Fair Use: Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH
Ebola: The Classic Cytokine Storm?
Michael Osterholm, Director, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), University of Minnesota in a recent symposium vividly described how Ebola could plunge America and the world into an engineered infectious abyss of chaos.
Black swan events come upon us by surprise, they are typically catastrophic events, and they are ones that tend to happen quickly. I am talking about real human people experiencing amazing tragedies. I think that we are about to see a whole rolling blackout of Black Swan events associated with this event.
Osterholm continues,
I am of the notion that we have allot of unexpected ahead of us. Come to expect the unexpected. Do not expect anything carved in stone today that will not be blown up by some scientific or intellectual piece of dynamite. Be prepared.
He may be referring a clandestine cadre of scientists who are genetically manipulating viruses such as Ebola and inserting kill-switches that can be turned on and off at will. Osterholm frankly admits that he “knows a hell of allot less about Ebola than I did six months ago”.
Ebola History
According to Osterholm Ebola has “hardly pinged the human species until now”, and has played a minimal role in infectious disease over that last 40 years since it appeared on global stage.
- 24 outbreaks of Ebola in humans
- 19 were community outbreaks
- 5 were of a laboratory situation
- The longest string was 5 generations
What Osterholm emphasizes his quote by NPR, “the virus hasn’t changed, Africa has changed. We now have this virus in an urbanized population among people who travel far and wide,” and he adds that this urbanization, “was a gas can waiting for a match to hit”.
In a remarkable statement, Osterholm declares that this is not the same Ebola from the past, but it could be the “same virus” in a different setting, although he admits that transmission has crossed the species barrier from pig to non-human primate through the respiratory tract. A recent study on Ebola in macaques indicated that this might be a completely different virus where transmission could be respiratory in nature.
Making it up as we go
Osterholm freely acknowledges one thing:
We are making this up as we go. However, that is not new to public health. With that we must learn to become more comfortable with uncertainty.
Predictions of Things to Come
Regarding predictions for upcoming cases:
There’s going to be lots, and lots, and lots of cases. In addition, lots, and lots, and lots of deaths. And we don’t know what that number is going to be. We just have to accept that fact. We just do not know. The precision around these estimates are big enough to drive an entire convoy through.
We also need to know that progress is painfully slow. The virus is operating in virus time and all the rest of us are operating in bureaucratic or program time. The virus is winning hands down, and it still is.
At this point in the presentation, the footage did a hiccup. It is not surprising as hiccups are behind the veil of symptoms of this real or perceived hemorrhagic fever.
A vivid and detailed description about the response effort in Western Africa is drawn with a hypothetical parallel to a fire in the City of Minneapolis, who has to call upon its mutual aid contract with the City of New York Fire Department, to come to its aid. Osterholm describes that we will see a flowery show of response, but the bottom line is that Minneapolis will “burn down”.
That is what we have to understand is that this is the New World Order when it comes to infectious disease. We should do what we can, but it is not going to be enough.
In this apocalyptic scenario we have to understand that health care has collapsed (except One Health Universal Care managed under the United Nations), tropical and sexually transmitted diseases are rampant, poverty, women forced to give birth in deplorable circumstances, and malnutrition, all resulting in a “failed state situation”.
Wake-up World!
According to Osterholm, the “next black swan is ready to occur”. Migrant populations moving in back places off the beaten track will create:
An infectious disease forest fire burning with sparks occasionally hitting Dallas or wherever.
These people travel where there are no checkpoints and with no identification cards. These wanderers just “move for jobs” and this does not include normal movement. Osterholm proceeds,
If West Africa was a can of gas waiting for a match to hit it, the rest of central Africa is like a tanker- truck waiting for a match to hit it.
Government officials were so startled that they consulted with Osterholm inquiring where he got his information. It is common knowledge in sociological and anthropological circles and yet the government demands credibility for being the only trusted source for information. Osterman is a firm proponent for UN coordinated-government checkpoints, identification, proof of disease status, population tracing, and restricted travel.
Not About Ebola! It is about Terrorists & Self-Interest!
The Intelligence Community is the most interested party on the “Hill” about Ebola because when they see destabilization of vast regions such as America, “the whole terrorist issue is remarkable”. It becomes a breeding ground for terrorists. Might we witness public beheading, as our own porous borders seethe with a new breed of terrorist writhing for regime change? The effort surrounding Ebola is not as “much a humanitarian effort as it is a self-interest effort”.
Vaccination is the Answer
As Osterholm begins winding down his presentation, he delivers the statement that vaccination is the answer although he says he has grave-concerns about them, because he is convinced that Ebola will become an endemic disease. There will be peaks (surges) and troughs with, “A flash of cases, elimination of cases, shut down the clinic, move to another location, and flash of cases, bring it back, repeat”.
I think we have great candidate (biotechnical/genetically modified) vaccines. While joking that he has been brain-dead for decades he is believes, “we can have an effective Ebola vaccine.” And we are supposed to go as lemmings off a cliff and believe him because just because he is a self-described brain-dead, public official health official? It remains to be seen what this Ebola vaccine will be effective at accomplishing, depopulation possibly?
International Plea
We need much more data. We are working with the most fogged set of binoculars that I have ever seen.
Nevertheless, we need an “international research agenda”. We have none. I understand in a time of dire humanitarian straits it is hard to do research”. Osterholm, therefore, calls for a global effort under the auspices of the UN.
We have an obligation as scientists not to have another black swan event.
What if we have another black swan event, where now we really have something to be concerned about airplanes?
Why insert airplanes? It is known as a Dual Purpose word. It can refer to the 911 tragedy with supposed hijacked jets; a clue for restricting unfettered air travel; the danger one is exposing themselves to infectious disease when they board an airplane; or something more sinister.
However, Carl Zimmer of the NY Times contends:
That’s just fear,
That’s like saying you’re afraid of wolves, and you’re really worried that one day wolves are going to be born with wings and they’re going to fly around and attack people, and that they’ll be able to fly from Montana to New York.
That’s just not a realistic worry. Evolution doesn’t work that way. (Nevertheless, it does work in a bioweapon or research laboratory-CB).
It is interesting that Zimmer highlights New York that has just been issued by the CDC that Ebola may be coming to the Big Apple and also Montana, that has one of the Ebola treatment facilities with a convenient vaccination pharmaceutical company down the road granted with federal dollars to create a new Ebola vaccine.
Just-in-Time Pandemic-Mania
All of these statements come at a time when agencies, FEMA, and our financial sector are about to kick off a full scale pandemic accord exercise in FEMA Region II during November and December. In weaponized virology where does pandemic influenza begin and Ebola end? They share the same symptoms, quite possibly have been weaponized with the same kill-switches in the laboratories, by the very same mad scientists.
We all want certainty in this situation, but Osterholm guarantees us that Mother Nature (in collaboration with the scientific and governmental communities-CB) are not going to allow that. They assure us that all we need is:
- Good science,
- Good public health messages,
- Be in control of our own destiny by how we deal with the situation
Osterholm concludes his presentation with a quote from Ebenezer Scrooge,
Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?
References:
Ebola Crisis Dean’s Symposium, Part 6: Challenges for Unprepared Health Systems, October 16, 2014
Dean’s Symposium on Ebola: Crisis, Context and Response As the featured speaker, Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health and Director, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), University of Minnesota