GAO: FDA decades behind on inspections
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration is so understaffed that, at its current pace, the agency would need at least 27 years to inspect every foreign medical-device plant that exports to the United States, 13 years to check every foreign drug plant and 1,900 years to examine every foreign food plant, according to government investigators.
Computer systems at the drug agency are so inadequate that it can only guess the number of the plants, and it cannot produce a list of those that have not been inspected. The situation is particularly dire in China, which has more drug and device plants than any other foreign nation but where FDA inspections are few.
These findings come from a series of reports by the Government Accountability Office — obtained by The New York Times — scheduled to be released today at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Man “uttering threats” arrested near White House
WASHINGTON — A man who was “uttering threats against the president” and had a suspicious package was arrested Monday outside the north fence of the White House, Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said.
The package was later found not to be dangerous, Donovan said.
Pediatricians unhappy with new TV series
CHICAGO — The nation’s largest pediatricians’ group said Monday that ABC should cancel the first episode of a new series because it perpetuates the myth that vaccines can cause autism.
ABC’s new drama, “Eli Stone,” debuts Thursday. It features a prophetlike lawyer who in the opening episode argues in court that a flu vaccine made a child autistic. When it is revealed that an executive at the fictional vaccine maker didn’t allow his own child to get the shot, jurors give the family a huge award.
The show’s co-creators say they’re not anti-vaccine and would be upset if parents chose not to immunize their children after seeing the show.
But, said Dr. Renee R. Jenkins, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, “A television show that perpetuates the myth that vaccines cause autism is the height of reckless irresponsibility on the part of ABC and its parent company, The Walt Disney Co.”
Active people have younger-looking cells
WASHINGTON — Physically active people have cells that look younger on a molecular level than those of couch potatoes, according to new research that offers a fundamental new clue into how exercise may help stave off aging.
The study, involving more than 2,400 British twins, found for the first time that exercise appears to slow the shriveling of the protective tips on bundles of genes inside cells, perhaps keeping frailty at bay.
“These data suggest that the act of exercising may actually protect the body against the aging process,” said Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College in London who led the study, published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Archivist charged with selling artifacts on eBay
NEW YORK — A state archivist was charged Monday with stealing hundreds of artifacts — documents representing “the heritage of all Americans,” according to the history buff who found some of them on eBay — to pay his household bills.
Daniel Lorello, 54, is accused of taking the rare items from the New York State Library, including Davy Crockett Almanacs, Currier and Ives lithographs and the 1865 railroad timetable for Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train. Authorities believe he hawked them for tens of thousands of dollars, using much of that to pay off his daughter’s credit-card debt.
