Rupert Murdoch, Private Eye

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SUMMARY

* Doctors Really Do Die Differently

Research Says That More Physicians Plan Ahead, Reject CPR, and Die In Peace.
In late 2011, I wrote an essay for Zócalo called “How Doctors Die.” Drawing on my observations and experiences as a doctor, I reported that doctors tend to seek less end-of-life care than ordinary patients do. They know when further treatment is likely to be futile and when life would cease to be worth living. The point I wanted to make was that all of us should have the choice to die that way if we wish—at home, with family, without dramatic hospital interventions, without pain. The response to this simple idea was overwhelming. I read thousands of comments people posted online regarding the end-of-life care of loved ones. They told of near-dead relatives being assaulted with toxic drugs and painful procedures for no good reason. I am haunted by one description of a patient who could neither talk nor move, begging with her eyes for it all to stop.
Ken Murray MD, Nexus, Zocalo Public Square
Related Links:
* How Doctors Die - Not Like The Rest Of Us
Ken Murray MD, Nexus, Zocalo Public Square

* Whose Games? Occupy London to join Counter Olympic Network protest on Saturday

Occupy London will this Saturday 28 July join more than 40 groups protesting against the Olympics for the 'Whose Games? Whose City?' demonstration, organised by the Counter Olympics Network. "The Olympics are meant to be a celebration of human endeavour. However the 'people's games' in London are subject to the whims of global corporations and financial institutions who seek to 'legally' avoid tax and saturate sport with their own marketing in an attempt to sanitise their reputations, never mind limiting ticket availability and securing VIP lanes," commented Occupy London supporter Kate Morris. Assembling in Mile End Park in East London at noon, the Whose Games? Whose City? demonstration will march to Wennington Green for a family friendly event including speeches, entertainment, alternative games and children’s events. [1] There is no intention to cause disruption to the Games. The government has reduced civil liberties - including the right to protest against the commodification of the Olympics and its effect on local communities.
Information Release, Occupy London
Related Links:
* The Olympics: A concerned events organiser speaks
The Slog - Evidenced bollocks deconstruction
* Daily Mail Tries To Blame Olympics 'Transport Chaos' On Mulsims
Political Scrapbook
* Custard and Punishment, Olympic Style
Big Brother Watch
* London 2012: Paralympian warns DLA cuts could ‘jeopardise independence’
the Fed, centre for independent living

* Atos Hit By Undercover Filming plus Final Summer Price Cut

A few weeks ago, when the DWP tried to stop claimants seeing a useful employment and support allowance (ESA) appeals video, Benefits and Work readers helped make it the most popular video the ministry of justice has ever produced and spread it across the internet. Now, it seems, the DWP are trying to prevent claimants giving evidence about how fairly Atos and the DWP are treating them.  This evidence is vital for millions of people because it will affect both ESA and disability living allowance (DLA) when it becomes personal independence payment (PIP). So, once again, we’re asking for your help to stop the DWP getting away with it. In this edition we also ask who is lying about ending the right to have your ESA medical recorded? We also tell you about the two page letter you can copy and paste to give yourself the best chance of getting your audio-tape. Finally,  there’s news of two upcoming TV investigations into the work capability assessment (WCA), one of which includes undercover filming of Atos.
Steve Donnison, Benefits and Work

* Scientists: Chicken Vaccine Could Be Killer

Two virus strains used to vaccinate chickens against a deadly disease appear to be mutating into a single new virus that is sickening and killing birds on Australian farms, Science reports. Chickens worldwide are susceptible to a respiratory disease called infectious laryngotracheitis, which kills one in five infected birds. To combat the illness, farmers vaccinate chickens with strains of the virus. In Australia, there are two vaccines that are widely used, one of which was introduced from Europe in 2006. Two years after the new vaccine came into play, new strains of the deadly disease began to surface in Australian chickens. Scientists studying the situation say the new vaccine seems to be combining with the old one and mutating into a disease-causing form. “This shows that recombination of such strains can happen and people need to think about it,” Glenn Browning, an Australian veterinary microbiologist, told Science in an interview.
Brittany Lyte, REVMODO
Related Links:
* Post vaccine, pigs experience severe disease
Meryl Nass, MD
* Vaccines on Chicken Farms Create Super Virus
Tom Philpott, Mother Jones

* Mumps vaccine: Merck lied, falsified test results and data

Merck has known for a decade that its mumps vaccine is "far less effective" than it tells the government, and it falsified test results and sold millions of doses of "questionable efficacy," flooding and monopolizing the market, a primary caregiver claims in a federal antitrust class action. Alabama-based Chatom Primary Care sued Merck on Monday, the week after the unsealing of a False Claims Act complaint two relators filed in 2010. Those relators, Stephen Krahling and Joan Wlochowski, were Merck virologists who claim in their unsealed complaint that they "witnessed firsthand the improper testing and data falsification in which Merck engaged to artificially inflate the vaccine's efficacy findings."    Krahling and Wlochowski claimed Merck's scheme caused the United States to pay "hundreds of millions of dollars for a vaccine that does not provide adequate immunization."
Reuben Kramer, Courthouse News Service

* The Olympics: A concerned events organiser speaks

Lisa Simpson gives Bart a blow job:
official London Olympics logo
Danny Stapleton is high up in a large multinational events provider. Being in charge of the British operation, he wants the London Olympics to succeed. Why is Danny worried? “Coe is in denial. Locog is all over the place. Boris Johnson is a good figurehead but he’s interfering ineffectually. Last trains home, coach routes for airport pickups, security lapses, and piss-poor supplier choices: this is all Page One stuff these part-timers are getting wrong. It really isn’t looking good.” Hmm. The man allegedly in charge of Trade & Investment spin-off from the event appears to have some experience in money-laundering and tax evasion, but has never worked an event for trade purposes in his life. This of course is Lord Green, former sensorily challenged CEO and Chairman of HSBC.
The Slog - Evidenced bollocks deconstruction
Related Links:
* Daily Mail Tries To Blame Olympics 'Transport Chaos' On Mulsims
Political Scrapbook
* Custard and Punishment, Olympic Style
Big Brother Watch
* London 2012: Paralympian warns DLA cuts could ‘jeopardise independence’
the Fed, centre for independent living

* Post vaccine, pigs experience severe disease

Meryl Nass, MD
Veterinary Pathology shows that after vaccination, pigs experience much more severe disease when exposed to swine flu virus. As has been noted previously, vaccination is a black art, basically a trial and error process of discovery, which has the potential to either prevent or enhance disease, and therefore must be studied carefully before vaccines are administered to large populations, despite issues of expediency.  Vet Pathol. 2012 Mar 28: These data suggest H1 inactivated vaccines followed by heterologous challenge resulted in potentiated clinical signs and enhanced pulmonary lesions and correlated with an elevated proinflammatory cytokine response in the lung. The lung pathology and host immune response is consistent with the vaccine-associated enhanced respiratory disease (VAERD) clinical outcome observed reproducibly in our swine model.
Meryl Nass, MD
Related Links:
* Vaccines on Chicken Farms Create Super Virus
Tom Philpott, Mother Jones

* Italian Health Ministry concedes MMR vaccine caused autism

The controversial row surroundings alleged links between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism is set to be reignited following a court ruling in Italy. Judges in Rimini, north-east Italy awarded the Bocca family Euros 174,000 (£140,000) after the Italian Health Ministry conceded the MMR vaccine caused autism in their nine-year-old son Valentino. Up to 100 similar cases are now being examined by Italian lawyers and experts suggest the case could lead to other families pursuing cases. Luca Ventaloro the family lawyer, said yesterday: “This is very significant for Britain which uses, and has used, an MMR vaccine with the same components as the one given to Valentino. It is wrong for governments and their health authorities to exert strong pressure on parents to take children for the MMR jab while ignoring that this vaccine can cause autism and linked conditions.” The number of autism cases has risen sharply since the 1970s, with one in 64 British children affected.
Paul Bignell, The Independent

* Easier to sell than hot dogs: the human tissue industry revealed

Nipped and tucked. The human tissue trade is highly lucrative.
An eight-month international investigation has revealed that human tissue has been lifted, pulled and scraped from the dead without consent and used in surgical procedures in the West. The four-part series ‘Skin and Bone: The Shadowy Trade in Human Body Parts’ is a detailed investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICJC) across 11 countries. The investigations revealed a growing trade in human body parts, sometimes without the knowledge of the deceased’s family and often without systematic verification of the tissue’s origins or its health. The dead, it seems, have in some cases been stripped of body parts that can be reused for surgical procedures including breast enhancements, spinal reconstructions and post-burn skin grafts. The USA is the biggest market for and supplier of human tissue.
Will Fitzgibbon, The Bureau Of Investigative Journalism

* How Research into Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Turned into an Ugly Fight

Judy A. Mikovits, Ph.D., outside the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease in Reno, Nev., on Feb. 28, 2011.
Mikovits is the facilities research director. (David Calvert / AP Photo)
How did a star researcher into the medical mystery of chronic fatigue syndrome end up in jail and unemployed? For the first time, Judy Mikovits tells her story. For a person who’s just been through a year of legal woes, she’s upbeat and garrulous. And after more than six months of following strict orders from her legal team not to comment on the charges against her, she is ready to talk.
Casey Schwartz, The Daily Beast
Related Links:
* The WPI Loses UK Study Blood Sample and Consent Form
Khaly, CFS Untied
* Fallout From Fatigue Syndrome Retraction Is Wide
David Tuller, The New York Times
* Chronic fatigue syndrome scientist finds a temporary home
Nature News Blog
* Chronic fatigue syndrome researcher Judy Mikovits arrested
Retraction Watch

* Recording medicals chaos plus Atos try to get on Benefits & Work forum

In this edition we investigate whether the recording of medicals has been killed off, as claimants are told they no longer have the right to one.  We also reveal how Atos hired an expensive public relations company to try to get onto the Benefits and Work forum.  Plus we have an update on the employment and support allowance (ESA) appeals video that the government still can’t kill. Oh . . . and we explain why some Benefits and Work members are getting their kit off.
Steve Donnison, Benefits and Work

* National Vaccine Policy comes in for severe criticism from experts

The National Vaccine Policy, announced by the Union health ministry last year, has come in for severe criticism from experts. They have termed that the government has fallen trap to the same ‘global’ slogans of the World Bank that has pushed the world into recession and the aid politics of Gates Foundation, WHO and Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).In an article in 'Current Science', Dr N Raghuram, associate professor, School of Biotechnology, GGS Indraprastha University, New Delhi and Dr Y Madhavi, NISTADS, Pusa, New Delhi have said that the government policy pays lip service to several important issues such as criteria for new vaccine introduction into UIP, including the Grades of Recommendation Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system, strengthening the surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPD) and Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI), operational efficiency, etc. “Clearly, this vaccine policy is not designed to enhance national public capacities for public immunization programmes, but to justify spending public money on privately produced vaccines in the name of protection from diseases, whose incidence figures and public health statistics are dubious and industry-manufactured. In its eagerness to push vaccines, this policy completely missed the very idea of selective immunization and implies that all immunization is universal,” the article says.
Ramesh Shankar, Pharmabiz
Related Links:
* India Serves Up Deadly Vaccines Cocktail
Ranjit Devraj, IPS
* Polio programme: let us declare victory and move on
(FULL TEXT)
Neetu Vashisht & Jacob Puliyel, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics
* Open letter to DG, WHO - Pentavalent vaccine related deaths
All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN)
* GAVI funding fatal polio vaccines
Shahbaz Rana, International Herald Tribune

* Daughter's illness linked to Gardasil vaccine

Jessica Lock, 13, and her mother Shelley at their Aberfoyle Park home.
Two months ago, Jessica Lock was a typical 13-year-old - outgoing, healthy and happy. Yet now she is a stranger in her own home, racked by an array of mysterious ailments. A week after being administered in February with the anti-cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil at her school, the teenager began fainting and experiencing strong head pains - and her parents say she has lapsed into a semi-permanent, child-like state. Mother Shelley Lock believes her daughter suffered a severe reaction to Gardasil but said public hospital staff had been unwilling to examine a link, with one doctor inferring Jessica's condition was psychosomatic. "It is frustrating because she was completely healthy before this, she had no stress, had just started Year 8 and was meeting new friends, has a good family, so to have it inferred that it was just stress or psychological was very frustrating," Mrs Lock said. Exhaustive tests ruled out other potential causes such as brain tumours. However, Jessica's condition continued to deteriorate.
Andrew Dowdell, Adelaide Now
Related Links:
* Gardasil Vaccine Warnings Ignored Says Researcher
Julie Smith, Scoop Independent News, New Zealand
* Gardasil®: The HPV Vaccine
Judy Wilyman, PhD Candidate, Murdoch University

* Here Comes OpenLeaks: How It Won't Be WikiLeaks

Daniel Domscheit-Berg
Almost exactly a year ago I spoke via email with ex-WikiLeaks spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg. He and the four or five others who'd defected from WikiLeaks in September of 2010 were already at work on OpenLeaks, a successor organization with the same basic goal: to maintain a secure platform where sensitive documents of interest to the public can be uploaded by whistleblowers and anonymously distributed to the press. I was able to meet and speak at length with Daniel, and learned a ton about OpenLeaks and the future of whistleblowing. Domscheit-Berg's presentation on the second day of the conference was mobbed, and the audience was focused, attentive and respectful. This makes quite a change from his circumstances eighteen months ago; when he left WikiLeaks, he was almost instantly pilloried in the media and in the hacker community, owing in large part to the high regard in which Julian Assange, the original founder of WikiLeaks, was held at that time. But what if the "former employee" had very good reasons for being disgruntled? To my mind, the real upshot of the Cablegate debacle was that it put paid to the likelihood of anyone's sharing so much as the contents of a fortune cookie with Julian Assange ever again. Now OpenLeaks is just about ready to launch.
Maria Bustillos, The Awl

* BRING A TENT - Occupy London strikes back - 12 May

12 May, global day of action, 1pm, St Paul's Cathedral. Bring a tent. The 'Map of the 1%' by Occupy London will be available on the day. A draft list can be found here. On 12 May, the Occupy, indignados and take the squares movements all over the world have called for a global day of action. In London we'll be visiting the '1%', those who: gambled with our pensions and savings, created financial nonsense to make money out of thin air, brought the global economy to the brink of ruin and forced ordinary people to pay for their mess, paid hundreds of thousands to wine and dine with our ‘elected’ representatives, have taken more than £1tn in bailouts from the taxpayer and continue to pay themselves exorbitant bonuses, evaded billions in taxes, are benefiting by the crisis by grabbing fat privatisation contracts of our public services. The day will see citizens using peaceful, creative ways to deliver their own messages to the financial and corporate elite of the City. We will continue to exercise our right to peacefully assemble in public spaces and develop the democratic processes to address the problems we face. Important: To receive free notifications on the day via sms text `follow @occupymay`to 86444. (Do not include the quotation marks`).
Information Release, Occupy London

* Security Guards Short-Listed For DLA To PIP Medical Contracts

In this edition we have news that international security companies are fighting for the chance to do your disability living allowance (DLA) to personal independence payment (PIP) medical and win a share of a billion pound pot.  We can also reveal the outrageous lack of digital tape machines for recording employment and support (ESA) medicals and we learn what IDS really thinks of Remploy workers. PIP is due to begin replacing DLA for working age claimants from spring next year, with all current DLA claimants having to be reassessed for the new benefit. The contracts for PIP medicals are worth up to a billion pounds in total and have attracted the attention of many multinational companies. Many thanks to everyone who has sent in news stories over the last fortnight, including: Beverley Hymers, John Pring, Jim Allison, papasmurf, Crazydiamond.
Steve Donnison, Benefits and Work

* Welfare Reform Bill Scandal

As the utterly callous ConDem government forces the disabled and disadvantaged in Britain to pay for the mistakes of the politicians and bankers, human death and destruction follows the progression of the Welfare Reform Bill. From writer Paul Reekie driven to suicide, ghastly errors made by Atos to Britons on the breadline, the consequences of having price-of-milk ignorant posh boys running the country into the ground mount daily.
Information Release, The One Click Group

* Crowd-funding legal actions (Metropolitan Police)

Wow. A lot of people want to see the Met police in court. I had an unpleasant surprise on Wednesday night that my legal excess bill was not small change. (The rest is covered by legal aid, but this bit is non-negotiable) and I need to pay £550 before the end of the month. Sarah J from the Bad Reputation suggested crowd funding, so I put together a Facebook group called ‘I’ll Give Hannah a Tenner to see the Met in Court‘. I was looking for 55 people to pledge a tenner, which would be refunded (as all my legal fees would be) if I win – but if I lose the case then, sorry, thank you for your charity. It went to a good cause. I made a group with this copy: Hannah was arrested, handcuffed and held in a police station on the day of the royal wedding because she was dressed like a zombie (for a flashmob) which police had decided was an anti-royalist statement. She hadn’t broken any laws and was in a Starbucks, queuing to buy a coffee at the time. She and fourteen others arrested pre-emptively (i.e. illegally) have won the right to a Judicial Review. However, even with legal aid she’s got a few costs that can’t be shirked. She’s looking for 55 people to donate a tenner – which will be refunded if she wins the case. And I tweeted and Facebooked it – as did my friends. I was expecting some friends to support it, and maybe even a couple of activists with… ahem… history with the Met. I was thinking even half the costs would be a huge help. You, good people, did not disappoint. Within 24 hours I had more money pledged than I was asking for. Thank you so much, you have no idea. It’s a huge help financially, obviously – it’s also hugely heartening and touching that so many people want to help so much. From the bottom of my heart, thank you everyone.
Hannah 'Chutzpah' Eiseman-Renyard, Firing from a Double-Barrel

* ME is comparable to AIDS, so why do so many people still deny it ...

Like millions of others, I have seen M.E. through the eyes of the medical establishment, the Government and the Media. The picture has not been good. Here is what I have previously understood about M.E. and those who have it. M.E. sufferers are workshy malingerers. They whine, constantly, about feeling tired. They are annoying sympathy seekers. Oh, and mostly, importantly, M.E. is 'all in the head' and can be overcome with a bit more determination and a little less of the 'poor me' attitude. That, generally, is what I thought about M.E. Until, that is, a reader sent me a DVD of a British-made film about the illness titled 'Voices From The Shadows'. So, for M.E. Awareness Week, let us be clear. M.E. is comparable to AIDS and cancer and all the other vicious and uncompromising diseases that savage the body and, in some extreme cases, kill it completely. The fact that it is still so widely misunderstood is a modern day travesty that must be addressed without further delay. Or is it convenient that we still view M.E. as being 'all in the mind'? I believe that we, as a nation, deserve to know the truth. Not only for those still battling the disease, but for those poor souls who have already been lost to it.
Sonia Poulton, Daily Mail
Related Links:
The ME/CFS Canadian Guidelines
Dr Bruce Carruthers et al

* Demand the right to know what you are eating

Unfortunately, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are currently in many of our staple foods such as soybeans, corn, and sugar beets.  Therefore, the foods you are presently buying at your local grocery store do contain genetically engineered ingredients.  A genetically modified organism is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. The genetic material from one species is taken and then inserted into the permanent genetic code of another. These techniques, generally known as recombinant DNA technology, use DNA molecules from different sources, which are combined into one molecule to create a new set of genes. The safety of humans, animals, and our environment are threatened by this untested manipulation of foods produced for consumption and contaminating our food supply and environment.  There have been many studies showing the harm that genetically modified organisms can cause, such as cancer, allergies, impaired DNA function, and accumulated toxins, to humans and animals. Consumers have the right to be fully informed about the foods and drinks they consume. Demand full disclosure of all food products sold in America. Put pressure on the U.S. FDA to require mandatory labeling domestically and to represent U.S. consumers’ wishes at Codex by correcting FDA’s position and ending its close alignment with industry groups.
Cheri Tips, News Release, National Health Federation

* Government promotes companies set to profit from disability

Atos has been shortlisted for the PIP contract, despite being criticised for its handling of work capability assessments.
The Department for Work and Pensions has just announced the 10 private companies on the shortlist to deliver the personal independence payment (PIP) assessments, which everyone receiving disability living allowance will have to undergo from next year when DLA is replaced by PIPs. With 3.2 million captive customers, not to mention a monopoly on all new claimants, it's not hard to see the appeal of the contract for profit-hungry companies untroubled by the ethics of slashing 20% from the money provided to disabled people to help them meet some of the basic expenses that living with a disability inevitably incurs. Take Atos, for example, the French multinational, responsible for handling the deeply flawed work capability assessments. Despite huge levels of criticism from individuals and charities that the test is not "fit for purpose", widespread inaccuracies in the assessment process (40% of appeals against Atos decisions are successful), and extensive anecdotal reports of farcical levels of incompetence on the part of the assessors, the DWP has shortlisted Atos for the contract to deliver PIP assessments in every available region. And then there's the outsourcing giant, Serco, excluded from the Norwegian government's investment portfolio because of its involvement in nuclear arms. Serco is shortlisted by the British government to provide "independent" assessments of disabled people. Personally, I'd very much rather my contributions went towards supporting some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in society than into the coffers of companies such as these.
Clare Allan, The Guardian
Related Links:
* The sick cost of cuts to benefits
Tricia Phillips, Mirror
* Backlash against benefits ‘shame’
Ilkeston Advertiser
* Grimsby man told he is fit to work despite blood clots, septicaemia and ulcers
Grimsby Telegraph

* Murdoch not fit to run an international company

It’s been 10 years, 1 month and nine days since the News of the World hacked Milly Dowler’s phone. Five days ago Rupert Murdoch admitted there was a cover up at News Corporation. We found that News Corporation carried out an extensive cover-up of its rampant lawbreaking. It’s most senior executives repeatedly misled Parliament and the two men at the top, Rupert and James Murdoch – who were in charge of the company – must now answer for that. In the view of the majority of committee members Rupert Murdoch is not fit to run and international company like BSkyB. I’m disappointed that some members didn’t feel sufficiently convinced or confident to hold the most powerful to account. It is my personal view that we should embark on an investigation into the relationship between ministers, special advisers and lobbyists working for News International and BSkyB. They brought shame on our police force and our Parliament. One Click Note:  Tom Watson says that the media has brought shame on our police force as if it is no fault of their own, that when the police were bribed they simply couldn't help themselves despite having taken an oath to uphold the law. Such bollox. The electorate will never wear it.  Although Murdoch's activities are being meticulously exposed, the Establishment is deluded if it believes that hanging Murdoch companies out to dry will be sufficient to douse what all the rest of the media and those in public office have been up to for years. WHY are the Motorman files not being placed in the public domain? This is the Establishment cover-up scandal that refuses to die.
Tom Watson MP
Related Links:
* Malignant British police force must be held to account
Ellie Mae O'Hagan, New Statesman
* Rebekah Brooks becomes principal “sacrificial scalp” but far worse is coming with Operation Motorman
Simon Tomlin, News Alliance UK
* Motorman: Britain's biggest establishment cover-up
Information Release, Guido Fawkes
* Operation Motorman Blue Book (download)
Information Release
* Operation Motorman, the corrrupt establishment story that will not go away
Inforrm's Blog
* Britain's corrupt police are at war with the people
David Gilbertson, The Guardian
* Leveson must publish the Motorman Files
Hacked Off press release
* Police corruption, Murdoch and the Leveson Inquiry
The One Click Group

* Britain's Tory Party government still terrified of Murdoch

Well, well, well. The Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport has issued its report on phone-hacking and it’s very critical of the Digger. But guess what? The MPs on the Committee are divided, with the Tories balking at attacking the Sun King. The Guardian has a lovely infographic which nicely captures the extent of their terror.
John Naughton, Memex 1.1
Related Links:
* Tom Watson smacks down Guido Fawkes
Sunny Hundal, Liberal Conspiracy

* Investment Banks & Financial Maths

Investment bankers are to blame for the credit crunch that has beggared nations, but what about financial mathematicians? As the result of the credit crunch, most workers in the UK are watching their real incomes fall and their pension rights eroded. Those out of work have little prospect of finding a job in the foreseeable future. There is a big squeeze in expenditure on education, health, welfare, and almost every essential service we have come to expect the state to provide. Worst of all, young people finishing their education are finding it very hard to get started in the jobs market. By the end of the first quarter in 2012, UK is back in recession. Meanwhile, the bankers largely responsible for what has happened, and who would be out of business if the taxpayers hadn’t handed over £90 billion to bail them out continue to draw huge salaries with bonuses on top. Why should those who are the most responsible for the financial disaster continue to see their standard of living rise year by year when the rest of us get poorer and poorer? Ever since the deregulation “Big Bang” of 1986, the UK economy has become more and more dependent on financial services. Successive governments have talked about promoting industry but it has been the City that got what it wanted, including the “light touch” regulation that encouraged the bubble to expand so dangerously. However much the doyens of financial mathematics like to absolve themselves from blame, they bear major responsibility for providing the tools that enable one group of people (themselves included) to get prodigiously rich and beggar the rest of society. It is time for aspiring mathematicians to wake up and consider their social responsibility and ideals as well as the beauty of mathematics. If financial bankers are losing their jobs, there certainly are not going to be many more jobs in financial mathematics either.
Prof. Peter Saunders and Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, Institute of Science in Society

END SUMMARY

24 July 2012

Doctors Really Do Die Differently

Research Says That More Physicians Plan Ahead, Reject CPR, and Die In Peace

by Ken Murray, MD

In late 2011, I wrote an essay for Zócalo called “How Doctors Die.” Drawing on my observations and experiences as a doctor, I reported that doctors tend to seek less end-of-life care than ordinary patients do. They know when further treatment is likely to be futile and when life would cease to be worth living. The point I wanted to make was that all of us should have the choice to die that way if we wish—at home, with family, without dramatic hospital interventions, without pain.

The response to this simple idea was overwhelming. I read thousands of comments people posted online regarding the end-of-life care of loved ones. They told of near-dead relatives being assaulted with toxic drugs and painful procedures for no good reason. I am haunted by one description of a patient who could neither talk nor move, begging with her eyes for it all to stop. Thankfully, such stories are slowly becoming less common, and, with an advance directive or POLST, you have considerably better chances of having a peaceful death, if that is what you want.

While the article rarely provoked hostility, it did, among some readers, prompt skepticism. I’d written the article in a personal, anecdotal style, so I rarely made use of numbers, studies, or charts. For example, Ezra Klein, writing in The Washington Post, wanted to see more evidence for my assertions. “Does anyone know of data on end-of-life spending for doctors?” he asked. “Or even on the percentage of medical professionals who have signed living wills?”

This essay is an attempt to address such questions. Perhaps it should be viewed as a set of endnotes to “How Doctors Die.” For every assertion of mine that was based on observation, I’ve looked for relevant scholarly evidence that might support or refute it. Here is what I found:

First, and most important, is the question of whether doctors, for the most part, die differently. One of the clearest indicators we have is a survey from Johns Hopkins University. It’s called the Johns Hopkins Precursors Study, and it’s based on the medical histories and decisions of students from the School of Medicine classes of 1948 through 1964 who volunteered to be part of the survey. According to the study, 65 percent of the doctors (or former medical students) had created an advance directive, i.e. a set of legal documents spelling out in advance what sort of end-of-life care they would like. Only about 20 percent of the public does this. When asked whether they would want cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, if they were in a chronic coma, about 90 percent of the Johns Hopkins doctors said no. Only about 25 percent of the public gives the same answer.

I also asserted in “How Doctors Die” that CPR is rarely as effective as people seem to think. What people have seen on television is at odds with happens in real life. A 1996 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that CPR as portrayed on television was successful in 75 percent of 60 cases and that 65 percent of the patients went home. In contrast, in a 2010 study of more than 95,000 cases of CPR in Japan, health professor Hideo Yasunaga and fellow researchers found that only 8 percent of patients survived for more than one month. Of these, only about 3 percent could lead a mostly normal life. A little more than 3 percent were in a vegetative state, and about 2 percent were alive but had a “poor” outcome.

My sense that there’s a yearning among ordinary patients to have more peaceful deaths has been echoed in the research of University of Wisconsin-Madison nursing professor Karen Kehl. In an article called “Moving Toward Peace: An Analysis of the Concept of a Good Death,” Kehl analyzed a collection of relevant articles and, based on their contents, ranked the attributes of an ideal death as follows: being in control, being comfortable, having a sense of closure, having one’s values affirmed, trusting in care providers, and recognizing impending death. Hospitals cannot help with most of these things. Unfortunately, most patients do not see their wishes fulfilled. A 1998 study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society looked at Medicare patients and found that, while most said they preferred to die at home, most died in hospitals.

I discussed the tense, and often tragic, circumstances that surround many of the treatment decisions made in hospitals. Often, I noted, family members or medical staff effectively override the wishes of a dying patient. The studies I’ve found on this suggest that family plays a particularly big role in taking things in an unintended direction, especially when there’s nothing in writing. A 2003 study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that most patients and families agree in theory that patients should make their own end-of-life decisions, but in practice about half of families override the stated preferences of patients. They have disagreements about the use of life-sustaining measures, and they lack written documents to resolve the matter. In contrast, a 2010 study in The New England Journal of Medicine found that people with advance directives usually receive the care they’ve chosen.

Every doctor has heard stories about people who have had miraculous recoveries, despite a doctor’s prediction. (Such stories are one reason doctors hate to make predictions.) But the sort of cases I’ve written about are those where all treatment has failed and the patient faces death soon. When applied to a patient in the last stages of a terminal decline, CPR is particularly ineffective. A 2010 study published in the journal Supportive Care In Cancer looked at terminal patients who wanted no CPR but got it anyway. Of the 69 patients studied, eight regained a pulse, but, 48 hours later, all were dead. Well-meaning CPR advocates talk in terms of “survival,” but all the term means is that the heart again beats on its own. In the above example, survival was 11 percent, but “survival” as often understood by the public—regaining a reasonable quality of life—was zero.

We don’t like to think about death. But that avoidance is one reason so many Americans fail to arrange an advance directive, even when they are severely ill. When patients of mine would come to my office accompanied by a family member, I often asked the patient how he or she wanted to die. I didn’t do it because the patient was on the brink of death, or even sick. I did it because I wanted the patient to think about the question and also to make sure that a loved one got to hear the answer. Unwanted futile measures, prolonged deaths, and hospital deaths remain commonplace in America and many other places. But they don’t have to be. It just requires our doctors and, no less, the rest of us to come to terms with the inevitable.

Ken Murray, MD, is Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at USC. He will be appearing in a Zócalo event, “How Doctors Die,” on Monday, July 30.

*Photo courtesy of Ephemeral Scraps.

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Related Links:
* How Doctors Die - Not Like The Rest Of Us
Ken Murray MD, Nexus, Zocalo Public Square
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INFORMATION RELEASE

Whose Games? Occupy London to join Counter Olympic Network protest on Saturday

24 July Newsletter

Atos Hit By Undercover Filming plus Final Summer Price Cut

A few weeks ago, when the DWP tried to stop claimants seeing a useful employment and support allowance (ESA) appeals video, Benefits and Work readers helped make it the most popular video the ministry of justice has ever produced and spread it across the internet. 

Now, it seems, the DWP are trying to prevent claimants giving evidence about how fairly Atos and the DWP are treating them.  This evidence is vital for millions of people because it will affect both ESA and disability living allowance (DLA) when it becomes personal independence payment (PIP). So, once again, we’re asking for your help to stop the DWP getting away with it.

In this edition we also ask who is lying about ending the right to have your ESA medical recorded?  

We also tell you about the two page letter you can copy and paste to give yourself the best chance of getting your audio-tape.

Finally,  there’s news of two upcoming TV investigations into the work capability assessment (WCA), one of which includes undercover filming of Atos.

MISSION ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE
Professor Harrington has made a call for evidence for his third review of the work capability assessment.  He especially  wants to hear from claimants about whether all the changes he has introduced mean that Atos and the DWP now deal with you more fairly and effectively.

Yet, astonishingly, there is nowhere for claimants to answer the questions he puts to you.  Instead, the DWP have buried the questionnaire in a .pdf file which cannot be written to unless you own software costing hundreds of pounds. 

The only way claimants can take part is either by printing off the document, and then writing the answers by hand and posting them to Harrington or by trying to copy, paste and reformat all the questions into another document to create their own questionnaire.

In addition, the call for evidence went out just before the summer holidays and ends on September 7th, just as schools go back.  This means that it has attracted very little attention from charities and other organisations that might otherwise be encouraging claimants to get involved.

So, to help you take part, Benefits and Work has done two things. 

We’ve created an online version of the questionnaire you can complete.  Your answers will be emailed to you and you can then check them and forward them to Harrington’s team. 

We’ve also created a text version of the questionnaire, so if you prefer you can type in that and then send your answers to Harrington. 

Make no mistake, this review matters.

The DWP and Atos have faced ever growing criticism of the WCA, with even GPs calling en masse for it to be scrapped and two TV investigations of the WCA being broadcast next week.  Their response has always been that they are putting into place all Harrington’s recommendations and that, as a result the WCA is greatly improved.

If you agree that it has got better it’s important that you show your support for the changes to silence the critics.  If you think it hasn’t, then it’s equally important that you make it as hard as possible for Grayling and Iain Duncan Smith to use Harrington as a defence. 

There’s a series of questions about issues such as whether telephone and written communications have improved, whether medical examinations are better and whether the WCA is now fair and effective.  There’s also an ‘anything else’ box you can use to address issues like recording medicals and waiting times, for example.

Harrington particularly wants to hear from claimants who have had more than one WCA, but he does also want opinions on fairness and effectiveness from claimants who have only had one. 

And because personal independence payment, which begins replacing DLA from April of next year, is assessed using a very similar system to the WCA, whatever advantages or failings there are in the WCA will almost certainly be reproduced for DLA to PIP transfers.  Because of the dramatic effect that DLA/PIP in particular has on living standards, your evidence could literally change people’s lives.

So, if you’ve had a WCA, please complete the questionnaire.   And if you can post details on forums you use, forward this newsletter to a friend and ask any charities you’re involved with to encourage members to take part as well, we can ensure that Harrington hears the truth.

TWO TV INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE WCA
Thanks to Benefits and Work member papasmurf for alerting us to two programmes about the WCA both being broadcast on Monday 30 July.

Dispatches.  8pm,  Channel 4
“Using undercover filming, reporter Jackie Long investigates the shocking processes used to assess whether sickness and disability benefit claimants should be declared fit for work.”

Disabled or faking it?  8.30pm,  BBC2
 “Panorama investigates the government's plans to end the so-called 'sick note culture' and their attempts to get millions of people off disability benefits and into work. In Britain's modern welfare state, millions are being paid to private companies to assess sick and disabled claimants but is the system working? Or are new tests wrongly victimising those who deserve support the most?”

RECORDING MEDICALS
The fiasco over the recording of medicals has now even reached the pages of the Guardian (external link).

Aside from the lack of recording equipment, the biggest issue at the moment is whether you can have your WCA postponed if you’ve asked in advance for a recording, but the equipment isn’t available.  Grayling keeps reassuring MPs that this is the case. 

As recently as 17 July, in response to a written parliamentary question (external link) he stated that:

In the meantime, while Atos will do all that they can to accommodate requests for audio recording there may be times when the service cannot be offered, for example where it has not be possible to get access to recording equipment on the date/time of the WCA. In these circumstances clients will be told in advance that their request cannot be accommodated and offered a later date.

On the other hand, Atos claimed in their company blog (external link) on 6 July that:

“​We will make every effort to accommodate requests for this service and hope that we will be able to meet demand. However, under the terms of our contract with the Department, we cannot postpone an assessment on the basis of audio-recordin​g.”​

And we continue to hear from members who have been refused a recording and told they must still attend their medical.

We are taking steps to discover whether the DWP have indeed issued instructions to Atos not to postpone medicals. 

Meanwhile we have produced a two page letter Benefits and Work members can copy and paste to ask for their medical to be recorded and warn of the possible consequences of this request being refused.  It draws on parliamentary statements, the Equalities Act and an Upper Tribunal decision.

The letter is included in the latest editions of our guide to the WCA and is also downloadable in text format for easy copying and pasting in the ESA section of the members area.

OTHER NEWS
As always, there’s much more news in the members area than we have room for in this newsletter, including:

Decision makers still bow to Atos

Double suicide draws further tragic attention to ‘fit for work’ test

Blue badge scheme ‘will keep focus on physical mobility’

27 Remploy factories to close

Has WCA improved, Harrington wants to know?

Work Programme success claims Grayling

MoJ video raised in house

Many thanks to everyone who has sent in news stories over the last fortnight, including: Beverley Hymers, John Pring, Jim Allison, papasmurf, Crazydiamond.

GOOD NEWS FROM THE FORUM AND EMAILS – OPEN ACCESS LINKS
Finally, we have a selection of good news from the forum.  But we’ve also begun publishing extracts from some of the emails we’ve received over many months but haven’t had time to do anything with.  So below is a link to the Email Feedback page and headings from some recently published emails.

From IB to Support Group without medical
“I am absolutely certain this would not have been possible without your website and guides.”

Placed in ESA Support Group without medical
“my subscription ..was well worth it”

ESA reassessed, placed in Support Group for 2 years
“Thank you every one. Your advice and support so valued.”

Placed in ESA Support Group without medical assessment or having to supply extra medical evidence
“a humungous thank you to all the Mods on here”

Success at ESA appeal, nil to 15 points and placed in WRAG
“thank you very much for the help your guides gave to me”

Successful DLA supersession, awarded high rate mobility and high rate care for an indefinite period
“I can't recommend the excellent b&w guides enough.”

EMAIL FEEDBACK
You can read all the email feedback below from this link.

Support group with no medical – I cannot express the relief and gratitude I feel

From IB to support group without medical – thank you so very much

High rate mobility on appeal  - a very big thank you.

From 0 to 18 points on appeal - thanks for all the advice

Support group and highest rates of DLA – thank you so much

DLA award for son

From WRAG to Support Group after medical

Highest rate DLA care and mobility

Support group without medical – impressive result

ESA and DLA awarded –thanks so much

Support group without medical – happy and relieved.

Support Group without a medical - many, many thanks

Good luck,

Steve Donnison

Benefits and Work Publishing Ltd
Company registration No.  5962666

Scientists: Chicken Vaccine Could Be Killer

Brittany Lyte | 23 July, 2012

Two virus strains used to vaccinate chickens against a deadly disease appear to be mutating into a single new virus that is sickening and killing birds on Australian farms, Science reports.

Chickens worldwide are susceptible to a respiratory disease called infectious laryngotracheitis, which kills one in five infected birds. To combat the illness, farmers vaccinate chickens with strains of the virus. In Australia, there are two vaccines that are widely used, one of which was introduced from Europe in 2006.

Two years after the new vaccine came into play, new strains of the deadly disease began to surface in Australian chickens. Scientists studying the situation say the new vaccine seems to be combining with the old one and mutating into a disease-causing form.

“This shows that recombination of such strains can happen and people need to think about it,” Glenn Browning, an Australian veterinary microbiologist, told Science in an interview.

Scientists studying the scenario say vaccines are an important disease management control that cause much less harm than good. But they said it’s important to be aware of the possibility of recombination and mutation.

Main photo credit: Steven-L-Johnson/Flickr

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Related Links:
* Post vaccine, pigs experience severe disease
Meryl Nass, MD
* Vaccines on Chicken Farms Create Super Virus
Tom Philpott, Mother Jones
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June 27, 2012

Class Says Merck Lied About Mumps Vaccine

Reuben Kramer

PHILADELPHIA (CN) - Merck has known for a decade that its mumps vaccine is "far less effective" than it tells the government, and it falsified test results and sold millions of doses of "questionable efficacy," flooding and monopolizing the market, a primary caregiver claims in a federal antitrust class action.
     Alabama-based Chatom Primary Care sued Merck on Monday, the week after the unsealing of a False Claims Act complaint two relators filed in 2010.
     Those relators, Stephen Krahling and Joan Wlochowski, were Merck virologists who claim in their unsealed complaint that they "witnessed firsthand the improper testing and data falsification in which Merck engaged to artificially inflate the vaccine's efficacy findings."
     Krahling and Wlochowski claimed Merck's scheme caused the United States to pay "hundreds of millions of dollars for a vaccine that does not provide adequate immunization."
     "As the largest single purchaser of childhood vaccines (accounting for more than 50 percent of all vaccine purchases), the United States is by far the largest financial victim of Merck's fraud," according to the 2010 False Claims Act complaint. "But the ultimate victims here are the millions of children who every year are being injected with a mumps vaccine that is not providing them with an adequate level of protection. And while this is a disease that, according to the Centers for Disease Control ('CDC'), was supposed to be eradicated by now, the failure in Merck's vaccine has allowed this disease to linger, with significant outbreaks continuing to occur."
     The United States told a federal judge in April that it did not want to intervenein the False Claims case, but reserved the right to do so later.
     Chatom says in its antitrust complaint that Merck falsely claims its mumps vaccine is 95 percent effective.
     That claim "deterred and excluded competing manufacturers," who would enter the risky and expensive vaccine market only if they believed they could craft a better product, Chatom says in its complaint.
     Merck is the only manufacturer licensed by the FDA to sell the mumps vaccine in United States, and if it could not show that the vaccine was 95 percent effective, it risked losing its lucrative monopoly, according to the complaint.
     That's why Merck found it critically important to keep claiming such a high efficacy rate, the complaint states.
     And, Chatom claims, that's why Merck went to great lengths, including "manipulating its test procedures and falsifying the test results," to prop up the bogus figure, though it knew that the attenuated virus from which it created the vaccine had been altered over the years during the manufacturing process, and that the quality of the vaccine had degraded as a result.
     Starting in the late 1990s, Merck set out on its sham testing program with the objective of "report[ing] efficacy of 95 percent or higher regardless of the vaccine's true efficacy," the complaint states.
     Chatom says Merck initially called its testing program Protocol 007.
     Under Protocol 007, Merck did not test the vaccine's ability to protect children against a "wild-type" mumps virus, which is "the type of real-life virus against which vaccines are generally tested," the complaint states.
     Instead, Chatom says, Merck tested children's blood using its own attenuated strain of the virus.
     "This was the same mumps strain with which the children were vaccinated," the complaint states.
     That "subverted" the purpose of the testing regime, "which was to measure the vaccine's ability to provide protection against a disease-causing mumps virus that a child would actually face in real life. The end result of this deviation ... was that Merck's test overstated the vaccine's effectiveness," Chatom claims.
     Merck also added animal antibodies to blood samples to achieve more favorable test results, though it knew that the human immune system would never produce such antibodies, and that the antibodies created a laboratory testing scenario that "did not in any way correspond to, correlate with, or represent real life ... virus neutralization in vaccinated people," according to the complaint.
     Chatom claims that the falsification of test results occurred "with the knowledge, authority and approval of Merck's senior management."
     And as Merck's vaccine is the only game in town, the vaccine's "significantly degraded" quality means "there has remained a significant risk of a resurgence of mumps outbreaks," Chatom says in its complaint.
     It claims that the degraded quality of the Merck vaccine played a role in a 2006 mumps outbreak in the Midwest, and in another outbreak in 2009.
     Those outbreaks caused the Centers for Disease Control to push back its target date for eradicating the disease from 2010 to no earlier than 2020, the complaint states.
     "But no amount of extra time or dosages will be enough to eliminate the disease when the vaccine does not work as represented in the labeling," the complaint states. "It will merely allow Merck to continue to misrepresent the vaccine's efficacy and thereby maintain its exclusive hold on the relevant market with an inadequate vaccine."
     Merck spokesman Ron Rogers told Courthouse News in a statement that the False Claims lawsuit "is completely without merit," and that Chatom's lawsuit is merely derivative of that case.
     "Merck has presented information that demonstrated to the United States Department of Justice that these allegations are factually false, and after the Department conducted its own two-year investigation, it decided not to pursue this lawsuit," Rogers said.
     In addition, he said, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration "previously examined the issues raised in the lawsuit, and they were resolved to the agency's satisfaction."
     Chatom seeks to represent the class of all those who bought Merck's mumps vaccine from Jan. 1, 1999 to today.
     It seeks damages for monopolization under the Sherman Act, violation of state consumer protection laws, unjust enrichment and breach of warranty.
     Chatom is represented by Richard Golomb of Golomb & Honik, in Philadelphia. 

A diary of deception and distortion

July 22, 2012

THE OLYMPICS: A concerned events organiser speaks.

Meryl Nass, MD

July 21, 2012

After vaccination, pigs experience much more severe disease when exposed to swine flu virus / Veterinary Pathology

Vet Pathol. 2012 Mar 28.

Kinetics of Lung Lesion Development and Pro-Inflammatory Cytokine Response in Pigs WithVaccine-Associated Enhanced Respiratory Disease Induced by Challenge With Pandemic (2009) A/H1N1 Influenza Virus.

Gauger PC, Vincent AL, Loving CL, Henningson JN, Lager KM, Janke BH, Kehrli ME Jr, Roth JA.

Abstract

The objective of this report was to characterize the enhanced clinical disease and lung lesions observed in pigs vaccinated with inactivated H1N2swine δ-cluster influenza A virus and challenged with pandemic 2009 A/H1N1 human influenza virus. Eighty-four, 6-week-old, cross-bred pigs were randomly allocated into 3 groups of 28 pigs to represent vaccinated/challenged (V/C), non-vaccinated/challenged (NV/C), and non-vaccinated/non-challenged (NV/NC) control groups. Pigs were intratracheally inoculated with pH1N1 and euthanized at 1, 2, 5, and 21 days post inoculation (dpi). Macroscopically, V/C pigs demonstrated greater percentages of pneumonia compared to NV/C pigs. Histologically, V/C pigs demonstrated severe bronchointerstitial pneumonia with necrotizing bronchiolitis accompanied by interlobular and alveolar edema and hemorrhage at 1 and 2 dpi. The magnitude of peribronchiolar lymphocytic cuffing was greater in V/C pigs by 5 dpi. Microscopic lung lesion scores were significantly higher in the V/C pigs at 2 and 5 dpi compared to NV/C and NV/NC pigs. Elevated TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8 were detected in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid at all time points in V/C pigs compared to NV/C pigs. These data suggest H1 inactivated vaccines followed by heterologous challenge resulted in potentiated clinical signs and enhanced pulmonary lesions and correlated with an elevated proinflammatory cytokine response in the lung. The lung pathology and host immune response is consistent with the vaccine-associated enhanced respiratory disease (VAERD) clinical outcome observed reproducibly in our swine model.

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Related Links:
* Vaccines on Chicken Farms Create Super Virus
Tom Philpott, Mother Jones
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