Petition CDC to Lift Travel Advisory to Coz

[Thalassamania]

Thank you very much for your well thought out and clearly expressed opinions.

 

[DandyDon]

Cancel the petition. CDC has downgraded the advisory to caution. Antonio has the link...

 

[vladimir]

Whatever your opinion on the magnitude of swine flu risk, we should all agree that it would be a sad commentary on the scientific community if the CDC allowed itself to be influenced by a petition.

 

[IXΘYΣ]

... it would be a sad commentary on the scientific community if the CDC allowed itself to be influenced by a petition...

Scientific communities have always been influenced by public opinion and by politics, and by internal opinion and politics. The history of science is replete with examples. Whether this case is an example of caving to influence or not is open to interpretation of the facts - I believe they caved to political pressure, and blew a regular old case of "this year's new flu" way out of proportion to meet the political desires of the current DC power brokers. Thass apparently believes they're pure as the driven snow. But there is one fact that I see: the island of Cozumel was included in the blanket warning even though there had been not one single case of the Swine Flu there, and still hasn't been, as far as I can find. Not one.
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[vladimir]

So you would have more faith in the decision-making ability of the CDC if they changed their minds based on 500 signatures from laypeople on the Scubaboard, many of whom have a vested interest and few of whom have any scientific insight whatsoever? You think that would be an appropriate factor for them to weigh in their decision-making?

 

[DandyDon]

Scientific communities have always been influenced by public opinion and by politics, and by internal opinion and politics. The history of science is replete with examples. Whether this case is an example of caving to influence or not is open to interpretation of the facts - I believe they caved to political pressure, and blew a regular old case of "this year's new flu" way out of proportion to meet the political desires of the current DC power brokers. Thass apparently believes they're pure as the driven snow. But there is one fact that I see: the island of Cozumel was included in the blanket warning even though there had been not one single case of the Swine Flu there, and still hasn't been, as far as I can find. Not one.
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Whether they do or don't react to politics and such, supporting this petition would have been supporting the wrong move.

So you would have more faith in the decision-making ability of the CDC if they changed their minds based on 500 signatures from laypeople on the Scubaboard, many of whom have a vested interest and few of whom have any scientific insight whatsoever? You think that would be an appropriate factor for them to weigh in their decision-making?

Let's do a petition supporting science over petitions.

 

[Thalassamania]

Scientific communities have always been influenced by public opinion and by politics, and by internal opinion and politics. The history of science is replete with examples. Whether this case is an example of caving to influence or not is open to interpretation of the facts - I believe they caved to political pressure, and blew a regular old case of "this year's new flu" way out of proportion to meet the political desires of the current DC power brokers. Thass apparently believes they're pure as the driven snow. But there is one fact that I see: the island of Cozumel was included in the blanket warning even though there had been not one single case of the Swine Flu there, and still hasn't been, as far as I can find. Not one.
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You have no idea of what I believe and what I do not believe, but yes I'll place far more trust in the CDC than I will in the opinion of a thousand or so gringos with no medical or epidemiological background who are pissed off at their inability to raise their serum margarita and potentially endanger us all.

 

[1KWIK_69]

So you would have more faith in the decision-making ability of the CDC if they changed their minds based on 500 signatures from laypeople on the Scubaboard, many of whom have a vested interest and few of whom have any scientific insight whatsoever? You think that would be an appropriate factor for them to weigh in their decision-making?

This petition wasn't asking them to disregard science. It was asking them to take a real look at the facts for one small area instead of using a blanket statement about all of Mexico. I'm not a scientist, but I'm more than capable of reading what the scientists write, an I've been gathering as much info as I can find.

 

[Thalassamania]

There are no internal control on people moving about in Mexico, just as there are none in the US, it makes no sense to place travel restrictions except by "units" within which people are free to travel.

 

[IXΘYΣ]

If there's anyone out there who doesn't think the CDC plays politics, consider this:

"During 2007 more than two and a half million adults and children became infected with this virus. By the end of the year, an estimated 33 million people worldwide were living with it. The year also saw two million deaths from it, despite recent improvements in access to antiretroviral treatment."

And yet this particular contageous virus has a near "protected" status. There are laws protecting the rights of the infected to walk among us. All the arguments supporting the efficacy of this policy fall flat in the face of the facts... 2.5 million new cases a year; two million deaths. But those sad facts are swept under the rug of political correctness.

What's the virus? HIV. Compared to that, Swine Flu is nothing.


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