Posted on 10/21/2009 6:00:34 AM PDT by shortstop
Is the swine flu Obama’s Katrina?
And is the CDC Obama’s FEMA?
Unfortunately, the answer to both questions could be: Yes.
As the swine flu explodes across our population, it is becoming painfully apparent that the federal government’s response is going to be far too little and far too late.
At the root seems to be a flawed timetable and a bad case of promising a lot more than is being delivered. Expecting a disease wave to crest after the first of the year, the Obama Administration is being caught flatfooted as that crest is arriving in late October.And the same day that the CDC announced that it couldn’t deliver 10 million doses of swine flu vaccine it promised, statistics showed that more American children died of swine flu in September than died of seasonal flu in all of 2008.
Coincidentally, that was also the same day that Barack Obama went to New Orleans to denounce his predecessor for poor preparation and poor response in the Hurricane Katrina episode.
The sad fact there is that, as horrible as it was, Katrina was limited to a small geographic part of the United States while the swine flu will sweep every inch of this nation. And long before it is done, the swine flu will take many more lives than were lost to Katrina.
This is a big deal.
And so far all we’re getting is the dithering of some CDC flunky in a Public Health Service uniform. The most important thing she’s said is that the federal government will be able to deliver just a little bit more than half of the vaccines it promised for this month.
And the mathematical certainty is that when you fail to vaccinate 10 million people this month, you assure that some of those people will die.
Let me repeat: This disease has a mortality rate.
To find out how many people this CDC delay will kill, take the number of unvaccinated people apt to get the flu, and multiply that number by the mortality rate of swine flu.
Let’s do the math.
A Purdue University study predicts that 63 percent of the American population will get the swine flu, with something like 25 percent exhibiting symptoms. Sixty-three percent of 10 million is, of course, 6.3 million. That’s how many people may get sick because the CDC didn’t keep its promise.
Now, multiply that by the mortality rate, which for swine flu in 2009 is 0.5 – thankfully some 50 percent lower than the mortality rate for seasonal flu. Anyway, take 6.3 million and multiply it by 0.005 – one half of one percent – and you get 31,500 dead people.
Thankfully, that estimate will probably turn out to be way high. But it is based on the best numbers we now have. And even if it turns out to be far lower, it still ends up being a lot of dead people.
Because of government failure.
Let me repeat that: Because of government failure.
Why didn’t the Corps of Engineers fix the dikes and why didn’t the CDC deliver the vaccine it said it would? Where was FEMA when New Orleans needed it and where is the CDC now?
The real answer is that sometimes you can’t prepare for every disaster, that sometimes these calamities are beyond the ability of man to control. But that real answer was never applied to Katrina, and in the face of a potentially far-larger disaster it’s hard to understand why a different standard would be used now.On the very day that his administration announced it had missed the most important milestone in its fight against swine flu, Barack Obama went to New Orleans to damn George W. Bush.
Which calls to mind the Sermon on the Mount. It was there that Jesus taught that we will be judged as we judge others, that if we have shown no mercy we will be shown no mercy. For four years Barack Obama and his party have shown no mercy – or gratitude – to the people who fought Katrina.
Maybe they should stop focusing on the past, and pay attention to the present.
Because swine flu is Obama’s Katrina.
And unless things turn around, the CDC is going to be Obama’s FEMA.
And millions of Americans will pay.
And if it is...will anyone actually hold him accountable? doubtful...
Better question in headline; “is swine flu obama’s creation?”
Do you mean that Swine Flu is something that the Federal Government might be blamed for when really it is neither caused by them (natural disaster), nor their primary responsability (the health care system)? Yes.
The real reason for the hype is to push nationalized health care. The world is ending! We need the Fed’s help!
In Maryland, swine flu is running rampant through our schools. The state has ordered up all of the available swine flu vaccinations, and will be dispensing them to public school children and their families. In response to calls, they said they will not be providing vaccinations to private schools. I guess that’s their solution to the school choice issue - only vaccinate public school children.
This just feeds the bogus H1N1 hooplah. Sixty-three percent of Americans will get the flu but only a third of those will have symptoms? Why not just say that 100% will get the flu but 75% will never know it because they will not show any symptoms? Why not say that 50% will get the flu twice but never show symptoms? It’s some racket this swine flu business.
Obama doesn’t like white children ...
Now, all this hype and fear is just so much nonsense. Only a big, powerful government can protect us. What? Soon we will be ordered to submit to a flu shot??
The flu vaccination shots are not even available thanks to government planning! Therefore, when the flu shot does become available it will be of ZERO benefit because it's too late. Once you get the series of two shots, it takes weeks for your body to develop the antibodies to fight off the flu. It's already too late.
And this is the very same government that wants to commondeer our entire health system!
Exactly. The swine flu will end up being more like Y2K than Katrina-—much ado about very little.
People get sick every winter. I don’t see this year being so different.
The real question is about effectiveness and absence of risks of the vaccination.
And the first problem is that we have poor statistical tools on the epidemiology of swine flu.
Data should be available and analysed and discussed
Not so hard to understand. They like him because he's one of them.
A Purdue University study predicts that 63 percent of the American population will get the swine flu, with something like 25 percent exhibiting symptoms. Sixty-three percent of 10 million is, of course, 6.3 million. That’s how many people may get sick because the CDC didn’t keep its promise.
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According to this the population of America is only ten million! Wow, something must have killed nearly 300 million people already. I wonder where all those bodies went.
Nobody in my immediate family will get the shot. We’ll take our chances, thank you very much.
Because, as we know now, some people have an immune system that responds quickly, such that the symptoms either manifest as a minor cold, and go away quickly - while others get very sick.
For instance, while other children got chicken pox and were miserable for weeks, I got 1 sore and it cleared up in 2 days. I was lucky. I rarely get sick. Some people catch every flu that comes down the pike, others either don't appear to get sick at all, or shake the flu in 24 hours.
I WANT to either get the vaccine, or catch H1N1 as soon as possible. Why? No, I have no love of misery; but at present the H1N1 is relatively benign; the mutation that will hit us next year may be far, far worse. I want to have some immunity to the inevitable mutantations that come down the pike in the future.
Zero's predecessor was the governor of LA and the mayor of NO?"
STOP RIGHT THERE.
I do not think this is manufactured.
Even if it were the conservative movement does NOT need a whole bunch of Rev. Wright-style idiots accusing the govt of infecting the populace. It's one of those situations where you keep your mouth shut UNTIL you have incontrovertible evidence.
Then you can be a true patriot and hero, bring your evidence to the public and save the world as we know it.
The moral of the story is this: Do your homework first THEN start spreading your deadly conspiracy theories here at Free Republic.
Thank you very much.
My wife and kids will not get the shot/mist. I on the other hand will be forced to get it, by the military. I have not yet found a way out of it.
The flu season has ended in Brazil. There were approx. 1,000 deaths related to H1N1. This out of a population of 192,000,000. This is .00000052%
The point is that unless everyone in the country is tested then assigning any number as representative of those infected but symptomless is nothing but guess work. Do you believe the government’s CDC quesses? I don’t.
Keep trying.
Katrina was not a Bush failure. This fiasco IS an O failure.
President Bush was not the Mayor or the Governor of LA.
Can we keep that in mind.
Haley Barbour did a fine job in his state.
Jeb Bush did a fine job in his state with multiple hurricanes.
Of course that would require some work.
Please note that I didn't say that you were incorrect about the flu.
I said provide your evidence in such a way that even the major news networks will take it seriously and help get your message out to the populace.
Don't try to prove it here on Free Republic because EVEN IF you are 100% correct you need to have your information verified or you look like a 9/11 Truther idiot.
Believe it or not I don't want any FReepers to look like that as well as trying to keep FR from looking like a den of dopes.
That's all, FRiend.
This is from Dr Mercola, I like him.
It’s an interesting interview with Barb Loe Fisher, Founder of the National Vaccine Information Center about the massive amount of disinformation that the media has recently escalated, as best demonstrated by 60 Minutes segment on Swine Flu which aired this past Sunday. It starts at about 1:30 into the youtube movie..
It’s also interesting that they stated anyone born before 1950 is immune to it.
http://www.mercola.com/article/swine-flu/Swine-Flu-Update-1.htm
We’ve had it in my family, just call us the Swiners ~snicker~ at the first sign I used oregano oil and I hear Oscillococcinum works well.
The point is, no matter how badly the OZero’s people screw this up, the press will just march on...no negatives.
Excellent information. And this is in a country with much less advanced medical care.
Dude, you know he ‘inherited’ swine flu from President Bush, d’oh!
/sarc
On the topic of flu; everything is guess work. All they can do is look at statistics and make educated guesses.
Most of the influenza strains come from Asia, where people live in close proximity with swine and birds. The bugs pass back and forth between human and animal; mutating until we wind up with a new strain.
Based upon what little I have read (I am not an expert, just a silly engineer); H1N1 has aspects of Bird and Swine flu; but is called ‘Swine flu’. Personally, I’d have gone with ‘Pig-bird flu’, but no one asked my opinion.
What we do know, is that this is a relatively new bug to hit humanity; thus most of us have little or no immunity. Severity-wise, it’s fairly benign; weakness, and mild flu symptoms - it just spreads easily, not because of a high mobility but due to low immunity among the population.
Now, I would prefer to get the shot (this is my decision, not Pres. Zero’s); but if that’s unavailable I would want to get sick, now while the bug is fairly benign. What truly scares me, is that this bug could easily mutate to something very, very bad; and because humans have virtually no immunity to this bug - the next mutation could be a modern day plague.
Now, with modern medicine I don’t see any chance for a 10-30% mortality rate; but I do envision a nasty bug having a 0.001 to 10% mortality rate. Once the hospitals are flooded, we have other breakdowns. Consider, movie theaters are prime disease spreading areas; like grocery stores, schools and places of work.
How many people have to call in sick, before a grocery store cannot function? If the drivers get sick, who delivers food and supplies to the grocery stores? If the population isn’t prepared (ie Katrina) for food shortages, and the police force is undermanned, what happens?
Today, we are a densely populated society; diseases which would ordinarily have prevented metropolis’s like ours; have been held at bay. Now, with inept Gov’t management and a well deserved distrust of this very Gov’t - the next mutation of H1N1 could be devastating. That’s what scares me.
Exactly and the key to showing this is just hooplah is in the writer’s own words:
“thankfully some 50 percent lower than the mortality rate for seasonal flu”
Admitting that it is not as bad as the seasonal flu
However, they contradict themselves showing this is just all hot air because earlier they state:
“statistics showed that more American children died of swine flu in September than died of seasonal flu in all of 2008”
So how the hell do they have a lower mortality rate yet have more die than all last year?
Only one mathmatical possibility: last years seasonal flu just happened to have a really low absolute number of death incidents; so this year both seasonal and swine are exceeding last years rate. The key is the mortality rate is less than seasonal flu rates - it’s all hype.
The school here is sending out fliers for the shots. My kids aren’t getting these untested vaccine versions and I’m hearing the same from other parents. It’s a made up crisis and the people know it.
Yesterday I heard a comment from King Baraq The Merciful to the effect that he wasn’t going to take the vaccine until there was enough for everybody to get it.
In other words, he is refusing to take the vaccine.
What does that tell you?
Agreed, nothing is ever O’s fault. He’s as pure as the driven snow.
I just hate the continuing slam on President Bush for Katrina.
John McCain constantly slammed the president for Katrina and every time he did it I wanted to slap his face.
Get the mist then breathe through your mouth until you get to a sink. Blow it out. Then gargle warm water through your nose.
It might work.
Also, a humidifier is key in the winter months. Studies have shown that it is the drop of humidity in the air during the winter months that facilitates the spread of flus and colds. Higher humidity levels in the summer, equal less cold and flu.
According to this article, public school children in DC have priority over private school children. Again, according to this article, using the CDC’s own timeline, by the time the private school children are able to get the vaccine (November 1) it will be too late. This is a big deal and should receive media attention.
>>The typical vaccine for this flu is laced with 25,000 times the toxic level of mercury<<
Do you realize how idiotic you sound? If a toxic dose will, by definition, kill you, then at 25,000 (!!!) times that level, it’s instant death for every recipient. Do you honestly believe that, because if you do, you’ll believe anything and must be transmitting from a protective bunker 500 feet underground (and digging deeper on hearing of the new bunker buster bombs your government is hurrying to finish so they can reach you at 500 feet.) Sheesh!
a horrible idea, considering swine flue is much hype about nothing and even if it was something, no government response would likely be effective or appropriate.
Is the swine flu only going to single out black people? Or are they not going to heed warnings again?
Does anyone think this same Bush hating, Obama drooling media is going to use anything to attack Obama, even the things that actually are his fault (which are legion)?
Not a chance.
>>What truly scares me, is that this bug could easily mutate to something very, very bad; and because humans have virtually no immunity to this bug - the next mutation could be a modern day plague.
Now, with modern medicine I don’t see any chance for a 10-30% mortality rate...<<
Dr. Cannell, whose website is vitamindcouncil.org, has speculated that the 1918 flu epidemic that killed millions did exactly as you fear. The first time around, the more highly susceptible caught the milder variety, and the second time around the deadly version killed those who didn’t catch it the first year or two it went around.
Our school district of 700 kids had over 100 out yesterday, though some of these might have been parents keeping kids home who weren’t sick. (I doubt there was much of that though, as both parents are usually at work.)
Dr. Cannell has some interesting correspondence from doctors who have pretty good anecdotal evidence that a vitamin D3 level > 35 ng/ml is protective against flu, though not necessarily H1N1, and most are probably below that. Furthermore, the kids that are dying tend to be compromised already and probably have very low vitamin D3 levels, according to him.
Former President Bush had put in place all that was necessary for a Pandemic. Obama comes in confiscates even more billions of dollars...........and not enough vaccines available....
What countries got them then?
Most will get the swine flu and recover in 2-3 days. Some will get it and not even have symptoms! Yes some will die, as do every flu season, my heart goes out to them.
Obama and his minions have turned this into a complete clusterfluck. Purposefully. Why? Because we didn’t panic like he wanted us to. He’s still trying though. Or is it Rham, I can’t tell the difference.
That's not good news, and it sounds like somebody is making money-money-money trying to manufacture a plague. This is starting to look like the Chimera plotline of Mission Impossible 2!!
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