Bill Maher states disbelief in vaccines despite evidence of their success and scientific evidence

Bill Maher states disbelief in vaccines despite evidence of their success and scientific evidence

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Woman claiming she acquired dystonia from a flu shot may have it all in her head

It's all in your head, lady!

Video of a former NFL cheerleader who allegedly acquired dystonia from a flu vaccine has been making the rounds lately all over the media and online. The woman, Desiree Jennings, states in her interviews that she acquired the flu from a flu vaccine she received ten days earlier and then the symptoms of dystonia began showing. On the October 16, 2009, Fox News show, "The O'Reilly Factor", Dr. Leigh Vinocur from the University of Maryland Medical System offered an alternative cause to Ms. Jennings' syndrome. Dr. Vinocur stated that there have been no cases of dystonia associated with the flu vaccine and that neurology experts at the University of Maryland were using Ms. Jennings' case to teach neurology residents about psychogenic dystonia.
Dystonia is a neurological disorder where twitches and other repetitive, involuntary reactions occur. Normally, these repetitive actions do not let up. In the interview videos, Ms. Jennings' symptoms subside at times. According to Dr. Vinocur, neurologists saw the video and were convinced it was psychogenic.
Psychogenic disorders do not mean that a person is faking their symptoms. Rather, it means that the person truly believes that the symptoms are real. However, there is no physiological reason for the symptoms. It truly is all in their head. Examples include phantom limb syndrome, where a hand that has been amputated along with a limb is felt by the person as being clinched or still being there. Psychotherapy or some medications to treat the mental issues can help deal with psychogenic disorders.
Another important detail in Ms. Jennings' story is that she acquired flu from the flu vaccine. This is a scientific impossiblity. The flu virus in the injected vaccine is dead, inactive. In the solution being injected, the virus has no cells in which to live and reproduce. Viruses are, by definition, obligate intracellular parasites. They need cells to live, grow, and reproduce. There has been no recorded case of acquired flu from the flu shot vaccine. Likewise, if true, Ms. Jennings would be the first case of dystonia as a result of the flu vaccine. Furthermore, the Food and Drug Administration did not find anything wrong or different about the lot of vaccine used.

Wrong message about flu vaccine is still making the rounds... and so are the quacks

A certain "doctor" on his way to the office

Do a Google search for "flu vacccine" and you find any number of articles by so-called experts pointing out how the vaccine is responsible for all sorts of diseases. They try to scare people away from the vaccine through anecdotal evidence based on nothing but assumptions and beliefs (not hard facts). Yet, while they indict the "greed" of "big pharma", they do not hesitate to offer their own services for a nominal fee.
An e-mail going around the web recently from a Dr. Jordan Plasker makes even more outrageous claims about the influenza vaccine:

"No one should take this vaccine - it is one of the most dangerous vaccines ever devised.  It contains an immune adjuvant called squalene (MF-59) which has been shown to cause severe autoimmune disorders such as MS, rheumatoid arthritis and Lupus.  The newsletter for August covers this and it may not be out yet.  This is the vaccine adjuvant that is strongly linked to the Gulf War syndrome, which killed over 10,000 soldiers and caused a 200% increase in the fatal disease ALS (Lou Gehreg disease).  This virus H1N1 kills by causing a "cytokine storm", which means that it causes the body's immune system to overreact and that is why it is killing young people and is a mild disease in the elderly. (The elderly have weakened immune systems) This vaccine is a very powerful immune stimulator and carries the real possibility of making the lethality of the virus much greater."

Let's examine these claims.
1) "(I)t is one of the most dangerous vaccines ever devised." Yet millions around the world get the seasonal flu vaccine each year and relatively very few have side-effects that are dangerous enough to be of concern. Nothing in the ingredients or manufacturing practices was changed for the H1N1 influenza vaccine. The only change was the dead or attenuated virus in it in that it was a different strain.
2) "It contains an immune adjuvant called squalene... shown to cause severe autoimmune disorders..." Squalene is found in humans, in plants, and in sharks. It is a protein. It is not a chemical, a pesticide, or something worse. People consume millions of times more squalene in their daily diets than they will ever get from vaccines. So something humans eat and make in their bodies is somehow worse if it is injected? The science just doesn't support this.
3) Dr. Plasker cannot spell "Lou Gehrig". Does he even know what ALS stands for?
4) "The vaccine is a very powerful immune stimulator and carries the real possibility of making the lethality of the virus much greater." Yes, it is an immune stimulator. That is the working definition of a vaccine. Dr. Plasker basically wrote, "The vaccine is, well, a vaccine." However, the "cytokine storm" mentioned is a phenomenom seen in other conditions like pneumonia, or even the common cold. Cytokines are the chemicals released by white blood cells that kill viruses and bacteria. Without it, the infections cannot be eliminated.
5) "10,000 soliders" were killed by the use of squalene. That is more than the number of soldiers dead in Iraq. Have you read from the news media, who are very adept at keeping track of soldiers' deaths, about these 10,000? No one in the world of Public Health mentions this. It must be a cover-up involving millions of people.
6) Dr. Plasker is a chiropractor, not a Medical Doctor nor a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. Basic knowledge of biology, based on his claims on his web site and newsletters, elude him.

The e-mail from Dr. Plasker's office goes on to recommend the use of vitamin D to counter the flu. There is no scientific evidence that vitamin D prevents flu infection or its complications. There is no evidence that excess vitamin D is good for anything. In fact, excess vitamin D can lead to serious health problems. That's an established, scientifically sound, expert-reviewed, evidence-backed fact.

For the best information on influenza in Maryland and in the United States, visit these sites:

http://dhmh.maryland.gov
http://cdc.gov/h1n1
http://cdc.gov/flu

For personal concerns about influenza and how to prevent it, consult your health care provider (preferably an M.D., D.O., Physician Assistant, or Nurse Practitioner).

Baltimore resident wins Nobel Prize for Medicine

A Nobel Laureate Among Us

Dr. Carol W. Greider, professor of biology and genetics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, along with two other scientists, has won the 2009 Nobel Prize for Medicine "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase". Chromosomes are the DNA in human cells that is wound up into spindles. As cells multiply, the chromosomes become shorter and shorter to the point that cells cannot multiply anymore. Telomeres and telomerase help keep chromosomes from becoming shorter. The research that Dr. Greider, Dr. Blackburn, and Dr. Szostack performed helps give better understanding why cells continue to multiply beyond what is expected of them. Cancer is the result of cells that multiply out of control.
The Nobel Prize is given out each year by the Nobel Foundation in Sweden. It has become recognized as one of the premiere awards to the "great minds" from around the world. Previous Nobel Prize winners in medicine or physiology include Drs. Watson and Crick, discoverers of the DNA molecule's shape, the discoverers of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and for the discovery of DDT as a pesticide against mosquitoes, among others.