Holy Jumpin' Monkey Viruses!
By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.
There's a story a fellow science teacher told me that I've always remembered. This science teacher headed the Education Center at Lawrence-Livermore Labs and was present when Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb, came to visit the National Ignition Facility, designed to create nuclear fusion, the energy of the Sun.
"What do you think you will learn?" the elderly scientist asked of the director in his thick Hungarian accent.
The chief scientist prattled on about all of the things they expected to discover on the road to nuclear fusion, but Teller was unimpressed.
The famous scientist shook his head and said, "No! The answer is, you have no idea what you will learn!"
I like the story because it demonstrates a humility in the face of the things we don't understand. It's not just that we know we don't know. It's that we might not even know the right questions to ask.
I was reminded of Teller's story when I read an article, dated July 15, 2011 from Science Daily entitled, "First Adenovirus to Jump Between Monkeys and Humans Confirmed." What? Adenoviruses can jump from monkeys to humans? We never knew that! You can read the article HERE.
Are you getting my point?
Okay, onto the details. In late 2009 a third of the titi monkeys at the California National Primate Center became infected with a new virus, since named the titi monkey adenovirus (TMAdV). The virus caused a devastating upper respiratory illness that progressed to pneumonia and killed 19 of 23 monkeys (83 percent), and this number included even healthy young adult members.
The center called in Charles Chiu, MD, Ph.D, an assistant professor of laboratory medicine and infectious diseases at UCSF and the director of their viral diagnostics center. Chiu and his team from the UCSF Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center swung into action like a medical A Team, using specialized microarray Virochip technology developed at UCSF to solve the mystery of the dead monkeys.
Complicating this medical mystery was the fact that "around the time of the outbreak, a researcher who was taking care of the sick monkeys also developed an upper respiratory infection, with fever, chills and a cough that lasted four weeks, as did two members of the researchers' family who had no contact with the monkey colony."
Unfortunately, the researcher did not report his illness for several months. Fortunately, the researcher and his family recovered.
Since any potential virus had already cleared the system of the researcher and his family, Chiu worked with the California Department of Public Health to conduct antibody testing. The article explains, "antibodies are a product of the body's immune response to pathogens and generally remain in the bloodstream for several months." The monkeys, the researcher, and one of the two members of the researcher's family tested positive for antibodies to this new adenovirus.
But many mysteries remained.
"The UCSF team found that the new virus clearly belonged to the adenovirus family, yet was unlike any adenovirus ever reported to infect humans or monkeys, including from large-scale studies by public health agencies such as the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and prevention. The new virus was so unusual, in fact, that it shares only 56 percent of its DNA to its closest viral relative."
Chiu had more to say about the virus.
"This is clearly a new species of adenovirus and it's quite different from anything we've seen previously. Given the unusually high fatality rate of TMAdV in the titi monkeys, they are not likely to be the native host species for this virus. We still don't know what species is the natural host."
I know I'm just a simple science teacher, so maybe some of my readers can help me on this question. What other animals might a research monkey come into contact with that might serve as the natural host of this virus? Now I'm sure that lab workers aren't allowed to bring their dogs into the lab, even on casual Friday. What could it be? What other animals besides monkeys do they often have in labs? Hmmn . . .
I've got something on the tip of my tongue. It's small, furry, and women and elephants are terrified of them (okay, maybe not the elephants), and DAMN, I just can't remember!
Okay, I think I've got it. There's an old nursery rhyme which might help. "Three blind - - - -, three blind - - - -," Oh, I can never remember the words to a song!
Well, Dr. Chiu, I don't have the answer yet, but apparently you don't either. I offer my services as a collaborator. I think I'm close. I'm also a big fan of the Virochip technology as I believe it discovered another virus which people are talking about these days. I'm sure if we combined forces we could solve this riddle.
I really think I might have a talent for lab work.
Kent Heckenlively is a Contributing Editor to Age of Autism
Taximom, You are spot on about Duesberg and the parallel to vaccine damage.
Yes, everybody check www.duesberg.com and also remember he has thousands of top scientists/doctors around the world supporting him, so he is not a Lone Ranger, but Pharma Industry and CDC/NIH treat him like he's a loner. WRONG, it's the exact opposite, but the Industry pretends Duesberg is alone, JUST LIKE THE NEWS INDUSTRY treats Andrew Wakefield pretending he is alone - WRONG, Wakefield has thousands of doctors agreeing with him.
The book The River is a propaganda mouthpiece for the AIDS Industry causing untold death by their toxic drugs - nothing more, nothing less. Think not? Just go to www.duesberg.com and www.rethinkingaids.com
Posted by: autism uncle | July 26, 2011 at 06:28 PM
And the band played on...
Posted by: Sue Morgan | July 26, 2011 at 12:15 PM
Adenovirus transmission happens through respiratory droplets,feces,from eye to eye by contaminated hands,towels,
floors etc.Adenovirus can attack the respiratory tract,eyes,
intestines,lymphoid tissues;can persist in the tonsilles and
adenoids.There are about 51 different types exists.Crowding
and stress are factors that contribute and increase the number of infections.
How clean are the labs? Why the illnesses were
not reported? How can these new viruses escape to other family members? If they have taken the germs home,then they took the germs out to the community.I hope this info helps.
Posted by: oneVoice | July 25, 2011 at 09:39 PM
Everyone: I just checked on Amazon, there are many copies available in used/good condition starting at $10.00 (both hardcover and paperback).
There definitely seem to be plenty of availability now, back then when I bought mine it was more difficult.
Posted by: Karin | July 25, 2011 at 08:57 PM
For those drawing a parallel to AIDS, you might want to look at www.duesberg.com.
And then think of all the billions spent on AIDS "research," medications and vaccine trials.
Who exactly profited from those??
Oh, right--the same industry who gave our kids autism.
Posted by: Taximom | July 25, 2011 at 07:55 PM
Maurine -- Amazon lists used copies as little as $14 and a kindle edition on pre-order now for $10. I checked our local library has 8 copies available; maybe yours does too, or could get it for you via inter-library loan.
Posted by: Marian The Librarian | July 25, 2011 at 07:23 PM
Maurine,
I got my copy from Amazon.com in March 2010 for $26.00, used but in good condition.
I would keep monitoring eBay and Amazon daily or weekly, prices for these discontinued items tend to fluctuate widely with time, and once you see one for decent price, grab it.
Good luck.
Posted by: Karin | July 25, 2011 at 07:03 PM
I found "The River" for 30 dollars last Christmas, but did a terrible thing and did not get it. Now it is gone.
But Carol "Bless her HEART"
gave me a link that is about "THE RIVER" Free on the internet.
I had it listed in my Favorite list
http://www.uow.edu.au/~bmartin/dissent/documents/AIDS/Hooper03/Hooper03.pdf
Posted by: Benedetta | July 25, 2011 at 06:41 PM
Karin,
some years back I tried to get a hold of Hooper's book and even wrote to him and he responded. Cannot get it anywhere anymore. Someone on the internet wanted over $100.00 for it at one point. If you know where I can get a copy-please let me know.
[email protected]
Posted by: Maurine Meleck | July 25, 2011 at 05:54 PM
I seem to remember in the hearings at FDA/CBER (following Delwart's discovery of PCV1&2 & HERVK in ROTA, MMR & VAR vaccines), it was mentioned that the microarray analysis costs about $400 per sample. There seemed to be some "concern" on the part of people like Bruce Gellin that the falling cost of such testing will lead to more studies being published -- he was even going to "talk to the journals" about it. I'll just bet they're quaking in their boots. How much longer can they really keep a lid on things? Does UCSF hold the patent on the testing? They get an awful lot of finding from NIH.
Posted by: Garbo | July 25, 2011 at 03:49 PM
The impossibility of trans-species transmission has been the unfounded ASSUMPTION of those using animal cell cultures for vaccines and other biological products. Oops!
Here are some partial lists of references, including a couple I put together some years past:
Contamination of cell cultures http://bit.ly/f4VeC5
Re: problems with detection of cell culture contamination http://bit.ly/e5vSKh
Google search "contamination of cell cultures" http://bit.ly/e2wtcH
Posted by: Sandy Gottstein | July 25, 2011 at 03:17 PM
Monkeys and mice have been living in close proximity to humans for thousands of years. There have been plenty of opportunities for viruses to jump from one to the other.
That's why I think that some new factors must have been introduced to result in increased animal-human (and vice-versa) transfer of pathogens, and explain the appearance of HIV's, HTLV's and XMRV's/HGRV's, etc... all within an extremely short time-frame in human history. The use of animal and human cell lines in labs since the 1950's is by far what makes the most sense to explain this phenomenon, in my humble opinion.
Kent (and everyone else), if you haven't read 'The River: A Journey To The Source Of HIV and AIDS' by Edward Hooper, I highly recommend you do. It is a huge and dense piece of work, but it is amazingly eye opening.
The foreword to this book by W.D. Hamilton is terrifyingly accurate. Some extracts:
'A major point of this book is that when the heads are great ones and have owners with much to lose (employed perhaps in giant companies or government departments), Truth can be made so ill that we should all shiver.'
Note: he is talking of vaccine inventors and manufacturers.
'Evasion and untruth have long been known to be beneficial at many levels and useful to people in many ways. They can be presented as virtues - the little bads that add to a greater good, with a proviso, of course, that the good is of a kind that the colluders believe only they know how to attain.'
'The thesis of The River is that the closing of ranks against inquiry may, in this case, be preventing proper discussion of an accident that is bidding to prove itself more expensive in lives than all the human attritions put in motion by Hitler, Staline, and Pol Pot. Furthermore, essentially unwarned by what we have recently done, we may be moving rapidly toward further and perhaps even worse disasters of the same kind.'
Note: this was written in the 90's, but over a decade later, think XMRV and just feel dread chill your bones...
'Everyone should read this book, both for its story and in order to think hard on all that it implies - all this before Truth, more white and sick even than with AIDS, quietly rejoins us through another door.'
Note: I think it already did, and its name is Autism. This time it is not a sexually active portion of the population that is coming down, this time it is a whole generation of children.
Posted by: Karin | July 25, 2011 at 10:46 AM
Kent
Might be a mouse, but perhaps the immediate source could also be a human?
John
Posted by: John Stone | July 25, 2011 at 09:11 AM
Kent, Always good to hear your probing curiosity. Yet, monkeys kept caged and having no connection (or diet) like their natural environment is just asking for vulnerability to any kind of viruses they are exposed to. Then, we have no idea as to what medical treatments they were given.
Reminds me of the SARS panic in 2003 when the world was shut down to travel to/fro SE Asia, and 773 our of 775 deaths were in SE Asia and Canada (only 2 others in the entire world were not in SE Asia or Canada) were directly associated (or caused) by strong drug treatments of the antiviral drug ribavirin and strong dosing of corticosteroids. Also, a new strain of coronavirus was NOT actually the cause of SARS's mild symptoms, as it was associated with less than half the cases. But, of course the medical Industry loves to fear monger about 'mutating viruses.'
The medical world has unwittingly fallen more and more for antiviral drugs; also the H1N1/Swine flu contrived panic was in most part based on Mexico's early deaths also directly associated with ribavirin where the drug is sold over the counter and recommended to the public to be taken for all kinds of mild respiratory ailments.
At any rate, maybe ribavirin or other toxic drugs did in the monkeys, and maybe the adenovirus strain was the fall guy. How do we know?
Posted by: autism uncle | July 25, 2011 at 07:37 AM