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Supreme Court Nominees Should Disclose Views On Constitutional Issues, USA Today Opinion Piece States
One thing that "has been conspicuously absent" from the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is "substance," Jonathan Turley, the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, writes in a USA Today opinion piece. According to Turley, "The vast majority of questions and answers remained on a shallow and predictable level where Sotomayor did little more than describe current doctrines and case law -- avoiding disclosures of her own views." He continues, "What is most striking is how Sotomayor"s statements were virtually identical to both her conservative and liberal predecessors," including her comments that Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey are "the precedent of the court."Turley writes, "The content-light character in these hearings is largely the product of the "Ginsburg rule" -- named after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who refused to answer questions in her 1993 confirmation hearing about any case or matter upon which she might later vote." According to Turley, "Later nominees for both parties have relied on the Ginsburg rule to turn the hearings into prolonged photo-ops for senators, who largely ask wafer-thin questions to solicit largely scripted answers." The rule "allows nominees to get by with meaningless sound bites that promise to respect precedent, the Framers [of the Constitution] and collegiality in general," he adds. Furthermore, it "tells the public nothing about a nominee"s philosophy or purpose before giving her life tenure on the world"s most powerful court," Turley writes.According to Turley, there is a "simple solution to returning substance to the confirmation process: End the Ginsburg rule by insisting that nominees answer questions about their specific views on constitutional rights." Although "the current system works well for presidents, nominees and senators," it "does little for the public or the system of justice," he writes (Turley, USA Today, 7/16).
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Med Schools Improve Conflict Of Interest Policies, But Widespread Problems Remain
According to the latest ratings of two watchdog groups, medical schools are "improving their conflict-of-interest policies to police their ties with drug and medical-device makers. But more than half the schools still have inadequate policies or no policies at all," the Wall Street Journal"s Health Blog reports. The American Medical Student Association and the Pew Prescription Project said the number of schools earning top marks had more than doubled, in part because of pressure from lawmakers like Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. But, "there are a lot of schools that are yet to look seriously at these issues," the director of the Pew project said.
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Swine Flu: Health Departments Get Mixed Marks For Using Web To Communicate About Crisis, Study Finds
State and local health departments get mixed marks for efforts to convey information about the H1N1 virus to the public using their Web sites immediately after U.S. officials declared a public health emergency in April, according to a new RAND Corporation study.
Public Health

QIAGEN To Supply Molecular Screening Solutions To Increase Safety Of Blood Donations In Brazil

QIAGEN (NASDAQ: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) announced that it has entered into an agreement to supply molecular sample and assay technologies for a new national, PCR-based blood screening program for HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV) in Brazil. QIAGEN will provide Bio-Manguinhos, the main provider of vaccines and diagnostics to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, with a significant volume of molecular testing solutions - sample and assay technologies, related instrumentation, operational know-how and training. Following the approval by the Brazilian patent authorities, the agreement will run for five years and contains options for subsequent extensions. Brazil"s new national screening program is scheduled to start in 2010. It marks the largest initiative in the country"s history of blood donations safety. Every year, five million blood donations are performed in Brazil (with a population of 190 million South America"s largest country), of which 70% are conducted by public blood banks. Approximately 0.1% and 0.3% of these donations are tested positive for HIV and HCV, respectively. Since most of these tests are performed with older, less sensitive serological methods, experts believe that the actual number of positive cases could be higher than officially reported. The new program marks the effort to complement these traditional, immunodiagnostic tests with nucleic-acid-based, molecular assays that are considered significantly more sensitive in detecting infection. They help close the "diagnostic window" between the time of an infection and laboratory diagnosis by enabling faster treatment and reducing the ability of an infection to spread - thereby further increasing the safety of the blood supply. "Nucleic-acid testing is the premium public health option to help prevent often transfusion-transmitted diseases such as AIDS or Hepatitis C", said Dr. Akira Homma, Director of Bio-Manguinhos. "Furthermore, the increased quality of screened blood from donations will also allow the public health system to gain high quality and safer plasma products in sufficient volumes. Therefore, the new screening program will also reduce the country"s demand for costly imports of plasma products which are needed to treat patients suffering from Hemophilia and other blood disorders." For QIAGEN, this contract marks another, significant step in its expansion into the emerging Latin and South American markets. This expansion reflects the company"s efforts to supply integrated molecular testing solutions for the improvement of health and living conditions in the region. In October 2008, QIAGEN and the Mexican Public Health Agency SSA signed an agreement for the supply of sample and assay technologies to be used in a national screening program for Human Papillomavirus (HPV), the primary cause of cervical cancer. "Molecular diagnostic methods are key to making blood donations safer, and it is our goal to make these life saving technologies available to governments and their people throughout the world", said Peer M. Schatz, CEO of QIAGEN. "We are proud to team up with the Brazilian authorities in a combined effort to significantly reduce the number of blood-borne transmissions of HIV and HCV and the resulting disease burden." QIAGEN expects to launch further collaborations on screening programs with governments in emerging countries in the future. The company offers a wide range of technology and branding options for such programs. Under the terms of this agreement, QIAGEN"s extraction and testing components will be included in the screening kits and sold in a format featuring Bio-Manguinhos"s name and branding. The kits will run on a high-throughput multiplex PCR platform which allows processing of large numbers of samples and detecting multiple pathogens in one single run. The highly automated platform - which includes an advanced control system based on biosafe viruses developed and patented by Bio-Manguinhos - has demonstrated excellent screening results in the field test. The partnership between QIAGEN and Bio-Manguinhos also involves technical advice for implementation of the production of enzymes and buffers in Brazil, but excludes the delivery of primers and probes. These integral test components, essentially needed to make virus sequences visible, are developed and provided by Bio-Manguinhos. About Bio-Manguinhos Bio-Manguinhos is a technical-scientific unit of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation and one of the official laboratories of the Ministry of Health. Their activities are focused on responding to the government health programs. The institute operates strategically along with the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS), supporting the disease prevention policies, epidemiological, sanitary and controlling surveillance, through research, development and technological innovation in the immunobiological area. Bio-Manguinhos employs a staff of around 1,150 and is headquartered in Rio de Janeiro. QIAGEN


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