Saturday - November 12, 2011

A Shot In The Arm For The Economy?

$433M Smallpox Drug Contract to Company Tied to Dem Donor

Scientists are questioning a $433 million government contract for a smallpox drug they say the country doesn’t need, amid concerns over the way the project was secured for a firm tied to a Democratic donor.

The Los Angeles Times reported over the weekend that U.S. officials took unusual steps to award the contract to Siga Technologies. Democratic donor Ronald Perelman has the controlling share of the company.

The article cited emails showing the Obama administration replaced the lead negotiator on the project following complaints from Siga—Siga was apparently concerned about the government’s objections to how much money Siga would make off the deal.

Earlier, in December, the government also reportedly blocked other companies from bidding on the contract in a second round.

Siga ultimately won the contract in May, but some questioned the price of the drug—approximately $255 per dose—and the practicality of the project.

The government already has a smallpox vaccine on reserve. Siga’s pill is meant to help people diagnosed too late for the vaccine to be effective, according to the Times.

Reporting from Washington — Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work.

Senior officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies Inc., whose controlling shareholder is billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, one of the world’s richest men and a longtime Democratic Party donor.

When Siga complained that contracting specialists at the Department of Health and Human Services were resisting the company’s financial demands, senior officials replaced the government’s lead negotiator for the deal, interviews and documents show.

When Siga was in danger of losing its grip on the contract a year ago, the officials blocked other firms from competing.

Siga was awarded the final contract in May through a “sole-source” procurement in which it was the only company asked to submit a proposal. The contract calls for Siga to deliver 1.7 million doses of the drug for the nation’s biodefense stockpile. The price of approximately $255 per dose is well above what the government’s specialists had earlier said was reasonable, according to internal documents and interviews.

Once feared for its grotesque pustules and 30% death rate, smallpox was eradicated worldwide as of 1978 and is known to exist only in the locked freezers of a Russian scientific institute and the U.S. government. There is no credible evidence that any other country or a terrorist group possesses smallpox.

Siga’s drug, an antiviral pill called ST-246, would be used to treat people who were diagnosed with smallpox too late for the vaccine to help. Yet the new drug cannot be tested for effectiveness in people because of ethical constraints — and no one knows whether animal testing could prove it would work in humans.

Hey, remember when the media had shit-fits 24-7 over some no-bid contracts awarded to Halliburton and Blackhawk for work in the Iraq war zone, even though no other companies existed that could perform the work in the time and scope necessary? Do you think they’ll wind up their alarm sirens and start screaming over this one, when at least a dozen other companies could have made this drug that may not even work and is probably not even needed? [crickets] [more crickets]

Remember when those same media “watchdogs” went turbo-monkey-poo over “no WMDS” in Iraq, and how Iraq was considered the most likely evil nation to even have a bio-terror capability?

So? So what will they say now? [even more crickets]

Posted by Drew458     on 11/12/2011 at 04:21 PM   
Filed Under: • Government • Corruption and Greed • Medical • War On Terror •  
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   Tuesday - June 21, 2011

Huh?

Dear Drew,

I am the director for MesotheliomaSymptoms.com and recently I discovered an article on your site that has a lot of links to our site (http://www.barking-moonbat.com/index.php/weblog/gop_vs_epa/).  While I appreciate the mention, I would much rather our links be on sites that are directly related to our audience of people suffering from a terminal cancer. 

Because of this, I would like to ask you to either remove the Mesothelioma links from the article, or remove the article all together.  Please feel free to call me directly if you have any questions about this at xxx-xxx-xxxx or email me.

Best Regards,

Timothy E
Director

------ Reply -----
From: Drew458
To: Tim E
Subject: RE: Request for a removal of a link

Dear Tim,

Let me get this straight. Your website, which is all about distributing information about mesothelioma symptoms, finds it objectionable that you’ve been linked to as a source of mesothelioma symptom information, because someone who might not already have the disease might be interested in it, might wonder about it, and click the link to your website?

So you feel your website is some kind of exclusive insider’s country club? Yet you don’t run the site as a subscription service, nor do you pigeonhole your pages within a relatively closed network like WebMD. No, you are a public site, open to all and sundry. Oh, your subject matter is about a terminal illness. That’s sad, but that doesn’t make you any different than anyone else’s web site.

Your own About Us page states

The web resource MesotheliomaSymptoms.com is sponsored by Seeger Weiss LLP. The site has pulled together as a single resource everything related to asbestos in order to promote education and awareness for victims, their families, and the general public.(emphasis mine)

Well, my blog is about as general public seeking education as it gets.  Yet you find it bothersome that a single hyperlink helps the general public find your pages, while at the very same time your pages encourage readers to follow and befriend you on Facebook and Twitter, which is as open a form of linking as exists. It’s hard for me to follow that chain of logic.

Hang on, it actually turns out that you aren’t really a medical information organization at all, you’re a law firm. Good golly. Not much different than that one on the afternoon TV ad with the gravelly voiced announcer pushing mesothelioma patients to sue.

Let me ask you, since your home page mentions how “as many as 3,000 Americans a year are diagnosed with mesothelioma” and considering that there are likely thousands of websites (Google returns almost 20 million hits on “mesothelioma” - your site does not show up in the first 4 pages; however Google only returns 1.47 million hits on “mesothelioma symptoms” and your site does get the 1st and 2nd non-paid slots) ... how many hits have you received from my blog? How many are you receiving daily? Especially since this particular post is from more than two months ago, and at an average of 4 posts a day, is now utterly buried in the archives at this point.

The whole concept of the internet is the free and open dissemination of information across a massively multiconnected network; getting links from other places is what makes it tick. If you find this kind of open networking distasteful, why are you even online?

You can’t make the argument that our post was at all unsympathetic or derisive to the malady at all. If anything, it was making the point that mesothelioma was deserving of more funding.

So you have left me rather confused. Everyone else on the internet is only too happy to get linked to; there is no bad publicity. But you object to it, even when such a linking is sympathetic to your cause. That makes no sense to me ... unless your whole site really isn’t really about promoting education and awareness, but about promoting more business for your law office.

Oh, and it wasn’t “a lot of links”, it was one. And what makes you think that a vast number of my thousands of readers don’t already have this disease? I’ve never asked them about it.

Drew

Posted by Drew458     on 06/21/2011 at 07:30 PM   
Filed Under: • Blog Stuff • Judges-Courts-Lawyers • Medical •  
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   Saturday - February 19, 2011

Death Panels? It’s a tough call

React.

Then go read this short blog post.

React. Then start reading the comments there. Duane’s got a very good discussion going on. It actually stays on topic for more than the first 10 comments, and avoids the mud slinging for a really extended time period. Read the first dozen comments or so. Pick your side. Think about what you’d like to add.

Then stop, and go read another news article on the same situation.

Has this new information changed your reaction? It turned mine around completely. But maybe I’m strange.

Now discuss, here, or back at Duane’s. Because you WILL have something to say. That’s my prediction, not an order. But how can you not? And don’t forget to mention if you have or have had children of your own. I think that may play a role here, but then again, it might not.

Posted by Drew458     on 02/19/2011 at 06:43 PM   
Filed Under: • Media-Bias • Medical • Nanny State •  
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   Monday - January 03, 2011

pssst. hey there. need money from the state? threaten suicide and win the lotto

How’s this for a lark boys and girls?
Want money from the state?
Threaten suicide.
BINGO! 
You Win.

Well, not exactly a lark when you read the story.
I understand that there truly are people born with the wrong parts.
But does it have to take three marriages to three (I assume) unsuspecting women to come to terms with that?
You have to wonder about this fruit loop. Expression used in this instance to describe it’s thinking if genuine.

While I’m at it, what’s with the phrase, “gender realignment” all about? Why can’t they say what it is? A sex change operation.  Realignment I believe implies something a bit different. Doesn’t it?

She (he?) I guess now a she, accuses the NHS of leaving him half man and half woman because at age 40, the estrogen injections didn’t grow breasts. Every man’s dream. 
So what does that say about very unfortunate women who have had breasts removed due to cancer? Are they half women?  Judging by his train of thought, they may be.  Of course this character, who still looks like a male (and not a pretty one) in drag, believes she has a right of some kind to public money to make him/her as womanly as his deluded imagination will allow.

She’s a worker in a charity shop. Uh huh.  Probably not even full time and just hasn’t the money. But the taxpayer does. 

HALT! STOP! Give me your money or I’ll kill myself.

I guess that’s one way to collect your dream.

Transsexual’s fight for implants lands the taxpayer with a bill for £18,000
By Andrew Levy

A transsexual has won the right to have £8,000 breast implants – following a battle funded by £10,000 of legal aid.
Miranda Lee, 40, had gender realignment surgery costing £60,000 in 2009, paid for with NHS money.

The process was due to be completed with the breast augmentation, but she was then told the money would not be made available.
Miss Lee, who complained that she had been left ‘half man, half woman’, attempted suicide and has been on anti-depressants.

She decided to fight the decision and was granted legal aid in June.
Her case was heard by an NHS review panel last month, and it has now ruled in her favour.
The charity shop worker, from Southend, Essex, said she was delighted at the U-turn but wanted compensation for the stress of her ‘inhumane and insensitive’ treatment.
‘The way my case was handled was appalling,’ she said. ‘These people haven’t a care in the world about people. It’s all about money to them.’
Miss Lee, born Raymond Harwood, first felt she was the wrong sex when she was 16 but went on to marry three times and have two children.

Her last marriage ended in 2000 and in 2005 she went to her GP about gender realignment.

She began living as a woman in 2007 and had a series of operations at Charing Cross Hospital in London from July 2009, including having her male genitalia removed and her voice altered.

She was already receiving hormone therapy in the form of estrogen to help her develop breasts but this was not working, meaning she needed implants.

The East of England Specialised Commissioning Group, which had paid for the sex change out of a £700million annual fund raised from contributions from the 13 primary care trusts in the region, refused to approve the procedure.
Although it pays for a range of care, it said breast augmentation as part of a sex change was not part of its remit.

THERE’S MORE HERE

Just a couple of reader quotes from the Mail.

This is absolutely nuts! I’ve seen my local PCT struggle to cope with resources for people with genuine physical health problems yet a guy who cannot grow breasts is demanding surgery. There are thousands of natural girls out there who also can’t grow breasts! It’s not something that defines someone as female. I’ve got male friends with boobs! People like this make me angry that people will die through their selfish need to suck resources!

type 1 diabetic , uk, 03/1/2011 12:42

I find this unfair on women who like my self didn’t form a chest or have lost them due to illness or weightloss. I tryied in 2009 to have breast inplants on the NHS as I’m 23 and lost 6 and half stone which lead to me losing my chest, I got turned away from them though I suffer depression and “was” constantly wanting my chest back. Now I’ve decided to save up and buy my self a pair in the future, But I still find it wrong that the real women who have the right for a chest get turned away.

- I’m Here, Wales, 03/1/2011 11:22

Posted by peiper     on 01/03/2011 at 12:47 PM   
Filed Under: • Medical • UK •  
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   Saturday - August 28, 2010

Frogs To The Rescue?

Powerful new antibiotics developed from the skin of frogs could take the fight against superbugs to a higher level. Frog skin is known to have plenty of potent germ-fighting compounds because of the hostile surroundings they inhabit. But these substances are often poisonous to humans. Now a team at the United Arab Emirates University have thought up a way of altering the chemicals to remove their toxicity.

They have already identified 100 new antibiotics including one that could fight the hospital superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria.

Frog skin is an excellent potential source of such antibiotic agents,” said Dr Michael Conlon, a biochemist at the university in Abu Dhabi.

“They’ve been around 300 million years, so they’ve had plenty of time to learn how to defend themselves against disease-causing microbes in the environment.

“Their own environment includes polluted waterways where strong defences against pathogens are a must.”

Scientists are testing skin secretions from more than 6,000 species of frogs for antibiotic activity. They say they have purified and determined the chemical structure of about 200, leaving a potential treasure trove of antibiotic substances awaiting discovery.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/28/2010 at 12:19 PM   
Filed Under: • Medical •  
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   Sunday - January 31, 2010

another sign of big brother as big govt. goes after soft and easy target. cigarettes, again.

I quit long ago but really, this is just another example of nanny state thinking and by ppl I bet who might have never been smokers themselves.

The health Nazis of course would love to ban fags altogether.  But then what?  Where next will they steal money and on what product that they will overtax in the name of protecting ppl.

I have no doubt, even with no medical background whatever except as a patient, that smoking is bad for folks.  I’m all in favor of doing the best we can to try and reach kids young and educate them.  And it does work, I’ve seen it.  But taking the logos off fag packets isn’t going to discourage any kid from lighting up that first deadly bomb. You know how it works. Remember?  Some kid offers you a fag, you accept and get sick.  Now then, some kids will never try it again. But some will, and it starts there.  Or at least that is one place it starts.

Another place is in the home, right?  If one or more parents smoke then the act becomes something quite natural to the kid(s) and at some point he or she will swipe one of mom’s.  I think it’s near impossible for a smoking parent to tell Jr. not to start smoking coz they’re bad for him.
So I guess at some point if they can get away with it, even tho they say they will not go this far, will be a total ban on fags in homes where there are children. 

Cigarettes could be sold in plain unbranded packets in latest bid to sweep away smoking from Britain

By Daily Mail Reporter

Cigarettes are set to be sold in plain packaging without logos in a bid to further strip smoking of its ‘glamourous’ image.

The Government will unveil the latest stage of its effort to half the number of smokers in Britain by 2020, which could result in a ban on people smoking in private places where children are present.

Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, will signal his support for the moves as he launches the government’s ‘tobacco control strategy’ tomorrow.

Ministers are also considering a ban of the sale of smoking products in vending machines which can help children to bypass strict laws banning their sale to under 18s.

While no final decision on a plain packaging rule have been taken, Mr Burnham, speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, said: ‘It’s something I will be looking at closely.’

However, the Government is not expected to go as far banning all smoking in homes and cars WHERE CHILDREN ARE NOT PRESENT.

The move could deter youngsters from copying celebrity smokers such Amy Winehouse and James Morrision.

I haven’t a clue who that Morrison is, but I have seen that goofball Amy Winehouse. Now then if kids are fans of hers then the authorities have more to worry about then her being a copyable pop icon. That very last line alone shows how stupid the govt. is on the issue.
Read that last line again.  Spot the obvious dumb error? 
These ppl aren’t thinking straight.  But they have the power to make others follow their dictates.  Now that makes me see red.

The rest of the article is at the link.

LINK FOR MORE

Posted by peiper     on 01/31/2010 at 03:00 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Health and Safety • Medical • Nanny State • UK •  
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   Wednesday - December 23, 2009

Woman dies after routine medical exam ….  just the tip of this medical iceberg

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  Tomorrow morning I am scheduled to have a routine exam.  An endoscopy to be exact.  Usually a straight forward thing and I had one many years ago.  Of course, back home they put us under and we wake happy.  But no matter, I’d prefer not to be sedated anyway.  It’s a ‘routine’ that’s done thousands of times every year.  Piece of cake. Maybe.  Thing is ... I’m not home in the USA where I have (naive?) trust.  Accidents happen there everyday.
But I’m here and I read this sort of thing way too often.  That’s cause it happens way too often.

CORONER FURIOUS AFTER A WOMAN DIES IN “BURNING AGONY” FOLLOWING NHS INJECTION BLUNDER

By Fay Schlesinger
Daily Mail
December 23rd 2009

A grandmother died after ‘gross failures’ by NHS doctors who injected her lungs with a chemical that was ten times the recommended strength, a coroner ruled today.

Rosemary McFarlane, 64, spent ten days in ‘burning agony’ after receiving the lethal dose during what should have been a routine procedure.

The caustic chemical, phosphate buffered saline, burned the inside of her lungs.

The hospital’s usual supplier had run out of the PBS fluid and a pharmacy was asked to provide the solution.

It was bought over the internet by a junior pharmacist, who mistook ‘10x’ on the label to mean ten bottles of the liquid rather than its super-strength concentration, an inquest heard.

At that strength it is used for preserving tissue samples in laboratories and is unlicensed for use on the living.

Coroner Aiden Cotter launched a stinging attack on staff at Heartlands Hospital, in Birmingham.

Addressing the workers at Birmingham Coroner’s Court, he said: ‘I have dealt with far too many deaths from NHS hospitals in recent years.

‘We hold out our arms and trust medical professionals to inject things into us and the thought some people do not check something that could kill us is appalling.

‘You hold our lives in your hands every day when you are at work when people need to act professionally. Too many people are unprofessional.’

He added: ‘There are many people working in the NHS who are hard working and professional, but there are a significant number who are not.

‘The failures made by the doctors and the pharmacy team are gross failures. I consider they have sufficient causal connection to the death of Mrs McFarlane.’

He recorded a narrative verdict with neglect as a contributing factor.

HERE FOR MORE ON THIS STORY

Here’s a comment left by a reader of the Mail article above.

See that word ‘locum’ down there in the letter?  Well, that’s what I think about on Christmas Eve. Now the writer of course is referring to GPs.  But how about the techs who’ll be doing a procedure like an endoscopy?
Hey .... if someone whispers akbar-snackbar in my hearing, I’m not staying.  On the other hand .... while a lot of ice has been melting today, we’ve just had more sleet on top of the snow from two days ago.  Usually, we get snow and then it all melts away by the afternoon.  But not the last few days.  No buses were running here yesterday, and we didn’t see any today till afternoon.

Yesterday, a 12 minute trip took the wife’s cousin 2 hours she claims.  I think I can believe her because I’m familiar with the area where traffic was on hold.
The town had NO grit or salt or anything ready for this, and some folks had to abandon their cars.  And Winchester not being the most car friendly place anyway, lots of ppl found clamps on their wheels and have to pay to get released. 

I am concerned with the amount of foreign nationals employed by NHS in this country who do not have a good command of English - how are they supposed to understand medical records, drug labels and communicate with patients accurately? GP locums are a prime example.

This all boils down to hospital and primary care management with their umpteen government targets to meet, which quite often compromise patient care. Common sense doesn’t seem to prevail in healthcare anymore.

I’ve had to use our local hospital several times this year, and luckily I have had good consultants looking after me. I do ask a lot of questions, which maybe a nuisance to medical staff, but it’s my life in their hands.
Even a junior pharmacist and a doctor should be checking two or three times though that they got it right with such drugs/chemicals. Are we going to hear of over-doses of morphine next?

- Anon, Cheshire, 23/12/2009 09:53

So ... the weather and road conditions might force a cancellation of my routine exam. 

Stay Tuned and oh yeah .....

I WISH ALL AT BMEWS A MOST JOYOUS CHRISTMAS.

Posted by peiper     on 12/23/2009 at 11:11 AM   
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine • Medical • Personal • UK •  
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   Wednesday - August 12, 2009

I’d call it Malice

Kevin and Polykahr point out the not-quite obvious on Obama’s health care plan:

Heinlein’s (or, if you insist, Hanlon’s) Razor:

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, but don’t rule out malice.

Then there’s Grey’s Law:

Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.

And Rick Cook’s admonition:

The key to understanding the American system (of government) is to imagine that you have the power to make nearly any law you want. But your worst enemy will be the one to enforce it.

Read the one here

Then read the other one here



... yeah, what they said. 

Posted by Drew458     on 08/12/2009 at 09:16 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Medical •  
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   Wednesday - July 15, 2009

In keeping with the Health Care theme: Elderly face £20,000 bill for social care. That’s about

OK Lyndon, explain this for me too. I think I’m reading it correctly but sometimes you know, things do get lost in translation.

Both Drew and Vilmar have had really awful things to say about national health. And for that matter so has everyone posting comments here at BMEWS.
But hey ... IT’S ALL FREE. Right?  What’s to complain about?  free-free-free.  And all of it with the compliments of the taxpayer. Well, those who do.
Ah ... hang on.  I think I just caught the fly in the ointment.

What a mess .......  Meanwhile, here in the UK ....

Elderly people in England could be required to pay up to £20,000 to guarantee basic social care and support if they need it at the end of their lives, under Government proposals released today.

The compulsory insurance scheme is one of three options for funding a new National Care Service, designed to end the current “cruel lottery” under which some elderly people have to sell their homes and use up most of their savings to pay for care, while others pay nothing.

Launching a consultation on the future of social care with a statement in the House of Commons today, Health Secretary Andy Burnham said he wanted to create a system which was “fair, simple and affordable” to all.

He has already ruled out full state funding from general taxation, on the grounds it would place too great a burden on people of working age, and retaining the “pay for yourself” system, which is unfair to those who need years of care for conditions like Alzheimer’s.

And he today called on the public to give their views on three possible solutions:

A “partnership” approach, under which the state would pay around a quarter to a third of the cost of basic social care and support, leaving individuals to find the remainder;

A voluntary insurance scheme, under which the state would pay the same proportion, but would also make it easier for individuals to take out insurance - at an estimated cost of around £20,000 to £25,000 at today’s prices - to cover the rest;

Compulsory insurance for all, costing around £17,000 to £20,000 at today’s prices and providing free care for all who need it.

The National Care Service would offer assistance with needs like dressing, washing and moving around at home, but individuals who need to go into residential care would continue to pay the cost of accommodation and food themselves, whether they had taken out insurance or not.

However, new national arrangements would allow for bed and board costs to be deferred and paid as a lump sum after the individual’s death.

The Department of Health is also consulting on whether insurance costs should be deferred until after death, paid in instalments or handed over in a single lump sum when an individual reaches retirement age.

Under all three options, those with little or no savings or assets would continue to receive free care.

THERE’S MORE HERE

When the late MIL became too ill to care for herself, the wife and I moved here to help and at first were sort of like baby sitters. She (mil) for part of the first year (2004) was still able to make it to the kitchen to get her own tea and toast and cereal, which was her staple every morning.  She dressed herself and was able to use the loo on her own.  Then later on she had a fall, and it was all downhill from there.  That’s when we became real Care Givers as it’s called here.
At some point in the second year she finally became bedridden full time, and there wasn’t a way in the world the wife could cope alone and especially changing diapers. 
So ... the wife had to spend down a good part of her mother’s savings before she became eligible for (FREE) care in home. Prior to that, the old lady (unknown to her) was paying for care workers to come in and bathe her once a day but at first that was all that was needed. At first, it was just one care person with the wife helping out. Or maybe the other way round.  But later on after another fall and then a near fall when she misjudged distance and missed sitting properly on her portable potty in her room, she decided she was too frightened to ever again attempt to get out of bed. Period!  And the old bag didn’t, right to the end.
So it became necessary to have two care givers come in and eventually they had to come here twice a day.  Once in the morning and once in late afternoon
for diaper changes.  Somehow my wife worked out doing the other changes.  Usually at bedtime but sometimes it was necessary to do an extra one as well.

As time went on she got worse which is what necessitated two people to move her around changing the diapers and bathing her. 

The tole on the wife’s own health wasn’t fun to watch and what it did to her back was pretty bad too.  I recall once telling Drew and Wardmom that I thought the wife was committing suicide by mother, and I never altered that view.

But a care home was out of the question, even if the wife wanted it.  There just was not the money for it.  Having shared all this I should mention also that her mother had paid into the system for most of her working life.  I say most because national health didn’t arrive here till after WW2.

When the old dear (but not to me) needed a hearing aid, national health paid for it. The thing I thought was rather over the top was that national health also paid for the batteries in the thing.  ??  National health even paid for her aspirin. 

I’ll have to be honest with you.  While I haven’t been a fan of socialized medicine, and still not as it’s run, it was a big help to her mother and by extension to us as well, as we were already spending some of our own savings to prop things up here. 

OK, that’s it except for this little tag.
If we ever make it back to the states we are looking at a potential health ins. problem.  At my age, and the wife is in her 60’s with a birthday in five days thus adding another year, we don’t think we’ll be able to get ins. worthy of the name back home.  And can ya blame the Ins.companies for that?  I don’t.
So we are on our own.  Scary when ya get to a certain age.  That age being mine and the wife.  And I think you guys know the cost of being ill even with ins.

Posted by peiper     on 07/15/2009 at 06:40 AM   
Filed Under: • Medical •  
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   Sunday - April 26, 2009

Open Borders Nightmare

GENEVA – Canada became the third country to confirm human cases of swine flu Sunday as global health officials considered whether to raise the global pandemic alert level.

Nations from New Zealand to Spain also reported suspected cases and some warned citizens against travel to North America while others planned quarantines, tightened rules on pork imports and tested airline passengers for fevers.

Nova Scotia’s chief public health officer, Dr. Robert Strang, said the east coast Canadian province had confirmed four “very mild” cases of swine flu in students ranging in age from 12 to 17 or 18. All are recovering, he said.

“It was acquired in Mexico, brought home and spread,” Strang said.

The western province of British Columbia confirmed two further cases.

The news follows the World Health Organization’s decision Saturday to declare the outbreak first detected in Mexico and the United States a “public health emergency of international concern.”

A senior World Health Organization official said the agency’s emergency committee will meet for a second time Tuesday to examine the extent to which the virus has spread before deciding whether to increase the pandemic alert beyond phase 3.

The same strain of the A/H1N1 swine flu virus has been detected in several locations in Mexico and the United States, and it appears to be spreading directly from human to human, said Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s assistant director-general in charge of health security.

Mexico’s health minister says the disease has killed up to 86 people and likely sickened up to 1,400 since April 13. U.S. officials say the virus has been found in New York, California, Texas, Kansas and Ohio, but so far no fatalities have been reported.

Symptoms of the flu-like illness include a fever of more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius), body aches, coughing, a sore throat, respiratory congestion and, in some cases, vomiting and diarrhea.

The virus is usually contracted through direct contact with pigs, but Joseph Domenech, chief of animal health service at U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency in Rome, said all indications were that the virus is being spread through human-to-human transmission.

No vaccine specifically protects against swine flu, and it is unclear how much protection current human flu vaccines might offer.

Friggin wonderful. Guess I won’t be buying any imported chimichangas for a while. Batten down the hatches. This is going to spread to every corner of the US in a matter of days.

UPDATE: WE ARE IN THE SHITTER NOW: :

Sun Apr 26, 4:58 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The U.S. declared a public health emergency Sunday to deal with the emerging new swine flu, much like the government does to prepare for approaching hurricanes.

Officials reported 20 U.S. cases of swine flu in five states so far, with the latest in Ohio and New York.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/26/2009 at 04:52 PM   
Filed Under: • Medical •  
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   Friday - February 20, 2009

Black medical student who claims she was bullied by racists sues for £300,000.

First of all, judging by what her hair looks like in the hard copy edition of our morning paper, can’t say as I blame anyone for not wanting to share a shower room with her.  But no matter, since bloody when does not wanting to shop with someone or share a meal with someone open an institution to charges of race?  Why does this (please note her origin) former Nigerian believe anyone has some sort of moral obligation to have lunch with or go shopping with her.  This is what the world has come to and the blame isn’t with the self styled victims.  No.  It’s the white,left liberal brigade that’s taught em they have rights beyond normal rights.

Can anyone seriously believe that a college like this one, which isn’t some unknown backwater college, can anyone believe they would act in a way that might open them to this sort of thing.  But hey ... there’s money in victimhood. Sure, the school went looking for problems and so out of the racist blue they intentionally failed her.  Uh Huh.

Hell, no point in my ranting on when Drew did it better under comments in another posting.

Here’s part of Drew’s comments and nobody has said it better.

Race gets thrown up against white people constantly because without it - the “we’re treated differently because you think we’re different because we go out of our way to act and BE different, unless it suits our immediate purpose” there is no reason to expect anyone to not assimilate and act like the majority. And that means white folk.

The shoe has been on the other foot for 3-4 decades now. The young Up and Comers on today’s corporate fast track were all born after 1980. A full third of our population has never known a time or a situation when being a minority was not a distinct advantage. Another third was not aware of the wider world until after the Civil Rights movement had made huge gains. The poorer people in that age demographic have been on government support their entire lives. Entire. Lives.

A black medical student who claims she was bullied by white racists on her course before examiners deliberately failed her is suing her college for more than £300,000.

By Caroline Gammell
Last Updated: 2:18PM GMT 19 Feb 2009

Virginia Jibowu claims she was ostracised by students in an “institutionally racist” environment at London’s King’s College medical school.

The 25-year-old alleges that fellow students refused to shop, eat or share a shower-room with her in their accommodation.

She claims one female student suggested introducing a killer disease into Africa to wipe out all the black people, while a male student allegedly asked her if black men were less intelligent than whites.

A third allegedly complained that the black nurses at King’s College Hospital were no fun.

Miss Jibowu is suing the college, which is part of the University of London, at Central London County Court for harassment, race discrimination and victimisation.

She alleges that while her fellow students have graduated and are now working in the NHS, the college has refused to investigate her complaints, intentionally failed her and tried to stop her re-sitting the course.

Miss Jibowu, who is of Nigerian origin and from Lambeth in south London, is demanding over £300,000 for loss of earnings, aggravated damages and injury to health and feelings.

If she fails to qualify from the course, she is expected to sue at the High Court for further compensation for the loss of her career, which could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

In legal papers submitted to the court, she alleged: “The college disregarded my complaints and graduated all students complained about.

“All of the alleged racists are now practising as doctors in the NHS. This can only ingrain the problem of institutional racism within the medical practice.

“They were not interviewed. At no point has the college accepted it was at fault for allowing an institutionally racist and victimising, hostile studying environment to exist.”

Miss Jibowu enrolled on the college’s six year extended medical degree course for students from disadvantaged backgrounds in September 2002.

She said students on that course had to wear a special badge, which led to them being bullied by counterparts on the regular five year degree programme.

In the legal papers, she claimed one student “asked me if black men were less intelligent than other people. He also asked if black people were more prone to becoming fat.

“He also said that he had stopped contacting a mutual friend because he had become ‘too black’.”

Miss Jibowu claimed three other white students were “hostile” to her during her hospital placement in Hastings, East Sussex in 2006.

One allegedly said that immigrants were “spoiling the UK” and said of the hospital in Hastings: “The nurses are great here - might have some fun. It’s not like in King’s cos they’re all Afro-Caribbean.”

Miss Jibowu had passed the first five years of study without failure and fully expected to complete her final year.

She had secured a job as a doctor at Gwent Hospital in Wales and was due to start work in August 2008.

But she claims the college deliberately failed her from final exams and then, without informing her, contacted hospital bosses in Gwent to say she would not be taking up her post.

She said the post should have been held open pending her appeal against the exam results.

“The college appears to be continuing actively to take steps to ensure that I fail my course or am removed from the course before its completion and am thereby denied the opportunity of becoming a doctor.”

King’s college and the former students accused of racism deny Miss Jibowu’s allegations.

The college is vigorously defending her court claim but a spokeswoman said: “We are unable to comment while legal proceedings are ongoing.”

The case is due to be heard later this year.

TELEGRAPH

Posted by peiper     on 02/20/2009 at 01:38 PM   
Filed Under: • Corruption and Greed • Medical • Racism and race relations • UK •  
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   Wednesday - December 31, 2008

Second World War hero aged 101, sent home to die by a hospital in a taxi wearing a diaper.

Without going into a song and dance about my routine here every morning, let me just say that there are a few things I must do before booting this machine and going to BMEWS.

The first thing of course, even before coffee is to pull the morning paper through our letter box in the front door, turn on an extra heater in the room I’m in and do a scan of the paper before actually settling down to read it all.  Sometimes there are two papers.

Well, scanning the paper today I came across this story and was just floored by what I’d read.  So I immediately booted because I want this story shared before I get bogged down with other things.

This was just one hospital out of hundreds and hundreds that I am sure would not have acted this way.  But then I have to wonder.  Is that really true?
Given the state of thinking in today’s world, who is to say with certainty that the same might not apply somewhere else.  The USA as well?

This really is so totally outrageous it needs a category all to itself.
Where’s the common decency? Where’s the humanity? The common sense?

If there were no other way to transport this poor old man who once served his country well, and even had he never been in the army, never mind.
Is this any way to treat an old man?

People who know me well enough also know that of all the folks I have ever disliked in my life, I have never disliked anyone so much as I do the MIL, and with many a valid reason.  However, as much as I loath her, even I would not condone treating the miserable old bag in this manner.  Even I know better and flinch at the idea of this sort of callas behavior on the part of people who are supposed to be “care givers.”

If there were NO OTHER way of sending this dying old man home, could they not have spared just one person to accompany him so he wasn’t alone?
Couldn’t someone have reached a family member?

Oh good.  They said “sorry.” In a pigs ass!  They’re only sorry because of bad publicity and how long will that last?

Saying “sorry” seems to be the password for everything in this screwed up world.  Thugs arrested for god awful crimes only need to say sorry to get a lighter jail term if they get that at all.  “Sorry.” Who really believes that? 

This story bothers me a lot.  Maybe I’m not as cold blooded as I thought I was. Or maybe I see myself in the same situation some day in the future.

For the first time in my life I’m seriously beginning to wonder if just maybe we really need MORE, not less religion in our lives.  Perhaps if Christian charity
or compassion were at work here in this Christian country, someone would have known this was not right on any level.  And you need not be religious to see how terribly wrong this was.  But perhaps if the staff at this hospital had a bit of old time religious feeling and charity, they would have acted otherwise.

I feel very bad for the victim here, and I see him as exactly that.  A victim not just of the hospital, but of a Godless culture as well.  He deserved better at the end of his life.  Much better.

Dying World War Two hero ‘stripped of human dignity’ by hospital care, family say
A decorated Second World War hero aged 101 was sent home to die by a hospital in a taxi wearing a nappy and a set of ill fitting pyjamas, clutching a bag of soiled clothing.

By John Bingham
Last Updated: 8:17PM GMT 30 Dec 2008

Brigadier John Platt recieved the DSO bravery. The family of Brigadier John Platt, who won the Distinguished Service Order for his leadership in one of the fiercest battles of the Italian campaign, told how he was discharged from Salisbury District Hospital, unable to feed himself.

They said he was in a confused state and incontinent, after a stay which left him “degraded and humiliated”.

During his five-day spell in a mixed-sex observation ward, his hearing aid was crushed, his false teeth went missing and soiled pyjamas were piled up unwashed in a locker by his bedside, they said.

Knowing he was dying after losing the ability to swallow food, he asked to go home. But no ambulance was available so he was sent in a taxi on an hour-long journey to the care home where he died a few days later.

When his family later complained about the hygiene issues around the soiled pyjamas, the hospital wrote back to say that it was unfortunate that he had been “unable to avail himself” of its laundry service.

It has since apologised to Brig Platt’s family for the “unacceptable” nature of his discharge in a taxi in late 2006 and vowed to learn lessons from his ordeal.

His case came to light as Nial Dickson, chief executive of the health thinktank the King’s Fund, warned of a deterioration of compassion from under-pressure staff in NHS hospitals.

Brig Platt’s daughter-in-law, Amanda, said that his case highlighted a “shocking and disgraceful” lack of care.

“All that he had at the end of his 101 years was his dignity and they took that away from him,” she said.

In May 1944 Brig Platt, then a Lieutenant Colonel, personally led the men of the 2nd Battalion, the Somerset Light Infantry, in the heroic assault across the River Gargliano.

He was wounded twice during the operation and later received the DSO for his bravery. In later life he wrote books about military history and hunting.

“It wasn’t the fact that he was my father-in-law and a dear old soldier, it was the complete lack of respect for a dying person, for a human being, that I thought was so terrible,” said Mrs Platt.

“They packed him off without so much as a by your leave in the back of a non-medical car taxi, sitting bolt upright with somebody else’s pyjamas on and a nappy so tight that he could hardly breathe and two cotton blankets on his shoulders.

“They had lost his false teeth which were brand new, I never saw my father-in-law without his false teeth ... and somebody had stood on his deaf aid, which was crushed.”

But she said that what angered the family most was the soiled clothing.

“I just can’t believe that any hospital would keep excrement-covered clothing in a locker for five days ... I got the impression that this lack of attention must be endemic because it was so lightly treated.”

In a statement, the hospital said: “Clearly some aspects of Brigadier Platt’s discharge from hospital in 2006 were unacceptable and the trust apologises for any distress that this caused the patient and his family.

“In apologising, the trust also acknowledges the concerns raised about some of Brigadier Platt’s personal effects.”

TELEGRAPH

“I just can’t believe that any hospital would keep excrement-covered clothing in a locker”

Well I can because something close to that happened here. 
Back in 2005 the wife’s mother fell, broke hip and had other serious ailments and was carted off to the hospital.

When my wife paid a visit she was given what appeared to be a transparent, pink plastic bag containing her mothers soiled nighties. These were meant to be taken home and washed and then brought back to the hospital. 

Well, that pink plastic looking bag was in FACT, made of soap and was dissoluble in water.  But we weren’t aware of that at the time. That bag contained more then a nightie that needed washing. You can guess what.

After that experience we asked that the hospital laundry do her soiled garments.

Here’s the kicker.  Sure, the hospital can do the laundry. But you have to know ahead of time that, you should ask if they will.  See, you might take for granted that they will.  They won’t volunteer the info.  And nobody told us that the bag would dissolve in water.  We may have been lucky in that.

Thankfully, we never put that soap-bag in our washer. It was done outside in a bucket.  Foolishly perhaps, we hadn’t expected the extra ingredients that bag contained.  But we kind of suspected.  It wasn’t until we opened the bag that we found it all.  It did however confirm my belief that the old lady was full of it.

Finally, wife has just informed me that the hospital in question here has had a number of problems in the past.  This hosp. trust is one of the worst in the country, so she tells me.

While not exactly in the very same league as this article, I did once witness in an American hospital in Riverside, Ca., the same sort of gross indifference and callousness towards an elderly patient in my room when I was recovering from back surgery. And that was over 20 years ago.

I am leaving this posted here for awhile.  I want people to see this. Lots of people. PLEASE pass this one on.

Posted by peiper     on 12/31/2008 at 04:07 AM   
Filed Under: • Editorials • Health-Medicine • Heroes • Medical • Outrageous • UK •  
• Comments (9) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Monday - December 29, 2008

Pictured as he waited to die: Patient subjected to 6-hour delay in A&E - dies in agony.oops, sorry?

The longer I’m here the scarder I get.
This is almost an unbelievable story. 

I was getting ready to close for the night and did a quick scan to see if there was anything that shouldn’t be missed.
Oh boy was there. THIS. And although it won’t bring back the poor guy, I hope the family sues BIG TIME and some ppl lose their jobs and never be allowed to work in the health field again.  Jeesh!

Pictured as he waited to die: Father subjected to 6-hour delay in A&E - despite GP’s note that said he had to be seen immediately

By Colin Fernandez
Last updated at 5:19 PM on 29th December 2008

A father-of-two died after a six-hour wait to be seen at an A&E department - despite having a note from his GP saying he must be treated immediately.

Stewart Fleming, 37, turned up at his local casualty unit with wife Sarah clutching a note from his doctor saying he must be seen ‘straight away’.

But instead of being sent to the head of the queue, Mr Fleming had to sit and wait in agony as his organs collapsed as a virus ravaged his body.

It was three hours before he was even assessed to see if he was a ‘priority case’, and even then it took another three hours for him to be admitted - six hours since he arrived at the hospital.

Doctors then realised the gravity of the situation and desperately started treating the infection, which was attacking his heart, kidneys and liver.

His nightmare began on December 12 when he arrived at the Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, Kent.

Railway signalman Mr Fleming had been ill with flu-like symptoms for around a week and a half before he went to accident and emergency.

After a course of antibiotics had little effect, his GP recommended going to the hospital.

After belatedly receiving treatment, he remained in hospital for another week before having a leg amputated on December 19 - the day of his son Matthew’s 12th birthday.

He was then put in a drug-induced coma in a bid to save his life.

But, on December 27, after spending another week fighting the illness following his transferall to the Harefield Hospital, near Uxbridge, West London, Mr Fleming died.

The hospital in Kent has since apologised as it was busier than normal ‘due to a high number of admissions’.

But Mr Fleming’s wife of 15 years Sarah, 42, said the family, of Rainham, Kent, was devastated by her husband’s death and has demanded an explanation from hospital chiefs.

MORE HERE AND PIX AS HOSP. FUCKS UP

Posted by peiper     on 12/29/2008 at 12:26 PM   
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine • Medical • Outrageous • UK •  
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   Wednesday - December 10, 2008

Bionic Arm

Dean Kamen, who I spoke about here, has come up with a way to help our soldiers who have lost limbs.

Segway Inventor Builds Bionic Arm for Wounded GIs

The man behind the Segway scooter has a new invention: bionic arms for wounded soldiers.

Called the “Luke Arm” after the prosthetic hand sported by Luke Skywalker in the “Star Wars” movies, Dean Kamen’s device is lightweight, self-contained and fully capable of picking up grapes, baby bottles, even electric drills.

Kamen says the Department of Defense approached him and his company, DEKA, in 2005 about the project, not the other way around.

“This guy visits and basically says, ‘Look, we’ve had 1,600 kids go over [to Iraq] and lose an arm. Two dozen have lost two,’” Kamen tells Newsweek in a story for next week’s issue. “‘At the end of the Civil War, we gave them a hook on a stick. Now we give them a hook at the end of a plastic tube.’”

The Luke Arm has four fingers and an opposable thumb, and was designed to be controlled by muscular movement in the wearer’s remaining limbs.

But thanks to neurological advances in “targeted renervation” by Dr. Todd Kuiken of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the Luke Arm can now connect directly to motor nerves, meaning it can be controlled purely by thought alone.

And the nerve connections are two-way: The wearer gets “force feedback” about his own grip and movements, allowing him to pick up an empty water bottle without crushing it.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/10/2008 at 07:37 AM   
Filed Under: • Amazing Science and Discoveries • Medical • Science-Technology •  
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