[neverdem]

Clinical Validation of a Polymerase Chain Reaction Assay for the Diagnosis of Pertussis by Comparison With Serology, Culture, and Symptoms During a Large Pertussis Vaccine Efficacy Trial

[Jeff Chandler]

Kind of reminds me of the Global Warming hysteria.

[neverdem]

An Old Cholesterol Remedy Is New Again

Consequences: Gun Ownership Linked to Higher Homicide Rates

Embryonic Issues

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

[GovernmentShrinker]

For two weeks starting in mid-April last year, she coughed, seemingly nonstop, followed by another week when she coughed sporadically . . . Yet, epidemiologists say, one of the most troubling aspects of the pseudo-epidemic is that all the decisions seemed so sensible at the time.

Oh sure, having a doctor keep working in a hospital day after day for 3 weeks while coughing non-stop was "so sensible". But that's the culture of the hazing-turned-staple-of-socialist-medicine residency system in which Dr. Herndon supervises residents who are forced to work 24 hour days even when coughing non-stop or otherwise showing obvious symptoms of infectious disease. http://dartmed.dartmouth.edu/fall05/html/24_Hours.php Guess it would look bad if she stayed home in bed for a couple of days, but most likely it would have given her immune system a chance to fight off the garden-variety cold, and saved the millions of dollars that this idiotic panic cost. No doubt would also have saved a number of her immune-stressed colleagues and subordinates, and countless patients from catching her cold too.

[LibFreeOrDie]

Same thing happened at Childrens Hospital in Boston:

December 26, Associated Press Boston health officials puzzled by outbreak. What Boston, MA, health officials at first thought was an outbreak of whooping cough among employees at Childrens Hospital may have been something else entirely. But exactly what is still in question. It started when a 19monthold patient came down with the classic symptoms of whooping cough. Symptoms include a runny nose, sneezing, slight fever, and mild cough, which can develop into a violent and persistent cough. A laboratory test confirmed he had the disease. Threedozen hospital employees and one other patient tested positive for whooping cough from late September through early November. But further testing, different from the initial tests, could find little evidence of the bacteria. Federal and state health officials joined 8the city in trying to figure out exactly what ailed the workers, all of whom recovered.
Source: http://news.bostonherald.com