Category Archives: Public Health

Wash Your Damn Hands: The SARS Outbreak Edition

Posted on May 19, 2012 by

http://discovermagazine.com/2012/apr/15-most-celebrated-virus-hunter-ian-lipkin/article_view?b_start:int=2&-C= There’s an interesting interview with virologist Ian Lipkin which, in part, discusses his experience an advisor to the Chinese government (boldface mine): What happened when you arrived?
 Chen Zhu, now China’s minister of health, was waiting at the airport … Continue reading →

Posted in Public Health, Viruses | Leave a comment

MA Hospital Influenza Vaccination Still Inadequate: Just Mandate It Already

Posted on May 16, 2012 by

A while ago, we discussed how anti-vaccination idiocy by hospital staff enabled the spread of influenza to critically ill patients. So we read with dismay the following from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (God Bless It!; boldface mine): Roughly 81 percent … Continue reading →

Posted in Boston, Influenza, Public Health, Vaccination | 2 Comments

How Austerity Is Making You Sick: The Whooping Cough Edition

Posted on May 14, 2012 by

Because costs money to have a public health system that can actually protects the public’s health (boldface mine): MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — Whooping cough, or pertussis, a highly infectious respiratory disease once considered doomed by science, has struck Washington State … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Public Health, Vaccination | 6 Comments

How Influenza Spreads Through a Hospital: It’s the (Lack of) Vaccination, Stupid

Posted on May 1, 2012 by

Now that summer is near, let’s talk about influenza (I’m a little behind on some items). A while ago, I came across this post which demonstrates just how critical influenza vaccination (the ‘flu shot’) is for medical personnel (boldface mine): … Continue reading →

Posted in Fucking Morons, Influenza, Public Health, Vaccination | 1 Comment

Martin Luther King on Planned Parenthood

Posted on April 30, 2012 by

One of the most idiotic tropes from the theocratic right is how they claim that they are following in the footsteps of the civil rights movement. Well, here’s what Martin Luther King had to say about family planning, contraception, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Blastocyst Liberation, Conservatives, Public Health | Leave a comment

ZOMG!! TEH E KOLI R IN UR CHICKENZ!! BARGLE BARGLE!!

Posted on April 18, 2012 by

The NY Times recently had a story about a study by a pro-vegan medical group which claimed that 48 percent of chickens bought at supermarkets are contaminated with E. coli. Of course, the vegan group referred to the E. coli … Continue reading →

Posted in E. coli, Food, Propaganda, Public Health | 9 Comments

How Pink Slime Stopped Being Dog Food and Wound Up in Your Burger

Posted on April 10, 2012 by

One of the many weird things about blogging is that you’ll never know what takes off. My pink slime post about beef filler that contains ammonia has been one of my all-time most read posts. But what I didn’t know … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservatives, Democrats, Food, Public Health

Are Deer the Reservoir for Shiga-Toxinogenic E. coli (STEC)?

Posted on April 9, 2012 by

THIS IS THE FACE OF THE ENEMY! (from here) A recent paper in Applied and Environment Microbiology describes the frequency of STEC–Shiga toxin producing E. coli–in wild animals. STEC can cause organ failure and death and are found throughout E. … Continue reading →

Posted in E. coli, Food, Microbiology, Public Health

As Long As Women Have Been Getting Pregnant…

Posted on April 7, 2012 by

…they have been getting ‘unpregnant.’ From a recent Frank Bruni op-ed (boldface mine): He has thought a lot about how customs, laws and religion do and don’t jibe with women’s actions and autonomy. “In all centuries, through all history, women … Continue reading →

Posted in Blastocyst Liberation, Civil Liberties, Public Health | 1 Comment

George Whipple, the Chestnut Hill Biological Laboratory, and Water Safety

Posted on March 22, 2012 by

It’s hard for those of us in developed countries in the 21st century to realize how clean, potable water radically changed life in 19th century cities. Rather than being breeding grounds for cholera and other water-born diseases, people could live … Continue reading →

Posted in Boston, Microbiology, Public Health | 5 Comments