TB Returns And Racist Spotted In Germany
SCARE Stories: Things that will ruin your life, November 10, 2009:
All Daily Mail:
* “So now parents can be spied on and criminalised for telling off their children! As we commemorate the Berlin Wall’s fall, BELL MOONEY says the savage irony is that we’re tuning into… STASI BRITAIN”
* “THE REAL ANTIBIOTICS SCANDAL – Yesterday GPs were accused of fuelling the rise in killer bugs by recklessly handing out antibiotics. But this expect says the true villains are greedy drug firms”
* “THE RETURN OF TB – For weeks this woman struggled with a hacking cough which she thought was asthma. In fact she was the victim of something far more sinister”
* “So now parents can be spied on and criminalised for telling off their children! As we commemorate the Berlin Wall’s fall, BELL MOONEY says the savage irony is that we’re tuning into… STASI BRITAIN”
Daily Express:
* Me and My Myasthenia Gravis: “When Claire Hunter’s legs would no longer support her and she had to be carried upstairs, doctors dismissed it as anxiety.”
* “ARE we being polluted by electricity?”
“New Film Uncovers Racism in Germany” - BBC
“Palestinians Consider Abandoning Peace Process” - headline, Sunday Telegraph
Posted: 10th, November 2009 | In: Scare Stories | Comment (1) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Scare Stories: Being Thin Kills And Being Fat Gives You MS
SCARE Stories: Every day the Daily Mail scours scientific research journals, reports from vested-interest groups and the thoughts of NGO’s and publishes the scare stories as facts. Anorak picks the best today:
Monday November 9, 2009
“Women who are work out in a bid to get a celeb-style-body are most likely to have fertility problems” – Daily Star
“MS risk for obese teens – Obese teenage girls run a greater risk of developing multiple sclerosis”, study says – Daily Mirror
“AIRBRUSH is causing Anorexia” – Daily Mirror
“Apocalypse 2012. As a new blockbuster movie predicts the world will end in three years, why do so many people want to believe doomsday is just around the corner” – Daily Express looks to 2012, the movie.
“Side-effect alert for all statin users – Drugs, depression and memory loss” – Daily Mail
“We were fools to think the fall of the Berlin Wall had killed off the far Left. Now they’re back – and attacking us from within” – Daily Mail’s Melanie Phillips see red
“WHEN LOVE IS NOT ENOUGH. It’s the hardest job in the world, but parents caring for disabled children face a shameful lack of support. And, says ROSA MONCKTON, whose daughter has Down’s, it’s driving some to breaking point – and even murder” - Daily Mail
Send your suggestions into the forum.
Posted: 9th, November 2009 | In: Scare Stories | Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Scare Story: Fructose Is A Silent Killer
SCARE story of the day comes via the Daily Express’ front page, which tells readers that the sugary stuff in their tea is deadly:
SWEETNER IS SILENT KILLER
The Express loves a silent killer.
* STOP THIS SILENT KILLER - THE family of a Scottish student who died after doctors failed to diagnose her deep vein thrombosis (DVT) are demanding a new screening programme to detect the silent killer. –
* A QUARTER of Britons are unaware that they are suffering from the “silent killer” of high blood pressure, and run the risk of being afflicted by a stroke.
* GRIN OF A SILENT KILLER - It Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui
Today’s silent killer is sweetner.
MILLIONS of Britons are risking high blood pressure by consuming snacks that contain a common sweetener, a study has revealed. Fructose is found in many everyday products, including bread, cereals, cakes, sweets and soft drinks.
Posted: 30th, October 2009 | In: Scare Stories | Comments (6) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Scare Story Video: The Swine Flu Cheerleader Who Can Only Walk Backwards
DESREE JENNINGS is a woman “convinced that a flu shot given to her has lead to a rare disorder which means she can only walk backwards”.
There is no mention of swine flu by the victim. The entire piece is headlined: “WAS IT THE FLU SHOT?” No investigation by the news team. None needed.
If the poor woman can create sense of panic, then she’s more than useful.
She runs with a “normal stride”. She “even spoke normally”. Walking forward “can be dangerous”. Your presenter is not a parody, allegedly:
Posted: 24th, October 2009 | In: Scare Stories | Comments (3) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
The Silent Killer Of Hybrid Cars
SCARE story of the day comes from the New York Times, wherein the threat of killer electric cars is highlighted:
Safety experts, worried that hybrids pose a threat if pedestrians, children and others can’t hear them approaching, want automakers to supply some digitally enhanced vroom. Indeed, just as cellphones have ring tones, “car tones” may not be far behind — an option for owners of electric vehicles to choose the sound their cars emit.
Maybe the driver can wind down the window and shout “Vrrmmmmmm, Vrmmmmmmm” and make believe they are in a proper car, or freinds and fmaily can cycle or jog in front waving a green flag?
Via Instapundit)
Posted: 16th, October 2009 | In: Scare Stories | Comment (1) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Ron Greenslade, The Daily Express, Deadly Cancer Jabs And How Global Warming Triggers Nuclear War
The death of Natalie Morton was linked to the Express’s headline that cancer jab was a killer. Only the science was nonsense, as Ben Goldacre spots. The Guardian’s Roy Greenslade uses the story as a stick to beat the Express. But the Guardian is far from perfect when it comes to its biased reporting on science, like climate change…
SCARE story of the week went to the Daily Express for following the death of Natalie Morton with this front-page headline
JAB AS DEADLY AS THE CANCER
Readers were told:
“The cervical cancer vaccine [Cervarix] may be riskier and more deadly than the cancer it is designed to prevent, a leading expert who developed the drug has warned. She also claimed the jab would do nothing to reduce the rates of cervical cancer in the UK.
Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Express, Dr Diane Harper, who was involved in the clinical trials of the controversial drug Cervarix, said the jab was being ‘overmarketed’ and parents should be properly warned about the potential side effects.”
Gary Andrews observes:
Now, with the death of Natalie Morton, hours after she’d received the cervical cancer vaccine jab [1] was always going to lead to some interesting reporting. Some has been good, some has been bad and some has been scaremongering. Especially after the point where it was established that she died from a tumour and not the jab.
Posted: 10th, October 2009 | In: Scare Stories | Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Scare Story Of The Day: Two Thirds Of Our Chickens Are Out To Kill Us
SCARE story of the day: “Killer Bug In Most Chickens” – two thirds of chickens sold in the UK are infected with a deadly bacteria.
MORE than three-quarters of British chicken is contaminated with a potentially lethal food poisoning bug, a report revealed yesterday.
Potentially lethal – as in if a chicken fell from a tower block and hit you beak first in the eye it could kill you? The Express is here to inform:
Tests on birds for sale in shops across the country showed that 76.1 per cent of whole British-reared chickens harbour the campylobacter bug, which kills 80 people a year and makes a further 440,000 ill.
And it’s a growing problem, because in 2001, the BBC reported:
Campylobacter, which can cause severe stomach pains and diarrhoea, was found to be present in 69% of chickens tested, according to an investigation for BBC1’s 4 x 4 series.
The Express has more facts:
Chicken is the most pop¬ular type of meat in Britain with consumers eating their way through 1.64 billion birds every year.
That’s a lot of chicken making 440,000 people ill.
Campylobacter is the single biggest cause of food poisoning in the UK and up to 40 per cent of cases are thought to be caused by chicken bought in shops.
That’s 176,000 people made ill by infected chicken meat, from a trial of 1.64 billion birds.
There were 55,000 cases in the UK last year but these are only an eighth of the real estimated total of 440,000 cases because so few of the people who fall ill go to see their GP.
So that’s 22,000 cases of people being made ill by bad chicken meat from a total of 1.64 billion birds.
So why is this news, let alone front-page news? Well, the man with a vested interest tells us:
Andrew Wadge, chief scientist at the FSA, said of the report: “This survey has shown that, despite a lot of work we have done over the last few years, we have not really made any sort of in-roads on the level of campylobacter and we know that if we could do that then all the evidence points towards having a really big effect on food-borne illnesses.
“This is a long-standing problem, not caused by modern production methods. It is disappointing that the levels of campylobacter remain high. This is a significant public health burden and a big economic burden.”
Let’s hope he gets the Government funding he needs to save us all.
In other news: cook your chicken thoroughly until the bacteria are dead.
Posted: 7th, October 2009 | In: Scare Stories | Comment (1) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
How The Media Made A Scare Story From Natalie Morton’s Cancer Jab Death
NATALIE Morton died soon after being injected with the anti cervical cancer jab and the papers went bonkers, making a link between the jab and the death of a 14-year-old girl.
One day one and:
Preliminary results of a post mortem examination on the Coventry schoolgirl showed there was no causal link between her death and the vaccine…
Dr Caron Grainger, joint director of public health for NHS Coventry and Coventry City Council said: ‘The preliminary post mortem results have revealed a rare serious underlying medical condition which was likely to have caused death.
‘We are awaiting further test results which will take some time. However indications are that it was most unlikely that the HPV vaccination was the cause of death.’
Posted: 30th, September 2009 | In: Key Posts, Scare Stories | Comments (2) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
SCARE Stories: Every day the Daily Mail scours scientific research journals, reports from vested-interest groups and the thoughts of NGO’s and publishes the scare stories as facts. Anorak picks the best:
* “Can cuddling you pet give you MRSA?”
* “Why too much Sudoku could ruin your figure”
Posted: 29th, September 2009 | In: Scare Stories | Comment (1) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Natalie Morton, Cervical Cancer And A Scare Story
SCARE Story: A 14-year-old girl in Coventry, one Natalie Morton, has died shortly after being given the cervical cancer vaccine at school.
Time to panic! And a time for a rare moment of understatement. On the school’s website, a message from the headmistress:
Immunisation tests were carried out today in the school to all girls eligible to receive the HPV1 vaccine. During the session an unfortunate incident occurred and one of the girls suffered a rare, but extreme reaction to the vaccine. A number of other girls also reported being unwell and some were sent home.
And then the headlines in which the jab and the death are linked by fact:
Metro: “Cervical jab fear as girl, 14, dies”
The death has raised questions about the safety of the vaccine, the secrecy surrounding clinical trials and why Britain has chosen a different type to most other countries.
Daily Telegraph: “Tributes to 14-year-old schoolgirl who died after being given cervical cancer jab”
“Charmaine Dunn-Myria, 15, who was in the same year as Natalie, said: “There was panic around the school when we found out what happened. Girls were in tears in the corridors and everyone was in shock. I had my jab today as well and I was really worried about it and that something was going to happen to me. They never told us that there was any danger in these jabs. I didn’t know you could get sick or die from them.”
Well, nothing has been proven. And the Telegraph seeks to dampen fears by telling readers:
But since April last year the MHRA has received more than 2,000 reports of suspected reactions to the vaccine, including 409 related to anaphylactic shock, which can be rapidly fatal.
Channel 4: “Cervical cancer jab fears after girl dies”
“No link can be made between the death and the vaccine until all the facts are known and a post-mortem takes place.
Sky:
“NHS Coventry said although no link had been made between the death and the vaccination, it had quarantined the batch used at the school as a “precautionary measure”.
Daily Mirror: “14-year-old girl dies after cervical cancer jab”
GIRL, 14, DIES IN CANCER JAB SCARE
Scare? Or scare story?
About 1.4million vaccine doses have been given since last September. The jab guards against the human papilloma virus, a sexually transmitted infection that causes 70 per cent of cervical cancers. Health officials last night stressed that there was not yet any evidence the jab was responsible for Natalie’s death.
A girl has died, and that is tragic. And her name is being used to spread the fear, today’s media scare story.
Posted: 29th, September 2009 | In: Key Posts, Scare Stories | Comments (10) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Scare Stories: Italy’s Binge Drinking Challenge And An Asteroid Attacks
SCARE Stories: Every day the popular media scours scientific research journals, reports from vested-interest groups and the thoughts of NGO’s and publishes the scare stories as facts. Anorak picks the best:
Towering Block Heads
“Tower blocks ‘potential disaster’” - BBC
The American Satan
U.S. ‘Doesn’t Smell of Sulfur Anymore,’ Says Chavez” - CNN.com
They Couldn’t Get To A Phone
“Halifax-Area Fire Department Gutted in Blaze” - CBC.ca
Death By Shell-Light
“Candle-Lit Proposal Tragic for Turtles” - Charlotte Observer,
Press ‘Hyperspace’
Posted: 28th, September 2009 | In: Scare Stories | Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Swine Flu Vaccine Gives You Swine Flu As Prison Inmates Drink Gel
IN Verne Prison on Portland, Dorset, inmates have been drinking anti-swine flu soap to get loaded, scarfing it from the bottle.
Following a fight, the governor of the Verne has removed all of the dispensers from the prison. Swine flu is now unfettered.
Posted: 25th, September 2009 | In: Scare Stories | Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Muslim Baby Factories Uncovered
EVERY day the popular media scours scientific research journals, reports from vested-interest groups and the thoughts of NGO’s and publishes the scare stories as facts. Anorak picks the best:
You’re dead already
Zombie horde descends on city - Press Citize
One point three, six, seven, nine, actually
“One in every 100 adults has autism” – Evening Standard
Muslim baby factories
“Muslims Mass-Producing Children to Take Over Africa, Says Archbishop” - Times
Pig worriers
“Second wave of swine flu may trigger spate of heart attacks” – The Times
Pay up or else
“Swine Flu ‘Could Kill Millions Unless Rich Nations Give £900m’” - Observer
Does what?
“Report: Alzheimer’s Cases to Nearly Double Every 20 Years” - CNN
Murder by suicide
“One of the country’s most eminent crime writers warned yesterday that a law to allow assisted suicide may become a murderers’ charter” - Daily Mail
Zebra crossing
“Grandmother died after being knocked over by zebra on once-in-a-lifetime safari in Kenya” - Mail
Posted: 22nd, September 2009 | In: Scare Stories | Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Scare Story: Surrey Farm Breeds EColi, Bacteria Escape
SCARE Story: “20,000 children put at risk by dithering at E.coli farm,” announces the Times on its front page.
But why farm E-coli? The risks seem clear.
The Mail is more circumspect:
“Why was E-Coli farm left open?”
The story behind the scare story is that after a case of E-coli was confirmed at Godstone Farm in Surrey, the place remained open.
Sky News looks at the Times’ 20,000 and trumps it:
The first case was confirmed at the farm on August 27 - since then tens of thousands of visitors are believed to have passed through its doors.
Posted: 14th, September 2009 | In: Media, Scare Stories | Comment (1) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
The Moral Panic That Created The Independent Safeguarding Authority
This new drive is about saving the kids from paedos. Panic over! Childhood innocence (Jamie Bulger) can be protected from adult evil (Mother Teresa). Tabloids Rejoice! Only…
Posted: 11th, September 2009 | In: Gallery, Key Posts, Media, Scare Stories | Comments (6) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Large Hadron Collider Sparks Sex Craze
WHEN the devilish Large Hadron Collider fired up – briefly – the world stood on the brink of end.
Switzerland was doomed - such a waste of all that tidying. Austria would be next. But the destruciton would not end there - and the world would notice.
In Brisbane, Australia teenagers saw it as the time for one last goodbye note. Keen to leave a legacy to aliens in future millennia future, two students aged between 13 and 15 were filmed engaged in sex acts in the toilets during school hours.
It is understood the girl wanted to lose her virginity to the boy - believing that the world was about to end. Another student filmed the sex acts on his mobile phone… and then circulated it around the school and the wider community via bluetooth.
There is talk of criminal proceedings for recording and distributing the images
But these images are not cartoons, so such a prosecution is unlikely in the land Down Under – beneath the Doomsday Machine…
The Large Hadron Collider Has Killed Everyone
Hadron Collider Used To Bring Satan Back
Large Hadron Collider: We Might Not all Die, Says BBC
Large Hadron Collider: New Labour’s Theme Song To Armageddon
Satan Bug: The Large Hadron Collider
Up And Atom: The Large Hadron Collider Sex Aide
The One About The Hadron Collider And Jade Goody
Posted: 4th, September 2009 | In: Media, Scare Stories | Comments (2) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
China Executes Swine Flu Victims
SWINE Flu is not yet old news. In China they are using bullets to beat the disease, executing it at root. Celebrities are catching it, and so can you.
But how to get the message out there? Why, with Sesame Street, Google and comic books…
You can download the Google app and avoid the tagged microbes. Or you can scare the kidz by commandeering the Sesame Street dwellers to tell them that swine flu is the way to go.
Hey, kids, if you want a day off school, here’s how to get one. And with any luck you might even be quarantined and forced to wear gloves or matching Elmos on our hands.
Tehran Times: “First step to fight H1N1: Keep sick kids home” – especially if they’re of voting age, Right, Chariman Mo? “Right, Anorak,. Swine flu kileld Neda Soltan and…”
And do wash your hand before inserting them into your Muppets, especially Miss Piggy.
For those of you living in King County, Washington state, ther a comic book to read to the kids at night and tell them that micobes never sleep.
Public Health - Seattle & King County has developed a 12-page comic book on pandemic flu in multiple languages. Targeting readers of all ages, this story tells the tale of a family’s experience with the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Thankfully, there is vaccine. But its not for everyone:
Alterntive therapy champion Suzi Cohen explains:
Swine flu vaccine- There isn’t one yet, but when it is developed I won’t be standing in line for it. Should you? That’s a very personal decision.
It seems you can prevent swine flu with olive oil and lots of brisk walks.
In China:
Scientists in China claim they have produced swine flu’s first “magic bullet” - a vaccine that prevents the virus in a single dose.
Yaaaay. Take your buillets pople. One to the abck of the head, please Doctory Murray…
Posted: 3rd, September 2009 | In: Media, Scare Stories | Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
SWINE Flu: Thanks to Children’s Hospital Boston, Mass. you can now download an iPhone application that tells you where the swine flu is, and isn’t.
Boston, Mass. - A new iPhone application, created by researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab, enables users to track and report outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as H1N1 (swine flu), on the ground in real time.
Posted: 1st, September 2009 | In: Money, Scare Stories | Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Exploding Fridges Cause Earth Cancer
TODAY’S Media Scare Story comes, as ever, from the Daily Mail which tells readers that an “‘environmentally friendly’ fridge coolant” is causing fridges to explode. Earth Cancer!
Chris Brooke has more on the new fridge that does so much more than just keep things chilled:
Luckily no-one was hurt when Kathy Cullingworth’s fridge exploded but the damage bill was £10,000. A series of violent fridge explosions is believed to have been caused by leaks of ‘environmentally-friendly’ coolant.
Believed. While we investigate the science, Brooke says that Kathy’s entertaining fridge is one of many:
Safety standards for manufacturers might have to be reviewed following the blasts, which have destroyed several kitchens.
They might. Or else they might not. But how common is the exploding fridge, Chris?
At least four similar explosions have been reported in the last three years in the UK, two of them since May.
Posted: 1st, September 2009 | In: Media, Scare Stories | Comments (2) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Killer Giant Piranha Hiding In British River
GREAT news for staycationers is that a giant piranha has been found in the river Torridge, Devon.
The better news is that the fish was dead and is “thought to have been an abandoned pet“.
So a fish fancier tossed their dead piranha into the river and ran off, possibly laughing. Right? Wrong. The Guardian senses a scare story in the making:
Its discovery will add, however, to experts’ anxieties about non-native wildlife being introduced to the UK.
Will it? What it tells us is that the Environment Agency, the vested interest group that told the press about the dead fish, is using the dead fish to prove some kind of point, presumably that non-native species introduced to the UK die.
Eddie Stevens, one of the EA’s three-man monitoring team, said they were “left open-mouthed by their discovery”.
“What we actually came across was something which we would not expect to find in our wildest dreams. We could hardly believe our eyes.”
In your wildest dream you might expect to find a mermaid riding Loch Ness. In beyond your wildest dreams you may expect to find a mermaid riding Loch Ness while having coitus with Noel Edmonds. But not the EA’s man in the big wellies. His wildest dreams are about finding a fish in a river. A dead one.
Used to more temperate climes, the fish probably could not tolerate the cold waters, the agency said. A closer examination revealed that its stomach was full of sweetcorn – further evidence it may have been kept as a domestic pet.
Full of sweetcorn. So it had recently eaten. And died. Unless it had died and then was stuffed with tinned sweetcorn by an amateur taxidermist? And so to the point of the press release:
The introduction of non-native species poses a serious threat to native wildlife, according to the agency. Mark Diamond, an ecology manager, said: “Whilst piranhas can’t survive the colder climates of the UK, this latest find highlights a real issue – that releasing unwanted exotic pets or plants into rivers can have serious consequences for native wildlife.”
Yeah, like giving the pike some unusual protein to chow down on. Also, watch out for the men in big boots…
Posted: 28th, August 2009 | In: Media, Scare Stories | Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
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