The Frontiers Of Medical Privacy – Forbes www.forbes.com
Every time I think the lunacy that is becoming pervasive in America has gone as far as it can, I am again astounded by another extension of instability of thought.
This article attempts to conflate the effort of researchers to use cellular material harvested from an African America woman during a cancer treatment procedure, with involuntary sterilizations that were done through bigotry and ignorance earlier in history. I’m sick of people just playing the race card for everything.
To what end? To justify that her heirs are in some way due compensation for the gains that these cells have brought? A number of different people’s cells were used to ultimately develop the standard cellular culture lines used in gaining a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of cancer by those who sought a cure.
Tissues excised during these procedures was mostly discarded. For some reason, the people trying to cure Mrs. Lack’s found her cells viable in culture and used them to further their research. Somehow this author believes this was akin to forced involuntary sterilization? The author fails to state that Mrs. Lacks was not the only woman who’s cells went on to become the basis for cell culture standard lines. Many races did so.
We now live in a world where, among a number of lunacies, people have come to a belief that individual cells, harvested from an individual, that are then manipulated and then grown as pure cultures of the same individual cells in a Petrie Dish for research are still the personal property of the person who donated them?
The second, and frankly even more absurd argument, is that the genome in the cell somehow is analogous to a personal diary of private information. Somehow having a line of cells that shares her genome would impart personal and private information that her family may not want to impart. Of course the questions as to what potential harm is left unanswered. Something else that the author does not say is that most of the original cell strains, started at the beginning of the cell culture revolution, are no longer viable. They have found that in general cell cultures have a limited life span because as the cells reproduce they also age. After so many replications their viability dies out. This finding led to the current understanding of the role of parts of the genetic structure located at the end of the strand, called telomeres, that acts as a kind of cellular time clock. Each time a cell replicates part of the telomere is lost. Eventually the telomeres are gone and the cell no longer can reproduce.
Finally, while these cultures started as pure cultures of specific cells, they themselves have shown mutations over the generations and may no longer be so genetically pure.
As I said at the outset, I am continually astounded at who far we have come from any form of common sense in the search for things to complain about either for money or simply to seek some higher order of political correctness!
U.S. Senate Approves Proposed Internet Sales Tax | TechCrunch — techcrunch.com
No amount, or scope, of taxes are ever enough for progressives, in the current historical context Democrats but like could have been said for Republicans once upon a time. In this vote some Republicans also joined in to vote yea.
A national sales tax has been the holy grail of taxation for many years in progressive circles. This internet tax represents their best chance to capture more “revenue” for the government to give back to us in the form of subsidies and programs that will do little other than raise costs in businesses, making them less competitive on the world market–we already hold the bottom position–and provide false pricing letting us believe that we actually can afford the products in the first place. Thus, this is simply continuing the false sense of entitlement endemic in our current society.
All of this serves only one purpose, enhancing and extending the viability of the professional political class we have allowed to develop in the once “land of the free and home of the brave.”
CDC: 105 children died during flu season in US —www.foxnews.com
The overall evidence on flu vaccinations is a statistical mess. While there is convincing evidence that flu vaccines work, like most of healthcare data, it is not near 100% that really sees benefits from these vaccines and some actually see negative outcomes from vaccinations.
We mythically believe that healthcare and medicines are universally effective, meaning that they work for everyone, but this never has been the case. Historically the average benefit from medications are seen in only 65% of the population. In the rest, they find no benefit or negative outcomes.
I attended a conference in Palm Springs about 10 years ago called the BioAgenda Conference. At that conference the red flag was raised as a warning that there would be no more blockbuster drugs because the low hanging fruit was picked and the new drugs would have declining effectiveness and increasing side effects. 10 years later this is exactly what we are seeing.
This study indicates that about 100 children in the US died from the flu this season. This is typical. The article continues to make the statement that 90% of the children that died were not vaccinated. Yet it does not say what percentage of the population was vaccinated in the first place. You cannot draw the conclusion that the non-vaccinated were at any higher risk if much of the population did not get vaccinated in the first place, as an example. With the exception of epidemic years, about 100 have died each year, and we know that the vaccination rates have dropped off in the past few years for a variety of reasons, side effects of the vaccine being just one of them.
The efficacy rate of flu vaccines has varied widely. In some years it is a bit higher and in some years quite low. This is because the vaccine is prepared in advance, betting on what strains will be the main ones in the following year and also betting that the strain has not significantly mutated and will remain susceptible, both often problematic assumptions.
Underlying all of this is one of the biggest problems we have in our healthcare system. We believe that these are all highly effective cures. And in creasing numbers their effectiveness is failing and the unintended consequences growing.
