Censorship Doesn't Just Stifle Speech — It Can Cause Disease To Spread 70
Lasrick writes "Maryn McKenna at Wired explores fears of a pandemic of MERS after October's hajj to Saudi Arabia, the annual pilgrimage to Islam's holy sites: 'The reason is MERS: Middle East respiratory syndrome, a disease that has been simmering in the region for months. The virus is new, recorded in humans for the first time in mid-2012. It is dire, having killed more than half of those who contracted it. And it is mysterious, far more so than it should be—because Saudi Arabia, where the majority of cases have clustered, has been tight-lipped about the disease's spread, responding slowly to requests for information and preventing outside researchers from publishing their findings about the syndrome.'"
Re:Freedom for WHAT CLASS? (Score:4, Interesting)
Hehe yeah right AFTER we all get our personal maintenance-free unique flying unicorn pony (or pig if you so prefer, oink ftw).
Yeah, that's the point though isn't it? Blind following of any ideology is foolish. Absolutism is the true enemy. Look at the way science works, testing the correct paths by experimentation and proven results, not just baseless theories.
In other words, absolutist notions like "Communism" or pure "Free Market Capitalism" are the personal maintenance-free unique flying unicorn ponies and pigs. Neither Neigh-sayer nor Oinker will admit that perhaps the best way forward could be a far less lofty goal: Simply riding unicorn-pig hybrids safely along the ground instead. Additionally: Magical Bacon!
Censorship can stop more than that (Score:2)
Wasn't there a children's nursery rhyme about the loss of a kingdom for want of a nail?
Seems the concept of lack through fortune or obstruction is well known throughout history.
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Seems the concept of lack through fortune or obstruction is well known throughout history.
Yes, it is pretty silly to think that no one ever noticed before that information and knowledge can be beneficial.
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Wasn't there a children's nursery rhyme about the loss of a kingdom for want of a nail?
Ah yes, I remember it well...
Kindly said, "They know not what they do,"
Advised instead, "Rope can not hold this Jew!"
From crossed timbers made spell,
And chosen kingdom fell,
The Immortal's now locked up with Xenu.
Rename the disease and awareness will shoot up (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Rename the disease and awareness will shoot up (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Sulfa works for MRSA, as does doxycycline, clindamycin, vancomycin, zyvox, and a few others. It's called MRSA because it's resistant to penicillins, not because it's a "superbug" with magical powers that makes it immune to every antibiotic out there.
Sincerely,
Deuist, MD
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Rename the disease and awareness will shoot up (Score:4, Interesting)
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have confirmed that players, Carl Nicks and Lawrence Tynes, are being treated for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Perhaps the infection will get a more user-friendly name like Buccaneers' disease, sort of like Legionnaires disease did for legionella pneumophila.
If they don't, they should at least find a way to throw a couple of vowels into the acronym, like SARS. Civilians can't seem to really get behind fearing something, or taking precautions against it, unless they can pronounce the darn name.
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Some suggestions... (Score:2)
Muslim Mucous
Pilgrim Pneumonia
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People think you're saying MRSA, and they tune out. I've seen it happening over and over now.
Actually listening to what other people are saying and trying to comprehend what they do and (and most importantly) don't mean just isn't a valued part of American culture.
When you were younger, did you ever work an entry-level customer service type of job? Then you know all about it. You see this behavior even in people who are actively seeking and truly do need your advice. I think it's a form of puerile impatience (that ends up costing more time ironically enough). It could also be an attempt to s
Need any more proof? (Score:1, Troll)
Religion and reality don't mix.
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Actually not to hard to prove this claim. 84% of the world has a religion of some sort (http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2012/dec/23/84-percent-world-population-has-faith-third-are-ch/) and, based on this information from Reporters Without Borders (http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2013,1054.html), it's going to be mathematically difficult, if not impossible, to argue with any degree of sincerity the position which claims the remaining 16% make up the most influential portions of Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, Andorra, Denmark, Lichtenstein, New Zealand, Iceland, Estonia, Austria, Jamaica, Switzerland, Ireland, etc., etc., etc.
First establish clearly the claim before trying to provide it. What is a "most religions nation"? Is it the quantity of believers, is it their levels of fundamentalism, or a bit of both?
It's the level of fundamentalism that's likely to be the important factor here. For example, in Ireland the majority express some religious belief, yet it tends to be a rarely tended form of Catholicism. That's probably how a country can be 84% Catholic, while still retaining press freedom and condoms.
Saudi Arabia is near
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Actually I suspect the incentive was more economic: If it had widely known that there's a dangerous illness there, there probably had been much fewer pilgrims, bringing much less money into the country.
Re:Need any more proof? (Score:5, Informative)
The Great Influenza by John M. Barrie goes into great detail how the war time censorship under the Wilson administration resulted in a significantly higher death toll in the US. The so called "Spanish flu" got its name because the Spanish press was not censored, the flu appears to have originated in western Kansas.
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Religion and reality don't mix.
Am I missing something in your comment?
I don't see the role of religion here, or an insinuation in the article that there is religious motivation behind this.
The story is about the Saudi government wanting to contain outgoing information relating to its handling of an epidemic, and researchers criticising this attitude as dangerous to public health beyond Saudi borders, and drawing links to SARS etc.
Yes, it so happens that this epidemic has been kindled by the fact that there is an influx of people on a
The truth will always come out (Score:3)
Discovering the truth, such as the cost of air or water pollution or the cost of always fighiting forest fires (seems like the obvious thing to do) can take generations to learn but we're doing it.
Disease is a human concern, not a political or economic concern.
We're figuring that out just as we're now figuring out what to do now that we've 'conquered' the world as a species
How dire? (Score:5, Insightful)
It is dire, having killed more than half of those who contracted it.
That's not a measure of direness by itself. How contractable is it?
(I'll make the obvious joke myself that it's highly contractable, since "MERS" has a lot fewer letters than "Middle East respiratory syndrome")
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True - if only five people ever caught it and three of them died, it'd still fit the description but wouldn't be dire at all.
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I've never heard of a virus entering into a contract but I'm sure a nasty EULA would do it more damage than it could do you.
Sure it does. Consider the 1918 Flu Pandemic (Score:5, Informative)
Censorship never slows the spread of word where a disease is concerned, it only adds rumor into the mix, to create confusion.
Sure it does. A prime example is the 1918 Influenza Pandemic and president Wilson's reaction to it.
Wilson and his administration saw news of the disease as promoting a public response that would hamper the war effort, and reporting it to be treason. So he had the government suppress the news and spread disinformation. Among the effects:
- The disease had shown up in one military camp. The commanding officer wanted to quarantine the camp to keep it from spreading throughout the military and the country. But his orders were countermanded from above. Result: Sick and incubating soldiers were shipped all over the country, spreading the disease.
- Disinformation about the nature of the disease, and how to treat it, was disseminated, using the Public Relations resources of the government, which drowned out more accurate statements from the medical community and others. This amounted to a set of government-created and broadly propagated health frauds, some of which persist today, causing those who believe them to waste money and impair their health. Among them is the theory of "autointoxication": that flu (or other disease) symptoms are the result of toxins produced by intestinal flora (if retained too long) and a resulting illusory need for "regularity" - having daily bowel movements at roughly the same time of day. To this day this theory results in laxative overuse and sometimes addiction, vitamin deficiencies, intestinal irritation, and delays in seeking medical attention when it is needed for a real illness.
So censorship CAN slow, or even suppress, the spread of word where a disease is concerned, bury the truth, and stop appropriate handling of a disease.
Censorship is a disease (Score:2)
It is one that governments are trying to spread in their populations so that they/we become unaware of how they spy on us.
It's from bats (Score:3)
Read all about it:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=mers+bats [lmgtfy.com]
When will we learn? (Score:3)
Point 1: I see nowhere in that article where Faisal's Bastards managed to suppress publication of actual information about MERS. It makes the same claim (word for word) as the FP, but substantiates it... Not at all?
Point 2: So - The vast majority of the 9/11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia; they count as the #1 contributor to OPEC (how do you like fracking now, bitches?), and... They seem intent on covering up the next pandemic? Someone remind me why we keep playing nice with these worthless misogynist theocratic pieces of dog shit?
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Because in spite of it all they're still human beings. you racist asshole.
Although that remains open to debate, I didn't ask why we don't turn them into a sheet of glass, moron. And for the record, religion doesn't count as a race, however fucked up it may make its adherents.
I asked why we still play nice with people who clearly behave in a manner that makes them the enemies of the rest of the human race. Not whites, not Christians, but humans. Diseases don't fall for type-II statistical errors such as
Preventing publication... (Score:3)
Just out of curiousity, how do the Saudis prevent outside researchers from publishing their research? It would seem that if you are outside Saudi, then their censorship wouldn't apply. I could see how they prevent outsiders from conducting research, but from publishing their research? Seems that something must have been edited out because that doesn't make sense.
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Yeah, I was wondering that myself. I think they mean "preventing outside researchers from getting in to research the outbreak".
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Bingo!
I don't believe that there's been any real study to determine how many people have it. But of the number of people who have bad enough cases to be admitted to a hospital, and were then diagnosed with MERS, more than half of them died. Without knowing the associated percentages, however, we can't really say more about it than "it's occasionally fatal".
Religion & epidemics (Score:1)
The hajj brings big bucks into Mecca (Score:2)
If this is a spreadable Disease (Score:1)