Ken Hamblin: Is West Nile more than we know?

The Denver Post ^ | 9.29.02 | Ken Hamblin

[ActionNewsBill]

I can assure you, ghost, the virus has spread to Canada. There have been deaths.

Last time I checked, we've had 12 or so here in Michigan.

[GretchenEE]

bump

[Pining_4_TX]

I still say it's a plot by the Social (In)Security Administration. Thay have to come up with some way to keep the plan solvent, and this was believed to be easier to hide than bounty hunters at retirement communities. (for those of you who are humor impaired - this is a joke)

[FlyVet]

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 think it's possible, but why would they limit themselves to "low-grade"? It's also possible the virus got here in a load of produce or something. Not to discount the damage it has done, because people have died, and that's a bad thing. But putting some perspective on it, I wonder how many have died from the common cold, or the flu, or pneumonia in the past year? I'd bet quite a few more than have died from this virus.

[johnb838]

Lets not forget about antibiotic-resistant microbes...

[blam]

I don't know why this is not headline News?

Doctors Link Polio To West Nile Virus

[185JHP]

Have any of the people who believe that this is a "man bites mosquito" story checked out the race/ethnicity percentages of the West Nile victims?

[upchuck]

...and there is not a single government agency is exploring ways to prevent mosquitoes from biting people.

No exploring needed. No research needed. The answer exists and has for a long time. It's called DDT.

[Domestic Church]

"Ground zero was Queens -- at the opposite end of Long Island from Plum Island.
Almost simultaneously, additional infections showed up in the Baltimore/Washington area. And that's no reason to blame Fort Detrick, either."

Long Island Sound and the Chesapeake Bay are both big and easy to sail around...wouldn't be hard to find some marsh areas either.

[Johnny Shear]

Ken Hamblin is about as conservative as they come. What is your beef?

OK...So he's Conservative...He's also a rambling old fool and a monumental blow-hard. His radio show is HORRIBLE...He can't speak without spewing a cliche.

[XBob]

Well, Dave, let's see - you must be one of those danged blue guys who live in the big cities and never goes outside.

Just how do you think your buildings got built (outside) - how about paying for building them at night (avoid outside activity), how about your kids? (do they run up and down the stairs or are they allowed to go out?) do you put insect repellant on them every few hours?. Please stay off the roads (they are built outside and also there is a lot of CO2 there, which attracts mosquitoes to the roads).

And how about those environmentalists - building up the swamps (wetlands) and getting rid of DDT?

Considering that I, and a very few other people, have a natural body chemistry which mosquitoes don't like to bite, I felt it might be useful to study and figure out how/why they don't bite me and some few others like me. But, when I tried to volunteer, great research revealed that no one is even interested. Meanwhile, hundreds of people are dying, and more and more will.

[XBob]

they just had a note on the news that a guy just died from Rabies, the first such death in the US in 50 years. They theorized that he was bitten by a bat????? Guess we have lots of vampire bats here? Saadaam, when did you send us vampire bats?

[Snowy]

Here's a current chart of cases/deaths by state.

http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/wncount.htm

[mhking]

And you come to this conclusion how?

[mhking]

monumental blow-hard. His radio show is HORRIBLE

Oh, so you don't like him. How about you clarify your position, lest you sound like someone who just uses ad hominum attacks to try to support yourself...

[mhking]

Y'know, when this potential connection first started to surface a couple of months ago (right here on FR, to be exact!), I dismissed it as so much tin-foilage ("Foilage?" "Foiliage?" "Foiliography?" [shrug]).

But after seeing the spread-pattern, I have to wonder. There are still some intangibles and incongruities to this whole scenario. Firstly, where are all the dead birds? Have birds and other animals suddenly developed an immunity to the virus - if so, what immunity do they carry that is lacking within humans? What, within the human vector, determines whether you will get it or not? Up to this point, there have not been a significant number of children who have died with the virus - you would expect they would get the virus and die within some reasonable percentage of the population.

Finally, why point to Cuba? If (And I still say IF) this is an engineered event, could it not be coming from elsewhere on (or off) of the continent? Actually, given the spread rate, couldn't it be coming from multiple locales?

There are a lot of unanswerable variables, given our present body of knowledge about the pandemic. I'm not quite ready to say that there is a deliberate spread, but I'm not quite ready to doff the tin-foil either...

[Dave S]

Considering that I, and a very few other people, have a natural body chemistry which mosquitoes don't like to bite, I felt it might be useful to study and figure out how/why they don't bite me and some few others like me

Hey Stinky, I guess you now have an excuse for not taking a shower, your natural body chemistry repells mosquitos.

As far as making sure that your kids are wearing insect repellent, thats part of being a parent. You do make sure your kids wear their seat belts dont you? You dont allow them to play in the streets do you?

For all your paranoia, fewer people have died or gotten seriously ill from West Nile than do annually from the flu. Are you going to demand that the government figure out a way to use your unique body chemistry to drive away the flu bug also?

[Snowy]

...where are all the dead birds?

That's what I'm wondering. A bat eat thousands of mosquitos every day. To my knowledge, they aren't sure if the virus can be passed via ingestion. Wasn't there a case where a mother with the virus was breast feeding her baby and they were concerned about the baby? If it can be passed this way, then that would be really frightening.

[Dave S]

Ken Hamblin is about as conservative as they come. What is your beef?

Nothing to prevent a conservative from also being a rambling fool. Plenty of examples here on Free Republic.

[johnb838]

Dave... this thing has spread like a mutha and just this year gone from a blip on the radar screen to something that is over most of the country and has killed quite a few people. Early in the summer people were saying... well it only affects a few people and most of them don't die, but it has far surpassed that level now.

As good americans and it being fall we can now forget all about it for the next 8 or 9 months but next year I have a feeling it's going to reach California and the deaths are going to be in the hundreds. Then will it be "yeah, but more people die from heart attacks than from west nile". There's always something worse. This disease is giving me the creeps.