Lies, Damn Lies, and Public Health

Well, well, well. This is interesting. "H5N1 Bird Flu Strain Reported to be Another “Gain-of-Function” Virus."

    Back in 2022, during the early days of the “bird flu” pandemic, I wondered if the H5N1 strain of bird flu was a gain-of-function creation.

    The reason for it was two-fold. One was the high kill ratio. While a new virus might have a high infection fatality rate, 100% fatality would only likely be achieved if the virus genetics were rearranged to target a host species.

    The second reason was that the Chinese were reportedly experimenting with the H5N1 strain. Since 2019, we have all enjoyed the novel coronavirus they generated in their Wuhan labs.

    While I may have been right about the gain-of-function (GOF), I was wrong about the laboratory. It turns out this frankenvirus might be a joint American and Dutch creation.

    And, as with China, poor biosafety practices may have been a contributing factor.

The article goes on to cite a study that "suggests that this strain may have emerged from gain-of-function research conducted at two specific facilities: the USDA Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory (SEPRL) in Athens, Georgia, and the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands."

    And lest we forget, from the Boston Globe, "‘The lockdowns were never really effective’: New research shows COVID stay-at-home orders did more harm than good."

    But while the impact of lockdown policies is still being studied, new research paints a troubling picture of the immense collateral damage inflicted by them.

    The measures increased poverty and wealth disparities, spurred a dramatic rise in adolescent anxiety and depression, contributed to a surge in fatal drug overdoses, and led to devastating learning losses in schoolchildren, who have yet to recover, according to scientific studies. As of last spring, the average American student remained half a grade behind pre-pandemic levels in both math and reading, according to a recent report card on pandemic learning loss.

     What’s more, months of unrelenting seclusion caused many people to sever social connections, with lasting consequences to mental and physical health. Both volunteering at nonprofits and church attendance, two measures of social engagement, declined and have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. In 2023, the nation’s surgeon general warned of an "epidemic of loneliness and isolation" — brought on, in part, by lockdown measures that isolated people.

    And that’s not counting the other costs in lost livelihoods, shuttered businesses, and the anguish of seeing relatives die alone without being able to say goodbye.

    “The lockdowns were never really effective, and the confusion around them sowed a great deal of public distrust in government,” said Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota.