Inventing The SARS Virus

Inventing The SARS Virus
Copyright 2003 by Michael Ross

Before we begin you need to know: I am not a certified medical practitioner and nor do I play one on TV. The following is MY opinion about SARS and is for entertainment and discussion only. And BTW, I have NOT visited a Doctor for any illness since 1992 - eleven years.

Also, before getting to the good stuff (inventing the SARS virus) we've got a do some "Immune System 101 - how your body deals with invaders and why you get sick." I promise to make it... "entertaining" :o)

Anyway. Lets begin.

For the sake of example, assume a virus has landed in your throat lining and now resides inside a cell in your throat. Inside that cell, it is "multiplying."

Your body knows there is something there. But not precisely where. So it sends in a B52 with some daisy cutters on board. The daisy cutters are dropped in the area the suspected virus is. This kills a lot of your own cells - and hopefully gets the virus.

A lot of the virus was destroyed but some got away and are now hiding in other cells. So your body drops more daisy cutters on the area. Killing yet more healthy cells.

The battle continues and more and more healthy throat cells are being killed. You begin to feel a sore throat!!

As this battle rages on, a cleaning crew comes in. It is their job to remove the dead cells and look for any virus parts. If they find any virus parts they send them to the lab. This cleaning crew quickly discovers there is a LOT of debris and needs help. So it signals for help the best way it can... by releasing a chemical in the area, which is picked up by the blood stream. This re-inforcement calling chemical is hideous stuff and makes us feel sick - nauseated, achey! (This sick feeling is your body's way of also telling you to stop eating and rest - why will be revealed a little later.)

Finally, someone at the lab has identified the invader. And have found the twin bothers (Bill and Bob) who have "special kills" at dealing with that particular invader. But the invader is many while Bill and Bob are only one each. So your body sends Bill and Bob to the cloning room (glands). And Bill and Bob begin to multiply and multiply and multiply (your glands begin to swell).

To help Bill and Bob be cloned faster your body raises its temperature. This also has the added effect of creating an inhospitable environment for the invader - who would like nothing more than to be left alone to "multiply." You know this as a rise in temperature or a fever.

At a point determined by the body, there are enough clones of Bill and Bob to deal with the threat. So the cloning room doors are swung open and millions of Bill and Bob killing teams swarm throughout the body. Bill can pinpoint the cells in which the invaders are hiding and blow them apart and Bob can snipe the individual escaping invaders. It's a beautiful pincer movement and very quickly the invader is destroyed.

The interesting thing about all this is that your sore throat, sick feeling, and temperature are all deliberately caused by your body and NOT the invader!

And the reason your body wants you to rest and not eat while this is going on is so it can devote all of its resources to destroying the invader. If you eat, vast resources are diverted to the digestion of the food. If you go about your daily routine you body has to deal with that too.

What is in your daily routine that the body has to deal with? Gas fumes - once breathed in the body has to get rid of them; other "germs" which you may already be immune to; chemicals - in the water and air (fumes given off by office furniture, carpet, etc.); and so on. Being out and about is filled with immune inhibiting encounters.

Runny nose? Coughing up phlem? Indication your mucus linings have been agitated. Fumes can agitate your mucus lining. And fumes can come from: gas, carpet, linoleum, the foam in furniture and mattresses, laminate glue, fibre board (like MDF and oher "craft" wood), car dashboard (fumes is what makes your windshield "foggy"), plastics (such as what your TV is made from), detergents and other cleaners, aerosole cans (hair spray, air fresheners, deoderant, etc.), plug in oil air fresheners, incense burning, mosquito coils and plug in oil products, pest repellants, etc. Airborn particles can also agitate your linings and those particles could come from: pet fur, carpet, furniture, clothes, pollen, etc.

Certain food stuff also can cause a reaction in some people: lactose, gluten, MSG, sugar, mold (cheese), fungus (mushrooms), dairy, and so on. (I know someone who gets a migraine headache whenever they eat a stone fruit!)

So apart from whatever invader your body might have to deal with, it has to deal with a LOT of other things as well. Each thing takes its toll on your immune system.

Now onto SARS...

SARS stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

A Syndrome is a number of symptoms occurring together.

See that? A syndrome is a collection of symptoms. That is all.

Do you understand the importance of that? It means ANYTHING can cause that collection of symptoms to appear. It could be any one thing or a combination of things.

Already we've heard... the time has most likely passed to control and defeat SARS and we may be stuck with it for a long time now. And... and this is the big one... the SARS virus has begun to mutate and change.

HOLD IT!!!

Mutate and change? This is following the SAME pattern as the so-called AIDS virus (AIDS is also a syndrome and Peter Duesberg - Ph.D. and Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California at Berkeley - has many interesting things to say about it. I suggest you read his take on it here: http://www.duesberg.com/).

Doesn't it makes more sense to say... there are some people who, for reasons unknown at this stage, have contracted a severe form of the flu? Other people, in not such high states of health, would exhibit the IDENTICLE SYMPTOMS as someone being "diagnosed" with SARS, from just a moderate flu, wouldn't they?

After all, SARS is just a collection of symptoms. And those symptoms could be caused by any number of elements. To then just up and say someone has SARS (and THE SARS virus) based on a collecion of symptoms which are the same as those of a bad case of flu, is medical incompetence - or - it's a wonderful stroke of genius by the drug companies!

(Side note: Most people only go to a Doctor when they are feeling sick and their glands are up. When your glands are up you can rest assured your body has identified the invader and will soon destroy it making you feel well. Why is it then, that the Doctor will prescribe anti-biotics? He knows your body has the invader licked. And he knows this the moment he feels your glands are up. He is knowingly prescribing an un-necessary treatment!)

Repeat after me: SARS is a collection of symptoms, SARS is a collection of symptoms, SARS is a collection of symptoms, SARS is a collection of symptoms, SARS is a collection of symptoms, SARS is a collection of symptoms, SARS is a collection of symptoms.

An Absurd Example

If I developed a series of small lumps on my skin which were itchy. I have a collection of symptoms - itch, lump. If I had those lumps on my feet (or lower leg area) that would also be a symptom.

The medical industry would thus say that when I have itchy lumps on my lower legs (a collection of symptoms) I have LILLS (Lumpy Itchy Lower Leg Syndrome). And yet, what I have just described is nothing more than flea bites!!!

Could something else cause a skin reaction like this? Sure... walking with exposed skin through a stinging nettle might do it, brushing up against a cactus, clawed by a playful kitten, allergic reaction to carpet maybe, splashed chemical, "hives," socks, and so on. There are LOTS of reasons why I could have itchy lumps on my legs.

It is the same with SARS. SARS is only a collection of symptoms.

There might be a "very bad" flu going around. But that does not make it THE SARS virus. People may be dieing from this flu - BUT - that does not mean they have THE SARS virus (there is no one SARS virus... SARS is a collection of symptoms) or they were in great health before getting sick (they very well may have already been sick, or in a bad state of health).

Every year, it seems, a "killer flu" comes out of Hong Kong. But previously, the medical professional has called it what it is... a flu... and they have even named it. But not this time... this time they are calling it a syndrome - knowing full well a syndrome is a collection of symptoms which can be caused by many different things.

Think about the importance of this for a minute...

IF they had called it Hong Kong Flu Z, then they could work on treating it (notice I said treating and not curing as medicine seems all about treating things until the symptoms go away and not curing them). And once Hong Kong Flu Z had naturally run its course - everyone who was going to get it en mass had gotten it and either died or developed an immunity to it - then the Docs who were working on it would be out of a job and would need to wait for the next strain of bad-ass flu to come out of Hong Kong.

But now they have called it SARS. They know any and all flus will cause the same set of symptoms - a person in poor health will exhibit the SARS collection of symptoms with only a moderate or minor case of the flu. And they now have a boogie man they can never catch because of that. So they can now start asking for research grants to study it. And the drug companies can work on an ANTI-SARS treatment and make loads more money.

Think about it from the drug company's point of view... they are going to develop a drug whose only purpose is to get rid of a collection of symptoms - remember, SARS is a collection of symptoms.

Fact is... only your body's immune system can destoy a virus. Penicillin can work on bacteria because bacteria are living. A virus is not a living thing... it exhibits zero signs of life.

For a drug to be able to destroy a virus is must be able to find the virus in and out of our cells... kill cells which contain the virus and no other cells... and also destroy free floating virus. And THAT is a BIG ASK from a chemical.

As already described at the beginning... your body's immune system creates a pincer movement which wipes out virus very quickly once they have been identified and the appropriate virus detroying team has been assembled.

The stage has been set. We have been warned we may now never get rid of SARS - and - the SARS virus is mutating (presumably making it harder for the Docs to deal with it).

My interpretation of what they are saying is... we may never be able to get rid of this collection of symptoms because the things which cause this collection are many and varied and always changing. (Of course, if they said it this way they would look like idiots and no one would take their scare mongering seriously.)

Case in point of setting the stage: On "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News, a MD was interviewed who supposedly had SARS and was now recovered. Before he was diagnosed with SARS he thought he had pneumonia! Even a trained medical practitioner thought he had pneumonia and NOT SARS. And on top of this, he says he had a "mild" case of SARS. So he had a mild case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. How can you have a mild case of something which has the word severe in its name? The answer is, you can't. By calling this bad-ass flu a syndrome... a collection of symptoms... they have cast a wide net which catches a lot of things and enables the SARS label to be attached to lots of different ailments which previously would have been called something else... such as pneumonia.

The best defense against disease is your immune system. And the best way to help your immune system is to stop doing things that overload it or reduce its capacity to function fully.

Michael Ross

P.S. SARS is a mystery pneumonia - for those who would get pedantic about my liberal use of the word "flu."

that drug companies or researchers would do such a thing? "Invent" a scare, just to sell drugs or get research money? LOL :-)

Interesting how most of these nasty bugs come from that part of the world.
Also that it's not just another "flu".
"collection of symptoms"?? What bug isn't?

Excellant primer on our immune system, sad that so many people rush to kill the symptoms, instead of the cause.
I wonder why the drug companies and medical profession are not more interested in Preventing disease, instead of treating it (or just treating symtoms)?? :-) Couldn't possibly be money again, could it???

Thanks for the grin, DaveH

Dave:

Just for some added info.... pneumonia is "inflammation of the lungs caused by infection or irritants."

Makes the SARS scare mongering seem even more silly now, doesn't it? And notice how wide their SARS net is? A collection of symptoms which are caused by infection or irritants.

Sheesh. They'll never "cure" that. HA!!

As for inventing drugs...

There is a new drug on the market. Can't recall the details without going back over my research... but it's basically for women and something to do with PMS or some such thing. The thing is though... this "new" drug is basically prozac.

The prozac company invented some kind of syndrome women can get, renamed prozac and said it can fix that new syndrome.

Or how's this one get ya...

In highschool I did a research report on a new disease which seemed to come out of nowhere and was effeceting women all over the place.

It was a syndrome and the symptoms included numbness of the legs and buttocks.

The cause of those symptoms was... are you ready... too tight jeans. The tight jeans restricted bloodflow to those areas... specially when seated as the tightness increased.

Seems like a silly syndrome, I know. But restricted bloodflow can have very real and harmful effects. (Teacher gave me top marks for originality - writing about a new thing he had not heard of and one which is also humorous.)

> Interesting how most of these nasty bugs
> come from that part of the world.

Makes sense... less healty standards of living allow the nasties to thrive.

> Thanks for the grin, DaveH

You're welcome.

Michael Ross

Here are some factoids my sources tell me about
SARS...

Although true this in fact is pneumonia. This is an atypical pneumonia because of its rapid onset, lack of ability to identify virus and clustering it was decided to mark it something different from "bad a.. pneumonia".

In fact way back in 1999 in Afghanistan of all places it was called just Acute Respiratory Infection and this is the first reference I know of to what eventually would be called SARS.

So there in Afghanistan a small village was infected and a high rate of people died.

Then Acute Respiratory Infection hit places in the African Congo and then in Greece. Then finally reaching China in November 2002. Then later a series of Asian country experienced Acute Respiratory Infection and around about that time it started to be called SARS instead of just Acute Respiratory Infection.

One of the first non medical reports on SARS I think was the New York Times on March 17 2003.

Now why did the Times pick up story?

Probably I think because of a possible threat to the health of North America especially since it was of unknown cause this would probably a sufficient news angle to get people to read the Times. Nothing wrong with that I think.

Its just probably you might want to say "Where's The Beef". Yes people have died and become sick but compare it to Malaria where 3000 people a day die mostly young people on the continent of Africa.

Now why isn't that NEWS?

Probably because a lot of people are dead from it. There is little possibility of US dieing from it. I mean North Americans and Europeans of course. And besides we know how to cure it so what's the big deal, 3000 a day versus 3,000 over 4 years.

Drug companies might be the "straw that stirs the drink" (thanks Reggie for that great line) because a few countries report a run on antibiotics sells but I don't know of any direct link to them adding gas to the fire.

Finally, take a look at the link I added. Here is someone taking full advantage of the hype I am sure he will be a special exclusive guest on Whitley Streiber's Dreamland Radio Show.

For you non West Coast(US) non radio listening and skeptics of the paranormal this a popular radio show dealing with the supernatural here in the states. (Yes I listen but shucks I don't believe everything I hear, ok?)


Is SARS Real Or Surreal? This Guy Knows And Is Not Afraid To Tell You