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

Wed May 13 22:45:45 CDT 2009

My emphasis was not on the claims of the article on the flu which were of 
course ridiculous.  Just the claim that there is an admixture gradient of 
more European to more Indigenous from North to South. The article acted like 
this was new info. All they were doing was corroborating multiple other 
studies of which I gave the resume of results.  I also forwarded the actual 
study, which did not make the claims of the article.  That is why youlook at 
primary sources instead of journalistic claims.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Pastore" <jpastore at email.com>
To: <aztlan at lists.famsi.org>; <mjfinley at shaw.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 10:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Aztlan] Mexico's Flu Epidemic & Possible Maya Correlation

----- 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=s-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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