. study spread rapidly last month when a Dutch magazine quoted Dr. Alter as saying that his research team had found a high rate of XMRV infection among patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. Dr. Alter reportedly made the statements at a blood safety meeting in Zagreb, Croatia. “A cabal of top government administrators” with a habit of “heavy-handed, anti-science manipulation of peer-reviewed science” ordered the delay, Hillary Johnson, author of a book about the history of chronic fatigue syndrome, alleged on her Web site, OslersWeb.
David Tuller, The New York Times
Related Links:
* CDC XMRV Virus/CFS Paper Is Out. Where's The FDA/NIH Paper?
Amy Dockser Marcus, The Wall Street Journal Blog
* FDA And NIH Confirm XMRV Findings In ME/CFS Patients
Esme, Press Release from the Netherlands
* Detection of an Infectious Retrovirus, XMRV, in Blood Cells of Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Judy A. Mikovits et al, 10.1126/science.1179052, Science Express

7. Unethical Lightning Process And ME/CFS Children

Is it ethical to undertake a pilot looking at feasibility of recruiting children 8 to 18 with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Myalgic Ecephalomyelitis into an RCT comparing Lightning Process and specialist medical care when no rigorous RCTs into the application of LP in adults have been undertaken? Click HERE to enter your vote.
ME Agenda
Related Links:
* Dr Esther Crawley, ME/CFS Children & The Lightning Process
Suzy Chapman, Health Advocate
* ME/CFS Patients Damaged By Lightning Process Fight Back
John Sayer

8. Data Required For Study Of Lyme Disease

We need useful data for the study of Lyme and how it affects patients. We need your help! This survey is sent by the National Capital Lyme and Tick-borne Disease Association to gather information for a new paper, "The Human Dimension of Lyme Disease and Other Tick-Borne Diseases: A Patient's Perspective." The paper is for the Institute of Medicine's scientific workshop entitled, Lyme Disease and Other Tick-Borne Diseases: The State of the Science. The workshop is charged to represent the broad spectrum of scientific views on Lyme disease. It is expected to provide a forum for public participation and input from individuals with Lyme disease, as requested in congressional appropriations report language in House Committee Report 111-120 and Senate Committee Report 111-66. Your participation is greatly valued and needed to add validity to the "Human Dimensions" paper. Earlier, we requested your personal story; now we are asking you to par ticipate in this survey. Your contribution to this database will add depth and validity to the descriptions that will be submitted on the patient experience in obtaining a diagnosis, seeking treatment, obtaining insurance coverage, and living with Lyme disease.
National Capital Lyme & Tick-Borne Disease Association

9. Manipulative Politics At Codex - Form Reigns Over Function

The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) opened its 33rd session on Monday, July 5th, at the Centre International de Conferences in Geneva, Switzerland, with a full agenda of food-standard topics to be discussed. Except for those spells during which vice-chairmen ran the meeting for practice, the CAC Chairwoman Karen Hulebak steered the meeting down its bobsled course with the National Health Federation (NHF) as a very active and noticed participant in the debates. Among many other issues, the Commission debated the proposed Codex standard for ractopamine maximum residue levels (MRLs). Stuck at the final Step 8, and balancing on the edge of adoption by CAC, these standards are strongly opposed by the European Union, Russia, China, Turkey, and other member-country delegations as well as all consumer INGOs. Ractopamine is a veterinary drug developed by a subsidiary of drug company Eli Lilly. It is approved in 22 countries, but either banned or not approved for use in 160 countries worldwide. Administered in the feed of animals in the last few weeks before they are slaughtered, this drug “beefs up” the animal so that more will be paid for them at market. Lost in the shuffle are any concerns about the health and welfare of the animals themselves as well as the health of the humans who consume ractopamine-saturated meat.
Press Release, National Health Federation

READ THE NEWS ON ONE CLICK
http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk

The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription:

You are subscribed to the following list:

The One Click Group