NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Neal Cohen's latest comments on WNV (West Nile Virus) "bouncing back" on Staten Island, NY, after the area was repeatedly and massively doused with Anvil, shows either a profound ignorance of science or a deliberate effort to misinform the public and the media.

The reemergence is predictable and likely to be accompanied by a dramatic increase in both infected birds and mosquitoes-as Dr.Cohen will likely announce has occurred in a few days. Compare Dr. Cohen's comments in today's newspapers [below] with an excerpted report from the Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association [below that].

The repeated mass spraying of Staten Island and the entire tri-State area around NYC with Anvil will predictably weaken the immune systems of people, birds and mosquitoes resulting in them all becoming more sussusceptible to WNV and other opportunistic infections. Add to that a predictable increase in breast cancer, learning disabilities, miscarriages, neurological damage asthmatic attacks, infertility, birth defects and otheother serious health consequences.

"City officials are set to douse Staten Island with a fresh round of pesticide after discovering that the borough's mosquito population - which carries the lethal West Nile virus - is on the rise. The number of skeeters found in traps at 19 different sites around Staten Island has grown, although the borough was ground-sprayed with the pesticide Anvil earlier this month, Health Commissioner Neal Cohen said. "We're seeing a re-emergence of mosquitoes," Cohen said...Part of the reason for the new skeeter woes is that between 10 and 20 percent of the bugs won't be killed by the pesticide [the ones that are resistant to the chemicals] - and those that live will reproduce, Cohen said . . . Cohen said the traps were nearly empty in the first two days after the initial Staten Island spraying last month, but now they're filling up again."This is not unexpected," he insisted."

The following is excerpted from:

SOURCE: Journal of the American Mosquito Control Assoc, Dec;13(4):315-25, 1997 Howard JJ, Oliver New York State Department of Health, SUNY-College ESF, Syracuse 13210,USA.

"In central New York, aerial mosquito adulticide applications[spraying pesticides to kill adult mosquitoes] have been used in response to eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) outbreaks and have targeted the swamp habitats of the primary enzootic vector of EEE virus, Culiseta melanura (Coquillett).The organophosphate insecticide naled (1, 2, dibromo-2,2-dichloroethyl dimethyl phosphate) has been the insecticide of choice in this region. This study reports on analyses of 11 years(1984-94) of mosquito collection data from Cicero and Toad Harbor swamps in relation to applications of naled. Naled applications were successful in achieving short-term reductions in mosquito abundance. However, despite repetitive applications, populations of the primary vector of EEE virus, Cs. melanura, have increased 15-fold at Cicero Swamp. Preventive applications had no noticeable impact on the enzootic amplification of EEE virus, and isolations of virus following preventive applications have resulted in additional spraying. The possibility that applications of naled contributed to increased populations of Cs.melanura discredits the rationale that preventive applications of naled reduce the risk of EEE.

Due to the recent increase in journal articles finding that low level chemical exposures can decrease the quality of mammalian immune system function, it is quite reasonable to expect wildlife in this immune weakened state to contract encephalitis more frequently. Therefore, one would also expect to see an increase in the numbers of mosquitoes developing encephalitis (since their chance of biting encephalitis infected wildlife has also increased).

Studies have shown that mosquitoes with a "leaky" stomach barrier allow transfer of the encephalitis virus from their stomach to their salivary glands (after ingesting a contaminated blood-meal). Mosquitoes which do not exhibit this "leaky" stomach condition do not appear to be able to contract encephalitis either at all - or as readily. Therefore, since chemical pesticides are well-known to induce genetic damage in tests in living cells and in animal test models, the possibility must be considered that genetic mutations could very well be occurring to the genes within the mosquito which control proper stomach integrity and that this resulting loss of integrity could be increasing the encephalitis development rate among mosquitoes."

Anyone who has ever sprayed their apartment for roaches knows from personal experience exactly how this works. An initial application of Raid or Black Flag works great. A few days later, roaches reappear. A second dose is less effective. More spraying follows. Soon the roaches are unaffected by the spray, even thriving in it, so you turn to stronger sprays, powders, bug bombs etc. It is called, natural selection.

The chemicals being used may not cause immediate human deaths to occur but that in no sense makes them safe or harmless. They are immune system disrupters in even trace amounts. All of the people who allegedly died from WNV had seriously compromised immune systems.

According to a 5/2000 NYC Department of Health study, of the seven alleged WNV deaths that the Mayor is using to justify mass spraying (only four of whom were actually in NYC) three were receiving immunosupressant drug therapy as part of their cancer treatment and a fourth was HIV-positive. [See: New York City Department of Health, West Nile Virus: A Briefing, City Health InformationVol. 19, No. 1 (May 2000) http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/doh/html/chi/chi.html].

According to the NYC Dept. of Health, for those who have a relatively healthy immune system, being bitten by a mosquito infected with WNV and developing natural antibodies to it makes one immune from further exposure.

From NYC Dept. of Health website http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/doh/html/cd/cdarin.html

"Does past infection with an arbovirus [WNV] make a person immune?"
"Yes, infection with an arbovirus can provide immunity to that specific virus and perhaps to other related viruses". The risk of WNV infection is minimal and if infected the risk of becoming ill is also minimal.

From: NYC Dept. of Health website: http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/doh/html/wnv/wnvfaq1.html

"Q: What are the symptoms of West Nile virus?"
"A: In last year's outbreak, most people who were infected with West Nile virus had no symptoms or experienced mild illness such as a fever, headache and body aches before fully recovering...Being bitten by an infected mosquito will not necessarily make you sick since most people who are infected with West Nile virus have no symptoms or experience mild illness".

Dr. Cohen and Mayor Giuliani claiming Anvil, Malathion and Scourge are relatively "safe" is like stating that a 22 caliber bullet is relatively safe compared to the 45 caliber hollowpoint bullets the Mayor recently distributed to the NYPD. The statement is literally true, but is at the same time utterly misleading if not utterly absurd.

These safety claims are also illegal!

Queens Courier 2/17/2000

"City officials including Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Health Commissioner Neal L. Cohen have repeatedly violated federal and state regulations by offering public assurances that the pesticide malathion is safe, The Queens Courier has learned from the New York State Attorney General,s office. Judith Enck, a spokesperson for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer confirmed officials of her agency have notified the city,s corporation counsel to "cease and desist" this practice."

This experiment in public health that is being perpetrated in NYC would be a violation of Federal law if it were being done in a NYC jail.

From: NYC Dept. of Health website http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/doh/html/irb/irbcodec.html
"Code of Federal Regulations Title 45 Public Welfare Department of Health and Human Services Part 46 - Protection of Human Subjects (45 CFR 46)§ 46.302 Purpose. Inasmuch as prisoners may be under constraints because of their incarceration which could affect their ability to make a truly voluntary and uncoerced decision whether or not to participate as subjects in research, it is the purpose of this subpart to provide additional safeguards for the protection of prisoners involved in activities to which this subpart is applicable."

Last Fall the Mayor ordered a massive and repeated spraying of an organophosphate nerve gas, Malathion, on the City and then claimed he had stopped the virus and saved lives. The CDC does not agree. Infections had ceased BEFORE the first day of spraying began.

United States Centers for Disease Control,
Update: West Nile Virus Encephalitis ­
New York, 1999, fig. 1, October 22, 1999,
http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4841a3.htm
"The dates of onset of illness for laboratory-positive cases of WNV infection suggest that the outbreak peaked in late August. There have been no recognized cases of WNV infection with an onset date after September 22."

The Mayor, the CDC and the media keep saying that WNV never appeared in North America before, that it may have arrived in used tires from Asia or been brought here accidentally by an immigrant or a foreign traveler.

Really?

From the Promed website http://www.promedmail.org

In the 1950's, experiments with WNV were carried out on human volunteers at the Sloan- Kettering Institute of the Memorial Center for Cancer and Allied Diseases, New York. A total of 95 patients with neoplastic disease were inoculated intramuscularly with the WNV topotype strain Eg-101 in an effort to achieve therapeutic pyrexia and oncolysis in them."

Newsday 9/29/99

Epidemiologists suspect that the West Nile virus has for the first time been isolated in humans or animals in the Western Hemisphere, but the virus has for decades made its home in several U.S. research laboratories, including Rockefeller University in Manhattan and Yale University in New Haven, Conn.

In fact, investigators there were the first to grow and study the West Nile virus in the United States. The work began in the 1950s when unidentified viral samples from around the world arrived at Rockefeller on a steady basis."

From: http://www.bioinfo.com/jev.html [from Federal Register: March 22, 1996 (Volume 61, Number 57, Page 11812]

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Notice of Intent To Grant an Exclusive License of a U.S.Government-Owned Patent Agency:
U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, DOD [Department of Defense].
Action: Notice. Summary: In accordance with 37 CFR 404.7 (a)(I)(i), announcement is made of the intent to grant an exclusive, royalty-bearing, revocable license of U.S. Patent Application Serial Number 08/348,882, filed November 28, 1994 and entitled ``Infectious DNA Clones of Japanese Encephalitis Virus and Attenuated Strains Japanese Encephalitis Virus Made from the Clones'', to OraVax, Inc., 230 Albany Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139. [Requests to the Army for further information should be directed to the public affairs officer, Mr. Chuck Dasey (301) 619-2736]

Also see: http://abcnews.go.com/onair/CloserLook/wnt000719_CL_mosquitoes_feature.html
Scientists Creating Genetically-Altered Insects

Excerpted from Newsday 07/26/2000
Crows, Sparrows May Hold Answers
"Trying to figure how West Nile virus spreads...researchers are injecting crows with the virus to see how long it takes them to fall ill, how many crows die from infection, and what levels of virus circulate in their blood before death. McClean is also testing vaccines against West Nile's viral cousin, Japanese encephalitis, to see if they protect birds from getting the disease, which is so deadly in crows."

Thomas Monath, former government researcher at both the Ft. Dietrick Md. bio-warfare lab and the CDC, is the VP of OraVax, a vaccine manufacturer with a licensing agreement with the U.S.Army for its genetically-altered Japanese Encephalitis vaccine (WNV is a Japanese Encephalitis variation). Monath has been advising Giuliani, the CDC and the other NYC officials heading the WNV response since the first day of the so-called epidemic.The future economic success of OraVax and the hundreds of millions invested by its stockholders depends on a vast public need for these vaccines. Last year on its website OraVax announced that their Japanese encephalitis vaccine, the aptly named ChimeriVax^tm, would be ready for field testing at the end of 1999. See: http://www.biospace.com/
From Webster's Dictionary - CHIMERA: An imaginary monster compounded of incongruous parts; an illusion or fabrication of the mind.

From: Newsday 9/25/99
Deadly Discovery
"Virologist Thomas Monath, one of the country's leading authorities on mosquito-carried viruses, called the discovery ``a bombshell,'' and added: `` This is the biggest arbovirus story of the last 50 years. Wow!''

Monath, who works for OraVax, a biotechnology company in Boston, said he has been working closely with CDC investigators in New York since the encephalitis outbreak began in late August. He is assisting federal scientists in trying to figure out a way to deal with the new development."
Also see NY Times 8/7/98 GERM DEFENSE PLAN IN PERILAS ITS FLAWS ARE REVEALED

It appears that Mayor Giuliani and psychiatrist Dr. Cohen are trying to accomplish one of three things:

1. Desperately trying to appear to make up for their total failure to take any preventative mosquito control measures during the six-and-a-half years of the Giuliani administration
2. Trying to increase the prevalence of WNV infected mosquitoes in order to justify spraying more chemicals purchased from Clarke Mosquito Control [$16 million spent by NYC on the chemicals alone to date] and to get the public to become acclimated to routine spraying of chemicals from trucks and planes.
3. Trying to create a genuine public health emergency that will make the public demand a WNV vaccine-which OraVax, a corporation closely working with the Mayor, has already produced.

Important Note:
Mr. Lederman has explained that his articles posted here are not to be taken as official statements by the No-Spray Coalition of which he is a member or of the  "No-Spray"lawsuit in which he is a plaintiff.

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