revere
Posts by this author
May 8, 2007
Two news items from Indonesia, one about a new case of bird flu, one about the competency and responsibility of the Indonesian authorities. I take that back. The competence and responsibility of the Indonesian authorities are not in doubt. They have neither.
First, the new case:
Bird flu has killed…
May 7, 2007
We've know for some years now that traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the "signature wound" of the Iraq War (see here, here). We know it's true but we don't know its full extent. Nor has the Department of Defense bothered to find out how bad it is, despite the fact that they designed a screening test…
May 7, 2007
Thursday CDC issued some "Interim Guidance Issued For The Use Of Facemasks And Respirators In Public Settings During An Influenza Pandemic" and of course there were many news stories. It would seem the guidance wasn't exactly clear, at least judging from what headline writers took away from exactly…
May 6, 2007
To my friends in France:
This is without doubt a dark and bitter day for you.
Les hommes avaient perdu le goût
De vivre, et se foutaient de tout
Leurs mères, leurs frangins, leurs nanas
Pour eux c'était qu'du cinéma
Le ciel redevenait sauvage,
Le béton bouffait l'paysage... alors
The US…
May 6, 2007
For the past two days I have been in a remote location at a small academic conference not connected with bird flu. I'm multitasking, now, writing this while listening to a founder of the critical legal studies movement in days of yore. It's been extremely interesting and always a pleasure to talk,…
May 5, 2007
It may seem to have nothing to do flyways for avian influenza virus, but bear with me. In 1962 there was another flyway that revealed Soviet missiles in Cuba:
It was 0737 in the morning of Sunday 14 October 1962 when Major Richard Heyser began the crossing of Cuba in his U-2. He flew almost due…
May 4, 2007
Some stories just force themselves on you. I know I'm not special in this regard, since this story was sent by reader and frequent commenter MRK with the note, "Couldn't resist this one. . . ." Maybe the fact we are both males has something to do with it. Mrs. R. would certainly think so. Anyway,…
May 4, 2007
What do you say when you really don't know the answer to the question, "Should I wear a mask to protect me against bird flu if it becomes pandemic?" Here's the CDC answer:
If a super-flu strikes, face masks may not protect you. Even so, the government says people should consider wearing them in…
May 3, 2007
Nothing demonstrates the Bush administration's commitment to Family Values than the number of its officials who have resigned to spend more time with their family. The latest is Julie A. MacDonald, an Interior Department deputy assistant secretary in charge of the Fish and Wildlife Service's…
May 3, 2007
Sometimes it can be hard to read the scientific literature without peering through the lens of one's own prejudices. That said, I must agree with this:
Malaysian doctors have declared neckties a health hazard and called on the heath ministry to stop insisting that physicians wear them.
Citing…
May 2, 2007
The current war in iraq is the second in the last two decades. Gulf War I, in 1991, was over with quickly but still has had lasting health effects for soldiers in theater. Even after 16 years, the exact nature of Gulf War Illness is a controversial subject. For those of us with some knowledge of…
May 2, 2007
China has now agreed to send WHO bird flu isolates, but Indonesia, after first agreeing to do so, won't. Or is it the other way around? It's easy to get mixed up because China has made this promise before (posts here, here and here) and so has Indonesia. Whatever.
Indonesia's health minister has…
May 1, 2007
Last week we talked about "mash-ups," the combination of online resources from disparate sources, and pointed out that Google Maps and Google Earth were favorite substrates for this. Declan Butler, senior correspondent at Nature, is the first we know of to construct a Google Earth mashup for bird…
May 1, 2007
Lots of us knew melamine as a heat resistant plastic polymer found in kitchen items, like plastic plates. Despite its reputation for heat resistance it would melt in an oven, although it doesn't catch fire. It is used in a lot of other places: floor tiles, white boards, fabrics, filters, even the…
April 30, 2007
Once upon a time, working at the Center for Disease Control (aka, CDC, now called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) was a dream job for a dedicated public health scientist or practitioner. No more. The independent CDC blog, CDC Chatter, is reporting results of a new survey of employee…
April 30, 2007
"China" was one of the founding members of the United Nations. Whatever you mean by "China," anyway. When the UN was formed in 1945 there was only one China. After the Revolution of 1949 the losing side retreated to Taiwan and claimed the title of Republic of China. The US and its allies stupidly…
April 29, 2007
After recent posts related to intellectual property and more than I can count about bird flu, time to become more efficient and combine them:
Chinese police have nabbed a pirate DVD production and sales ring that had concealed their operation in a supposed bird flu research base in east China's…
April 29, 2007
Let's see. If I were making a pile of money by doing something illegal and I got caught, do you think I'd be able to get off just by agreeing not to do it again? I guess if what I was doing was making illegal prescription drugs, I could. I'll make a mental note:
The U.S. Food and Drug…
April 29, 2007
America is starting to reawaken from one of its periodic religious revivals. They happen with tiresome regularity, every three or four decades, but it's a damped oscillation. Each time the amplitude of the wave is lower and the DC signal between blips more secular. Freethinker books are appearing…
April 28, 2007
The problem is now being recognized at the highest levels of the US government.
April 28, 2007
The Atlanata Journal Constitution, hometown paper of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (aka, "CDC") continues to lift the rocks and uncover the stuff beneath. In the latest installment it has obtained an internal memo from CDC's international health office to CDC Director Dr.…
April 27, 2007
I will admit to having a soft spot in my heart for one of the NIH institutes, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. NIEHS is on a separate campus in Research Triangle Park, NC, away from the main NIH campus in Bethesda, MD. It is separated in other ways, too, having a decidedly…
April 27, 2007
It was inevitable. Roche is now planning to cut production of its antiviral Tamiflu because, they say, supply is exceeding demand:
Swiss pharmaceutical group Roche said Thursday it would trim production of the frontline bird flu drug Tamiflu unless demand picked up, but warned that the world was…
April 26, 2007
The wound opened by Indonesia's balk on supplying H5N1 viral isolates to WHO for vaccine surveillance (see here and here) has now been fixed -- with a band-aid:
Indonesia and other five countries are being awarded grants by the World Health Organization to establish in-country manufacturing…
April 26, 2007
This isn't just about solidarity with one of my SciBlings, Shelley at Retrospectacle, although I am glad and proud to stand with her on this. It's about a matter of principle. I still have steam coming out of my ears. Here's the story.
A couple of days ago Shelley posted about antioxidants in…
April 25, 2007
Yesterday a new medical journal was launched, Open Medicine. It's the product of Drs. John Hoey and Anne Marie Todkill, former editors of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, who were fired last year in a conflict over editorial independence. Their publisher, the Canadian Medical Association,…
April 25, 2007
The stuff you read in the newspapers. Jeez. First a story about Des Moines, Iowa officials looking for someplace to quarantine people in the event of a bird flu outbreak. Yes, that's right. Quarantine. Lots of times when you read that they really mean, isolation, the segregation of sick people.…
April 24, 2007
Excitement, then irritation. That was my reaction to a news article in Nature about a technique using a protein to switch off nerve firing when activated by light:
There were audible gasps and spontaneous applause at a neuroscience meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, in February, when Ed Boyden…
April 24, 2007
The Bernard Matthews company, Europe's largest turkey (producer), had a nasty brush with bird flu and had to kill 160,000 birds, amidst many questions about its biosecurity measures (or not). But the company didn't suffer. It will get £600,000 compensation, courtesy UK taxpayers. The 250 workers…
April 23, 2007
Lab accidents happen. Usually they happen because the technician, student or senior scientist thinks he or she is working with something safe. But they happen even if everyone knows there is dangerous stuff around. Like in a bioweapons laboratory. And when that happens, you don't want to publicize…