Hadn’t heard about rabies. Did know about plague (now in my state, only a county or two away. I’m also keeping a wary eye on reports of G4 swine flu and SFTS (aka bandavirus, charming little tick-borne item that CAN move between humans on body fluids), the latter having recently killed people in China.
Rabies is endemic here in China.
Here’s a sample of Cowan’s “thinking” on the subject of why the heart is not a pump:
“Now, what I pointed out in my book, after 30-some years of looking into this, is that first of all, there’s a lot of blood. With the amount of blood vessels in a human body, if you put them end to end, it would be enough to encircle the Earth three times. If you put them next to each other, they would cover a football field, so that’s a lot of blood and a lot of blood vessels, and we’re talking about very viscous, sticky fluid, with stuff floating inside.”
“And so, to think that you’re going to take this one pound organ, and squeeze really hard, and push this sticky fluid three times around the Earth, just on the face of it, is a little bit incredible. That can’t be.”
This is a good example of argument from incredulity a.k.a. stupidity.
Cowan thinks whatever gets the blood moving starts in the capillaries because of a mistaken belief that blood is not flowing at all by the time it gets there. He is astonishingly ignorant about forces that help propel blood back to the heart (which include skeletal muscle contractions, the action of smooth muscle in the walls of veins etc.).
Sorry for the hijack, but I thought it was an amusing example of nimroddery, or it would be funny if people didn’t believe this nutbag on subjects including how viruses allegedly don’t cause disease. The man, incredibly, still has a medical license.
*the “Dr.” interviewing him is a naturopath, because of course she is.
We just caught a plague squirrel about 10 miles from my house earlier this year.
I may regret posing the question … but why are you trying to catch plague squirrels?
Is this a regular activity? What do you do with the once caught?
Just vernacular for “there was” a squirrel with plague. There has only been one reported, so far as I’m aware.
Nitpick–Yersenia pestis, which causes the plague, is a bacteria. This is why I’m so much less concerned about plague, because if you catch it early antibiotics will fix you right up. Not so much with the rabies.
This assessment of the relative risk is not really accurate.
The CDC estimates a fatality rate of 11% for plague with anitibiotic treatment, as I linked upthread. The only caveat to that is that there are now so few cases in developed countries that this average may not reflect the best modern medical care in (say) the U.S. On the other hand, there was an outbreak of antibiotic-resistant plague in Madagascar in 2017.
As for rabies, although it’s frightening that it’s nearly 100% fatal once infection becomes established, it’s also true that if you have immediate access to good medical treatment after a bite from a suspect animal, postexposure prophylaxis (immune globulin + vaccine) is almost 100% effective in preventing infection.
You are correct. I should have said infections or diseases.
I belive it was part of a regular trapping and monitoring program by the state. I assume once they realized it was infected it was put down rather than released.
I believe the state actually caught it. There was another on about 10 miles away 5 years ago. So there seems to be a program. I did use a colloquial we as in residents of the state not myself and others.
Good.
For a moment there I had an image of some Yosemite Sam wannabe going out hunting for some plaguey varmints, and telling them to say their prayers before blastin’ 'em.
Wow! His reasoning is trumpian in its ignorance.
Please tell me he is not a practicing doctor. How in hell did he manage to pass the boards and qualify as an MD with these beliefs?
ETA: read the rest of the thread. Holy Og, he’s still a doctor. 
What is a spooky coincidence is that the comedy sketch ends with the 2020 year going off camera and an explosion is heard. The Beirut explosion was in August 4, 2020, this video came out July 9, 2020.
Waitwaitwait!
The blood ends up in capillaries because it THINKS it is moving? Your blood is being tricked into circulating?
I’d like to ask this individual to explains spurting blood when an artery is cut.
Actually, if I happened to meet this individual, I’d check to see if his shoes are on the right feet.
~VOW