ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE NOW

  Sounds Like ME/CFS to Me

 

One of the CDC's polite press guys, David Daigle, whom I've had the pleasure of speaking with on several occasions, posted this how-to manual to prepare for the Zombie Apocalypse, on the CDC's Public Health Matters Blog.  Curiously, what causes folks to transmogrify into zombies appears to be, according to Daigle, an infectious agent passed in a bite or bodily fluids that causes a neurodegenerative syndrome.  Does David Daigle know something we don't know?  Not to mention that patients describe both being a zombie and ME/CFS as "a living death," "death warmed up" and "I feel like such a zombie!" 

Below, in purple, is an excerpt from Daigle's post, which drew a whopping 23,000 readers to the lonely CDC blog--a record--causing the site to crash. 

Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse

There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for. Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That’s right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency.

A Brief History of Zombies

We’ve all seen at least one movie about flesh-eating zombies taking over (my personal favorite is Resident Evil), but where do zombies come from and why do they love eating brains so much? The word zombie comes from Haitian and New Orleans voodoo origins. Although its meaning has changed slightly over the years, it refers to a human corpse mysteriously reanimated to serve the undead. Through ancient voodoo and folk-lore traditions, shows like the Walking Dead were born.

A couple dressed as zombies - Danny Zucco and Sandy Olsson from the movie Grease walking in the annual Toronto Zombie Walk.

In movies, shows, and literature, zombies are often depicted as being created by an infectious virus, which is passed on via bites and contact with bodily fluids. Harvard psychiatrist Steven Schoolman wrote a (fictional) medical paper on the zombies presented in Night of the Living Dead and refers to the condition as Ataxic Neurodegenerative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome caused by an infectious agent. The Zombie Survival Guide identifies the cause of zombies as a virus called solanum. Other zombie origins shown in films include radiation from a destroyed NASA Venus probe (as in Night of the Living Dead), as well as mutations of existing conditions such as prions, mad-cow disease, measles and rabies.

The rise of zombies in pop culture has given credence to the idea that a zombie apocalypse could happen. In such a scenario zombies would take over entire countries, roaming city streets eating anything living that got in their way. The proliferation of this idea has led many people to wonder “How do I prepare for a zombie apocalypse?”

Well, we’re here to answer that question for you, and hopefully share a few tips about preparing for real emergencies too!

Disaster or Blackout Emergency Supplies

Some of the supplies for your emergency kit

Better Safe than Sorry

So what do you need to do before zombies…or hurricanes or pandemics for example, actually happen? First of all, you should have an emergency kit in your house. This includes things like water, food, and other supplies to get you through the first couple of days before you can locate a zombie-free refugee camp (or in the event of a natural disaster, it will buy you some time until you are able to make your way to an evacuation shelter or utility lines are restored). Below are a few items you should include in your kit, for a full list visit the CDC Emergency page.

• Water (1 gallon per person per day)
• Food (stock up on non-perishable items that you eat regularly)
• Medications (this includes prescription and non-prescription meds)
• Tools and Supplies (utility knife, duct tape, battery powered radio, etc.)
• Sanitation and Hygiene (household bleach, soap, towels, etc.)
• Clothing and Bedding (a change of clothes for each family member and blankets)
• Important documents (copies of your driver’s license, passport, and birth certificate to name a few)
• First Aid supplies (although you’re a goner if a zombie bites you, you can use these supplies to treat basic cuts and lacerations that you might get during a tornado or hurricane)

SHOAH TESTIMONY

A Few of the Speakers at this Week's Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee Meeting at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Mary Schweitzer delineates what's problematic about the CDC when it comes to ME/CFS:



Dr. Joan Grobstein, a neonatologist, discusses transmission and treatment of ME/CFS and what the government needs to do in the next six months to end the inertia:

Lori Chapo-Kroger, the founder of CFS Solutions of West Michigan, talks about the death of three friends from ME/CFS:



Attorney Charlotte von Salis speaks on disability benefits, the problematic definition, and why many patients want to dissociate from the CFIDS Association:



Respiratory therapist Meghan Shannon, who's had ME/CFS for 35 years, gives her moving testimony and explains what's wrong with the CDC website:



Demonstration by playwright Rivka Solomon, who is joined by other patients, outside HHS:



Too ill to testify in person, 22-year-old patient Ben Di Pasquale was filmed by a local TV station.

JUDY MIKOVITS' NEW STUDY

Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus-related Virus-associated Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Reveals a Distinct Inflammatory Signature 

Published IN VIVO

VINCENT C. LOMBARDI, KATHRYN S. HAGEN, KENNETH W. HUNTER, JOHN W. DIAMOND, JULIE SMITH-GAGEN, WEI YANG and JUDY A. MIKOVITS

Abstract. Background: The recent identification of xenotropic

murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) in the blood of

patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) establishes that a

retrovirus may play a role in the pathology in this disease.

Knowledge of the immune response might lead to a better

understanding of the role XMRV plays in this syndrome. Our

objective was to investigate the cytokine and chemokine

response in XMRV-associated CFS. Materials and Methods:

Using Luminex multi-analyte profiling technology, we

measured cytokine and chemokine values in the plasma of

XMRV-infected CFS patients and compared these data to those

of healthy controls. Analysis was performed using the Gene

Expression Pattern Analysis Suite and the Random Forest tree

classification algorithm. Results: This study identifies a

signature of 10 cytokines and chemokines which correctly

identifies XMRV/CFS patients with 93% specificity and 96%

sensitivity. Conclusion: These data show, for the first time, an

immunological pattern associated with XMRV/CFS.

HAVE YOU NO SENSE OF DECENCY?

Here is my testimony at the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee meeting on Wednesday at Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C.  Below the written testimony is the video clip.

My name is Mindy Kitei.  I’m a science reporter who’s covered ME/CFS for twenty years.  Last June, I began my blog, CFS Central, in honor of my friend Nancy Kaiser.

I met Nancy in 1994, while working on an investigative piece for Philadelphia magazine called “The AIDS Drug No One Can Have” about the experimental HIV and ME drug, Ampligen.

Nancy had a severe case of ME. She had multiple seizures every day. When she tried to sit or stand, her blood pressure plummeted; she often crawled instead. She tried many experimental treatments to get well.

Nancy died on June 15, 2008.  I naively thought she’d never succumb to the illness, as if by sheer will she’d keep herself alive.

Three other ME patients whom I interviewed in 1994 have also died of the disease.

Despite its gravity, despite ample evidence that ME is an infectious disease, the government treats it like a joke. The CDC and parts of the NIH have been playing a shell game:  studying patients with simple fatigue or chronic fatigue or depression—but labeling them CFS patients. 

Even when the CDC conducted its XMRV study, it studied the wrong cohort and refused to do an actual replication of the Science study.  It’s just a different kind of shell game from the bogus psychological CFS studies that are the agency’s trademark.

To the CDC and NIH scientists who’ve been doing this ludicrous research for three decades and sweeping a worldwide human catastrophe of 17 million people under the carpet, I say to you:  Have you no sense of decency at long last?

ME patients are suffering from a serious infection— most likely a retrovirus—but are told by charlatans to exercise and have a positive attitude. 

Researchers in government and at universities, as well as the CFIDS Association, admonish desperate patients that taking anti-retroviral drugs is medically indefensible.  When the healthy reprove the sick that they’re impatient and reckless and foolish and need to wait for treatment, I say there is no treatment, and where are the drug trials?  Thirty years and not one approved drug and none in the offing.

ME patients should have the same freedom to try medications that AIDS patients had in the early days.  The AIDS patients became their own advocates because there was no one advocating for them.  The same holds true for ME patients now. Patients are gravely ill, and they have the right to treatment.  To say that they don’t—that’s what is medically indefensible.

The U.S. government conducted the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment from 1932 to 1972.  The study tracked the progression of untreated syphilis among poor African American men but didn’t tell them they had syphilis. The men got sicker and many died.

In 1997, President Clinton apologized to the remaining Tuskegee men.  Clinton said:  “What was done cannot be undone. But we can end the silence. We can look at you in the eye and finally say on behalf of the American people, what the United States government did was shameful, and I am sorry.”

The United States government has watched ME patients suffer and die for 30 years, and has done nothing, and that is shameful.

In less than a year, more than 125 thousand patients from 108 countries and territories have found my blog, CFS Central.  Patients write to me asking for help every day.  Toward that end, I request a meeting with Kathleen Sebelius, Howard Koh, Francis Collins, Tony Fauci and Thomas Frieden to discuss how to turn this situation around, by funding good studies and finding effective medications.

About funding ME, Dr. Dennis Mangan said during this meeting:  “We’ll use one dollar and try to make two.”   I’m sure Dr. Mangan means well, but it isn’t enough.  As AIDS activist Larry Kramer said years ago about HIV patients:  “We are not crumbs.” After thirty years of neglect, ME needs research parity with HIV. We also need a czar who will oversee ME and report directly to President Obama. 

Finally, we need to enact the ME/CFS Care Act.  Much like the Ryan White Care Act for HIV patients, the ME/CFS Care Act will provide health coverage to needy patients.

In closing, I ask you, Dr. Wanda Jones, to ensure that this meeting occurs.  Dr. Jones, will you help me? 

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