[Aztlan] Mexico's Flu Epidemic & Possible Maya Correlation

[John Pastore]

----- Original Message -----
From: MICHAEL FINLEY <mjfinley at shaw.ca>
To: aztlan at lists.famsi.org
Date: Wed, 13 May 2009 10:36:47 -0600
Subject: Re: [Aztlan] Mexico's Flu Epidemic & Possible Maya Correlation

> 
> John Pastore wrote:
> 
> "What I find surprising about today's release of the "Mexican
> Genetic Diversity Project" is its being publicized as if it unique
> and had just occurred in response to Mexico's flu outbreak when it
> could just be a derivative of the "prior" studies that you refer to
> below.
> 
> In any case, by itself any genetic relation of the virus to Mexican
> populations without comparative reports on just what the fatality
> incidence from the virus is to Mexican populations outside of
> Mexico City, there can be no real determination. . . ."
> 
> 
> Thankyou, John for this informative response.  I also thought it was 
> interesting that the story focussed on possible application of the 
> genetic study to the 'flu outbreak, when in fact the relevance is 
> small.

When I read the AP report so I thought so too while taking keen interest in the following statements of AP's report (*s for emphasis my own):

"Researchers led by Dr. Gerardo Jimenez-Sanchez studied the genes of 300 mestizos for the 

Mexican States chosen for the mestizo sample groups, Sonora, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Guerrero, 

Veracruz and Yucatan [plus] 30 Zapotecos from Oaxaca."

"The study was formally presented at the presidential residence in Mexico City Monday. At the 

presentation, Mexican President Felipe Calderon praised the work as a step toward making medical 

diagnoses more accurate, fighting illness more efficiently, and preventing common diseases."

"The results of this study will improve and accelerate the medical research of hundreds of 

Mexican scientists, and that will contribute, for example, to identifying genetic risk markers 

in order to develop treatments and prevention for diseases like diabetes, hypertension, obesity, 

cancer and some kinds of infections," Calderon said.

ttp://www.examiner.com/a-2010345~Mexican_genomes_show_wide_diversity.html?cid=rss-Science
http://snipurl.com/hz2nt

Already knowing however of Mexico City's orders of May 1st already cited ('Boletin Urgente') 

that the study could have no direct relation to the flu epidemic itself, though tauted as if it 

were by the President of Mexico himself, I had to immediately consider the traditional practice 

of Mexican Presidents in the commissioning of signature works commemorating their own terms in 

office, early in their terms; and the very "Mexican Genome Diversity Project" study was to be that 

commemorative work. 

But hardly for a flu-epidemic that obviously could not have been anticipated.

Then came Jaime Andres Pretell's repsonse to my original post on the subject listing Mexican 

states *plus* the *U.S. states* of "Arizona," "Colorado," "California" and "Nevada" of an 

*untitled* and *uncited* study.

" I'm afraid this is evidence of the current tendency to reduce 
> everything to genes.  Genetic studies like the one reported are 
> interesting and useful, but it's really quite disturbing when the 
> immediate emphasis is placed on genetic factors rather than 
> environmental, even when  the environmental  factors are, as in this 
> case,  very obvious.   Of course, the slant in the article is 
> probably a journalistic rather than scientific contribution,...

I think the "slant" may be the result of the original intent of a larger project, already completed, 

colliding with the urgent need for Mexico City to come up with something to show both that it 

was doing something regarding the epidemic and toot their own horn at the same time. Following 

is a direct quote of the opening paragraphs from the Mexican Genome Diversity Project's own 

report sent to me by a fellow listero of their study released May 15th:


"'Today, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences are publishing truly a landmark 

representation of the genomic variation in the Mexican populations,' former Mexican Minister of 

Health and current Harvard School of Public Health Dean Julio Frenk, who was not directly 

involved in the research, said during a conference call with reporters yesterday. 

'It is the first time in any developing country that a local institution has been able to 

understand the genetic variability ***in its own populations.'***


Frenk said such research is particularly pertinent in the wake of the recent influenza outbreak 

in Mexico...The Mexican government created INMEGEN *five years ago,* with the goal of not only 

developing world class genetic research, but also training people in related fields and taking 

advantage of the medical applications of the human genome, INMEGEN Director Gerardo 

Jimenez-Sanchez, senior author on the new paper, told reporters.

'This resource will be useful to develop strategies for the genetic analysis of Mexican and 

related admixed populations, such as marker selection for optimal coverage of common genetic 

variation in [genome-wide association] and targeted association studies," Jimenez-Sanchez and 

his co-authors explained, "and also for the adequate application of tagging and imputation 

approaches and for [admixture mapping] in Mexicans...

...***and other Latino populations.'***


> but the 
> fact that genetic reductionalism has leverage with the public 
> reflects and exaggerates a vogue for sexy genetic explanations in the 
> biosciences. 

I'm afraid it may be worse than that. Bear in mind the Mexican Government had, in 1996, in effect, nationalized *all* Mexicans abroad in, and still to arrive, in the U.S.A., their antecedents and even decendents.

Unless Jaime Andres Pretell can cite the source and even title of the "prior" report,to even begin to dispel report's inherent incredibility, as marked by the Mexican Government itself, and the reason for the omission of the "prior" report's cite and even title:

I think it not unreasonable to speculate that the current report of the Mexican Genome Diversity Project---originally a very possible commemorative work of the President of Mexico himself---had been suddenly and radically changed, to fit a new and desperate circumstance from an older intent that had nothing to do with "medicine" and, instead, everything to do with an attempt to establish a genetic claim to the "mestizos" (..."other Latinos"...) "in its [Mexico's] own populations" in ""Arizona," "Colorado," "California" and "Nevada."

Even while there are no "Mexican" indigenous, or their possible admixed decedents, even in Mexico, other than the Mexica (Aztecs) and their's.

Though there can very well be a genetic element to the peculiar fatality rate for Mexico City's residents (so far), the sheer embarrassment it must be for Mexico City itself, right down to its very foundation, and not even the whole of Mexico, to be ground zero for this flu epidemic cannot drive scientific inquiry.

While the history of science is testimony enough that political agendas can pose as even scientific inquiry and at times even drive science recklessly, most hopefully not via this list group.

Meanwhile: Has anyone ever looked into how prolonged drought in zones with stagnant and porous water cisterns---natural or man-made-- to set airborne fetid particulate might relate to the sudden disurbanization of the ancient Maya?

Cheers,
John Pastore







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