Posted on 04/27/2009 2:15:50 PM PDT by Rufus2007
The swine flu story has captured the news cycle for three days and counting now and that's perpetuating the hysteria, according to Fox News Channel's Brit Hume.
Hume appeared on the FNC's "The Live Desk with Trace Gallagher" April 27 and blasted the media in general for hyping the swine flu story 24/7.
"I realize it's been a slow weekend in terms of news," Hume said. "The president went out and played golf on Sunday. The White House reporters don't have much to work with today, so they're trying to get a piece of this swine flu story, which you know, all the cable news channels are agog about, bug-eyed about. But so far, it doesn't amount to much in the United States of America."
...more (w/video)...
(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...
With a death toll in Mexico of over 140, THAT is where the scare is. And until we realize the reason why it is a very lethal flu down there and not up here, IMO this has to be taken very seriously up here.
Thank you. I have been saying this all day long. This is totally out of control and it should be a very short story on page A-25 or something. This is ridiculous.
the president does NOT play golf. he hits a little ball with a big stick and gets points for dressing up in saddlebucks and shorts.
the president does NOT play golf. he hits a little ball with a big stick and gets points for dressing up in saddlebucks and shorts.
Also, how many die worlwide yearly from plain ole influenza?
Apparently his approval ratings with suburban white males were getting a little too low.
Remember what Rahrah Emmanual and Obambi have said; “Never waste a good crisis!”
If there is no crisis to distract from the slight of hand, then create one. The Media will help Zero’s move towards Communism. This crisis will give them the chance to suspend the Constitution and declare Martial Law.
Gunner
I thought Hume retired?
In Mexico, this flu is acting more like the deadly 1918 version - young, otherwise healthy adults are dying as well. And that is where the scare is.
And I don't think closing the border would make too much difference at this point. The vector to areas past the border have been travellers coming back from Mexico. But improving border security has other benefits.
Like I said, securing the border IMO wouldn’t do much to stop the spread of flu in this age of jet travel, but it would have other benefits such as slowing mass migration attempts related to a possible pandemic.
I hope Odumbo does not send all our medecine down there.
Mexico is not Communist China. It's an open country on our border and it would be difficult to hide if the disease was wreaking a higher toll. While I have little faith in Obama and his minions, the CDC pros are just that pros and I think they will be alert to when and if this grows into a more serious concern.
Brit Hume rocks!
Plain old flu kills 30k to 40k every year in the USA.
These are almost all old folks who were, to be blunt, going to die soon from something else, anyway. They generally die from secondary bacterial or viral infections rather than directly from flu.
What makes people justifiably nervous about the Mexican Flu is that they are reporting a 7% death rate. This is huge. The 1928 Flu had a 2.7% mortality rate in USA, although up to 25% in some parts of the world, and resulted in 550k to 700k deaths, 50M to 100M worldwide. A 7% rate with a similar infection rate (about 1 in 3 of the population) would result in something around 5M to 7M US deaths.
The other unnerving factor is that most of the deaths in Mexico have been among healthy young adults. Completely unlike the normal seasonal flu and much like the 1918 flu. The most commonly accepted theory is that when flu becomes a primary killer of this type, it works by turning the body’s immune system against it. It kills more efficiently the better your immune system is.
It is quite possible that the 7% mortality rate is grossly overstated due to significant under-reporting of the number infected.
For unknown reasons this flu doesn’t, so far, seem to be killing people outside Mexico. Let’s hope it stays that way.
I wouldn't be suprised if there is a factor involving ethnic makeup - Mexico is quite a melting pot, with a LOT of Native American ancestries, much more than the US. A lot of diseases that were annoyances to Europeans (such as chicken pox) were lethal to natives.
That is truly horrifying. I am pretty sure that particular strain won’t affect us in Dallas.
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