revere | June 19, 2007So much of what goes under the name of pandemic planning at the governmental level iks extremely narrowly construed. Should a pre-pandemic (not precisely matched) vaccine that might offer some cross protection be used? What should be the mix with antivirals (and which one)? Should antivirals be stockpiled, and if so where and for what purpose? Just treatment or should prophylaxis be part of the plan? And who should get the antivirals? When should schools be closed and what should trigger a closing? Air travel? Quarantine? Isolation? Etc., etc. Restricted as they are as pandemic planning goes…
revere | June 18, 2007If you've ever been to Duluth, Minnesota in the wintertime, at the top of the state on Lake Superior, you know how cold it can get. And if you go another 50 miles up the shore you'll come to Silver Bay. Also cold. And dangerous in another way. It is a cancer hot spot for perhaps the deadliest cancer we know, mesothelioma.
Silver Bay is in the iron range and was the site of one of the most famous of the early environmental cases, when the Environmental Protection Agency was new and so was the idea of protecting people from an unhealthy environment. The case involved the Reserve Mining Company…
revere | June 18, 2007This past weekend was a historic one in international health. The signal event, the coming into force of new International Health Regulations (the first since 1969), was marked by only a few outside WHO. The remarkable thing about them is the new IHR bring the system of international health into line with a new reality of emerging infectious diseases. Unfortunately, it was the new reality of fifty years ago. Events have outrun the new regulations to make them already obsolete.
Many reading this will be surprised that until a few days ago WHO was essentially without ability to release any…
revere | June 17, 2007Opposition to Turkey entering the EU is building and the Turks themselves are apparently ambivalent, but they once were one of the most successful immigrant groups Europe had ever seen. At least that's the conclusion of Professor Alberto Piazza, from the University of Turin, Italy, who is set to announce that there is overwhelming evidence the Etruscans, whose origin has been subject of vigorous dispute, were from Anatolia (southern Turkey).
Etruscan culture was very advanced and quite different from other known Italian cultures that flourished at the same time, and highly influential in the…
revere | June 17, 2007What's the US's largest Protestant denomination? The Southern Baptist Convention. If you want to make a bigoted remark about Islam or atheism, where do you go to do it? The Southern Baptist Convention.
Comments about Islam have generated controversy at past Southern Baptist meetings. In 2002, a former Southern Baptist Convention president, the Rev. Jerry Vines, called Muhammad, the Muslim prophet, a "demon-possessed pedophile." (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Along comes Watergate criminal, Chuck Colson. Colson went to the clink after pleading no contest to obstruction of justice. In prison he…
revere | June 16, 2007When Don Herbert died last weekend, many offered tributes to this television pioneer of science education (our contribution here). Herbert was TV's Mr. Wizard and many of us scientists-to-be loved to watch him. Maybe we should have been out playing stickball or strikeout or whatever (I became pretty proficient at strikeout later when I started dating). But instead we were inside watching grainy black and white science on TVs with tiny screens and rabbit ears (rabbit ears were part of an early form of wireless).
There were many heartfelt blog pieces from the many who remembered Mr. Wizard with…
revere | June 15, 2007We discussed Tasers quite a bit on the old site (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here) but not since we moved to ScienceBlogs. Tasers are the only widely used "non-lethal weapons," delivering a jolt of 50,000 volts thrugh two small darts connected to the handheld gun by thin wires and shot into the target. The device is made by Taser, International and has been the subject of repeated reports of lethal outcomes (see concerns of Amnesty International), reports the company repeatedly and aggressively denies. The combination of being tasered and being on…
revere | June 15, 2007Spring harvest is over so it is almost Tomato Safety Initiative time. Seems like just yesterday it was Leafy Greens Safety Initiative. I was younger then. My salad days. But now it's Tomato Initiative:
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will begin a Tomato Safety Initiative in the Summer of 2007. The Initiative is a collaborative effort between FDA and the state health and agriculture departments in Virginia and Florida, in cooperation with several universities and members of the produce industry.
FDA developed the Tomato Safety Initiative in response to recurring Salmonella outbreaks…
revere | June 14, 2007A newspaper in Taiwan newspaper is telling its readers the Chinese government reports 13% of its chili powder based products failed Chinese safety tests:
The products came from 38 companies in 12 provinces and municipalities, including Beijing and Shanghai, the report said without detailing if any of the chilli was exported.
"The products produced by small firms have lots of safety problems, while those from large- and middle-sized ones have all passed the safety tests," it quoted the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine as saying.
Many of the tested…
revere | June 14, 2007One of the big issues over sharing of viral isolates from Indonesia was the contention, probably well justified, that the poor nations would be last in lie for any vaccine that might be available in the event of a pandemic. While a well matched vaccine has to await the emergence of a pandemic strain, there are good reasons to think vaccines made from pre-pandemic strains would provide some cross-protection, and such vaccines are already in production, although in small quantities.
The choke point is the clearly inadequate global production capacity for influenza vaccine. Even if there were a…
revere | June 13, 2007Don Herbert died yesterday, just short of his 90th year. Don Herbert was host of television's Watch Mr. Wizard, a Saturday morning live TV show that had a run of 547 episodes from 1951 to 1965. He was an important figure in the youth of many of today's scientists.
The weekly 30-minute show featured Herbert as Mr. Wizard with a young assistant who watched while Herbert performed interesting science experiments. The experiments, many of which seemed impossible at first glance, were usually simple enough to be re-created by viewers. The show was very successful. (Wikipedia entry on Don Herbert…
revere | June 13, 2007Bird flu news tends to be episodic. For long stretches there seems to be little news (unless you deliberately go looking for it; then you find it). Then there are these little spurts as bird flu pops up here and there in the news. Human cases in places where they haven't been for a while tend to be more noticeable. Or suspicion there are cases where they haven't been before. So we have Malaysia quarantines five with suspected bird flu (possible new country for human cases; but suspect cases of febrile illness around poultry outbreaks often turn out "negative," either because they are one of…
revere | June 12, 2007This was the kind of fallout from the TB case I was most concerned about:
States should have the power to restrict the movement of patients with contagious diseases even before they have the chance to disobey doctors' orders, federal health officials say.
The need for such authority to order someone quarantined emerged as lesson No. 1 from the case of the Atlanta lawyer who went to Europe despite having a dangerous form of tuberculosis.
[snip]
"First of all, up front, before the patient left the United States, we believe that we could strengthen our states' ability to restrict the movement of…
revere | June 12, 2007An extremely interesting article is slated to appear in the American Journal of Epidemiology later this month. I haven't seen it yet but Nature News carried a short piece about it. It comes from a team of experts in seasonal flu patterns at NIH's Fogarty International Center (FIC).
The notion that flu epidemics start in areas of high population density and spread outwards may not hold true for the tropics, hints a study from Brazil.
In that country, new research reveals, flu starts in the less densely populated north and moves towards cities in the south. The result indicates that climate,…
revere | June 11, 2007We all know it is possible for people to hold two contradictory ideas in their head at the same time. Evolution and creationism are a case in point. Apparently in a recent USAToday/Gallup Poll, a majority of my fellow citizens responded they believe both are likely explanations for life on earth.
Two-thirds in the poll said creationism, the idea that God created humans in their present form within the past 10,000 years, is definitely or probably true. More than half, 53%, said evolution, the idea that humans evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years, is definitely or…
revere | June 11, 2007Two Associated Press articles over the weekend suggest to me the US poultry industry is getting ready for avian flu, in earnest. One story reports how news of bird flu in US poultry would affect consumer habits. One reports on the practical problem of having to kill hundreds of thousands of birds quickly and efficiently -- kill the, that is, for purposes other than sating our appetites. Here's the essence of the first story, about consumer attitudes. The results are about what consumers would do in a hypothetical instance and are always subject to how events actually unfold. They also have…
revere | June 10, 2007Maybe you didn't hear about the poison gas attacks on American communities this year. No? Well in January two towns in Kentucky were attacked, a day apart. OK, there weren't exactly not exactly attacked. That part isn't true. But assume for a moment that each of the following two incidents was the result of terrorists:
Irvine, Kentucky, January 15, 2007: Four railway training cars were sent careening twenty miles down a track before colliding with unoccupied engines in a town of 3000 people. On impact, a flammable solvent, butyl acetate, ignited and then exploded. People living in twenty…
revere | June 10, 2007Rudy Giuliani, the erstwhile US Presidential hopeful, had his moment on Tuesday's CNN debate. I'm sure you've seen it. Over and over again. I won't bother doing it here. If you haven't seen it, here is a YouTube version. Rudy is explaining his "Catholic position" on abortion (you know which one, the one that starts, "On September 11, 2001 . . . ") when his response was obliterated by lightning-induced static. The Big Guy was sending a message. And the Catholic blogs noticed. Here's a typical response:
This is just too good. As Giuliani was trying to explain his 'Catholic' position on issues…
revere | June 9, 2007My defense of the TB guy has drawn a lot of traffic and some of the comments imply my view is colored by a case of misplaced compassion. Since I'm a physician I won't shy away from being called compassionate. Whether true or not in my case, it is a desirable trait for a doctor and nothing to be ashamed of. However I don't think my opinions about this case are due to sentiment. I would defend them on the grounds they are sound judgments of a public health professional. Since I am unlikely to convince the doubters by repeating my arguments (you can find them at these links), I will do something…
revere | June 8, 2007CDC is bowing to reality and grudgingly giving their blessing to civilian use of over-the-counter respirators ("masks" in common parlance) should there be an influenza pandemic. I've repeatedly called attention to the lack of evidence that wearing a respirator would be effective to protect people from influenza virus. Many readers here (mistakenly) believe I am against masks. I am not. Nor am I for them. If this is a pandemic Pascal's wager -- it can't hurt and maybe it will help -- that's fine. As long as the premise -- that it can't hurt -- is true. That's my main reason for wanting some…