The Bush administration, in an astonishing change of policy, is preparing to abandon its previous resistance to widespread "pre-attack" vaccinations and offer the smallpox vaccine to all Americans.

I. Bits and Pieces
Where was I...? Can't remember, but I try. Relatives making such a hew and cry, I feel like I'm the sane one amidst neurotic plagues.
No, I shouldn't be fazed, And that's not how the thing's phrased: It's neuritic plaques that have left me dazed, These brain-addling indicators of Alzheimer's disease.
II. Land of the Lost

Based on a a Scientific Review Paper by John P. Blass, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, Dementia Research Service
Burke Medical Research Institute

Judges have ruled that a man cannot claim a religious exemption from an employer's rule that required him to get a vaccination. The man had argued that being ordered to get a mumps vaccination would illegally violate his vegan beliefs, since chicken embryos are used in the production of the vaccine.

PETA is giving children stickers that look like familiar cigarette ads but warn that cigarette companies do testing on animals. PETA says getting kids to stop smoking might be a fringe benefit but that their goal is to stop the animal testing.
Philip Morris's no doubt sincere and selfless response?

"PETA is acting irresponsibly by handing out tobacco logos to children."
Ellen Merlo, senior vice president, Philip Morris,quoted in the New York Times September 27, 2002

This piece appeared in the New York Post,

Scientists associated with the American Council on Science and Health once again have analyzed the natural foods that make up a traditional holiday dinner and once again have found that they are loaded with "carcinogens": chemicals that in large doses cause cancer in laboratory animals. None of these chemicals are made by man or added to the foods. Indeed, all of these "carcinogens" occur naturally in foods. But ACSH scientists have good news: these natural carcinogens pose no hazard to human health.

To the Editor:
While the debate continues on when to begin smallpox vaccinations, there is no public discussion at all about our state of readiness to deal with a large-scale bioterrorist assault using weaponized anthrax ("New Plan to Meet Smallpox Threat," front page, Sept. 24).
This is illogical, as the threat of smallpox is still hypothetical, while not that long ago we sustained a real attack using anthrax spores.

Some of the most negative and unfounded criticisms of food single out animal fats and, by inference, all products that contain them. Such criticisms typically make vague reference to heart disease, cancer, or both, and they are often repeated by nutritionists and health care specialists writing for syndicated columns that are read by thousands of people. Such communications are a disservice to readers for several reasons.