Consumption

Jobless millions whisked away
At last we have more room to play

From The Palm Beach Post: Worst TB outbreak in 20 years kept secret

Parts of this article read like the opening pages of The Stand by Stephen King. Apocalyptic overtones in spades.

The story goes a little something like this. Amid an apparent struggle to restructure in the wake of some large health care budget changes in the state of Florida, which included the closing of the state's specialist Tuberculosis treatment hospital, a very important memo has gone unnoticed. Nine days after the ink had dried on the papers detailing all of these changes, a CDC officer finished a report detailing the largest outbreak of TB in the area for over 20 years. The CDC report details how, aside from the 13 deaths and 99 contracted illnesses from TB reported, "3,000 people in the past two years may have had close contact with contagious people at Jacksonville’s homeless shelters, an outpatient mental health clinic and area jails. Yet only 253 people had been found and evaluated for TB infection, meaning Florida’s outbreak was, and is, far from contained."

Apparently the infection originally was spreading through areas like homeless shelters, which increased the difficulty of providing proper treatment to those afflicted. According to the article, to treat TB one must undergo a steady regiment of multiple antibiotics, and any faltering in treatment will result in a hardened, resistant strain of the virus. In most cases, hospitals send nurses to homes to ensure patients are properly taking their medication because of the possible consequences for relapse and transmission. One can easily assume the complications that might arise in a situation where TB was spreading through hub sites like a homeless shelter, making it difficult to ensure those afflicted properly complete their antibiotic regimen to ensure the ailment won't further complicate and spread.

And spread she has. Again, from The Palm Beach Post's article, "Furthermore, only two-thirds of the active cases could be traced to people and places in Jacksonville where the homeless and mentally ill had congregated. That suggested the TB strain had spread beyond the city’s underclass and into the general population. The Palm Beach Post requested a database showing where every related case has appeared. That database has not been released."

There's the kicker, boys and girls. If only the flow of information was as evolved a mechanic as the spread of a virus. According to The Palm Beach Post, at the writing of this article many important Florida health officials have not been made aware of the publication of this CDC warning. But furthermore, I find the detailed handling of the flow of information from the officials to the public to be eye-opening. The Post article details how when the infection was thought to be largely contained among the "underclass" of Jacksonville, there was no effort to inform the general public of the outbreak. The article mentions a desire to prevent any "turning away" from the homeless population of the city, at a time when they would surely need a helping heart and hand from the community. OK, that's a nice sentiment, but ultimately doomed.

Would it not be more prudent, especially once the spread of the strain had been noticed as far from Jacksonville as Miami, to dutifully inform the public of the danger? After all, I'm no medical professional, but my understanding of the situation goes that the reason so many of these deadly diseases have quietly died out in America is due to a combination of excellent medicine, and educating the public on ways they can help to stop the spread the disease. The original core of the infection in the "itinerant homeless, drug-addicted, mentally ill" section of Jacksonville's population would likely not be known for following the best sanitary practices, nor could they honestly be expected to recognize the symptoms of this disease. In my eyes then, the clear decision would then be to inform the public. Allow the general populace to keep an open eye for individuals displaying symptoms and try to defeat the hydra before it spawns too many heads.

But fuck, I'm not the CDC. I'm sure they have a million reasons why they knew about this outbreak in April and it wouldn't be a good idea to tell the public until June. Mass Panic. Anarchy. General Disarray. It's bad for business, you know.

And you know what's worse for business? All those damn homeless people sullying the delightful image of Downtown America. After all, who wants to dump money into the tourism industry when there's a bunch of unwashed vagrants clogging the streets.

Ah-Ha! So that's the plan! Wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say no more. I hear you loud and clear.



Three Monkeys Say: All systems go to kill the poor tonight

You Got It!

It's Sunday!

Take a load off!



Three Monkeys Say: Once there were parking lots - now it's a peaceful oasis!!

Ride On, Crazy Diamond

Roger was there, and he was sitting at the desk, and I came in and I saw this guy sitting behind him--huge, bald, fat guy. I thought, "He looks a bit...strange..." Anyway, so I sat down with Roger at the desk and we worked for about ten minutes, and this guy kept on getting up and brushing his teeth and then sitting--doing really weird things, but keeping quiet. And I said to Roger, "Who is he?" and Roger said "I don't know." and I said "Well, I assumed he was a friend of yours," and he said "No, I don't know who he is." Anyway, it took me a long time, and then suddenly I realized it was Syd, after maybe 45 minutes. He came in as we were doing the vocals for Shine On You Crazy Diamond, which was basically about Syd. He just, for some incredible reason he picked the very day that we were doing a song which was about him. And we hadn't seen him, I don't think, for two years before. That's what's so incredibly...weird about this guy. And a bit disturbing, as well, I mean, particularly when you see a guy, that you don't, you couldn't recognize him. And then, for him to pick the very day we want to start putting vocals on, which is a song about him. Very strange.
—Richard Wright

Rest In Peace, Syd.
6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006

Three Monkeys Say: Aristotle was right - “No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.”

When the Media had a Heart

Amazing footage. What really strikes me here is the pure emotion coming from Herbert Morrison, a radio broadcaster from Chicago. You can really feel the pain in his voice while he watches the whole sky light up.

Three Monkeys Say: Oh, the Humanity!!

Flintstones Oxy!!

Pain pills for the children!

God I hope they're chew-ables!!

From TheDaily.com: PAINKILLERS FOR KIDS:
OxyContin maker wants FDA backing to label addictive drug for 6-year-olds

That's right, folks. OxyContin for 6 year olds. Why pay for the pony rides on field days when you can just slip a little synthetic White Horse into their lunch pails?

In a bid to extend their soon-to-expire exclusive patent on the wildly popular and over-abused pain killer, Purdue Pharma is dropping the big bucks on clinical trials in an effort to get the FDA to approve use of their drug on children. The clinical trials are focused on a group of children from ages 6 to 16, and is currently recruiting participants.

For the sake of science, conducting clinical trials like this are necessary. The fact is, children often metabolize different drugs very differently than adults do, and without scientific experimentation detailing the various results, physicians are operating without all the pertinent facts when considering to prescribe such a high level pain killer to pediatric patients.

Purdue comments will lead you to believe that the company's goal is to widen the breadth of scientific understanding of their drug, and that they have no desire doctors to prescribe their drug to children. But with last year's profits from the drug pushing up over 2.5 billion dollars, and only .3% of all OxyContin prescribed going to patients under the age of 19, it would seem to me Purdue is looking to corner the last holdout of the market.

OK, now, while I am sure there are pediatric conditions that do in fact require a pain killer as strong as OxyContin, though I have never personally encountered one, I feel it is a little inappropriate to open the doors this widely to acceptance of the use of this drug on children. Would it not be better to handle cases as they came on an individual basis, rather than open up the flood gates with a blanket statement saying this drug is OK for the children? Perhaps start with a substance that is less severe and addicting before just jumping the gun and shoving OCs down their throats because, well, the clinical trials say it worked in the past?

But hell, I don't have a degree in Pharmacy. I'm sure we should just trust these people. They obviously know what is best, right?

Eh, fuck it. What's the worst that could happen, right? Who knows, maybe this influx of opiates for the children will fix the horrible face of music these days.



Three Monkeys Say: I don't want to say it was DEFINITELY the drugs...but it makes ya think!

We can't be consumed by our petty differences any longer!!

This dude fucking rules.



Three Monkeys Say: TODAY! WE CELEBRATE!! OUR INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

Herman Cain Does It Again

God, I am so happy I started this back up. For if I hadn't, odds are I never would have stumbled upon this taste of hilarity. So thank you, my loyal readers, for keeping me at the keyboard. I don't know what I would do without you!

From The Raw Story: Herman Cain TV channel to feature patriotic dinosaurs and cartoon Reagan

“Whether you are looking for commentary, comedy, or culture, CainTV delivers it all", boasts the Facebook page for Herman Cain's new internet TV station. And if the world of mass media has taught me nothing else, I know for damn sure that any idea that can be expressed through alliteration must be true.

Normally, this is where I would dig in my heels for a long winded rant about how Herman Cain is destroying America, yadda yadda yadda. I really don't even need to touch this one. Cain does it so much better than I ever could.

Enjoy.



Three Monkeys Say: Let's give a lamb a gun! Sounds pretty not stupid to me!