Why odds are against a large Zika outbreak in the US

Is the United States at risk for a large-scale outbreak of Zika or other mosquito-borne disease? While climate conditions in the U.S. are increasingly favorable to mosquitos, socioeconomic factors such as access to clean water and air conditioning make large-scale outbreaks unlikely, according to new analysis of existing research—but small-scale, localized outbreaks are an ongoing concern. In their forthcoming paper …

Vin Armani – Obama Quietly Signs Executive Order To Achieve Global Vaccination Agenda

Last Friday, November 4th, Obama quietly signed an Executive Order titled Advancing the Global Health Security Agenda to Achieve a World Safe and Secure from Infectious Disease Threats. “It is the policy of the United States to advance the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), which is a multi-faceted, multi-country initiative intended to accelerate partner countries’ measurable capabilities to achieve specific …

Bees: The Easy Off-Grid Money Maker

The subject of homesteading often focuses on various methods of gardening, different types of livestock, or even the multiple ways to generate electricity. But one area that is often overlooked is bees. As a growing number of homesteaders and off-gridders are discovering, honeybees are a great way not only to grow your own all-natural sweetener, but also to deliver another …

Charles Eisenstein – Zika and the Mentality of Control

The ruling institutions of this world are quite comfortable with a virus. First with SARS, then H1N1, then ebola and now the Zika virus, mainstream media and official organizations have been quick to recognize and counter the threat with travel advisories, quarantines, research funding, vaccine development, and heightened levels of vigilance. Yet information about other kinds of threats that are …

Charles Seife – How the FDA Manipulates the Media

It was a faustian bargain—and it certainly made editors at National Public Radio squirm. The deal was this: NPR, along with a select group of media outlets, would get a briefing about an upcoming announcement by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration a day before anyone else. But in exchange for the scoop, NPR would have to abandon its reportorial …

Joseph Alton – The Coming Bee-pocalypse? Collateral Damage of Mosquito Spraying

Everyone should support the humble bee. It’s thought that every third bite of food we take is there because of pollination by bees. Honey, when raw and unprocessed, may even be used as a wound covering for burns and other injuries due to its antibiotic effect. Yet bees are in big trouble, and we still don’t know all the reasons …

James Grundvig – The Militarization of the CDC Zika, Money, Quarantine Power

In yet another end-round play by the Obama Administration, on Friday of Labor Day weekend where hot topics are dumped (Hillary Clinton’s email interview with the FBI) to go die before the next news cycle begins, it was announced that $300 million in “public health emergency” funding was earmarked for Japan’s Takeda to manufacture a new Zika vaccine. No need …

Alan Yuhas – US beekeepers fear for livelihoods as anti-Zika toxin kills 2.5m bees

Huddled around their hives, beekeepers around the south-eastern US fear a new threat to their livelihood: a fine mist beaded with neurotoxin, sprayed from the sky by officials at war with mosquitos that carry the Zika virus. Earlier this week, South Carolina beekeepers found millions of dead honey bees carpeting their apiaries, killed by an insecticide. Video posted by a beekeeper to …

New doubts on Zika as cause of microcephaly

Brazil’s microcephaly epidemic continues to pose a mystery — if Zika is the culprit, why are there no similar epidemics in other countries also hit hard by the virus? In Brazil, the microcephaly rate soared with more than 1,500 confirmed cases. But in Colombia, a recent study of nearly 12,000 pregnant women infected with Zika found zero microcephaly cases. If …