Science Based Medicine has just published a summary of the anti-vaccine movement and the heavy costs to children and public health. The article begins when the British medical journal The Lancet irresponsibly published an obviously statistically-flawed “study” by Andrew Wakefield in 1998 that claimed that the MMR vaccine “caused” autism in children. A new “reanalysis” of a CDC study that concluded this was not the case repeats Wakefield’s methodological errors of inferring statistical relevance using a biased sample (n=5) and claiming a CDC conspiracy.
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The Costs of Listening to TV Actors Instead of Scientists about Vaccines
I did vaccine safety research for 12 years for the CDC and was telling people as far back as 2002-2003 that Thimerosal was not linked to autism or any other morbidities because I had done the data analysis myself with the millions of inoculation records with which I was entrusted as a consultant. I wouldn’t lie about these findings for all the money in the world. But . . . people who have children with medical problems wanted and still want simple answers and “somebody” to blame. It is their own fault if they listened to a doctor with an agenda (Wakefield) who used too small a sample with self-selected/biased data and a celebrity with breast implants instead of real scientists. No matter what we said, these celebrities and know-nothings easily convinced thousands of gullible parents that we were falsifying data, lying, conspiring, whatever they could to not have to look at the science. Now our society is reaping the price of self-inflicted ignorance: measles outbreaks are back and folks, this is just the beginning. For those who are anti-vaccine, I hope you can live with yourselves if your child is a carrier of a microbe that ends up killing somebody else’s children or if your child dies as the result of not being vaccinated. The reason why millions of people are alive today is that they would have died years ago without vaccines – that’s why they were developed in the first place. And for the ones who say they are healthy and unvaccinated, please Google the word “herd immunity” and what happens when herd immunity is breached. p.s. I don’t own stock in any pharma company and never have, so I’m not “bought.”
Million Dollar Home Sales Volume Increasing in California
Interesting statistic: While home sales throughout much of California have fallen 7.4% since last year, $1 million-plus home sales have actually increased 9.1% during the same period.
Read the article in the Los Angeles Times.
Chinese Hackers Steal 4.5 Million Records
Chinese hackers targeted Community Health Systems’ computer network and stole non-medical patient data on 4.5 million individuals, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing.
Read the full article in ModernHealthcare.com
Untested Canadian Ebola Vaccine Offered to Victims
Whether you are an epidemiologist or an amateur disease detective, this story in MSN.com of how Canadians developed an Ebola vaccine is fascinating.
CDC Sends 50 Advisors to West Africa to Control Ebola Virus Outbreak
The Centers for Disease Control have sent over 50 disease experts to the West African countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Guinea to help the current efforts to stop the Ebola virus from spreading further. Thus far, more than 1,000 people have died from the disease in the four countries.
Patients Questioning Procedures in Order to Save Money
Physicians report what may be a disturbing new trend: because many of their patients have high deductibles – including under Obamacare – many are questioning whether procedures can be postponed or if they are even necessary.
Read what treating physicians have to say about the prospective consequences that can occur when cost becomes a critical part of the conversation.
How Can My Practice Benefit from Joining an ACO?
According to this article in PhysiciansPractice, doctors are still not clear about the role of ACOs in their practices and how they might ultimately benefit from participating in them.