January 31, 2015

Yes, Virginia there ARE Two Sides to Vaccines

And neither of them is anti-vaxx.

One of the most important tasks of public health is disease prevention. So, the number one priority of public health officials around the world is to make sure that people have access to safe and effective vaccines and that they get these vaccines. When we have an outbreak of a deadly disease like measles in the US or polio in the Middle East, public health's number one, two and three top jobs are to promote those vaccines. Period.

Then, once the epidemic is under control and the disease is no longer a threat, public health must encourage researchers to develop newer, more effective vaccines for the many infectious diseases that plague us. Remember, not all vaccines are the best vaccines that will ever be developed for a certain disease. The old horse serum rabies vaccines made people sick. The old Hep B vaccines were culled from the blood of winos and drug addicts. The old measles vaccine did not prevent measles. The first rota-virus vaccines had to be pulled from the shelf. However, at the time they were marketed, the inferior quality vaccine was all that was available. So, yes, I took my Hep B vaccine culled from the blood of winos, despite being aware of the risks, because as a medical student I did not want to get Hep B and I did not feel like waiting a few years to see if something better came down the pipeline---I needed that immunity then.

To those who are not immune to measles, this is a scary bad disease. While we do not see it much anymore, in my three decades of medical practice, the sickest people with viral infections that I have seen have had measles. One young woman ended up in the ICU with measles pneumonia. A healthy young woman. So, you want your child or young adult son or daughter to end up in the ICU with measles pneumonia? BTW, if you are younger than me--i.e. in your forties, thirties or twenties---you might want to have a measles titer done to see if you are immune. The measles cases I see are always in adults who either never got vaccinated or got one dose of vaccine so many decades ago that they lost their immunity. Most (but not all) children that I see are fully immunized, it's their parents who are the walking time bombs. As far as I am concerned, we ought to be offering every adult under 50 or 60 a free dose of MMR right now (with a few exceptions such as those who are attempting pregnancy or immune compromised). If you are not a member of one of those special groups, you should join the immune herd to protect those who can not get the vaccine.

I have one word for anti--vaxxers: tetanus. All the herd immunity in the world will not save your child from lockjaw if he or she steps on a rusty nail.

January 31, 2015

Bad Math: An Analysis of Divide and Conquer Politics as Used in Wars for Oil

In Texas, a state legislator put an Israeli flag on her desk and instructed her staff to ask Muslim visitors to swear allegiance to the US. The swearing allegiance part was offensive. Muslims, like Catholics and Buddhists, have come to the US in order to take part in the American dream. They are here to go to school, become doctors and engineers, raise families and live the good life.

The Israeli flag was Bad Math.

There is a mathematical fallacy that is very popular today. It goes something like this:

Strength of Islam=Strength of Judaism - Antisemitism

There is a corollary that goes

Strength of Judaism=Strength of Islam-AntiIslamism

We see this same Bad Math at play when whites are told

The Strength of White Folks=The Strength of Black Folks-Racism

And

The Strength of Men=The Strength of Women-Sexism

And don't get me started on

Heterosexual Happiness =Homosexual Happiness-Homophobia

In fact, the happier and healthier and stronger everyone is in a democracy, the happier and healthier and stronger the democracy is. For instance, if workers of all races, religions and colors make a better wage, then they can buy more goods and services, making businesses healthier, creating jobs and raising wages. The only people who really benefit when wages are kept low are a handful of capitalists, via this equation

Vampire Capitalist Wealth=Worker's Wealth--Worker's Life Blood

Republican toadies of the Wealthy Vampire Capitalists may claim that they are aiding the cause of Jewish people worldwide when they put down Muslims. Do not be fooled. A very different equation describes their behavior:

Vampire Oil Executives Wealth=World Oil Reserves+US Military Invasions of Oil Producing Countries

And US Military Invasions of Oil Producing Countries=US Military Industrial Complex-US Voters' Esteem for People Who Live in Oil Producing Countries

Giving us

Vampire Oil Executives Wealth=US Military Industrial Complex-US Voters' Esteem for People Who Live in Oil Producing Countries

Meaning that when a Texas GOP state legislator puts up an Israeli flag in her office to wave in the face of Muslim visitors, she is NOT showing her respect for Judaism---every Sunday her Church tells her that her mission in life is to convert Jewish people. She is showing her support for the all important Texas oil industry which wants 1) A Big US military to use as its private mercenary army (witness the invasion of Iraq) and 2) Carte Blanche to have millions of Muslims in other countries killed as they were killed during the Iraq war without having to worry that US voters will shed tears. Because they can always claim

"We're not killing Iraqi Muslims. We are supporting Israel!"

Math is tricky. I hope this helps.

January 3, 2015

RIP Democracy in India, Hello Fascism

Is Business in the Business of Turning India Fascist? Yeah, I'd say so.

Appalled today to read about India's hard turn to right under Modi. Even more alarmed when I read about how Muslims are being stigmatized. A standard tactic of fascist governments backed by the world business community is to divide and conquer the working class by redirecting its anger at a sizable minority. Were I Dalit (untouchable) in India, I would be very, very angry at a system that has conspired to keep me down because of my caste. How tempting it must be to those in power to distract me by holding up my Muslim neighbors as the real enemy, so that I will not notice that those in power are still keeping me down and stealing the fruit of my labor.

To my brothers and sisters in India, this is how it starts. You can kiss your vote---and your liberties---goodbye and jump on the pogrom bandwagon. Or, you can do something about it.

Here are some other folks who are worried, too:

http://www.firstpost.com/politics/left-out-in-narendra-modis-inclusive-politics-dalits-in-gujarat-1184031.html

However, if the Dalits in Narendra Modi's own backyard continue to face the heat of caste supremacy, it won't be too long before it becomes a political hot potato that Modi and BJP finds difficult to handle. Also, if the country indeed is looking for a 'change', the clean-up should start from the grassroots - a sizable part of which seems to have fallen in the wayside of the country's contemporary political narrative.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/19/opinion/being-muslim-under-narendra-modi.html?_r=0

It was on his watch as chief minister that more than 1,000 people, many of them Muslims, were killed throughout Gujarat in 2002, when rioting erupted after some 60 Hindus died in a burning train in Godhra. A Human Rights Watch report that year asserted that the state government and local police officials were complicit in the carnage.

http://www.abplive.in/india/2015/01/03/article467575.ece/Discrimination-against-Dalits-in-giving-Bharat-Ratna-Mayawati

Alleging that the Modi government appeared to be "failing on all fronts", she said interests of capitalists were being safeguarded for which, the BSP leader said, changes were being made in laws, flouting the spirit of the Constitution.

"The Modi government is playing in the hands of capitalists and now they are out to help them as BJP won the elections with their monetary help and by adopting all wrong tactics," she alleged.

http://mic.com/articles/89441/11-photos-of-anti-muslim-violence-that-have-many-worried-about-india-s-future

Read the articles above and then ask yourself "Is the goal of so called Hindu nationalism to purge the 'foreign' influence of Islam? Or, is the goal of Hindu nationalism to keep the Dalit doing all the low paid menial work that no one else wants to do in order to make India attractive to domestic and foreign businesses?" Remember, one of the defining qualities of fascism is preoccupation with an "external" threat to the "purity" of the group. Funny how in cleansing the "external" threat, fascists always wind up stripping their "pure" brothers and sisters of their rights and driving down their wages.