Zika: The Emerging Epidemic

ajshrk90

Zika: The Emerging Epidemic | Donald G McNeil

Greetings from Aruba! ☺️🌴🌊

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shanaqui

Zika: The Emerging Epidemic | Donald G McNeil

One thought: people are so pissed at the advice for women in Zika-affected areas not to get pregnant. Why? There is a legitimate risk: the long term effects of Zika infection during pregnancy cannot be known, but may include increased risk of mental illness. The short term ones include miscarriage, lifelong disability for the child and death after birth without intensive care. And there is no vaccine yet, no cure, no prevention strategy.

shanaqui The advice isn't even blanket advice if you read more: there's a general "consult your doctor" caveat, as there always is, and if you have had and fully cleared a Zika infection, there's low risk because reinfection is unlikely. If you've had Zika, the advice doesn't apply. 7y

[DELETED] 57804897 People feel as though no one should interfere in their reproductive freedom. Also, this is a religious experience. If God meant them to get pregnant and have a baby with issues, then he would. To which add on correlation is if he meant to punish/display his power by me having a baby with birth defects, then I should accept that punishment gracefully. 7y

[DELETED] 57804897 Yes, I hear this line of reasoning all the time 7y

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shanaqui @Ostaff1 I think it's the reproductive freedom issue most people are citing, but I don't understand why "delay planned pregnancy if you can to avoid your baby potentially having terrible birth defects" is an infringement of that. Nobody has said that they advise not treating Zika affected babies, just that pregnancy is best delayed. 7y

[DELETED] 57804897 Because reproductive freedom 7y

[DELETED] 57804897 Both the religious community for hubris, and this: https://www.themarysue.com/new-cdc-recommendations/ (edited) 7y

shanaqui @Ostaff1 I get some of the outrage over those recommendations -- they definitely come across as putting responsibility for everyone's behaviour on women in stating some of the risks of drinking. But the advice about Zika was purely "postpone planned pregnancies [because we have no real prevention, no treatment, and no idea of the long term risks]". It's just... Sensible advice. 7y

[DELETED] 57804897 But it‘s the same principles at play. If you‘re asking women to take a sensible precaution for future unborn children, you‘re saying women have a unique responsibility towards unborn children, and therefore need to make decisions about their behavior that don‘t put themselves first—and that‘s anathema to many feminists—second class citizens and all that. (edited) 7y

shanaqui @Ostaff1 Future unborn planned children, though! Not just assuming every woman might get pregnant. 7y

[DELETED] 57804897 Planned or not isn‘t the point, though. It‘s the moral calculus—are adult women more important than future (planned or not) theoretical children? I‘m not saying I agree, mind you—even when I was a college student, I moderated my substance intake just in case—but not everyone is willing to make that compromise. IMHO, the dominant paradigm of modern motherhood is to put your children second, so as to show by example how to take care of yourself 7y

[DELETED] 57804897 IMHO I think it‘s reasonable to assume that every woman of childbearing age *might* be pregnant. Again, most pregnancies are accidental. That‘s why dentists drape you with lead aprons when they x-ray your teeth, and doctors enquire about your last period before they prescribe drugs. 7y

shanaqui @Ostaff1 Eh. No chance I might be pregnant, I'm asexual and married to a woman anyway. I do NOT appreciate being treated as a potentially pregnant person. It'd require immaculate conception or a rape... And I'd abort it. 7y

[DELETED] 57804897 There you go—you now understand the objection to “sensible” advice. The corollary is that our society ignores that women are potentially pregnant people and gives no care for the majority of our citizens before birth. Prenatal care is entirely optional, but postnatal care is not. It‘s a trade off. 7y

shanaqui @Ostaff1 No, I don't. "Avoid pregnancy if possible" is not the same as "every woman of childbearing age might be pregnant". If people are genuinely conflating the two, that is just silly. 7y

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shanaqui

Zika: The Emerging Epidemic | Donald G McNeil

pick

Useful overview of how Zika emerged and what it means.

[DELETED] 57804897 I‘m showing my age, but I thought this was an excellent book on a similar topic: The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance by Laurie Garrett (edited) 7y

shanaqui @Ostaff1 That's on my to read list too! I'm studying infectious diseases at the moment (final year of BSc) and I'd love to work with emerging diseases. 7y

[DELETED] 57804897 Very cool! I‘m just a reader. :) My sister-in-law, who earned her PhD in molecular biology at Tübingen, sent it to me as a Christmas present one year. 7y

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BookishMarginalia

Zika: The Emerging Epidemic | Donald G McNeil

so-so

What I found most interesting in this book was the least scientific: how the author, a NYT science reporter, actually chased and reported the story of Zika. Its most problematic chapter, on the advice to delay pregnancy, is actually better read as an argument instead of scientific reportage.

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BookishMarginalia

Zika: The Emerging Epidemic | Donald G McNeil

This is creating a bit of cognitive dissonance: the author keeps making alarming statements about Zika in Puerto Rico, but I live in PR and there is no panic on the ground here. We are used to mosquito-borne illnesses in the tropics and take a pragmatic stance...

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balletbookworm

Zika: The Emerging Epidemic | Donald G McNeil

so-so

From an information and reportage standpoint this is pretty OK. There some information gaps that need to be addressed, though, and this isn't very elegant writing. However, the end of the book needs work, particularly the chapter "Delaying Pregnancy" which makes me want to set it on fire.

ramyasbookshelf Love that shelf! I am a public health researcher by profession.. Looks like you are in a similar field:) 8y

Nking5025 Love the shelf. Medical nonfiction is the best! Any recommendations, on a good one? 8y

balletbookworm @Nking5025 Spillover by David Quammen; The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddartha Mukherjee; Baby Doctor by Perri Klass; The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks; The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett; Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot 8y

Nking5025 @balletbookworm thank you!! 8y

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balletbookworm

Zika: The Emerging Epidemic | Donald G McNeil

Yeah, no, it's not for pregnant women that we're rushing vaccine production it's for the fetuses/babies. He makes a "not all men" statement in the prior chapter which almost made me rip out the pages.

CherylDeFranceschi I think you need to put the book in the freezer for a while. 😉 8y

Ellsbeth ^^I love @CherylDeFranceschi 's comment. 8y

10 likes2 comments

balletbookworm

Zika: The Emerging Epidemic | Donald G McNeil

Um, I think we need a basic primer on study type. He's changed the study-type in half a page - you can nest a case-control within a larger cohort study but case-control and cohort designs are not interchangeable. (This makes me want to poke my eyeballs out)

ramyasbookshelf Eugh!!! I hate it when that happens. Is the author a researcher?? 8y

balletbookworm @ramyasbookshelf he's a science reporter for the New York Times *hard eyeroll* 8y

Megabooks Lol! There's a big difference between scientists and science writers! 8y

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balletbookworm

Zika: The Emerging Epidemic | Donald G McNeil

Trufax

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balletbookworm

Zika: The Emerging Epidemic | Donald G McNeil

I've seen this map before - in the actual sitrep on 5/26/16, the date it was released. It's actually quite easy to read in color (the timeline and corresponding countries are shades of blue), not so black and white. The graphic should have been recolored to make it understandable in black and white.

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balletbookworm

Zika: The Emerging Epidemic | Donald G McNeil