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A nice catch from our friends at Grabien, who got it from Ace [update] and who had to go all the way back to 2005 to find this nugget and the contemporaneous coverage at the NYT. At the time, the US prepared for a predicted epidemic of the avian flu, also known as H5N1, of global proportions. The virus had been identified for 18 years by that time, but by the end of 2004 had only resulted in 36 deaths and 50 known cases over the prior two years, according to WHO data. In 2005, the number of cases would...

Rudy Giuliani sits down with Emergency Doctors on the Front Line

President Donald Trump visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Saturday, and according to CNN, a person "familiar with the matter" claims the visit "did not follow the protocol of a routine presidential medical exam."I was about to say that this White House leaks like a sieve, but that would be unfair to sieves, which are supposed to filter out at least a few things. That's no slight on Trump, by the way. There literally aren't enough true loyalists in D.C. to staff the White House without letting in a bunch of leakers. But does this particular leaker have...

Armed men attacked an Ebola isolation ward in the Liberian capital Monrovia overnight, prompting 29 patients to flee the facility, witnesses said Sunday. 'They broke down the doors and looted the place. The patients all fled,' said Rebecca Wesseh, who witnessed the attack and whose report was confirmed by residents and the head of Health Workers Association of Liberian, George Williams. Meanwhile, a Nigerian man was today at the centre of an Ebola health scare on the Spanish Costas, which contains an estimated British population of more than 82,000.

Eating too much red meat could trigger Alzheimer’s, suggests new research. Scientists found that a buildup of iron—abundant in red meat—could cause oxidant damage, to which the brain is particularly vulnerable. Researchers say this could in turn increase the risk of Alzheimer’s. Professor George Bartzokis, of UCLA in the United States, said that more studies have suggested the disease is caused by one of two proteins, one called tau, the other beta-amyloid. …

JACKSON, Miss. -- Authorities said Sunday a new drug that can be bought in stores is circulating the streets of Mississippi. This new drug, known in the streets as "ivory wave" or "scarface," is actually a form of bath salt, authorities said. The director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, Marshall Fisher, said the drug has gained popularity in the coastal and northeast part of the state. It can be snorted, injected or smoked, authorities said. Senate leaders said they have already proposed a bill to get this new street drug off the store shelves. If passed, possession and use...

Now that the first Baby Boomers are turning 65 Medicare, the health benefit program for seniors, is set to feel a mighty strain, according to an analysis by a senior fellow at the Urban Institute. Eugene Steuerle, an Institute fellow and the Richard B. Fisher Chair at the nonpartisan institute, is also a former deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury. He says, while Social Security's woes get the most attention, Medicare is actually in much worse shape... This is not an economic problem that leads to a political one, Steuerle says, but a political problem that threatens undesirable economic consequences....

In the December 15th issue of America's most prestigious medical pubication, The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Eric Friedman and Eli Adashi write, "In passing The Affordable Care Act, the United States took a giant, if partial, step toward joining nations wherein the right to health constitutes an inalienable moral and legal right." Notice how the authors replace the term health care with just the term health. As a medical doctor, I strongly disagree that health is or should be a human right. First and foremost, as a supporter of individual rights and constitutionally limited government, "the right...

Do federal, state and local governments have a right to intervene in our lives when it comes to choices affecting our health? Recently, San Francisco's board of supervisors voted to forbid restaurants from giving gifts with meals that contain too much fat and sugar, a measure aimed at McDonald's Happy Meals. The reasoning of these tyrants is to prevent McDonald's from using toys to lure children into liking foods the board deems non-nutritious. Fortunately, San Francisco's mayor, Gavin Newsom, by no means a libertarian, has threatened to veto the measure saying, "Despite its good intentions, I cannot support this unwise...

If Rep. Joe Barton becomes the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee next year, the Texas Republican vows to make life miserable for Democratic defenders of the health care overhaul law. He'll drag Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Medicare chief Donald Berwick to Capitol Hill for regular grilling. Democrats, he says, essentially have shielded the two key figures from answering tough questions about the new law

In a speech to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., spoke of the cause of his life: providing decent, quality health care to "every American — north, south, east, west, young, old." In June 2009, Mr. Kennedy reiterated this point in a television commercial for Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who was then preparing to run for re-election. When Sen. Kennedy died of cancer two months later, many Democrats touted President Obama's health-care reform efforts as the final step toward making Mr. Kennedy's dream a reality. Indeed, when the president signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act...

A father-of-two died of cancer the day after a 'breakthrough' drug he had battled for nearly five months to get finally arrived in the post. The family of Stuart Cunningham, 51, were left heartbroken after he succumbed to the disease without getting the chance to try the drug, known as Afinitor. Used to treat kidney cancer, it is an option for patients who have not responded to Sunitinib, the primary drug used to fight the condition. Mr Cunningham's wife, Tracy, said she was 'angry and frustrated' at the NHS, which refused to fund the Afinitor because it was not 'cost-effective'....

Amidst the Obama administration's crusade to consolidate power in Washington at the expense of the very sovereignty of the states and our liberties, we should be encouraged that states are fighting back. Consider just three very recent examples. Have you heard about the administration's propaganda campaign to adorn each federal "stimulus" project with taxpayer-funded signs to remind us that these projects have been bestowed on us by the beneficence of the Obama administration? The signs read, "Project funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act." In the first place, they're not funded by any act, but by the American taxpayer....

Maricopa County health officials say a relatively new, extremely toxic strain of bacteria has been found in hospitals and other health-care facilities in the Phoenix metro area. The germ is known as Clostridium difficile (klo-STRID'-ee-um dif-uh-SEEL') and has long plagued the medical profession for increasing the amount of illness in patients. But this is the first time a new strain of the germ that carries at least 20 times as much toxin as the original strain is believed to have been linked to patient illness and deaths in Arizona, according to health officials. County officials say at least 10 patients...

The backlash against ObamaCare is moving beyond the Tea Parties and has now arrived in state capitals. In more than 30 states, legislators are proceeding to pass statutes or ballot initiatives that would guarantee the right to choose medical services and insurance. These laws are generally called Health-Care Freedom Acts. If enacted, they will set off a Constitutional 10th Amendment fight over whether there are limitations on the powers of the federal government to regulate health care and override the protections in these state laws. Almost all these measures would make it illegal for the government at any level to...

President Obama's health-care bill is now moving toward final passage. The policy issues may be coming to an end, but the legal issues are certain to continue because key provisions of this dangerous legislation are unconstitutional. Legally speaking, this legislation creates a target-rich environment. We will focus on three of its more glaring constitutional defects.

The Climate and Health Council, a collaboration of worldwide health organizations including the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal Society of Medicine, believes there is a direct link between climate change and better health. Their controversial plan would see GPs and nurses give out advice to their patients on how to lower their carbon footprint. The Council believes that climate change “threatens to radically undermine the health of all peoples”. It believes health professionals are ideally placed to promote change because “we have ethical responsibility…..as well as the capacity to influence people and our...

Is Congress going through the ordeal of trying to enact health care reform only to have one of the main pillars — requiring individuals to obtain insurance — declared unconstitutional? An interesting debate for a constitutional law seminar. In the real world, not a big worry. "This issue is not serious," says Walter Dellinger, acting solicitor general during the Clinton administration. But it's being taken seriously in some quarters, so it's worth explaining where the Constitution grants Congress the authority to impose an individual mandate. There are two short answers: the power to regulate interstate commerce and the power to...

“You can fool some of the people all of the time,” Abraham Lincoln said, “and all of the people some of the time.” Apparently Congress agrees. Indeed, lawmakers are counting on it: In an effort to fool just enough people for just long enough, they’re engaging in budget tricks to ram through health “reform.” In essence, they’re making promises that won’t be kept. Here’s how. Years ago, lawmakers declared they’d control the rising cost of health care by limiting the amount they paid doctors who treated Medicare patients. They created a formula that linked doctor pay to the overall economic...

The president and his party in Congress are attempting to dig this country so deep into debt that we may not be able to climb out. This is a strong and resilient country, but we wouldn’t be the first great nation to bankrupt ourselves. Four months ago, while the Democrats were hatching their health care behemoths, only policy wonks noticed a report issued by the Social Security and Medicare trustees. It showed that the combined unfunded liability of the two programs has now reached $107 trillion. That’s seven times the size of the U.S. economy, and it could go higher,...