Who is falling down on the job?
How long must one wait?
Now that the healthcare vote is over, and the peripheral fuss, such as the non-existent cursing and spitting hasn't really packed a wallop, where the heck is the next crisis???
How long must the American public wait?
While we're waiting, how about the reassurance of a trip down memory lane:
1. Heterosexual Aids A quarter of a century after the outbreak of Aids, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has accepted that the threat of a global heterosexual pandemic has disappeared. Threat of world Aids pandemic among heterosexuals is over, report admits - Health News, Health & Families - The Independent
2. Killer African Bees Killer bees are nothing more than a hyped-up scam foisted on the public to milk federal research dollars, a group of southern Arizona Beesource Beekeeping Some Beekeepers Believe Killer Bees are Fraud
3. Swine Flu? Richard Schabas, Ontario's former chief medical officer of health, said in an interview yesterday that the first wave of the virus this spring was not as dire as expected, and the number of people infected in the Southern Hemisphere, now in the middle of its regular flu season, is nowhere as bad as feared. H5N1: Canadian health expert: Swine flu panic overblown
a. The H1N1 influenza outbreak, which began in April last year, was marked by controversies over whether the WHO and public health authorities had exaggerated the risks of H1N1 and created unnecessary alarm by declaring it a 'pandemic'. The WHO has also been criticised for its pandemic alert system that focuses on geographical spread of the outbreak rather than its severity, and on alleged conflicts of interests between health officials and experts and vaccine makers. It remains unclear whether H1N1 has been more deadly than seasonal flu, which kills thousands of people each year, but it is clearly milder than some of the 20th century pandemics in which millions died. Independent experts to review pandemic handling - WHO - Yahoo! Asia News
4. Mad Cow Disease [Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)] However, a fair review of the evidence from Britain and France indicates that the threat to human health from BSE in the United States is minimal. ?Mad Cow?: Is the Media Milking an Overblown Threat? | CEI
5. Bird Flu was about to jump from chickens to humans. Doomsday predictions about bird flu seem to be spreading faster than the virus itself. But a small group of skeptics say the bird flu hype is overblown and ultimately harmful to the publics health. Theres no guarantee bird flu will become a pandemic, and if it does theres no guarantee it will kill millions of people. Skeptics warn bird flu fears are overblown - Bird Flu- msnbc.com
6. "SARS is a media circus more than a medical crisis." Letter From Hong Kong - SARS Threat Overblown - NAM
7. Silicone gel implants were taken off the market in 1992 amidst fears that they could be linked to cancer, autoimmune and connective tissue disorders (such as lupus). But since the FDA approved their use again in 2006 many women and their surgeons have opted to use them rather than the implants filled with saline (salt water). Silicone breast implants: Are they safe? - Your Health
8. Y2K taught us lessons that will always be applicable: Dont believe everything the experts tell you, and be especially skeptical of worst-case predictions for technology . Some Perspective 5 Years After Y2K - Security from eWeek
9. during the early 1990s a massive cholera outbreak in Latin America caused 10,000 deaths as a result of countries refusing to use chlorine to disinfect water supplies because of the labeling of chlorine as a carcinogen by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Milloy SJ. Junk Science Judo - Self-Defense Against Health Scares and Scams. The Cato Institute, Washington, DC, 2001, p. 1.
10. in 1975 research showed a cancer-causing effect of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in rats. The ensuing panic led to the 1976 federal law banning their production. In 1999, the same researcher found no association with human cancer. But the federal law remains in force. Junk Science Judo by Steven J. Milloy
11. According to Marjorie Mazel Hecht and [San Jose State University] professor J. Gordon Edwards at 21st Century Home Page, DDT is safe and indeed saved and can save human lives, and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring is full of lies. According to them, the banning of DDT was politically motivated and went against the majority of scientific opinion . No one has conclusively proved that DDT can give you cancer. The Straight Dope: Was Rachel Carson a fraud and is DDT actually safe for humans?
[For other crises, consider radon and drinking coffee]
12. Global Warming Can you google 'East Anglia'?
As H. L. Menken said,
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
How long must one wait?
Now that the healthcare vote is over, and the peripheral fuss, such as the non-existent cursing and spitting hasn't really packed a wallop, where the heck is the next crisis???
How long must the American public wait?
While we're waiting, how about the reassurance of a trip down memory lane:
1. Heterosexual Aids A quarter of a century after the outbreak of Aids, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has accepted that the threat of a global heterosexual pandemic has disappeared. Threat of world Aids pandemic among heterosexuals is over, report admits - Health News, Health & Families - The Independent
2. Killer African Bees Killer bees are nothing more than a hyped-up scam foisted on the public to milk federal research dollars, a group of southern Arizona Beesource Beekeeping Some Beekeepers Believe Killer Bees are Fraud
3. Swine Flu? Richard Schabas, Ontario's former chief medical officer of health, said in an interview yesterday that the first wave of the virus this spring was not as dire as expected, and the number of people infected in the Southern Hemisphere, now in the middle of its regular flu season, is nowhere as bad as feared. H5N1: Canadian health expert: Swine flu panic overblown
a. The H1N1 influenza outbreak, which began in April last year, was marked by controversies over whether the WHO and public health authorities had exaggerated the risks of H1N1 and created unnecessary alarm by declaring it a 'pandemic'. The WHO has also been criticised for its pandemic alert system that focuses on geographical spread of the outbreak rather than its severity, and on alleged conflicts of interests between health officials and experts and vaccine makers. It remains unclear whether H1N1 has been more deadly than seasonal flu, which kills thousands of people each year, but it is clearly milder than some of the 20th century pandemics in which millions died. Independent experts to review pandemic handling - WHO - Yahoo! Asia News
4. Mad Cow Disease [Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)] However, a fair review of the evidence from Britain and France indicates that the threat to human health from BSE in the United States is minimal. ?Mad Cow?: Is the Media Milking an Overblown Threat? | CEI
5. Bird Flu was about to jump from chickens to humans. Doomsday predictions about bird flu seem to be spreading faster than the virus itself. But a small group of skeptics say the bird flu hype is overblown and ultimately harmful to the publics health. Theres no guarantee bird flu will become a pandemic, and if it does theres no guarantee it will kill millions of people. Skeptics warn bird flu fears are overblown - Bird Flu- msnbc.com
6. "SARS is a media circus more than a medical crisis." Letter From Hong Kong - SARS Threat Overblown - NAM
7. Silicone gel implants were taken off the market in 1992 amidst fears that they could be linked to cancer, autoimmune and connective tissue disorders (such as lupus). But since the FDA approved their use again in 2006 many women and their surgeons have opted to use them rather than the implants filled with saline (salt water). Silicone breast implants: Are they safe? - Your Health
8. Y2K taught us lessons that will always be applicable: Dont believe everything the experts tell you, and be especially skeptical of worst-case predictions for technology . Some Perspective 5 Years After Y2K - Security from eWeek
9. during the early 1990s a massive cholera outbreak in Latin America caused 10,000 deaths as a result of countries refusing to use chlorine to disinfect water supplies because of the labeling of chlorine as a carcinogen by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Milloy SJ. Junk Science Judo - Self-Defense Against Health Scares and Scams. The Cato Institute, Washington, DC, 2001, p. 1.
10. in 1975 research showed a cancer-causing effect of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in rats. The ensuing panic led to the 1976 federal law banning their production. In 1999, the same researcher found no association with human cancer. But the federal law remains in force. Junk Science Judo by Steven J. Milloy
11. According to Marjorie Mazel Hecht and [San Jose State University] professor J. Gordon Edwards at 21st Century Home Page, DDT is safe and indeed saved and can save human lives, and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring is full of lies. According to them, the banning of DDT was politically motivated and went against the majority of scientific opinion . No one has conclusively proved that DDT can give you cancer. The Straight Dope: Was Rachel Carson a fraud and is DDT actually safe for humans?
[For other crises, consider radon and drinking coffee]
12. Global Warming Can you google 'East Anglia'?
As H. L. Menken said,
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
