Oh Canada.
Oh Canada. Look over here. Not there. Not at the press release. Look here. A real study. Published. With methodologies you can evaluate. Something you can sink your teeth into to help guide policy decisions. You know, published epidemiology. Science. Its called “Partial protection of seasonal trivalent inactivated vaccine against novel pandemic influenza A/H1N1 2009: case-control study in Mexico City.” and published...
Flu Vaccine Efficacy
I guess I will be spending the rest the flu season writing about the nonsense that is promulgated about the flu vaccine and the disease. One of the more common laments about the flu vaccine is that it doesn’t work: I got the flu vaccine and still got the flu. Well maybe. Maybe not. It takes a few weeks to get protection, so...
What’s wrong with this picture?
My youngest and I often do the “Find 6 Different Things” in the Sunday comics. He is good at finding anomalies. All day at work I showed the picture in the link that follows and asked: What is wrong with this picture? Almost everyone found at least one thing wrong (I find two) in less than 10 seconds, my 12 year old...
Cold Flusion?
This is a quick entry to allow me to have a little spleen venting. And I am cross posting this over at Medscape. Background for you youngsters. In 1989 two electrochemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, announced they had successfully developed cold fusion: nuclear fusion at room temperature. Pons was chairman of the chemistry department at the University of Utah at the...
Boost Your Immune System?
The immune system is not a muscle, not a rocket, not a pump, not a balloon, nor anything else that can be inflated, expanded, or launched into the stratosphere simply by adding more power.
More Flu Woo For You, Boo Boo
In which we try to be smarter than the average bear. Flu season is upon us (it kind of never left us this year), and there is a new strain of flu, the H1N1, aka Swine flu that adds a wrinkle or two to the usual potential for influenza related morbidity and mortality. And with the new flu is the new woo....
The Microbial Metagenome
First some background. I was first directed to the Marshall protocol by a reader who wondered about the information the found on the web. So I went to the web and looked at the available information, much as any patient would, and discussed what I found there. I have subsequently been lead to believe that none of the information on the website...
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Not every post will be an in-depth, authoritative review of a topic like yesterday’s on Dr. Sears. A change of pace can be nice, and I have always liked history. JAMA likes to run articles called “JAMA 100 YEARS AGO” and the reprint from the July 24, 1909 issue is interesting. It...
The Marshall Protocol
Revised 7/23/09 to correct an error. While there are many taxonomies of alternative medicines, one thing almost all alternative therapies have in common is they are originally the de novo discovery of one lone individual. Working outside of the mainstream, they are the gadflies who see farther because those around them are midgets. Hanneman conceives of homeopathy, the treatment of all disease....
The Evil League of Evil is Nothing in Comparison
Transcribed minutes of a meeting, provenance unknown. Chairman: “I would like to call this emergency meeting to order and thank you all for coming under short notice. If there are no objections, I will dispense with the usual formalities and get right to the business at hand.” Murmur of approval. Chairman: Ladies, Gentleman and Demons of all kinds, we have been, to...