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October 3, 2006
Here's a solicitation for reader input.
A medical conference in the UK last week was told that the Government's faith in antivirals as the key to combatting a pandemic is misplaced. There was the usual handwringing about the havoc that a pandemic would bring and dueling views as to whether British…
October 2, 2006
A couple of days ago Bloomberg's John Lauerman had an interesting story about guests leaving viruses behind in their hotel rooms.
During an overnight hotel stay, people with colds left viruses on telephones, light switches, television remotes, and even ice buckets, researchers said today at an…
October 2, 2006
Does the Bush administration always have to blame someone else? Does a bear shit in the woods? The Washington Post asks the second question and answers it with the first (hat tip Lindsay at Majikthise).
Here's the alleged problem. Some major rivers in the DC area, like the Anacostia and Potomac,…
October 1, 2006
Now there appears to be another frontline flu antiviral on the horizon, a neuraminidase inhibitor like Tamiflu and Relenza. It's generic name is peramivir, being developed by Alabama-based BioCryst Pharmaceuticals. Tamiflu can be taken orally. Relenza must be inhaled. So far, peramivir has to be…
October 1, 2006
I wasn't going to read Sam Harris's new book, Letter to a Christian Nation because I thought I wouldn't learn anything and it wouldn't change my mind. I've got a huge stack of books to read. This wouldn't be at the top. But I picked it up idly at the bookstore this afternoon and was hooked from the…
September 30, 2006
There are reasonable and plausible suggestions that there may be other reservoirs for H5N1 than poultry. We have discussed it here numerous times, but we don't know although I certainly wouldn't rule it out. But the poultry reservoir is gigantic and probably the source of most human contact with…
September 30, 2006
The Rockefeller Foundation's conference center in Bellagio, Italy on Lake Como is a lovely place (digression: so I'm told by people I know who have spent time there. I haven't -- yet. This is a big hint to the Foundation that I am available to take a week there and tell you what I think. Or you can…
September 29, 2006
We've now had a chance to take a look at a new paper in Nature (advance online publication 27 September 2006 | doi:10.1038/nature05181) on increased host immune and cell death responses in mice infected with the reconstructed 1918 virus compared to other viruses with only some of the 1918 gene…
September 29, 2006
With over 150 blog posts from around the world now registered (Declan's Connotea tally here) and the full length documentary, Injection online for free (trailer here, complete streaming video here, time to catch our breath.
Declan tells us the US Center for Nursing Advocacy received over 150…
September 28, 2006
I'm with Lindsay of Majikthise (and many others) on this one in telling Senator Reid that Republican legislation that would allow torture and allow George Bush to define the Geneva Convention to suit himself is beyond the pale. Even worse, the same legislation essentially abrogates habeas corpus,…
September 28, 2006
If you demolish two gigantic buildings full of hazardous materials like asbestos and acrid concrete products it isn't a surprise you would produce a hazardous environment. So it was no surprise the air around the World Trade Center was dangerous to breathe after 9/11, although we were told…
September 27, 2006
When we first began to cover the bird flu problem -- back in 2004 -- it wasn't being discussed much anywhere, including the blogs. We started talking about it for two main reasons. First, it seemed to us, as it seemed to many informed public health scientists, that this was a possible freight train…
September 26, 2006
The City of Boston is now soliciting volunteers for a new Boston Medical Reserve Corps Program, designed to help the city prepare for disasters:
"I want everyone in Boston to consider joining the Boston Medical Reserve Corps; people in our medical, health and business communities, our residents,…
September 26, 2006
Many readers here know that WHO has a pandemic phasing arrangement, and there has been much confusion and consternation about why they have or have not "called" phase 4. In a characteristically informative article, Helen Branswell of Canadian Press gives some of the details, including the names of…
September 25, 2006
The campaign in the blogosphere to gain justice for the Tripoli 6 (see here, here and here) has gained another powerful resource for those wishing to know more and particularly, to see its human face. In 2003 film maker Mickey Grant of Dallas made a stunning documentary, Infection whose trailer we…
September 25, 2006
Back-to-school season, time to learn good habits. It's also high season for the condom industry:
"If you look at condom sales, there are different peaks," said Jim Daniels, the vice president for marketing at Trojan, which dominates the United States condom market. He cited New Year's Eve,…
September 25, 2006
DemFromCT has a great post on The Next Hurrah (TNH) (cross-posted on the frontpage of DailyKos) about the new intelligence assessment that reports the obvious (instead of the false):
An intelligence assessment that the war in Iraq increased Islamic radicalism, worsening the terror threat, set off…
September 24, 2006
An amazing thing is happening. There are now more than 60 70 80 posts about the travesty of the five nurses and a doctor imprisoned in Libya and under threat of death by firing squad (see our posts here and here and Declan Butler's running Connotea list). Thanks to the many of you that have…
September 24, 2006
Muslims have shown their displeasure with what Pope Ratzinger (professional name, Benedict XVI) said about Islam, but not many people have noticed what he said about atheists. I guess there are more Muslims than atheists. Too bad. The world would be a lot better off with more atheists and fewer…
September 23, 2006
The Bush US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has done just what we have come to expect them to do: wimped out on keeping Americans truly safe. Oh, you expected them to protect your health? Yes, they will. In partnership with the Easter Bunny. The Tooth Fairy had enough and decamped to the…
September 22, 2006
The science blogosphere is responding magnificently to the dire circumstances of six medical colleagues, on trial for their lives in a courtroom in Tripoli, Libya. Declan Butler, Nature's senior correspondent who wrote the story in the world's premier science journal this week, is collecting the…
September 22, 2006
Trying to pick the most dysfunctional federal agency in the Bush administration is like trying to pick Bush's most vile idea. Where do you start? Since I've had some inside experience with it, I'll volunteer the Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA).
I need to cut them a little slack, of course.…
September 21, 2006
Nature is one of the premier scientific journals in the world. But they are also getting out in front on some important issues in their news and Editorials. They are fast becoming THE premier scientific journal in the world. Its chief rival, Science hasn't changed with the times. Nature has…
September 20, 2006
Nature's senior correspondent Declan Butler is one of the print science journalists who understands the internet and its power. He is now part of an effort to see if it can save six lives.
Lawyers defending six medical workers who risk execution by firing squad in Libya have called for the…
September 20, 2006
Nick Zamiska had an interesting piece in yesterday's Wall Street Journal about the difficulty WHO is having encouraging a sense of urgency about a possible pandemic of avian influenza and the many other programs and problems with which they are daily engaged in a (literally) life and death struggle…
September 20, 2006
Christie Todd Whitman, former EPA Administrator under Bush, scores points with some reality-based humans because she clearly is a GOP moderate. Which means, of course, she's solidly right wing. Still, that doesn't mean she shouldn't be trusted or respected. No, this means she shouldn't be trusted…
September 19, 2006
[Warning: this post is fairly long and has a reasonable geek factor. It explores the question whether the virulence of H5N1 "must" moderate as the virus evolves.]
The high case fatality ratio of H5N1 (currently around 60%) is a reflection of how virulent this virus appears to be at the moment.…
September 18, 2006
Another scandalous story about the CDC courtesy Alison Young's investigative reporting in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. It's about the unequal distribution of cash bonuses and the title says it all: "Science slighted in CDC awards."
As the CDC faces morale problems and the loss of key…
September 18, 2006
Found in Fark with the tag, Ironic. Appearances to the contrary, it is not from The Onion:
BRITISH arms manufacturer BAE Systems is designing "environmentally friendly" weapons, including "reduced lead" bullets, "reduced smoke" grenades and rockets with fewer toxins, The Sunday Times said.
Other…
September 17, 2006
Huge industrial style poultry farms, where birds are locked in cages in close quarters, are the perfect environment for disease spread. What about locked up people? Two million of them. Two million.
The US locks up more of its population than any nation on earth. By a long way:
This is not…