Bravo, Graham, for writing about topics that are frequently swept under the rug. First on the malaria problem in Africa and the Mediterranean area: The reason many persons native to Africa have not been vaccinated has more to do with lack of education, long held religious beliefs, and lack of knowledge than insufficient vaccines. Colonialism did no favors to the Continent. Europeans came, and Europeans took, they did not give. Those African tribes that survived continued in their age-old beliefs. Oh, the Europeans brought new religion - whoop-de doo! That didn't stop the tribal religions and their reliance on questionable practices. One of my dear friends is from Sierra Leone and he explained the rapid spread of the Ebola virus in the interior parts of Sierra Leone, apparently there is an age-old ritual that when a tribal member dies, the women wash the corpse and drink the water from the washing to ease the passing. It is these age-old beliefs, that must be overcome. Giving people a "new god" to worship may make the missionary feel vindicated, but it does little for the good of Africans.
On AIDS, I am truly sorry for the way gay men especially were mistreated. The utter stupidity of the 'straight' community is and always has been a blight. HIV is not easy to get, it is not airborne, it can only be transmitted by body fluid to body fluid. As you are aware, the use of condoms, ended the widespread infections among gay men. AIDS is more frequently transmitted now by sharing drug needles from what I have read. My daughter, Laura, as part of her pre-med program did an in depth research in HIV. Since I have a Masters in physiology she shared a lot of her findings and the final paper with me, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus mutates four to seven times in any 24 hours, therefor it took years to find pharmaceutical cures and vaccines. And any Homo sapiens is susceptible. Arthur Ashe, the tennis great, was infected by receiving a blood transfusion.
On cigarettes, I'm not so forgiving. When I was a youngster I smoked heavily for 8 years, 3 packs a day, unfiltered cigarettes. Really stupid, and no excuse. I cheated by getting pregnant and morning sickness broke my smoking habit, but I never again took up the habit. The problem now is I am highly allergic to cigarette smoke, it causes me to cough uncontrollably. Cigarette smoke is hard for non-smokers to avoid, as animals we have to breathe. If a smoker wants to have early onset heart disease, that is their choice, but they have no right to inflict their habit on other people. Smoking in public forces others to breathe in the smoke, it is unavoidable.
Finally, on widespread chemical (drug) usage, we do need to find some good way to mitigate it. Right now in America it is fentanyl that is killing young people, a few years ago the main culprit was opioids being foisted on the drug using population by the pharmaceutical industry - who in America are far more interested in increasing their wealth than in curing or preventing disease. There is also the role of mental health in using chemicals that are harmful to the body. When I was a science teacher I was asked to teach classes on avoiding physical damage to the human body. I prefer the term chemical dependency to drug abuse. Drugs are chemicals, you cannot abuse them, you can burn them, combine them with other compounds and since they are inanimate they don't care.
There is much speculation that the cure for HIV has long since lain locked away in someone's safe, but the money-go-round from retrovirals is too good to stop the music. Retrovirals now mean that life expectancy is not materially affected. So the pharma companies sit on a cure, because the patient's net outcomes is the same. But a cure would mean the patient falls off their radar, and that's the last thing they want.
Your time and trouble are, as ever, warmly appreciated.
Actually, Graham, we are closer to a vaccine now than ever, thanks to the Covid pandemic. I majored in biology and chemistry and have a masters in physiology, so I have a better understanding of viruses and how they act. Until Covid, the scientific community had limited understanding of how to vaccinate against viruses. Bacteria are better understood so we have treatments and vaccines. Bacteria are "normal" for single celled critters, like our individual cells, they have a nucleus containing the chromosomes which carry the genetic code for all the needs to keep the cell alive. They have mitochondria that supply all the energy needed, I won't bore you withe all the other cellular parts, suffice to say it's complicated.
Viruses on the other hand are so simple some scientists argue they are not living. A virus consists of a single strand of RNA surrounded by a protein coat. They are incapable of replicating themselves, They produce no energy. In order to produce more viruses they enter your cell, send their RNA to your cell's nucleus and force your cell to produce several thousand viruses. Then having achieved their purpose, they rupture the cell, killing it in the process. With some viruses, like the common cold they neither reproduce sufficient viruses, nor kill enough cells to kill you, the host. Viruses like HIV, and Ebola do produce enough viruses and kill enough cells to kill you the host.
So, the big break through with Covid was using m-RNA (messenger-RNA) as a vaccine to shut down the viruses ability to enter your cell. So, the Covid virus is incapable of forcing your cell to replicate itself or killing your cell when several thousand viruses break loose.
From reading science papers, those scientists are now working on m-RNA to stop HIV, common cold, and some cancer causing viruses. This is great news. I expect before the end of this century AIDS will be a thing of the past and several other viral diseases too.
But don't feel sorry for these viruses, they mutate so quickly that there will be killer viruses all the time in the future, and scientists will be constantly using different strands of m-RNA to control new viral outbreaks.
Bravo, Graham, for writing about topics that are frequently swept under the rug. First on the malaria problem in Africa and the Mediterranean area: The reason many persons native to Africa have not been vaccinated has more to do with lack of education, long held religious beliefs, and lack of knowledge than insufficient vaccines. Colonialism did no favors to the Continent. Europeans came, and Europeans took, they did not give. Those African tribes that survived continued in their age-old beliefs. Oh, the Europeans brought new religion - whoop-de doo! That didn't stop the tribal religions and their reliance on questionable practices. One of my dear friends is from Sierra Leone and he explained the rapid spread of the Ebola virus in the interior parts of Sierra Leone, apparently there is an age-old ritual that when a tribal member dies, the women wash the corpse and drink the water from the washing to ease the passing. It is these age-old beliefs, that must be overcome. Giving people a "new god" to worship may make the missionary feel vindicated, but it does little for the good of Africans.
On AIDS, I am truly sorry for the way gay men especially were mistreated. The utter stupidity of the 'straight' community is and always has been a blight. HIV is not easy to get, it is not airborne, it can only be transmitted by body fluid to body fluid. As you are aware, the use of condoms, ended the widespread infections among gay men. AIDS is more frequently transmitted now by sharing drug needles from what I have read. My daughter, Laura, as part of her pre-med program did an in depth research in HIV. Since I have a Masters in physiology she shared a lot of her findings and the final paper with me, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus mutates four to seven times in any 24 hours, therefor it took years to find pharmaceutical cures and vaccines. And any Homo sapiens is susceptible. Arthur Ashe, the tennis great, was infected by receiving a blood transfusion.
On cigarettes, I'm not so forgiving. When I was a youngster I smoked heavily for 8 years, 3 packs a day, unfiltered cigarettes. Really stupid, and no excuse. I cheated by getting pregnant and morning sickness broke my smoking habit, but I never again took up the habit. The problem now is I am highly allergic to cigarette smoke, it causes me to cough uncontrollably. Cigarette smoke is hard for non-smokers to avoid, as animals we have to breathe. If a smoker wants to have early onset heart disease, that is their choice, but they have no right to inflict their habit on other people. Smoking in public forces others to breathe in the smoke, it is unavoidable.
Finally, on widespread chemical (drug) usage, we do need to find some good way to mitigate it. Right now in America it is fentanyl that is killing young people, a few years ago the main culprit was opioids being foisted on the drug using population by the pharmaceutical industry - who in America are far more interested in increasing their wealth than in curing or preventing disease. There is also the role of mental health in using chemicals that are harmful to the body. When I was a science teacher I was asked to teach classes on avoiding physical damage to the human body. I prefer the term chemical dependency to drug abuse. Drugs are chemicals, you cannot abuse them, you can burn them, combine them with other compounds and since they are inanimate they don't care.
Great insights, thanks Fay.
This friend died recently from a fentanyl overdose, and I needed to come to terms with that. https://endlesschain.substack.com/p/our-judgment-of-a-misadventure.
There is much speculation that the cure for HIV has long since lain locked away in someone's safe, but the money-go-round from retrovirals is too good to stop the music. Retrovirals now mean that life expectancy is not materially affected. So the pharma companies sit on a cure, because the patient's net outcomes is the same. But a cure would mean the patient falls off their radar, and that's the last thing they want.
Your time and trouble are, as ever, warmly appreciated.
Actually, Graham, we are closer to a vaccine now than ever, thanks to the Covid pandemic. I majored in biology and chemistry and have a masters in physiology, so I have a better understanding of viruses and how they act. Until Covid, the scientific community had limited understanding of how to vaccinate against viruses. Bacteria are better understood so we have treatments and vaccines. Bacteria are "normal" for single celled critters, like our individual cells, they have a nucleus containing the chromosomes which carry the genetic code for all the needs to keep the cell alive. They have mitochondria that supply all the energy needed, I won't bore you withe all the other cellular parts, suffice to say it's complicated.
Viruses on the other hand are so simple some scientists argue they are not living. A virus consists of a single strand of RNA surrounded by a protein coat. They are incapable of replicating themselves, They produce no energy. In order to produce more viruses they enter your cell, send their RNA to your cell's nucleus and force your cell to produce several thousand viruses. Then having achieved their purpose, they rupture the cell, killing it in the process. With some viruses, like the common cold they neither reproduce sufficient viruses, nor kill enough cells to kill you, the host. Viruses like HIV, and Ebola do produce enough viruses and kill enough cells to kill you the host.
So, the big break through with Covid was using m-RNA (messenger-RNA) as a vaccine to shut down the viruses ability to enter your cell. So, the Covid virus is incapable of forcing your cell to replicate itself or killing your cell when several thousand viruses break loose.
From reading science papers, those scientists are now working on m-RNA to stop HIV, common cold, and some cancer causing viruses. This is great news. I expect before the end of this century AIDS will be a thing of the past and several other viral diseases too.
But don't feel sorry for these viruses, they mutate so quickly that there will be killer viruses all the time in the future, and scientists will be constantly using different strands of m-RNA to control new viral outbreaks.