October 5, 2009 – 12:21 pm
Maryann Napoli from the Center for Medical Consumers in New York recently interviewed Dr Tom Jefferson, a medically trained epidemiologist who has long experience as a reviewer for the Cochrane Collaboration, for this story titled “why the swine flu virus is not a major threat”.
A previous Croakey post linked to this interview, as well as [...]
September 25, 2009 – 1:17 pm
For those who would like to dig deeper into the issues surrounding swine flu and vaccination, it’s worth having a read of this interview with Dr Tom Jefferson, a medically trained epidemiologist who has long experience as a reviewer for the Cochrane Collaboration, examining the evidence around seasonal influenza vaccines.
The interview, conducted by Maryann [...]
September 25, 2009 – 11:32 am
Following the previous post about informed consent and swine flu vaccination, I thought it might be useful to have a consumer organisation’s view on the issues.
Carol Bennett, executive director of the Consumers Health Forum, is encouraging the public to discuss the pros and cons of vaccination with their health provider, rather than relying on [...]
September 24, 2009 – 6:53 pm
Further to the earlier post about Minister Roxon’s spruiking of swine flu vaccination (you can see various interviews here, here and here – what a busy day she’s had), I’ve been pondering the issue of informed consent.
Below is a document that the Medical Indemnity Protection Society has sent members, making it clear that they will [...]
Fears about the impact of swine flu upon pregnant women are generating alarm and some confusion. And not only in Australia. In Britain, various health and medical sources have been giving the public conflicting advice, according to this report in the British Medical Journal.
Meanwhile, Professor Peter McIntyre, Director, National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance [...]
Some links to new publications – on everything from the history of swine flu to obesity prevention and disaster planning - that may be of use or interest:
• History of swine flu
The latest issue of The New England Journal of Medicine has two interesting articles exploring the history of swine flu, otherwise known as influenza [...]
Given the relative mildness of swine flu, has Australia’s response been appropriate?
It’s a worthy question that will, no doubt, be debated for some time.
In the journal Rural and Remote Health, Dr Alexander Hamilton, a senior resident medical officer at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, puts forward one view. While many believe the response has been [...]
Dr Craig Dalton, a Public Health Physician and Conjoint Senior Lecturer in the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Newcastle, is looking for people to help with an innovative flu-tracking initiative using social media. He writes:
The Federal Health Department has raised Australia’s pandemic alert level to CONTAIN. There are now cases occurring without any overseas travel or contact with [...]
The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma has published this tipsheet for responsible reporting on the swine flu, compiled by Times-Picayune health reporter John Pope.
The tips are fairly straightforward; the only one likely to raise eyebrows suggests avoiding terms such as “epidemic”.
This tips says: “Watch your language. People are already anxious, so don’t make the [...]
April 29, 2009 – 12:30 pm
Anyone can sign up for email updates here from the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US.
Don’t be deceived by the title – the updates are coming fast and furious.
But let’s just keep some sense of perspective; at this stage, the numbers of deaths are miniscule [...]
