statism watch

Flashback: Vioxx, Gardasil maker Merck and Co drew up doctor hit list | Did Pharma Giant with Gardasil HPV Patents Buy Nobel Prize? | Political Intrigue in Merck’s Push for Mandatory HPV Vaccinations

Summer Johnson, PhD, Bioethics.net
May 1, 2009

It’s a safe guess that somewhere at Merck today someone is going through the meeting minutes of the day that the hair-brained scheme for the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine was launched, and that everyone who was in the room is now going to be fired.

The Scientist has reported that, yes, it’s true, Merck cooked up a phony, but real sounding, peer reviewed journal and published favorably looking data for its products in them. Merck paid Elsevier to publish such a tome, which neither appears in MEDLINE or has a website, according to The Scientist.

What’s wrong with this is so obvious it doesn’t have to be argued for. What’s sad is that I’m sure many a primary care physician was given literature from Merck that said, “As published in Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine, Fosamax outperforms all other medications….” Said doctor, or even the average researcher wouldn’t know that the journal is bogus. In fact, knowing that the journal is published by Elsevier gives it credibility!

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Flashback: Lessons of 1976: swine flu, fear, mass vaccinations, wasted millions | Swine Flu: In Mexico, an outbreak of police-state opportunism

Michel Chossudovsky, GlobalResearch.ca
May 1, 2009

What is the flu? Influenza (the flu) is a serious contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses. Millions of people in the United States get the flu each year. Most people are sick for about a week. Some people (especially young children, pregnant women, older people, and people with chronic health problems) can get very sick and may die from the flu. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

The World Health Organization (WHO) raised its pandemic alert level to Phase 5 on a 6 point scale.

The WHO’s Phase 5 alert means “there is sustained human-to-human spread in at least two countries and that global outbreak of the disease is imminent… It also signals an increased effort to produce a vaccine… Human cases have been confirmed in Mexico, the United States, Canada, Britain, Israel, New Zealand and Spain.” (emphasis added)

According to reports, the WHO took this decision after ” a 23-month-old [child] died [from the swine flu] in Texas after travelling there from Mexico for medical treatment.”

The swine flu was, according to reports, confirmed in 11 states in the US. Health officials at the WHO in Geneva and Washington are quoted as saying that the “spread of the virus is unlikely to stop”.

The media has gone into full gear with little analysis and review of the evidence, focussing their attention on the more than 2400 cases of non-specific influenza in Mexico.

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Flashback: WHO distributes drug stockpile as swine flu cases rise | Swine Flu: In Mexico, an outbreak of police-state opportunism | Health officials confirm 6 cases of swine flu in Canada, ‘makings’ of pandemic | Illinois-based Baxter working on vaccine to stop swine flu outbreak in Mexico | ‘We have to assume’ swine flu is in Ontario, health official warns | Mexico cancels public events because of deadly flu outbreak | Canadians returning from Mexico urged to be on alert for flu-like symptoms | Army: 3 vials of virus samples missing from Maryland facility | ‘Accidental’ Contamination Of Vaccine With Live Avian Flu Virus Virtually Impossible | Officials investigate how bird flu contaminated vaccines in Europe | Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemic

Les Perreaux, The Globe and Mail
May 1, 2009

Governments scrambling for solutions to current outbreak risk repeating mistakes of a decades-old health-scare fiasco

MONTREAL — The great swine-flu scare of 1976 is remembered in the United States as a costly public-health fiasco during which more people died from vaccinations than the dreaded influenza.

In Canada, it’s hardly remembered at all, though it remains vivid to Marc Lalonde, who as federal health minister in 1976 ordered some 10 million doses of vaccine.

“Ah, mon Dieu, that was the time I threw away $10-million,” Mr. Lalonde said in an interview yesterday. “But that is the nature of these things. If you do too little, you are accused of negligence. If you do too much, you are wasting money and causing panic. These are very difficult calls.”

Canadian and international health authorities are facing similar tough decisions as the flu continued to spread yesterday.

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Flashback: UN satellite imagery attests to shelling of Tamil ’safe zone’ | Tamil civilians slaughtered as army shells ‘no-fire zone’ | Seventh Tamil suicide by self-immolation to protest Sri Lankan genocide | Sri Lankans protest genocide at Toronto’s Union Station

Nicki Thomas, The Globe and Mail
May 1, 2009

Politicians, workers criticize length of disturbance as police chief defends rights of demonstrators

Traffic flowed on University Avenue yesterday for the first time since Tamil protesters forced its closing five days ago. But even with cars moving again, politicians and people working in the area wondered why the disturbance was allowed to continue for as long as it did.

“It’s okay for a day. Two maximum. But after that it’s a bit gratuitous,” said Max Zavet, a lawyer whose office sits on the block where protesters began congregating Sunday.

The protest, which kept University Avenue closed between Dundas and Queen Streets until just after 9 a.m. yesterday, though mostly peaceful, was noisy and disruptive, Mr. Zavet said. {Ed. Note: You poor thing. Be glad your family isn’t being shelled in a camp.]

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Would it really be that hard for the Canadian government to issue a proclamation decrying the violence against citizens in Sri Lanka – from both sides?

Flashback: Tamil civilians slaughtered as army shells ‘no-fire zone’ | NATO denies air strike killed Afghan civilians | Seventh Tamil suicide by self-immolation to protest Sri Lankan genocide | Sri Lankans protest genocide at Toronto’s Union Station | They killed their neighbors: genocide’s foot soldiers | Blackwater Guards facing Charges in Case of 17 Dead Iraqi Citizens | Canadian military silent on Afghan civilian deaths: UN investigator | Massacre of the monks in Burma

Mark Tran, The Guardian
May 1, 2009

Satellite pictures show heavy damage in civilian safe haven, assault on Tamil Tigers will continue, says country’s president

The Sri Lankan president today rejected calls for a ceasefire even as leaked images from the UN appeared to confirm that the military shelled the tiny coastal area of Mulattivu where civilians were sheltering in a no-fire zone.

The UN satellite images, the most recent of which were taken on 19 April, indicate heavy destruction in and around an area covering 3.8 square miles, where at least 50,000 people are trapped.

The latest blow to the Sri Lankan government’s credibility came from Unosat, which provides satellite imagery for the UN and relief agencies. Its report dated 26 April said there were indications of “building destruction and damages resulting from shelling and possible air strikes”. The report also mentions attacks outside the area.

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One wonders if these protests were all as violent as they’re being portrayed. Often, as careful readers of this journal will note, this is not the case.

CBC News
May 1, 2009

Police and hundreds of protesters clashed in Germany and Turkey ahead of May Day demonstrations on Friday, as discontent over the global recession is expected to swell the number of protesters in planned labour rallies around the world.

About 3,000 police officers were deployed on the streets of Berlin on Friday after battling about 200 youths who set trash cans on fire and threw bottles at police while shouting anti-capitalist slogans.

German news agency Deutsche Welle reported 48 riot police were hurt and 49 people were arrested. But authorities said the clashes were more subdued than in previous May Day demonstrations in the city in recent years.

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Is the date significant?

Flashback: Ontario mulls equity stake in GM | US government may take controlling share of General Motors | Whitehouse fires General Motors CEO | State to bail out, control US auto industry

CBC News
May 1, 2009

Chrysler’s Canadian assembly plants shut down indefinitely Friday, a byproduct of the company’s bankruptcy protection filing the day before in the United States.

Both of the company’s Ontario assembly plants in Windsor and Brampton are now closed as their stream of parts from suppliers has dried up.

Roughly 2,700 employees at the Brampton plant and 4,400 in Windsor are affected by the shutdowns.

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