Showing posts with label CDC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CDC. Show all posts

Monday, February 3, 2025

Trump's latest...Let them die from disease

Donald Trump skewers the caduceus

"The Trump administration has intervened in the release of important studies on the bird flu, as an outbreak escalates across the United States"
The above is from the first paragraph of a CNN article titled, "Trump administration’s halt of CDC’s weekly scientific report stalls bird flu studies." Perfect timing for the Oval Office lunatic and his latest drive to kill off the U.S. population. Most recently Trump offered to buy out federal employees to get rid of them but in this case it is easier, and cheaper, to let them die from disease. Here's the scenario...                                    
"One of the studies would reveal whether veterinarians who treat cattle have been unknowingly infected by the bird flu virus. Another report documents cases in which people carrying the virus might have infected their pet cats." 

And then, across the country,  Measles cases have been reported in Texas most likely because the vaccine rate against the disease has fallen. Two are dead and many are sick due to a wave of tuberculosis cases hitting the Kansas City, Kansas, metro area. While Covid just passed its 5th anniversary of the start of the pandemic, the virus is still killing thousands, according to experts. At least 50 snow geese have been found dead on an Upstate New York lake and are being tested for Avian flu.

Yet T-rump has decided we don't need WHO, nor do we need to exchange information on and not do studies for disease control. 

A case of the highly infectious avian influenza, or bird flu, has been detected in a Montgomery County, Maryland, backyard flock. Whooping cough and Norovirus cases have steadily increased since the pandemic. Bird flu is 'widespread' among birds in Massachusetts, state officials say. The Washington Post reports, Covid isn’t as bad this winter but flu is worse. 36 US states have 'high' or 'very high' flu activity, CDC data shows. Georgia school district closes all schools due to flu, norovirus outbreak.

Yet T-rump has decided we don't need WHO, nor do we need to exchange information on and not do studies for disease control.

One person has been diagnosed with active tuberculosis (TB) at the Kalamazoo, Mich.

Central High School. A case of tuberculosis (TB) was confirmed at Whitehall-Yearling High School, Whitehall, Ohio. The Emmett, Idaho School District canceled classes to deep clean all of its buildings due to spread of norovirus, COVID-19, influenza, RSV and pertussis (whooping cough). The combined information here shows the potential dilemma in the U.S. for diseases of all types but most important now, 464 deaths from bird flu since Dec. 2024.

Yet T-rump has decided we don't need WHO, nor do we need to exchange information on and not do studies for disease control.

The studies in question have many benefits for the bird flu dilemma...
One of the studies would reveal whether veterinarians who treat cattle have been unknowingly infected by the bird flu virus. Another report documents cases in which people carrying the virus might have infected their pet cats.

The studies were slated to appear in the official journal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The distinguished journal has been published without interruption since 1952.

Dorothy Fink, the acting secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services ordered an “immediate pause” on communications by federal health agencies, dictated by who else, Donald Trump. Opposition includes...

That’s concerning, former CDC officials said, because a firewall has long existed between the agency’s scientific reports and political appointees.

“MMWR is the voice of science,” said Tom Frieden, a former CDC director and the CEO of the nonprofit organization Resolve to Save Lives.

“This idea that science cannot continue until there’s a political lens over it is unprecedented,” said Anne Schuchat, a former principal deputy director at the CDC. “I hope it’s going to be very short-lived, but if it’s not short-lived, it’s censorship.”
There was no response from The White House or HHS; in the meantime, at least 67 people have recently been tested positive for the bird flu in the U.S., most from cows or poultry. There is also concern that many cases are going undetected. Shades of Covid under Donald Trump in a situation most experts claim can be controlled with the proper handling. The question is, will the Republican Party do the right thing? One can only hope.

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

The Agony of Stupidity...INFLUENZA

 

The University of Michigan just diagnosed 528 cases of the flu at the school. A whopping 77% of those students infected did not get the flu vaccine. The outbreak was so sudden the CDC had to be called in...

"A team of investigators from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be on campus this week, trying to learn more about the spread of the virus and the effectiveness of this year's flu vaccine."

The Detroit News Reports...

"The work will be led by the local health department, and will include the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the university and a team from the CDC.
"When a public health authority requests assistance from the CDC for an urgent public health problem, such as disease outbreaks, unexplained illnesses and natural or human-caused disasters, an Epi-Aid team is tapped to provide short-term assistance."

In this video, what you need to know about the 2021 flu season...


 What is baffling is the fact that Juan Luis Marquez, medical director at the Washtenaw County Health Department, where the university is located, only "strongly recommends" the balance of students get the flu shot. It doesn't take a rocket scientist here to see this is grounds for a mandate, since the country has been repeatedly warned by the CDC this could be a high-case flu season. And here lies the AGONY OF STUPIDITY...

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Projections on coronavirus in the U.S.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Robert Redfield, and members of the Trump Administration's Coronavirus Task Force hold a press briefing on Friday, January 31.
CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield and task force

The coronavirus outbreak has killed a minimum of 362 people worldwide with another 17,300+ infected. The virus center is Wuhan province, China, where hundreds of Americans are still being evacuated. In the 2003 China SARS epidemic, 349 people died. CNN reports coronavirus has spread to more than 25 countries, with researchers doing their best to develop a vaccine. There are eleven coronavirus cases in the United States with no deaths so far.

U.S. cases are in the states of Washington, 1; California, 6; Arizona, 1; Illinois, 2; and Massachusetts, 1. Here's the scenario...
"The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has listed 260 'patients under investigation' for the novel coronavirus across 36 states as of February 3, according to an update posted on the agency's website Monday. That’s an increase of 19 from the last update, provided Friday.
 "Of the 260 patients under investigation, 11 have tested positive, 167 negative, and 82 are still pending.
"CDC is the only lab in the US that can conduct diagnostic testing for the virus, but it is developing coronavirus testing kits to share with "domestic and international partners," according to an earlier statement from the agency."
China is becoming more isolated each day as airlines cancel flights in and out of there. The country has built a hospital specifically for the coronavirus but is finding it is already not enough. The U.S. is no where near this stage but you have to wonder if we would be prepared at home to handle a pandemic, as is being predicted. CNN has a complete report you can read here.

Saturday, April 13, 2019

From measles to E. coli to a Superbug


Superbug
We've dealt with the backward-thinking anti-vaxxers into an E. coli outbreak and now along comes a superbug that threatens to kill all of us. The CDC says already over 600 are infected in the U.S. It first learned of Candida auris in 2016 with the number of cases now at 617 stretched over New York City, New Jersey and Chicago in the U.S. and another 20 countries worldwide. It appears that "Multiple factors have created the perfect storm" for Candida auris.

What is most scary is the fact that it is potentially a deadly multidrug-resistant fungus and even worse...
"can survive on cooler surfaces like skin, potentially remaining for a long time, enabling it to act more like bacteria than a fungus."
The difficulty in treating Candida auris is identifying the fungus. It requires "specific technology and a culture of blood or other bodily fluids." Because of the colonization of hosts over several months, "perhaps indefinitely," it can...
"spread between people and to various objects over the course of time before entering the bloodstream and spreading throughout the body, causing serious invasive infections such as bloodstream, wound, and ear infections."
“Healthy people typically don’t get infected," but should be very careful around those who are infected, practicing maximum personal hygiene. And here's the real shocker, the CDC reports that "30 to 60% of people who have gotten C. auris have died." In some cases "standard laboratories have trouble identifying the bug and it can sometimes even be misidentified," according to the CDC. But because it affects those in the health care community, there is a need to identify it quickly.

The CDC says the C. auris infection has been diagnosed in people of all ages affecting a wide range of areas and wounds. In other words, the public beware!

Monday, May 14, 2018

NRA still doesn't want public to know true gun violence statistics


The National Rifle Assn. pushed through the Dickey Amendment in 1996, gun legislation that prevents, "the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from using funds 'to advocate or promote gun control.'" Naturally it is in the best interest of this violence promoting organization to keep the true facts from the public. According to Health, "Of the 30 leading causes of death in the United States, gun violence is the least researched." And the Brady organization reports, on an average day 96 people die from gun violence. But the NRA refuses to accept these figures.

I have followed David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center for years and despite the NRA's head gun nut, Wayne LaPierre, he is making progress in documenting and publishing about gun violence. He regularly side-steps the Dickey Amendment which prevents "the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from using funds 'to advocate or promote gun control.'" It's a stupid law meant only to hide the facts that gun violence is completely out of control, to keep it all secret so a stupid Congress doesn't have to face the facts.

Actually, gun violence research has proliferated over the past few years thanks to people like David Hemenway and with the help of universities, think tanks and private philanthropy. Even states like California are beginning to recognize the problem and then "governors from six northeastern states and Puerto Rico announced plans to launch a research consortium to study the issue. "A gun in the home increases the risk of someone in that home dying from suicide maybe threefold, and the evidence is overwhelming," Hemenway says. The NRA, and the public, must face up to these facts.

If DOGE is illegal then Elon Musk must be illegal

The “department of government efficiency” (Doge), headed up by billionaire Elon Musk, has grabbed the governmental infrastructure by the bal...