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First Human Case of
West Nile Virus-2000by Robert Lederman
robert.lederman@worldnet.att.net
August 5, 2000As I predicted just two days ago in The Media and West Nile Virus, they now claim to have a human infection. Once again, the identity is being withheld. Why?
- 1. An examination would probably find that this 78 year old man has an extremely weakened immune system. He may also be, like three of the four alleged NYC West Nile Virus victims from last year, on immunosupressive drugs. Only severely immune-compromised people, birds and mosquitoes are vulnerable to WNV.
- 2. It may be that if independent scientists got samples of this man's blood that they'd be able to identify the exact straistrain of WNV (West Nile Virus). Many of the articles of the past year alluded to this being a new, previpreviously unidentifed strain. That strain might just be identical to one of the genetically-altered strains originating in four NY area government labs that admit to having conducted experiments with WNV for decades.
While it might be entirely understandable that someone with syphilis or another sexual and/or highly contagious disease would not want to be publicly identified there can be no similar embarrassment in this case that would justify secrecy. WNV is not human-to-human contagious according to the City.
It is also entirely possible that if the City had to prove that the man was infected with WNV this entire "panic"would be exposed as the hoax it is. According to certain scientists opposing the spraying, there is no conclusive test that confirms WNV is present.- 3. It is also quite possible that this "victim"is a total fabrication created solely to justify further spraying. Not releasing the identity makes it impossible for anyone not directly connected to the handful of government officials involved to verify that there is even a real person attached to this alleged infection. To date, not a single person the City claims died from or was infected by WNV last year has ever been identified by name.
These officials are using this one person to justify the need to spray an entire state with nerve gas yet they won't even give us a name. Can you imagine going into court and trying to prove a legal case with this kind of "evidence"? You not only would lose, the judge would fine you and possibly suspend your law license.
If you think I'm being cynical examine this in light of the usual practice of the City, State and Federal authorities. Suspects in all types of crimes are paraded on TV, often before they have even been booked. Suspects charged with child molestation, terrorism and rape, who, even if later found innocent might be killed or otherwise retaliated against by an angry public, are named, their faces are shown and sometimes even their address is given. Thousands of NYC residents arrested for soliciting prostitutes have had their names and faces shown on local cable TV as part of a City-run program-before they were tried or convicted. These men's family lives and reputations were deliberately ruined by the City. Unlike the WNV victim's identity, no one "needed"to know this information. Even victims of crimes are now routinely identified. How many times were the 40-plus videotapes shot during the recent Central Park mass sexual assault shown on local and national TV?
When the NYPD killed yet another innocent man last year, Patrick Dorismond, Mayor Giuliani used every resource at his disposal to dig up any bit of dirt in order to damage the victim's reputation. He violated NY State law and unsealed juvenile records, deliberately lied about the actual contents of the records, and vigorously defended his own criminal actions in the media and before an investigative panel. To quote former Assistant U.S. Attorney General Giuliani, "Privacy ends at death". No one in the public had ANY need to know about Dorismond's record. We all need to know about this. Why can't we?
The statements of the Health officials in the NY Times article below make it clear they intend to massively spray the entire NY State area and the surrounding states. I had a call just this morning from Texas, home state of compassionate conservative GW Bush, the soon-to-be Executioner in Chief. They are spraying in urban areas there on a massive level, in some instances without any dead birds or infected mosquitoes being present.
According to the woman who called, people there are now very ill from the chemicals being used. Many are dying of cancer. If there is a real WNV victim I challenge the City to produce him now and to make availiable to any legitimate scientist or doctor that requests it samples of this man's blood or any other evidence to prove the nature of the source of his infection. For all we know, he was in the hospital on an unrelated health complaint and was deliberately infected with WNV just in time to be used to justify more spraying. The health of millions is at stake. Why all the secrecy?
Lastly, how is it that a local media consisting of thousands of highly educated and intelligent reporters that make their living and reputation digging up the most obscure dirt on people in elected office does not even ask one question about the secrecy surrounding this issue? They have become the new Silent Majority. The only conclusion that seems possible is that they are complicit in what is going on, which only goes to prove my theory that we have been lied to about every detail of the WNV issue from day one.
Don't we deserve some hard facts before poisoning any more people with these toxic chemicals?
NY Times August 5, 2000
The Year's First Human Case
of West Nile Virus Is Confirmed
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA ALBANY,Aug. 4 --A 78-year-old Staten Island man has the unlucky distinction of having the nation's first known case of West Nile encephalitis this year, health officials said today. Meanwhile, birds found dead from the disease from the Atlantic almost to Lake Erie led the state health commissioner to declare the first statewide outbreak of the virus. The Staten Island patient, whose name was not made public, is at home after a weeklong hospital stay for treatment, said Dr. Neal L. Cohen, the city health commissioner. Dr. Cohen said the man first complained of symptoms on July 20. This timing means that, taking into account the 5- to 15-day incubation period, he was infected before New York City began spraying pesticides to kill the mosquitoes that carry the virus.
"This is the first evidence that we've had this year of a human case, either in New York City or anywhere else," said Dr. Steven M. Ostroff, the West Nile coordinator for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who joined Dr. Cohen at a news conference.
A few hours earlier, the state health commissioner, Dr. Antonia C. Novello, announced that in the last two days, tests had confirmed the presence of the virus in dead birds found in nine upstate counties where it had never been seen before, a region stretching from the Hudson Valley to the Adirondack Mountains to a suburb of Buffalo.
Infected birds had already been found in New York City and all of the downstate suburban counties, and one was discovered in central New York State. Dr. Novello said the findings made it safe to assume that virtually every part of the state was affected, even where no infected birds had been found.
This year's outbreak far exceeds the reach of last year's. The virus has been found as far north and east as Boston, in northern New Jersey and in Connecticut. Last year, the outbreak was limited to New York City and its nearest suburbs.
So far this year, 123 infected birds have been found in New York State, almost matching last year's total of 130, with nearly three months left in the mosquito season.
News of the virus's spread has surfaced at the height of the outdoor season, when people camp in the woods, tramp through marshes and spend balmy evenings in their rain-dampened yards, exposing themselves to mosquitoes.
"We believe that New Yorkers, whatever county, and whether there are positive birds or not, must be taking common-sense protections," Dr. Novello said, "such as wearing long-sleeve shirts, socks, shoes and, if necessary, try to apply an insect repellent that contains DEET."
Last year, when the disease appeared for the first time in the Western Hemisphere, 62 people in the metropolitan area were confirmed to have been sickened by the virus, and 7 of them died. Hundreds of Queens residents tested positive for the virus, but had no symptoms.
Because the virus survived over the winter -- in mosquito populations in storm drains, perhaps, or damp basements -- and has gone much farther afield this summer, health officials fear that it may have become a longterm, even permanent, part of the American landscape of disease.
Health officials stressed that they were calling for vigilance, not alarm, noting that only a tiny minority of the people infected become ill enough to require medical care, and most of those who are treated recover. People who are infected may never know it because they show no noticeable ill effects, or only mild symptoms that can be mistaken for a flu. The greatest risk is to the elderly, to very young children and to people whose immune systems are already suppressed, who can develop high fevers and encephalitis, a potentially fatal brain inflammation.
Dr. Novello pleaded with New Yorkers to take precautions against the disease, to wear protective clothing when going outside and in particular to drain the stagnant water where mosquitoes breed.
"Dispose of any tin can, plastic container, ceramic pots or anything similar that holds water on the outside of your house," she said at a news conference here. "Remove old discarded tires on your property. This is the place most liked by mosquitoes for breeding. Clean any clogged rain gutters and any wading pool that is not in use, and turn every wheelbarrow that is in your neighborhood. Change the water in birdbaths at least twice a week."
She said the state would broadcast advertisements carrying that message on television and radio, and have them shown in movie theaters.
Gov. George E. Pataki's office said today that the governor would apply to the Clinton administration for disaster relief, to obtain federal aid to cover the cost of the state's intensive West Nile monitoring program. A similar request by Mr. Pataki for last year's expenses was denied in January, and state officials complained today that of almost $8 million in federal aid to states for combating the West Nile outbreak, New York State, where most of the cases have been, has received just $355,000. It was not clear today why more money went to other states.
Dr. Novello said the state spent $14 million on dealing with the virus last year, and is likely to exceed that amount this year.
The virus turned up recently in dead birds near Syracuse. In the last two days, tests confirmed infections in dead birds in Erie County; in Washington and Warren Counties in the southern Adirondacks; in Schenectady County, northeast of Albany; and in Albany, Rensselaer, Columbia, Putnam and Dutchess Counties in the Hudson Valley.
Mosquitoes carry the virus and infect animals with it. Birds, especially crows, are particularly susceptible to West Nile, so sudden die-offs of birds are an important harbinger of the disease. Birds also appear to play the leading role in transporting the virus and the mosquitoes from one region to another.
The state has left it up to counties to decide whether to spray pesticides, a decision that has proved highly contentious in and around New York City. Last month, the outbreak struck at the symbolic heart of the city, with the discovery of infected mosquitoes in Central Park, and the city closed the park overnight to spray there. Spraying is scheduled in the park again early Saturday morning, as well as in northern Manhattan and in parts of the Bronx and Queens.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, the NY Times article above is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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Mr. Lederman has explained that his articles posted here are not to be taken as official statements by the No-Spray Coalition of which he is a member or of the "No-Spray" lawsuit in which he is a plaintiff.Blue Collar Pundit Essays
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