Swine flu virus starting to look less threatening

AP ^ | 5/1/2009 | MIKE STOBBE

[tatown]

ATLANTA – The swine flu virus that has frightened the world is beginning to look a little less ominous. New York City officials reported Friday that the swine flu still has not spread beyond a few schools. In Mexico, very few relatives of flu victims seem to have caught the virus.

One flu expert says there's no reason to believe the new virus is a more serious strain than seasonal flu. And a federal health official said the new flu virus doesn't appear to have genes that made the 1918 pandemic flu strain so deadly.

...

[tatown]

Of course the alarmists among us still cling to the 'insider' stories from Mexico that bodies are piling up so fast they don't know what to do with them. "If only the truth about this killer disease were known...."

[stripes1776]

One flu expert says there's no reason to believe the new virus is a more serious strain than seasonal flu.

This whole scare was manufactured by the mass media. Keep the masses frightened, and you can ram any social legislation you want down their throats, as if it were medicine to ease their dis-ease.

[cripplecreek]

If it was as bad as the hyperbole, there would be thousands infected in NY city alone and likely dozens dead.

[Argus]

But Joe Biden said we’re all doomed!

[monkeybrau]

The article is missing the part about how it was also less virulent and weak in the spring of 1918, but came out with a vengeance after incubating and mutating through the summer.

[DonaldC]

“This whole scare was manufactured by the mass media. Keep the masses frightened...”

Bush had terrorists and Obama has disease.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Kind of like how the liberals are going overboard about their “global warming” gig. The party of death is always screeching about fear, gloom and doom. On the other hand, maybe everyone has just listened to Bammie for once and have been washing their hands and putting more air in their tires.

[Boucheau]

STARTING?

The 0bamunist Cultists were the only ones I saw freaking out.

Utilizing only the emotional side of their tiny brains, as usual.

“Gee, why is it worse in Mexico?”/”I want universal health care!” Contradictions DO indeed exist—they’re called Democrats.

For a moment there I thought they might lose their lip-grip on his behind.

[cgbg]

I think there is a true flu epidemic courtesy of our friends from Mexico but most cases are mild and are not reported.

That would explain the apparent high rate of infection but low rate of deaths.

Imho someone you know will almost certainly get sick from this in the next few weeks--but they will probably feel nothing worse than the normal flu (unpleasant but not lethal).

This will have an economic impact, again imho, because many people will be sick enough that they can't go to work and will need to stay home an extra week or so to assure they don't infect others.

[steve86]

The article is missing the part about how it was also less virulent and weak in the spring of 1918, but came out with a vengeance after incubating and mutating through the summer.

I pray that doesn't happen this time. If a reassortment with Tamiflu-resistant H1 occurs, it will likely happen in the southern hemisphere during their seasonal flu (or right now, with the last of the winter flu in the northern hemisphere).

[MeanWestTexan]

True, but we can now innoculate against it, having been warned.

Long story short, make sure you get your flu shot this year.

[rwfromkansas]

Same downplaying occurred with previous major outbreaks. Too early to say how bad this will be, but the 1918 flu was a joke in its first round as well.

Only became the killer once flu season heated up.

[rwfromkansas]

Stores around here are out of masks already, and we don’t even have any confirmed cases.

[Jean S]

There were no flu vaccines or anti-viral drugs in 1918. There weren’t even any antibiotics in 1918.

[techcor]

Funny but when the MSM started mentioning how many people normal die from regular flu each year I remembered how that creep Dan Savage tried to infectt Gary Bauer and other Republicans with the flu he had in 2000. I wish Hannity or Rush would bring up how liberals tried to kill Republicans with the flu.

[dfwgator]

WE’RE SAVED!!! ALL HAIL OBAMA!!!!

[Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!]

"New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the illness so far had proven to be "a relatively minor annoyance."

Yet the MSM will scare the crap out of everyone some more all weekend long.

[w1andsodidwe]

Bush had terrorists and Obama has disease.

Well Bush took on the terrorist, and Obama wants to take on disease by nationalizing the health care system.

[monkeybrau]

Absolutely. I will be getting my human/pig/bird flu mutant flu vaccination as soon as it is available!

[netmilsmom]

But the majority of the people died from secondary infections that can be treated by antibiotics today.

This is from Wikipedia...

The majority of deaths were from bacterial pneumonia, a secondary infection caused by influenza, but the virus also killed people directly, causing massive hemorrhages and edema in the lung.[9]

See? Majority. I don’t know that the cheap and OTC Antibiotics have not been the reason for deaths in Mexico. If you constantly take them, then when you need them, they don’t work.