Vaccines This paper was rejected by the N Engl J Med. After reporting data showing poor protection after vaccination against varicella, the authors gave 3 references to maintain that, in spite of these unexpected results, immunisation has reduced the incidence of varicella “dramatically”. Attached documents NEJM_varicella_letter.pdf
Reliability of referencing
Hepatitis B This paper was rejected by the Lancet in Jan, 2004 A recent paper from Spain showed that bibliographical references given by the pharmaceutical industry to support their promotional claims are often inaccurate...
Evidence-based medicine and vaccine therapy
Vaccines This paper is currently in Press in the journal Vaccine. Access is not direct. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X04005225
Conflicts of interests
Hepatitis B This paper was rejected by The Lancet in Nov 2003, on the basis that a colleague of van Damme provided to the Journal "the details of 10 papers from peer-reviewed journals in which the association between HBV and MS is refuted". In September, following the French Ministry of…
Vaccinations and multiple sclerosis
Hepatitis B This comment was rejected by the N Engl Med J in 2001. As exemplified by an accompanying editorial1, results of two studies2,3 published in a recent issue of NEJM have been overwhelmingly interpreted as demonstrating that no link exists between hepatitis B (HB) vaccine and multiple sclerosis (MS).…
Expert mongering
Conflicts of interest Pharmaceutical industry has not only the power of linking experts with money or various favours, it is also able of creating and promoting those whose work (or incompetence) is consistent with its interests. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/329/7459/189#70360
Bibliography
Hepatitis B A review of references on the safety of hepatitis B vaccine In addition to the recent investigation by Hernan et al (an American study performed on a British database), the following bibliography, although not exhaustive, demonstrates that the issue of hepatitis B vaccine unusual toxicity is by no…
Vaccination: misconceptions about misconception
Hepatitis B According to a BMJ editorial (21 Aug. 2004)Bedford H. Misconceptions about the new combination vaccine. BMJ 2004;329:411., doubts about vaccination programmes cannot be based on more than “misconceptions”. Let's try to demonstrate that in this field the distribution between “myth” and “reality” is not so univocal : this…
La passion de Charles Bovary
Homme bredouillant et mari bafoué, bourgeois médiocre et médecin incompétent, Charles Bovary a été communément méprisé par des générations de lecteurs. Pourtant qui, le premier, "voit" Emma, si ce n'est Charles? Tous les hommes du célèbre roman ne subiront-ils pas la vision de celui qui, avant les autres, institue la…