COVID-19: People, Places, Concepts, Science Copyright Notice: This material was written and published in Wales by Derek J. Smith (Chartered Engineer). It forms part of a multifile e-learning resource, and subject only to acknowledging Derek J. Smith's rights under international copyright law to be identified as author may be freely downloaded and printed off in single complete copies solely for the purposes of private study and/or review. Commercial exploitation rights are reserved. The remote hyperlinks have been selected for the academic appropriacy of their contents; they were free of offensive and litigious content when selected, and will be periodically checked to have remained so. Copyright © 2020, Derek J. Smith. First published 26th March 2020. This version 09:00 GMT 30th November 2020 [BUT UNDER CONSTANT EXTENSION AND CORRECTION, SO CHECK AGAIN SOON] Author's Home Page and e-mail Address >>>>> Also available ... <<<<< COVID, Day by Day COVID, the hard science Albizu Campos, Pedro: Puerto Rican independence leader Pedro Albizu Campos [Wikipedia biography] is noteworthy in the present context for sharing the spotlight of history 1932-1937 with America's own Doctor Mengele, Cornelius ["Dusty"] Rhoads - for the details, see that entry. Anyang Research Station: See the entry for Junji Nakamura. Army Technical Research Unit #9: See the entry for Noboru Kuba. "Arnold"CODENAME: See the entry for Hermann Wuppermann. Ashford, Bailey Kelly: American military physician [Colonel] Bailey K. Ashford [Wikipedia biography] is noteworthy in the present context (a) for an early career ministering to the American invasion force in Puerto Rico [see Aneurin Timeline 25th July 1898], becoming by the end of 1899 a specialist voice in the management of the locally endemic "tropical chlorosis", that is to say, hookworm-vectored anaemia [Wikipedia briefing], nicely profiled in Daniel Immerwahr's (2019) book "How to Hide an Empire" [Amazon] as follows ... "Nearly all - Ashford would later estimate nine in ten rural Puerto Ricans - were suffering badly from an intestinal parasite. Like most parasites, hookworms are both fascinating and deeply gross. The larvae grow in shaded, moist, warm soil and seek human feet. They bore through the skin, usually the skin between the toes, and worm their way into the bloodstream, then to the lungs, and then, after a cough and a swallow, into the upper part of the large intestine. There, they take up residence and live out their six- or seven-year lives, subsisting on blood. People with enough worms in them - it can be more than two thousand - grow listless, become pale, and lose muscle. They also, through their faeces, pass out hundreds of thousands of worm eggs, which, if deposited in the right environment, will hatch, find more human feet, and complete the revolting cycle. [They've been doing this] for some twelve thousand years, a side effect of domesticating dogs" (op. cit., p138). (b) having noted that the worms he recovered did not precisely match those listed in textbooks of tropical diseases, for seeking a second opinion from (his former lecturer) experienced parasitologist Charles W. Stiles [see own entry] in 1901, who declared that it was a previously unknown species and suggested that it might be named Necator americanus [Latin = "murderer of Americans"], (c) on behalf of the U.S. civilian governor for the island, for implementing a multifaceted (vermicides, sewerage practices, education, behavioural change) public health program in 1903, which quickly reduced mortality by some 90%, (d) for subsequently serving the variously constituted anaemia control commissions 1904-1910, collaborating closely with local physician Pedro Gutiérrez Igaravídez [no convenient biography], (e) for further collaborating with bilharzia specialist Isaac González Martínez [Wikipedia biography] in maintaining a clinic service, albeit never totally getting on top of the problem due to the reluctance of the peasantry to change their ways and the difficulty of improving sanitation without greater investment by the coffee plantation owners, and (f) for founding Puerto Rico's Institute [School]1926 of Tropical Medicine [Wikipedia briefing] in 1912. He will retire the Army in 1923, and become a lecturer at his institute until his death in 1934. FURTHER READING: Check out Chapter 9 of the above-referenced Immerwahr book. For the public health situation as it stood at the time of the invasion, see Alden (1901 [full text online - FASCINATING STUFF - INCLUDES MORBIDITY STATISTICS FOR THE EXPEDITIONARY FORCE]). Ashford's own initial report was published 14th April 1900 under the title "Ankylostomiasis in Puerto Rico" [JAMA, not available online]. His autobiography was published in 1934 as "A Soldier in Science" [on Amazon, but only at antiquarian prices]. Ashton, John: British physician John Ashton [Wikipedia biography] is noteworthy in the present context (a) for being a respected University of Liverpool Medical School public health academic 1986-present, actively campaigning for such initiatives as sex education, needle exchange, and better diet, (b) for being regional director of public health 1990-2006, resigning on principle in protest against politicised NHS decentralisation, (c) for continuing to protest NHS reorganisations during the 2010s, not coincidentally becoming the target of a professionally [that is to say, using intelligence service assets - Ed.] resourced and executed smear campaign, (d) for remaining vocal during the COVID-19 Pandemic [see COVID Timeline 4th April 2020]. Ashworth, Jonathan Michael Graham: British neoliberal politician Jonathan Ashworth [Wikipedia biography] is noteworthy in the present context for being Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary at the time of the COVID-19 Pandemic. During his three and a half years in portfolio, we observe the occasional bland press statement [e.g., https://twitter.com/JonAshworth/status/1249809200420663299], but few substantive dents in the Conservative government's continual NHS budget cutting. This may be due in part to his diverting effort to serially undermining his own leader ... CAMEO - THE FOUR YEAR CRUCIFIXION: As has been amply documented elsewhere, the U.K.'s health and social care services were thrown into crisis by the 2020 pandemic [see Timeline 11th February 2020 and follow the onward pointers], as budget reductions imposed during the 2010-2020 Conservative administrations started to kill under-protected doctors, nurses, and care home staff. Opposition effort had been diverted, however, Ashford assenting, to a vexatious vote of no confidence in party leader Jeremy Corbyn [see Timeline 24th September 2016], and then again during the concerted MSM assault on Corbyn during the 2019 General Election campaign [ditto 10th July 2019 and follow the <Corruption of the BBC> sub-thread]. For Ashworth's particular contribution to the latter, check out his "right plonker" gaffe in the hours immediately before the polls [YouTube it here]. Ashworth is married to neoliberal activist Emilie Oldknow [see own entry], who featured large in the leaked Labour Party Treachery Report [see own entry]. ***** AMERICAN BIOLOGICAL WARFARE SCIENTIST ***** Baldwin, Ira Lawrence: American WW1 veteran (artillery) turned "agricultural bacteriologist" Ira L. Baldwin [Wikipedia biography] is noteworthy in the present context (a) for learning his craft at the University of Wisconsin 1927-1942, specialising in fermentation science ... LEST IT BE OVERLOOKED: Fermentation science should not be underestimated, for, when it works well, it can bring great riches. Not only are brewers of alcohol among the richest dynasties on the planet, but Chaim Weizmann made his fortune brew-assisting the manufacture of cordite in WW1. After the war, the search was well and truly on for new industrial scale ferments. The University of Wisconsin has mounted one of its CALS lectures on YouTube, and it shows how to brew the deadly botox (three million times more deadly than cyanide) just like home-brewed wine - check it out (mins. 4-5). The lecture also features Dr. Baldwin at mins. 7-9, which see. .... and becoming departmental head there in 1942, (b) for then being headhunted by George Merck's presidential advisory panel on CBW in late 1942, to become scientific director at the Chemical Warfare Service's new Camp[/Fort]1956- Detrick research station ... CAMEO - BALDWIN AT DETRICK: Merck's basic question was whether it would be practical to produce a biological warfare deterrent, that is to say, to take a laboratory procedure for a pathogen, say the polio virus, and brew the germs by the tonne. Baldwin assured him that it was all just a matter of scaling up the apparatus. Installed with the rank of Captain and a $6 million budget (the best part of $90 billion at today's values), he set about equipping labs and recruiting scientists. Amongst those who came was a former Wisconsin student of his, Frank Olson [see own entry]. He is believed to have used his bulk fermentation skills to design "the mass production of anthrax spores to fill bombs" (Guillemin, 2006 [full text online]), which would have taken place at the production outstation at the Vigo Ordnance Plant [see own entry]. One of his later students was a young Sidney Gottlieb, destined to be chief wizard in the CIA wing of the Detrick complex 1951-1972. ... and (c) for returning to Wisconsin after WW2, and lecturing on until at least 1969. He died 1999, aged 103 years. FURTHER READING: For more on the morality of biological warfare in general, and Detrick's