At the foundation, I'm surrounded by a lot of people who take unusual pleasure in statistics. But this statistic should impress everybody: Pneumonia kills more kids than AIDS and malaria... Combined.
This week, before Davos, I traveled to Kenya, where the country just started rolling out a new vaccine for pneumonia. I wanted to actually see the difference the vaccine could make in people's lives.
I got a pretty good idea the second I walked into Mbagathi Hospital in Nairobi. They have about 50 beds -- and 200 patients. There is a courtyard attached to the hospital, where mothers and a few fathers cook their meals and sleep while they wait for their children to get better. The doctor showing me around told me that half of their patients come in with pneumonia. The conclusion was obvious: If Kenya does a good job making sure that children get the new pneumococcus vaccine, that by itself will start to alleviate the overcrowding.
It's really hard to see a child struggling to breathe. But there were several in the acute care ward when I visited. Some of them were on oxygen, but Mbagathi has a very limited supply, which they're forced to ration. Some children who could really benefit from oxygen don't get it. The doctor told me he wasn't sure if the really sick children would survive. It was hard to make eye contact with their mothers, who were looking on and stroking their children's foreheads.
Being in that room reinforced for me what a miracle vaccines can be. Pneumonia is such a terrible disease, but there is a new tool that can prevent many cases of it -- and prevent them rather easily. I hope other countries in Africa follow Kenya's lead and introduce this vaccine as soon as possible.
As I left the hospital, I passed by a very full recovery room. The children in that room weren't feeling their best, but they were on the mend. The mothers were beaming, because they knew they'd get to take their healthy children home soon.
That was a powerful reminder about why we do this work.
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Simon Johnson: Davos: Two Worlds, Ready or Not
Dr Andrew Wakefield of Britain has shown proof positive there is cause for further investigation of a link between vaccinations and increased risk of Autism, a childhood disability we are seeing increase in alarming numbers. What else could affect such a wide range of children and increase in childhood diseases like Autism? The cooling caused by Global Warming? While recent efforts to vilify Dr Wakefield, all sourced from a single journalist with no education in medicine, have gotten a lot of press by mainstream media (which is questionable in itself ) the fact is his findings have been indecently reproduced in 5 other countries.
If you want to continue living in a fantasy world then ignore this else look into Dr Wakefield's research for yourself and then decide who is most likely lying, the pharmaceutical companies who stand to lose financially on a large scale or a single doctor who would risk his livelihood and his name to simply tarnish a drug manufacturer.
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There was a Wakefield who published a paper in 2000 that showed a lot of the children with autism and GI issues had measles virus in their samples. Unfortunately, the Japanese lab couldn't properly identify test samples. And this Wakefield neglected to mention in his 1998 paper that all samples had been tested prior to publication of the 1998 paper. And that where there appeared to be positives, Nick Chadwick, Wakefield's Ph.d. student sent them out for conclusive testing by sequencing them . None of the apparent positives were true positives.
There was a Wakefield that a medical disciplinary board found, that beyond a reasonable doubt, a had repeatedly lied about how the children were chosen.
By Wakefield, do you mean the man who is no longer registered in the UK as a medical doctor because his name has been erased (he's abandoned his appeal) from the register.
The BMJ had an article on a Wakefield that used the transcripts from his disciplinary hearing where he was represented by lawyers to both write the article and then have the British Medical Journal check the article for accuracy using the transcripts. Is this the Wakefield you are referring to?
Naah, you must be writing about a different Wakefield.
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In addition to their must have been another Wakefield, there must also be doppelgangers for both Mr. Barr and Mrs.12.
Mr. Barr was the solicitor that Wakefield worked for on the UK MMR lawsuit. It was from clients and potential clients (through a newsletter) that the children were selected to spend a week at the Royal Free hospital. Mrs. 12 was the mother of child 12 in the 1998 paper.
Here is why there had to be doubles (dopplegangers). According to the official GMC transcripts, on day 28, Mrs.12 testifed. Through her, a letter and attachment were put into evidence. This was before her son was admitted to the Royal Free hospital.
" “Dear Mrs [12]
As requested, I am enclosing a copy of the Proposed Clinical and Scientific Study, as requested by you recently... If you turn over on to the next page, 247, Mrs 12, you can see the study that was with that letter, “Proposed clinical and scientific study” with the coordinating investigator Dr Wakefield....
"MS SMITH: The tests that are referred to in that document, Mrs 12, the tests and investigations on pages 256 and 257, and the plan on 259 for admission for those investigations, do you recognise those as something that ultimately bear any resemblance to what your son was treated for at the Royal Free?
A Yes."
Had to be doppelgangers.
http://mercury-freedrugs.org/docs/110127_CoMeD_PR_CoMeMRepeatsItsCallForBanOnHgInVaccines_b.pdf
His claims included:
• Thimerosal is favored by the pharmaceutical industry because "it is cheap and enables the industry to keep making vaccines in old and dirty factories."
• Thimerosal causes "developmental problems, mental retardation and autism in mercury-sensitive children. "
• "Boys are more susceptible to mercury poisoning than girls, because testosterone amplifies the toxicity of this poison."
• "If one speck of Thimerosal can poison an entire lake, then mere micrograms in even one dose of vaccine can derail the neurological development of an unborn or newborn child."
I hope the Gates Foundation looks into Dr. Geier's campaign to spread death and disease to children in the developing world.
You do have a choice you know
(but thanks to competition, using a rival's software is still a lot cheaper than it would be if Bill Gates had never existed)
Unlike some others who have made a huge amount of money, he has decided to give away a lot of it.
His chosen endeavor is vaccines and vaccination in poor countries.
http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates.html
especially relevant: 4:00 min - 5:00 min
One thing people who worry about vaccines should remember - Once a disease like polio, or measles is globally eradicated, then we can stop giving those vaccines to anyone, ever again.
Wouldn't that be a fantastic thing to achieve?
(1) the fact that the decisions over the approval and inclusion into childhood vaccine schedules of most recent vaccines have been the direct result of pressure placed on lawmakers and the FDA by the pharmaceutical companies which, by the way, contribute millions to political campaigns, and
(2) there's no scientific evidence that some of these vaccines are even effective for the diseases they're proposed to prevent -- the influenza vaccine, HPV and adult pertussis vaccines being prime examples, and,
(3) in those cases where the vaccine's risks may be greater than the risks posed by the disease (e.g. the chicken pox and HPV vaccines), or when a vaccine is largely ineffective (e.g. the adult pertussis vaccine) the pharmaceutical companies ignore the science and, instead, throw their money into huge PR campaigns to scare people into getting vaccinated, and
(4) rather than conduct scrupulous science to determine the need, effectiveness and safety of a vaccine, the pharmaceutical industry exploits loopholes to fast-track FDA approval, then throws a lot of money into campaigns to discredit their detractors and to scare people.
I could go on. The smoking gun is our current vaccine schedule, which has children receiving up to 2 dozen vaccines by the age of two. Given the existing science -- or the lack thereof -- we should be able to debate the wisdom of this schedule without being called conspiracy theorists.
Sometimes the depths of antivaccine sentiment and conspiracist ideation is so bad that one can never reach the bottom of the propaganda barrel.
None of it is true however - half truths, untruths, misrepresentations and cherry-picking of poor science is all they have.
in the old country we had peppermint an d camomile [and garlic] growing in the garden
Belinda as an openminded person should fund research fair and balanced research about herbal tea
and fund neutral research about the claims by the vitamin C foundation
and neccessary research to extend the allready existing 300 peer reviewed published studies about transcendental meditation(TM) into this field of prevention of infections and balancing not just strengthening , immune function
testimonials by ladies practicing TM say thye have much easier pregnancy an dchild birth
experience
personally i am inclined to believe www.nvic.org and www.thinktwice.com an open minded bill and Belinda foundation would donate to these sites to establish them on a scientific basis rather then mostly testimonial an danecdotal basis
in africa in particular the highest piority is to reestablish connection to traditional knowledge KNOWLEDGE
a old medic from WW1 still knew how to make a medicinal salve from plants growing along the local creek and saved my mother from gangrene ina finger
ethnobotanists know local healers everywhere e.g. Amazon who hav einvaluable knowledge about prevention and remedy
I believe there's no money (not enough profit) in natural cures and prevention, and that's why there's more investment in unnatural, manipulated methods for "health".
Vaccines use the natural system of immunity built up over millions and millions of years. What could be more natural than to use the body to protect the body?
For certain vaccines there is a recommendation that other vaccines are not given within 4 weeks as there is a theoretical concern that the immune response to a new vaccine may be suboptimal. (However concurrent vaccines seem to be quite fine).
Saying that vaccines "might" do something in some vague future time frame, with no plausible evidence, is merely scaremongering. So you say vaccines "might" lead to cancer down the road? Well, so "might" barbeque chicken (in fact this is much more plausible, as it contains plenty of carcinogens) but I don't see campaign groups infesting the internet calling for an end to fried chicken.
There are several examples of this despite dyson's casual dismissal.
Peter Aabe has documented quite thoroughly in Ginea-Bissau where the MMR vaccination resulted in higher deaths from pneuomonia in girls. I believe in that case, the overall mortality rose post vaccination.
Additionally, just last year, Canadian researchers published evidence that showed that prior vaccination against influenza increased the risk of contracting H1N1.
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000258
Beware of casual dismissals and claims of scientific positioning!
In one the reason for the Canadian flu variation is related to exposures and epidemiology of the flu subtypes anyway, not "weaker" immunity. And in the other Guinea Bissau study, the authors do not conclude the mortality difference is due to any "weakening of immunity".
To be a more effective vaccination opponent, carefully read:
Addressing Parents’ Concerns: Do Multiple Vaccines Overwhelm or Weaken the Infant’s Immune System? January 2002 AAP
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/109/1/124
A less technical version
http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/p4038.pdf
Sheldon
York, Upper Canada
but we get it. profitable vaccine makers are in your personal fortune portfolio so buying them increases the stock value and makes BMGF look like good guys.
although i dont know enough to recommend i recommend reading the vitamin C foundation website
t DR Klenner cured every type of serious infection with vitamin C
Now to follow your conspiracist thinking to its logical conclusion, Pharma companies should never make or promote vaccines, since treating the disease and illness that occurs (when no-one gets vaccinated) would make them far more money.
If you wish to use the "follow the money" argument, don't look at vaccines, which are actually of marginal profit potential compared to the profits Pharma can rake in for treating the diseases.
His Holiness maharishi mahesh yogi being a quantum physicist [ quantum attention theory in this connection]and deeply conscious of vedic literature taught " whatever w eput our attention on grows stronger in our life "
in the field of health this means prevention [[[ but not vaccination ]]]
of all the details in this field aspects of mental and physical health and ecological or habitat health
from western and eastern perspective including meditation to strengthen immune function
the most complete knowledge is in maharishi ayur veda , transcendental meditation(TM) , maharishi sthapatya veda [ green architecture in accord with natural law or cosmic law] vedic organic agriculture [ all the better diet matters to balance immune function] maahrishi jyotish and yagya [ the highest level of prevention] maharishi gandharva veda music
a good spiritual practice [ which strengthens mental physical emotional health and well being] is to remember all the good today ... again at the most complete level of all the things peopel can do, is vedic calender day celebration http://calendars.globalgoodnews.com/vedic/10.html
to enliven the devata of the day in our consciousness and physiology
so this is a brief survey of natural an dspiritual alternatives to vaccinations which unlike vaccines do not only protect against infection but also enliven an dstrengthen all aspects of mind body soul and habitat
see final paragraph above