"Viral Sovereignty"- Pandemic here we come!

[tannybogus]

Flu Viruses and International Politics

The next President has a problem on his hands, known to public health officials and non-partisan flu bloggers, but all too rarely discussed in the general press. Indonesia, the world's most populous Moslem country, and the epicenter of H5N1 infections in humans (135 confirmed human cases and 110 deaths) has decided that the H5N1 virus should be owned by Indonesia, and sold to whomever they deem worthy. In the meantime, Indonesia has stopped reporting human cases in a day-to-day basis, rebuffed WHO requests for a shared approach, and condemned humanitarian assistance fro the US by demanding NAMRU-2 (a Navy health lab stationed in Jakarta for many years) leave the country and let Indonesia manage its own internal problems.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/10/113032/055/779/565700

I keep thinking I've heard most everything and here comes "viral sovereignty." Diseases don't know where a border ends, so before you know it,
there will be a crisis. :crazy:

[Deja Q]

1. Just like 'global economy'

:D

[Mojorabbit]

2. I have been following this

for some time. It boggles the mind, doesn't it? Monsanto's model.

[robcon]

3. Hysterical, alarmist crap.

Like all the other recent scares, this is short on science and long on alarmism. Among the scare-mongering stories we've heard in the last 20 years:

West Nile Virus
SARS
Bird Flu
Killer Bees
Ebola Virus
Sudden Bee death
The Population Bomb
Nuclear Winter

There seems to be a portion of society that just wants to believe in any scare-du-jour, and another portion who knows the science is junk (or at least questionable) but still wants to scare people with pseudo-science.

Whenever words like "Pandemic Here We Come" are in a post, you know there's bullshit, not a pandemic, coming down the pike.

[tannybogus]

5. Would you have been one of the people shouting bullshit in the early '80s?

A lot of people ignored the beginning of the Aids crisis. Why haven't some of the things you listed gotten worse? Is it because they

weren't going to get worse or because people were vigilant in acting when cases came up? As far as disappearing bees go, the effects of that

problem may take a while to manifest itself. Most of the problems you listed have to reach a tipping point, and then it is too late to react.

Trying to stay ahead of the curve with diseases is hard. You can yell bullshit and pseudoscience at me until the cows come home. While I might

be an alarmist at times, I'd rather be someone who reacts than someone who tries to shut down discourse by acting like everything is nonsense.

[robcon]

7. My attitude: show me the science; cut the alarmist nonsense

Your words: "Pandemic Here We Come" should echo in your head that you're trying to scare people with unscientific nonsense. That's not "trying to stay ahead of the curve with diseases" - that's making shit up, and trying to wrap pseudoscience around your "need" to spread panic.

[tannybogus]

8. Pandemic is not likely to panic most people unless others drop like flies on them.

If I want to panic people, I can Post "$10/gal of gas is coming!" Then I could run on about the
attack on the pipeline in Georgia. I assumed that the people on DU would read the article and have an
appropriate level of alarm. I didn't expect them to run screaming into the night and wake the neighbors.
I don't understand where the pseudoscience is. Saying that not sharing info about viruses could lead to
an uncontrollable situation isn't nonsense.
I would say that pseudoscience is your assertion that I have a "need" to panic people. That is a leap into
the unknown. You don't know me from Adam's housecat. Ascertaining that from this exchange is diagnosing
a pathology from very little. I can only venture to say that I seem to have pushed some button that you have
to get this reaction. I'm not going to try to delve into your psyche and project onto you what I think
your needs might be.

Here is a link to the entire article that I read.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/08/AR2008080802919.html

[robcon]

9. In other words, making shit up about a pandemic won't spread fear.

There are two ways your attempt to create a scare about a pandemic wouldn't work...

1. Your case for pandemic is so weak that no one would believe you.

2. Your motivation - to create a phony scare to attract attention to yourself - is transparent.

I think both of these are true in your case.

[eggplant]

4. Why does it matter that Indonesia is Muslim?

Oh, and per Wikipedia (take it for what it's worth), "Moslem" is sometimes considered offensive.

[Lyric]

6. That's capitalism for you.

In a capitalist world, there is nothing that can't be bought, sold, hoarded, protected, claimed, or patented for the sake of profit.

I loathe capitalism. I'd rather have enough to live a modest, comfortable life than to be wealthy while *knowing* that my wealth is directly due to some other person's underpaid, undervalued labor. How others can feel differently is something I will never understand.