{"id":7538,"date":"2015-07-11T07:43:54","date_gmt":"2015-07-11T11:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/?p=7538"},"modified":"2015-07-11T12:57:50","modified_gmt":"2015-07-11T16:57:50","slug":"citing-who-guidelines-squirrels-protest-latest-virus-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/citing-who-guidelines-squirrels-protest-latest-virus-discovery\/2015\/07\/11\/","title":{"rendered":"Citing WHO Guidelines, Squirrels Protest Latest Virus Discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"variagated<\/a>An open letter to the Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine<\/em><\/p>\n

Saturday, July 11, 2015<\/p>\n

Dear Dr. Drazen:<\/p>\n

On behalf of the International Association of Variegated Squirrels, I am writing to protest the article that appeared in your July 9 2015 issue, entitled “A variegated squirrel bornavirus associated with fatal human encephalitis.”\u00a0<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

We variegated squirrels believe\u00a0the title and content of this paper are stigmatizing to variegated squirrels, and are not in keeping with recent guidance from the WHO regarding best-practices in naming new diseases.<\/a><\/p>\n

As a reminder,\u00a0variegated squirrels the world over are trying to counter literally centuries of discrimination and injustice. Indeed, the paper you published includes these chilling sentences:<\/p>\n

All three patients [with encephalitis] were breeders of variegated squirrels (S. variegatoides<\/em>). They were friends, had met privately on a regular basis, and had exchanged their squirrel breeding pairs on multiple occasions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In our opinion, this involuntary captivity and heartless exchange of fellow variegated squirrels highlights the ongoing challenges we face on a day-to-day basis.<\/p>\n

In addition, based on extensive communications I have had with non<\/em>-variegated squirrels, I am concerned that the paper will have a similarly negative effect on all 200 squirrel species. From the five-inch African pygmy squirrel to the three-foot Indian giant squirrel, all are upset about this stigma by association. And you don’t want to get a three-foot squirrel mad at you, trust me on that one.<\/p>\n

Squirrels — variegated and non-variegated alike — have much to be proud of.<\/a>\u00a0Before scientists go and\u00a0name a scary viruses after us, please keep in mind\u00a0the literally millions of innocent fellow squirrels who roam free, climb trees, nibble acorns and other nuts,\u00a0and have never transmitted a disease to anyone.<\/p>\n

Respectfully,<\/p>\n

Rocky
\nChairman and Spokes-Squirrel
\nInternational Association of Variegated Squirrels<\/p>\n

[youtube http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1EnDwkclDcA&w=420&h=315]<\/p>\n

(H\/T to Rebeca Plank for the photo and link to squirrel facts.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An open letter to the Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine Saturday, July 11, 2015 Dear Dr. Drazen: On behalf of the International Association of Variegated Squirrels, I am writing to protest the article that appeared in your July 9 2015 issue, entitled “A variegated squirrel bornavirus associated with fatal human encephalitis.”\u00a0 We […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care","category-infectious-diseases"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}