Monthly Archives: October 2014

Oops: Forgotten smallpox discovered in old storage room near D.C.

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“National Institutes of Health workers preparing to move a lab in Bethesda, Md., found an unwelcome surprise in a storage room this month: six vials of smallpox.  The vials labeled variola — a name for the smallpox virus — were found July 1 ‘in an unused portion of a storage room’ and seem to date to the 1950s, the CDC said. They were freeze-dried, intact and sealed, forgotten and packed away in a cardboard box, officials said.  The vials were ‘immediately secured’ in a containment lab, then transported via government aircraft Monday to the CDC’s containment facility in Atlanta, it said. No documentation was found to explain how or why the virus was left in the Maryland facility.”

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-smallpox-20140708-story.html

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Investigation Sought On Obama’s No-Bid Contract for Smallpox Drug [2011]

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“A top Senate Democrat has requested an investigation into the Obama administration’s awarding a $433 million no-bid contract to the maker of an experimental smallpox vaccine.  Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., says the five-year contract from the Department of Health and Human Services to Siga Technologies –  a New York company run by a major Democratic donor — raises questions about a conflict of interest and the potential waste of precious taxpayer funds.  In a letter to HHS inspector general Daniel Levinson on Monday, McCaskill expressed worry over the hefty price of the drug (reportedly $255 per dose) because the company had not been not forced to compete for the contract.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/11/senate-democrat-seeks-investigation-of-obamas-no-bid-contract-for-smallpox-drug/

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Merck Has Some Explaining To Do Over Its MMR Vaccine Claims

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“Merck, the pharmaceutical giant, is facing a slew of controversies over its Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine following numerous allegations of wrongdoing from different parties in the medical field, including two former Merck scientists-turned-whistleblowers. A third whistleblower, this one a scientist at the Centers for Disease Control, also promises to bring Merck grief following his confession of misconduct involving the same MMR vaccine.  The controversies will find Merck defending itself and its vaccine in at least two federal court cases after a U.S. District judge earlier this month threw out Merck’s attempts at dismissal.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/lawrence-solomon/merck-whistleblowers_b_5881914.html

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GlaxoSmithKline Starts First Human Trials For Ebola Vaccine In Africa

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“The trials are expedited and aim to achieve in months something that generally takes years. Even the trial setup period was just two months long, compared to the six months to one year time period it generally takes to start a vaccine trial. GSK is also starting production of 10,000 doses of its vaccines simultaneously with the trials from the funds provided by UK’s Wellcome Trust and other donor organizations. The rationale behind starting production before trial results is that if the vaccine is successful it can immediately be provided to health workers in the affected regions without any unnecessary delays.”

http://www.bidnessetc.com/27047-gsk-starts-first-human-trials-for-ebola-vaccine-in-africa/

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GlaxoSmithKline fined $490m by China for bribery

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“China has fined UK pharmaceuticals firm GlaxoSmithKline $490m (£297m) after a court found it guilty of bribery.  The record penalty follows allegations the drug giant paid out bribes to doctors and hospitals in order to have their products promoted.  The court gave GSK’s former head of Chinese operations, Mark Reilly, a suspended three-year prison sentence and he is set to be deported.  Other GSK executives have also been given suspended jail sentences. Chinese authorities first announced they were investigating GSK in July last year, in what has become the biggest corruption scandal to hit a foreign firm in years.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29274822

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GlaxoSmithKline fined $3bn for bribing doctors to increase drugs sales [2012]

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“The company encouraged sales reps in the US to mis-sell three drugs to doctors and lavished hospitality and kickbacks on those who agreed to write extra prescriptions, including trips to resorts in Bermuda, Jamaica and California.  Psychiatrists and their partners were flown to five-star hotels, on all-expenses-paid trips where speakers, paid up to $2,500 to attend, gave presentations on the drugs. They could enjoy diving, golf, fishing and other extra activities arranged by the company.  GSK also paid for articles on its drugs to appear in medical journals and ‘independent’ doctors were hired by the company to promote the treatments, according to court documents.”

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/jul/03/glaxosmithkline-fined-bribing-doctors-pharmaceuticals

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Iowa Troopers Steal $100,000 in Poker Winnings From Two Drivers

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“The Des Moines Register highlights an Iowa forfeiture case, the subject of a federal lawsuit filed this week, in which state troopers took $100,000 in winnings from two California poker players traveling through the state on their way back from a World Series of Poker event in Joliet, Illinois.  ‘Both of their California homes were searched the next day by law enforcement based on a tip from an Iowa agent,’ the Register notes. Although both men have state-issued cards identifying them as patients allowed to use cannabis for symptom relief, the paper says, they still faced ‘felony drug charges’ because of the marijuana found in their homes.”

http://reason.com/blog/2014/10/01/iowa-troopers-steal-100000-in-poker-winn

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The Forfeiture Curmudgeons

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“Cash became the crime.  The government figured out that drug sales weren’t done on Visa or MasterCard, but in currency.  Evil currency. So they criminalized cash.  But that still wasn’t enough to feed the hunger of the government and starve the drug kingpins, so then the ‘instrumentalities of the crime’ was conceived. If you drove to a drug deal, the car was an instrumentality. If the drug deal happened in a house, the house was the instrumentality. And even if there was no drug deal at all, it was all an instrumentality or substituted proceeds.  Take the profit out of crime.  This became as important, if not more so, than proving the existence of a crime at all.  And it was so much easier.”

http://blog.simplejustice.us/2014/09/20/the-forfeiture-curmudgeons/

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3 Acts of American Education System Insanity

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“A modern historian looking to chronicle the destruction of the America we all once knew could do no better than to deconstruct the U.S. education system today.  Along with providing American students a middling education at best — we rank 17th in the world and well-below-average for developed nations — what’s really wrong with America’s education system is the fact that we’re engineering the next generation to become acclimated to what this country is becoming … And it’s becoming a police state, where tolerance is zero and everyone is presumed guilty. The notion of innocence? To hell with that! This will not end well for you or me, or our children.”

http://thesovereigninvestor.com/economic-collapse-2/three-acts-insanity-reveal-whats-really-wrong-with-americas-education-system/

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Tech company finds mysterious fake cell towers in DC area

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“Is somebody hacking into cell phones in the D.C. area? A new investigation is raising concerns this may be happening.  An independent investigation found fake cell phone towers popping up all over the area. The towers are located near the White House, the United States Capitol and the Supreme Court.  It begs the question: Who is behind these towers?  We know that unless you have a special piece of equipment, you would never even know that your phone has connected to one of these so-called ‘non-network towers.’  The federal government will neither confirm nor deny that they use such towers for law enforcement purposes.”

http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/26610194/tech-company-finds-mysterious-fake-cell-towers-in-dc-area

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