Evidence? Who cares about evidence? You give people the mere
announcement
of an outbreak plus a virus and they'll cling to it as if it's a
long-lost relative who's about to die and leave them a billion dollars.
In two previous articles, I laid to rest the notion that anyone has
proved there is an epidemic of microcephaly or that the Zika virus
causes microcephaly. Those articles are:
Zika freaka: the other shoe drops: lying about case numbers and
Zika: biggest news service in America absolutely clueless.
Bottom line: Brazilian
researchers have only been able to confirm, so far, 270 cases of
microcephaly, not 4000 as originally trumpeted. And of those 270 cases,
only six, that's six, were found to have any trace of the Zika virus.
If that's an epidemic, a floor lamp can jump up and sing I've Got You Under My Skin in Mandarin Chinese.
But now the Centers for Disease Control has upped the ante---a few cases of "Zika-virus transmission" through, wait for it,
sex, have been discovered. The tiny Zika terrorist is riding in semen. OMG. OMG.
Put this together with biting bloodsucking mosquitoes carrying Zika and
you have a blockbuster boffo box office movie. Put it up on IMAX. Who
will they pick to do the Voice of God narration?
Let's see. Transmission of a virus through sex. The virus hasn't been
shown to cause anything. Conclusion? No fear. But that doesn't sell.
That doesn't titillate. So forget about evidence or proof. Just
market the damn movie.
Here are the old standby memes:
"Spread. Transmission of the virus. Infected. Carrier. New cases with the virus."
What we're left with, at this point, are these garbage terms the public
swallows without inspection. That goes for news reporters as well, and
many, many scientists. These key phrases are intended to create caution
and fear, as authorities map Zika journeys from city to city and
country to country.
So I'll quickly break down the memes and reveal them for the slugs they are.
"Spread." For a virus that has existed for who knows
how long (it was first discovered in 1947), the notion of spread is
moronic. Of course it spreads. It walks down the street, it takes the
subway, it hails a cab, it jumps on a plane, it crawls through the
woods, it rides via semen, it stands up on stage and runs a quiz show.
It's already been around the world a few thousand times and it's already
in people's bodies from Tierra del Fuego to Nome. So? What do we
have?
A virus which hasn't been shown to cause microcephaly or any serious illness
is everywhere. Big deal. There are millions of different viruses.
Most of them do nothing. They hang out, once they're in a place they
like, and they watch
The Young and the Restless. They spread, but basically they're already
there.
"Transmission of the virus." Ditto. I just explained that. The answer is yes and so what.
"Carrier." Ditto again. You might have Zika. And you, too. So what?
"New cases with the virus." Ditto one more time.
Except the people with Zika in their bodies aren't cases. They may
carry cases, as in suitcases. They may try cases, as in lawyers. But
they aren't cases.
"Infected." This word suggests a person has a virus
and the virus is causing a problem. Inflammation, swelling, fever.
Even accepting the traditional literature on Zika, all we see are minor
symptoms and brief discomfort. It wasn't until very recently that
anyone suggested Zika is causing microcephaly. And, as I've shown, this
notion was premature, without supporting evidence. There was no reason
for the press explosion, for suggestions of an epidemic, for government
and health agency pronouncements about a worldwide emergency.
As an investigator, you have to go back to the beginning. Whenever an
announcement of an "outbreak" is made, and a cause is trumpeted, you
have to find out how many cases of the disease actually exist. Is it
really an outbreak? And then you have to look for evidence that the
presumed cause is really causing anything. If you don't look deeply
into those questions, you'll climb on board the train that has been
prepared for you and take the ride. You may then come up with ideas
about how the cause was "secretly introduced," but if the purported
cause isn't the cause, and if there isn't an epidemic, what do you have?
In the case of Brazil, genetically engineered mosquitoes and the Tdap
vaccine, for example, are important factors to explore, because they can
certainly have destructive effects on health. Yes. But to use those
factors to explain "what's really going on with the epidemic and the
Zika virus"---you're still riding on the basic propaganda train where
there is no actual evidence of an epidemic or a harmful virus.
Unfortunately, most people are disappointed when an exotic piece of charlatan dazzle turns out to be a dud. They would rather
believe, instead of experiencing the feeling of being left with nothing.
They would rather go to the movies and watch flying little demons
sucking blood from unsuspecting humans and injecting those humans with
invisible microscopic sub-demons and, in the wake of that, sex turns out
to be a catastrophe of global proportions. That's a two-hour jolt of
adrenaline.
That's worth the price of the ticket.
That's show-biz.
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