Nipah Virus, HIV Virus and the Human Virus
– Scam, Loot & Chicanery
If you have been reading the newspapers
diligently and following the news on multiple media fronts- TV, social media etc.
I am sure you would know and recognize the words- the deadly Nipah virus. If
you still don’t remember or can’t recall it offhand, the news refers to the
recent outbreak of Nipah viral attacks in the state of Kerala in south India.
The vector for transmission of the virus from animals to humans was identified
as bats and as there was/is no cure and no way of immunizing against the virus
the outbreak was predicted to cause massive causalities as it spread like
wildfire throughout the country. And then it didn’t. It burned itself out
within a month and the mass casualties predicted? There were a total of sixteen
deaths. Now sixteen is not a small number, no death is condonable for that
matter, nut when it comes to predictive statistical analysis sixteen is not a
patch on the thousands who were expected to be infected in the crowded state of
Kerala merely by living and breathing in the same air as the nipah viral
victims.
So how did we dodge this bullet? Reflect
back a little to the Ebola virus scare a year ago, the SARS virus a few years
ago, the Swine Flu some years ago- all of them were predicted to cause mass causalities
as they were supposedly uncontainable. Bu they didn’t. They burnt out on their
own after causing an initial few deaths. Epidemiological measures like
lessening general population exposure and specific measures like better
protection to doctors and nurses treating these patients certainly helped. But
what really mattered was the viral outbreak burnt itself out. For that’s what
viral outbreaks do. The zero patient- the index patient who first gets
infected, goes onto infect a few more around themselves and gradually the
circle seems to be widening before it suddenly collapses on itself. That’s how
most if not all viral epidemics end. But within the short period of the start
and end of the infection, there are billions of dollars to be made- by a variety
of people- the United Nations, the world health organization, the central and
state governments and the Pharma and vaccine makers. Hence all the hype about
uncontrollable diseases with doomsday scenarios peddled in the pliant media.
The big daddy of all such scams was the
aids epidemic scare of the 90’s. When the HIV infection was first diagnosed it
was primarily limited to a small subgroup of populations- the homosexuals and
the drug pushers using infected needles. And then when the virus crossed over
into the heterosexual community there was widespread fear mongering about how
the entire population of the earth will be decimated by HIV. There were billions
of dollars poured into HIV research over the years- but even thirty years later
there is still no cure in sight and we are all still alive. The united nation
even formed a special group called UNAID which received in excess of ten
billion dollars in aid every year for propaganda against HIV infection. The United
States of America alone spent over six and a half billion years every year on
aids.
And many other fortunes were made by NGO’s
in India utilizing the aids scare and attracting foreign funds for telling
people what they already knew- sex with strangers was risky. The condom
manufacturers who sensed an opportunity to earn more than they were currently
making zoomed in on the aids panic to make HIV infection the most attention
grabbing in the planet through the use of paid media. Condom sales zoomed
through the roof when people were assured that having risky sex with strangers
was alright as long as you wore protection.
And the approach seemed to work initially
before people started going back to their original selves and rejecting condoms
whether risky or not. And you can’t blame them- when people have to choose
between instant gratification and a miniscule chance of risk guess what they
will opt for? Anyway the strategy of using condoms as the cure for aids slowly
ran into real world difficulties as people in real life rarely correspond to
advertisement led campaigns. Which led to the next big profit spin-off-
anti-retroviral drugs.
Large pharmaceutical companies not amused
by the profits NGO’s and condom manufacturers were making off the aids scare
were just waiting for such an opportunity to jump in. they started spreading
money around to convince people they “hey forget about HIV infections, just pop
in a few drugs daily and you can live a normal healthy life”. And voila- the
anti-HIV drug business zoomed to six billion dollars. And you know what the NGO’s
who realized that they were being cheated of a part of their loot did? They
cried foul. They lobbied with governments and regulatory agencies to make these
drugs harder to get as long as they didn’t get their payoffs from the Pharma
industry. As I keep saying the only difference between an NGO and the mafia is
the mafia do their own killings while the NGO’s use lobbying to get governments
do the killings on their check lists. And that’s the reason that even with the
widespread ability to manufacture generic anti-HIV drugs they are still not
being manufactured and supplied to those who are positive for the Virus. A few
deaths here and there, despite the presence of very effective drugs to prevent
them, keep the populace in perpetual fear of the disease and always in the new’s
cycle.
And after all these underground wars the
surprising news from results started coming in that the AIDS scare was dying
down because new HIV infections were not progressing at the levels predicted
and why? Because as any competent epidemiologist or statistician would tell you
– infections have these tendencies to bloom and die on their own – self-limiting
in other words. As most people who infect others realize the fact and start
controlling their exposure voluntarily the infected circle gets smaller and
smaller and even if it doesn’t die out completely is still in too small a
circle to be called a universal threat or to spend scarce resources on but
having made billions of dollars on the scare can we just let it go on its own
without kicking and screaming? Hence the continued tom-toming of the AIDS
threat to humanity despite clear-cut evidence to the contrary and its business
as usual for the UN, WHO and other NGO’s down the feeder line who like remora’s
feed on the big sharks which prey on a fearful and unsuspecting public and on
public coffers.
So what does this tell us? For one, that all
those who cry doomsday at the drop of a hat are all talking through their hats.
And for another though there are genuine microbial threats to human health its
not all one sided. We haven’t survived billions of years and share the same, or
almost same set of genes with the microbe’s to go down so easily without a fight.
What they do, we can do. And we can do one step better. We can hang in there
till they self-destruct for we humans have staying power. We can change our
genes – epigenetics its called, to resist even thee toughest of microbes and
make them harmless to us. And finally, the purpose of the un, the who and all
those NGO’s is just to make money out of our misery and it’s our fault if we
believe otherwise. So next time you read in the papers about the next big
threat to humanity, quietly tell yourself that someone has invented a new way
to make more money.
