Doctors all over the country are logging slews of cases in an apparent outbreak of an unusual cold virus. The symptoms include an unusual cough that lasts anywhere between a month to a month and a half. In some cases, especially in the very young and the very old, it lasts even longer.
It’s not surprising that common cold symptoms occasionally last longer than the standard 10 day illness run. Even healthy people can have their immune systems temporarily compromised, making common viruses harder to resist. But it is far beyond the pale for so-called “ordinary” cold symptoms to last up to six weeks in a wide range of cases all across the country.
Even if a common cold virus did manage to evolve into a longer lasting, more aggressive form- if it was naturally occurring- it would never reach a national scale. For that, purposeful distribution is necessary.
Dr. Gary Gross, with Texas Health, says that he has observed no less than one patient per day who has this long-lasting cough virus. He noticed that it lasts about a month no matter what interventions are applied- almost as if it were programmed to do so.
He told a local CBS affiliate that there is no “quick fix” for the virus once it has taken hold and that patients have no other choice but to let it run its course. He advises that medications can be used to soothe the cough and that sufferers should drink plenty of fluids. But other than that, nothing but time can remedy the virus.
In Cincinnati, medical authorities have issued warnings to the public about the virus. They report that a surge of cases presents upper respiratory symptoms like coughing, congestion, and shortness of breath.
Dr. Kenneth Patton of Bethesda North has noticed the same pattern in his clinic. He says, “They are retracting, their ribs are doing a lot of work. You can see their neck muscles, you can really see that they are having a hard time breathing.” But above and beyond the severity of the cough, patient’s biggest complaint is about the duration.
Any time a new and unusual virus appears, doctors and researchers take notice. But when the reach of the pathogen is greater than it should be, inevitably, the question of ‘why’ is posed. Dr. Cyril Broderick, a professor of plant pathology, has said that he believed the Ebola virus was created in a laboratory for use as a weapon. He believes it was released in Africa and used on the local population as a weapons test. A number of other medical experts agreed with his assessment.
As these professionals tabled their analysis, the Zika virus broke out in South America and reached the US in a few instances. Latin American officials urged women to avoid becoming pregnant due to the risk of gruesome birth defects caused by Zika.
Pharmaceutical companies have a great deal to gain from the development of new and terrifying viruses. Whether those viruses occur naturally or unnaturally wouldn’t matter. But the idea that an industry that’s willing to protect itself by lobbying for legal protection from those who are harmed by its products would be willing to wait around for the boon of a naturally occurring super virus is naive.
Likewise, to think that the military would not have developed some kind of virus-based weapon by now is absurd. And, with that certainty in mind, it would seem even more naive that they would not avail themselves of vast populations for use as test subjects when they have a legal avenue to do so.
There is, of course, the now infamous statement made by Bill Gates at a Ted talk in 2010. He actually said, “First, we’ve got population. The world today has 6.8 billion people. That’s headed up to about nine billion. Now, if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by, perhaps, 10 or 15 percent, but there we see an increase of about 1.3.”
That’s right. He’s talking about reducing the population. That can only mean two things- curtailing reproduction or killing.
Now, if you think curtailing reproduction doesn’t sound so scary- just imagine what it might look like if it was involuntary- or covert. So thinking, we are reminded of the Zika virus.
