revere
Posts by this author
September 16, 2009
There is no way to keep up with all the flu news, so we pick and choose, usually based on some kind of point we want to make. That's both the good and the bad of this blog: the news comes with a point of view. But so does most news, and we try to make ours both explicit and scientifically as…
September 15, 2009
It was only a matter of time before the Right Wing smear machine set its sites on Obama's nominee for Director of OSHA, Dr. David Michaels. And now that time has come. David is a friend and colleague and his name is not a stranger here (and here, here, here and probably other posts as well). His…
September 14, 2009
This morning we reported some hopeful news about the desperately poor country of Malawi, where childhood mortality is incredibly high but being slashed. It's still too high. Way, way too high. And in response I found this very sad post from another blogger, this one a doc now in rural Canada, but…
September 14, 2009
They say starting the day with a good breakfast gives you a leg up on the rest of the day, so we thought we'd start out the week with some decent public health news. We're always bringing you bad public health news, which isn't what we want to do. We live for the news to be good. That's what we…
September 13, 2009
At the beginning of September CDC initiated a new system for monitoring influenza activity. We reported last week that the old system ended on August 30 and that we were now into the new flu season. We even titled the post, "End of Flu Season." To paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of the death of…
September 13, 2009
This week we've got a substantive story and a video (also substantive). No snark in either. The first has to do with a school principal who censored the student newspaper because it ran a story that the company contracted to provide its food service was on a "mission to serve God":
Orange County…
September 12, 2009
There's been a great deal in the news regarding the first reports on the swine flu vaccine trials, so we didn't feel the need to be the first off the mark for something you could read anywhere (and everywhere). We still don't have much to add, but since there was intense discussion and debate about…
September 11, 2009
The old Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) had a fatal flaw. It's task was both to promote and to regulate nuclear power. That sounds like a bad idea, right? Conflict of interest? But in fact there are a number of government agencies that are in the same awkward position. One of them is the US…
September 10, 2009
Flu season is over. Before you heave a sigh of relief, I'm talking about the (official) 2008 - 2009 flu season, which ended August 30 in week 34 or the calendar year. Welcome to the new flu season, the one called 2009 - 2010. It promises to be, well, "interesting."
Not that the one just concluded…
September 9, 2009
One of the most feared outcomes of infection with influenza is Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS; in less severe form it mahy be called Acute Lung Injury, ALI). For reasons we still do not understand, cells deep in the lung that are involved in gas exchange (oxygen and carbon dioxide)…
September 8, 2009
As we expected, yesterday's vaccine piece provoked a lot of discussion, almost all of it thoughtful and pertinent. Since we've already said we might be wrong, we thought we'd take some time to respond, using it as a way to keep thinking things through on our end. Writing is thinking and thinking is…
September 7, 2009
Today is a federal holiday in the United States, the one we call "Labor Day." In most countries the labor movement celebrates on May 1 (May Day), but the origin of the US holiday ironically was in Canada where the fight for the nine-hour working day in the 1870s was celebrated at the end of summer…
September 7, 2009
When it comes to US swine flu vaccine policy, I'm not calling the shots, but if I were I'd do it differently than the current plan, which calls for a vaccine containing only viral antigen and no immunity boosting adjuvant. I opt for a vaccine with an adjuvant, probably the one that has been used…
September 6, 2009
If the UK invaded and occupied Massachusetts because the IRA raised money and housed some of its members in South Boston I think most people would say that was not just a mistake but wrong. Assuming for the moment that the GOP was in charge and had no interest in defending the state, I can predict…
September 6, 2009
Bill Donohue is a demented, mean (evil?) and bat shit crazy head of a nasty coven called the Catholic League. Donohue's organization claims to represent 350,000 Catholics (yeah, right; and we're the Andrews Sisters), but since there are an estimated 67 million Catholics in the US and Canada, even…
September 5, 2009
We've said both nice things and not so nice things about Finance Committee ranking Republican on health care, Chuck Grassley (R-IA), most recently not-so-nice things. Things like calling him morally corrupt, a liar and a gold-plated hypocrite. Things like that. We know he hears us because his…
September 4, 2009
A meeting of critical care specialists who have treated severely ill swine flu patients this week in Winnipeg, Canada is producing dramatic reports of illness with a virus more like H5N1 (avian or bird flu) than seasonal flu. Since H5N1 is dramatically more virulent than any seasonal flu we know of…
September 3, 2009
When I tell people I am an epidemiologist, most of them think it means I'm a skin doctor. I'm not (although the skin disease specialty is much more lucrative). Instead I study patterns of disease in populations and use what I see to try to figure out why the observed pattern rather than another.…
September 2, 2009
Yesterday one of the questions we asked was whether swine H1N1 would replace seasonal viruses this season. In previous pandemics one subtype completely replaced its seasonal predecessor: in 1957 H2N2 replaced the H1N1 that had been coming back annually at least since 1918; only 11 years later, in…
September 1, 2009
It's not Labor Day yet, but I guess the Reveres have to consider their vacation over. We're all back at our respective home stations. We admit that not watching flu evolve daily was a relief, although we did sneak peeks when we weren't supposed to. But it also proved to be like the stock market.…
August 31, 2009
Well, we're back at the old homestead but today it took us 12 grueling hours in the car. We had hoped to get back earlier (it's almost midnight now) and have the time and energy to djinn up a new post, but it isn't to be. But it's hurricane season again and Danny Boy just sailed north parallel to…
August 30, 2009
We're still on the road, but if all goes well we'll be pulling up to the old homestead later today. So this will be among the last of the links to previous posts and we'll be back in harness shortly, again masquerading as whoever we are masquerading as. You decide. But a propos of that thought, a…
August 30, 2009
I only met Ted Kennedy once, many years ago. I was working with parents whose children had been stricken with leukemia in Woburn, Massachusetts. We were trying to answer the simplest of questions: why their children? These were wonderful and extraordinary people, supported by their local minister,…
August 29, 2009
The car is almost packed and this is the last post before I unplug from the net and we are actually on the road. But by tonight I'll probably be connected again because the cheapie motels we stay in usually have free WiFi, unlike the expensive ones that charge you $15 a day for the privilege of…
August 28, 2009
We're starting to pack the car for the trek homeward. It's a thousand mile drive so we aren't going to do it in a day. But in my youth I once drove alone for 17 straight hours in a VW beetle that had no radio, stopping only to gas up and use the bathroom. Which brings me to this post from earlier…
August 27, 2009
We're still at the beach (you're probably tired of hearing that, but Mrs. R. is already wringing her hands and gnashing her teeth at the thought that next week we won't be able to say it), and it's really hot here. Nineties and humid. Two years ago (August 2007) we were also here and it was also…
August 26, 2009
Here's some scientific background to the climate change discussion (we refuse to call it a controversy). Basic science literacy, explaining what a greenhouse gas is:
"Primer on greenhouse gases":
Part I
Part II
.
Nothing controversial. Just basic science literacy.
August 25, 2009
Over the years we've written quite a bit (well over 3000 posts) here and on the old site at blogger.com. Some of them have been ephemeral comments, some of them whimsical and but many of them dealing with serious topics that couldn't be accommodated in the format of a single blog post. The ones…
August 24, 2009
While we fritter away our last week at the beach, here's another installment of past posts on flu science. There are three subjects, but one of them took three installments to relate. That's because these involve cutting edge science papers in influenza science and we wanted to take enough time to…
August 23, 2009
A full year before the housing market had a melt down (Sept. 2008), the mosquitoes knew:
"Adjustable rate mortgages and West Nile Virus infection"