Comments on: Late Night: Rumsfeld, Swine Flu, Fringenuts and You

By: robspierre

robspierre — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:12:54 +0000

The media hype is suspect. But, just to be fair, the 1919 flu pandemic did kill enormous numbers of people, most of them fit and young. There is no reason to believe that it could not happen again. Public health people are thus understandably skittish about unusual flu strains.

Vaccination, staying home when sick, and masks in crowds make a lot more sense than ignoring the problem and relying on TamiFlu when you get sick. I get regular flu shots. I even got the infamous Ford-era swine flu shot. Nobody got the swine flu. But that was, after all, the point.

By: oldoilfieldhand

oldoilfieldhand — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:53:34 +0000

Remind you of a small tent party around DC?

By: woodenboy

woodenboy — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:57:02 +0000

* from the archives of snow-moon

By: rjwaldmann

rjwaldmann — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:21:26 +0000

Rumsfeld was Ford’s chief of staff not his defence secretary.

The man is amazing. I have a plan. Have him defect and join al Qaeda. He’d probably lead them to total destruction in a month.

By: priteri

priteri — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:10:19 +0000

Check out this website http://www.swine-flu-tracker.com/ that tracks the spread of swine flu, it really puts things in perspective.

By: cosanostradamus

cosanostradamus — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:28:59 +0000

.
The real story on the swine flu.
.

By: stryder

stryder — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 05:57:12 +0000

Let’s not forget Rummy’s role in the carcinogen Aspartame as ceo of Searle.

By: cinnamonape

cinnamonape — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 05:10:59 +0000

Mexico? A stronghold of the Catholic church? Well sort of…but the Mexicans really keep the Church away from the government since the Revolution.

By: cbl2

cbl2 — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 05:05:39 +0000

evenin’ all, just drivin’ by.

nahant,
I linked it in a diary. Just leaving it so the early birds dont miss it.

By: cinnamonape

cinnamonape — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 05:05:24 +0000

There have been several transmissions to humans over the decades, and likely from different Primate sources. HIV-B, which is more of a West African variant, and less virulent, possibly derives from sooty mangabeys. The HIV-A2 form, much more deadly has now been found to be endemic in Central African chimps (paper of about two years ago with a huge coauthor list including Goodall) . Some populations have about 30%, others only about 5%…and it also seems to have been in those groups for some time…and may have derived from the chimps eating or being bit by an infected red colobus or other species.

It was a pretty elegant paper, given the number of chimp populations and size of groups tested, using a fecal blood method of obtaining viral DNA and then actually sequencing those rather than simply looking at antigen-antibody response. They also posited that over time some chimps have developed genetic resistant to strains of HIV that have evolved lower virulence (the more deadly strains wiping out hosts before transmission or sometimes whole sub-groups in an epidemic).