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.

A Darwin Award Nomination

 

# 3758

 

Note: I don’t usually rant in this blog, but today, I make an exception.

 

 

While it may not bode particularly well for our species, Charles Darwin was on to something when he observed that adaptation is an important characteristic for any organism’s survival.

 

Which brings us to an article I found today about the `dangers’ of hand sanitizers in schools, and the fears that some parents and officials have over their fire hazard and potential abuse.

 

A brief excerpt from a much longer article follows:

 

Hand sanitizers a new schoolroom staple, but ingredients stir controversy

Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah

September 20, 2009 5:14 AM

MCT NEWSFEATURES

Chicago Tribune

(MCT)

 

CHICAGO - Some kindergartners call it ''the magic soap,'' and in schools across the country hand sanitizers are quickly emerging as the weapon of choice against swine flu.

 

School districts are installing wall dispensers in classrooms. Teachers are squirting the gel into not-so-clean palms before lunch or after a visit to the bathroom. In some districts, parents had to buy hand sanitizer along with paper and pencils as part of their kids' back-to-school supplies.

 

But a wrinkle has emerged in the world of the squirt happy: Hand sanitizers have a fairly high alcohol content. That has some officials worried about flammability and potential misuse as an intoxicant.

 

In Kane County, Ill., students can't use hand sanitizers in school except under adult supervision. The county regional office of education requires school districts to have a formal plan for how they'll dispense the germ-fighting product in classrooms and lunchrooms, and they must store larger pump containers and extra bottles in fireproof cabinets or outdoor sheds like other flammable products.

 

(Continue . . . )

 

 

Stop the presses! 

 

Alcohol based hand gel burns when touched off with a lighter or match.  

 

As does a crumpled ball of paper . . .  (see photo below).  

 

Bad news, I would venture, for the American pulp & paper industry should that news ever leak to the papers.  Schools, I understand, are absolutely lousy with paper.

 

(Hand gel & paper burning side-by-side)

 

Not to be unkind, but isn’t this isn’t carrying the `obsessive parental worrying thing’ just a little too far?    

 

 

Parents can (and should) be teaching their young children not to arbitrarily set fires, and that glycerin and propylene glycol are inferior mixers for alcoholic beverages.  Lessons that will serve them well their entire lives.

 

This is 2009, after all. 

 

Kids should be smart enough to know that the best libations can be found in their parents liquor cabinet, not their medicine cabinet.

 

Granted I grew up in the 1950s, back before every kid had a cell phone umbilical cord to stay connected to a supervising adult.

 

Kids as young as 6 years of age would leave the house after breakfast rarely to be heard from again until supper time.   If they came home for lunch, fine, otherwise they’d get a sandwich at a neighbor’s house.

 

It was a time when a 12-year-old was considered old enough to babysit.  Today, that would probably result in a visit from Children’s Services.

 

Eight year-olds had BB guns, sharp sticks, pocket knives (necessary for sharpening sticks) and kid-engineered forts in the woods to play in.  

 

We drank water from garden hoses, climbed trees, and while aloft would sometimes eat the unwashed fruit hanging about.  We learned the hard way the perils of landing on our knees on the sidewalk, and soon learned that the metal slide at the school playground would scald your backside on a hot summer’s day.

 

And yet - amazingly, most of us survived to adulthood.

 

It’s not that I’m arguing that we should go back to the `bad old days’; when kids rode bikes without helmets, no one wore seatbelts (and kid carrier seats for cars didn’t exist!), everyone smoked, and schools would hand out mercury to kids to play with (watch it roll around in your hands, kids . .it’s liquid metal!).

 

Obviously, we’ve made some rational decisions along the way.

 

But if we’ve really raised a generation of school aged kids incapable of using hand sanitizer without  A) getting drunk off of it   or B) setting the school house on fire  . . . .

 

. . . . we’ve got bigger problems as a society than a flu pandemic to deal with.