influenza
sb admin | June 30, 2010Karen Starko writes: When the "financial crisis" started and the news media started throwing around numbers in the trillions and projected fixes in the billions, I realized I just didn't get it. So I got a little yellow post-it, labeled it "understanding trillions," and started a list of examples. And when I learned that the US GDP in 2006 was 13T and the derivative market, estimated in June 2007, was valued at 500T, I quickly got a sense of the potential drain of the derivative market (in which money is spent on items without real value...my definition, please correct me if I am wrong). I…
sb admin | June 29, 2010Liz Borkowski writes: Mark Pendergrast wrote yesterday about how politics plays into the work of the EIS, and it's something that I kept noticing as I read Inside the Outbreaks. As he points out, my post last week highlighted the solution to the Reye's Syndrome puzzle - which was solved by Karen Starko, who's also one of the Book Club bloggers! - but didn't get into the larger issue: there can be a big difference between solving the puzzle and solving the problem. In yesterday's post, Mark writes:
Although Karen's and subsequent CDC studies clearly demonstrated that giving children aspirin…
mpendergrast | June 21, 2010Mark Pendergrast writes: To kick off this book club discussion of Inside the Outbreaks, I thought I would explain briefly how I came to write the book and then suggest some possible topics for discussion.
The origin of the book goes back to an email I got in 2004 from my old high school and college friend, Andy Vernon, who wrote that I should consider writing the history of the EIS. I emailed back to say that I was honored, but what was the EIS? I had never heard of it. I knew Andy worked on tuberculosis at the CDC, but I didn't know that he had been a state-based EIS officer from 1978…
mikethemadbiologist | June 10, 2010Back when I owned a car*, car insurance payments were always depressing. In the best case scenario, I'm paying money for no purpose; in the worst case, I've been in a collision. Public health is a lot like car insurance, in that it's really important when something bad happens, but when something bad doesn't happen--either because it didn't happen due to dumb luck, or because other public health measures prevented the problem--public health appears to be wasteful spending. Once the waste charge get bandied about, some people won't be content with that--they have to start indulging in…
grrlscientist | June 1, 2010tags: HIV and 'Flu -- The Vaccine Strategy, microbiology, epidemiology, virology, vaccines, medicine, public health, viruses, influenza, HIV, Seth Berkley, TEDTalks, TED Talks, streaming video
Seth Berkley explains how smart advances in vaccine design, production and distribution are bringing us closer than ever to eliminating a host of global threats -- from AIDS to malaria to flu pandemics.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers…
sa smith | May 12, 2010Earlier this week, Peter Palese visited our Uni (he made it through Oklahomas version of hazing: a night of tornadoes, LOL!).
I gotta say, man, that guy might be one of the biggest names in influenza/virology research. He might have a few hundred publications. He might be a member of the National Academy. But that guy? Peter Palese? Hes got the heart of a BLAGGER!
He gossiped with us students at lunch about kook scientists and anti-vaxers and snake-oil salesmen, it was so much fun! Heres my favorite story :)
Back in the day, when Dr. Palese was cutting his teeth as a scientist, Linus…
mikethemadbiologist | March 10, 2010I've argued many times on this blog that an influenza vaccination policy, as opposed to the non-policy we currently have, would focus on vaccinating the people who are likely to spread the disease. Or as Yogi Berra might have put it, you can't get the flu from someone who doesn't have it.
So who are these germ dispersal units? Children, which why I've remarked that grandparents are being killed by their grandchildren. Theoretical work has suggested that vaccinating 80% of children could massively reduce influenza in the rest of the population. We've also seen the effect of child…
sa smith | February 13, 2010Hey, you all remember a while back, there was that cheerleader that got the seasonal flu vaccine, and then all hell broke loose?
Turns out, wasnt dystonia, it was psychogenic. And apparently, shes fine now:
Minor problem: Steve Novella, while he is a great advocate for rational, science-based medicine, totally missed the mark with that interview with Inside Edition. It really highlights, for me, the differences in depth of knowledge between MDs and PhDs.
Because he doesnt really understood the virology/immunology behind the seasonal flu vaccine, he says this:
Inside Edition Guy: You might…
mikethemadbiologist | February 11, 2010While I'm not that big a fan of the project trying to find commonalities between economics and biology, largely because I think explanations of specific phenomena often reduce to those stupid fucking natural history facts, I was struck by this argument by economist Samuel Bowles about the assumption of optimality in the supposed tradeoff between income equality and economic output (italics mine):
Theoryland may be the only place the "equality-efficiency trade-off" really works. Just to prove it wrong, Bowles charts the concept on a whiteboard at SFI.
The vertical axis is economic output. The…
mikethemadbiologist | February 8, 2010(from here)
By way of Maryn McKenna, we find that the Obama Administration has decided to massively cut the funding for the CDC's antimicrobial resistance and vaccination efforts. I thought this was the kind of anti-science bullshit that the Bush Administration did. From the IDSA (pdf):
Under CDC's proposed budget, the agency's already severely strapped Antimicrobial Resistance budget would be cut dramatically by $8.6 million--roughly 50 percent. This vital program is necessary to help combat the rising crisis of drug resistance, a critical medical problem that the agency deems "one of the…
mikethemadbiologist | February 2, 2010Merry Tuesday. Links fahr ya. Science:
The Case for 'Gray Power'How many Americans received the H1N1 vaccine?The Intellectual Property Fight That Could Kill MillionsThe Duration of PostDoc TrainingDual Function Of Post-Doctoral Training
Other:
Mr. Obama's Junk Economics: Democrats Relinquish the Populist Option to the RepublicansWorld hunger and the locavoresThe futurist weighs in: The things we leave behindLies of rightwing populism: Those evil liberal elitesAfter Three Months, Only 35 Subscriptions for Newsday's Web SiteWhat A Coincidence!
mikethemadbiologist | November 24, 2009From the NY Times, the blame game begins:
At a hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, representatives of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security argued that they were right not to put immune-boosting adjuvants in the vaccine even though that could have quadrupled the number of doses available now, and that they were also right to leave decisions about allocating vaccine up to local health departments instead of trying to micromanage them from Atlanta or…
mikethemadbiologist | November 7, 2009One of the problem with influenza vaccine production (as well as some other vaccines) is that the vaccine is made by injecting into chicken eggs--infecting chicken embryos--and then harvesting and killing the virus for use in the vaccine. This is a very time-consuming process that takes months. A holy grail of influenza vaccine production has been a cell-culture based production method, since this would allow much faster production of virus (and thus vaccine).
It sounds like this will soon become reality:
Novartis said it won approval in Germany for a swine flu vaccine that's made in cell…
mikethemadbiologist | November 6, 2009A couple of days ago I was talking with a long-time reader who couldn't understand why those Democrats who favor healthcare reform weren't beating the drug companies over the head with the failure to produce enough swine flu vaccine. After all, if you're a drug manufacturer, you should be able to produce drugs. Said reader made an argument (albeit more colorfully) similar to Steve Benen's (italics mine):
Taken together, it seems the president immediately recognized the seriousness of a public health issue, mobilized officials, launched a public information campaign, and ordered the creation…
mikethemadbiologist | October 28, 2009Before I get to the horrendous Atlantic article about vaccination, it's worth reviewing the Mad Biologist's Pentultimate Postulate of Vaccination (What? You don't know it?):
Effective vaccination is not about protecting you, it's about protecting other people from you.
To put it another way, the best way for you not to get influenza is to not come into contact with people who have it--and standing next to a vaccinated person dramatically decreases those odds.
So onto the PCV7 vaccine.
The PCV7 vaccine confers immunity to the seven most common types of Streptococcus pneumoniae, a bacterium…
mikethemadbiologist | October 25, 2009For anything? Excluding very rare norovirus outbreaks, I can't remember ever reading about school absentee rates like these from Grafton, MA:
Grafton High School closed early today after more than a third of its students and more than a quarter of its staff stayed home sick. It is the only school in the state to close, according to public health and education departments, but absenteeism has been elevated some communities across the state. At the beginning of the school year, state officials urged schools to close only as a last resort during flu season and instead focus on keeping sick…
tsmith | October 22, 2009I've written previously about "chicken pox parties". These types of events are coming back into vogue (they were common in the days before the vaccine, when the only way to provide immunity was to be infected), as parents mistakenly believe that "natural exposures" to these pathogens are somehow superior--and safer--than vaccinations. Though the latest rage are "H1N1 parties", chicken pox parties are still around, and potentially being held at your local McDonald's by families connecting on the internet:
I am trying to put together a chicken pox party and am looking for someone to donate…
tsmith | October 21, 2009I realize that, despite the scientific evidence to the contrary, there is still a lot of fear and misunderstanding about vaccine safety. Two recent articles discuss this "epidemic of fear" and why it affects us all, the first here at Wired magazine, and the second here at the Gotham Skeptic. I especially like the second, which has some excellent points:
My pediatric practice is situated at the nexus of three Manhattan neighborhoods (the West Village, Chelsea, and the Meat Packing District) that seem to comprise just the right balance of wealth, edginess, and socio-cultural awareness that…
mikethemadbiologist | October 19, 2009Bill Maher notwithstanding, a recent Pew survey shows that Democrats are far more willing to get a swine flu vaccination than either independents or Republicans:
For every four Democrats willing to get the vaccine, only three Republicans and independents are willing to do so. While I'm tempted to say something snarky, if this political divide holds up, this actually has serious repercussions for the spread of TEH SWINEY FLOO!!.
At both the state and local levels, there are often sharp skews in party affiliation. I've spot checked some county registration data for localities and it's worse…
gregladen | October 8, 2009There are several answers to this question. One was overheard the other day among a bunch of well educated people oriented towards science who were taking a break from their job.
Person 1: "So, how effective is the seasonal flu shot?"
Person 2: "I heard about 1%. If you get the flu shot, you'll have a 1% difference in if you get the flu."
Person 3: "That's crazy. I don't know where you are getting your data from. It can't be 1%, but I admit I don't know what the actual answer is, but it can't be that."
Persons 4 through 6: "Well, if YOU don't know, and HE says 1%, I'm going with the 1%.…