It’s not too often a vaccine refrigerator makes the news, but this week we’ve been reporting on the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General’s investigation of the cold chain practices for 45 different clinics, and the relatively poor vaccine storage practices they found in a large percentage of them. Of Read More
Green Bay Terns Looking for Environmental Turnaround
Green Bay, Wisconsin may have earned the name “Titletown, U.S.A.” for the performance of its football team, but there’s one title they don’t want: “Home of Deformed Forster’s Terns.” Unfortunately, that title might be just as accurate. Researchers collected eggs from Green Bay and from a control site at Lake Poygan. They raised the eggs Read More
 Richard Gaughan July 11th, 2012
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Vaccine Refrigeration in the News
“This is a very big deal.” Those are the words spouted by the medical expert on this news program—words that every media professional loves to hear. Of course, sometimes they love those words so much they’ll say them even when it isn’t true. Although there is a bit of fear-mongering in this report, there is Read More
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Richard Gaughan July 11th, 2012
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DHHS Report Focuses Attention on Proper Vaccine Refrigeration
If you’ve read these pages for any length of time, you’ll have noticed that we frequently mention (that sounds better than “harp on”) that vaccines are only as good as the procedures for ensuring they’re kept in the proper temperature range. If your vaccine refrigerator management is inadequate, then so is your immunization program. We Read More
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Richard Gaughan July 10th, 2012
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Training Workers for This Century
Since at least the 1980s people have touted the 21st century as the century of biology. I happen to agree, in the sense that practical applications of physics—cellphones, computers, and medical imaging systems, for example—changed human life in the 20th century; similar as-yet-unknown practical applications of biology will change human life in the 21st. Of Read More
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Richard Gaughan July 10th, 2012
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Biological Detective Work Isolates Cause of Pseudoepidemic
How do you tell the difference between an epidemic and a pseudoepidemic? Not very easily, it turns out. The detective story is recounted in a 1999 paper from the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. In a three-month period, specimens from fifteen patients at the Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas indicated contamination with the Read More
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Richard Gaughan July 9th, 2012
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New Report: Surprising Number of Clinics Storing Vaccines Improperly
Are you always the last to know when Katie breaks up with Tom, or Mitt drops in the opinion polls? Finally, this is your chance to be ahead of the trend! Astound your friends with your in-depth knowledge of the news behind the news. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is reporting that Read More
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Richard Gaughan July 9th, 2012
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Trying to Predict Shelf-Life for Drugs
The pharmaceutical industry spends a lot of money determining and validating the shelf life of drugs. The standard protocol involves keeping drugs in stability chambers and sampling them for chemical changes over a range of time periods—perhaps every month for a year, for example. Researchers at the University of Belgrade in Serbia are trying to Read More
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Richard Gaughan July 6th, 2012
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Biology Students Learn Both Lab and Mathematical Modelling Skills
Several years ago I had a “discussion” with a biologist about the nature of science, wherein I argued that one of the ways science was different from other endeavors was its use of mathematical models to predict the behavior of a system. She argued that it was not necessary for biology. She was right. But Read More
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Richard Gaughan July 6th, 2012
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One Blood Donation: Three Lives
I’ve written about blood donation for years; I’ve donated gallons of blood (and have the license plate frame to prove it!); but I still found this video both informative and moving. It follows the fate of a single donor’s blood all the way through processing to transfusion into three different patients. The red blood cells Read More
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Richard Gaughan July 6th, 2012
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