public health
tsmith | October 5, 2005The scientific community is all too familiar with the dangers an influenza pandemic could bring. The politicians and general public are starting to become aware of the issue as well; indeed, one can hardly open a newspaper or turn on the television without hearing about "bird flu." So, what's actually being done to prevent an influenza catastrophe? What are the issues? What can be done?
These are the questions that keep public health officials awake at night, because the answer is always that we're not doing enough. While we may be resigned to the fact that a future pandemic can't be…
tsmith | October 4, 2005Anyone working in the area of influenza virus epidemiology is familiar with the name Robert Webster. A virologist at St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis, the native New Zealander has been leading the charge against influenza for well over 40 years. Barely out of graduate school, Webster hypothesized that something like genetic reassortment (which had not yet been discovered) occurred to cause the big changes that appeared among human influenza viruses, driving pandemics. He performed a simple experiment that cemented the course of his career: he found that serum from patients who had…
tsmith | October 3, 2005It's hard to avoid hearing about influenza virus these days. In all the noise, it's tough to sort out the facts from the rumors and conspiracy theories. I've already discussed a bit about the basic biology of the virus in this post, so I'm not going to review that here (though a good overview can be found here for those of you who need to bone up on your influenza virus biology). So, this week, as a part of Pandemic influenza awareness week, I'll be writing a 5-part series about various issues regarding influenza. Today, I'll discuss the history of influenza, focusing on past pandemics. The…
tsmith | September 27, 2005As if it wasn't bad enough already...
Mold now forms an interior version of kudzu in the soggy South, posing health dangers that will make many homes tear-downs and will force schools and hospitals to do expensive repairs.
It's a problem that any homeowner who has ever had a flooded basement or a leaky roof has faced. But the magnitude of this problem leaves many storm victims prey to unscrupulous or incompetent remediators. Home test kits for mold, for example, are worthless, experts say.
Don't expect help from insurance companies, either. Most policies were revised in the last decade to…
tsmith | September 26, 2005Canine flu strikes in Westchester county, NY.
A NEW strain of influenza that began infecting dogs in Florida early last year has recently struck hard in the Westchester area, forcing the temporary closure of two kennels after more than 100 dogs being boarded there became ill, veterinary officials say.
Gracelane Kennels in Ossining underwent decontamination after a viral illness infected dogs. Eddie Loga hoses down a run at the kennel. Although prepared for the less-virulent kennel cough, boarding sites have been blindsided by the new virus.
At least one of the dogs has since died. The two…
tsmith | September 16, 2005The Washington Post today reminds us that there has been little progress in uncovering the source of the 2001 anthrax attacks. [1]
First, a disclaimer. I'm not an "evolutionary biologist," per se. I have what is I swear the longest job title ever--molecular infectious disease epidemiologist. As such, I often get asked, "what's the relevance of evolution to your work?" Or, I'll read editorials such as Dr. Skell's recently in The Scientist [2] questioning the use of evolutionary theory in experimental biology, and be disheartened. Yet the method of investigating the anthrax attacks shows…
tlambert | June 22, 1998bob (really Edgar Suter?) writes:
From an early DRAFT of Gary Kleck's TARGETING GUNS : FIREARMS AND
THEIR CONTROL scheduled to be published this month:
The Medical/Public Health Literature on Guns and Violence
False Citation of Prior Research
One final problem in the medical/public health literature on
guns-violence links is so widespread, serious, and misleading that
it deserves extended attention: the false citation of previous
research as supporting anti-gun/pro-control conclusions, buttressing
the author's current findings, when the studies actually did no such
thing. There is probably no…
tlambert | November 25, 1997Dan Day wrote:
I've reread that a number of times and still can't figure out
exactly what Kellermann is trying to say. The best I can make out
is that Kellermann is claiming that self-defense homicides are not
legally justifiable (?)
You missed the bit where he defined the meaning of those terms:
"Self-protection homicides were considered "justifiable" if they
involved the killing of a felon during the commision of a crime; they
were considered "self-defense" if that was the determination of the
investigating police department anf the King County prosecutor's
office.[11]" Reference 11 is…
tlambert | November 22, 1997It is disingenous for Kleck to take a quotation of Kellerman's out of
context to make it appear that Kellermann was asserting that only 2%
of of homicides were lawful defensive homicides.
Dan Day wrote:
Well, your own summary isn't entirely accurate either. Here's the
passage in question:
Less than 2 percent of homicides nationally are considered legally
justifiable. [11,13] Although justifiable homicides do not
include homicides committed in self-defense, the combined total
in our study was still less than one fourth the number of criminal
homicides involving a gun kept in the home.
I've…
tlambert | November 20, 1997Edgar Suter wrote:
From an early DRAFT of Gary Kleck's TARGETING GUNS : FIREARMS AND THEIR CONTROL
scheduled to be published this month:
The Medical/Public Health Literature on Guns and Violence
False Citation of Prior Research
In a 1992 article [Kellermann AL, Rivara FP, Somes G, et al. Suicide
in the home in relationship to Gun Ownership. N Engl J Med. 1992;
327: 467-72.], he and his coauthors claimed that "limiting access to
firearms could prevent many suicides" (p. 467), citing in support a
study (Rich et al. 1990) that had drawn precisely the opposite
conclusion. - Rich and his…
tlambert | November 14, 1997EdgarSuter wrote:
whether or not Mr. Lambert disagrees with a single quote of my
assessment of the harmful nostrum of gun control, he has yet to
explain the habitual fabricated citations of Kellermann (noted in
my letter to Emerg Med News)
All right, let's have a look at the first one:
citation of sources for support when the sources were actually
non-supportive; [1(at citations 2 and 15-17),
[1] Kellermann AL, Rivara FP, Rushforth NB et al. "Gun ownership as a
risk factor for homicide in the home." N Engl J Med. 1993;
329(15): 1084-91.
Now let's look at what Kellermann said:
"Homicide…