From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Thu May 15 2003 - 10:57:25 MDT
Phil Osborn wrote,
> Odd, in most circles - Mensa, science fiction fandom,
> libertarians - in which I move socially, I never get
> this kind of reaction.
Well, I like to think that Extropians hold a higher standard than most
groups. I also don't think you tend to ramble as much non-stop in person as
e-mail allows, or bash so many groups simultaneously in a crowd.
> Facts are facts, however. The "hippies" caused their
> own wave of resistant bacteria.
I doubt hippies had access to a lot of antibiotics or visited doctors more
often than non-hippies, or outnumbered non-hippies in the population. Even
if they were statistically more likely to breed resistant bacteria, they
would have been far outnumbered by mainstream America taking their sick
children to doctors regularly, or by patients in hospitals routinely getting
antibiotics. The above statement is toned down, but your earlier statement
singled out hippies (earlier) and gays (later) as if they were the only
cause of resistant bacteria. Doctors caused this by overusing antibiotics.
It is silly to blame the patients, especially in minority groups that
wouldn't have had a statistical impact on the total numbers.
How many people are gay, do you think? 9% or less of the population? Even
if gays were ten times as likely to get sick, overuse antibiotics, and breed
resistant bacteria than straights, their numbers still are less than the
number of straights who did so. And remember that AIDS was identified in
the gay community because it was there first in America. Resistant bacteria
has not been identified as being statistically more prevalent in gays. The
source of such bacteria seem to be richer hospitals in upscale communities.
The gays who engaged in the then-common promiscuous,
> multiple partner sex were flying against all medical
> common sense at the time.
This was before bacteria resistance and AIDS were known to be permanent
problems. You seem so down on free love. Sex doesn't cause disease. Also
remember that most disease resistant bacteria are not in the sexually
transmitted group. They are in the hospital staff infection group. You are
stretching the point to blame sex for these diseases.
> Everything I stated is such common knowledge in the
> medical community, as well as the educated community
> at large, that I can't imagine trying to come up with
> detailed references.
If you can't or won't provide proof, then back off. This is a common claim
among such unfounded political rants. I am somewhat familiar with the
medical and educated communities. It is not "common knowledge" that gays
and hippies are to blame for resistant germs. Try talking to a real doctors
and scientists instead of your Mensa, sci-fi and libertarian politicos. You
will find some real facts instead of political dogma. Your combination of
gay-bashing, hippie-bashing, Hispanic-bashing, poor-bashing and
liberal-bashing was obviously from a political source and not a scientific
one.
-- Harvey Newstrom, CISSP, IAM, GSEC, IBMCP <www.HarveyNewstrom.com> <www.Newstaff.com>
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