Swine Flu: The Crisis That Never Was (Vanity?)

April 30, 2009 | SlaveNoMore

[SlaveNoMore]

Now, let me get this straight. Several hundred people get the flu in Mexico and 150 Mexican nationals die, now lowered to seven. A few Americans get the flu, 91 people at last count, but no one dies. A Mexican toddler did die in Houston, but had undisclosed other "underlying health issues."

Even before this number reportedly died US Pravda, otherwise known as CNN, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, etc., hyped the "flu pandemic" story up to astronomical levels. Here we go again! The sky is falling, the sky is falling! BE SCARED! TERROR, TERROR! CRISIS! BE AFRAID! ...

Does anyone buy this line anymore? We have a pandemic alright, a "fear pandemic."

Are you aware that tens of thousands of U.S. citizens die each year from influenza and pneumonia? Excuse me a minute while I change my surgical particle mask and guzzle some more Tamiflu.

What happened to the Hope and Change and "the end of the politics of fear?" If we keep having so many crises, there's really no point in living. I feel like I'm cast in a never-ending soap opera, and I might as well end it all now.

But, is there possibly another motive behind all of this chicanery? As a result of each "crisis" immediate action had to be taken. After 9-11 we received the Patriot Act that allows warrantless government surveillance of not only foreigners but American citizens as well. Who needs the 4th Amendment anyway? We also received the Department of Homeland Security, yet another federal police force. DHS ignores millions of illegals and terrorists openly operating in the U.S. while labeling veterans and conservatives as "terrorists" or "right wing extremists." Exactly when did being right become extreme anyway?

Later, we had the "credit crisis" and we got TARP, or is that TRAP? As a result, the Federal Reserve, a private corporation which is as federal as Federal Express, leaves U.S. taxpayers on the hook for TRILLIONS of dollars without having to explain where the money went. That number is now over 12.8 TRILLION DOLLARS. The Federal Reserve has great power over the value of our money and the direction of our economy and yet does not have to disclose its operations to the American people. In fact, the Federal Reserve apparently doesn't have to answer to Congress, the President or anyone.

There is currently pending in Congress H.B. 1207 calling for an audit of the Federal Reserve, something that has never occurred since its inception in 1913. The bill currently has 100 co-sponsors and may very well pass. I'm certain the foreign banker owners don't want this to happen. Cockroaches do tend to flee when the light switch is turned on!

Recently, the "stimulus" bill, another whopping $787 billion, passed because of the dire emergency. One thousand pages of eye-popping pork that not one congressman even read. The bill had to be passed right away or we would fall off the edge of the earth, even though "The One" didn't sign the legislation until 4 days after returning from his vacation.

Then, there was the uproar over the AIG bonuses. The public was instructed to focus on $165 million in bonuses to camouflage the 10s of billions that were shipped to foreign banks. Remember, they're the Fed, they transfer the money and you pay the amount back the amount lent, with interest of course. Move along there's nothing to see here.

Does anyone else see a pattern here? Everytime there is a "crisis" more of our rights are confiscated and we get the short end of the stick.

Maybe it's time that "we the people" start issuing terrorist alerts, with a focus on the domestic variety. Particularly, the financial terrorists.

Apparently, we're supposed to be frightened out of our minds because of the flu, and the media is now preparing the public for the potential of mandatory flu innoculations. TIME magazine is also soothing the public for this possibility. While discussing the mandatory flu vaccination debacle during President Ford's administration, the TIME article does have an interesting quote by Howard Markel, director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan. Markel states, "the political climate in the U.S. is much less combustible today than in the post-Watergate era, when Ford faced a skeptical public. Even so, he says, citizens still need to trust that the government is working for the greater good." What planet is this guy from?

Now, the federal government has chosen Baxter International to develop a vaccine for the swine flu. Never heard of Baxter? Why this is the same company that gave the world HIV infected treatments in the 1980s and more recently sent live avian flu in vaccinations to 18 European countries. I feel safer already.

So what are we supposed to ignore while focusing on this latest "crisis?" Does the government not want you to focus on the dismal quarterly economic data? The continued rising unemployment? This week's vote on the preposterous $3.5 trillion budget? Forget about the concerns over the unbridled Federal Reserve?

Oh, I forgot. I'm not supposed to think. I'm supposed to be terrified.

Can I have another sip of that Kool-Aid?

[Nervous Tick]

>> Pandemics are real, they can escalate and kill millions

...and therefore we should just f’ing freak out and close down our lives and our economies every time, say, ten people in some third world hellhole get the sniffles.

Do I have that right?

I mean, no need for a *measured* response. We’re in such flush times financially that what the hey, we can afford a little slowdown.

Right?

This chicken little “no response is too over the top” mentality you and the other nanny staters have is frustrating beyond measure.

[DoughtyOne]

It sure seems like it.

[1000 silverlings]

All of us born befrore 1968 lived through a couple of pandemics already.

[spectre]

Oh, DoughtyOne...you are smarter than this. It isn't the bird flu. Sigh..

sw

[DoughtyOne]

Yes, in your mind I’m sure you’re convinced of that.

Look folks, you really need to get a grip.

[Petronski]

I know about the Massachusetts martial law measures.

Who the hell is Marshal Law?

[KeatsforFirstDog]

Taking a prepared, but wait and see attitude here

I think some things that are being missed are evaluations of proportion. The greater Mexico City area has roughly 20 million people, right?? And so far they have about 2000 suspected cases(I think this number is for Mexico as a whole, but let’s say it’s for just Mexico City because the number is so easy to work with in relation to the Mexico City population).

Let’s say they are underestimating this number by 10-fold. That would mean 20,000 have it, right? Even an extreme 100-fold undercount would mean 200,000, right?

Now, 200,000 sounds like a BIG number - about twice the size of say - Waco, Texas. But in relation to Mexico City, isn’t that just 1% of the population?

If if 200 (rounded off) have died in Mexico City (again - I know they are all over that country, but 200 makes another easy math number), that would mean 200 divided by 20,000,000 is about .001 percent of the population in Mexico City had died so far.

What is more interesting to me is this:

http://www.uthouston.edu/index/swineflu.htm

http://www.utsurvey.org/responseSwineFlu.htm

let’s watch over the next 2 weeks to see if this graph follows what happens...if it does, we may be in for a rough Fall when it reemerges (just like the chart and just like 1918)

(if I made mistakes in my calculations, please feel free to correct me)

[1000 silverlings]

It's NOT the Swine Flu

That's right, but that's what the elites call it, guess why

[Just mythoughts]

We really have no visible evidence that it was. Its likely just a press release event WRT Mexico.

I cannot disagree, only using Jon Stewart media reports. I do not know where the marriage took place. But that seems to be the most ignored question about the 'fear' planted and all the appropriate measures being put in place for some greater crisis.

[dfwgator]

This is a way to gauge how easily the US public can be manipulated by the News. Take a problem. Inflate it into a ‘crisis’ by all manner of apocalyptic rhetoric,

Instead of "Swine Flu", we should refer to this as the "Reichstag Flu."

[razorboy]

That’s the best you got? Hitting me on a keyboard brain fart? Of course what should I expect from a guy who basically just says “nope you’re wrong”.

You don’t think martial law approval in a state with TWO cases is over reacting?

[spectre]

What's wrong with people saying to have a few groceries and aspirin in the house? I certainly haven't advocated more than that.. That's not panic.

Now, what is mind boggling is for others to act like we're nuts for doing it.

[Petronski]

Which of your many keyboard brainfarts do you mean?

You don’t think martial law approval in a state with TWO cases is over reacting?

Have they instituted martial law?

[1000 silverlings]

Flu Happens

I opened the winder

and in flu enza (burma shave)

[razorboy]

They’ve approved it to happen, with TWO cases in the whole state. You think that’s justified?

[DoughtyOne]

So it’s avian flu. Why are you so happy to focus on a silly mistake, and avoid the truth in my comments?

[bdeaner]

[tatown]

Another genius response from spectre.

If you are going to jump up and down waving your arms about how this virus is going to mutate in the fall then you should at least be able to explain it. The fact that you can’t validate suspicions that the only purpose of your post was to fan the flames of alarmism.

Thanks for proving my point...

[21twelve]

“When it hit in early October” (re: 1918 flu).

Actually, the 1918 flu first showed up in the spring of 1918 as a mild flu. Most flu gets started in late fall. And, if the mortality rate of 1918 happened again someday (who knows when), it would look something like 1.8 million deaths just in America (2% mortality rate with a 30% infectious rate). But, as has been mentioned, modern medicine (if there was enough) and proper treatment (if enough hosptial beds - there aren’t) it will be less.

Still would be a LOT more than the 35,000 annual flu deaths.

[bdeaner]

No there isn’t. But people in 1918 lived in a much different word than say people in 1666. Pandemics are real, they can escalate and kill millions, and for people to say this is a “made up story” are just as reckless as those who claim we are doomed and stir up panic.

Agreed! Both extremes are immature coping mechanisms for dealing with a REAL, but manageable crisis.