Comments on: Zika, Conspiracies and Churches

By: wzrd1

wzrd1 — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 13:38:48 +0000

Oops, I forgot to mention, it’s one Brazilian state. The US has had states that banned dihydrogen monoxide and hydrogen monoxide. Hyroxic acid remains legal in those states. Some communities banned hydrol, but not a single entity has yet to ban μ-Oxido dihydrogen, likely because politicians can’t pronounce it.
For those chemically challenged, those are all various chemical names for water.
And yes, I’m serious, those chemical names have been banned, claiming toxicity of the solvent most commonly known as water, courtesy of pandering and ignorance.

By: wzrd1

wzrd1 — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 13:35:07 +0000

Brilliant; ” In January 2016, the Brazilian Association for Collective Health (Portuguese: Associação Brasileira de Saúde Coletiva, Abrasco) criticized the introduction of pyriproxyfen in Brazil, claiming that its teratogenic and endocrine disrupting effects should not be allowed in drinking water given the context of an ongoing fetal malformation outbreak, and demanded the “immediate suspension [in the use of] of pyriproxyfen and all growth inhibitors … in drinking water”.”

What next? Feed the larvae?
Oh wait, I know. As its precursor is explosive and hydrogen is explosive and oxygen can cause fires, water and Pyriproxyfen are banned from usage or even from being in the country. Can’t let the dangerous precursors be together.
Of course, actually banning water, if they could actually achieve that, would eliminate mosquito larvae.

By: valueaddedwater

valueaddedwater — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 00:17:18 +0000

Oh Noes it’s the nasty khemikills.
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2016/02/14/brazilian-state-suspends-larvicide-used-to-combat-zika-virus/
Unfortunately for the tin foil hatters it’s not made by Monsanto

By: wzrd1

wzrd1 — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 23:13:30 +0000

I’m only a retired special forces medic, with plenty of additional training back when I was still wearing tree appearing clothing (OK, not really tree looking, lowest bidder camouflage).
Having ran clinics in remote hamlets in the more unfortunate areas of the world, witnessing polio and measles fill far too many graves, let’s suffice it to say that I’m rather militant about public health and vaccinations.

By: wzrd1

wzrd1 — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 23:10:42 +0000

Actually, a fair amount of contraction would be secondary to desertification removing breeding grounds.
The downside is, of course, the loss of farm land and new inland ocean front property. Tis a pity that we’re selling our house south of Philly, due to relocation. Could’ve held off and had beach front property in a century. ;)

My best friends are hyperbole to the absurd and argumentum ad absurdium, designed to undermine a Dunning-Kruger borne argument. ;)
Whiskey’s for the nightcap, so that my osteoarthritis doesn’t awaken me repeatedly.
Perhaps four months shy of 28 year military career was a bit excessive.

By: Rectofossa

Rectofossa — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 19:55:42 +0000

In reply to lysle bro.

Bombast and bias are my two best friends. Please remember the only dubious service I provide is to myself – if I don’t rant on the internet I spend the mornings drinking gin and the afternoons swearing at strangers.
The evenings are a bit of a blur, frankly.
Anyway, the reason I didn’t mention anthropomorphic climate change is current models suggest this will cause a contraction in Aedes distribution.
Which is a bit counterintuitive given what’s happening with Anopheles and other genera. See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/24893017/ – it’s v interesting. Not my area of dubious expertise but it’s an interesting notion that not all species will radiate on the back of increased temperatures. It certainly surprised me.

By: Rectofossa

Rectofossa — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 19:41:44 +0000

In reply to wzrd1.

Ahhhh! I hadn’t considered immune privilege! While I have a journeyman’s appreciation of immunology I’m a simple microbiologist and immunology makes my head hurt.
Thank you.

By: lysle bro

lysle bro — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 19:21:52 +0000

Your posts are improving, spare the bombastic sentiments please in order to remove bias and restore objectivity to your service. Global warming is accelerating the spread of all insect bourne diseases as you should more strongly emphasize. b.

By: wzrd1

wzrd1 — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 14:00:19 +0000

Ah, never fear, Quarantine Christie is here to quarantine anyone who travels anywhere he can get political capital from, rather than perform his duties as governor and calm the populace over the latest press fueled flames of idiocy.
We’ve relocated around 20 miles from the Texas border. We’ve already had crane flies mating, so it’s obviously warming up.
When I heard of sexual transmission of Zika virus in Texas, my thought was, “Unsurprising, testes are immune privileged”. It takes time to clear virus from an immune privileged area, be it the brain, eyes, testes or other possible immune privileged areas. Why that surprised physicians is beyond me, as immune privilege is a well known and needed phenomena.
But, alarming is not what Zika virus is, any more than West Nile and the dire predictions made when it rapidly spread across the United States. Mosquito abatement is highly effective and even more effective with some novel approaches used in other nations. Insect repellent is effective, we can and do afford clothing with long sleeves and the infection is typically not that severe.
Meanwhile, people are losing their ever-loving minds, forgetting that turning an egg cell into a pee, poop and puke factory is a complex process and things all too often go wrong, typically resulting in a spontaneous abortion (miscarriage).
Finally, as you said, correlation is not causation. Correlation is, “Gee, that’s interesting, I wonder if it actually is related” and one studies to see if it is related. It’s a start for research and as we all know, a *lot* of research never pans out. Regrettably, the press seized upon the observed minor correlation and trumpeted it to the heavens.
Gotta sell their news product, thereby selling more commercials.

Oh, there’s a new one going around, the GM mosquitoes that were released in Africa magically got tetracycline from agricultural runoff and failed to die, thereby transmitting Zika.
That the mosquitoes were male is irrelevant, obviously some females were mixed in and magic.
Or something.
Dunning-Kruger effects meets both paranoid schizophrenics and foreign agitators. What a mix!