The insidious vaccine debacle may seem to have come out of nowhere, but pharmaceutical and regulatory rot has been growing for decades.

The story of Zantac, the common heartburn medicine, is both awful and good - it's awful because one of the most common drugs on the market may have been causing cancers for forty years. It's good only because the story is finally being told and 70,000 people are suing GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The "good" here is the hope that some justice might finally be done, and because the public might find out just how ghastly the industrial pharma octopus really is, and how welded it is in the system.

It's time to burn down the unholy empire of Big Pharma and Big Government and start again.

This is not a case of one bad egg in the system, it's the story of a system that virtually creates bad eggs

Glaxo was a little company in the 70s that took one of the most popular drugs on the market, Tagamet, tweaked it enough to patent a "better version", then aggressively out-marketed it, and eventually bought out the companies that made Tagamet to become the $70 billion GlaxoSmithKline giant.

"By 1989, Zantac was worth $2 billion. It accounted for half of Glaxo's sales and 53% of the market for prescription ulcer remedies."

But the common heartburn drug Zantac, or ranitidine, which drove their profits — also broke down into NDMA which is a known carcinogen, and there were warnings of this in 1981 and 1982, but it wasn't until September 2019 that an independent lab tested for NDMA and found it in every sample and at alarming levels. By April 2020 the FDA forced every manufacturer to stop producing and selling the drug altogether. Now, the court cases have started.

Most of the Bloomberg story — which is worth reading in full — focuses on just how badly behaved GlaxoSmithKline have been by hiding the early data for forty long years. But GSK also chose not to do more tests when it should have; it did not try to transport and store the drug in ways the reduced the contamination, and it did not advise the public to take the tablets outside meals. There is no sense that customer health mattered.

To me the bigger question that is never asked, is why drugs like this are not tested by publicly funded groups before they get approval to be rolled out en masse? The tests that were finally done in 2019 are not two-year studies involving thousands of people, they are just lab tests for contamination. What is the point of all the public health funding, the regulatory agencies, and public universities if they aren't used to defend the public?

If the FDA has the legal power to approve drugs or ban them, shouldn't it also bear the responsibility when it gets that wrong?

Under legal cross examination the director of research and development admitted they had known for almost 40 years that ranitidine could degrade under conditions of high temperature and moisture ... .

Equatorial Guinea has confirmed its first outbreak of the Marburg virus, a highly infectious and deadly disease similar to Ebola, following the deaths of at least nine people, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

The small Central African country quarantined more than 200 people and restricted movement last week in its Kie-Ntem province after detecting an unknown hemorrhagic fever. Neighboring Cameroon also restricted movement along its border over concerns about contagion.In addition to the nine deaths, Equatorial Guinea has reported 16 suspected cases of Marburg virus with symptoms including fever, fatigue and blood-stained vomit and diarrhea, the WHO said.

Vaccines undoubtedly allowed the country to get back to normal after the coronavirus pandemic, but information about potential side effects is not as well publicised as it should be.

That's the view of the Telegraph Science Editor Sarah Knapton, who spoke to columnists Liam Halligan and Allison Pearson on the latest Planet Normal podcast, which you can listen to using the audio player above.

"I do think there is some sort of link between heart problems and the jab," Sarah told the podcast.

"Are you anti-mask?" "Are you anti-vax?" "Are you anti-science?"

Employees of Levi Strauss & Co repeatedly pummeled me with these questions during 2020-2022, when I was the company's brand president. Why? I advocated in defense of children: against the masking of toddlers, against closed playgrounds and youth sports, for open public schools.

I'm not exactly sure what an anti-science person is. But that's not me. I'm pro-science. And that's why I'm anti-mask.

The US is seeing a rise in the norovirus informally called the stomach flu or stomach bug, according to the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with positive tests for the contagious illness peaking at 16% in January.

The rise in infections spans the US, according to the healthcare agency, with infection rates not seen since last spring.

The illness is highly infectious, spreading easily through close contact with others, touching surfaces or consuming contaminated food or beverages. Those infected can shed billions of particles with the illness, and only a few particles can make a person sick.

The CDC's information page on Covid-19 vaccines contains the following bullet points on "How mRNA COVID-19 vaccines work:"

First, mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are given in the upper arm muscle or upper thigh, depending on the age of who is getting vaccinated.

After vaccination, the mRNA will enter the muscle cells. Once inside, they use the cells' machinery to produce a harmless piece of what is called the spike protein.... After the protein piece is made, our cells break down the mRNA and remove it, leaving the body as waste.

Or, in other words, as we have long been told, "it" - the mRNA - "stays in the arm." And then, after having instructed the muscle cells to produce the spike, is disposed of.

COVID-19 vaccines are now included among the routine shots recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for children, adolescents and adults.

The 2023 list includes shots for the flu, measles mumps and rubella, polio, and other inoculations.

The vaccine schedule represents the current recommendations for people as a regular part of their vaccinations against common infectious diseases. It does not mean the CDC is requiring a COVID-19 shot for children or that schools will have to require that students receive the shot before enrolling.

Naturally occurring Covid-fighting protein found that appears after Covid enters the body

A protein in the lungs that blocks Covid and forms a natural barrier to the virus has been discovered by scientists at the University of Sydney.

The naturally occurring protein, LRRC15, works by attaching itself to the virus like Velcro, preventing the Covid particles from binding with more vulnerable cells - as well as reducing the chance of infection. The astonishing find may finally explain why some people suffer serious illness with the virus, or even death, while others never get sick or appear symptomless.

LRRC15 is not known to be present in humans until the virus enters the body, but it appears after infection.

The protein helps activate the body's response to Covid and the team behind the incredible find hopes it will offer a promising pathway to develop new drugs to fight the virus.

Researchers believe that patients who died from Covid-19 did not produce enough of the protein, or produced it too late to make a difference.

What is the Cochran Library?

"The Cochrane Library contains high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. It includes reliable evidence from Cochrane and other systematic reviews, clinical trials, and more. Cochrane reviews bring you the combined results of the world's best medical research studies, and are recognized as the gold standard in evidence-based health care."

The Cochran Library has been reviewing the use of physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses since 2010. By physical interventions, they mean masks, shields, gowns, hand-washing, etc.

This is not some short-term project, but a long-term, serious meta-analysis review. As stated above, the Cochran reviews are considered the gold standard for health care agencies and professionals. When Jill and I took our fellowship training at Harvard in Global Clinical Research, the Cochran methodology for medical research meta-analysis was taught as the preferred method.