Archive for 2004
Ross Gelbspan’s Pulitzer Prize
The other day I was glancing through some press releases related to global warming events when I happened across a release from a group called Religious Witness for the Earth which announced a November 10, 2003 event marking the fifth anniversary of the U.S. signing of the Kyoto Protocol. The group included a list of a number of speakers including,
Ross Gelbspan [who] is the author of “The Heat Is On: The Climate Crisis, the Cover-Up, the Prescription.” Gelbspan won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for a series of articles that he wrote for the Boston Globe.
This is a meme that just won’t die despite it having been debunked years ago. A Google and Lexis search, for example, finds numerous articles about Gelbspan in which he is referred to as winning a 1984 Pulitzer Prize.
First, Gelbspan did not write any of the articles in the series that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984. He was apparently involved in editing and conceiving at least some of the stories.
Second, Gelbspan was not among seven Boston Globe employees who were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for that series.
So why do so many people think he did? Because “The Heat Is On” — in which Gelbspan complains about how global warming critics distort the truth — touted Gelbspan as a “Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist” and Gelbspan has apparently done little in the intervening years to dissuade people of this falsehood despite being called on it on a number of occasions.
Perhaps Gelbspan could take the time to add this little nugget to the disinformation section of his web site.
Source:
Religious Leaders Rally at UN to Stop Global Warming. Press Release, Religious Witness for the Earth, November 10, 2003.
Tags: Global Warming
Just How Accurate Are Third World HIV Estimates?
In January, Kenya announced that its HIV rate had fell almost in half overnight. But this was not due to any new program adopted by Kenya. Rather the government released a more accurate estimate that only 6.7 percent of people in Kenya suffer from AIDS compared to the older estimate of 15 percent.
The 6.7 percent infection rate is based on the most extensive look at AIDS in Kenya yet, and even then the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey looked at a mere 8,561 households in a country of 32 million people.
On the heels of other studies in Mali, Zambia and elsewhere that found similar overestimates, one has to wonder about the quality of data on HIV prevalence throughout the developing world.
Meanwhile UNAIDS advisor Catherine Hankins took the bizarre view that there was, in fact, no overestimation of HIV rates,
We cannot say that we have overestimated HIV rates in Africa. All figures for HIV prevalence in Africa are estimates.
Yes, but I don’t remember UNAIDS ever warning publicity that estimates may be off by a factor of two or more. Such large discrepancies could potentially cause donor nations to question the reliability of UNAIDS assessments of the epidemic.
Source:
Study cuts Kenyan HIV estimates. The BBC, January 9, 2004.
Tags: Uncategorized
Anti-Vaccine Hysteria Grips Nigeria
The World Health Organization’s goal of eradicating polio worldwide by 2005 ran into a major obstacle in October 2003 when three Nigerian states suspended polio vaccination over fears that the vaccine could cause AIDS, cancer and infertility.
The largely-Muslim northern states of Kaduna, Kano and Zamfra ordered a stop to a WHO-sponsored vaccination program. Reuters quoted Dr. Datti Ahmed, president of Nigeria’s Supreme Council for Sharia Law, as saying,
A lot of documents have come into our possession indicating there are grave doubts and concerns about the safety of the oral polio vaccine being used in Nigeria. We therefore called on the authorities to suspend the immunization program and investigate these fears.
WHO representatives dismissed such objections saying the polio vaccine was safe.
Unfortunately, Nigeria is one of only 7 countries where the disease is still prevalent and many children there are not vaccinated. Authorities worry that the disease could expand from Nigeria into surrounding countries. According to WHO representative Dr. David Heymann,
In some parts of Nigeria, only 13 percent of children have been vaccinated, largely because of the fears about it that have been disseminated. Nigeria is now exporting the disease. It has already cost Nigeria’s five neighbors $13 million to launch their own campaigns against it and that could go up to $20 million if it is confirmed that Chad has cases.
The government set up a group to test the polio virus, but that group dealt another setback to the polio eradication in January when it issued results claiming it found high levels of estrogen in the polio vaccine which would render those who received the vaccine infertile.
Both the WHO and the Nigerian state dismissed these claims, but WHO’s efforts to vaccinate children in Nigeria appears to have been severely set back which bodes ill both for the children there who are unnecessarily exposed to the risk of contracting polio as well as neighboring states and the rest of the world that would like to see polio eradicated.
Source:
Health experts losing battle to promote polio vaccine in Nigeria. AFP, Friday January 9, 2004.
Nigeria orders polio vaccine tests. Associated Press, October 29, 2003.
Nigeria debates polio campaign. Anna Borzello, The BBC, December 22, 2003.
Tags: Vaccination