Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
March 01, 2016

Reading About Zika May Hurt Your Brain

The Zika virus is harmless but since late December the media, for whatever reason, try to created a panic about it. That campaign continues. The New York Times, a main culprit here, has mentioned Zika in more than 250 stories since late December.

The virus is know to infect humans since 1947. While most people will not even feel an infection, those few who do will have a few days of rashes, inflamed eyes or joint pain. Soon their immune system will create antibodies against the virus and everything will be fine.

But even while Zika is known to be less harmful than an average flue, one headline after the other tries to create the impression that it is some really awful, new bug that may be responsible for about any ailment. That it may spread like wildfire and may have other terrible consequences. May, as in 'the sky may fall', is indeed the most operative word here.

Consider:

One may hope that the above heap of nonsense may teach people to ignore such speculative content. But that hope may be in vane.

Posted by b on March 1, 2016 at 11:40 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Maybe that is because both Zika and Zombie begin with the same letter. Is that not the power of association?

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Mar 1 2016 11:50 utc | 1

That's right! None of you Americans smoke anymore. You all live long, dull, uninteresting lives

Abdullah 'Firimbi' Hassan

Posted by: john | Mar 1 2016 11:59 utc | 2

Zika? Schmika! This is so last week.

Posted by: Yonatan | Mar 1 2016 12:23 utc | 3

Here's my favourite from last Saturday's grauniad - France records first sexually transmitted case of Zika in Europe

Posted by: Debs is dead | Mar 1 2016 12:33 utc | 4

https://uxdmz06.adb.org/OA_HTML/OA.jsp?OAFunc=XXCRS_CSRN_PROFILE_PAGE&selNo=126409

Research opportunities! Vaccination opportunities ! Birth Control opportunities ! NGO soft hangout operations ! Let 100 Flower Revolutions bloom !

Remember zika spelled backwards is code for: American Kaos Intelligence Zion !

They're just trying to crush the Brazil Olympics for Je$us.

Posted by: Chipnik | Mar 1 2016 13:14 utc | 5

Zika is ascribed exactly the same malformation as pesticides, isn't it? that would be convenient

Posted by: Mina | Mar 1 2016 13:34 utc | 6

Media hyperbole and repetition are like clarion calls for consumers of fear and hysteria. The pattern of manipulation is in high gear when the medium is trained on the demonization of select despots, newly discovered external threats or anywhere the need for intervention requires these services to galvanize public opinion.

Posted by: metni | Mar 1 2016 13:49 utc | 7

has there been more information on the links between larvacide and the cranial malformations?

Posted by: scottindallas | Mar 1 2016 14:46 utc | 8

"FEAR" sells.

Posted by: ben | Mar 1 2016 14:47 utc | 9

Brazil is involved with Israel in a diplomatic spat over the Israelis sending a settler there as Israeli ambassador,and Brazil is highly supportive of the Palestinians.
Voila.

Posted by: dahoit | Mar 1 2016 15:02 utc | 10

Yep. lots of people saying lots of things and lots of them know nothing. So whats new? Nothing.
Sounds a lot like the ''flying pig virus''.
It really is time for a new script.
noman

Posted by: noman | Mar 1 2016 15:37 utc | 11

Desperately trying to cover up for all the neurological damage caused by pesticides, plus create the conditions necessary to try out a new genetically modified mosquito that is supposed to cause the species to go extinct. No chance for unintended consequences there...

Posted by: Colinjames | Mar 1 2016 16:12 utc | 12

The incessant drum-beat of media hype putting forward mysterious invisible threats to ordinary ppl (Zika, etc.) as well as threats that can be blamed on some group (Cologne gropings thefts sexual harassment in Germany, radical Muslim ‘terrorism’ in France, etc.) is ... alarming.

1) The MSM thru incompetence (no more good journos or anything no money for that) facing falling revenues, scandalise anything they can, counting on fear (and sex) to sell, anything goes, barriers all crashed down.

In part, they are in competition with internet scare-mongers: vaccines, nuclear threat, GMO foods, mysterious viruses, aliens, etc. terrorists in schools, pedophiles in the bushes, war that might come home.. and can only *hit* on some topics. The NYT was always a Gvmt. organ, but now under a cloak of respectabilty edges close to the worst yellow-journalism gutter press, the difference is ‘the voice of authority.’

2) The frightening propaganda, induced alarms, are part of a plot, perhaps not consciously taken on by all, to deprive ppl of information and make them fearful, thus submissive to authority, timorous, gloriously grateful to offer heartfelt prayers to a God who provides no answer - while willing to obey men in unifrom who give orders.

The 1% (imho far more..10 - 20) controls the media, are determined that ppl should shut up and be shunted around and…deprived, die quietly with no fuss, useless mouths, etc.

Between these two interpretations there are many intermediary ones.

Re. Zika, it seems to be a faint echo, a knee-jerk take-up reaction of the (relative) success of Amerithrax event.



Posted by: Noirette | Mar 1 2016 17:06 utc | 13

I think we are in Wag The Dog territory.

How many of the stories we are seeing are being manipulated for one purpose or another? We could use some Edward Snowdens from inside the media machines to break the lock they seemingly have on public communication.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 1 2016 17:10 utc | 14

Of the headlines B invites us to consider, the only one that we can ignore for sure is the last: Obama May Meet Zika Head On in Cuba.

There's surely nothing more that Zika virus could do to President O'Bomber, John Kerry or to the rest of O'Bomber's cabinet? They would function the same as before, only a fraction more slowly maybe.

On the other hand, the Zika virus could actually increase their intelligence. Now that would be a worry to their handlers.

Posted by: Jen | Mar 1 2016 21:15 utc | 15

NYT link above: Birth Defects in Brazil May Be Overreported Amid Zika Fears

This is actually a good article, but it did not address this issue: the incidence of microcephaly in Brasil incease from reported 140 to more than 3000, of which about 400 cases were confirmed. However, allegedly the usual worldwide incidence is one per 10,000 births, which would be almost 300 in Brasil. Therefore 140 figure for prior years could reflect the fact that for more than half births nobody bothered with measuring head circumference of the newborn. Thus at the lowest estimates of the current csses, the excess over the "normal level" would be 100-150 cases, or 35-50%. It is correctly observed in the article that the link between the condition and Zika infection is tenuous, but perhaps this point could be elaborated more clearly: in the vast area with large incidence of a very mild viral infection there can be another factor in circulation, like pesticide, some innovation in moonshine production or some other drug, a totally different tropical infection etc.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 2 2016 5:40 utc | 16

One word: TDAP.

It's all a coverup on the TDAP-vaccine being pushed on pregnant women before the 22. week of pregnancy. The south-American countries spared of microcephaly are the same that didn't push the TDAP vaccine.

Posted by: Alexander Grimsmo | Mar 2 2016 7:10 utc | 17

Alexander Grimsmo @ 17,

Thank you, Alexander. I think you are probably right.
I should have posted on it yesterday, but I get discouraged. People want so much to believe their illusions of safety. They seem not to grasp that illusion is the greatest weapon of TPTB.

Do you know about the polio vaccinations in India? http://nsnbc.me/2015/04/06/polio-or-something-more-sinister/ Wm Engdahl, who is somewhat a specialist in the area, having polio himself.

Or about this http://healthimpactnews.com/2015/is-the-u-s-medical-mafia-murdering-alternative-health-doctors-who-have-real-cures-not-approved-by-the-fda/


Posted by: Penelope | Mar 2 2016 18:13 utc | 18

And here we come to a number of the monster’s multiple destructive tentacles: The people-mass eventually has to be reduced to about a billion or two. Easier to control and manage. The Rockefeller / Kissinger dictum of the fifties and sixties – from which emerged an economy of control: GMO-agriculture that can inflict famine, infertility (as already tested in the 1990s in India) and deadly or debilitating diseases. Another tentacle spreads biological and disease warfare, take the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014 and the recent Zika outbreak, not coincidentally emerging and being tested in Central and South America, notably in Brazil, a country Washington wants to subdue and dominate, much like they have managed in Argentina with an ‘election coup’

(http://www.globalresearch.ca/argentina-a-quiet-neoliberal-coup-detat-in-latin-americas-southern-cone/5492654

http://www.globalresearch.ca/argentina-revisited-one-month-on-towards-a-neoliberal-democratic-dictatorship/5502615).

The Zika virus has been created in the early sixties, is patented and is owned by the Rockefeller Foundation

(http://www.globalresearch.ca/who-owns-the-zika-virus/5505323).

...............................

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44256.htm

Posted by: denk | Mar 4 2016 4:47 utc | 19

Zika Virus Infects Human Cortical Neural Progenitors and Attenuates Their Growth | Journal Cell Stem Cell |

    As a control, we also exposed human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), hiPSCs, and immature cortical neurons to ZIKV under the same conditions. hESCs and hiPSCs could also be infected by ZIKV, but the infection was limited to a few cells at the colony edge with reduced expression of the pluripotent marker NANOG (Figures 1C and S1D; Table S1). Immature neurons differentiated from hNPCs also exhibited lower levels of infection under our conditions (Figures 1B and 1C). Together, these results establish that hNPCs, a constitutive population of the developing embryonic brain, are a direct cell target of ZIKV.

Scientists observed destruction of foetus brain tissue by ZIKV

Posted by: Oui | Mar 4 2016 20:11 utc | 20

(The Wahhabis' War On Yemen One Year On - When Will Riyadh Fall?)
Posted by: jsn | Mar 26, 2016 2:07:32 PM | 2

jns posted a link, containing a link, to the very relevant "REPORT from Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Villages regarding Dengue-Zika, microcephaly, and mass-spraying with chemical poisons" (pdf).

Main points:

  1. Dengue epidemic in Brazil persists endemically (on an ongoing basis) due to the marginalisation and misery of millions of people, especially in Northeast Brazil. On top of that, Zika virus, a similar disease although more benign, is now spreading.
  2. A dramatic increase of congenital malformations, especially microcephaly in newborns, was detected and quickly linked to the Zika virus by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. However, they fail to recognise that in the area where most sick persons live, a chemical larvicide producing malformations in mosquitoes has been applied for 18 months, and that this poison (pyriproxyfen [wikipedia]) is applied by the State on drinking water used by the affected population.
  3. Previous Zika epidemics did not cause birth defects in newborns, despite infecting 75% of the population in those countries. Also, in other countries such as Colombia there are no records of microcephaly; however, there are plenty of Zika cases.
  4. The pyriproxyfen being used (as recommended by WHO) is manufactured by Sumimoto Chemical, a Japanese subsidiary of Monsanto.
  5. Brazilian doctors (Abrasco) are claiming that the strategy of chemical control is contaminating the environment as well as people, that it is not decreasing the amount of mosquitoes, and that this strategy is in fact a commercial manoeuvre from the chemical poisons industry, deeply integrated into Latin American ministries of health as well as WHO and PAHO.
  6. Massive spreading using planes, as the governments of Mercosur are considering, is criminal, useless, and a political manoeuvre to simulate that actions are taken. The basis of the progress of the disease lies in inequality and poverty, and the best defence are community-based actions.
  7. The last strategy deployed in Brazil, and which might be replicated in all our countries, is the use of GM mosquitoes —a total failure, except for the company supplying mosquitoes.

...

In the face of the 'Zika threat', mass sprayings in Mercosur

The governments of Mercosur are causing alarm with the threat of Zika and microcephaly, proposing "more of the same." The agribusiness is offering the services of the "Soya Air Force" to be used for spraying over cities and villages. [12] Monoculture, the massive use of pesticides, deforestation, destruction of flora and fauna, ecological imbalance, climate change, inequality, those factors are not considered as a cause of the problem.

To social inequality, these epidemics will add health inequalities, and governments with their chemical attacks will generate environmental inequality.


The local doctors, on the spot, see no benefit from the spraying of poisons nor from the introduction of genetically modified mosquitoes ... rather very real potential harms in both cases. The real motive behind both operations is the financial enrichment of the chemical companies pushing the poisons and GMOs - pushed by their captive agencies, the WHO and in this case the Brazilian Ministry of Health.

When things went wrong in this case - the microcephaly outbreak - most likely due to spraying pyriproxyfen, according to the local doctors, the Zika was wheeled out as a red herring.

The intent, of course, is to keep the 'open season' in Brazil, South and Central America, the "South" worldwide for massive dumping of poisons no longer allowed in the 'advanced' economies, and for GMO experimentation on live populations. And for the routine exploitation and deprivation of indigenous and rural settler populations.

Posted by: jfl | Mar 27 2016 0:53 utc | 21

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