From 1994 to 1998, almost two-thirds of the French population and almost all newborn babies were vaccinated against hepatitis B, but the campaign was temporarily suspended because of concerns about side effects.

Some 30 plaintiffs, including the families of five patients who died after the vaccination, have launched civil actions (Reuters 1/1/08).

A British case-controlled analysis showed an odds ratio of 3.1 (95% CI 1.5-6.3) for first symptoms of multiple sclerosis in recipients of recombinant hepatitis B vaccine compared to controls. Two previous French studies had shown a RR of about 1.5. Other studies showed a nonsignificant increase or null findings, especially when date of diagnosis rather than date of first symptoms was used (Neurology 2004;63:838-842).

According to attorney Clifford Miller, “British doctors administering hepatitis B vaccine to infants could face criminal prosecution if fully informed consent is not obtained. Civil prosecution for damages is possible over 21 years later if the injured survive as adults” (UK Press Association Newswire/Romeike, September 2005).

The hepatitis B vaccine has been considered “one of the safest vaccines ever produced” (Neurology, op. cit.). On the other hand, French medical expert Marc Girard has said that “for a preventive measure, hepatitis B is remarkable for the frequency, variety and severity of complications from its use” (Romeike, op.cit.)

Additional information:

• “World Health Organization Vaccine Recommendations: Scientific Flaws, or Criminal Misconduct?” by Marc Girard, J Am Phys Surg, Spring 2006.
• Hepatitis B vaccine information.

High doses of hormones are taken prior to the donation. Jessica Grace Wing had started donating eggs at age 25. She was diagnosed with advanced colon carcinoma at age 29. Her mother recently read a 1998 article in the British journal Human Reproduction, which reported a case of a woman who had donated her eggs, then died of colon cancer (Tucson Citizen 3/5/08).

Additional information:

• “New Life for Sale: $3 Billion Human Egg Industry Booms,” AAPS News of the Day 1/3/08.

The document drew no conclusions as to the role of thimerosal. The government has previously denied any link at all between vaccine components and autism.

A Portuguese study suggested that 7% of autistic children might have a mitochondrial disorder, compared to 0.02% in the whole population.

Stories are conflicting about the time of onset of Hannah’s symptoms. Some state that she had suggestive symptoms at age 3 months; others that she was developing normally until the vaccines were given at 19 months. Her father Jon Poling, M.D., Ph.D., a neurologist, and mother, who is a lawyer and nurse, contend that the vaccines were also responsible for their daughter’s mitochondrial disorder (Kent Heckenlively, Age of Autism 3/5/08).

The family has filed a request with the court to unseal the documents on the case. A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, which represents the government in all cases, refused to grant interviews or to explain to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution why it isn’t releasing the records (Alison Young, Atlanta Journal-Constitution 3/6/08).

The 5,000 families seeking compensation for autism or other developmental disorders they blame on vaccines are encouraged by the decision, the first of its type. However, each case needs to be proved on its own merits, and the decision is so narrowly worded that it may not be a helpful precedent.

Whatever the cause, the number of children receiving Supplemental Social Security Income (SSI) for disability has more than tripled in 20 years. In 1960, only 1.8% of U.S. children or adolescents were said by their parents to have a limitation of activity due to a health condition of more than 3 months’ duration; this rate had increased to more than 7% by 2004. Conditions include obesity, asthma (which has doubled since the 1980s), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, affecting some 6% of schoolchildren).

Potential causative factors, according to JAMA, include maternal smoking (although its prevalence has decreased), poverty (which is stable), and “fast foods.” The only suggested role for the large increase in the number of vaccines is that less or less normal stimulation of the immune system, owing to less exposure to viral infections in early childhood, could cause greater susceptibility to allergens (JM Perrin, et al., JAMA 6/27/07).

There is also a significant increase in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus in children, at least partly attributed to obesity (RB Lipton, JAMA 6/26/07). Some wonder whether this too could have a link to vaccines. Hemophilus immunization has been associated with autoantibodies to islet cells. A Danish study recently showed an attributable risk of 2.3/100 (2.3%) of type 1 diabetes from hemophilus immunization in siblings of insulin-dependent diabetic children (JB Classen, Open Ped Med J 2/25/08).

Establishing the role of vaccines in any chronic, disabling condition could open floodgates of demand for compensation. And this single case of compensation for autism is making public health officials and pediatricians worry that parents will skip vaccinations.

A CDC panel voted unanimously to recommend influenza vaccine annually for all school-age children (WorldNetDaily 2/28/08). New Jersey officials have told parents that their babies can’t attend day care without their flu shot. Most influenza vaccine contains thimerosal.

Two other vaccine-court cases testing the alleged connection between thimerosal and autism go to trial in May.

Additional information:

• “Developmental Regression and Mitochondrial Dysfunction in a Child with Autism” by JS Poling, RE Frye, J Shoffner, AW Zimmerman, J Child Neurology, February 2006, pp 170-172.
• “Doctor Who Sparked Autism Fears Faces Hearing,” AAPS News of the Day 7/23/07.

If the U.S. loses its triple-A credit rating—which is the anchor of the world financial system—severe global consequences would follow. This could occur within a decade (Francesco Guerrera et al., Financial Times 1/11/08).

The subprime mortgage crisis has exposed much deeper concerns. As more borrowers defaulted, banks and other institutional investors began discovering that they owned huge quantities of a new security, collateralized debt obligations or CDOs, which many financial writers don’t even understand. CDOs quickly became the most important influence on home values in America, writes Stephen Mihm (“The Black Box Economy,” Boston Globe 1/27/08).

Mortgage-driven securities are “but the tip of a much larger iceberg,” Mihm observes. Quoting Bill Gross, manager of the world’s largest bond mutual fund, he writes: “Our modern shadow banking system craftily dodges the reserve requirements of traditional institutions and promotes a chain letter, pyramid scheme of leverage, based in many cases on no reserve cushion whatsoever.”

We could see “failing banks, busted brokerages, toppled corporate giants, bankrupt cities, states in default, foreign creditors cashing out of U.S. securities,” warns Gerald Celente, director of the Trends Research Institute in Rhinebeck, N.Y. He predicts that the dollar will bottom out at 10 cents on the euro, perhaps by 2010, and notes that even some Third-World vendors are refusing payment in greenbacks. Formerly invited onto television and cable networks, Celente is now shunned, and USA Today did not cover the Trends Report for the first time in decades, writes Christopher Ketchum (“Trends for Downsizing the U.S.: the Bright Side of the Panic of ’08,” Pacific Free Press 1/31/08).

Arthur Robinson notes an immediate problem: 30% of U.S. energy is now produced abroad, costing $400 billion per year. “Either the government gets off the backs of our energy industries—especially our hydrocarbon and nuclear energy industries, or else the citizens of the United States will become the bankrupt inhabitants of a low-technology country” (Access to Energy, November 2007). Oil and gas that we now import will be purchased by “countries who are able to pay with goods and services and real money, rather than unpayable debt and fiat money.”

Of all the presidential candidates, only Ron Paul has acknowledged the seriousness of the impending economic crisis. The stimulus package will not do the job, he says. “Unfortunately, too many in Washington still believe that we can spend our way into prosperity. This will not work and never has.” Business and jobs go overseas when “taxes bleed away profits and burdensome regulation hamstrings operations,” Paul writes (Ron Paul’s Texas Straight Talk 1/27/08).

Additional information:

• “Leveling,” AAPS News, March 2008
• “U.S. Suffers from Fiscal Cancer, States U.S. Comptroller David Walker,” AAPS News of the Day 1/23/08.
• “The Eve of Destruction?” Civil Defense Perspectives, January 2008.“Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide,” by Arthur B. Robinson, Ph.D., Noah E. Robinson, Ph.D., and Willie Soon, Ph.D., J Am Phys Surg, Fall 2007.