“Helping our economy and our fellow humans- Stimulus dollars working for our future”

“Helping our economy and our fellow humans- Stimulus dollars working for our future”

By Kevin Bratcher

NEW YORK CITY- One New York City researcher is using federal stimulus dollars to battle the Nipah virus- a lethal bug in the same family as measles.
Dr. Kevin J. Olival, a Senior Research Fellow working with Wildlife Trust, has traveled the world to study the seasonal outbreak of the Nipah virus and coordinate research. Government stimulus funding has provided a needed boost to make his work possible.

“We’re looking at the ecology of the Nipah virus,” Olival said, “We’re in the process of testing samples we’ve collected now from [Bangladesh].”
Outbreaks in Bangladesh and India since 2002 have resulted in over 100 deaths. While each outbreak is limited in exposure, the mortality rate is between 69% and 92%, making it one of the more deadly viral outbreaks today.
Dr. Olival outlined the dangers of the Nipah virus, “It’s an encephalitic virus, so it affects your brain. People generally within a week or so will get infected and often go into a coma.”
The money allocated for Wildlife Trust Inc. comes from a larger grant of more than $86.1 billion given the Department of Health and Human Resources, for the purpose of stimulating the economy and creating jobs. The grants given to Wildlife Trust represent vital supplements along with other funding it has received.
The first grant of $51,225 upgraded technology both at the home office in New York City and at the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research in Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). One of the key upgrades involved providing the research center in Bangladesh with a T1 line, as local telephone lines are not reliable enough for the level of communication necessary between the two research centers..
Videoconferencing technology has also been installed and will connect scientists in New York with scientists across the world in Bangladesh to ensure faster communication. With these technological improvements, Wildlife Trust hopes to speed up the process of finding a way to deal with the virus.
The second grant for $204,688 is to research, map and hopefully contain the virus. Dr. Olival has made multiple trips to Bangladesh over the last nine months to arrange research and train local veterinarians, doctors and field technicians.
The money has also been used to provide one job- specifically for Dr. Olival, who was hired by Wildlife Trust Inc. after they received funding last year.
Dr. Olival has a Ph.D. from Columbia University in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. His recent work includes three years as a research associate for Dr. Michael Hadfield at the University of Hawaii studying population biology for endangered Hawaiian tree snails.
Further grant spending will cover the testing of the many samples being gathered in Bangladesh, as well as real-time videoconferencing between scientists here and those in Bangladesh.
The project is currently focused on placing GPS collars on a particular species of fruit bats known as the “flying fox”, which is known to carry the virus. Wildlife Trust hopes through their research to determine the flight patterns and living areas of the fruit bats, and to determine how the virus infects humans.

Fruit which has been bitten by the bats is the most common way in which people are infected, however, and Dr. Olival’s research is also studying the local fruits to find where the bats most commonly feed.
While the virus has only rarely been transmitted between humans, it has occurred, making outbreaks all the more important to contain when they occur.
Through government grants and grants from other science foundations, Wildlife Trust hopes to achieve significant results in the next five years to combat this virus. It is hoped that through their research another life-threatening virus may be contained.
Dr. Olival sounded optimistic as well. “It’s a 2-year grant we have, and then we have other funding which will go for a few more years,” Olival said, “so we’re expecting to be working in Bangladesh for awhile, if all goes as planned and we can keep securing funding to do work there.”



Full Podcast Interview With Dr. Kevin Olival

Mayor Bloomberg aims for new gun laws

Mayor Bloomberg aims for new gun laws

By Kevin Bratcher

NEW YORK CITY- A proposed package of changes to gun laws has lit a fire under gun enthusiasts and Second Amendment rights groups. The changes are a part of the gun law reforms proposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, both for New York City and for the whole U.S.

Bloomberg touts the proposals as a way to streamline the process by which New Yorkers can obtain gun permits. One key change involves reducing the famously lengthy time and difficulty in obtaining a gun permit in New York.
The main purpose of the proposed change is to increase the number of personnel and resources available for looking into cases of illegal purchase and possession of guns.
There are currently 30 locations within a three mile radius of central Manhattan which are listed as selling or manufacturing guns and gun accessories.

One building in particular, the underground-housed Westside Pistol and Rifle Range on 20th Street, boasts one of very few gun ranges in the five boroughs of New York City. Westside’s rules and regulations are strict and first-time members must pass through numerous checks and safety tutorials before they are allowed to fire a weapon on the range. For Westside, an establishment frequented by police officers and occasionally celebrity personalities, following the current rules makes Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed changes irrelevant.

It’s a similar story for Holland and Holland (H&H), a high-end rifle and shotgun manufacturer on 40th street in Mid-town Manhattan. Enclosed within a finely polished wood-panel suite on the 19th floor, H&H isn’t worried about the new proposal. One of H&H’s sales associates informed the WJI Times that their high quality firearms are very different from the sort of guns New York’s gun law changes will affect, noting that: “Our cheapest second-hand shotgun goes for $6000 at minimum.”

Beretta Gallery, a retailer operating under the trademark of gun manufacturer Beretta which produces both long guns and handguns, refused to comment on the proposed law changes.

A more controversial element of Mayor Bloomberg’s gun agenda stems from the Senate hearing at which he testified on May 5th. In light of the attempted attack on Times Square by confessed terrorist Faisal Shahzad, Mayor Bloomberg along with Senators Frank Lautenberg and Peter King called for a ban on the ability to purchase or possess firearms if you are on the terrorist watch list.

Senator Lautenberg of New Jersey made the same proposal in 2007, garnering the approval of the Bush administration. At the time the bill was defeated in large part because of criticism from the National Rifle Association (NRA). NRA critics noted that tens of thousands of people may be on the watch list, and that since some may be falsely placed on the list, the law would become a restriction of civil rights.
Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal comes after it was discovered that Shahzad was able to buy a rifle at a gun store in Connecticut just weeks before he attempted to commit a terrorist attack in Times Square. Mayor Bloomberg also noted a Government Accountability Office report which showed that individuals on the watch list were able to buy firearms and explosives legally 1,119 times in the past six years.

However, Shahzad was not on the terrorist watch list when he purchased the gun.

Senior Editor Dave Workman of Gun Week, which is sponsored by the Second Amendment Foundation, commented on what he sees as the dangers of making such a law. “The criteria,” said Workman, “are unclear as to how one ends up on the terrorist watch list- or how one’s name is cleared, as well.”

Workman noted an incident in 2004 in which Senator Ted Kennedy encountered difficulties in boarding airplanes both to and from Boston because a name similar to his was on the terrorist watch list. “If you follow Senator Lautenberg’s logic, Senator Kennedy would not have been able to go to a sporting goods store and purchase a shotgun without having to go through a lot of red tape,” said Workman, referring to Sen. Lautenberg’s similar proposal in 2007.

Workman said, “To be automatically denied a civil right without benefit of trial or some kind of adjudication- if this were any other civil right I think the ACLU and a lot of civil liberties organizations would be screaming at the top of their lungs.”
Virginian lawyer and author of the brand-new political thriller “Montanamo” Chris Leibig raised further criticism of the terrorist watch list in a phone interview. “A terrorist watch-list is not like a criminal history report,” he said. “The criteria for being on the list are secret. Only specific branches of the government know what it takes to get on the list. The list would give the government the sole power to deny someone a gun without the person knowing about it. There’s no due process at all.”

Asked if he believed the terrorist watch list was effective, Leibig admitted, “I feel sure that attacks have been prevented, partially through use of the list…it may be an important tool. What it shouldn’t be used for is to deny people Constitutional rights.”

Senators Lautenberg and King are pushing along with Mayor Bloomberg and other mayors to have this legislation put on the board in both the House and the Senate. If they succeed it will become illegal for anyone suspicious enough to warrant being placed on the terrorist watch list to purchase a firearm.