Posted on 04/26/2009 11:51:56 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
As reports of a unique form of swine flu erupt around the world, the inevitable question arises: Is this the big one?
Is this the next big global flu epidemic that public health experts have long anticipated and worried about? Is this the novel virus that will kill millions around the world, as pandemics did in 1918, 1957 and 1968?
The short answer is it's too soon to tell.
"What makes this so difficult is we may be somewhere between an important but yet still uneventful public health occurrence here — with something that could literally die out over the next couple of weeks and never show up again — or this could be the opening act of a full-fledged influenza pandemic," said Michael Osterholm, a prominent expert on global flu outbreaks with the University of Minnesota.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Will the author be disappointed if if fizzles?
Probably depends on if he’s touched by it, just like all the other elitists.
#1 Many people are beginning to suspect this is a manufactured virus
#2 I’ve read one site that says this virus is the same or similar to the 1918 virus
#3 What about our food supply? We have many imported foods in the produce section of grocery stores, particularly from Mexico.
There is something strange about it being in Mexico and the Obama visit there at the same time. I think I am in a “wait and see” mode on his health. If he is sick all bets are off.
The prospect of dying of swine flu tends to make me less skeptical of karma.
If manmade, possibly could fizzle rather quickly. The DNA science is not yet up to good old evolution in the wild.
ex-Texan is one freeper who suggests we lay in a goodly supply of foil against this one, but funny he put it in email to me rather than post to all. I can’t comment because I don’t know whose contradictory account (H1? H5?) is correct.
Food supply, may be more in trouble from Mexicans getting too sick to work harvests than from viruses borne on produce.
Bookmark
Will O’dumbo the manchild slacker psoing as POTUS now have to stay in the WH and not take his daily Air Force one trips? He will go crazy. He might have to actually work for a change.
If it is like the 1918 flu, very strong immune systems would seem to be a problem; immune system overreaction is what has been hypothesized to have caused the deaths of so many young people back then.
In the U.S. so far, we haven't seen this type of response (that we know of).
Perhaps Mexico today is more like our country was in 1918...people were exposed to all kinds of dirt, garbage, water contamination when they were children, thus creating very strong immune systems.
We've seen an increase in asthma and allergies here, which has been explained by some as being due to our obsession with antibacterials and hyper-cleanliness. Perhaps the fact that our immune systems are not as strong is a good thing in this case?
As I posted on another thread:
I am thinking that there are some very official type officials who are wanting everyone to be scared crapless of something other than GOVERNMENT for a while, and remember instead that GOVERNMENT is the SAVIOR of all.
Thats what I think.
I feel pretty good.
1918 had another factor: war.
Three million draft call-ups, massive crowding in transportation, training facilities, troop ships, bond rallies, etc.
Plus the stress on resources, including medical that war brings, and in dividing the nations attention and forcing a cold decision: react to epidemic or make war.
Hmm. Wonder if for this very reason the US, Canada, and Japan will weather this flu rather well, but the rest of the world get decimated?
It’s been a long time since we’ve had a serious outbreak, at least in the developed world. Many probably think it can’t happen again - although if history is a guide it most certainly will sooner or later.
I know that well. Hundreds died just a few miles from my doorstep at Camp Dodge, in Iowa. Otherwise healthy young men and women. Oddly, according to one account the guys who had just arrived from Alaska were particularly hard hit.
Also, my Grandma’s cousin Mary went off to France as a nurse, survived the war, and died of the flu at the age of 23 after she had returned home.
http://www.iptv.org/IowaPathways/mypath.cfm?ounid=ob_000279
Thanks for the link, very interesting.
One theory has it that the flu started at a military base in US, traveled overseas with troops, mutated there, and came back here to be the killer in the fall.
That is why the Mexicans on the street call it the Obama Flu. Why have they been so QUICK to say it was NOT bioterrorism. I know here in Mexico MANY that are in rural areas that already had the sniffles, the head ache, the plegm, and in 2 or 3 days are back to work. They don’t have clinics or microscopes to know what STRAIN of flu it was, and we’re all back up and running. It’s a HOAX..never miss an opportunity that a crisis affords.
Swine flu (H1N1 virus) is a variant / mutant of avian flu (H1N5 virus) which, according to medical and world governments' "experts", was supposed to wipe out quarter to half the world's population... and after costing taxpayers billions of dollars to buy vaccines that nobody used, fizzled out quite nicely due to awareness and changes in hygienic behavior and precautions.
In other words, go long pharmaceuticals and short airlines... and no, it's definitely not a financial advice, only a reflection of what happened in the past with avian flu "pandemic" and what's likely to happen with this swine flu "pandemic".
So get ready for onslaught of political blowhards on the subject. If only we had a vaccine against them!
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