Posted on 09/29/2002 8:06:45 AM PDT by mhking
Sunday, September 29, 2002 - It is getting tougher for U.S. health officials to soft-soap the American people about the potentially devastating impact of West Nile disease.
After a summer of assuring us that West Nile wasn't a disease most Americans should be concerned ab out, government health officials recently jolted the public with their statement that the virus can be spread through the nation's blood supply during transfusions.
All blood donations would most likely have to be screened for the virus, it was concluded. Screened, that is, as soon as the nation's medical watchdogs could develop a test to do it.
In the beginning, however, the experts showed minimal concern about the disease and its threat to spread. The media, apparently lacking the curiosity to turn over a few stones, went along with the experts.
Health officials had assured the nation that the sudden appearance of the disease in New York City in 1999 was nothing more than a minor infestation.
Now, of course, we know better. West Nile has spread west across America to Colorado, where new victims surfaced as recently as last week. It's time for us to inquire whether the experts were wrong.
Or whether the experts in concert with the government may have conspired to contain public concern by deliberately misleading the nation about the threat associated with the mystifying arrival of West Nile.
The departure from dismissing West Nile as serious came when a woman in Mississippi contracted the disease after receiving transfusions from three infected donors. The Centers for Disease Control called that case "highly suspicious."
But finally, with the facts screaming back at them, the CDC had to acknowledge the obvious: This was a new strain of West Nile disease and indisputably had the ability to hopscotch from one American to the other by blood transfusion.
Only a very trusting person could deny that the unexpected arrival of a seeming new strain of West Nile disease was highly suspicious.
According to Dr. Jesse Goodman of the Food and Drug Administration: "Since this transmission by transfusion appears likely, it is likely also that we will need to move toward testing of donor blood. While the investigation is ongoing, we believe there's sufficient evidence when you put it all together that there likely is a risk."
Dr. Goodman added that he could not predict how long it would take to develop such a test, nor was he able to estimate what it would cost to do so.
Sounds, at least to me, like: "Good luck, we are all on our own."
Meanwhile, the infection of that unfortunate woman in Mississippi and further reports that a polio-like syndrome, which has left several victims struggling for their lives on a respirator, may be a direct manifestation of West Nile infection continue to add to the potential severity of the West Nile problem.
And now health officials assure us they are eager to get the word out to alert doctors so they don't misdiagnose patients who may be infected.
All of this stirs me to question whether the United States could already be the target of a low-grade biological attack, courtesy of our foes in the Middle East.
I have absolutely nothing to substantiate my suspicions beyond a little common sense and a feeling in my gut.
I don't know whether I am at the spearhead of such thinking or not.
But I do know that, seemingly out of the blue, we are wrestling with a mutant strain of a formerly familiar disease we now seem to know very little about.
It worries me that America's medical authorities appear to have been skunked.
And that prompts me to struggle with a most compelling question: Is West Nile an evolution of nature or is it a deadly chemical cocktail concocted by evil men?
Ken Hamblin (bac@compuserve.com; www.hamblin.com) writes Sundays in The Post and hosts a syndicated radio talk show.
I just new that we would be seeing malaria again, ever since we started worshipping wetlands. This was the very reason that we drained swamps so many years ago. Why doesn't anyone get it?
Also, Lyme disease first appeared in the Old Lyme area of Connecticut, which is right across from Plum Island. Does make you wonder, doesn't it?
Carolyn
Ever here of insect repellent? Didnt you pay attention when the CDC and others told you what to do. Avoid outside activity at dusk and dawn, eliminate breeding areas. Wear insect repellent. You want a multi-billion dollar study to find out how to prevent mosquitos from biting people. You must work for an agricultural college looking for a government handout.
And, the first anthrax death was just an "isolated case," nothing to worry about; and the shoe bomber was just an "isolated nut," nothing to worry about; and Ahmed "Dirty Bomb" Padilla (or whatever the hell his name is) is just an "isolated fanatic," nothing to worry about.
Well, I'm worryin'.
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
New Link: Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)
Try John Bolton, asst. Secretary of State.
It was Cuba and Iran. Castro made that speech at Teheran University while on a Mideast tour in the first part of 2001. "America is weak. I have seen it from up close. Together, Iran and Cuba will bring America to its knees," to paraphrase it.
Prior to that visit, the Cuban VP had made visits to Iran linked to the opening of a Cuban-sponsored biological research facility in Iran. Which is curious in that Iran already produces almost all the medication it needs and should need no help from an outside state, much less from Cuba.
Iraq obtained a sample of West Nile from US labs; Cuba probably obtained theirs long before since Cuba has long been involved in Africa in both warfare and in 'medicine.'
The interesting thing about Cuba is that it had a spy, Elena Montes, in our NSA for many years- since 1985; this spy was detected early in 2001 after the WASP spy network in Floida was tried and after another Cuban spy was found in the Miami INS office. Cuba's spy Montes was picked up after making some calls to her Cuban bosses from a DC payphone after September 11, 2001. The US also threw out some Cuban UN diplomats not over their fight with NY City policemen.
Recently the US threw two Iranian UN diplomats out of the country for espionage activities.
Another curiousity: two Afghans were caught in 1990 trying to deposit $2 million in a Cayman Islands bank after they had gotten off of a flight from Havana. These men are still stuck in the Caymans and are unable to leave because they have no real visas. They were detained by Cayman authorities for some time and the US interviewed them on Sept. 12, 2001.
Yet another curiousity: Libya has been making inroads in Caribbean nations, particularly Grenada, where not too long ago an Islamic group attempted a coup. One of those offenders has since been tangled up in a weapons smuggling ring in South Florida.
Also, Jamaat ul Fuqra and other Pakistani-related groups have operations in the Caribbean. The one group is tied directly to al Qaeda. It too has ties to Cuba.
But if the stuff spreads from infected people, to the mosquitos, and back to other critters, and it does, it can spread in many ways besides just birds.
I happen to like wetlands- they increase our beef production and we have healthier, faster-growing cattle- so I am not for draining them except as a temporary, one-year plan. But next spring may be a good time to temporarily hit wetlands with DDT. Skeeters will be killed out over the winter so that route of transmission will effectively be nullified over the winter, and a spraying program in spring should knock its spread next summer. On the other hand, elephant mosquitos are natural predators of the common skeeter in wetlands- they do quite a good job and small minnows do a fine job if they're not all poisoned.
Swamps are the least of our problems- the bulk of the mosquito problem is from local small sources which don't have predatory insects to curb the skeeter larvae. People leave pots and cans and old tires all around an in these mosquitos can breed like crazy free of all predators. My dumbarse neighbor left his pool uncared for all year and the skeeter problem was attrocious- we couldn't figure out where they were all coming from until we went to pick up something that fell in his yard. It was awful... the little jerk won't do anything about it either though we gave him a chance.
I ended up stocking his pool with guppies. Seems to have worked- no more skeeters. Can't wait for him to spot all of the fish.
Are you series?
When is a Hate Crime Not a Hate Crime?
Ken Hamblin
September 23, 1999
I have observed before that the federal government and the liberal media seem all too eager to malign Christians _ or worse, as demonstrated in the government's 1993 assault against the Branch Davidians near Waco.
That attack occurred, of course, amid exhaustive media coverage which all but condemned those inside the complex. I've always feared that this steady nurturing of anti-Christian feelings in our nation would ultimately lead to dire consequences, with Waco only the first of many to come.
More HERE
Ken Hamblin is about as conservative as they come. What is your beef?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.