Posted on 04/11/2016 10:10:21 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe
In the earlier post I asked for refs, I almost added that I don’t mean reviews.
Are there any published studies showing any causation or even correlation with birth defects or Guillan-Barre or anything?
Yes, cases of Zika causied birth defects (guilty until proven innocent?) are starting to show up elsewhere. Originally French Polynesia, now Columbia and several others, see link. Apparently the virus attacks cortex cells and they die and collapse and the head shrinks. I have heard of one theory that something being sprayed around in NE Brazil may make women with the virus especially susceptible to these neurological effects. There are also adult effects even though most don’t get very ill with Zika.
When I talked with my son in Puerto Rico 6 months ago, he had a lot to say about dengue and chikungunya, both painful mosquito virus illnesses and recommendations by the PR govt. to use lots of Vitamin C. He said it was really hard to find Vitamin C in the stores. I will be speaking with him in a few days and report back.
I sure hope the Pope changes the churches stance on protected sex. Really disturbing is the information that the infective mosquitoes have a much bigger range than previously known. Both Aedes egypti and Aedes albopictor are carriers, and Aa mosquitos are found as far north as Michigan and Maine. I plan to testify soon at a budget hearing on our Health Services Budget and urge more attention to preventive spraying and community clean-up since we border on a river and some swamps. The link below has a lot of information and two maps showing the range of Ae and Aa.
I believe this is made up.. I don’t trust the government anymore.. It is just like the Flu epidemic that never happened!!
Like I said the birth defect connection is mostly speculation at this point - to many other factors. Also, most of the papers with what data there is are behind pay walls or membership websites. If you are looking for x number of people caught Zika and y number got some long term syndrome then you most likely will not be satisfied with what is out there. It is all macro-trends at this point. That said the trend is not good for the human race and Zika, all viruses are hard to stop and/or “control”. Did you read the paper I posted? Work from the reference notes.
There you have it. Mad scientists.
I can read anything behind a pay wall.
Abstracts are always available. So point out any research papers.
I did read your link, thanks for that.
That study does not address fetal outcomes, and I would especially want to see the fetal outcomes for the groups where the mother was vaccinated during the first trimester. That study only addresses maternal effects.
Flu, unlike what some people seem to think, is not a minor ailment like colds. An estimated 20-30 million people died during the 1918 flu pandemic. The reason that public health officials "cry wolf," as you put it, is that it is not humanly possible to predict which emerging flu strain will have the qualities of contagiousness and pathogenicity to cause another deadly worldwide pandemic. Public health officials are in a difficult place--they don't want to overdo warnings for an outbreak that turns out less serious than they feared, nor do they want to downplay the threat for a pandemic that ends up killing millions. Other diseases could theoretically cause a highly deadly pandemic, but flu gets most of the attention because it evolves very rapidly. So we don't know when the next nasty one will show up, or where.
You pay me quite nicely, thank you. And, like many of the other idiots I work with, I am very highly educated--PhDs, MDs, DVMs, etc.
I use my own time to post the most accurate and up-to-date information about the area of my research specialty. In this way, I "give back" to the taxpayers who paid for my education.
Other studies discuss fetal outcomes. The administration of the vaccine during the third trimester is timed so that the antibody response will reach its peak and the maximum amount of anti-pertussis antibodies will cross the placenta into the infant immediately before birth. The evidence indicates that these antibodies are protective against pertussis in the infants.
The low number, relatively speaking, of microcephallic outcomes may indicate inoculation before the patient was aware of pregnancy, first trimester. Those numbers, if available, would interest me to see if there is a correlation.
Let’s put it this way—there is no mechanistic path (no matter how Rube Goldbergian) that could connect an inoculation to the growing fetus’ neurological system. The TDaP vaccine contains toxoids extracted from three pathogens. Since toxoids are deactived protein toxins, and not living organisms, it is not possible for them to cause an infection. An infection would be a necessary factor for anything to reach the unborn baby, since living pathogens can and do disseminate throughout the body. The toxoids, however, are not alive and can go nowhere. Foreign proteins, including toxoids, introduced into the body are typically broken down into their amino acid components fairly quickly; the challenge with vaccines is to design them in such a way that the protein components are protected from degradation long enough for the immune system to see them.
Another consideration is that among the pathogens targeted by TDaP, only one shows any tropism for neurological tissues, and that is the C. tetani. When it enters the body through a wound, it produces active toxins which enter the circulatory system and have high affinity for nervous system cells, where they bind and block inhibition of nerve signals, leading to the stereotypical symptoms such as lock jaw. Tetanus is a leading cause of mother and infant death in countries with poor health care systems. The toxoid, being inactivated, does not have the same binding properties of the toxin. So it cannot affect the nervous system.
In a general sense, many pathogenic microorganisms can cause neurological damage, either by direct action of neuro-specific toxins on nervous system cells, or by inducing a level of autoimmunity against the nervous system due to cross-reactivity of antigens with nervous system proteins. In these cases, it is preferable to receive a small dose of inactivated toxoid (of any organism) than it is to receive a large dose of active toxin during the course of infection. In people who are susceptible to cross-reactive induced autoimmunity, the small dose is unlikely to reach the dose size threshold which would cause development of auto-immunity, while still being large enough to induce normal immunity. Guillain-barré syndrome, for example, is more common after a case of influenza than after a flu vaccine, because of the difference in dose size between active disease (large dose) and vaccine (small dose).
I wouldn't say that anything is being played down. The truth is that any disease which does not affect the United States does not get attention. Politicians would rather give research dollars to find vaccines and antivirals or antibiotics for diseases that are endemic. The public doesn't care if a disease does not infect us. When a disease finally makes its way to the US, then and only then do people care. And then they complain of cover-ups...
Two days ago a case of Zika was confirmed in my area - Reno, NV.
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