iBiome

David Frum is reasonable

Frum takes on the wingnut habit of throwing the 'fascist' label at liberals in the context of the US health care debate. He nails it here:

Can We Get a Grip?.

Contra Rush Limbaugh, history’s actual fascists were not primarily known for their anti-smoking policies or generous social welfare programs. Fascism celebrated violence, anti-rationalism and hysterical devotion to an authoritarian leader. To date, the Obama administration has fallen rather short in these departments. Perhaps uncomfortably aware of the shortcoming, the hardliners have developed — okay, invented really — their own mythology about Obama “brownshirts.” (The popular conservative website RedState.org literally uses the term.) The complaint rests on a single case — that of conservative activist Kenneth Gladney, who got into a scuffle at a townhall in St. Louis, Missouri. The altercation was captured on video and you can watch it on YouTube. What you’ll see is a man, already on the ground, and another man stepping back in order to avoid tripping over him. The man on the ground is Gladney. Gladney walked away from the confrontation and later went to hospital, where he was treated for light injuries and released the same day. Whatever happened and whoever started it, this happily bloodless encounter bears not even the most glancing resemblance to the brutality that made Hitler’s brownshirts notorious. And yet, look up Gladney’s name online and he’s suddenly a poignant martyr. Can we get a grip here? It is possible to express opposition to a president’s policies without preposterous name-calling — without diminishing and disparaging the unique experiences of those who did actually suffer from actual persecution by actual Nazis. After all, you know who else trafficked in hysterical exaggeration? That’s right: Hitler!

David Cameron joins the fray

UK Conservative Leader responds to US wingnut attacks on the National Health Service:

We are proud of the NHS.

Millions of people are grateful for the care they have received from the NHS - including my own family. One of the wonderful things about living in this country is that the moment you're injured or fall ill - no matter who you are, where you are from, or how much money you've got - you know that the NHS will look after you.

Balloon Juice » A Brief History of Fail

John Cole caught this little gem in Investors Business Daily

People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.

The wingnut attack on universal health care always always relies on lurid, false, horror stories about health care in Canada, UK, and other western nations.  So bloody dim and sloppy they don't even bother with anything resembling a fact check.

Update:  Stephen Hawking responds:

"I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS," he told us. "I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived." Something here is worthless. And it's not him.

US teen pregnancy and syphilis rates rose sharply during George Bush's presidency, Centres for Disease Control finds

well i certainly didn't see this one coming (via John Cole):

Teenage pregnancies and syphilis have risen sharply among a generation of American school girls who were urged to avoid sex before marriage under George Bush's evangelically-driven education policy, according to a new report by the US's major public health body.

In a report that will surprise few of Bush's critics on the issue, the Centres for Disease Control says years of falling rates of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease infections under previous administrations were reversed or stalled in the Bush years. According to the CDC, birth rates among teenagers aged 15 or older had been in decline since 1991 but are up sharply in more than half of American states since 2005. The study also revealed that the number of teenage females with syphilis has risen by nearly half after a significant decrease while a two-decade fall in the gonorrhea infection rate is being reversed. The number of Aids cases in adolescent boys has nearly doubled.

The CDC says that southern states, where there is often the greatest emphasis on abstinence and religion, tend to have the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and STDs.

nerd girl blogs swine

Jennifer Gardy  notes the seeming disparity between the apparent mortality rates in Mexico and the U.S. / Canada. Since she posted this, a comparative analysis of the genomes indicates that the strains in Mexico and Canada are identical.  So why the Mexican deaths?

Some researchers suspect that pre-existing health factors in the Mexican population might have influenced the disease's outcome, while one leading theory suggests that the increased mortality has to do with the Mexican patients' delays in seeing a physician.

I would also speculate that the number of deaths in Mexico could be the numerator over a very large denominator.  That is, the number of low level swine flu infections could be quite large among the Mexican population, but underreported due to poor access to health care and other confounding issues like the prevalence of other infectious diseases, with similar symptoms, among the poor.  In populations wracked with chronic respiratory and gastrointestinal infection, would low to moderate swine flu infections be distinguishable?  In that context, the actual mortality rate might be much lower than media reports.

Other good stuff in her post about tracking the outbreak by following money, and the sequencing efforts.

more flu fun

via Andrew Sullivan, flu hysteria in the 100-acre wood

Swine flu: flu pandemics -- if you've seen one, you . . .

Great flu coverage at Effect Measure

Right now the big picture isn't visible, but with the passage of days or a week, it should become clearer. The current spate of cases could burn itself out as warmer weather ensues. Flu is a highly seasonal disease, for reasons we don't understand. That wouldn't mean we were home free, however. Wherever flu hides in the "off season" (flu does find work in the southern hemisphere's winter), it can come back the following year. Those familiar with 1918 know there seems to have been a milder "herald wave" the previous spring which came back like a freight train in August.

Microbial Threats to Health: The Threat of Pandemic Influenza

Just downloaded this little pamphlet. I think I'll curl up with it and some hand sanitizer.

Autism link faked

Via Balloon Juice, more evidence that the fears associated with the MMR vaccine are unfounded.  This really has been a public health travesty.  Vaccines are one simple and largely inexpensive route to protecting child and community health, and fake scares like this put millions in jeopardy, as preventable illness finds a safe haven in unvaccinated populations.  Exposing children needlessly to dangerous wild viruses is unconscionable. 

MMR doctor Andrew Wakefield fixed data on autism - Times Online. THE doctor who sparked the scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism, a Sunday Times investigation has found.

Confidential medical documents and interviews with witnesses have established that Andrew Wakefield manipulated patients’ data, which triggered fears that the MMR triple vaccine to protect against measles, mumps and rubella was linked to the condition.

And of course there is the cyclical, fundamentalist jihad against the polio vaccine, using fear and ignorance as a vector for misery. 

A lot more at Respectful Insolence.

Bird flu in Bali

Link: Effect Measure is fretting about the first reported bird flu deaths in Bali, a densely populated tourist destination.  Let's hope the Indonesian authorities tackle this with some competence and transparency, though that would go somewhat against type.