Well, that didn’t take long.

Remember when the grande dame of the anti-vaccine movement, Barbara Loe Fisher, decided that she would try to harass, intimidate, and silence Paul Offit through the filing of a frivolous libel suit against Dr. Offit, Amy Wallace (the journalist who interviewed Offit for an excellent article last year), and Condé Nast, the publisher of WIRED, which ran the article? Well, the judge has ruled, and that ruling is…dismissed!

The text of the ruling can be found here.

There are some awesomely awesome passages in this ruling, which is a slapdown that, while not as epic as, for instance, the slapdown that Judge John E. Jones III delivered to creationists in Kitzmiller v. Dover, is nonetheless very satisfying to read–with one exception. The judge in this case makes some truly annoying statements like:

Moreover, in the context of the Wired article, the statement “she lies” lacks the provably false content that is required to support a defamation action.=

So far, so good. Then, not so good:

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Source: Stanford University Medical Center
Date: March 10, 2010

Summary:

About four out of every 10 cells in the brain are so-called oligodendrocytes. These cells produce the all-important myelin that coats nerve tracts, ensuring fast, energy-efficient transmission of nerve impulses. Mixed among them are proliferating but not particularly proficient precursor cells that are destined to become oligodendrocytes when needed but, for now, remain suspended in an immature, relatively undifferentiated state somewhere between stem cell and adult oligodendrocyte.

Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have now identified a molecular master switch that catalyzes these cells’ transition to mature, myelin-making mavens. The results may have implications for medical treatment, as defects in this maturation process have been observed in both multiple sclerosis and the most common kind of brain cancers in adults, known as gliomas.

In a study to be published March 10 in Neuron, the investigators found that a molecule known as miR-219 is found at high levels only in oligodendrocytes, and that it is both necessary and sufficient to induce their relatively undifferentiated precursors to become functioning adult cells.

For more stories about Marty and Cooper, visit my Marty and Cooper tag or my slide show in my middle side bar or my video tab in my upper menu bar.

You’re probably wondering why this blog was dark during last week’s HIMSS conference. Because this blog is not, I repeat, is not, my primary responsibility, nor is it a source of income for me. A lot of people have the idea that I’m nothing more than a blogger. I’m a professional journalist, have been for nearly 18 years.

If you want to read my coverage from HIMSS, go to FierceHealthIT and related publications. In fact, there’s a dedicated page for coverage of HIMSS10. Most, but not all, of the stories are mine.

To clear up some further misconceptions, I’d also like to refer you to the commentary I wrote in FierceHealthIT this week. It didn’t make it in to the newsletter because there was a publisher’s note in that slot, but it’s up on the Web. In this commentary, I vent. A lot. About once a year, I find it necessary to rant about PR nightmares I’ve had to endure. Consider yourself warned.

Of the nine HIMSS conferences I’ve covered, this year’s was by far the most grueling. Much of the angst is due to the crushing volume of e-mail I received requesting meetings, informing me of new products and—gasp—touting the fact that a company participated in the IHE Interoperability Showcase. Seriously, do you think I’m going to write a story about each individual company that was involved in the showcase?

The column also lists four trite words and phrases I’d like to see permanently stricken from all further health IT marketing:

• Solution
• Robust
• “Fully HIPAA-compliant.” Products can’t be HIPAA-compliant. They can only provide the protections that HIPAA requires so the user can comply with HIPAA.
• “Guarantee of meaningful use.” Along the same lines, a vendor can’t guarantee meaningful use of an EMR. As the phrase implies, it’s up to the user to use the EMR in a meaningful way.

This, I hope, is more than venting. I’d like it to be constructive criticism. At least one marketing professional, Lisa Rom of Symantec, seemed to enjoy my column, and sent me her additions to the list of Forbidden Words:

• Seamless interoperability (her personal favorite)
• New paradigm
• Vendor neutral archive
• Real time anything
• Completely automated anything
• Unlimited scalability

I really think I may be on to something here.

Happy:  I take one quick look at the arm rash  Why?   Why are you spending all this  money on this rash?  

Patient:  Because the doctor said it would help.

Happy:  Has it?

Patient:  No.  Not really.

Happy:  Does it itch?  Does it hurt?  Does it cause you any problems at all?

Patient:  No.  Not really.

Happy:  I didn’t think so.  It’s not a rash.  It’s bruising.

Happy:  Notice where the rash is ma’am.  It’s only on the outside of your arms.   That’s when you bump into things.  If the rash was on the inside of your arms, or on your trunk or any where else that you don’t bump I would reconsider another cause.  You’re bumping your arms and you’re bruising yourself.  

Patient:  But I don’t bump into things. 

Happy:  Yes you do.  Trust me.  I’m saving you a lot of money.  Stop putting medication on this bruise and leave it alone.  If you want, go buy yourself some cheap elbow pads from Walmart.  I guarantee your rash will disappear in two weeks.

Husband:  Thanks doc, you really know what you’re talking about.

Check out this great post by Mary M on biofortifed. In it she reviews a new research paper that describes how the use of Bt could potentially save the lives of millions.

You can download a video about the researchers and their work here.

From Mary’s post: “For some people, a great deal of the conflama around genetically-engineered (GE) crops has to do with the presence of a pesticide in the plant material–mainly the Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt protein–rather than coating the surface of the plant as organic Bt sprays or chemical-style pesticides would. No matter how many times I explain that there are benefits to this strategy (such as reduced impact on non-target species and on improvements in farm family health among others), it doesn’t seem to help. No matter how many times I explain that pesticides aren’t the only modification to plants (as we see at Biofortified regularly), it doesn’t matter to critics of GE. The fact that plants make their own pesticides? Not interested. And no matter how many times I explain how the Bt proteins work only on species that have the specific receptor for that interaction–and therefore does not affect humans as it would the corn borer pest–it doesn’t seem to have any impact. The misplaced fear continues to be used by the critics.ResearchBlogging.org

So when I saw this paper that suggested the Bt protein may be a powerful strategy for improving the lives of impoverished children around the world, all I could do was wonder if that might finally register with those who make unsupported claims of the effects of Bt on humans.”

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The Utah legislature has passed a bill that would almost certainly make it criminal homicide if a smoker has a miscarriage and would allow the woman to be prosecuted, with a maximum penalty of life in prison.

According to Utah law: “A person commits criminal homicide if he intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, with criminal negligence, or acting with a mental state otherwise specified in the statute defining the offense, causes the death of another human being, including an unborn child at any stage of its development.”

However, under current Utah law, there are provisions which prevent the state from prosecuting women who miscarry or have an abortion.

The bill – House Bill 12 – would strictly define abortion as performed by a physician under specified circumstances, and would remove the restrictions so that a pregnant woman could be prosecuted if she “recklessly” causes the “death” of an “unborn child.”

In order to show that a woman acted in a reckless manner, it merely needs to be shown that the woman’s action – smoking in this case – is known to cause miscarriages. Since there is strong evidence that smoking increases the risk of miscarriage, women who smoke during pregnancy and who suffer a miscarriage could be viewed as having acted recklessly. Thus, they would – by Utah state law if this bill is signed by the governor – be guilty of criminal homicide and could face a potential maximum penalty of life in prison.

The Rest of the Story

Besides being the most dangerous intrusion into the rights of woman that I am aware of, this is also the most dangerous intrusion into the autonomy of smokers that I have yet seen. This bill, if enacted into law, would literally allow the state to lock up in prison woman who smoke during pregnancy and experience a miscarriage.

Anti-smoking groups should be among the first protesting against this bill and urging the Governor to veto it. However, to the best of my knowledge, the national anti-smoking groups have been silent.

You know, I talk a fair amount on this blog about the mentality in the anti-smoking movement and where it could potentially lead, but this is no longer in the realm of what could happen. It’s here! This is happening before our eyes.

Fortunately, the governor of Utah vetoed this bill yesterday. He then went on to sign an amended bill in which the word “reckless” was removed. The legislation is still an absolute abomination: it makes it criminal homicide for a woman to take the morning after pill. However, the removal of the word “reckless” eliminates the ability of the state to press charges against smokers who suffer a miscarriage.

The Utah legislature and governor are a complete disgrace to America and to our Constitution and the individual rights and autonomy upon which this country was founded. I cannot possibly condemn them strongly enough.

Go say Hello to Travis Saunders and Peter Janiszewski, the newest bloggers on the Scienceblogs.com network at Obesity Panacea.

They cover health, physiology, nutrition and exercise – something we did not have here on the network before, at least not in such a concentrated form. Check out the archives of their old blog and then bookmark the new Obesity Panacea.

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Source: University of Michigan Health System
Date: March 7, 2010

Summary:

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – University of Michigan scientists have identified a new reservoir for hidden HIV-infected cells that can serve as a factory for new infections. New research shows that bone marrow, previously thought to be resistant to the virus, can contain latent forms of the infection. The findings, which appear online today in Nature Medicine, indicate a new target for curing the disease so those infected with the virus may someday no longer rely on AIDS drugs for a lifetime and may open the door to new treatments. The new research also gives a broader view of how HIV overwhelms the body’s immune system and devastates its ability to regenerate itself.

It is difficult for me to see any way in which a public health group could praise a state legislature that voted to make it criminal homicide for a woman to take the morning after pill or to suffer a miscarriage induced by an abusive partner or an accident, but the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has done so.

It is also difficult for me to see how a public health group could praise a legislature that has asked its citizens to smoke in order to support critical government programs. But the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has done so.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids praised the Utah legislature for enacting a $1.00 per pack cigarette tax increase in order to provide funds to support critical government programs that were on the chopping block. The money has already been allocated and none of it is going to anti-smoking programs or programs to provide services to smokers who will be paying the tax, Instead, the revenues are dedicated to save critical government programs that were on the chopping block and would otherwise have had to be cut.

The Rest of the Story

It is not possible for me to express the strength of my condemnation of the Utah legislature for showing such a disrespect for the autonomy of women and for the Constitution, trying to establish a state-based religion by making it criminal homicide for a woman to choose to use a morning after pill or to suffer a miscarriage as a result of the actions of an abusive partner or of an accident. The simple fact that the Utah legislature has made it its business to investigate or have an interest in the circumstances behind every miscarriage suffered in the state (which is about 20% of identified pregnancies, by the way) is sickening.

Now, the Utah legislature has opted to save critical government programs through the most cowardly of policies: a regressive tax that punishes those least able to pay — the most heavily addicted smokers and their families and children.

Moreover, the Utah legislature has now made it essential for its citizens to continue smoking, or else critical government programs will have to be cut.

Utah is basically telling its citizens who smoke: “Please continue to smoke so that we’ll have your tax money to support critical government programs. Don’t quit, because if you do, you are putting these critical public programs at risk of being decimated.”

If Utah legislators were sincerely concerned about protecting the health of their state’s children, they would have allocated revenues to smoking education and prevention programs. In squandering that opportunity, they ensured that the tobacco industry’s marketing of tobacco products in Utah will go relatively unopposed. But even worse, in sending the message that cigarette consumption is necessary to support critical public programs, the legislature has made it clear that it really doesn’t want smokers to quit. The legislature has made the state dependent on a steady, continuing stream of cigarette revenues for the funding of critical programs and has completely eliminated the incentive for the state to try to reduce cigarette consumption.

In light of the action that the Utah legislature has taken this session, it deserves nothing but condemnation. I would not be so narrow-minded – thinking only about anti-smoking actions – to praise the legislature this session even if it did something that was sincerely intended to reduce tobacco use. But this measure is not sincerely intended to protect children, it is merely a piece of political cowardice: balancing the state’s budget in the most politically easy way. But the end result is setting up perverse incentives for the state to make sure that nothing is done that would seriously decrease cigarette consumption.

Here are some T-shirts I have designed to acknowledge the accomplishments of the Utah legislature this session:

“Utah: Where Women Can Go to Jail for Using Legal Contraception”

“Utah: Where Miscarriages Constitute Murder”

“Utah: Where You Can Attend Church at the State House”

“Utah: The Greatest Hypocrites on Earth”

“I Support My State Budget: I Smoke”

“I Care About Critical Government Services: I Will Keep Smoking”

“If You Care About Essential State Programs, Don’t Even Think About Quitting”