There is a new normal after the pandemic

I doubt that I'm the only one who is questioning the "new normal" for work, church and education, let alone reliance on virtual medicine. I'm stunned by the happy talk. No one expected a pandemic to disrupt our lives; so why do smart people expect there will be no more world wide disruptions or disasters of a kind we're not prepared for?

Like a volcanic explosion to create another "year without summer" like in the 19th century or a little ice age to last 500 years instead of global warming?

Like China totally in control of the cyber-grid and closing down the financial system, the churches, and their puppets in the White House?

Or a bio-disaster escaping from our own government supported labs?

Or a natural plague of rodents like the mice in Australia?

Or increasing shutdown/lockdown of Christians and our courts upholding that oppression?

Or unusual tropical diseases brought in across our border by illegals from many countries entering through Mexico then scattered around the country by plane and bus to be dropped in unsuspecting communities?

We had a taste earlier of a gasoline supply hack, and a hack of one of the major food suppliers (increasingly controlled by only 4 companies). Those hacks should have shown us how vulnerable we are, how fragile the safety net is. We've already seen Big Tech become more powerful than an elected President while half the country and one party looked the other way. Why do we assume this behemoth can't shut down the entire government, the military and the science complex we're depending on to solve our moral and spiritual problems?

The 737 Max is grounded

The U.S. has joined many other countries in grounding the 737 Max jet after two crashes killing a total of 346 people in 5 months. I often wonder why some lives are worth more than others. Half a million people, mostly brown and black, are killed each year by malaria, by mosquitoes, which could be controlled with DDT until a vaccine is found or appropriate sanitation developed to fight insect resistance. But no. Rachel Carson who was not a scientist writes a book 56 years ago, Americans get excited about "saving the environment" and in turn cause more Africans to die than all the Atlantic slave trade. Millions more are crippled for life. And counting the other vector borne diseases including Chikungunya, Zika, Dengue, West Nile Virus, and Yellow Fever, the annual death toll is 700,000.

Even this puff piece by pbs shows the dire predictions made at the time by scientists have come true. Claiming that resistance is the problem, is in part a problem. What if they hadn't killed off millions in the 80s and 90s? Environmentalists/climate cults will block any new pesticides that are effective using the same excuses, in my opinion.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/Rachel-carson-malaria-and-silent-spring/

Microbiome or why asthma and ADD today and not years ago?

“Commensal microbes that live on and in us are critical for our health. By cell numbers, we are approximately 90 percent microbial, and the vast majority of the genes expressed in our superorganism are not on our mammalian chromosomes but in the bacteria, archaea, and single-celled eukaryotes that call the human body home. Normally, a robust microbiome would be part of our inheritance, a legacy passed, largely maternally, from generation to generation. But recently that chain has been broken, usually more than once. The increase in cesarean deliveries, the reduced prevalence and duration of breastfeeding, overuse of antibiotics both as prescription drugs and in agriculture, modern urban living surrounded by sanitizers, and a general tendency to limit contact with the environment have changed our relationship with the microbes that are an integral part of our biology. In today’s world, our best chance of acquiring microbes might be from touching our computer keyboards and cellphones or frequenting shopping malls, hotel rooms, or doctors’ offices—and many are not bugs you want in and on your body.” . . .

“Antibiotic administration in infants is associated with higher risk of asthma later in childhood, a risk that scales with the number of rounds administered.¹¹ Increased use of antibiotics in infants is also associated with a higher risk of childhood obesity,¹² and some investigations have reported an association between antibiotic use and an elevated risk of celiac disease. It is likely only a matter of time before more links between disease and an infant’s compromised microbiome are revealed.”

The sum of our parts, The Scientist, July 1, 2015

Anti-inflammatory diets

They are all similar, and they all sell books.  This article from 2008 in WebMD lists the components. These articles all have enriched links (for making money to support the website).

Specifics vary from diet to diet, but in general anti-inflammatory diets suggest:

• Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables.
• Minimize saturated and trans fats.
• Eat a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, such as fish or fish oil supplements and walnuts.
• Watch your intake of refined carbohydrates such as pasta and white rice.
• Eat plenty of whole grains such as brown rice and bulgur wheat.
• Eat lean protein sources such as chicken; cut back on red meat and full-fat dairy foods.
• Avoid refined foods and processed foods.
• Spice it up. Ginger, curry, and other spices can have an anti-inflammatory effect.

From Molly’s Fund in 2013: Here are the basics of the anti-inflammatory diet (all versions vary, but this is the general proposal for all:

• Eat lots of fruits and vegetables.
• Minimize saturated and trans fats.
• Eat a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, such as fish or fish oil supplements and walnuts.
• Limit your intake of refined carbohydrates such as pasta and white rice.
• Eat lots of whole grains such as brown rice and bulgur wheat.
• Choose lean protein sources such as chicken; cutting back on red meat and full-fat dairy foods.
• Avoid refined foods and processed foods.
• Use spices like ginger, curry, and other spices that have been shown to have an anti-inflammatory effect.

Reading through the paleo diet, I think one could starve in place. You’d at least have a problem at restaurants and parties.

Carrot Cake Smoothie
Serves 1

1 cup chopped carrots
1 frozen banana
6oz cup Chobani Pineapple Greek Yogurt
1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk (or milk of your choice )
1/4 cup rolled oats
1 Tbsp chia seeds
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground ginger

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Add almond milk as needed to acquire your desired thickness.
Note: For a vegan option, omit the Greek yogurt (and almond milk) and sub with 1 cup of coconut milk instead.

I haven’t tried this—just using it as an example of something on a Lupus page.  I like making smoothies in my blender—have never tried adding oats.

The China Study has been around a long time—about arthritis and plant food.

The non-measles outbreak is taking lives—EV-D68

“CDC and medical experts state that measles is very dangerous: for every 1,000 cases of measles there will be approximately 2 deaths. But the death risk among serious cases of EV-D68 may be several fold greater: at least 14 associated deaths reported among 1,153 cases.” Sharyl Attkisson

Spin and fear equal hysteria

I hate the way Ebola is being politicized, both by the right and the left. There's a Democrat action group that's made a ridiculous ad about the GOP causing this with the budget when the CDC did zip nada zilch about a disease known since 1976 and had it's budget line increased. And on the opposing team paranoid Christian survivalists are claiming Obama is launching germ warfare because he hates us. They are making the loony left look almost normal. Millions are dying of AIDS, TB and malaria in Africa; we have hysterical people in the U.S. who are refusing vaccines for measles, mumps, polio, diphtheria, HPV and seasonal flu. Add to that the biggest killer in the U.S. is not bacteria or viruses, but lifestyle diseases--alcohol, drugs, tobacco, overeating, sexual promiscuity and couch surfing--things we actually DO control. Plus there are those among us who believe we are mini-gods and can control the climate and viruses and bacteria. Really, it's like living in the dark ages. The news media pile on like ants at a picnic spreading fear and misinformation. I’ve been awake about an hour and have heard about the 2nd hospital employee with Ebola at least 10 times.

Ebola—the virus has taken over the news

The news and talk shows are wall to wall Ebola. Conservative talkers are trying to make Obama look bad without saying so, and the Liberals are trying to ignore all the mess Obama has made in the Middle East, where we have ONE friend, Israel.

• Flu-associated deaths according to the CDC range from a low of about 3,000 to a high of about 49,000 people. They really have no way of knowing.
• CDC estimates that 27,000 unintentional prescription drug overdose deaths occur annually in the United States, 40% from opioids.
• A total of 9,582 TB cases (a rate of 3.0 cases per 100,000 persons) were reported in the United States in 2013. 65% were foreign born. There were 536 deaths from TB in 2011, the most recent year for which these data are available.
• Number of deaths from injuries annually in the USA: 187,464. 80.1 million saw a physician or visited the ER or were hospitalized from injuries. 33,783 Americans died in traffic accidents and 32,351 died from firearms, including suicides. 16,238 homicides (2010), 49% were blacks who are 12.5% of the population, and 93% were committed by blacks. There are 289,171 alcohol induced deaths, and  418,068 for drugs.

. . . So, Ebola is probably the least of our worries.

Why blame Reagan?

In 1984, the HIV virus was identified by the U.S. Public Health Service and French scientists. In 1985, a blood test to detect HIV was licensed. Yet gay advocates criticize President Reagan for not speaking out about it until 1987 even though he had instructed his Surgeon General to issue a report in February 1986. (I even saw that on the cover of Entertainment magazine recently.) Gay bars, bathhouses and rampant promiscuity continued, but somehow it's Reagan's fault men were dying from their own sexual behavior?

What other president is blamed for deaths from disease before treatment/cure was found? There were at least 9 deadly diseases known to kill citizens in Washington's 2 terms. Inoculation for small pox was being tried in the mid 18th century and Jefferson didn't advocate for it until 1806. Even Lincoln got small pox after Gettysburg. FDR didn't start the March of Dimes until almost 20 years after he'd had polio. The Fords and Carters advocated for childhood vaccines 30+ years after I'd been vaccinated in 1945 and 1953. 45 years after the Surgeon General's report on smoking, President Obama was still smoking.

In the U.S. 443,000 people die prematurely from tobacco related illnesses each year according to the CDC--more people than alcohol, AIDS, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined and WWII deaths!. Not a peep from the White House (except to raise the cigarette tax which disproportionately hurts the poor).

So why the anger at Reagan for not jumping on the HIV band wagon?

Lack of insurance doesn’t make people sick

There may be an insurance gap, gender gap or access gap for the mentally ill, but that isn't what made them ill. There may be some people who need cholesterol or high blood pressure medicine and don't get it because they bought groceries instead, but that's not what caused their high cholesterol. There may be men going to bath houses who don't know there is a drug out there for the disease they are about to plant inside the anus or mouth of another man, but it isn't ignorance or poverty that is causing their behavior.

TB is making a strong comeback

There is now a TB strain that is totally drug resistant (TDR-TB) to add to the extensively drug resistant (XDR-TB) strain, identified in 2006, and the Multidrug-resistant TV (MDR-TB), which emerged in the early 1990s.  Those in the U.S. and Europe who have any of these difficult to treat strains of the old disease that was once thought conquered, have recently been in South Africa, but it has also emerged in India (2012), Iran (2009) and Italy (2007). 

In the U.S. MDR-TB accounted for 1.3% of the 10,528 cases of TB in 2011, and there were 6 cases of XDR-TB.  One woman who returned to TN from South Africa with XDR-TB had a strain that took 2 years to treat, including 90 days in isolation.  Eventually, she was cured.  Most people in the U.S. who have TB are foreign born, or were born into communities where the foreign born live.  Others at risk are homeless (aka undomiciled in NYC), substance abusers, and people with HIV.

Emerging Infectious Diseases, March 2013

JAMA, March 20, 2013

HIV and HBV

Worldwide, hepatitis B virus (HBV) is the leading cause of chronic liver disease and death, accounting for up to half of all cases of cirrhosis and liver cancer.  Four hundred million people are infected with HBV in Asia and Africa with the infection occurring through perinatal transmission (before and after birth).  In more developed countries HBV is most often acquired during adolescence or adulthood through sex and drugs. Statistics from NEJM May 10, 1012.

Human immunodeficiency virus  (HIV) infects about 33 million people worldwide, the majority in Asia and Africa. According to the CDC, gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM)¹ represent approximately 2% of the US population, yet are the population most severely affected by HIV and are the only risk group in which new HIV infections have been increasing steadily since the early 1990s.  Since the beginning of the US epidemic, MSM have consistently represented the largest percentage of persons diagnosed with AIDS and persons with an AIDS diagnosis who have died.

“HBV is 100 times easier to transmit sexually than HIV ( the virus that causes AIDS). HBV has been found in vaginal secretions, saliva, and semen. Therefore, it doesn’t matter if a person’s sexual partner is of the same or the opposite gender. If one partner has hepatitis B, the other one can get it. Oral sex and especially anal sex regardless (whether it occurs in a heterosexual or homosexual context), are possible ways of transmitting the virus.” http://www.liverdisease.com/hbvtransmission.html

Medical advancements can help, but humans obeying God’s laws of chastity and marriage will do miracles for global health.

Coverage of LGBT related topics in medical schools

Medical schools are being pressured to include more course work in an already jammed curriculum to address LGBT barriers to good health. The list of 16 topics includes: sexual orientation; HIV; gender identity; sexually transmitted infections; safer (not safe) sex; disorders of sex development; barriers to care; mental health issues; LGBT adolescents; coming out; unhealthy relationships--intimate partner violence; substance use; chronic disease risk; sex-reassignment surgery; body image; transitioning.

Gays and Lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered folks are an extremely small percentage of the general population, but because of my profession, I may know more LGBT persons than most. With the exception of two or three who died rather young before the drug cocktails that are now available for AIDS, those I knew were/are in monogamous relationships, well educated, economically high in the quintile chart, and pleasant, hard working co-workers. Their health problems, I assumed, included things like COPD (too much smoking), obesity related problems (too many pot-lucks and too much eating out), and various familial diseases like cancer, arthritis, and depression. I can only hope they can find a good doctor who has spent enough time studying and treating non-gay related problems.

How long before this list (published in JAMA, Sept 7, 2011) is considered insulting inducing cognitive dissonance and stereotypical and homophobic attitudes among medical staff?

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender–Related Content in Undergraduate Medical Education, September 7, 2011, Obedin-Maliver et al. 306 (9): 971 — JAMA

A high tech net for volunteers

I hope everyone contributing to buy nets and t-shirts noticed the article about malaria in today's Wall St. Journal. It's about high tech epidemiology and volunteers who help with malaria vaccine modeling. The simulations could take months or years as millions die or become disabled by a disease that about 30 years ago had practically been conquered. That is until Rachel Carson told about her vision of a silent spring, and DDT as a killer of mosquitoes that spread the disease was essentially taken off the market. In its place we have bed nets and local spraying, and do-gooders buying orange t-shirts and having basketball games and bake sales to feel like they're doing something. Meanwhile, millions of children, mostly black and brown, mostly poor, mostly not using bed-nets because they aren't accessible, are dying.

So while they slice and dice the genes of the female mosquito becoming famous for writing articles in peer review journals, they can only hope for that enzyme that will cure the disease. But doesn't volunteering just feel so good? Isn't that what counts? The feeling, not the results?

Chikungunya Fever and Elephantiasis

Thanks to Rachel Carson and her misguided, unscientific book Silent Spring, these two diseases continue to cripple and kill millions in developing countries, after having been virtually wiped out in the 1960s and 1970s. They used to be controlled by DDT. Chikungunya, a virus spread by mosquitoes, means "bent over and unable to walk upright" has turned up now in the Ravenna area of Italy. It is endemic in some areas of Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. It is spread by mosquitoes.


Elephantiasis is caused by a parasitic worm, and affects more than 120 million people in 80 countries, and more than 40 million of them are severely incapacitated and disfigured by the diseases. A team of scientists seem to be close to mapping the genome of the worm. [both stories from JAMA, October 17, 2007]

"Some of the diseases controlled by DDT included typhus, plague, malaria, yellow fever, sleeping sickness elephantiasis, leishmanisasis, river blindness, Oroya fever, other fevers and dysentery (transmitted by domestic flies). Many kinds of animals were protected by DDT from envenomization and parasitism by arthropods. It also killed blood-sucking parasites of birds, thereby reducing deaths from avian malaria, encephalitis, and Newcastle disease. It also prevented the deaths of hundreds of millions of forest trees, by killing the caterpillars of the gypsy moths, Tussock moths, and other forest insects. In killing insects which destroyed crops, food shortages have been minimized and food prices held relatively affordable.

Millions of trees were lost during the infestations of the gypsy moth and Tussock moths. Greens predictably opposed the use of DDT to save these trees. Political correctness and loyalty to their causes must never be challenged. The same crowd which once refused to save trees now supports saving the trees, the planting of trees, without embarrassment, without noticing the double standards." Hawaii Reporter