Zika Virus Infections in the Americas and the DDT Question

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By Don Roberts — February 23, 2016 @ American Council on Science and Health

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently declared the Zika virus epidemic a Public Health Emergency thanks to its rapid spread and possible association with microcephaly. Global conditions for spread of mosquito-borne viruses are constantly changing. But spread of Zika would have been unlikely during the 1950s and 60s because of successful mosquito eradication efforts. Today, the virus readily proliferates in urban environments where the primary mosquito responsible for the epidemic, Aedes aegypti, thrives.

U.S. policies in the 1940s were helpful in early mosquito eradication efforts. Changes in U.S. policies in the late 1960s however facilitated the subsequent demise of those efforts.

DDT was introduced during WWII to prevent millions of cases of louse-borne typhus and other insect-borne diseases. After the war, it was used to free billions of people from the threat of malaria. In the Americas, DDT was used to control malaria, and also to eradicate Aedes aegypti, the mosquito responsible for yellow fever, dengue, and now, Chikungunya and Zika viruses.

Bolivia began Aedes aegypti eradication with DDT in 1945, and by 1947 it was eradicated. This landmark event led the Truman Administration to sign an agreement to eradicate the yellow fever mosquito from the hemisphere.

Maps showing the geographical distribution of Aedes aegypti (presence shown in red) at different times in the Americas.

But not until 1963, under the Kennedy Administration, did Congress appropriate funds for Aedes aegypti eradication, placing the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in charge. The U.S. program was justified, in part, as a means of preventing the export of Aedes aegypti from the U.S. back into the Aedes aegypti-free countries of the Americas.

Aedes aegypti is a domestic species and is found almost exclusively in and around houses. For Aedes aegypti eradication, DDT was sprayed inside and outside water containers near houses. DDT stopped Aedes aegypti mosquitoes from laying eggs in the sprayed containers. If the adult mosquitoes were not repelled by DDT, then DDT killed them when they contacted the sprayed surfaces.

The eradication programs were massively successful. Many said that DDT was so successful that it eradicated the malariologists, as well as malaria. DDT was so

successful in Aedes aegypti eradication that in the late 1960s a dengue expert opined that dengue would never again threaten the people of the Americas.

The U.S. Aedes aegypti eradication program did not start until 1964. Substantial progress was described in a 1967 progress report. However, that progress was short lived. In 1968 David J. Sencer, the CDC Director, expressed opposition to eradication. Sencer had influence over the Global Malaria Eradication program, for which the U.S. provided much DDT and most of the funding.

In July 1969, Sencer accompanied the U.S. Delegation to the World Health Assembly to decide the fate of The Global Malaria Eradication program. The decision was taken to abruptly terminate the program. That fall, Nixon ordered the cancellation of all residential uses of DDT in the U.S. In a separate action, Sencer terminated the U.S. Aedes aegypti eradication program too. The malaria and Aedes aegypti eradication programs relied completely on DDT. There were no DDT substitutes.

Nixon reported to Congress in January 1970 that We have taken action to phase out the use of DDT and other hard pesticides. Action against DDT didn t end there. Created in 1970, Nixon s Environmental Protection Agency convened a hearing in 1971 to determine DDT s fate. 125 witnesses were called and expert scientific testimony spanned seven months. In the end, the presiding judge (Judge Edmund Sweeney) approved the continued essential uses of DDT, stating that DDT is not a carcinogenic hazard to man. Two months later, the EPA Administrator, William Ruckelshaus, ignored the presiding judge s findings and concluded DDT was a carcinogenic risk to humans. With that he banned all non public health uses of DDT. Even for public health use, he required that each application for public health use undergo EPA review and approval.

In contemplating what could be used instead of DDT, Judge Sweeney had concluded that potential DDT replacements were too dangerous. Ruckelshaus did not let that stop him from banning DDT. He identified methyl parathion as the primary DDT substitute. Years later and after untold deaths of agricultural workers, the EPA banned parathion as being too dangerous, even when protective gear was used.

Ruckelshaus opinion of DDT as a carcinogenic risk to humans was a scientific anomaly. His conclusion stemmed entirely from high dose animal studies. Even today, no expert review of DDT concludes that it is a human carcinogen. Even if it were a human carcinogen, decisions about public health use of DDT would need to be balanced against the risks of cancer with its use versus the risks of disease, death, and/or infant neurological damage from viral infections without its use. As a final point, the World Health Organization still approves DDT for use in disease control programs.

On a global scale, Sencer s advocacy against the eradication programs doomed the public health use of DDT. But the EPA s DDT ban put the final nail in the coffin. After the ban, DDT availability declined and cost went up. Aedes aegypti eradication programs quickly failed and by the mid-1970s the mosquitoes were re-invading the Americas. Dengue soon started savaging countries that had been free of the disease for 20 years or more. Severe dengue epidemics and millions of cases became routine annual occurrences in the Americas.

In 2004 the New York Times Magazine published Tina Rosenberg s What the World needs now is DDT. She cited South Africa s stunningly successful return to DDT for malaria control. Since then, South Africa s continued use of DDT kept malaria at bay. The country s President just accepted an award from the African Leaders Malaria Alliance for moving South Africa s malaria program toward the goal of eradication.

Nowhere has environmental extremism against DDT been more successful than in the Americas. Today African countries are free to use DDT, but extremist propaganda has foreclosed on those freedoms for the Americas, perhaps forever.

Uncontrolled dengue epidemics are bad, but in 2013 Chikungunya infections appeared in the Americas, followed in April 2015 by Zika virus infection. All these diseases are spread by Aedes aegypti, and complete failures of non-insecticidal approaches to Aedes aegypti control ensure the continued spread of those diseases.

Having sowed the seeds of a public health crisis of the three viral diseases listed above, the U.S. must now help to find solutions. New larval control insecticides are needed that combine DDT s action of repellency, toxicity, and persistence, on or in water containers. Countries should be encouraged to put aside environmental extremism and use DDT if field tests give favorable results.

Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered - or - Delusional, Deceitful, and Dumb

 By Rich Kozlovich

For those of us who are older, I'm on the back end of seventy, we remember, and loved, the great Broadway shows created by great musical teams like Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Lerner and Lowe.  In 1940 one of the songs introduced by Rodgers and Hart in the musical Pal Joey, was Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, which became a hit record in 1950, and was reintroduced in the 1952 Broadway revival.  That was an era of inspiring, true entertainment and craft, and will never return. 

Okay, so where's this going?  Well, I think it's worth while to decide if Biden is just bewitched, bothered and bewildered, or is he delusional, deceitful, and dumb.  For the President of the United States to be on either side of this is unacceptable, but at least being on one side of this is excusable.  Being on the other side is corrupt, and no excuse can be justified or acceptable.

In an interview with Joe Biden the interviewer stated there's not a major corporation in the world that would hire a CEO that was 80 years old, then asked Joe Biden why should America elect an 82 year old man as the most important CEO in the world?  Biden answered: “Because I have acquired a hell of a lot of wisdom and know more than the vast majority of people. I’m more experienced than anybody has gone through the office and I think I’ve proven myself to be honorable as well as also effective.

Remarkable! Then we have Obama's evaluation: "Never underestimate Joe Biden's ability to screw things up", which means of course one of them is delusional.  

So, he's acquired all this wisdom because he knows so much, and his "experience" in life makes him most worthy?  Ronald Reagan was right when he said: "The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so."  One of the things we need to abandon is the idea liberals are our friends, or the "loyal" opposition.  They're not, they're' communists. devoted to the destruction of America as we know it.

As Silvio Canto, Jr. pointed out in his article, "The commies of Colorado", noting:  

At some point, you have to call a "commie" a "commie." In other words, if it hates capitalism, it hates capitalism.  Check this out from the Colorado Education Association, the state’s affiliate to the National Education Association.  This is their latest resolution:  “CEA believes that capitalism requires exploitation of children, public schools, land, labor, and/or resources. Capitalism is in opposition to fully addressing systemic racism (the school to prison pipeline), climate change, patriarchy, (gender and LGBTQ disparities), education inequality, and income inequality.”  There you have it.  Don't call them well-meaning liberals, because this is communism."  

And they lie ...a lot.... at least until they no longer need to lie.   Once they have enough power no one dares call them liars.  Joe Biden, and for that matter, his entire administration and the Congress demonstrate these foundational truths daily.

Those of us who are older remember when Fidel Castro claimed he wasn't a communist, until his power was secure, then it turned out ...... he really was a communist.... and like all communist thugs, he proceeded to murder a lot of innocent people, and in fact, per ratio he killed more people than did Joe Stalin. 

If Biden is so wise and knows so much more than the majority of people, then how in the world can he honestly claim he's been "honorable", and "effective".  So, is he bewitched, bothered and bewildered, or  delusional, deceitful, and dumb?

Biden claims he won't negotiate over raising the debt limit or spending because "his" economy is better than Trumps, which is so obviously wrong for him to publicly say such a thing has to make any rational person wonder what's wrong with his mind.  Especially when the amassed history of his experience in life shows he clearly has been neither honorable, effective, nor is the economy better now than during the Trump administration.  

Unless of course you feel these things represent a great economy:

1. Growing inflation.
2. National debt piling up well over thirty trillion dollars 
3. Banks failing because of ESG investing, which the federal government is demanding from financial institutions.
4. Spending that's out of control.
5. Higher energy costs.
6. Eliminate use of natural gas.
7. Force the nation to use electric vehicles.
8. Higher food costs.  
9. Telling us we need to start eating bugs. 
   
10. Shortages of many commonly used products.
11. Stores closing all over the nation due to the massive crime wave across the nation.
12. Rampant illegal immigration.

Many of these problems are a direct result of the Biden Administration's unrelenting war against climate change, one of the greatest scientific frauds ever perpetrated on humanity, and Kerry, Biden's special envoy on climate, and what that means is totally obscure as:

 

"Neither the White House nor the State Department responded to questions about the precise nature of Kerry’s work, and whether he was authorized to negotiate treaties on behalf of the United States,"  Yet he's spending millions refusing to divulge to Congress what he's spending it on, who "he's meeting with and who is advising him......stonewalled requests for budget and staffing information from legislators and government watchdog groups."

 

"In response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed last year by RealClearInvestigations for a breakdown on how the climate envoy’s roughly $16.5 million 2022 budget was spent, the State Department said it could not comply with the request until April 2025, months after both the 2024 election and the expiration of President Biden’s current term."  

 

And  now according to Marc Morano of CFACT, along with Steve Milloy, in this Newsmax video, starting at 24:35, they note that Biden, through the regulatory agencies is ‘bypassing democracy to impose Net Zero vision’!   So why should we think any of these goings on are honorable?  We shouldn't!   Climate is only a threat to America if America adopts all the insanity of the Biden administration's climate agenda.  All of which Biden, his administration, and the Democrat party own, lock, stock and barrel.  

 

In spite of all the evidence to the contrary, Biden apparently thinks all this represents honor and is evidence of a good economy.  In point of fact, his claims about his accomplishments, his value, and his intelligence demonstrate a diametrically opposing conclusion to being honorable or effective!   Is he bewitched,  bothered and bewildered, or  delusional, deceitful, and dumb?

I've discussed effective, now let's look at honorable.  Honorable is the antipode of corrupt, and now there's so much dirt coming out about Biden's dealings, and those around him, including Obama. According to Senator Grassley and Representative Comer there evidence Biden takes pay offs to make policy decisions, and it's being noted:  

"If it's accurate, it doesn't just involve Joe Biden."

All of which may not be the Constitutional letter of the law for treason, but it certainly embraces on the spirit of the law for treason, and America needs to know if the Biden crime family, Obama, and others promoted the sell out of the nation for financial gain, and how vast a network was involved.  

Is he bewitched, bothered and bewildered, or is he delusional, deceitful and dumb as dirt?  That's an easy answer. He's delusional, deceitful and dumb as dirt.  He simply lies to himself, and to the world, and he always has, ......unendingly.... and it's deliberate.  And now that he's become so neurologically fragile, I think he believes his lies, and those lies along with his actions are deadly to the nation.

ANALYSIS: Top Officials Who Pushed Aggressive COVID-19 Policies Now Try to Reframe Their Positions

By Petr Svab May 4, 2023

Some of the people most strongly associated with promoting lockdown measures during the COVID-19 pandemic have recently sought to recast their positions. Examples include Anthony Fauci, former leader of the federal COVID-19 response, teachers’ union head Randi Weingarten, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Fauci seemed eager to shirk responsibility for the lockdowns when talking to The New York Times last week. “Show me a school that I shut down and show me a factory that I shut down. Never. I never did,” he said. It was the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that produced the lockdown recommendations, he emphasized.............“I never criticized the people who had to make the decisions one way or the other,” he said.  That doesn’t appear to be accurate.  Fauci was repeatedly cited by the media as criticizing states that diverged from federal guidance..........To Read More.....

What's the World's Temperature Supposed to Be?

By Rich Kozlovich

I find it disheartening at the social disintegration we're seeing taking place in America, and I have serious concerns all this may be unfixable.  No matter what leftist narrative the media may spew out, or leftist insanity that's their thought of the moment, there's always reality.  Reality, like truth, can be ignored, it can be twisted, it can be vilified, it can be fought against, but it can't be changed.  Reality, truth and time are on the same side.  And time eventually brings humanity to an inevitability factor, where reality reaches its apex. 

No matter how many times they tout the idea we can alter our climate decades out, I think it well to remember we can't control natural phenomena like El Niño, which we know about and witness on a recurring basis.  If that's so, and it is, why would we think they can control events that have not taken place, have no idea if they can or will take place, and speculate over potentials history simply does not support?  

They ignore things they know because they're inconvenient, and they make up the things they don't know. 

I keep coming back to this.  What's the Earth's temperature supposed to be?  They have no answer.  A thousand years ago during the Medieval Warming Period it was substantially warmer than it is now, as it was eight hundred years before that during the Roman Warming Period.  So then, here's the question we really need to ask.  During those much warmer periods did any of the disasters they're predicting for today occur then?  

There's absolutely nothing in the historical record to show those much warmer periods didn't cause any of their predicted disasters, and in point of fact, humanity prospered during those times.  If that's so, and it is, if the planet was going through a warming cycle, why shouldn't we expect to prosper now as well?  That's history, and that history is incontestable. That's the reality we need to accept. 

Here's another reality we're most likely going to have to accept.  I believe there is a good possibility we're heading into another "solar minimum". 

Senator John Kennedy (R-La.), grilled the Under Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk about the cost of green energy reforms, and the cost of being carbon neutral, which he hedged on over and over again.   While others have claimed it will cost the United States taxpayers 50 trillion dollars to become carbon neutral by 2050 Senator Kennedy asked, over and over again, if we spend that money how much will it have reduced the world's temperatures by 2050.  Turk hedged on that answer over and over again, until the Senator started bluntly and clearly: 

'You Don't Know, Do You? You Don't Know, Do You?

Yet, according to these leftist misfits we "have" to save the world from catastrophic climate change, and in order to do that we must destroy our economy with suicidal ESG investments, destroy our ability to feed ourselves, and abandon any rational concept of energy production, eat bugs, and accept serfdom.   All of these leftist schemes are actually one scheme.  Destroy America by attacking the fundamental values that made America great.  

So much blood has been spilled, so much pain has been endured, so much has been lost, and now in the end, there may be so little to show for it for our children and grandchildren.  We're losing everything, and so many have been made to believe all this leftist insanity is right and necessary.  Whether it's environmental scaremongering, pandemic scare mongering, or social and economic destruction, the nation, and the world, are walking straight into the dystopic leftist future being planned and imposed on humanity by a tyrannical and corrupt elite.  However, we have to understand this one all important fact. 

It can only happen if America no longer exists.  

That's the reality everyone needs to grasp, and that reality is a religious battle, a battle of faith.  The battle against leftist faith! And what's leftist faith? "The Lord our God is one God", and the state will be that God, and everyone will bend the knee, or else.  That's leftism.  An evil religious movement that's an irrational, misanthropic, morally defective neo-pagan secular atheistic religious movement that in no way can abide things that are decent, pure and good.   Starting with the French Revolution we have 235 years of history to substantiate that statement, and that history is incontestable. 

Make no mistake, global warming, or now referred to as climate change since the world's CO2 levels are skyrocketing and climate isn't warming, is a 'leftist faith based initiative', and ranks at the top of all the scientific corruption and fraud ever perpetrated on humanity in all of human history.  

So, back to developing the intellectual response for hy the ravings of the left are wrong.  Let's start with this fundamental truth.  Leftism is evil.  After we accept that everything else falls into place.