A Look Down The Ebola Rabbit Hole

Credit CDC

 

# 8936

 

A curious report came through my RSS feed yesterday -a blanket denial from the USGS Volcano observatory in Yellowstone National Park that recent `unusual seismic activity’ had forced the evacuation of the park - and that the supervolcano was about to erupt.

 

A massive Yellowstone eruption – as you probably know – is a favorite scenario for many doomsday preppers, and many others hoping to have a reason not to have to go back to work on Monday morning. 

 

Fueled by countless cable TV `documentaries’ envisioning the bleak aftermath of a supervolcano eruption, warnings and predictions are posted on Youtube and other social media venues predicting an imminent ash covered-demise for North America every few months.

 

First the statement from the USGS, then I’ll be back with a bit more.

 

A Short Statement Regarding Recent Rumors

August 08, 2014

Though we love doing research at YVO, we prefer it when the research is on topics geological rather than the origin of false rumors. Nevertheless, we have received enough concerned emails and phone calls that we've spent some time tracking down a few of the statements made on various "alternative Internet news sources."

1) First, everyone should know that geological activity, including earthquakes and ground uplift/subsidence is well within historical norms and seismicity is actually a bit low at present.

2) Concern over road closures is much overblown. There's been one road closure of a small side road – just over three miles long – that was closed for two days. As one can imagine, it is not easy to maintain roads that pass over thermal areas where ground temperatures can approach those of boiling water. Roads at Yellowstone often need repair because of damage by thermal features as well as extreme cold winter conditions.

3) The park has not been evacuated. This one is pretty easy to verify by everyone. If the Old Faithful webcam shows people, or if news articles are coming out about a hobbyist's remote control helicopter crashing into a hot spring, Yellowstone is certainly open for business.

4) No volcanologists have stated that Yellowstone is likely to erupt this week, this month or this year. In one recent article, a name was attributed to a "senior volcanologist", but that person does not appear to exist, and a geologist with that name assures us that he did not supply any quotes regarding Yellowstone.

5) Finally, we note that those who've kept track of Yellowstone over the past decade or so, have seen a constant stream of "predictions" regarding imminent eruptions at Yellowstone. Many have had specific dates in mind, none had a scientific basis, and none have come true.

We will continue to provide updates on geological activity at Yellowstone, and educational materials to help understand the science around Yellowstone monitoring.

Virtually everything known about Yellowstone's spectacular volcanic past comes from the scientists who work at this observatory, at all our eight member agencies. We're the ones who mapped the deposits, figured out the ages of the eruptions, measured the gases, located the earthquakes, and tracked the ground movement. A few of us have been doing it for over forty years. We will continue to help you understand what's happening at Yellowstone now, and what's likely to happen in the future.

It didn’t take long to track down the original `alternative media story’, which last week blared the headline YELLOWSTONE EVACUATED: EXPERTS CLAIM `SUPER VOLCANO’ COULD ERUPT WITHIN WEEKS, along with the somber prediction that North America could endure a `volcanic winter’ that would last 200 years. 

 

While I won’t link to it - if you are truly curious - and aren’t afraid to risk a few brain cells in the process, you can certainly Google it.

Since Yellowstone has erupted in the past with devastating results, it isn’t unreasonable to think it could do so again.  But the last time was more than 600,000 years ago, and the next eruption (if it comes) could be thousands of years from now. 

 

After spending nearly an hour that I’ll never get back again looking at a dozen Youtube videos warning of the `Yellowstone threat’, I made the tactical mistake of switching my search to recent `EBOLA’ videos.

 

If you should choose to do the same, be warned you’ll find hours of self-appointed experts describing the nightmare Ebola pandemic that they assure is nigh. I guess the Zombie apocalypse meme has gone stale, as the (lab created!)  `walking nearly dead’ are the new doomsday threat in town. 

 

Like watching an old Ed Wood SciFi movie, these offerings were so universally awful and over-the-top, I had a hard time turning away.

 

To save you some time (and even more brain cells), some of these videos strongly suggest that this strain of Ebola was created in a US funded lab, was unleashed in Africa as the first stage of a global depopulation plan, and our collective futures consist of grisly deaths in quarantined cities, internment in FEMA Camps, or forced vaccination with a mind-control drug.

Some, of course, took a less cheery view.

 

Admittedly, not all of the videos were alarmist or paranoid – some were accurate or at least reasonable so. But many of those on the paranoid end of the scale were receiving extensive views – some as many as 10,000 a day.

 

Would that this humble blog ever saw that level of traffic. 

 

While one is tempted to dismiss these efforts as little more than `bad amateur theatre’, limited in both appeal and impact, these are the same internet scare tactics that have been successfully used by some activists to demonize childhood and flu vaccines.

 

For their core audiences, their messages strongly resonate, and their impact shouldn’t be underestimated.

 

It is against this background of distrust that any public health campaign against future disease outbreaks must be waged. For every CDC statement rationally explaining why Ebola is unlikely to spread efficiently in the Western world, there are a hundred videos screaming `cover up’.

 

The good news is, of all American government agencies, the Centers for Disease Control routinely ranks highest in public trust and confidence (see poll). The bad news is, 35% of those polled still ranked them as `only fair’ or `poor’, leaving more than a little confidence gap.

 

Just as fear, distrust, and superstition have greatly interfered in the identification, isolation, and treatment of Ebola cases in West Africa - one has to seriously wonder just how much differently things would play out in this country should Ebola, MERS, or avian flu ever seriously threaten.

Here’s hoping we never find out.

Dr. Paul Offit: The Dangers Of The Anti-Vaccine Movement

 

 

 

# 5336

 

 

As a child of the 1950s I well remember a time when American kids by the tens of thousands were still being crippled – and sometimes killed – by polio. In the 1950s, the fear of polio was palpable across the nation.

 

There were hospital wards filled with polio-paralyzed children trapped in iron lungs (a grim technology many younger adults have no memory of), which were used to keep them alive.

 

The following short film clip may be hard for some to look at, but is a reminder of how things were . . . not so very long ago.

 

 

In 1954, the year I was born, the first major field trials of the Salk vaccine took place, and the following year – after review of the data - a national vaccination campaign was launched.

 

By 1957, after two years of vaccination - the number of new polio cases in the United States dropped from over 35,000 to under 6,000.  And by 1964, that number had dropped to just 121 cases.

 

An incredible feat, in less than a decade. 

 

Another vaccine victory is illustrated by the following chart showing the number of Pertussis cases (whooping cough) in California over the past 60 years.

 

The dramatic drop in Pertussis - which began in the early 1950s – closely follows the introduction of the first whole-cell pertussis vaccine combined with diphtheria and tetanus toxoids (DTP) was introduced in the mid-1940s.

 

Nationwide, in the 1940s, about 160,000 cases of Pertussis were recorded, and the illness claimed about 5,000 lives.

 

By 1976 the number of reported cases reached a record-low of 1,010 cases, a decrease of 99%.  But over the past decade the number of cases has steadily risen, and last year 21,000 cases were reported.

 

This rise in Pertussis cases, in part, can be traced to a decreasing number of parents getting their kids vaccinated, and a general lapsing of adult booster vaccinations.

 

Which brings us to an interview with Dr. Paul Offit – the vaccine research scientist and pediatrician that anti-vaccine activists love to hate – which appears in today’s Time Magazine.

 

The Dangers of the Anti-Vaccine Movement

By Meredith Melnick Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011

Childhood inoculations protect us against deadly infectious diseases like measles, whooping cough and polio. But they are also the source of near constant conflict — most recently in the Feb. 22 Supreme Court decision which ruled in favor of a vaccine manufacturer over the family of a disabled girl.

 

In recent years, some parents have begun to refuse vaccination for their children, influenced by fringe activists who believe it causes autism, brain damage and other ailments. Dr. Paul Offit, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, has seen the consequences: preventable childhood deaths, community outbreaks of outdated diseases and misinformed, angry parents.

(Continue . . . )

 

 

Admittedly, vaccines are neither 100% safe nor are they 100% effective.  I know of no medicine that can meet both (or even one) of those standards.

 

But vaccines have an excellent safety record, and while not perfect, have done a remarkable job reducing (and in some cases eliminating) infectious diseases from our communities.

 
Despite the tremendous good vaccines have done over the years, anti-vaccination forces continue to use fear tactics to push their agenda.  In The Monsters Are Due On Vaccine Street I wrote:

 

Practically every day I see articles on the internet purporting to tell the `truth’ about vaccines, and in nearly every case it is about as far removed from the truth as you can get and still remain on this planet.

 

Their techniques are simple, but effective.

 

First, they use  biased and inflammatory language, filled with incendiary adjectives like `deadly’, `useless’, `dangerous’, or `untested’ practically anytime the word `vaccine’ is used.

 

Second, they build a straw man, by claiming that vaccines are supposed to be 100% safe and effective (which no one in medicine claims), and then proceed to knock that down with some story about a purported bad reaction or side effect.

 

And third . . . and used with great effect online . . . they cherry pick a news article that somehow bolsters their claims, without acknowledging any evidence to the contrary.

 

 

Extremely effective tactics – particularly on the internet - that in recent years have encouraged a growing number of parents to file  personal belief exemptions to avoid vaccinating their children.

 

A worrisome trend that, should it escalate, could endanger the progress our communities have made against a number of infectious childhood diseases.

The Great Flu Shot Conspiracy (Not)

 

 

“I’m shocked! Absolutely shocked that this years flu shot has antigens against this year’s flu!”-  Captain Renault

 

 

# 4927

 

 

I guess we’ve been found out.

 

Over the past few days there have been a number of media reports `outing’ public health authorities for – supposedly unbeknownst to the public - attempting to slip the H1N1 pandemic vaccine into this year’s seasonal flu vaccine.

 

In fact, one of the `top stories’ of the last 24 hours on the NewsNow Flu Pandemics news feed reads:

 

Untested swine flu vaccine offloaded on elderly and sick

 

Another recent story from the UK has a poll attached where 75% of the respondents (as of this writing) say the Swine flu jab should not be combined with the seasonal flu shot.

 

 

This is quite obviously a conspiracy targeted directly at the millions of people out there who are unable to read for comprehension.

 

 

I say that because – despite the OMG! tone of some of these news reports - it hasn’t exactly been a state secret that antigens against last year’s pandemic virus would be included in this year’s seasonal flu shot.   

 

In fact, that information has been printed, and repeated on newscasts, thousands of times over the past 6 months (for starters see WHO: 2010-2011 Flu Vaccine Recommendations  and FDA Approves 2010-2011 Flu Vaccines).

 

So I’m a bit taken aback that anyone is surprised by this revelation.  But just in case someone out there missed it, this year’s seasonal flu shot contains:

 

• A/California/7/09 (H1N1)-like virus (pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza virus)
• A/Perth /16/2009 (H3N2)-like virus
• B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus

 

Despite tens of millions of H1N1 shot given over the past year, and an excellent safety profile (see Two Vaccine Related Stories From CIDRAP ),the constant demonization of the Swine Flu vaccine on the Internet and in the media has created an unwarranted atmosphere of fear and suspicion among many in the public.

 

So much so, that in the UK GP's are now being advised to specifically warn patients who refused last year’s monovalent pandemic jab that this year’s trivalent shot contains antigens against swine flu.

 

This report from Healthcare Republic.

 

Swine flu warning to be given for seasonal jab

Stephen Robinson, GP newspaper, 23 September 2010, 12:18am

GPs should alert patients who refused last year's swine flu vaccine that it is included in this year's seasonal flu jab, the GMC has advised.

 

 

I’ve no problem with full disclosure regarding the contents of this year’s flu shot. Heck, if I’ve mentioned it once,  I’ve mentioned it 50 times that the H1N1 virus would be in this year’s jab. 

 

By now, it ought to be common knowledge.  But apparently not. Sigh.

 

The shame here is that websites and media outlets spend their energies stoking people’s fears over the vaccine, when the real danger comes from the flu itself.

 

Some, I suspect, are true believers.  They see vaccines as dangerous, or  evil, or simply unnecessary.  

 

Misguided, perhaps, but sincere.

 

But many do it simply to drive traffic to their site, or to sell `natural alternatives to vaccines’, or subscriptions to their newsletter. 

 

And if following their anti-vaccine advice happens to claim a few lives along the way . . . well, I guess that’s just the cost of doing business with them.

 

Judging by the number of people who apparently buy into these theories, its not as if they are likely to run out of customers anytime soon.

Referral: New Scientist On The WHO `Conspiracy’

 

 

# 4629

 

 

 

A terrific editorial piece this morning in the New Scientist magazine by Debora MacKenzie that takes a hard look at some of the allegations being lodged against the World Health Organization and their advisors.

 

This is the `must-read’ of the day.

 

 

Swine flu experts and big pharma: no conspiracy

12:29 7 June 2010

Debora MacKenzie, consultant

The parade of accusations surrounding the swine flu pandemic continues. The latest, published in the journal BMJ, claims the scientists who advised the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare H1N1 swine flu a pandemic were in the pay of companies that stood to profit from the resulting sales of antiviral drugs and vaccines.

 

The piece, by Deborah Cohen from BMJ and Philip Carter from a privately funded British non-profit called the Bureau for Investigative Journalism, says such conflicts of interest could be handled better. Fair enough, but it also says more: that the scientific advice given to the WHO on flu has been dishonestly slanted since 1999 to profit companies. This would be important if the journalists supported their case. I don't think they do - making this a troubling smear on science.

(Continue . . . )

 

 

I weighed in on this ongoing WHO controversy (again) yesterday, in Of Pandemics, Hurricanes and An Abundance Of Caution.

We Can always Create Another God For That

 

 

 

# 4356

 

 

Since bird flu news has been a bit slow of late, and the pandemic of 2009 is taking a breather, I’ve been indulging in a little R&R.   First, I’m reading  and greatly appreciating Alan Sipress’s terrific  The Fatal Strain.  

 

A book that Crof reviewed on The Tyee and Crofsblog, and called `the best pandemic book yet’.   And I quite agree.

 

And second, I’ve just finished watching the 12-part BBC production of I, Claudius which was first broadcast in 1976.   

 

I saw a few snippets of it when it first was shown on American TV, but at the time I was working 24-48 as a paramedic, and wasn’t able to see all of the episodes.  Thirty five years later, I’m finally catching up.

 

Although some of the historical depictions of the Caesars may be disputed, if you ever get a chance to see this mini-series, it is absolutely riveting.

 

Since I don’t often wander too far astray in this blog (I have another blog for such indulgences), you’d be correct in assuming that I’m about to tie up Alan Sipress’s book, I, Claudius, and pandemic influenza.

 

In The Fatal Strain we learn, in much greater detail than I’ve seen before, the background story behind Jones Ginting; the lone survivor of the 2006 Karo (Indonesia) H5N1 cluster that claimed the lives of seven of his relatives.

 

To the villagers, this wasn’t a disease. That was nonsense. Chickens couldn’t make you sick.

 

This was black magic. 

 

A curse, placed on the family for the sins of their father (who had gangster connections) who had conjured the spirit of Begu Ganjang to do his bidding many years before.

 

Ginting, after watching modern medicine fail to save his relatives, fled the hospital and sought the help of a traditional healer in a remote village – a witch doctor. 

 

Although he  returned to the hospital in Medan (where he would stay for 10 weeks) three days later, his family fetched a medicine man to his bedside who chewed leaves and betel nuts at night and spat on him in a ceremony to drive out the evil spirits.

 

To most of us, this seems primitive,  I’m sure. 

 

Not so very different from the Roman Gods of old, feared and honored by the citizens of Rome two thousand years ago. If illness strikes, or the rains fail to come, or the mountain rumbles you make a sacrifice at the temple, recite an incantation, and pray. 

 

A result of the all-too-human trait of creating a deity or supernatural explanation for that which we don’t understand.

 

But of course, we are talking about primitive cultures.  Or are we?

 

Each day I traverse the Internet looking for suitable news stories, scientific studies, or other tidbits of information that I believe would enhance this blog.   My RSS feed reader brings to my desktop hundreds of blog posts and news stories each day, fetched based on keywords like  influenza, bird flu, H5N1, pandemic, and vaccine.

 

And most days, the pickin’s are mighty slim.

 

Most of the links that I dutifully click on each day return nonsense, superstition, and drivel. And those are the kindest words I can muster to describe it.

 

Despite our advanced technology, it seems a lot of people are still creating `god's’ to explain that which they do not understand.  

 

Instead of Jove on Mount Olympus, or Begu Ganjang in the highlands of North Sumatra, we’ve created a whole new panoply of gods and demons. 

 

And the Internet is becoming their online temple.

We’ve entered the age of skepticism and distrust of science, replacing reason with superstition and fear.  In this new-age religion Big Pharma is an evil spirit, and world governments (and agencies like WHO and the CDC) are their dutiful minions.

 

This according to one of the new messiahs, Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg:

 

Faked pandemic

Here my Interview for the danish "Information" on the swine-flu pandemic:

By Louise Voller, Kristian Villesen

December 27. 2009

”We have had a mild flu - and a false pandemic,” says Wolfgang Wodarg, the chair of the Health Committee in The European Council. The German parliamentarian is also an epidemiologist and former health director in Flensburg. For that reason he has followed the H1N1-pandemic closely since June 11 and up to the present. He calls the pandemic "one of the greatest medical scandals of the century”, and for that reason he has decided to take the case to the European Council:

 

 

Of course, for many Big Pharma is just a lesser god.  The supreme being is apparently The Illuminati.

 

A couple of examples from the devout (follow these links at your own risk).

 

Is Swine Flu The Final Step In The Illuminati Plan To Drastically Reduce The Earth Population?

February 17th, 2010 

It’s a proven fact that the Illuminati plans to reduce the earths population to under 500,000,000. There bird flu didn’t work as well as they intended, is the swine flu the ext and possibly final generation of the virus they inted to use to cull the heard so to speak? Is there anything we can do about it?

 

 

Is the New Swine Flu Pandemic Just More of the Illuminati Power Elite's Hype?

 

When most American's think of the swine flu H1N1, they don't tend to think of Barack Obama or the Illuminati. However there is evidence that this flu pandemic is just another form of government control. The reason for this is very simple. The government, and the Illuminati wants to take away your rights so that they can implement their plans for a New World Order.

 

Lunatic fringe stuff?   Perhaps.

 

But then what are we to make of this commentary from Thepigsite.com today – which bills itself as `the website for the global pig industry’.

 

“H1N1 seems to have fallen off the media radar. Thank Goodness!! The big scare turned into a sad joke. 40 times more people died of regular flu. The billions of dollars spend domestically and globally on vaccine was a big waste. Millions of doses of H1N1 vaccine sit begging for victims. Big Pharma, Their bottom line bloated by stupid media and politicians. The good news is the H1N1 (swine flu) debacle seems to have had little lasting effect on pork demand.”

 

Well, thank the gods.  At least pork prices are up!  

 

Ample solace, no doubt, to those who lost loved ones to this pandemic over the past year.  They, and the CDC, and anyone with 3rd grade math skills might take exception to the  `40 times more people died of regular flu’ pronouncement, though.

 

We also have our own modern version of the Indonesian witch doctors, as well;  Purveyors of pandemic prophylaxis and other `natural and alternative’ cures.

 

Proponents of alternative cures, like colloidal silver shampoo, elderberry elixirs instead of vaccines, and numerous herbal remedies that are – I’m certain -every bit as `natural’  (and effective!) as chewing leaves and betel nuts and spitting on the patient.

 

The FDA (an evil god, or demon if you will) keeps a list of holy cures they don’t want you to have access to.  It’s part of the deal they signed with Big Pharma (in their own blood, naturally).

 

They call it their Fraudulent 2009 H1N1 Influenza Products List, but savvy Internet readers know it for what it really is.

 

And so it goes.   Conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory. 

 

And when one falls (remember the plot to release bird flu at the Beijing Olympics?  or  `pneumonic plague’ in Ukraine?), another quickly takes its place.

 

We’ve created new High-tech gods and demons to replace the tired old ones. A religion that places the blame for all of our collective woes squarely on the shoulders of secretive, powerful, and invisible gods and demons.

 

Which goes a long ways towards explaining its popularity.

 

A more sophisticated religion, that best of all, doesn’t require getting up early on Sunday mornings. 

 

An opiate for the asses. 

 

And from the looks of things, it’s spreading rapidly.

 

Some days, I tell you.  It’s hardly worth chewing through the leather straps.

Contrarians At The Gate

 

 

# 4309

 

 

Although I am not a scientist, I try to keep this blog centered around what passes for our currently accepted understanding of medicine, scientific research, and emerging infectious diseases.   

 

Not that science is always right.  It isn’t.

 

Our knowledge base – and more importantly, our understanding of how things work - is constantly changing.   I would like to be an optimist, and say `constantly expanding’, but things don’t always progress in a linear fashion.

 

There are many areas, of course, where we have no answers.  Or just partial answers.  And many of the things we believe to be true today will eventually be discarded into the `bad idea’ pile of tomorrow.   

 

That’s how science works.  Absolutes are few and far between.  And the process of getting there is often messy.

 

For some, this lack of definitive answers – or immutable truths – renders science useless . . .  or at least highly suspect.  Since it isn’t always perfect, and our understandings are subject to change, they place science into the realm of guesswork or speculation. 

 

They don’t understand that knowledge isn’t a destination . . . it’s a journey.    

 

Historically science has always labored under the burden of public misconception and distrust.   Advances in science usually mean change.  And while change can be good, it isn’t always so. 

 

And for those who prefer (or depend) on the status quo being maintained . . .  well science can be a threat.

 

The popular public perception of scientific research – at least up until the 1940s – was that of the mad scientist.   The Dr. Frankenstein, who meddles with things not meant for man to know – or of the inventor’s of mustard gas or chlorine used during World War I.

 

Gradually, during the 1950s and 1960s (when I grew up), science took on a new, more positive image.  

 

Space flight, jet planes, even computers  .  .  we were entering a world of science-fiction-turned fact. And I suspect that for a lot of us raised during that period, we view science a bit differently than those that came along later. 

 

My heroes growing up were writers like Isaac Asimov (whose numerous non-fiction books tried to explain science to the layman), the Mercury Astronauts, Don Herbert (aka Mr. Wizard) and Dr. Frank Baxter.

 

Okay, I was a geek before it was fashionable.

 

Frank C. Baxter (left) and Eddie Albert from Our Mr. Sun

 

For those with long memories, Frank Baxter was the `scientist’ host of a series of educational films from the 1950’s created by Bell Laboratories.   If you’ve never seen any of these Bell Science presentations, I have several archived on my other blog.  

 

You can read my tribute to the man in my essay Remembering Dr. Frank Baxter.

 

So I come by this reverence – or at least respect - for science honestly.  I grew up believing that though science we can make the is world a better place.

 

And most days, I still do.

 

But I’m genuinely worried that the proliferation (and apparent popularity) of conspiracy-driven fringe-pseudoscience diminishes those prospects greatly.   

 

The anti-vaccine hysteria of 2009, which obviously turned a lot of people off from the flu shot, is a prime example.  Next time we may be hit by a much more virulent virus, and this sort of anti-vaccine fear mongering could end up costing a lot of lives.

 

My generation, which saw the possibilities of the future, seems to have been followed by a cynical and suspicious Generation X-Files which sees shadowy conspiracies behind every government agency.  

 

Vaccines, they believe, are poisons used to depopulate the planet.  Pandemics aren’t naturally occurring events, they are man-made in a laboratory somewhere.  Our government’s only interest is to enrich big pharma.   And just about everything the government does is a prelude to martial law . . . 

 

My RSS feed aggregator brings me hundreds of news articles, editorials, and blog posts from around the world each day.  And a disturbing (and growing) percentage fall into the categories above.

 

This sort of dreck is apparently very popular, and drives a lot of traffic to these sites.   Let’s face it.  In the Internet business model, traffic equals revenue.  

 

Like the carnival side show, it really doesn’t matter what’s inside the tent.  All that matters is that people are enticed into paying their `one thin dime, 1/10th of a dollar’ to take a peek. 

 

The sad thing here is that there are hundreds of really good journalists and bloggers out there that work diligently to provide good information and analysis, but their efforts are increasingly being overshadowed by these contrarians at the gate.

 

While I sometimes succumb to temptation and attempt to highlight and critique some of the more egregious examples of this internet drivel, most days I try to resist.  

 

The last thing I want is to drive traffic to these sites.  Besides . . . once you start down that path . . . where do you stop?   

 

I’d have time for little else. 

 

So I usually swallow hard and choose to highlight a good journalist, website, or blogger instead  (see Reliable Sources In Flublogia).  

After all, ‘Tis said it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness ‘

 

Sadly, though, it never is as cathartic as a good old fashioned rant.

 

Not even close.

Why They Call It A Medium

 

 

# 4199

 

 

A recurring theme of this blog has been the lack of responsibility shown by a great many Internet (and sometime mainstream) media outlets when it comes to `reporting’ on influenza, emerging infectious diseases, pandemics, or just science in general.

 

Controversy sells.  And on the Internet, there is little accountability.  

 

You can say just about anything, and get away with it. 

 

What you often end up with are thousands of P.T. Barnum wannabes, selling junk science, conspiracy theories, and thinly veiled agenda’s to a gullible and receptive public.

 

In September, the big story promoted by many of these fringe sites was the `untested and dangerous vaccine’  that we would soon all be forced to take.   Of course, we’ve not seen the predicted carnage from the vaccine, and last time I checked, no one has been strapped down and forcibly injected with deadly nano-particles.

 

No matter, there’s always next time.

 

There are websites devoted to the idea that the WHO, the UN, the Bilderbergers, Big Pharma, and others are behind the `release’ of H1N1, and that bird flu is next on their list.  

 

Pandemic paranoia has practically become a cottage industry on the Internet.

 

In late October and early November, hundreds of websites carried lurid reports of `pneumonic plague’ in Ukraine. Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter were alive with stories, videos, and tweets of patients dying from `burnt lungs’, and the of aerial spraying of biological agents  (see Ukraine And The Internet Rumor Mill).

 

The only problem is . . .  these (and other) stories were about 10% fact liberally mixed with about 90% fiction.

 

Once these stories had run their course, they were replaced by the dreaded Norway Mutation story, which was played to full effect by many of these same sites.  

Was there a story in Ukraine?  

 

Sure. 

 

But the truth wasn’t nearly as prurient or exciting to the general public as the fictionalize version being peddled by certain factions of the `new media’. And so the tabloid version of events blotted out most of the serious coverage.  

 

The Norway Mutation story is of considerable scientific interest, and may yet turn out to be important in this pandemic.  But right now the science doesn’t support the wilder assertions of a `killer mutation’ on the loose around the world.

 

You wouldn’t know that by much of the coverage online.

 

 

Of course, it would be unfair to paint the entire Internet with the same brush.

 

While badly outnumbered by purveyors of pseudoscientific poppycock, there are a great many serious, science-rooted, and sane web sites devoted to accurate reporting and reasonable commentary.

 

 

You’ll find a large number of reliable flu sources listed in my essay, Reliable Sources In Flublogia.

 

 

Today,  Helen Branswell of the Canadian Press has an interview with Director General Margaret Chan of the WHO about the communications challenges they have faced when dealing with the media, new and otherwise.

 

 

H1N1 pandemic poses big communications challenge for global health agency: Chan

 

By: Helen Branswell, Medical Reporter, THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - For the director general of the World Health Organization, the best news of the decade is the fact that the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century is a moderate - some would even call it mild - one.

 

Still, that lucky break, disease-wise, has created a communications challenge for those in public health in general and the WHO in particular, Dr. Margaret Chan acknowledged Monday in an interview with The Canadian Press.

 

For years, the WHO and health officials around the world had worried about and planned for the possibility the dangerous H5N1 avian flu virus might trigger the next pandemic. (Many still worry humankind may have a future date with the so-called bird flu.)

 

Instead, two swine flu viruses swapped genes, giving rise to a new variant that started spreading among people. It was new enough to cause disease and occasionally death. But it was sufficiently similar to viruses that have spread among people in the past that its impact hasn't been the crisis many feared.

 

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As a `serious’ blogger I accepted long ago that I’ll never be able to compete with the numbers garnered by websites that promote `wild and wacky’ conspiracy theories.   The audience for that sort of claptrap is simply greater than the audience for sensible reporting and commentary.

 

I know how a museum operator must feel in a town filled with strip joints.

 

Fred Allen, acerbic star of radio during the 1930’s and 1940’s, never really embraced the upstart medium of television (he did appear on it with some frequency, however).

 

He famously quipped that `Television is a new medium. It's called a medium because nothing is well-done.’

 

 

The same could be said, with a few notable exceptions, for much of the Internet today.

A Shot Of Reality

 

 

# 4125

 

We are now two months into the global H1N1 pandemic vaccination effort and one thing is abundantly clear;  the dire warnings of the anti-vaccine crowd that  `the vaccine is deadlier than the virus’ have not come to pass.

 

The poster produced by The People's United Community

Somewhere between 100 million and 200 hundred million people worldwide have now received the shot, and the number of reported adverse effects has been about what we expect with the seasonal jab.  

 

On Friday the MMWR released an interim safety report on the US (unadujuanted) vaccines, and the early results were very encouraging (see MMWR Vaccine Safety Report).

 

The vast majority of adverse affects reported have been mild.  The CDC is investigating roughly 204 serious post vaccination reports (out of 46 million injections).  

 

While some of these may stem from the vaccination – many will probably prove to be coincidental and not connected to the shot.

 

Earlier last week, the EU (European Union) reported that the adjuvanted vaccine was presenting no safety concerns as well.

 

EU: no safety concerns as 10 million get H1N1 shots

 

Thu Dec 3, 2009 6:36am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Some 10 million people across the European Union have now been vaccinated against H1N1 swine flu and so far no unexpected serious safety issues have been identified, the region's drugs watchdog said on Thursday.

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And from Fergus Walsh who pens the Fergus on Flu blog for the BBC, we get this brief update from the WHO on vaccine safety.

 

 

150m doses of vaccine distributed worldwide

Fergus Walsh | 12:53 UK time, Thursday, 3 December 2009

A brief update from the World Health Organization's Dr Keiji Fukuda. He estimates that more than 150m doses of H1N1 pandemic vaccine have been distributed in 40 countries and the safety profile continues to be similar to seasonal flu vaccines.

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None of which is to say that the H1N1 vaccine is 100% safe.  No vaccine can make that claim. But the safety profile of this flu vaccine appears in line with other seasonal flu shots. 

 

And they have a pretty good safety record.

 

Could we still find some rare, but serious, side effect to the vaccine? 

Sure. 

 

And as hard as scientists are looking at this vaccination program, I won’t be terribly surprised if they find something.  An event that occurs but perhaps once or twice in every million shots. 

 

But even so, that would have to be weighed against the dangers of the H1N1 virus – and we know that has caused thousands of deaths just here in the US.  By just about any rational measure, taking the vaccine is far safer than getting the virus. 

 

All of these safety reports would seem to be good news, unless of course your stock-in-trade is selling vaccine fears, conspiracy newsletters, or colloidal silver products. 

 

I suspect that in order to save face,  these purveyors of vaccine paranoia will soon claim that there is a massive cover up going on, and that thousands of vaccine-related deaths are being hidden by either  A) the World Health Organization   B) Big Pharma  or  C) or the Illuminati.

 

And as long as you refuse to accept any `official source’ of information, it is hard to prove that isn’t true.   

 

More problematic for the conspiracy theorists are the lack of forced vaccinations, internment camps, and mass graves.

 

All  of which were predicted over the summer. 

 

And last I checked, martial law hasn’t been declared here in the US (of course, as I write this, it isn’t even noon yet). 

 

The only possible explanation is that the combined weight of the viral vaccine videos on Youtube, the anti-vaccine petitions, and the  writings of conspiracy bloggers worldwide managed to scare off the evildoers, and forced them to abandon their insidious plans.

 

Behold!  The power of the Internet.

 

I’m sure you feel safer, as do I, knowing they are out there; writing sensationalized tabloid news stories, blogging about evil NWO domination plans, and sending letters to the editors of newspapers around the world.

 

They stand vigilant and resolute, guarding against the dispensing of dangerous and `untested’ vaccines to our children, the planned release of `weaponized’ flu viruses on an unsuspecting public, and worse . . . the spreading of common sense and critical thinking skills in our society. 

 

It’s a tough, dirty, and thankless job. 

 

I’m just glad I don’t have to do it.