PLoS Medicine: Medical Journals Are an Extension of the Marketing Arm of Pharmaceutical Companies
"The most conspicuous example of medical journals' dependence on the pharmaceutical industry is the substantial income from advertising, but this is, I suggest, the least corrupting form of dependence. The advertisements may often be misleading [5,6] and the profits worth millions, but the advertisements are there for all to see and criticise. Doctors may not be as uninfluenced by the advertisements as they would like to believe, but in every sphere, the public is used to discounting the claims of advertisers.

The much bigger problem lies with the original studies, particularly the clinical trials, published by journals. Far from discounting these, readers see randomised controlled trials as one of the highest forms of evidence."

The New York Review of Books: The Truth About the Drug Companies

What is pandemic flu?

"Flu that spreads rapidly causing widespread epidemics around the world.
Pandemic influenza occurs when a new, highly infectious and dangerous strain of
the influenza virus appears.
In contrast to the ‘ordinary’ or `seasonal’, flu outbreaks which we see every winter
in the UK, flu pandemics occur infrequently – usually every few decades. There
were three in the last century. The most serious was in 1918, killing millions of
people worldwide. Smaller pandemics happened in 1957 and 1968."

Brain Injury can be a life sentence

"The shocking case of barrister Peter Wareing, who suffered severe brain injuries during a brutal assault in the street, illustrates how susceptible the brain is to long-term and probably permanent damage.



"Sustaining a severe flesh wound or broken bones is bad enough", says Peter McCabe, chief executive of Headway - the brain injury association, "but it's possible for the victim to make a complete physical recovery. When the brain is damaged, and it happens very easily, the chances are that there will be serious impairments that last for ever.""

Poverty, health, and the role of doctors
"Where feasible we should prescribe what is affordable and effective, especially to poor people and women, and not necessarily what the drug industry says is the best drug. In Angela's Ashes, his Pulitzer prizewinning account of his childhood among the poor of Ireland, Frank McCourt wrote: "Mom comes home in two days. She's weak and white and walks slowly. She says, `The doctor told me to keep warm, have plenty of rest and nourishing food, meat and eggs three times a week. God help us, those poor doctors don't have a notion of not having.'"