Biden Admin Flouts Covid 19 Origins Law — Misses Law-imposed Deadline; Censors Info Detailing Links Between Wuhan Institute of Virology and Covid-19 Pandemic

Impeachment is only remedy for willful law-breaking by Joe Biden

Commentary

Update: "The Biden admin has released a summary of US intelligence on the links between China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology and COVID-19. But by not revealing the names of the WIV scientists who fell ill in November 2019, President Biden is in violation of the law he signed."
— Michael Shellenberger
 

The Biden presidency shows defining features of its administration this June: Arrogance, and a tendency to deceive.

Now, Joe Biden has veered into intentional law-breaking, in defiance of an unanimously passed act of Congress enacted to deter this administration's lack of candor and transparency on the most deadly Pandemic in United States history.

The latest illustration concerns the COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023, unanimously passed by Congress last Spring, and signed into law by President Biden March 20, 2003, under heavy political pressure.

The COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023 is an exacting law, that demands administration release by deadline, June 19, 2023, of facts pertaining to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), including links to the origin of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The Biden administration missed the June 19, 2023 release deadline, with no public comment.

The COVID-19 Act's demands include Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) scientists' names, dates of events and even specific symptoms of three WIV researchers who reportedly fell ill with Covid 19 in Nov. 2019 —  Ben Hu, Yu Ping, and Yan Zhu.

These three WIV researchers were the first three people to contract COVID-19, the long-sought patients zero, a fact kept secret by the administration, but made public by intelligence leaks to Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi and Alex Gutentag in the journal, Public.

On Friday night, June 23, five days after the law mandates, the administration released a summary of what it claims are its finding, consisting of information already in the public domain, clearly violating the letter of the law.

The administration claims reasons of "national security" may impact the administration's compliance with the law, stating, Biden will "share as much of that information as possible, consistent with my constitutional authority to protect against the disclosure of information that would harm national security," in his March 20, 2030 White House signing Statement by the President on S. 619, the COVID-⁠19 Origin Act of 2023.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) June 23, 2023 press release is reproduced below:

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) today released “The Potential Links Between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Origin of the COVID-19 Pandemic” report.

The COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023 required the Intelligence Community to declassify information relating to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ODNI submitted the report to Congress, and it can be viewed here.

#

As this response by the Biden administration is obviously flouting the law, one hopes House Republicans begin steps towards an impeachment.

Michael Shellenberger's immediate response is below:

The Biden admin has released a summary of US intelligence on the links between China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology and COVID-19. But by not revealing the names of the WIV scientists who fell ill in November 2019, President Biden is in violation of the law he signed. pic.twitter.com/CU4S57PJoM

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) June 24, 2023

Biden Is Breaking The Law By Not Releasing Intel On COVID-19 Origins

White House releases old material on a Friday night, days after deadline had passed

On Friday night, President Joe Biden’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released to Congress a 10-page…

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) June 24, 2023

Republicans Go Full-Crazy as Entire GOP Congressional Delegation Votes Against COVID-19 Relief

Not a single Republican has cast a vote for COVID relief in 2021
as the world enters the second year of the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Update: House passes American Rescue Plan with no Republican votes, March 10.
--
There is plenty of cause to feel betrayed by the Biden administration ranging from its rejection of student loan forgiveness, minimum wage surrender, to chopping promised survival checks.

But the entire Republican Party congressional delegation has just issued a resounding 'no' to every small business, American family and school suffering under the worst pandemic in modern history. 

News that the Republicans did not muster a single vote on Feb 27 for Joe Biden's $1.9-Trillion American Rescue Plan shows the Grand Ole Party pursuing not just crazy, destructive policy, but also suicidal politics (H. R. 1319 Roll Call).

Biden's bill also provides critical funding "to dramatically increase our country’s sequencing, surveillance, and outbreak analytics capacity at the levels demanded by the crisis," in a nod to virus mutations and evolution, both processes as real and predictable as the misery and devastation already inflicted (White House).

What Republicans are doing is madness unrivaled, and worthy of comparisons to crazed religious states the world-over.

"It is worth sitting and actually considering how completely insane it is the COVID relief package passed the House of Representatives without a single Republican vote," said Saagar Enjeti of The Hill. "You might think this is just Washington politics as usual. But it actually shows how completely out-of-step the GOP is today with the general population."

Enjeti notes that 76 percent of the American people support the American Rescue Plan, including 60 percent of Republicans and 70 percent of independents (Williams, Morning Consult Poll).

So why wouldn't Republicans want to help with this crisis?

Because, seriously, the GOP is a crazy party.

If this band of anti-social nutcases were around in 1955, they would have opposed the Polio Vaccine, and if this same gang were alive in 1796, they would have branded Edward Jenner and the Small Pox Vaccine as liars and lies.

Meanwhile, the Republicans continue even to advocate against wearing masks, much less federal help.

In Wisconsin, vulnerable neighbors are effectively asking neighbors not to kill them in advocacy for masks and personal hygienic practices, (WKOW-TV, Facebook). Receptions to pleas on local media and social media have been warm and sympathetic, with the exception of the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

This is crazy time right at the moment when we as a country can least afford it.

From The Hill:

Bernie Sanders on Covid 19 Crisis — A Time for Us

Bernie Sanders has convened round-tables and launched majer addresses offering a comprehensive, unprecedented response to this unprecedented crisis.

Small business, families and single Americans should count as the foundation that must be secured as we build up to protect our nation from this economic and health catastrophe,

Massive unemployment, unprecedented business failure, markets plummeting come with a wide expectation that this crisis will become much worse before it gets better.

This is an unprecedented moment and we have got to think in an unprecedented way. Join our livestream on the coronavirus response with @aoc, @IlhanMN, and @RashidaTlaib, featuring musical guests including @grandson. https://t.co/8Dec4SEd20

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 22, 2020

Some of my Republican colleagues are calling for a $1,000, one-time check to Americans.

Really?

That'll last you two or three weeks. What happens after that?

We need to give every person in this country $2,000 a month for the duration of this crisis.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 23, 2020

Schumer, Pelosi and Trump — they're basically the same and Schumer and Pelosi are as hostile to Bernie's New Deal as they are of anything coming from the administration.

Never have we had a a people's activist front-and-center, ideally prepared for this moment in history.

Suspend the rules of capitalism. 30% unemployment isn't a situation you can bootstrap or free market your way out of. #rising Full here: https://t.co/QU27IRxuhy pic.twitter.com/Jhlr5jN1hJ

— Krystal Ball (@krystalball) March 23, 2020

Roubini: Work for a U-shaped Recovery, Embrace Universal Stimulus

Economic and Political Disaster in Offing

Update: Congressional Dems Are to the Right of the GOP. The party’s leadership is failing the test posed by the coronavirus.
---Madison, Wisconsin — Professional-service office buildings, malls, and many streets made this area look like a ghost town this morning as policy governing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is implemented.

Folks are working from home, shopping malls are temporarily closed, in accordance with Gov. Evers' order prohibiting mass gatherings of 10 or more people, effective March 17​, 2020. [Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, Executive Orders]

Much business is coming to a halt, and small business owners across the nation are looking to an uncertain future as the speed and scope of the economic crisis creates fear and uncertainty.

Proposed emergency paid sick leave, emergency Family and Medical Leave and payroll tax credits don't appear to approach even half-measures as the staggering unemployment claims nationwide signal economic catastrophe.

Famed economist Nouriel Roubini joins Bernie Sanders and the Trump administration in advocating that Congress give $1,000 to "every single U.S. resident" fast to stave off a depression, for a start, (Yahoo Finance).

The world will have a severe recession. What Congress does will determine how long this recession will last.

Why Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are playing games is mystifying, but it does reveal how out-of-touch the Democratic Party is. What are these two waiting for?

Nothing, not even a global economic crisis, can induce neo-liberals to act in the national interest.

2 conditions 4 economy & markets 2 stop free falling & start a U-shape recovery (forget V delusions):1. Control radically pandemics contagion. 2. Massive fiscal stimulus that is monetized. EU & US woefully behind the curve on 1. & 2 is only talk 4 now! So expect more crash today!

— Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) March 18, 2020

Consider this: An U-shaped recession is an optimistic scenario.

See also Michael Brooks on Rising, below.

Sanders, Trump Are Pushing $1,000-plus Cash Payments to People; Biden, Pelosi, Schumer Are Opposed or Silent

Democratic Leadership Mired in Total Failure

Update: Congressional Dems Are to the Right of the GOP. The party’s leadership is failing the test posed by the coronavirus.
---
Want more evidence Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer do not give care about you?

Democratic leader Schumer criticizes Trump's call for $1,000 checks https://t.co/mVQvz85f69

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 19, 2020

I truly don't know how to describe how maddening it is that Republicans and Trump officials are to the left of Congressional Dem leadership on this issue. Absolutely fucking maddening. pic.twitter.com/qz55vvyzih

— jordan (@JordanUhl) March 18, 2020

Joe Biden is asleep at the switch, finding a Joe Biden quote, any position, on the Trump and Sanders-proposed $1,000-plus payments to Americans is impossible.

Nothing.

From Saagar Enjeti and Krystal Ball at Rising:



Reports the Los Angeles Times: "On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said the federal government was looking into 'sending checks to Americans immediately' as part of a $1-trillion stimulus proposal from the Trump administration to combat the negative impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the economy."

And it's the Democratic Party establishment that are holding up relief during this crisis.

From CommonDreams:

'Nancy Pelosi is officially to the right of Tom Cotton on economic support for American families,' HuffPost reporter Zach Carter tweeted on Sunday. 'This is a total failure of Democratic Party leadership.'

Pelosi's deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill on Twitter Tuesday emphasized that any aid 'MUST be targeted' for the Speaker to approve it, drawing further anger from the left. 'Why?' asked New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie. 'If we agree that the crisis is stark and immediate, and we know that precise targeting takes time and administrative effort, why make that a requirement when you can simply disburse the funds *now* and collect from high-income recipients *later*?'

New Consensus president Saikat Chakrabarti was flabbergasted at Pelosi's resistance to payments for all Americans.

'This crazy obsession in Dem leadership with looking 'reasonable' by not 'doing too much' is about as impractical and insane as you can get in the face of a pandemic,' Chakrabarti tweeted.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, has proposed a $2 trillion package including direct payments to Americans.

Journalist Walker Bragman on Wednesday noted the absurdity of Trump being closer to Sanders on relief than Democratic leadership. 

Democrats do not care about you, and never have. How can we doubt it now?

"We must provide direct, emergency $2,000 cash payments to every person in America every month for the duration of the crisis. We are likely already in a recession. Workers are losing income while their bills pile up. We must begin issuing cash payments of $2,000 a month for every person in America to provide households with the assistance they need to pay their bills and take care of their families," writes Bernie Sanders today in an email.

Emergency $2,000 cash payments to every person?

No, says the Democratic Party.

Sanders and Trump Admin Call for Cash Payments Amid Biden Silence and Primary Wins

VIX fear-volatility remains near record-high.

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — Following Joe Biden's sweep of last night's primary elections, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Sen. Bernie Sanders are issuing urgent calls for direct cash payments for Americans.

"We need to provide a direct emergency $2,000 cash payment to every household in America every month for the duration of the crisis to provide them with the assistance they need to pay their bills and take care of their families," Sanders said, (Newsweek).

Mnuchin and Bernie Sanders are singing the same song on a massive federal governmental response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the unofficial U.S. recession, both of which are unpredictable in their severity and duration.

Joe Biden's views on the stimulus are unclear to this point.

We are likely already in a recession.

Workers are losing income while their bills pile up.

We need to provide direct, emergency $2,000 cash payments to every person in America every month for the duration of the crisis.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 18, 2020

Yet, Biden is racking up win after win on the campaign trail.

Personally, I would not trust anything Joe Biden has to say on the global economic crisis anymore than I trusted Biden on the secret weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the moral imperative for mass incarceration and marijuana criminalization, cutting Social Security and the moral primacy of banks over people.

On the campaign front, the presidential race is shaping up as Bernie Sanders and the Trump administration v. Joe Biden and the neo-libs whose 40-year project brought us this outcome.

And on policy, the Trump administration and Bernie Sanders are leading the fight for working families.

Meanwhile, the markets are in for another volatile session today.

So, Biden has been running on parables and lies, not-on-point.

VIX

The VIX index measures fear and expected volatility of investors, offering an educated guess on the next 30-day period of the CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) and S and P 500 Index.

The VIX functions as a red flag revealing market psychology and pathology.

The higher the VIX, the more the volatility and fear.

The VIX is at trading at $75.91 on March 18, 2020, 10:10 Eastern Time.
 ---
On October 24, 2008, the nightmare of 2008, the VIX reached a day-high record of 89.53.

Wisconsin's Pioneering Public Health and Zoonotic Disease Research Position World for Coronavirus Pandemic

 Dr. Christopher Olsen chats about Wisconsin's public
health surveillance system, Zoonotic disease
research and interdisciplinary approach to addressing
pandemics developed at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, in a public address
in 2009.

Zoonotic, animal-to-human diseases like the Coronavirus disease 2019, and public health were focus of pioneering research at University Madison, Wisconsin labs

Madison, Wisconsin — Gov. Tony Evers declared a public health emergency in response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic this week.

As the world contends with this novel (new) Coronavirus, health surveillance programs alerting medical professionals and policymakers to disease threats are working as envisioned here 70 years ago, (Centers for Disease Control Control and Prevention, World Heath Organization, UW–Madison Current Zoonatic Disease Experts).

Wisconsin has the best statewide health surveillance, and it's no accident.

The state's public research and public health investments made over generations at UW-Madison laid the ground to establish a sophisticated public health system, notes Dr. Christopher Olsen, Department of Pathobiological Sciences, at a lecture in Madison in April 2009.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

As authorities are notified of health information and guidance today, the public can be confident scientists and public health professionals work in a high-minded, effective system built on the commitment to public research for the public that flowered here.

This state of affairs is an achievement of which Wisconsinites are proud.

UW-Madison Public Research

Scientists here also discovered that "genetic mixing" of viruses causes Zoonotic Diseases - "diseases caused by infectious agents that can be transmitted between (or are shared by) animals and humans," (Dr. Christopher Olsen) - a process in which animals act as intermediate host of viruses that can be transmitted to human beings.

These virus-mixing hosts provide a "phenomenally powerful way of generating genetic diversity," mutations that sometimes can lead to the creation of viruses that are destructive to human beings, said Dr. Olsen.

The emergence of new disease occurs as ecological, sociological  and environmental conditions change, notes Dr. Olsen, pointing to the insight and work of Robert Paul Hanson, an eminent UW-Madison research scientist, (1949-1987).

Write Thomas M Yuill and B. C. Easterday, cited by Olsen

Bob Hanson insisted that we should expect to see the emergence of new diseases as ecological and environmental conditions and host populations change. He operated on the basic premise that infectious agents must be viewed and attacked holistically because they are components of the ecosystems in which their hosts live. He recognized that no one person had all the expertise required to understand the natural history of diseases, and he was a champion of interdisciplinary team approaches. The problems on which he focused were always real ones that originated in nature, (Page 140, Robert Paul Hanson. National Academy of Sciences. 1996. Biographical Memoirs: V.70. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.)

Thanks to the work of UW-Madison and scientists like Dr. Hanson, Olsen and many other generous minds in Wisconsin history, the world is more prepared for the outbreak of emerging disease like Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) than at any point in human history.

Below is video of lecture at University Place by Dr. Chris Olsen held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus on April 17, 2009. Lecture is titled, "Influenza: A Disease at the Interface of Animals and Human Beings."

Wisconsin's Premier Public Health Surveillance System Produces Large Numbers in Outbreak Reports

The feel-good, holiday video for the ages: Dr. Christopher
Olsen chats about Wisconsin's public health surveillance system
and Zoonotic disease research at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison in 2009. Outgoing Wisconsin
Republicans did not destroy these treasures. This is
cause to celebrate.

Madison, Wisconsin — As humanity contends with the 2018-19 flu season, there is a man-made system that should be hailed: Wisconsin's model public health surveillance program that alerts medical professionals and policymakers to disease threats like Legionnaires’ disease and the flu.

Wisconsin has the best statewide health surveillance, and it's no accident.

The state's public research and public health investments made over generations and spurred on by liberal, secular types at UW-Madison laid the scientific ground to establish a sophisticated public health system, notes Dr. Christopher Olsen, Department of Pathobiological Sciences, at a lecture in Madison in April 2009.

Flooding disasters across the nation this year likely has people here guessing about a causal relationship between recent Legionnaires’ disease cases in Madison and the catastrophic flooding in Madison — a worthy question that generates a reassuring answer.

There is no cause to jump the gun about this hypothetical health problem.

"Legionella bacteria can cause a serious type of pneumonia (lung infection) called Legionnaires’ disease. The bacteria can also cause a less serious illness called Pontiac fever," the CDC notes. "People can get sick when they breathe in mist or accidentally swallow water into the lungs containing Legionella. Most people exposed to Legionella do not get sick. However, people 50 years or older, current or former smokers, and people with a weakened immune system or chronic disease are at increased risk."

The number of Wisconsin's reported cases of disease is always higher than the average state's because our health surveillance systems work better than most.

In June 2009, Wisconsin's H1N1 (Swine Flu) reported cases comprised 19 percent of all confirmed cases of the entire nation. Wisconsin is that good at identifying and reporting public health threats.

Outgoing Gov. Scott Walker (R) and the Republicans have not managed to destroy or degrade Wisconsin's health surveillance system.

But the Republicans did try to remove public service and the search for truth from the University of Wisconsin System mission, a mission that ultimately resulted in today's health surveillance system.

As the state is notified of health news, Wisconsin can be confident scientists and public health professionals work together in a high-minded ethical system to stay on top of health concern.

This state of affairs is an achievement of which Wisconsinites can be proud, no matter the senseless Republican Party's vandalism of the last eight years.

Wisconsin Pollution Permits, Already Weak, Left to Expire by State Water Protectors

Protecting our lifeblood. Citizens rally at Wisconsin capitol in
February 2017. Hundreds more expected March 15, 2017 to
oppose water give-away bills (Senate Bill 76, Assem Bill 105)
pushed by Wisconsin Republicans,
(Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors)

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — When viewing disasters from afar like typhoons striking third-world countries, we flip the channel.

Who wants to see the break-downs of safe water and sanitation systems, and depictions of fecal vectors carrying zoonotic bacterial disease, for example.

But we know to never drink water poisoned by feces.

Yet, in Wisconsin and other rural states whose governments have been taken over by Big Agriculture, (aka: industrialized ag, CAFOs, (Confined Agricultural Feeding Operations), the poison lobby), ag industries routinely replicate on small scales the effects of natural disasters.

Industrial agricultural operations emit millions of tons of liquidized, aerosolized and untreated cow feces into the environment to tragic health, economic, and social effects, (Yelle, Mal Contends), (Paulot and Jacob, NASA), (Ikerd, University of Missouri-Columbia), (Lundstrom, Cornucopia Institute).

Hundred of farmers, veterans, business owners and the just plain scared are expected at the Wisconsin state capitol March 15 to fight Republican-supported bills to take away protections from safe water. Industry wants the right to deplete water as well as poison water.

Have your ever met a family whose young child was almost poisoned by death by bathing and drinking water? (Midwest Environmental Advocates), (Wisconsin Watch), (Mal Contends). Pope Francis' recently made news with the call, "the earth is essentially a shared inheritance, whose fruits are meant to benefit everyone," a corollary of which is don't poison your neighbor, (Ikerd)

Wisconsin now has over 100s of heavily polluting dairy CAFOs. "Applications to the DNR for dairy CAFOs are approaching cattle populations of 10,000 head each. That’s a far cry from the forty-cow family-run dairies of 25 years ago. In terms of a very common measure of water pollution potential, biochemical oxygen demand, the organic pollution potential of a 10,000 head dairy is equal to 180,000 people. That’s bigger than the city of Green Bay. Green Bay has a waste-water treatment plant. CAFOs do not. A 10,000 head dairy produces enough manure to fill up Lambeau Field where the Packers play all the way to the top of the cheap seats on the fifth story bleachers, ... four times a year," said Gordon Stevenson in an interview with Mal Contends in 2014. Stevenson is a 26-year veteran of the DNR where his last assignment was serving as the Chief of Runoff Management until his retirement in January of 2011.

The pollution is getting worse, and the regulation for the public welfare is getting weaker.

Expired Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, (WPDES) Permits

Mary Dougherty of Bayfield County in northwestern Wisconsin is working with a citizens' group that has successfully stopped the operation of a massive swine CAFO that would devastate arguably the most beautiful region in Wisconsin bordering Lake Superior and national forests, (Facebook), (Slater, Duluth News Tribune), (Mal Contends), (Mal Contends), (Russell, Fox 21-KQDS).

Dougherty has a post in Facebook out that is a must-read.

Dougherty tabulates the number of expired Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, (WPDES), permits. WPDES is French for approval to vector cow feces into the environment and communities.

The EPA notes of cow manure: "When excess nutrients, pathogens, organic matter and solids from manure discharge to surface waters they can cause excess algae growth and deplete the water of oxygen needed by fish and other aquatic life; they can also make the water unsafe for recreational activities and as a source of drinking water. Manure pollutants can also leach through the soil and enter the groundwater, making it unsafe for drinking."

Dougherty found that 31 percent of WPDES approvals are expired. This continues the Republican Party's go-ahead to pollute without consequences.

Writes Dougherty:

I went through the DNR WPDES (CAFO permit) database last week and created a spreadsheet with all the expired CAFO permits in Wisconsin. And guess what?? 93 of the 291 permits for WI CAFOs are expired (nearly 32%).

There are at least 333,930 Animal Units, or nearly 334 million pounds of cows, pigs, turkeys and chickens, producing manure without a current permit in Wisconsin.

This is yet another example of the lack of oversight by the DNR when it comes to CAFOs in Wisconsin. And I lay the responsibility for this alarming and wholly unacceptable situation at the feet of our elected officials in Madison.

They have the power (by providing funds and direction to the DNR) to rectify this situation and they choose NOT to protect citizens from the rampant CAFO pollution poisoning rural communities because they are doing the bidding of Big Ag at the Capitol.

For screen shots of each expired permit, see Expired WDPES Permits in Wisconsin and Facebook.

Last year Wisconsin Public Radio reported, "In their 2017-19 biennial budget request, the DNR proposes increasing staff dedicated to the CAFO program from 17 to 21 by reallocating positions to the CAFO permitting staff."

The staff won't be there to help Wisconsin families and communities. The staff will green-light polluting permits faster.

Expired Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, (WDPES), Permits

By Mary Dougherty

Wisconsin Points Way for Public Health Research as Ebola Breeds Fear

Wisconsin is regarded as the premier influenza virus surveillance public health program anywhere in the country.

Public research and public health investments our state made over the 20th century spurred on by liberal, secular types at UW-Madison that laid the scientific ground for the political will to establish a sophisticated public health system.

Wisconsin's public health commitment was built upon pioneering work in Madison by some extraordinary people like Pete Shult and Jeff Davis, according to health and research authorities.

The Unites States would benefit from the Wisconsin Idea.

The Wisconsin Idea is unlikely to replicated while Republicans run Congress. See NIH director: Budget cuts delayed Ebola vaccine, treatment.

For a dose of sanity regarding viruses and public health, see:
---
Influenza: A Disease at the Interface of Animals and Human Beings
Christopher Olsen, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Public Health, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin - Madison
- Recorded April 17, 2009

Biosciences Scare Tea-Republican Party Shills like Tommy Thompson and Walker

Schematic drawing of an influenza A virus

The Republican Party and its subset, the Tea Party, have become so anti-rational that practically any phenomena—macroeconomics, climate science, epidemiology, public health, evolutionary science, one can go on—that are outside its tiny ideological sphere are off limits.

Ed Fallone asks today, Why Isn’t Scott Walker Touting the Biosciences in Wisconsin?, pointing to the promise of stem cells for example, and the biosciences industry generally, studiously ignored by Scott Walker and actively opposed by Tommy Thompson who thinks he ought to dictate the direction of stem-cell research to pioneering scientists like Alan I. Leshner and James A. Thomson.

Thanks to the work of an extraordinary group of scientists working in the great public research institution, the University of Wisconsin-Madison (in the tradition of the Wisconsin Idea), Wisconsin enjoys a model health surveillance program that alerts medical professionals to emerging disease threats.

Walker and Thompson are not cheerleaders for this achievement either.

Science and public health are anathema to Scott Walker and Tommy Thompson, though Wisconsin can boast that we literally lead the world in research and public health systems because of our public commitment to a rational-scientific worldview.

Wisconsin leads the world in the identification of birds carrying the avian flu and often it seems like there are more illnesses in Wisconsin than elsewhere -- but that is because of the excellence of our health surveillance program.

When H1N1 was first discovered it was tracked extensively by Wisconsin scientists, and now that there has been an outbreak of H3N2, a flu strain to which humans are also susceptible, Wisconsin is ground zero for information on this mutation.

As Wisconsin scientists trace and gather information on diseases, the world benefits from the knowledge gained and the vaccines developed. 

In a very real sense, we can say that the Republican defunding of research such as in stem cells, and ideological distaste are making the world physically sicker, as pathologies go untreated. [Recall the Republican debates in which the prospect of a person (without health insurance) dying was actually applauded by the Republican debate audience.]

Consider the State Lab Mission Statement of the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH): "[S]hall develop and provide essential public health laboratory support to communities, agencies and private health providers consistent with the public health goals of the State."

Now, consider Tommy Thompson, Ron Johnson, Scott Walker and the GOP-Tea Party.

These two systems of political forces—one collaborative and scientific; the other ideological, feeding ignorance—do not enjoy a symbiotic relationship.

What drives the Tea Party's worldview onto its radical politics is fear:

Fear of being alive, fear of the other

versus

The joy of discovery and the sharing of our Earth

One hopes this dichotomy—Wisconsin is perfectly situated to use stem cells specifically—becomes a defining political issue.

Wisconsin's Top H1N1 Surveillance

Anecdotal news the last few weeks out of Milwaukee that the H1N1 virus is hitting professional families and today's report that the virus is now widespread in Milwaukee is cause for some alarm.

Below is an updated column on the Wisconsin influenza surveillance system that diagnoses such infections and is called the premier public health program of its kind in the nation, perhaps accounting for the large percentage of reported and confirmed cases here.

Wisconsin's H1N1 (Swine Flu) incidents reveal odd figures on the spread of the disease through the American population with 19 percent of all confirmed cases occurring in Wisconsin.

Of the 17,855 confirmed or probable cases in the United States (and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico), 3,407 are reported in Wisconsin, equal to some 19 percent of the U.S. population, though Wisconsin comprises only one percent of Americans.

One is thankful for all those public research and public health investments our state made over the 20th century spurred on by liberal, secular types at UW-Madison that laid the scientific ground for the political will to establish a sophisticated public health system.

The public health commitment that has our A H1N1 (swine flu) numbers so high was built upon pioneering work in Madison by some extraordinary people like Pete Shult and Jeff Davis, according to health and research authorities.

Said Dr. Christopher Olsen, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Public Health at a lecture in Madison in April:

Pete (Shult), diagnostic virologist [Director, Wisconsin Communicable Disease Division & Emergency Lab Response] at the state lab of hygiene [Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene(WSLH)] did his undergraduate and PhD studies here at UW and then joined the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene in 1988. Pete has created what I think is the premier influenza virus surveillance public health program anywhere in the country. Together with Jeff Davis, who is our chief medical officer for Wisconsin and our state epidemiologist, we are looked at as a state for having this wonderful model surveillance program.

UW Public Research

Scientists here discovered that "genetic mixing" of viruses causes Zoonotic Diseases - "diseases caused by infectious agents that can be transmitted between (or are shared by) animals and humans," (Dr. Christopher Olsen) - in pigs for example, and that pigs can act as an intermediate host of viruses that can be transmitted to human beings like A H1N1 (swine flu).

These virus-mixing hosts (like swine that are uniquely susceptible to bird viruses and human viruses) provide a "phenomenally powerful way of generating genetic diversity," mutations that sometimes can lead to the creation of viruses that are destructive to human beings, said Olsen.

Olsen and others had conducted a study with results that "strongly support the hypothesis that people associated with swine production are infected with swine influenza viruses more regularly than the small number of zoonotic infections in the literature would suggest," published in August 2002.

Thanks to the work of UW-Madison, our state and the world are more prepared for the outbreak of emerging influenza than at any point in human history.

The current World Health Organization (WHO) phase of pandemic alert is 6, the peak phase of the pandemic.

---
Influenza: A Disease at the Interface of Animals and Human Beings
Christopher Olsen, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Public Health, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin - Madison
- Recorded April 17, 2009

H1N1 Virus Still Unpredictable

News that a Wisconsin adolescent died from H1N1 has health authorities on edge, though the virus strain is not as lethal as the normal seasonal flu bugs that hit the world every flu season.

But read between the lines of public health announcements and one perceives worry that the strain could become worse.

The world, with Wisconsin being a model state, has never been as prepared for the surveillance and treatment of a pandemic, but if H1N1 mutates into a more lethal virus, lots of unknowns follow.

On June 11, 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the worldwide pandemic alert level to Phase 6 in response to the ongoing global spread of the novel influenza A (H1N1) virus. A Phase 6 designation indicates that a global pandemic is underway. ...

WHO’s decision to raise the pandemic alert level to Phase 6 is a reflection of the spread of the virus, not the severity of illness caused by the virus.

This virus strain mutates of course and it evolves in unpredictable ways with unpredictable traits, and the fear is that it could mutate into a more deadly and aggressive strain that provokes the human immune system in a manner like the 1918 Spanish Flu.

Is this remotely possible? What are the odds? Reading the CDC and WHO sites, one won't find epidemiological odds makers on the capacity of a virus to become more lethal. Such is the nature of evolution.

No one serious is debating evolution now; instead watching how this strain evolves, and using science and rational public health messages to ward off a bad situation.

From the WHO - What You Can Do to Stay Healthy

Stay informed. This website will be updated regularly as information becomes available.
Influenza is thought to spread mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.

Take everyday actions to stay healthy.

Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.

Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.

Stay home if you get sick. CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.

Follow public health advice regarding school closures, avoiding crowds and other social distancing measures.

Find healthy ways to deal with stress and anxiety.

Wisconsin's High H1N1 Cases Result of Top Surveillance

News last week of Wisconsin's first A H1N1 (Swine Flu) death reveals odd figures on the spread of the disease through the population.

Of the 11,054 confirmed cases in the United States (and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico), 2,071 are reported in Wisconsin, equal to some 18 percent of all confirmed American cases, though Wisconsin has only 1 percent of the American population.

Health authorities point out the influenza surveillance system in Wisconsin that diagnoses such infections is the premier public health program of its kind in the nation, and this may account for the large percentage of reported and confirmed cases in Wisconsin.

One is thankful for all those public research and public health investments our state made over the 20th century spurred on by liberal, secular types at UW-Madison that laid the scientific ground for the political will to establish a sophisticated public health system.

The public health commitment that has our A H1N1 (swine flu) numbers so high was built upon pioneering work in Madison by some extraordinary people like Pete Shult and Jeff Davis.

Said Dr. Christopher Olsen, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Public Health at a lecture in Madison in April:

"Pete (Shult), diagnostic virologist [Director, Wisconsin Communicable Disease Division & Emergency Lab Response] at the state lab of hygiene [Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene(WSLH)] did his undergraduate and PhD studies here at UW and then joined the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene in 1988. Pete has created what I think is the premier influenza virus surveillance public health program anywhere in the country. Together with Jeff Davis, who is our chief medical officer for Wisconsin and our state epidemiologist, we are looked at as a state for having this wonderful model surveillance program."

UW Public Research

Scientists here discovered that "genetic mixing" of viruses causes Zoonotic Diseases - "diseases caused by infectious agents that can be transmitted between (or are shared by) animals and humans," (Dr. Christopher Olsen) - in pigs for example, and that pigs can act as an intermediate host of viruses that can be transmitted to human beings like A H1N1 (swine flu).

These virus-mixing hosts (like swine that are uniquely susceptible to bird viruses and human viruses) provide a "phenomenally powerful way of generating genetic diversity," mutations that sometimes can lead to the creation of viruses that are destructive to human beings, said Olsen.

Olsen and others had conducted a study with results that "strongly support the hypothesis that people associated with swine production are infected with swine influenza viruses more regularly than the small number of zoonotic infections in the literature would suggest," published in August 2002.

Thanks to the work of UW-Madison, our state and the world are more prepared for the outbreak of emerging influenza than at any point in human history.

The current World Health Organization (WHO) phase of pandemic alert is 5.











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Influenza: A Disease at the Interface of Animals and Human Beings
Christopher Olsen, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Public Health, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin - Madison
- Time: 47:03
- Recorded April 17, 2009