Virus check

Regarding your story on the bird flu resulting in a free-range farming ban in Quebec [“All cooped up,” Jan. 19]: Well, the menace might not be coming from the ducks in St-Urbain but from a source Quebecers do not suspect.

Material used to create vaccines is often contaminated, and the cure itself might kill the client. Is it safe to get vaccinated? Is it safe to eat poultry, for that matter?

I understand we cannot believe everything we read on the Internet but take this point of view into account:

“In the production of viral vaccines on a commercial scale, the virus of concern must be reproduced in large quantities. Viruses cannot survive or reproduce without being introduced into cells that nourish them, which enables the viral reproductive activity. In that sense, all viruses can be considered parasitic on other cells. Living cell types commonly used to reproduce viruses in the lab include monkey kidney cells, chicken embryos, as well as other animal and human cells. These cells must also be nourished with food, and are most often fed with a nutrient mix containing in large part, bovine (cow) calf serum (usually, serum extracted from fetal calf blood). This product can carry many types of bovine blood-borne viruses, and is one of the primary sources of vaccine contaminants. A journal article states, ‘a potential risk associated with the production and use of biological products is viral contamination. This contamination may be present in the source material, e.g. human blood, human or animal tissues, cell banks or introduced in the manufacturing process through the use of animal sera.’”

You can read the whole text at www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2003/06/16/pharmaceutical_quality_control_myth.htm. Click on “What is coming through the needle.”

» Catherine Bégin, Researcher, Lost and Found Pet Network

Quiz hits the spot

I have always enjoyed Scott Saxon’s “Man bites dog” and “Damn right” news bites, so I was doubly gratified by his assembly of acerbic observations on international news quirks of the past year [“Over and done with,” Jan. 19].

I did take the quiz in earnest, and scored a respectable seven out of 10 correct answers. A confessed “news buff,” I deserve some credit for educated choices, though the most ironic, offbeat pick usually proved true. A very darkly humorous statement by Saxon on the backwards workings of the world. Bravo.

A more regularly occurring quiz of this nature would be a welcome addition to the Montreal Mirror. There are those of us who haven’t taken to sudoko or other assorted brain-teaser distractions of print media custom, for whom a dose of trivia is something akin to a lively debate, a fine single malt or an autumn stroll.

» Roger Friedrich

What farce?

Your Jan. 19 Insect, “Banning parody,” was interesting and unnerving, if not for the fact that the parties and networks agreed not to allow debate footage on news parody shows, than because the Canadian media kept mum about it. But it’s also too bad that the Air Farce and all the other Canadian shows like it suck so bad.

» Nassim Choueri

Bus passes and pollution

Eminent environmentalist and author Ernest Callenbach has said, “The world is being forced—not in 10 years but today—to choose between feeding people and feeding cars.’’ Indeed, excessive car use in our society has driven up fuel prices, spurred inflation in the overall economy and contributed massively to our air pollution woes. In Montreal alone, more than 30,000 cars are added to the roads every year. In other North American metropolises the car culture is even more dominant.

Governments everywhere ought to invest far more in public transit to ease traffic congestion and for the sake of the health of the planet. It does not make sense to hold conferences on global warming and then raise the price of metro passes every year.

The decision to raise the price of a monthly bus pass in Montreal beginning this January from $61–$63 is a very bad one, and it makes public transit less appealing to many and less affordable for the poor. If cities like Portland, Oregon, can offer free public transit in the downtown core, the least Montreal can do is to bring down the price of the monthly bus pass to $50 and hold it there. The Quebec government and the federal government (with its huge budget surplus) must fund public transit to a much greater extent.

» Manish Patwari

Pan-tastic

Thank you Raf Katigbak for the Zamfir interview [“Pan-demonium,” Jan. 19]. I am also a fan. You have to check him out on the Romanian label Electrecord during the late ’60s and early ’70s. He’s like Charlie Parker.

» Nicolas Caloia

Correction:

Tapeo [Resto, “Sharing session,” Jan. 19] is not a bring your own wine restaurant, but rather offers a selection of choice Spanish imports.

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