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Zika Virus Does Not Cause Birth Defects – Fighting It Probably Does
The media said that the mosquito borne Zika virus is likely causing microcephaly as well as dozens of other illnesses. They also claimed that insecticides were not related to the development disorder. They seem to have been wrong on both cases.
Since December 2015 U.S. media ran a panic campaign round the Zika virus. That virus was said to cause many bad things including microcephaly, a development distortion of the head of unborn babies, if the mother was infected with Zika during pregnancy.
After looking into the issue and the available data I concluded that: The Zika Virus Is Harmless:
The virus is long known, harmless and the main current scare, that the virus damages unborn children, is based on uncorroborated and likely false information.
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There is absolutely no sane reason for the scary headlines and the panic they cause.
The virus is harmless. It is possible, but seems for now very unlikely, that it affects some unborn children. There is absolutely no reason to be concerned about it.
As this is all well known or easy to find out why do the media create this sensation?
By March the media attributed all known human ills to Zika though every headline doing so included a telltale caveat may. I mocked these in Reading About Zika May Hurt Your Brain
[E]ven 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.
There followed a collection of 35 recent "Zika may cause …" headlines.
Meanwhile doctors in the Zika affected areas in Brazil pointed out that the real cause of somewhat increased microcephaly in the region was probably the insecticide pyriproxyfen, used to kill mosquito larvae in drinking water:
The Brazilian doctors noted that the areas of northeast Brazil that had witnessed the greatest number of microcephaly cases match with areas where pyriproxyfen is added to drinking water in an effort to combat Zika-carrying mosquitoes. Pyriproxyfen is reported to cause malformations in mosquito larvae, and has been added to drinking water in the region for the past 18 months.
Pyriproxyfen is produced by a Sumitomo Chemical – an important Japanese poison giant. It was therefore unsurprising that the New York Times and others called the doctors report a "conspiracy theory" and trotted out some "experts" to debunk it.
But facts are facts and as these come to the fore the embarrassed media will now likely stay silent.
The New England Complex Systems Institute in Cambridge just published a new study that falsifies the assumed link between Zika and microcephaly. Science Daily reports:
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 Zika is to blame for microcephaly, where are the missing cases? Perhaps there is another reason for the epidemic in Brazil.
Whocouldhaveknown?
Well, maybe those doctors on the ground in Brazil knew what they were talking about. The scientist at the New England Complex Systems Institute also researched the pyriproxyfen thesis. They found:
Pyriproxifen is an analog of juvenile hormone, which corresponds in mammals to regulatory molecules including retinoic acid, a vitamin A metabolite, with which it has cross-reactivity and whose application during development causes microcephaly.
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[T]ests of pyriproxyfen by the manufacturer, Sumitomo, widely quoted as giving no evidence for developmental toxicity, actually found some evidence for such an effect, including low brain mass and arhinencephaly—incomplete formation of the anterior cerebral hemispheres—in rat pups. Finally, the pyriproxyfen use in Brazil is unprecedented—it has never before been applied to a water supply on such a scale.
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Given this combination of information we strongly recommend that the use of pyriproxyfen in Brazil be suspended pending further investigation.
Sumitomo sold a poison in Brazil which was supposed to prevent the spread of mosquito borne Zika virus by hindering the development of mosquito larvae. Suddenly cases of the human development disorder microcephaly occurred. The company knew that their insecticide could cause birth defects in mammals. But they continued to blame the Zika virus which then increased demand for their poison to "prevent" the further spread of that false Zika cause.
Some enterprising lawyers might find enough material in this case to hold the company responsible for the suffering it probably caused for many families in Brazil.
But the media should also be held responsible. First for spreading a false panic and for attributing all kinds of nonsense to a harmless flue virus. They should also be held responsible for not diligently investigating the possibly human-effected cause of the development disorder. The one that now seems to turn out to be the real culprit.
Man, another great conspiracy theory on ZV – last time it was the vaccine mfg’s, now it’s the larvacide mfg’s. You ain’t gonna’ let go of this ZV thing, eh? As noted by a couple of comments above, last time, Feb05|16, you tried to convince us that the whole microcephaly thing was bunk because the data were “false.”
Synopsis: We do not know if the virus harms unborn children children [sic] at all. But that number of 4,000 cases looks suspiciously high. That is because it is false.
I dissected your numerical analysis at comments #51 and #52 of that thread. Apparently you now agree that there is a microcephaly problem. You are now saying microcephaly really is a problem and is caused by the larvacide pyriproxifen.
Recall that back then you wanted to go vaxxer on us and blame the vaccine companies:
Cui bono? Has someone a vaccine they want to sell? Is this to damage Brazil’s Olympics?
Nothing you now say about the larvacide conspiracy is new or original, it can all be found on Wikipedia, including evidence that this conspiracy theory doesn’t fly.
Some clips from Wiki on the pyriproxyfen theory:
On February 3, the rumor that pyriproxyfen, not the Zika virus, is the cause of the 2015-2016 microcephaly outbreak in Brazil was raised in a report of the Argentinean organization Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Villages (PCST).[17] It attracted wide media coverage.[18][19] The statement from Abrasco was cited in the PCST report; subsequently, Abrasco clarified that position as an misinterpretation of their statement, saying “at no time did we state that pesticides, insecticides, or other chemicals are responsible for the increasing number of microcephaly cases in Brazil.”
On February 13, the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul suspended pyriproxyfen’s use, citing both Abrasco and PCST positions.[22][23] The Health Minister of Brazil, Marcelo Castro, criticized this step, noting that the claim is “a rumor lacking logic and sense. It has no basis.” They also noted that the insecticide is approved by the National Sanitary Monitoring Agency and “all regulatory agencies in the whole world”. The manufacturer of the insecticide,
George Dimech, the director of Disease Control and Diseases of the Health Department of Pernambuco in Brazil, gave an interview to the BBC where he pointed out that the city of Recife has the current highest reported amount of cases of microcephaly, yet pyriproxyfen is not used in the region, but another insecticide altogether.
Neurologist Vanessa van der Linden stated in an interview, “Clinically, the changes we see in the scans of babies suggest that the injuries were caused by congenital infection and not by larvicide, drug or vaccine.”
Noted skeptic David Gorski called the claim a conspiracy theory and pointed out that antivaccine proponents had also claimed that the Tdap vaccine was the cause of the microcephaly outbreak, due to its introduction in 2014, along with adding, “One can’t help but wonder what else the Brazilian Ministry of Health did in 2014 that cranks can blame microcephaly on.”
Your biggest problem is that pryiproxifen has been used all over the world for decades, so why is it now causing microcephaly as you claim?
You link to a Science Daily report that purports to summarize a report from “New England Complex Systems Institute” that purports to discuss a ZV study out of Columbia published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The NEJM study found that in almost 12,000 pregnant women followed in Columbia who had been exposed to ZV during pregnancy, not a single birth or fetus was found with microcephaly.
Wow!! Do you realize what a stunning finding that is? When you realize that just the baseline rate of microcephaly in Columbia is 2 per 10,000, what this appears to say is that, not only does ZV in Columbia not cause microcephaly, it is actually preventative. Pregnant women should be infected with ZV to prevent microcephaly. Or it could say that the data are warped. Or it could say that the ZV in Columbia are different than the ZV in Pernambuco, Brazil where most of the problems have occurred. It could say about anything.
And so your conclusion is: it must be because the larvacide was used in Brazil. But the original NEJM study doesn’t say anything about larvacide or where it was or wasn’t used. Was it used in Columbia? If so, then why no microcephaly in the study? The NECSI summary of the NEJM report just throws that pryifroxifen crap out there with no support, no discussion of how much pyriproxifen is used, or where in Brazil it is used (relative to Pernambuco), or whether it is used in Columbia. They don’t even spell the name of pryifroxifen correctly. You gonna’ buy this shit?
Regarding your claim that “the Zika Virus is harmless:” yes, that was pretty much the standard line 2 years ago. But what you are missing is what I pointed out in February: In July 2015 just before these problems arose, the UK company Oxitec released millions of GM mosquitoes into the areas in Brazil where the microcephaly problems later surfaced. The GM mosquitos are called OX513A and they are loaded with the modified genes by way of a genetic vehicle that is notorious for jumping across species lines, and even from animals to plants. Links are provided in the previous thread.
So while you say ZV is “harmless” that generally accepted view would not necessarily apply to the virus if it has been buggered by the Oxitec gene that was put into the mosquitos and then jumped into the virus and then jumped into the human embryo. This theory suggests the same conclusion as the last part of the title of your post: fighting these viruses with GM mosquitos may be causing the problems. [Please note that neither the larvacide nor the GM mosquitos are used primarily to fight ZV. They are used to fight dengue, chikungunya, and other deadly viruses carried by various species of Aedes mosquitos.]
It seems to me that you’re on even more of an uphill slope with this post than with the previous one. But keep throwing shit at the wall, something will eventually stick. I know, you should see my wall.
Posted by: Denis | Jun 26 2016 21:02 utc | 25
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