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 ...
Me too, especially since they’re trying to push through Katherine Sebellius confirmation this week. How can we have a pandemic w/out a Health and Human Services Secretary???...Never waste a crisis!
(H1N5 virus) = (H5N1 virus) = avian (”bird”) flu.
...but they have not mentioned avian once.
They did mention that this is a strain never seen before but DON"T mention avian once.
Does this strain have a avian strain in it????
Last time (1976) they tried a vaccine against swine flu it worked out real well for them. /sarcasm
I am most concerned because it is striking the Generation Yners hardest, and they are the ones who simply Will Not Be Told What To Do. A university in the Maritimes had an outbreak of mumps, and stupidly sent all the students home so they could spread this thrughout the country. The exposed students here in the GTA refused to be quarantined and went clubbing, spreading their germs everywhere.
The only way this thing will be taken seriously is if it starts infecting children.
P.S. Canada should be removed from the list of countries that will weather the epidemic successfully. We saw what happened with SARS in 2003. Their way of dealing with emergencies is to pretend that nothing is happening until 40 people are dead and WHO imposes a travel ban.
I, for one, will be absolutely delighted if it fizzles.
H1N1 is essentially a very similar but weaker strain than deadly H5N1 virus. Think of it as different (mutated) strain of seasonal influenza, which is why flu (vaccine) shots are usually so ineffective.
Yes, it has an avian flu gene in it.
The local media is in hysterics over SWINE FLU here in New England this morning...OMG!!! By the way...number of cases found in New England to date? Zero.
... Only young Lewis died from the swine flu itself in 1976. But as the critics are quick to point out, hundreds of Americans were killed or seriously injured by the inoculation the government gave them to stave off the virus.
I’m an ER doc, can I phone it in too?
I’m really leary of vaccines. Not that I haven’t had my share in my life. But I have MS and the last vaccine I had (pneumonia vaccine) sent me into a tailspin. I had the Hep B vaccine about 6 months before I had my first symptoms of MS, and the Hep A vaccine which I took because we were traveling to the Far East made me really sick. (all anecdotal evidence that vaccines don’t like me, nor I them, LOL) I never get the flu vaccine, and I haven’t had the flu in the last 20 years. Most vaccines for adults still contain thimerisol (sp?) and so I’d be inclined to say, “No thanks!”
Influenza A (the regular kind) is a killer. There are tens of thousands of deaths, every year, caused by the flu.
But those tens of thousands of deaths represent a low case-fatality ratio with millions of cases.
In Mexico, there are probably hundreds dead (they acknowledge 68). And of course, there is no Mexican CDC and most sick people don't see a doctor, much less have molecular testing for Influenza A.
But we know already that the few "international" cases all went to Mexico, and all were in widely separated parts of the country. The NYC kids went to Cancun. There's lots of known disease in Mexico City. There's cases in Mexicali.
This fits the picture of rapid spread, high infectivity, and low mortality.
Which I hope is correct.
The defense is that the first confirmed case was April 16th. Do not let that argument stand. Every presidential visit is preceded by a team of people who are prepping and planning the visit. I would assume it would be an extensive security sweep and preparation for any emergency to include securing and prepping a hospital or two in the event of an emergency. Would he do it? Yes he can!
1:) This could be a very small outbreak that is over reported to allow more control of the population.
2:)If you remember the history of the 1918 flu, it mutated after the first pass around the globe and killed more people on the second pass. Back then borders were relatively closed and transportation was mostly by trains and ships.
3:)You are still buying produce in the grocery? Get that garden started and live on beans and cornbread until it comes in!
If you don't....it isn't.
The Obamites will do everything they can to scare people, then they will come in as "Saviours" with more government control to take away even more of our freedoms.
“The Obamites will do everything they can to scare people, then they will come in as “Saviours” with more government control to take away even more of our freedoms.”
That’s the first thing I thought of when they immediately went into high alert about this.
I’m glad there are some folks here who remember the last swine flu SCARE. I remember how goofy and panicky folks got about it. Turned out to be a whole lot of nothing. I never got sick...never knew anyone who did and my folks (who were in the high risk category) never did either.
Is swine flu ‘the big one’ or a flu that fizzles?
I feel pretty good.
“It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine”
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