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Monthly Archives: October 2009

Obama and H1N1 vaccine conspiracies

28-Oct-09

In the US the H1N1 vaccine has been the subject of some debate. Here is some footage from Fox News, were you can seen several incredibly dumb people discussing vaccines, including Deirdre Imus:

Imus asks: “If it’s so safe, why doesn’t President Obama have his children vaccinated on TV in front of us.”
Ron Paul, a Republican [...]

Daily Mail statistical methodology

17-Oct-09

The recent tragic death of Stephen Gately, which may have been due to a heart problem, was exploited by Jan Moir in her Daily Mail column to make a wider point:
All the official reports point to a natural death, with no suspicious circumstances. The Gately family are – perhaps understandably – keen to register their [...]

Fly posting

06-Oct-09

I’m presenting a couple of posters at the International Society of Pharmacovigilance Conference this week. One is concerned with possible neuropsychiatric reactions to varenicline, and the other uses the DoTS ADR classification system to analyse reports of angioedema with angiotensin-II receptor antagonists. Further details at the links in the text.

Jackie Fletcher and the media

01-Oct-09

In the space of 4 days we have had a flurry of irresponsible news reporting about HPV vaccine following the death of a child. One of the rent-a-gobs that newspapers persist in obtaining quotes from is Jackie Fletcher, “leader” of the JABS campaigning group. JABS is largely concerned with propagating the hoax MMR vaccine-autism association, [...]