Archive of posts with tag 'virology'
Feb 2015: Vaccination: Just Do It
I’m going to talk about vaccinations from the point of view of a person who’s older than most of the current vaccines, and what the changes have been like in my life.
My Age, In Practical Terms
- I was born when there were 49 US states. (Hawaii became a state the following month.)
- I’m more than ten years older than the digital wristwatch and digital clock radios and even older than home personal computers.
- I’m older than all the common jet models flown commercially in the US, including the Boeing 737 and its predecessor, the 727, but not older than the 707.
- Vaccinations that existed when I was a child: diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus vaccine; smallpox; and polio.
- Vaccinations that did not exist when I was a child: measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine; pneumococcal; chicken pox vaccine; Haemophilus influenzae type B vaccine; hepatitis A; hepatitis B vaccine; meningococcus; rotavirus; flu vaccine; and HPV, which is an oncovirus (meaning: cancer causing).
If you read up on all of those, a handful of vaccination shots mean we miss the opportunity to suffer a whole lot of misery, and a bunch of truly smart and amazing people have been working hard ensuring that you, me, and that other person over there have the best chances at health possible.
I still remember spending a week absolutely miserable with chicken pox. A few years ago, I had a reoccurrence in the form of shingles. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
One of My Earliest Childhood Memories
I remember going to CalTech’s park areas where I got my Salk vaccination for polio around about 1963. I was three or four years old.
You don’t see a lot of people with polio any more, for two good reasons: 1) thanks to Salk, it was eradicated in 1968, 2) the people who did have visible polio symptoms are less numerous as a percentage of the population.
Polio’s a horrific disease that not only killed and crippled people in droves, it has the unfortunate habit of cropping up again decades later. It was not uncommon to see people limping with canes or crutches due to polio back when I was a kid. (Granted, it was also not uncommon to see people limping with canes or crutches due to injuries in WW2, the Korean War, or Vietnam. Or even WW1.)
I Hated Shots As a Child
Despite being a child of scientists, I absolutely hated getting shots. They terrified me.
I remember hiding under my doctor’s desk in his office, and there were many tears associated with getting shots. But you know what? My parents had not only my best interests at heart, but those of the rest of society, too. Apart from fear, there was no good reason not to get my vaccinations.
When I was in early adulthood, it changed. I was okay getting shots if I saw the shot. Now I can look or not look, it doesn’t bother me either way, because I know the purpose of a shot is to kick the ass of something.
I’ve generally stayed on top of my boosters since then.
Have There Been Problems?
There is in fact a rather horrifying article about the Salk vaccine and SV40 over on SFGate.
Some of the early attempts at vaccines were like trying to tune a car engine with a plastic fork. There wasn’t any real way to ensure non-contamination until we got modern tools for sequencing, replicating, and analyzing DNA.
Penn and Teller on Vaccinations
Short but to the point, this is an awesome pro-vaccination video that neatly addresses the “vaccines cause autism” hype.
Vaccination Schedules
Here is a list of vaccination schedules by country.
Note that there are vaccines other than the flu vaccine that you should get, or get a booster of, as an adult.
If it’s helpful, the CDC has some tips on keeping (and locating) adult vaccination records.
Oct 2014: Axl and Taylor: Ebola Quarantine Now Mandatory
For those who aren’t following along, Axl Goode and Taylor Cole are cover models and authors for Ellora’s Cave and strippers as their other job.
Axl reports on facebook:> UPDATE: After writing this entry I was—finally—issued a mandatory quarantine by the Texas Department of State Health Services.
That update was about two hours ago.
Their Gofundme fundraiser
Photos of the Guys
I just realized I haven’t posted photos of them apart from a couple group shots and a blurry one.
Taylor (left), Kathy Wright Johnson, and Axl:
Axl on the Silks:
And Taylor:
So, there ya go.
Oct 2014: Ebola: Miscellaneous Notes
Say you’re a nurse taking temperatures for a guy who’s been potentially exposed to ebola and is quarantined at home.
You’d expect that there would be at least minimal safety precautions, right?
Taylor reports:> Taylor Cole questioned the health protocol of the nurse who visits him. “She didn’t have gloves on.”
::facepalm::
If you’re not supposed to be within three feet of other people, as Taylor and Axl were advised, gloves seem sensible precautions. Every nurse knows how to remove gloves so they don’t contaminate their hands.
I get that it’s very unlikely that Taylor and Axl have ebola, and some people may feel they’re taking precautions to extremes.
I view it this way: they don’t want to spread it if they have it and they’re ensuring that they can’t.
The nurse, on the other hand…. When I went to the ER, the nurse didn’t use gloves to take my temperature, but my risk profile was different.
True, I didn’t happen to mention having been jumped on by wild Gibraltar Barbary macaques 17 days earlier. (Ebola Reston involved macaques.) None of the Gibraltar macaques were known to be infected, nor had I traveled to Africa. Just to one of the closest points in Europe.
Also, the nurse did use gloves any time direct touch of my skin was involved, e.g., when inserting an IV, when giving me pain meds, etc.
Here’s a Great Post
Axl’s Oct 16 update.
When asked about who he blamed, he wrote a long post. Here are two quotes:
So in the end, no one is to blame. We can only take responsibility. I for one want to take responsibility for what has happened. Every single passenger that boarded flight 1143 played a part in that moment taking place. Now we get to play our part in trying to minimize the repercussions of possibly being infected. […]
As communities, this is the best thing we can do. Rather than fighting a problem, we’re finding a solution. I can only encourage others to do the same. If we as a people weren’t so concerned with blame and held solutions as a higher priority our politicians might hold those same priorities. Rather than worrying about covering their backs, they would be looking to create a better future for all.
Dr. Jen Gunter’s Post
This is a good post.…but it does overlook a few points.
- Mr. Duncan’s family was very used to living under the “ebola rules”—no touching, no getting close to people.
- We don’t know that no one else got ill because Mr. Duncan was sick. We do know no one else in the US did that we don’t know about, given the small number of cases here.
- We do know that people who treated him during the first hospital visit (when the hospital was doing, as Rick put it, “wallet triage”), didn’t fall ill.
- 21 days is not an absolute number. Paper detailing quarantine periods for ebola. 95% of people who got ebola were symptomatic within 21 days of exposure. I haven’t read the paper to see the breakdown of the other 5%, but I suspect some of it may simply be there wasn’t a known date or time of transmission because they couldn’t trace it back.
- The widely-spread story about Mr. Duncan carrying a pregnant woman is false according to Duncan’s nephew:
Among the most offensive errors in the media during my uncle’s illness are the accusations that he knew he was exposed to Ebola; that is just not true. He lived in a careful manner, as he understood the dangers of living in Liberia amid this outbreak. He limited guests in his home; he did not share drinking cups or eating utensils.
And while the stories of my uncle helping a pregnant woman with Ebola are courageous, Thomas Eric personally told me that never happened. Like hundreds of thousands of West Africans, carefully avoiding Ebola was part of my uncle’s daily life.
And I can tell you with 100 percent certainty: Thomas Eric would have never knowingly exposed anyone to this illness.
So, without that narrative, we really don’t know how Mr. Duncan was exposed or what happened. We’ve all lived with the comfort that that can’t be us because we “know” what happened.
Dr. Gunter’s right: ebola’s not easy to catch. However, were I in Axl and Taylor’s position, I think I’d be as careful as they are.
Oct 2014: Post-Romanticon: Axl & Taylor's Self-Imposed Ebola Quarantine
I’ve posted about this on Twitter, but I only amended my Romanticon post to include word of the quarantine.
However, given the fundraiser I just discovered, I’m copying the amendment into this post so it gets more attention and adding the fundraising link below.
Frankly, no one who goes to to any convention should have to fear coming down with something as horrific as ebola. ## First: Quarantine, the Origins Of
Quarantine comes from the Italian word quarantq, meaning 40: the number of days you had to wait before your ship could enter Venice. It was used to prevent spread of the plague. It didn’t work so well back then, mostly because disease transmission was so poorly understood, so that’s why all the gondolas in Venice are painted black.
Jaid’s Message and Axl’s Message
Jaid Black posted a notice about potential exposure to ebola. Dallas nurse Amber Vinson, who now is confirmed to have ebola, was in Akron during the same time period that Romanticon was held.
According to news reports, the infected woman, a healthcare worker who treated “Patient Zero,” was in Akron visiting family. She did not show signs of infection until already in Akron. The CDC has confirmed that she was definitely symptomatic while traveling from Cleveland to Dallas on October 13 so if you know anyone else on that flight please have them contact the CDC IMMEDIATELY.
Romanticon attendees (other than those on flight 1143) have nothing to worry about… according to the CDC. As they haven’t exactly been forthcoming with information, and we have no idea where in Akron this woman was, I am asking EC employees and Romanticon attendees in general, to self-monitor their health for the next 3 weeks. A list of symptoms can be found here: http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/symptoms/
Further, two of the Cavemen, Axl and Taylor (who are also both EC authors), were on the same flight as Vinson. After consulting with the CDC, they are both in self-imposed quarantine for 21 days.
Here’s Axl’s story.
Axl and Taylor appear briefly on this GMA segment speaking about their self-quarantine.
My hope is that everyone will be fine, but I’m sure thoughts and prayers are welcome. Axl gives his contact information in his facebook post if you wish to reach out to him.
Facebook links: Axl Goode and Taylor Cole takeitoff
The GoFundMe
Can be found here.
What we do know:
- They were apparently sitting very close to nurse Vinson on the same flight. (See Daily Mail link below for pics.)
- They feel it is in the safety of all concerned if they are conservative and self-quarantine. I applaud this, but it’s not cheap. (As to whether or not I’d contribute, the question is rhetorical, sadly.)
- Unlike some of us, they don’t have the sort of job where they can work from home.
I think the Daily Mail really has the winning caption here: Ebola Strippers. That’s not a disease vector I’d ever want to have happen.
If you’re inclined to either contribute or spread the word, please do so.
I know there are reasons to not support GoFundMe because of their policies; I’m sure if you contact Axl there are other means to help if that’s an issue for you.
My Own Experience With Quarantining
When I was at Apple, I came down with shingles. One of my colleagues was pregnant, and as shingles/varicella is of particular risk to the unborn, I was asked to work from home until it cleared up.
Now, shingles is not particularly contagious. Truly. When kids have chicken pox, it’s the way kids interact with the world more than the contagiousness that’s the problem.
But I respected that, and worked from home for about a week. This meant I had to miss the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference that year. Again, it was best for all concerned that I did so.
However, I had a job where I could work at home. Not everyone is so fortunate.
Special Comment Policy for This Post
I’d rather not debate the merits of the fundraiser in the comments. Respectful questions are fine.