Page #36
Q: MA I know that you don't like to talk about the SARS threads, but I have so many emails since I wrote the original article several years ago that I feel obligated to try and relay a few of those questions to you. Would you mind?
MA: Oh, I suppose not.
Q: Mostly people want to know about your original post “Precognition” where you originally alerted the Internet about the unexplained pneumonia cases in China.
Why did you choose to use Free Republic as the vehicle to post that thread?
MA: Well it is not as complicated as it may seem. I do not have a computer and use WebTv on my TV to read the Internet. And Free Republic is one of the few sites that is workable on WebTv. Most of the others have too much junk and are really not compatible.
Q: And you chose to post on SARS because?
MA: Fear son. It is hard to imagine how little we knew and how exponentially this threat grew in the first few days. I doubt anyone realizes just how mobilized and cooperative the scientific community was during that first week. I felt everyone needed to know what was transpiring in real time. And for an epidemiologist this was one very bad bug with a ticket to ride right into our West Coast.
Q: Interesting. Were you really frightened?
MA: Very much so.
Q: MA thank you for that, I must have had a hundred people looking for that answer.
Q: There is one more question that seems to be a constant among your fans, and that is what do you mean by precognition?
Q: Do you mean like seeing the future?
MA: Yes
Q: Why would you choose to title a thread on microbiology “Precognition”?
MA: Do you believe that thread is about microbiology?
Q: Mostly
MA: It is not.
(As we sat in MA’s library and stared out at the beautiful cottonwood trees lining the street, I pondered her response. It was a very odd thread - mixed with religion, science and pop culture - but it had no theme that I had ever discovered.)
Q: Ok, well what is the thread really about then?
MA: Why don’t you study it a bit and give me an answer on our next visit. How does that sound?
Q: Fine by me.
Page #37
Q: MA the first question I feel needs to be addressed is your warning last year that vaccinating individuals with any immunocompromised condition was unwise. Do you still stand by that premise?
MA: Very much so.
Q: Is there any evidence, after all nearly a year has passed, that your fears are warranted?
MA: Well, thanks to the work of Susanne Brakemeier of Germany we now know that the H1N1 vaccine Pandemrix is ineffective in helping protect most renal transplant patients.
Ms. Brakemeier also advocated the need to test the safety of new vaccines in transplant patients. Which is what I have urged from the get-go.
Q: I do remember, even with my poor retention rate, a lot of the lessons you taught me on neuraminidase and the flu.
MA: Of course you do, knowledge once acquired is hard to put back in the bottle.
Q: What of your worst fears? You were highly agitated about giving H1N1 vaccines to HIV patients?
MA: And I still am. It is a foolish experiment. And, mark my words, it is an experiment.
The potential for adverse, even dramatically negative, outcomes in this stupid risk are enormous.
The long term effects are just beginning to emerge. Dr. Brophy, of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, has shown that less than 70% of children with HIV achieved seroprotection from the H1N1 vaccine Arepanrix.
This result even fails to meet the European Union standards for human use.
It is folly. And I have urged them to stop.
Q: MA I would like to thank you for taking the time to visit with me today and for all the effort you have put into educating those of us with just a limited knowledge of Virology.
MA: It is certainly my pleasure. And you are welcome to come by here or the cabin anytime you choose, it is always a joy to see you.
Q: You are very kind MA, it is good to see you well and I am certain that I speak for all your fans when I say to stay healthy this winter and please write some more on the Internet.
MA: I will try child, it seems that your priorities shift substantially when one gets older, but I will try.
Q: Well if it is OK with you I would like to visit one more time before going back home. There are a few heavy topics we need to explore before I can say our conversations have been carried to fullness.
MA: Why don't you come back for Thanksgiving, and we can spend the afternoon on any subject you choose?
Q: That sounds terrific. I would enjoy that immensely.