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.
Its taken three years for the virus to spred across the country but it has only affected a few people. We are a country of what 260 million. Of these at least tens of millions have been bitten by mosquitos. I was even bit by an Illionois mosquito and lived to tell the story. Of these relatively few got sick enough to visit a doctor. Most had either no ill effect or had something similar to the flu. A fraction of one percent had any ill effects and of these less than two hundred have died.
I have a feeling it's going to reach California and the deaths are going to be in the hundreds.
You must have missed it but there have been several cases of WNV in California already. Does the temperature normally get low enough to kill off mosquitoes in Southern California? This could be year round problem for Californians who tend to spend a lot of time outside.
You my stinky friend are more than a little paranoid. Crawl under your bed or stock up your fall out shelter, its 1962 all over again.
I wish your grand children and your children and your parents and grandparents all are plagued with mosquitoes, like so many in the world are:
so, we shouldn't explore ways to prevent malaria?
Don't you come to my church, you uncompassionate SOB, who cares not a whit if millions of people are dying every year, as long as it isn't you.
Better get that bug spray on your dog every 3 hours, I love dogs.
BRING BACK DDT
U.S. Department of State
International Information Program
05 June 2002
A State Department official has reaffirmed the Bush administration's belief that Cuba has a "limited, developmental, offensive biological warfare research and development effort" and that the Caribbean nation has provided "dual-use biotechnology to rogue states."
Testifying June 5 before a Senate subcommittee, Carl Ford, assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research, said the United States is "concerned that such technology could support biological warfare programs" in those rogue nations.
Ford said Cuba has several facilities involved in biological-related efforts in agriculture, medicine, and veterinary science, "which, as in any country, could be used for illicit purposes." This "dual-use problem," Ford said, "presents all who are committed to combating" the biological warfare threat "with the dilemma of how best to assess the capabilities of any given facility against the intent to develop biological weapons."
The nature of biological weapons makes it "difficult to procure clear, incontrovertible proof that a country is engaged in illicit biological weapons research, production, weaponization, and stockpiling," Ford told an open session of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics Affairs. A closed session was scheduled to follow the open forum.
Ford added that Cuba's "sophisticated denial and deception practices make our task even more difficult." But he added that the State Department has a "sound basis" for making its judgment about Cuba's effort in illicit biological weapons research. Ford said he was "necessarily limiting" his public comments on the subject to the subcommittee because of the need to protect sensitive intelligence information. He said he was prepared to discuss the evidence in a closed session.
Following is the text of his prepared remarks:
INTELLIGENCE STATEMENT BY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INTELLIGENCE AND RESEARCH CARL W. FORD JR. BEFORE THE SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE ON WESTERN HEMISPHERE, PEACE CORPS, AND NARCOTICS AFFAIRS, SENATE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
June 5, 2002
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
It is my pleasure to come before the Subcommittee today to discuss the issue of what we in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research assess to be Cuba's efforts to date in the area of biological warfare. My remarks in this open forum will necessarily be limited owing to the need to protect sensitive intelligence information, but I would welcome the opportunity and am prepared to give classified remarks in a closed session.
On March 19, in my statement in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I stated INR's judgment that:
The United States believes that Cuba has at least a limited, developmental, offensive biological warfare research and development effort. Cuba has provided dual-use biotechnology to rogue states. We are concerned that such technology could support BW programs in those states.
That assessment and our concerns have not changed in the intervening 2 and half months.
Among the various weapons of mass destruction (WMD) disciplines, biological warfare (BW) is perhaps the most difficult to clearly identify, absent unambiguous reliable intelligence information, owing to the dual-use nature of the technology and materials used to support a BW program. In today's world, many nations, including Cuba, have in place robust biotechnology infrastructures, as some of the world's best scientific talent has turned to this avenue of modern science to promote medical and agricultural advances in their countries. Distinguishing legitimate biotech work from work that is pursued to support either offensive or defensive BW efforts or programs continues to be a difficult intelligence challenge. In a nutshell, since basic BW production does not require large, sophisticated programs or facilities it makes the intelligence assessment function more complicated.
Cuba has several facilities involved in biological-related efforts in agriculture, medicine and veterinary science, which, as in any country, could be used for illicit purposes. This dual-use problem presents all who are committed to combating the BW threat with the dilemma of how best to assess the capabilities of any given facility against the intent to develop biological weapons.
What then can I say about the evidence for our assessment? The nature of biological weapons makes it difficult to procure clear, incontrovertible proof that a country is engaged in illicit biological weapons research, production, weaponization and stockpiling. Cuba's sophisticated denial and deception practices make our task even more difficult. That said we have a sound basis for our judgment that Cuba has at least a limited, developmental, offensive biological warfare research and development effort. I am prepared to discuss the evidence we do have in a closed session or leave behind a classified statement for the record.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
That is an interesting theory. Maybe at the end of this, only 1,000 people would die. If you think that's bad, then compare that to 270 million dead Americans.
What better (and quicker) way to innoculate the population then to spread a weak version of West Nile?
Yep, you're right. This whole thing is probably nothing.
But you never know.
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