August 28, 2016


News and Views


http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/27/491615045/italy-in-mourning-funerals-underway-for-earthquake-victims

Italy In Mourning: Funerals Underway For Earthquake Victims
MERRIT KENNEDY
August 27, 201611:01 AM ET

Photograph -- Relatives mourn over a coffin of one of the earthquake victims prior to the start of the funeral service on Saturday in Ascoli Piceno, Italy. Gregorio Borgia/AP
THE TWO-WAY -- Rescue Crews Race To Find Survivors In Rubble Of Quake-Hit Italian Towns
Photograph -- Aerial view of the village of Saletta in central Italy on Friday where a strong quake hit early Wednesday. AP
Photograph -- A woman touches a coffin of one of the victims of Wednesday's earthquake inside a gymnasium in Ascoli Piceno. Gregorio Borgia/AP
Related: Despite Lessons From 2009 Quake, Buildings In Italy Remain Vulnerable
Photograph -- Mourners gather under an olive tree during the state funeral in Ascoli Piceno. Eleanor Beardsley
THE SALT -- Food World Rallies For Quake-Hit Amatrice, Home Of Famous Pasta Dish


Italy has started to bury its dead following a devastating earthquake on Wednesday that killed at least 290 people and left whole towns in ruins. The country has declared Saturday a national day of mourning for the quake's victims.

Reporting from a state funeral in the town of Ascoli Piceno, NPR's Eleanor Beardsley described a community overcome with grief. She said the service was held in a gymnasium, where 35 caskets were laid out. "People cried and held each other," Eleanor said.

Among those in attendance were Italy's President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

The earthquake struck Wednesday in the Apennine Mountains, an area that is a popular with tourists. And as we reported, the aftershocks have continued ever since, even as hopes fade that rescue crews will be able to find survivors of the powerful temblor.

As Eleanor reported, this is what the bishop said during the service:

"He told people not to be afraid to cry out their suffering. At the same time, he told them not to lose courage. He said that only together can we rebuild our houses and our churches and restore life to our communities. And then the bishop, he talked about the earthquake a lot. The terremoto. ... He talked about nature. He said nature is wise, and we must commune with nature and not provoke it relentlessly."

Prior to the funeral, Mattarella visited the town of Amatrice, which "bore the brunt of destruction with 230 fatalities," as The Associated Press reported. Reporter Christopher Livesay told our Newscast unit that in Amatrice, a festival had been planned for today:

"It was supposed to be the day that the town of Amatrice was going to hold the 50th annual festival of its famous pasta dish, bucatini all' Amatriciana. Amatrice was at the epicenter of the earthquake. Chefs around the world are putting the dish on their menus and donating the proceeds to the victims of the quake."

As Livesay explained, festivals this this [sic] one are a major tourism draw, and area towns in the area "easily double or quadruple" during the summer months. Many foreigners are among the dead, he reported.

At the state funeral in Ascoli Piceno, mourners overflowed from the packed gymnasium to a nearby church, while some sat under the shade of an olive tree and watched the service on screens, as Eleanor reported.

Mourner Raphaela Baiocchi told Eleanor that "we are participating, all our pain for our population. And it's not the first time for our people." She added: "Italy is a very beautiful and dangerous place. And so we are here to share the pain today, then we will speak about other things."

Things like justice, she told Eleanor. "There's a growing anger about the construction of some of the buildings that collapsed," Eleanor says. Here's more:

"Granted, many are medieval but there are earthquake codes that need to be followed. For example, one bell tower rebuilt ten years ago collapsed and killed a family. And the Italian prosecutor in charge of the quake investigation said what happened can't simply be chalked up to nature. He said if buildings had been built like they are in Japan, they would not have collapsed."



When the civilization in an area is really old, the buildings are usually fragile. As the Italian prosecutor mentioned above said, they really need to set aside funds for this problem. How to retrofit a Medieval village without ruining the way it looks, I don’t know, but some engineers do. His suggestion that the Italian government should study the methods that Japan is using is a good one. These villagers are in my thoughts.



WAGES AND RACIAL EQUALITY SISTER ISSUES – TWO ARTICLES

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/minimum-wage-convention-richmond-226972

$15 minimum wage movement to vote on organizing mass fast-food worker strike
The Fight for $15 group is holding its first-ever convention this weekend, where it aims to plot a course forward for its advocacy.
By Donovan Harrell
08/13/16 07:49 AM EDT

Photograph -- Sen. Bernie Sanders leaves after speaking as protesters gather at a 'Fight for $15' rally, on Capitol Hill, Apr. 22, 2015. | Getty
Related: Letitia James. Public advocate introduces bill to ban employers from asking about prior salaries, By LAURA NAHMIAS
Related: Dozens camping out in West Village in hopes of securing construction apprenticeships
By EMILY JULIA ROCHE


The “Fight for $15” minimum wage movement will hold its first-ever convention Saturday, where roughly 3,000 who will vote on a resolution calling for mass strikes among fast-food workers nationwide.

Thousands of members of the movement head to Richmond, Va. this weekend, and among the items on the agenda is a resolution that would call on the organization to organize the fast-food strikes and a string of accompanying homecare and childcare worker protests.

In the past, protests at presidential primary debates drew thousands of supporters of the movement. At its convention this weekend, the group will discuss how to continue its advocacy through the November election.

The organization’s last major strike was April 14, and thousands across more than 320 U.S. cities walked out on their jobs. Supporters in more than 40 countries, including Brazil, Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom and Nigeria also stood in solidarity with the group.

The convention, and potential attempt to organize the mass protest, come as the movement works to build off its success in the Democratic primary. While the group has not officially endorsed any political candidates, as thousands of members of the Fight for $15 began striking and organizing for $15 minimum wages four years ago, it captured the attention of Bernie Sanders, who successfully fought to get the resolution added to the Democratic party’s official platform.

And lawmakers in several states have moved toward its recommendations. As of the start of this year, 29 states have passed laws to increase hourly wages above the federal minimum of $7.29. And cities including New York and Washington D.C. plan to incrementally raise minimum wages to $15 over the next few years, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Fight for $15 has a strong ally: Mary Kay Henry, international president of the Service Employees International Union, who’s supported the group since its first strike in New York on November 29, 2012. With more than 2 million members in the SEIU, Henry said she’s proud that the attendees of the convention will include members from industries beyond fast food, including nail salon, grocery store, cell phone company workers and truck drivers.

Construction workers smooth wet concrete into place at the site of a new apartment building.

“The thing that's most impressive to me … is the absolute courage and fearlessness that people have of taking very dramatic actions on their own behalf and that action has resulted in 20 million people getting wage increases, either through collective bargaining or minimum wage initiatives or state legislatures and city councils,” Henry said. “And we can make that possible through collective action.”

Fight for $15 also has support from leading figures in the civil rights movement.

Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia) also joined Atlanta fast-food workers on a strike line in August 2013. The next year, the NAACP formally passed a resolution to support for the Fight for $15.

Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP, will be a keynote speaker for the convention and lead a march, which organizers expect more than 10,000 participants — both members and allies — will join.

And it’s no coincidence that Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy, was chosen for the convention, according to Terrence Wise, a 3-year member and organizer for Fight for $15. It stands as a symbolic location that is deeply rooted racial and economic issues pervasive throughout the U.S. since it was once the former capital of the Confederacy, he added.

Wise said The Fight for $15 Movement is about more than just about improving stagnant wages and unionization, it’s for racial equality — two issues that intersect because of the economic disparities faced by people of color in the U.S. This convention has been “a long time coming” for Wise since the group's inception four years ago.

“People don’t understand the Civil Rights Movement isn’t just for civil rights, it’s for economic equality as well,” Wise said. “So we’re just carrying on the tradition of the Civil Rights Movement, the poor people’s campaign, the abolitionist movement. We’re carrying that torch today as well. So we're fighting for racial and economic equality. You can’t have one without the other. I don’t want to have $15 and still have to walk down the street and have a high percentage of being harassed by the police, so you’ve got to have racial and economic equality as well.”

Not everyone, however, is so excited about the movement’s goals. Among economists, there is a fierce internal debate about whether the minimum wage limits the total number of available jobs, either by making it more costly for employers to hire new workers or because they become more likely to replace workers by way of automation. Other economists, however, contend that a raise in the minimum wage produces no discernible cut in the availability of jobs, but does boost employee morale and productivity — and each side of the argument has produced volumes of research in support of their position.

Kelly Klass, media manager for the National Federation of Independent Business, said supporters of a wage hike aren’t taking small business owners into account. Klass said a government-mandated wage increase would put many of NFIB’s member in a bind, as many members have 20 or less employees. “Most of our members already pay more than the minimum wage,” Klass said. “If our members can pay more, they actually will. It’s not that they don’t want to pay their employees, they can’t. If they can pay their employees more then they will. They do.”

Wise, who works at both Burger King and McDonalds to support his three daughters, sees it differently. An average work day is more than 16 hours for him and when he comes home, his children are already in bed. It’s about more than money, he argued. A wage increase would allow him to spend more time with his family and provide them with the “simple” pleasures of visiting the zoo, buying new bikes and new shoes for the school year. Not providing them with these things reminds him of his own upbringing.

“Now my past is looking like my kid’s future,” Wise said. “That’s not good.”


FIGHTFOR15.ORG, Rev. William Barber

http://fightfor15.org/watch-rev-dr-william-barber-ii-sermon-fightfor15-convention/

This is a really great speech. Go to the website above and listen to it.



http://fightfor15.org/about-us/

About Us

The Fight for $15 started with just a few hundred fast food workers in New York City, striking for $15 an hour and union rights.

Today, we’re an international movement in over 300 cities on six continents of fast-food workers, home health aides, child care teachers, airport workers, adjunct professors, retail employees – and underpaid workers everywhere.

For too long, McDonald’s and low-wage employers have made billions of dollars in profit and pushed off costs onto taxpayers, while leaving people like us – the people who do the real work – to struggle to survive.

That’s why we strike.

We can’t feed our families, pay our bills or even keep a roof over our heads on minimum wage pay.

When we first took the streets, the skeptics called us dreamers – said a $15 wage was “unwinnable.”

We didn’t listen.

We won $15 an hour across New York State and California.

We won $15 in Seattle, and huge raises in cities from Portland to Chicago.

We won $15 for Pennsylvania nursing home workers and all hospital employees at UPMC – Pennsylvania’s largest private employer.

And we won’t stop fighting until we turn every McJob into a REAL job.

That’s the #FightFor15.

Stand with us by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.

Read our top press clips here.

Media contact: press@fightfor15.org



When I was young in the 1950s there were unions in many jobs. By the 1980s the Reaganites had overtaken the liberal politicians by the well-known dog whistle technique, and laws favoring the business owner over the workers were being put into place again. That has caused a long dry spell, so to speak, of wage increases, with the result that the poor were becoming destitute. This union centered push for a meaningful national minimum wage is long overdue.

I notice Sanders’ photo from 2015 shows his activity on the issue, for which I’m grateful. We need politicians who FIGHT for right rather than merely sitting back with their wealthy friends doing very little. I want to see a legislature that makes a difference in the inevitable rise of greed and worse until people object loudly again. Speaking of objecting loudly, listen to the speech by Rev. Barber at the Fightfor15 website above. It’ll give you that good old fashioned enthusiasm that Democrats used to have when I was young.

Rep. John Lewis joined workers on the line in 2013 and in 2014 the NAACP officially spoke in support of Fightfor15. Lewis and Rep. Alan Grayson and some others joined a sit in strike that lasted several days in the Capitol a few months ago, so Democrats aren’t all fat, lazy and much too comfortable now. Bernie Sanders is part of that change. He’s capable of getting up a really good rant over important issues, and the people heard him “loud and clear.”

Just to let the public know, I did go down for early voting a couple of days ago and changed my voter registration from Democrat to Independent. I will vote in November for Hillary, because letting Trump win without a fight is totally unthinkable, but the Dems will not have my uncontested approval any more. They’re going to have to EARN IT. I hope others will do the same. And to make it official, I’m going to copy off this blog into an Email and send it to the DNC. It’s not enough to do it. We have to let them KNOW we have done it. 5:05 PM, I did just now send this to the DNC.


http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/27/491636683/49ers-quarterback-sits-out-national-anthem-to-protest-oppression-of-minorities

49ers Quarterback Sits Out National Anthem To Protest Oppression Of Minorities
MERRIT KENNEDY
August 27, 2016 2:06 PM ET

Photograph -- Quarterback Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers throws a pass against the Green Bay Packers in the first half of their preseason football game on Friday in Santa Clara, California. Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images


As players rose to stand for the national anthem at the 49ers-Packers game on Friday night, 49ers' quarterback Colin Kaepernick pointedly remained seated.

His gesture was to protest the treatment of African Americans and minorities in the United States, as he told NFL.com after the game. Kaepernick has remained sitting during the anthem "in at least one other preseason game," according to the site.

"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," Kaepernick said, according to NFL.com. "To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."

He told NFL.com that he did not notify the team in advance. "I am not looking for approval. I have to stand up for people that are oppressed. ... If they take football away, my endorsements from me, I know that I stood up for what is right," Kaepernick said. NFL.com reports that Kaepernick recently "decided to be more active and involved in rights for black people."

In a statement carried by NFL.com, the 49ers said they recognize his right to remain seated:

"The national anthem is and always will be a special part of the pre-game ceremony. It is an opportunity to honor our country and reflect on the great liberties we are afforded as its citizens. In respecting such American principles as freedom of religion and freedom of expression, we recognize the right of an individual to choose and participate, or not, in our celebration of the national anthem."

On his Twitter page, Kaepernick has recently focused on Black Lives Matter, police violence and civil rights issues.

Kaepernick's protest has drawn comparisons to a similar gesture 20 years ago from Denver Nuggets guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, which generated a major controversy. He was suspended for one game and ultimately agreed to stand with his head bowed in prayer, as SB Nation reported.

The gesture has also ignited debate and is currently trending on Twitter. It has sharply divided fellow NFL players.

For example, Miami Dolphins running back Arian Foster wrote, "the flag represents freedom. the freedom to choose to stand or not. that's what makes this country beautiful." Later, he wrote, "protest is imperative for change. it invokes the conversation."

Follow
Feeno ✔ @ArianFoster
the flag represents freedom. the freedom to choose to stand or not. that's what makes this country beautiful. ... http://tmi.me/1ffvx0
12:34 PM - 27 Aug 2016
151 151 Retweets 234 234 likes

Taking a different view, former Denver Broncos offensive tackle Tyler Polombus wrote, "Activists changed USA for better but have to associate Nat Anthem w/ military that die for ur right to protest. Stand up. Find another way."

Follow
Tyler Polumbus ✔ @Tyler_Polumbus
Activists changed USA for better but have to associate Nat Anthem w/ military that die for ur right to protest. Stand up. Find another way
12:15 PM - 27 Aug 2016 · Castle Rock, CO, United States
119 119 Retweets 313 313 likes

Here's more discussion about Kaepernick's protest:

Follow
mike freeman ✔ @mikefreemanNFL
Texts coming in from coaches, players, front office execs from around league on Kap. So far every player backs him. No coach/exec does.
10:34 AM - 27 Aug 2016
3,437 3,437 Retweets 2,885 2,885 likes

Follow
AUBREY HUFF ✔ @aubrey_huff
Wow the amount of people who agree with sitting during the national anthem is truly disturbing! we wonder why our country is in the toilet?!
11:28 AM - 27 Aug 2016
648 648 Retweets 1,809 1,809 likes

Follow
Mitch Harris ✔ @Mitch_Harris2
Bad decision by @Kaepernick7 but bc of the men/women who died for that flag, he has the liberty to disrespect them #betterwaystogetattention
11:28 AM - 27 Aug 2016
240 240 Retweets 470 470 likes

Follow
Tiki Barber ✔ @TikiBarber
Kaep is using his platform & brand to make a compelling & polarizing point, which is his right, even if it's met with ire!#idontagree
10:38 AM - 27 Aug 2016
185 185 Retweets 572 572 likes

Follow
Adrian Clayborn ✔ @AJaClay
The easy thing to do is to make fun of Kap and his play. How about trying to understand where he's coming from....but that would be too hard
11:12 AM - 27 Aug 2016



This poor man is being treated like a TRAITOR over a matter of rights and serious societal issues. His main problem is that FOOTBALL is not the home of much cultural concern. I notice, however, that the 49ers organization spoke up for his right to do what he is doing. I just went to his Facebook page and put in the only positive comment, at least on that front page, over his action, without insulting anyone, I hasten to add, but I’m sure I’ll have 500 Facebook hits when I get back to look at it, including probably some death threats. I didn’t want to leave it alone, however, because the man is being viciously assaulted on the Net; and his peaceful, simple and intelligent protest of a serious issue is a breath of fresh air to me. We need more positive support for BLM and others. Of course, the BLM need to be sure that they don’t do any harm in their protests, as they have a couple of times when someone who ISN’T BLACK joins their group. That attitude, not only, “won’t win friends and influence people,” it also is working against their very goals. My, oh my, we have a complicated society.


ABOUT DRINKING AND THINKING

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/2-united-airlines-pilots-arrested-for-suspected-drunkenness-glasgow-airport/

2 United pilots arrested for suspected drunkenness
CBS/AP
August 28, 2016, 9:44 AM

Photograph -- United Airlines jets sit at gates at O’Hare International Airport on September 19, 2014 in Chicago, Illinois. SCOTT OLSON, GETTY IMAGES


LONDON – Two United Airlines pilots have been arrested for suspected intoxication before they were to fly 141 passengers from Scotland to the United States, police and airline officials said.

United Airlines officials have confirmed Saturday’s arrest of the pilots, aged 45 and 35, at Glasgow Airport. The Police Service of Scotland says both men are expected to be arraigned Monday at a court in Paisley, a Glasgow suburb, to face charges connected to Britain’s transport safety laws.

United said Saturday’s Flight 162 from Glasgow to the U.S. city of Newark, New Jersey, was delayed for 10 hours while the airline sought replacement pilots. Spokeswoman Erin Benson declined to say if the pilots had boarded the aircraft or if it had left the gates, reports CBS News correspondent Kris Van Cleave. She also wouldn’t comment on how the pilots were discovered to have been drunk.

Saturday’s arrests come barely a month after two Canadian pilots of an Air Transat plane were arrested at Glasgow Airport and charged with trying to fly while intoxicated.

There have been other recent incidents as well:

--A co-pilot on a charter plane in northern Michigan was arrested Aug. 26 after the plane’s captain suspected that he was drunk.

Traverse City police Capt. Kevin Dunklow said a breath test Thursday showed co-pilot Sean Michael Fitzgerald, 35, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.30, nearly four times the legal threshold for driving.

Captain Manny Ramirez alerted the police about his colleague’s condition, CBS Cadillac affiliate WWTV reports.

“He had the strong odor of intoxicants emanating from his person,” Dunklow told the station. “He had slurred speech, bloodshot watery eyes.”

Fitzgerald flew for Farmingdale, New York-based Talon Air, which said in a statement to WWTV that the co-pilot was “immediately terminated.” The plane didn’t leave Cherry Capital Airport in Traverse City.

“This is yet another example of Talon Air’s safety procedures working effectively on behalf of our clients and for airport safety,” the company said, in addition to it being “very proud” of Ramirez.

The Traverse City Record-Eagle reports Fitzgerald, who lives in Boca Raton, Florida, was arraigned Friday on a misdemeanor charge.

-- On Aug. 24, an American Airlines co-pilot who was grounded at a Detroit-area airport because of excessive alcohol pleaded no contest.

Defense attorney Frank J. Manley says John Maguire was placed on probation during an appearance in court in Romulus, Michigan. He was charged with operating under the influence of alcohol.

Maguire, from Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, was removed from a Detroit-to-Philadelphia flight before takeoff on March 26. Authorities say his blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit.

Manley says Maguire “accepts responsibility” for what happened and hopes to fly again.

The Wayne County prosecutor’s office says he will be on probation for 12 months. Maguire also has to complete alcohol assessment and treatment, and perform 48 hours of community service.

--In April, a JetBlue pilot was charged with flying under the influence of alcohol.

A federal complaint said that Dennis Murphy Jr. was selected for a random alcohol test last year after piloting a flight from Orlando, Florida, to New York on April 21, 2015.

Murphy, who had only been hired in January of that year, was behind the controls of Flight 583 with 119 passengers to Orlando. Later that day, he flew flight 584 with 151 passengers back to New York City.

Upon landing at JFK he was selected for random alcohol testing where he registered a blood-alcohol level of .111, which is above the legal limit for a person driving an automobile. When tested again 15 minutes later, he blew a .091.

He apparently told the person administering the test that the results must be due to the gum he was chewing, Van Cleave reports.

JetBlue said it has a “zero tolerance” drug and alcohol policy and that Murphy no longer works there.

--In January, federal authorities arrested a former Alaska Airlines captain on federal charges of piloting a plane while intoxicated.

According to the criminal complaint filed Tuesday, David Hans Arntson, 60, was the pilot of two Alaska Airlines flights on in June 2014, in which he was under the influence. The first flight was from San Diego International Airport to Portland, Oregon. He then flew a plane from Portland, Oregon, to John Wayne Airport in Orange County.

Arntson was selected for random drug and alcohol testing by Alaska Airlines at at John Wayne Airport after landing. He had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.134 percent and 0.142 percent, according to the DOJ. After Alaska Airlines received the test results it removed Arntson from all safety-sensitive duties.

Arntson’s co-pilot on the two flights remembered seeing the drug tester when the plane landed at John Wayne Airport, according to the complaint.

The co-pilot also recalled Arntson saying “I bet it’s for me.”

Following the incident, Arntson retired from Alaska Airlines.



This isn’t the first I’ve heard of pilots being drunk or high while in that very important seat. The good news is that there is always another pilot in the cockpit at the time in the big airlines. Those privately owned small planes are another matter. I had a roommate years ago who was an airline stewardess, and she said they fairly often are drinking. Part of the problem is that they have layovers between flights, and then to kill time, they go to the lounge if the Airport has one.

The comments above about what disciplinary treatment they receive didn’t seem impressive to me, just like the "discipline" that police officers get when they shoot somebody for little or no reason. The co-pilot who was 4 times the legal limit and turned in to the police by his captain, only got charged with a misdemeanor. Every day there are road, boat and probably airline accidents which could be related to drinking. Small planes end up in places like the middle of a highway fairly often. Drinking is one of those “old boy network” issues in the sense that drinking in such situations is usually done by a man, and therefore not as “serious” as it would be if it were a woman. In fact, overall, drinking is a prevalent American problem, and we need to legally penalize it, if it causes accidents. It’s just too dangerous for that not to be the case.


MAN’S DEADLIEST ENEMY – THE VIRUS

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/baby-born-with-zika-virus-is-medical-mystery/

Baby born with Zika virus is medical mystery
By DAVID BEGNAUD CBS NEWS
August 26, 2016, 6:48 PM

Photograph -- begnaud-zika-0826.png, Baby Micaela was born with Zika, but showed no signs of the virus before she was born. CBS NEWS
Play VIDEO -- Baby dies from Zika virus in Texas


MIAMI -- Eight-week-old Micaela was exposed to the Zika virus in the womb, but does not have microcephaly, the birth defect marked by an abnormally small head and brain.

“She looks normal to me, but the doctors say she’s not,” said her mother, Maria Fernanda Ramirez Bolivar.

Ramirez Bolivar contracted the Zika virus in her native Venezuela when she was three months pregnant. Micaela has slight damage to one eye and stiffness on one side of her body.

It took a team of doctors at the University of Miami several weeks to rule out other causes.

Dr. Ivan Gonzalez is part of a her [sic] medical team, and said ultrasounds Ramirez Bolivar had in Venezuela and Miami all looked normal.

Gonzalez said scans of Micaela’s brain show calcification, which is like a scar, and could lead to seizures down the road. Her prognosis is uncertain.

“The plan right now is to follow her for five to six years,” Gonzalez told CBS News.

There is also more evidence that the effects of Zika are not limited to babies.

In Puerto Rico, where Zika is an epidemic, the CDC reported an increase in cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome. That’s a neurological disorder that causes muscle weakness and numbness.

This year, 34 patients with the syndrome also had evidence of Zika or a similar virus infection. One person has died.

The CDC has set up a registry to follow pregnant women in the U.S. who’ve been infected with Zika. There are over 584 so far, and 16 babies have been born in the U.S. with Zika-related birth defects.



“Dr. Ivan Gonzalez is part of a her [sic] medical team, and said ultrasounds Ramirez Bolivar had in Venezuela and Miami all looked normal. Gonzalez said scans of Micaela’s brain show calcification, which is like a scar, and could lead to seizures down the road. Her prognosis is uncertain. …. There is also more evidence that the effects of Zika are not limited to babies. In Puerto Rico, where Zika is an epidemic, the CDC reported an increase in cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome. That’s a neurological disorder that causes muscle weakness and numbness.”


I’m only glad that the professionals have isolated a clear and dependable cause of these conditions. Remember “the gay disease”? This series of cases do have some similarity to AIDS, however, because we are just discovering the various ways that it can show up and be spread. I can only hope and pray that an effective vaccine will emerge soon. At this point, we are clearly “waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

For another viral mosquito borne illness, see below.



http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/08/28/491471697/yellow-fever-timeline-the-history-of-a-long-misunderstood-disease

HEALTH
Yellow Fever Timeline: The History Of A Long Misunderstood Disease
SUSAN BRINK
August 28, 2016 7:00 AM ET

Drawing -- This illustration depicts a yellow fever victim in a Jefferson Street home in Memphis. It's from a series of images entitled "The Great Yellow Fever Scourge — Incidents Of Its Horrors In The Most Fatal District Of The Southern States." Bettmann Archive
Photograph -- Health workers during the first day of the yellow fever vaccination campaign in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, on August 17. Eduardo Soteras Jalil/World Health Organization
Photograph -- Health workers during the first day of the yellow fever vaccination campaign in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, on August 17. Eduardo Soteras Jalil/World Health Organization


No one knows for sure, but scientists believe that yellow fever has plagued the world for at least 3,000 years. in all likelihood, the disease started in the rain forests of Africa. It rode barges and sailing ships to tropical ports around the world, followed the slave trade to the Americas, interrupted the building of the Panama Canal and left a trail of graves around the world.

The fearsome disease starts like a common flu with symptoms of headache, fever, muscle pain, nausea and vomiting. But roughly 15 percent of patients progress to a severe form of the disease: high fever, jaundice, internal bleeding, seizures, shock, organ failure and death. Up to half of those who develop severe disease will die.

In 2016 the mosquito-borne disease is making headlines once more. An outbreak in Angola has spread to the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 3,867 suspected cases in Angola and 2,269 suspected cases in DRC, according to the World Health Organization, since December 2015. And there's a shortage of the yellow fever vaccine: Only four manufacturers make the vaccine using a time-consuming, labor-intensive production process that cannot keep up with the current need. It's the latest chapter in yellow fever's long and storied history.

Probably Around 1,000 B.C.

The virus almost certainly originated in Africa, passing back and forth between the Aedes aegypti mosquito and monkeys. "Almost without a doubt, for thousands of years the virus circulated in monkeys and mosquitoes in the rain forests of Africa," says Dr. Duane Gubler, founding director of the Signature Research Program in Emerging Infectious Disease at Duke University-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School. "It probably infected people as well but not in large populations because people lived in small villages."

Over thousands of years, the mosquitoes carrying the virus adapted to village life, then city life. They got used to feeding off human beings and made their way to larger cities and coastal towns.

The 1600s

As the shipping industry and global commerce expanded, mosquitoes could hitch rides on barges and sailing vessels to port cities in the tropical world. The slave trade also took off. "Ships had to carry kegs of water. And there were large numbers of African slaves in the hold," says Gubler. Mosquito larva could thrive in the water kegs. And some of the slaves, infected with yellow fever, were bitten by mosquitoes, which then bit uninfected people, spreading the disease. "That's how both the mosquito and the virus got introduced to the Americas," he says.

The first recorded epidemic of yellow fever was in the Yucatan Peninsula in 1648, probably part of a larger epidemic involving a number of Caribbean Islands. Between 1668 and 1699, outbreaks were reported in New York, Boston and Charleston. Northern areas of the U.S. saw summer outbreaks. "The epidemics died out in winter because the tropical mosquito doesn't survive," says Gubler. "But the mosquito moved north with ships taking goods up river. Every year, the mosquito distribution would expand in the spring, then contract in the winter." Doctors didn't suspect a mosquito link and assumed that yellow fever spread through human-to-human contact.

The 1700s

Eventually yellow fever made its way to Europe. In 1730, 2,200 deaths were reported in Cadiz, Spain, followed by outbreaks in French and British seaports. "It spread as far north as Glasgow," Gubler says. But there wasn't as much of a slave trade in Europe, and outbreaks were less frequent than in the Americas. The disease might have arrived in Europe by way of America, not Africa. "The ships from Europe would load up with goods, go to Africa, load up with slaves, go to America, then load up with sugar or sorghum, and take that back to Europe," he says. "There was a triangular route that these ships followed and the virus and the mosquitoes could have been introduced from the Americas rather than Africa." Because there wasn't as much of a slave trade in Europe, outbreaks were less frequent than in the Americas.

"It was the scourge of much of the tropics, and it prevented economic development," says Gubler.

The 1800s

Throughout this century public health experts continued to believe yellow fever was transmitted by contact with infected patients. With that misconception, most efforts to control outbreaks were futile. But in 1881 a Cuban physician, Carlos Finlay, acting on a theory that mosquitoes carried the virus, conducted an experiment with mosquitoes that harbored the disease after biting yellow fever patients. He let the mosquitoes bite an experimental subject, who then came down with yellow fever. Still, much of the scientific community remained unconvinced.

Meanwhile, thousands of people were dying every year in New Orleans — a major port for the slave trade and a city with a climate hospitable to the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Between 1839 and 1860, some 26,000 people in New Orleans contracted yellow fever.

By the end of the 19th century, during the brief Spanish-American War, fewer than 1,000 soldiers died in battle, but more than 5,000 died of disease in Cuba, and most of those deaths were due to yellow fever, according to records of the U.S. Army Yellow Fever Commission.

The 1900s

The Yellow Fever Commission was formed by the U.S. military in response to the war-time deaths. Its mission was to study the cause and spread of the yellow fever. Led by Major Walter Reed, working in Cuba, the commission confirmed in 1900 what Dr. Finlay suspected: Yellow fever was transmitted by mosquito bites. To prove it, 30 men, including Spanish immigrants, soldiers and two civilians, volunteered to be deliberately infected with mosquito bites. The commission started mosquito control programs in Cuba using improved sanitation, fumigation with insecticides and reduction in standing water areas where mosquitoes breed. The number of yellow fever cases dropped dramatically.

Those successful efforts in Cuba came just in time to save the Panama Canal building project. had been hospitalized with either malaria or yellow fever. By 1906, roughly 85 percent of canal workers had been hospitalized with either malaria or yellow fever. Workers were so terrified of yellow fever that they fled the construction site in droves at the first hint of the disease. Tens of thousands of workers died.

Dr. William Gorgas, who had worked on mosquito eradication in Cuba, convinced President Theodore Roosevelt to grant funding on an eradication effort in Panama. In the summer of 1905, Gorgas, along with 4,000 workers in what he called his "mosquito brigade," spent a year working to stop mosquitoes from laying their eggs. They fumigated private homes with insecticides and sprayed areas of standing water with oil to interrupt mosquito breeding. The efforts cut the number of yellow fever cases in half by September, and in October there were only seven new cases. Finally, on November 11 1906, the last victim of yellow fever on the Panama Canal died. The yellow fever epidemic was over.

After World War II, the world had DDT in its arsenal of mosquito control measures, and mosquito eradication became the primary method of controlling yellow fever.

Then, in the 1940s, the yellow fever vaccine was developed. "It is one of the cheapest, most effective vaccines in the world," says Gubler. The vaccine provides lifetime immunity for 99 percent of people immunized, and by the late 1980s, the World Health Organization made a push to increase vaccine coverage. A few African countries have begun routine childhood immunization against yellow fever, and carried out catch-up campaigns to immunize adults, but vaccine producers have not kept up with the demand, according to WHO.

In the past 30 years, there have been limited outbreaks in Kenya, Nigeria, Liberia, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, and Senegal in Africa; and in the Americas in Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia and Brazil.

The 2000s

The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 170,000 people had yellow fever in 2013, and 60,000 people died.

And now, the world faces a worrisome outbreak in densely-populated cities of Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. And there's so little vaccine left that WHO is doing something unprecedented: Stretching the vaccine supply by giving people smaller doses, which will provide immunity for a year rather than lifetime immunity of the full dose.

WHO has already vaccinated more than 16 million people and plans to vaccinate another 13 million.

There's growing concern the virus could spread to Asia, where it has been conspicuously absent.

With millions of people getting on ships and jets, the modern transportation system is even more efficient than the slave ships of 400 years ago at transporting both mosquitoes and virus-infected humans. "Global trends have created the ideal situation for the spread of epidemics," says Gubler.



“No one knows for sure, but scientists believe that yellow fever has plagued the world for at least 3,000 years. in all likelihood, the disease started in the rain forests of Africa. It rode barges and sailing ships to tropical ports around the world, followed the slave trade to the Americas, interrupted the building of the Panama Canal and left a trail of graves around the world.” I only clipped this paragraph because it’s such a very good piece of dramatic writing. It reminds me of the excellent book I read this year called “Rabid,” which scours historical, literary and artistic sources for indicators of rabies. It is veeerrry fascinating.

Bacteria, amoeba, and parasites all do terrible damage, but the viruses as a class seem to have the most damaging and shocking symptoms. I read a biography about Walter Reed in the 4th grade or so and became a great admirer of scientists because of what they do to help society, and how they think about things in order to pinpoint cause and effect, which isn't as easy as people usually think. Diseases like yellow fever caused life for people like my grandparents to be even harder than it would have been as “poor farmers.” Rural life was hard in those days, and often meant having to ration food use. To have a large number of serious illnesses ravage their families made it even worse.

We have it so easy today, comparatively, that it is making us unthinking, greedy, lazy and some other equally damaging things. I’m afraid that 1) global warming may bring society to its knees, 2) we will be unaware of how to take care of our needs in a society without city life and the Internet, etc., much less 3) being emotionally willing to do what it takes to make it. I think some of us who have SEEN country life of the 1950s may have an advantage. Okay. That’s the end of the sermonette for the day.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Reed

Walter Reed
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Major Walter Reed, M.D., U.S. Army, (September 13, 1851 – November 22, 1902) was a U.S. Army physician who in 1901 led the team that postulated and confirmed the theory that yellow fever is transmitted by a particular mosquito species, rather than by direct contact. This insight gave impetus to the new fields of epidemiology and biomedicine, and most immediately allowed the resumption and completion of work on the Panama Canal (1904–1914) by the United States. Reed followed work started by Carlos Finlay and directed by George Miller Sternberg ("first U.S. bacteriologist").

Legacy[edit]

~ Dr. Walter Reed ~
Issue of 1940

Reed's breakthrough in yellow fever research is widely considered a milestone in biomedicine, opening new vistas of research and humanitarianism. It was largely an extension of Carlos J. Finlay's work, carried out during the 1870s in Cuba, which finally came to prominence in 1900. Finlay was the first to theorize, in 1881, that a mosquito was a carrier, now known as a disease vector, of the organism causing yellow fever: a mosquito that bites a victim of the disease could subsequently bite and thereby infect a healthy person.[2] He presented this theory at the 1881 International Sanitary Conference, where it was well received. A year later Finlay identified a mosquito of the genus Aedes as the organism transmitting yellow fever.[1] His theory was followed by the recommendation to control the mosquito population as a way to control the spread of the disease. El Obelisco, Finlay's memorial in Havana

His hypothesis and exhaustive proofs were confirmed nearly twenty years later by the Walter Reed Commission of 1900. Although Dr. Reed received much of the credit in history books for "beating" yellow fever, Reed himself credited Dr. Finlay with the discovery of the yellow fever vector, and thus how it might be controlled. Dr. Reed often cited Finlay's papers in his own articles and gave him credit for the discovery in his personal correspondence. In the words of General Leonard Wood, a physician and U.S. military governor of Cuba in 1900: "The confirmation of Dr. Finlay's doctrine is the greatest step forward made in medical science since Jenner's discovery of the vaccination [for smallpox]."

This discovery helped William C. Gorgas reduce the incidence and prevalence of mosquito-borne diseases in Panama during the American campaign, from 1903 onwards, to construct the Panama Canal. Prior to this, about 10% of the workforce had died each year from malaria and yellow fever.”