Parademic Notes Week Ending 170709

Read This First  -1. Attacks on Health Teams During Ebola, 2. Ignorantio Elenchi Sanare, 3. Eire Cholera, ↕4. Mosquito Borne, 5. Exploratory Learning, 6. WMD Doctrine Change, 7. Hidden Epidemics, 8. What is Medicine, 9. Vaccine Politics, ↕C. Communications, <ADDED>.

Tags: Bio·Trump·ism, Vaccine, Biosphere, Disaster, Humor, Medicaid, Ebola Murder, HIV AIDS, Myth, Erie Canal, Critical Thinking, Magical Thinking, Education, Invasive Species, Malaria, Meaningless Numbers, South Korea MERS, North Korea, Climate Change, Mass Die Off, Interdisciplinary Planning, Phenology, Anthropogenic, Key Positions, Jeff VanMeer, Eco Fiction (Science Fiction), Bio and Eco War, Forced Migration, BioTerror, Texas, Flu, Malaria, Smallpox, Conspiracy Theory

-1. Completion of 170702-6.3D↓. Failed to mention last week that I was not the only one who saw the pattern of escalating violence toward those involved with controlling and containing Ebola. Ascel Bio Inc, identified that Womey, Guiena, 2014 was risky for Ebola Health Teams to enter.

-A. 140921-1.36.3A. Weblink not working. Sadly, had they seen what we were seeing in the indication and warning tracking logs, they might have hesitated to go to that village without a security escort. We were observing a noticeable increase in several key indicators related to escalating tension between the public and officials. And quietly, there sits a team of analysts who process epidemic intelligence for Ebola. Below is the current indication and warning signature pattern for Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, respectively. Signatures are routinely tracked in near real timehttps://community.apan.org/pi/f/352/t/91598.aspx. The last figure provides the signature pattern for Kikwit, DRC in 1995. Our team maintains indication and warning signature libraries for the world; in the case of Ebola we have every epidemic documented back to the mid 1990s. Note that we have grossly exceeded the disruption observed in Kikwit, which was previously the most disruptive Ebola epidemic in Africa since 1994.

            -1.1. #Book: [Cover] Human Contamination: The Infectious Border Crossings of Jeff VanderMeer’s Area X. It all begins with a thorn: the delicate, glittering prickle of an unidentified plant growing at the base of a lighthouse in a sleepy coastal town. On a peaceful sunny day, the thorn pricks a man’s thumb, an act of violence so mild, so mundane, it scarcely attracts notice. Yet the end of the world starts there, where one organism pierces the skin of another. That tiny rift swells to a full fledged invasion; the man and his lighthouse become the first targets of an inexplicable transformative force. When the initial cataclysm subsides, the coast has been purged of all human life, its inhabitants dead or transformed beyond recognition. The rest of the world is left only with questions. What exactly happened at the lighthouse [Art]. What lies dormant in that lonely landscape. Most importantly, how can whatever remains there be contained. This nebulous, quietly sinister premise forms the foundation of the novels Annihilation,   Authority, and Acceptance [Covers], collectively known as the Southern Reach trilogy. The Weird Thoreau. 7.2↓.

-2. Medicaid Worsens Your Health. That’s a Classic Misinterpretation of Research. It appears that proponents like Ms. [Seema] Verma (in a position that one does not want someone who is susceptible to logical fallacies to fill) have looked at research and concluded that having Medicaid is often no better than being uninsured — and thus that any private insurance, even with enormous deductibles, must be better. But our examination of research in this field suggests this kind of thinking is based on a classic misunderstanding: confusing correlation for causation. Why Many Physicians Are Reluctant to See Medicaid Patients: Low reimbursement rates. Medicaid pays about 61% of what Medicare pays; Unacceptable waiting times to receive reimbursement from their state Medicaid programs; Increasingly complex paperwork; Medicaid patients often require much more time and attention than the average patient. Treating Medicaid Patientss24 . Studies Show: Medicaid Patients Have Worse Access and Outcomes than the Privately Insured. In essence one is dealing with patients who are in worse health than the average patient, but expecting them to have the same outcomes as average patients. This is the same thinking as the fact that high speed vehicle crashes happen on freeways, therefore lets get rid of freeways; or that most air collisions happen near airports so get rid of airports and air collisions will drop. Correlation and Causation. Air Pollution and Mortality in the Medicare Population. 9, <ADDED> •170625-C.1, •170611-3‡. ¶ Other key fills to watch: Trump's Pick for Surgeon General Built Reputation Fighting Opioids in Indiana, Trump Administration to Name Georgia Health Official as New CDC Director. 170220-3↓.

-A. Given the previous background the conclusion appears to be an a priori one. It would be unlikely a current official would make a contrary statement. GOP’s Plan to Roll Back Medicaid Would Slash Safety Net for Kids in Deep Trump Country. Arizona Already Tried What the GOP Wants to Do to Medicaid. It Was a Disaster. How Health Care Bill Could Hurt a Program Beloved in Trump Country, the popular telemedicine program would face the axe under Medicaid cuts. Concerns over Ever Worsening Opioid Crisis Could Throw Wrench in Plans to Roll Back Medicaid, Medicaid Expansion Has Delivered Access to Addiction Treatment . Price, Hatch Contradict Mulvaney on Medicaid Cuts. Administration Reportedly ‘Encouraged” Texas to Pursue Millions in Withheld Medicaid Funds. 4 Ways You Probably Didn’t Know the Republican Bill Changes Medicaid. In Shadow of Health Law Hubbub, States Quietly Move to Reshape Medicaid on Their Own. Tom Price Reveals How Stupid He Thinks You Are in One Tweet. The GOP Has Been Trying to Change Medicaid since Reagan. 170618-7‡2, 170611-6A -7, 170528-5.1‡, 170514-1.1‡, 170507-4, 170319-5*, 170226-3↓. [Cartoon]. The lack of health insurance is not a biodisaster, it does however hinder recovery from a biodisaster, and increase the chances that a biodisaster not be detected for a longer time, giving it more of a chance to spread and cause damage, increasing the costs to contain and control.

-B. South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki has publicly declared that the link between HIV infection and AIDS is questionable. So, if they don't even know that HIV causes AIDS, we shouldn't waste money funding programs that develop drugs to fight HIV. Mbeki Was Right about HIV and Aids - Independent Researchers. Ex South African President Thabo Mbeki Stands by Controversial HIV Comments. 161204-7.2, 160313-4↓+.

-3. Thank the Erie Canal for Spreading People, Ideas and Germs Across America. The canal’s 200^th anniversary. When lots of people are using the same form of transportation, they may host invisible stowaways—germs. The first cholera epidemic in North America came from immigrants on clipper ships in 1832, and spread rapidly along the Erie Canal and into the rest of the country. During the outbreak, people were so afraid of migrants coming down the waterway that they kept boat passengers from disembarking. Smallpox and other contagious diseases spread over the canal, too. The 1832 Cholera Epidemic. Cholera Epidemics in Buffalo, NY. Sandusky to commemorate Cholera Cemetery [Sign, Sign]. [Sign, Sign, Map]. 170702-12, 170115-2↓. When it Comes to Historical Markers, Every Word Matters.

            -3.1. Planning ahead might have solved many of the problems encountered, especially interdisciplinary planning, though at the time the state of Public Health was not up to the challenge, much less the concept of collaboration between different fields. Working Together to Reduce Infection in Extreme Weather Events. Researchers have called for health professionals and climate forecasters to work more closely together ahead of extreme weather events and gradual climate change to help prevent the spread of infections. Climate Change Damages Us Economy, Increases Inequality. #Glossary: Phenology is the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors. Phenology Supports the Eco/Environmental Hypothesis for Ebola Spillover Events. [Chart, Chart, Chart, Map]. British Container Breeding Mosquitoes: The Impact of Urbanisation and Climate Change on Community Composition and Phenology. Hot, Dry Madrid Aims for a Cooler, Greener Future, Could Concrete Help Solve the Problem of Air Pollution. 4.1, 7‡↓. #Books: Preserving Biodiversity, Preventing Climate Disaster: Childish Dreams or Audacious Strategies.

↕4. Texas: First Case of Zika Virus Confirmed in Corpus Christi Area 9↓. Thailand: 11 Zika Cases Confirmed in Phichit, 27 under Watch. Vietnam: Infirmaries in HCMC Alert to Dengue Shock. Sri Lanka's Worst Ever Dengue Outbreak Kills 225. Zika: Costs of Prevention and Control. It’s important to think about the total burden that Zika poses because it isn't a disease that causes mortality like influenza for example. Zika has a very different impact and estimates are important to get a baseline understanding of what the economic consequences would be for Zika outbreaks of various sizes in those parts of the United States that are at risk. The Hidden Inequality of Mosquito Bites. [Map].

            -4.1. Removal of Invasive Shrub Could Be an Easy Way to Help Reduce Malaria Transmission. Removing the flowers of an invasive shrub from mosquito-prone areas might be a simple way to help reduce malaria transmission. Extreme Gardening to Help Tackle Malaria. [Photo, Diagram]. 3.1↑.

-5. #Book: A Plan for Raising Brilliant Kids, According to Science. "Why are traffic lights red, yellow and green". When a child asks you a question like this, you have a few options. You can shut her down with a "Just because". You can explain: "Red is for stop and green is for go". Or, you can turn the question back to her and help her figure out the answer with plenty of encouragement. This suits my bias toward how to educate children. However my own anecdote as a teacher and rising a child this is difficult to do. Children (and the adults they become) now expect to be told the answer (not wondering if the answer is correct or questioning the answer if it does not correspond to their own experience), and they know that there are easier ways that are ready made to get the answer, than to think it though themselves. Without the questioning and finding own answer skills one cannot develop independence vs dependence (which can be wrong in either the answer or thinking it was independent and individual). This includes critical thinking, recognizing errors and assumptions, scientific literacy, considering consequences of actions, knowing how to test ideas, openness to other ideas, innovation and creativity. Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us about Raising Successful Children [Cover Question, why do glasses and an open book indicate intelligence, than this one of play [Photo]. The same model is used in Parademic, not providing an answer (partly because there is no one simple answer), causing questions, including “answers” that are not marked as being incorrect. This is like using a GPS that would take you directly to a location, except after a disaster where the directions are no longer valid, data is scrambled, and one has to think though the problem of getting from now unknown point A, along now unknown route B, to reach now unknown point B. 7.1↓. Something New for Baby to Chew On: Rocket Science and Quantum Physics, [Cover]. No books yet on epidemics, climate change, human behavior, anthropocene, anthropogenic, biology, ecology, over population, evolution, toxic doses, scientific method.....

-Quote: Today, when 1 in 3 Americans would rather clean a toilet then do a math problem, when a search for “quantum physics” brings up Deepak Chopra instead of Stephen Hawking, and when the facts pointing to climate change are seen as equally compelling as a celebrity’s argument for a flat earth, we need all the help we can get. And we need to start that conversation as early as possible. – Chris Ferrie. Almost 90% of Americans Don’t Know There’s Scientific Consensus on Global Warming.

-6. Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) doctrine has now moved beyond implying that it is part of Public Health protecting against Natural Outbreaks or Manmade Hazmat. Army Issues New Counter-WMD Doctrine. Countering weapons of mass destruction is an enduring mission of the U.S. Armed forces. Counter-WMD operations are defined as actions taken “against actors of concern to curtail the research, development, possession, proliferation, use, and effects of WMD, related expertise, materials, technologies, and means of delivery. In the context of a bellicose and unstable US and North Korea this could be significant. It is a normal pattern of behavior, but this time there are similar personalities on both sides. Global nuclear warfare [Cartoon], with the possibility of bioweapons 7↓, is considered an anthropogenic biodisaster. Disease outbreaks correlate with warfare and a belligerent could facilitate an epidemic by destroying infrastructure, medical facilities, denying medical access and egress 7, 160724-8, 170226-11↓+ .170312-2.4 and in <ADDED>↓. Trump, an Untested Leader, Facing Several Key Military Crises. ¶ Interestingly this [Cartoon] was an entry in the recent Iranians Hold 'Trumpism' Cartoon Contest to Mock US Leader. It’s pretty tame when compared to versions of the same narrative wave that are in Western Media [Cartoon, Cartoon, Cartoon, Cartoon, Cartoon, Cartoon].

-‡ U.S. Confirms North Korea Fired Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, North Korea State Media Celebrates 'Gift' to 'American Bastards', U.S. Vows Tougher Action on North Korea After Missile Test, Trump Warns North Korea He's Weighing a 'Severe' Response, [Tweet], Donald Trump on North Korea’s Missile Launch: ‘Does this Guy Have Anything Better to Do’ [Cartoon]. 170226-11↓. North Korea Isn’t Crazy. It’s Insecure, Poor, and Extremely Dangerous. Trump Is Slamming China for Failing to Do More to Rein in North Korea. North Korea's Unit 180, the Cyber Warfare Cell That Worries the West, 170611-3.2↓ with ADDED links in 170702, 170625, 170618. US Cities Are Not Medically Prepared for a Nuclear Detonation, The Right Planning Now Will Save Countless Lives after a Nuclear Attack, Civil Defense Reincarnated. Bolstering Counter-WMD Capabilities in the Southeast Europe and Black Sea Region. 3.1↑. The Message Behind the Murder: North Korea’s Assassination Sheds Light on Chemical Weapons Arsenal. ¶ Vlad the Impaler [Art], What's the Environmental Impact of Modern War, The Environmental Damage of War in Iraq, Environmental Warfare: 1991 Persian Gulf War, Iraqi Commanders Say ISIS Fighters in Mosul Are Using Their Own Children as Human Shields. North Korea’s ‘Hostage Diplomacy’: Kim Uses Detained Americans as Leverage, North Korea Calls for Human Shields to Defend Kim Jong Un. July 7, 1942, Himmler Decides to Begin Medical Experiments on Auschwitz Prisoners.

            -6.1. It was not that long ago pandemic and other biodisaster were not addressed at all as a topic of Emergency Management page 14, Nightmare Scenario; A flu pandemic is coming, but when, and how bad will it be. Now it has become a norm. The previous focus was only on the sudden, acute geodisasters (fire, flood, tornado, earthquake), not slow, chronic, complex ones that cover large geographic areas and time spans (drought, famine, erosion, pollution). ¶ The Dark Side of Trump's China Trade Deal: It Could Literally Make You Sick, Chinese Chicken Headed to U.S. Supermarkets, and Food Safety Experts Are Worried + Agro-Terrorism Bill Signed by President + President’s Proposed FY2018 Budget Includes Largest Cut to Health Security Programs in More than a Decade + Congress and Farmers Are Shocked by Proposed USDA Cuts = Proliferation of Bird Flu Outbreaks Raises Risk of Human Pandemic.

-7. This Was the First Major News Article on HIV/AIDS. Thirty six years ago, the words “HIV” and “AIDS” weren’t yet invented. But what would later be known as the HIV virus was already at work in the bodies of men in New York and California, perplexing doctors who had no idea why their patients were dying. Then, in July 1981, the United States was given its first look at the mysterious illness with the first major news story to cover the emerging disease. Decades later, it’s a fascinating glimpse into the early days of the AIDS epidemic. Entitled Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals, appeared in the New York Times. At the time, gay men were dying of an unusual disease. They presented with purple spots on the skin, and their lymph nodes eventually became swollen before they died. It seemed to be cancer—but the symptoms matched a type usually only seen in very old people. The people who were dying at the time, however, were young and otherwise healthy. Doctors did not understand what was happening or whether the cancer was contagious. And as usually happens there is exploitation and denial AIDS Related Quackery and Fraud. ¶ Stigma is still considered a major roadblock for getting effective treatment to people at risk and infected with HIV/AIDS. The first glimpse of the infection’s deadly consequences is a poignant document of how confusing the epidemic was during its early days—and a reminder of just how far we’ve come. See ADDED for 170312-2.3 in •170702, •170625↓. 170611-3.1‡, 170528-5.1‡, 170521-8, 170326-*4.5, 170319-*5.3, 170312-2.3, 170220-5.3T. The White House’s New War on Drugs Could Drive up the HIV Rate.

-Quote: Those of us who live with disabilities spend a great deal of time managing the emotions other people have about our disabilities, disrupting the narratives they create about us, and struggling to be seen as our own, individual selves with complex intersectional identities. – Melissa Hillman, Disability, Expectations, and Disruption in The Glass Menagerie

-A. A Cholera Pandemic Has Raged for 56 Years. Time to Stamp it Out. Yemen is the latest victim of a cholera pandemic that began in 1961, one that could wreak havoc widely for decades to come. These Are the Appalling Conditions That Caused the Cholera Outbreak in Yemen – I Should Know, I Live Here. Cholera Spreads as War and Poverty Batter Yemen. Attacks in Syria and Yemen Are Turning Disease into a Weapon of War, to include forced migration Increased African Migration Accelerates Cholera Outbreak. 6↑, •170611-2.3↓, with ADDED in 170625. ¶ And again the parademic conspiracy theory that accompany biodisasterain , AIDS Created by the CIA, North Korea Accuses US of Spreading Ebola and Choosing Africa as a Bioweapon Testing Ground 6↑ •170219-2.3↓, Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night, Project Co ast. Bioweapons are a useful terror and propaganda tool, without having to have a bioweapon 8↓. Terrorism and Perceptions. Conspiracy Thinking and the Need for Certainty. Saudi Arabia to Blame for Yemen Cholera Outbreak, H5N1 Comment. Sudan Government Accused of Downplaying 'Cholera Outbreak'. Cholera and Conspiracy Theories in Haiti, Pat Robertson Haiti Comments Spark Uproar. Moral Panic and Pandemics.

-B. Around 2,000 Species Constantly Changing Their Home. In March, a new study published in Science magazine revealed that a major biodiversity redistribution is taking place across the world as a result of the drastic climate change. The study tracked around 4,000 species, half of which are constantly on the move. While the land animals are moving their habitable range, or home, over 10 miles (16 km) every decade, the species in sea are doing so four times faster. In California and other places, mountain plants are slowly moving downhill to find warmer temperatures.

-‡. Plants Have Unexpected Response to Climate Change, Marine Creatures Migrations Determined by Climate After All, Climate Change Could Eventually Claim a Sixth of the World’s Species, Rising Seas Could Displace More Americans than the Great Migration, Biodiversity Redistribution under Climate Change: Impacts on Ecosystems and Human Well Being, Divergence of Species Responses to Climate Change. Invasive Species Aren’t Always Unwanted. While Corals Die along the Great Barrier Reef, Humans Struggle to Adjust.

            -7.1. Pandemic Humor -2.3*^1. -3.3.2.• -3.4.2. -3.6.2. -3.6.2.• -6.1. -6.2 -7.3 -8.5. -10.2. -10.3. -10.4. -10.5. -10.5*¹. -11.7. This paper would have been far easier to read and write if it had been narrowed down to HIV, Stigma, Humor. Instead it is difficult to read and to write because it was Global about pandemic disease, Global social consequences of Disease, and Global about humor. Literally all over the map. But then that was the point. Parademic is not start here, use this route, end up here. Parademic is here is the map, weather, demographics, language, terrain, social factor, and everything else about the whole area you are going to operating in. The goal is simple, control and contain the specific biodisaster. Doing so is building a map (physical and social) of an area that at first appears to randomly change, that is until you understand it. Practicing to understand the chaos of biodisaster given one a chance of actually controlling and containing, not the current aftermath mitigation that only delays the next and larger biodisaster. 5↑. ¶ Laughter May Be an Important Tool of Evolution in part because of its social bonding the is not necessary to survival. People have built their future on shifting sand from the dawn of time, and yet they managed to find the courage to build what they knew would fall. If there is a lesson to be learned from Return to Laughter, it is that mind has power over matter. This is well summarised in the narrator's last words: "They know how to live at close quarters with tragedy, how to live with their own failures and yet laugh. Such laughter has little concern with what is funny. It is the laughter of people who value love and friendship and plenty, but who have lived with terror and death and hate". 160417-13↓.

            -7.2. #Book 1.1↑. 'Tropic of Kansas' Rips Dystopia from the Headlines [Cover]. There is nothing that happens in science fiction that is not a reflection of our own grubby reality, 161225-2↓. The present has birthed a new breed of dystopian novels, of which Tropic of Kansas is the latest. Not simple dystopia, but complicated by present reality and recognizable politics. Not nameless or alien, but very much named and very close to home. And while these books have utopian leanings, they are not happy stories. No one walks away smiling. Tropic of Kansas is like a modern dystopian buffet. It plays out in a world where all of our terrors have become manifest — climate change, wealth disparity, terrorism, an authoritarian government in power suppressing its own citizens, corporate control of everything from food to media. It is, in this particular moment in history, frighteningly prescient. ¶ During the Cretaceous, the last time Kansas was in a world of similar climate conditions it was underwater [Map, Photo, Art]. There are several recycles (narrative adapted to current purposes) of this story 6 Modern Retellings of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ [Meme, Cartoon, Poster] How Movies Teach Manhood (Video). One of the narratives of climate change denial is that there has been this much CO2 in the atmosphere before, and temperature higher than this before. Both are true, except humans came about after the mass extinction events after those conditions changed, The Last Time CO2 Was this High, Humans Didn’t Exist, Do High Levels of CO2 in the Past Contradict the Warming Effect of CO2, When's the Last Time Our Co2 Levels Were this High. <ADDED> •161225-2↓.

-8. Social Psychology and Health. Until the early part of the twentieth century biomedical researchers attended nearly exclusively to organic pathogens and assumed that: (1) disease is a deviation from normal biological functions; (2) diseases are generic and invariant over time and space; (3) medicine is a scientifically neutral profession uninfluenced by wider social. cultural, and political forces; and (4) each disease has a specific biological cause. This last assumption, known as the "doctrine of specific etiology", implied that a disease is best controlled by treating the culpable biological agent. The elimination of polio via vaccination during the 1950s dramatically epitomized the successful application of this model. As medicine has become more sophisticated over the years these assumptions come into questions. (1) Is disease abnormal or a normal biological response to external and internal environment. (2) Disease have proven to change over time and space, the basis of biology and life is evolution. (3) Medicine is not necessarily scientific, and it most certainly isn’t neutral as a field, and who it is treated by those outside the field. (4) The doctrine of specific etiology is too simplistic. Some disease/abnormal conditions have multiple causes, are non specific, complicated interactions,are on occasion unique. In other words the connection to the causative circumstances and the consequences are ambiguous and convoluted beyond untangling. This does not mean the model does not work for some diseases, such as smallpox Polio Eradication Hopes and Fears: What Next, but as the relatively simple problems are solved it encounters problems that are not as easily solved. This leads to hindering behavior when the promise of being able to cure all comes short, but rather than improve the system one side dismisses in completely, while the other becomes defensive and less likely to adapt. Sociology of Health and Illness. Open Letter to the UN's New Health Chief from “Alternative Nobel Prize” Laureates.

-A. People complicate life by unsolving solved problems, How Canadian Researchers Reconstituted an Extinct Poxvirus for $100,000 Using Mail Order DNA, Scientists Synthesize Smallpox Cousin in Ominous Breakthrough, Canadian Group Creates Poxvirus, Prompting Dual Use Discussion, Scientists Recreate an Extinct Virus, Triggering New Warnings about Controversial Research, Important Questions Global Health and Science Leaders Should Be Asking in the Wake of Horsepox Synthesis. DIY Bio: Separating Fact from Fiction. A Biodefense Failure: The National Smallpox Vaccination Program One Year Later. 26 Key Bioterrorism Jobs the Trump Administration Has Not Yet Filled. This will be used to continue the justification of maintaining smallpox samples, self inflicted bioterror, and could be a reason to assure that there is a national health insurance program for all, which is counter to current Senate GOP, White House Plan Final, Urgent Blitz to Pass (Repeal) Health Care Law [Cartoon]. 7↑. Why Obamacare’s Loudest Critics Aren’t as Loud Anymore. G.O.P. Support of Senate Health Repeal Erodes During Break. GOP Still Struggles to Sell Health Care, Heading Into Critical Week.

            -8.1. #Glossary. Definitions of terms reveal cultural assumptions, for example these medical anthropology terms that apply to Western medicine are taken from a larger list of global medical practices. In most cases Western medical practitioners would resent their practices being included with what is considered primitive, magical, non scientific, divination, souls, ghosts, ancestors and death. These terms can be applied to described practices outside of mainstream medicine, but likely will not mean the same thing. Moreover these separate definitions are not parameters of Western medicine, but synthesize the larger whole that is called Medicine.

            Biocultural approach: Derives from the field of medical anthropology . Employs cross cultural comparative strategies. Humans are holistic beings with interrelated biological and sociocultural contexts. Stresses interdependence of physiological, psychological, and social factors.

            Biomedical system: The primary ethnomedical beliefs in American society. Cartesian dualism (separation of mind and body) is a fundamental assumption. Physical reductionism, social and psychological issues are neglected or ignored. Body as machine, mechanistic view of health and illness. Doctrine of specific etiology, diseases are seen as “deviations from the norm of measurable biological (somatic) variables. Therapeutic treatments tend to isolate patients.

            Diagnosis: The act or process of identifying or determining the nature and cause of a disease.

            Efficacious: Producing or capable of producing a desired effect.

            Ethnomedicine: Traditional medicine as practiced by a particular ethnic group; folk medicine; also, the study of (non-Western) folk medical traditions and customs.

            Ethnopharmacology: Folk systems pertaining to the composition, uses, and effects of drugs.

            Etiology: Study of the cause or origin of a disease or disorder.

            Folk medical (or culture specific) syndrome: Illnesses that reflect a combination of emotional, cultural, and physical causes, usually associated with a particular culture or community

            Nosology: The classification of illnesses.

            Pathology: The anatomic or functional manifestations of a disease and/or the study of the nature of disease and its causes, processes, development, and consequences.

            Pharmacology: The science of drugs, including their composition, uses, and effects

            Physiology: The biological study of the functions of living organisms and their parts

            Psychosis: A severe mental disorder.

            Psychosomatic: Of, or relating to, a disorder having physical symptoms but originating from mental or emotional causes.

            Therapy: The treatment of illness or disability.

            -Quote: I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion. – Tom, The Glass Menagerie, Scene 1, Tennessee Williams

            -8.2. Meaningless Accelerating Scores Yield Better Performance. Seemingly any behavior can be 'gamified' and awarded digital points these days, from tracking the steps you've walked to the online purchases you've made and even the chores you've completed. Tracking behavior in this way helps to spur further action and new research shows that even meaningless scores can serve as effective motivators, as long as those scores are accelerating. Meaningless words and numbers have also appeared in parademic events as motivators, with same acceleration but showing negative trends. 170611-7, 170219-6, 161009-4.2, 160918-6, 160731-4.3↓. Desperate Demand for Ebola Treatment in Sierra Leone as 5 People Are Infected Every Hour is motivating in terms of indicating the pressing need, but is not accurate because one could have 100 cases in one hour from one area, or several days of no cases anywhere, 141005-E.23.1.1↓. Ebola Outbreak Likely Worse Than Previously Reported, [Chart], 140817-1.1 -1.4C↓. U.N. Stops Counting Dead in Syria. In a particularly grim milestone, the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has stopped updating its Syrian civil war death toll because, according to the AP, it “can no longer verify the sources of information that led to its last count of at least 100,000 in late July”; 140112-8↓, [Cartoon].

            -A. Example from 150614-M.1.1 of how numbers become confusing and contradictory. The morbidity and mortality “count” is another default. The assumption is that there is a correlation between rapidity of increase, fatalities, and how much of a problem the biodisaster will be. If people will recall in the early days of Ebola there were articles wondering why the concern over just a few cases, especially in light of diseases that killed far more. SK MERS is quickly reaching the point where numbers become meaningless, difficult to keep accurate. It is the locations that becomes more important rather than number of cases. South Korea Reports Seventh Death from MERS Virus. Eight New MERS Cases, One Death; Total Now 95. South Korea Reports Jump in MERS Cases. As MERS Outbreak Surges. South Korea Reports Two More MERS Deaths, 13 New Cases. South Korea MERS Outbreak: 9 Dead; over 2,800Quarantined, two battles: the virus (clinical/medical) and the public fear (parademic consequence). Thirteen More MERS Cases Lift Korean Outbreak Total to 108, South Korea Reports 14 New MERS Cases, Takes Total to 122. MERS Death Toll Rises to 10. S. Korea Reports 4 More MERS Cases, Bringing Total to 126. S. Korea Confirms 11^th Death from MERS. S. Korea Confirms 3 More Deaths from MERS, Total Rises to 13. 12 New MERS Cases, One Death; 138 Cases Total. Seven New MERS Cases; Total Now 145. One More S. Korean Dies of MERS, Death Toll up to 15. MERS Cases in South Korea Rise to 150 with Five More, One Death. -M.1.2. ..... Experts Fault South Korean Response to MERS Outbreak. The failure to share information quickly contributed to worsening the outbreak.

-9. In the Age of Donald Trump, Vaccine Policy Is Becoming Politicized, with Potentially Deadly Consequences. The usual stereotype of an antivaxer is a hippy dippy left wing granola cruncher. The case of Texas 4↑ shows that increasingly the antivaccine movement is right wing. Worse, it's becoming more political and harder for Republican legislators to ignore. I fear vaccine science is becoming as politicized as climate science, with results disastrous for public health. It's Never the Science Itself: Why the Right Questions Climate and Vaccines. Movement’s doubts about climate change, vaccination, and other matters of science are tied to ideas of morality and belief in limited government. Medical Ethicist: Anti-Vaxxers Are like Climate Science Deniers. President Trump Appears Poised to Betray the Antivaccine Movement Again. Suckers. ¶ In Texas at least it is possible that there is a correlation between anti-vax and anti-abortion, anti-government, Climate Change denial. In general anti-science‡. 2↑, ADDED•170611-3‡↓.

-‡. Texas Lawmakers Spar over Anti-Vaccine Measure, The Anti-Vaccination Movement Is Gaining Ground in Texas. Sweeping Texas Anti-Abortion Bill Heads to Governor as Legal Challenges Loom, Texas Bans the Safest, Most Common Abortion Procedure after 13 Weeks, [Licence Plate]. Anti-Government Patriot Groups Are Multiplying, and Texas Is Leading the Way, [Poster], Texas Republicans Have Opted Not to Secede from the United States, after All. Bill Would Allow Climate Change Denial in Texas Classrooms [Cartoon], Texas' Climate Change Deniers. [Cartoon].

↕C. Valedictorian Shocks World with Brutally Honest Graduation Speech (Video). Nothing to do with biodisaster, but everything to do about parademic, rewarding behavior that is not as beneficial.

<ADDED>

• 170702-1.1: Amish Farmer Jailed for Selling Snakeoil.
• 170702-1.1‡: A Dam Could Derail the Chesapeake Bay Cleanup|. [Cartoon, However wouldn’t an Ice Age be more of a problem than a Hot Age], Prepare to Play It Cool: Helping At Risk Populations Combat Extreme Heat|. Eroding Science Education in Florida|.
• 170702-2.2: SciFi, Dystopia, and Hope in the Age of Trump: A Fiction Roundtable.
• 170702: A Strong Car and Lots of Gas in the Garage: B.C. Residents Prepare for the Worst as Wildfire Threat Grows, another form of forced migration. California Wildfires Threaten Hundreds of Homes, Force Evacuations|.

Comment made to H5N1 July 8. From my perspective this is part of the larger trend of forced migration from sea level rise, drought, famine, war, persecution. What is of interest here is that the preparation for evacuation is taking place well before need (left of boom) rather than waiting till the last possible second and therefore being forced to leave important things behind. This indicates a normalization of expectation of having to bug out.

• 170702-6: Emergency Polio Vaccinations Considered in Raqqa Following New Report of Paralysis.
• 170702-9: Bucking Trump, These Cities, States and Companies Commit to Paris Accord. Constitutional Limits on States’ Efforts to “Uphold” the Paris Agreement. Climate Change: Frequently Asked Questions About the 2015 Paris Agreement.
• 170702-10: The Gaping, Dangerous Hole in the Trump Administration. It is beginning to look like President Donald Trump is willing to govern without any in house science advisors, a decision which could hinder not only his agenda but also the White House's ability to respond in times of crisis. ¶ Fun site to practice evaluating if news is from a real source, or a fake one Factitious.
• 170625-5: Decision by Europe’s Top Court Alarms Vaccine Experts. Vaccine Liability and Causation: Has Europe Gone Overboard|.
• 170625-C.1: Is a Chart Lying to You. This Video Has Some Tips to Figure it Out. 2↑. Degrees of Maybe: How We Can All Make Better Predictions. Superforecasters view prediction as a skill that can be cultivated. They fall prey to a range of biases less often. They're humble. And they're willing to change their minds when faced with new information.
• 170618-3.1‡: G19 Nations Affirm Climate Plan, Acknowledging U.S. Withdrawal. Trump Isolated Again as G-20 Witnesses U.S. Slowly Detaching. Germany's Merkel: 'I Deplore' U.s. Leaving Climate Accord. Merkel’s Husband Is Sending Ivanka and Melania Trump to Learn About Climate Change. A Landmark Climate Lawsuit Against Trump Is Scheduled for Trial next Year. Here’s What to Expect. US Tangles With the World Over Climate Change at G20. World’s Insect Leaders Attend G20,000,000,000 Summit. Trump Hails G20 as Wonderful Success. G20 Summit: Act Now in the Fight Against Epidemics|.
• 170618-8: A Worthy Legacy of the Ebola Catastrophe. (170702)
• 170611-3‡: #Book Google: Where Everybody Tells the Truth. In Everybody Lies [Cover, Meme], a look at search engines as the new confessional. Intelligence can be defined as putting what you know together with what you also know, and learning something you didn’t know*. Big Data has four “powers” that make it a very useful tool (and weapon) for all kinds of purposes. 1) It offers up new types of data. 2) The honesty of the data. 3) Capability to zoom in on small subsets of people (information). Dr. John Snow, the 19^th century London physician who mapped the homes of cholera victims during an outbreak and traced their cases to a single contaminated water pump. Today, on a much larger scale, we can now zoom in on “doppelgängers” people very similar to one another in the books they buy or the diseases they contract. 4) Ability to do Causal Experiments [Chart, Chart]. The weakness of this experimental method is that there can be false correlations, correlation is not cause, [Chart, Strip, Strip, Cartoon, Chart, Cartoon]. Outbreak of Hantavirus Infections Kills Three in Washington State, the only common factor among those infected by the disease, which typically kills more than a third of its victims, is that they were all exposed to infected mice.

H5N1 July 07, 2017 at 08:32 AM

Another Book to add to my reading list. Noted that your article did not say how the Big Data problem of false correlation is handled. BTW your post US: Outbreak of hantavirus infections kills three in Washington state is an example of using big data which helped identify the potential reservoirs and then specifically verified by lab tests that found the same pathogen in mice and men.

* This is the intent of Pandemic. To link two of more bits of information so that a third bit of information is inferred or becomes discernible from the synthesized collation of the bits of information to its larger assemblage. [Cartoon, Puzzle, Cartoon, Cartoon]. 170618-7*↓.

• 170611-C.2: How a Civil War Era Law Is Being Used to Punish Scientific Fraudsters, 170625-5↑.
• 170604-C.1: Billionaire Physician to Take over 6 California Hospitals|.
• 170430-1.2: Meet the Fossil Fuel All Stars Trump Has Appointed to His Administration.
• 170326-5.1: The Search for Spiritual Meaning in Harry Potter podcasts about Harry Potter_(Search) (Moral Panic)_(Search) have become one of the most successful religious messages now circulating in America, Ms Rowling when asked if she was a Christian: “Yes, I am, which seems to offend the religious right far worse than if I thought there was no God”|.
• 170326-4.2A*: An unintended consequence is that Our Aging Scientific Workforce Raises Concerns which will not be replaced by the “native” population and will require immigration. Not a problem for those who are anti-science anyway. Immigration Officials Threaten to Remove Two Houston Surgeons, Houston Doctors Facing Removal by Immigration Granted Temporary Stay. Hospitals Rush to Get Accelerated Visas for Foreign Medical Residents. Immigrant Physicians: Why Are They Vital for U.S. Healthcare. After Trump’s Immigration Crackdown, a Desert Clinic Tries to Save Lives Without Breaking the Law. Beyond “To Close or Not to Close” Rural Hospitals.
• 170312-2.4: Bunker Sales Spike as Some Prepare for Worst Amid Uncertainty. The Trump administration has been a boon to his bottom line. Orders for survival shelters have doubled amid political uncertainty. During the Obama administration our sales went up 250 percent. In the Trump administration in the past month our sales probably went up 500 percent. Meet the Doomsday Prepper Making Millions Selling Bomb Shelters to People Afraid of Trump. Bunkers for the 0.003 Percent another perspective that Continuity of Government (COG) is in basic conflict with protection of the population. 6↑, 170220-8.2 -8.3, 170129-9.1↓+.
• 170305-13: Corpse Hotels Are in Demand in Japan. 160501-10 is the actual stub about the Corpse Hotel. That however is not in this public forum. Copy can be requested from the curator.
• 170219-2.3: Bill Gates: Bioterrorism Could Kill More than Nuclear War - but No One Is Ready to Deal with it. Bill Gates Warns of Epidemic That Could Kill over 30 Million People, When Nature is a Terrorist. Ignore Bill Gates: Where Bioweapons Focus Really Belongs. The world’s richest man thinks terrorists with bioweapons could kill 30 million people. He’s wrong.
• 161225-2: Star Wars Has Always Been Political. Here's Why the Alt Right Is Claiming Otherwise. Adopting a Sci-Fi Way of Thinking about the Future. If Isaac Asimov Had Named the Smartphone, He Might Have Called it the “Pocket Computer Mark II”. In a Topsy Turvy World, China Warms to SciFi. 170220-6.6.