Posted on 05/03/2009 11:01:33 AM PDT by Starman417
In a stunning New York Times headline today comes the antidote of reality....
oh noooooo... say it ain't so?! What, no mass death headed our way? What will Kathleen Sebelius do now after her "expect many more deaths" prediction... "twitter" her thumbs?
Why just last week, here's a breathless Anderson Cooper on CNN
Over "1000" people in Mexico back on April 24th, and "68" people have died.....
A day later, the New York Times chimes in:
Mexican officials, scrambling to control a swine flu outbreak that has killed as many as 61 people and infected possibly hundreds more in recent weeks, closed museums and shuttered schools for millions of students in and around the capital on Friday, and urged people with flu symptoms to stay home from work.
~~~Mexico’s flu season is usually over by now, but health officials have noticed a significant spike in flu cases since mid-March. The W.H.O. said there had been 800 cases in Mexico in recent weeks, 60 of them fatal, of a flulike illness that appeared to be more serious than the regular seasonal flu. Mr. Córdova said Friday that there were 1,004 possible cases.
The WHO... that would be the same group, hyping the fear by notching up the Phase levels first to Phase 4, and then up to Phase 5 on Friday, warning of a world wide pandemic.
(Excerpt) Read more at Flopping Aces ...
I predicted this but some said I didn’t know what I was talking about. I’ll have that cookie now.
She was dreamin' big.
It isn’t over yet. I agree that it has not been as bad as expected. I believe that is a very good thing. But, it could still get plenty worse. Hopefully not.
As for CDC and WHO, they handled this as they are supposed to. Initially, their job is to communicate the possibility of an epidemic, and to notify people of the symptoms and possible ways to avoid contracting the virus. Information is power.
Given the proclivity of each and every government and media outlet to lie, I believe we have not been given accurate statistics. The statistics given have not even been given as a good faith estimate. In short, we will never know the true numbers. When a real epidemic comes we will only know of its seriousness by seing the dead and dying in the streets like the plague of the 1300’s.
Sorry to disagree so stridently, but this was the textbook case for how not to handle such a situation.
If you think this was reasoned, you really need to study up on what has been happening at emergency rooms across the nation. They have been filled with panicked people demanding the Swine flu vaccine for their children or other family members.
The media went postal with each new happy proclamation of death. It was surreal.
The only good that will come of this meltdown, would be the committed effort to never handle a spread of disease in this manner again.
I agree. How do you think they should handle it next time?
CDC and WHO are deeply saddened.
This thing is far from over. Just yesterday we learned that a Canadian gave it to his pigs.
What’s likely to happen is that this shifts to the southern hemisphere during our summer and comes back next fall even more suitable for human to human transmission.
That exactly how it worked with the Spanish Flu and there’s no difference that I can think of. The Spanish Flu was actually a swine flu, as well.
It’s fine to notice that hundreds are not dying every day in this country at the moment, but it would be foolish to declare the threat as some sort of media concoction.
Here’s the situation as best I know it.
Look at the flu pandemic of 1918. 50-100 million people died, that’s more than twice the number dead from World war 1.
What happened then is a relatively small number died in spring, none for summer, then tens of millions die in fall and winter. All flus die down in summer and come back fall/winter.
A lot of people on these forums are rolling their eyes at this flu because only a few people will die this spring, and then it’s going to disappear in summer, and also the media always overhypes everything. The problem is that this fits the scenerio with the real killer viruses.
99% it’s a dud pandemic and only a few dozen/hundred die. But 1% the new strain mutates into something nasty, maybe something that causes a “Cytokine Storm” where the virus turns your own immune system against you like the 1918 virus did. Flus normally only kill very young and old, many thousand every year. But this swine flu killed some 20-40 year olds like the 1918 virus, so that’s why people are paying attention.
Again only a very small chance this turns out to be a big killer in fall winter, but still a real chance. Only a few people dying this spring is no assurance about fall/winter.
My comment wasn’t about how they’ve handled the pandemic. My comment was meant to construe my view that Sebelius gets a kick out of death.
“I agree. How do you think they should handle it next time?”
The truth is many people were going to make a lot of money off this scare. This is why they kept pushing it as “we are all going to die.”
This was what this whole thing was about...Period.
I know. Sorry that I responded to you. I meant to respond to the article, and the comments made in it about the CDC and WHO. My apologies.
And in the end Obama gets the credit for “stopping a pandemic”.
No problem! I just figured it was another post that didn’t get my point across. I do that often. :)
Exactly.
I bet the cheeky Kenyan bastard is sorry it did not happen close to 4 July.
He would have tried to shut down the tea parties for “health reasons.” I do not believe it would have worked anyway. Folks are too angry.
I work out of an ER for a major city. I can tell you that there are some people seeking tests for the swine flu, but the ER is certainly not filled with panicked people.
The key for any potential pandemic is to create an awareness of the virus, and to give people a list of precautions. Some people are going to overreact. It is human nature, and expected in these cases. However, keeping the public informed is extremely important. It allows the public to decide for themselves how much risk they want to take. Some people will cancel plane reservations, and some won’t. Some people will pull their children out of school, and some won’t. People deserve adequate information to make those decisions for themselves. ——unless you are comfortable with the government making all of those decisions for you. I am sure you are aware how appealing that idea may be for our current administration!!
As for the media, they love to blow everything into a big crisis. WHO and CDC have put the information out their in a cautionary, but not alarming way. They cannot be held responsible for the media’s overreaction.
Obama was grateful for this flu, it kept peoples mind off his AF1 terror trip over manhattan..
U.S. Human Cases of H1N1 Flu Infection
(As of May 3, 2009, 11:00 AM ET) States # of
laboratory confirmed cases / Deaths
Alabama 1
Arizona 18
California 26
Colorado 4
Connecticut 2
Delaware 10
Florida 3
Illinois 3
Indiana 3
Iowa 1
Kansas 2
Kentucky* 1
Massachusetts 7
Michigan 2
Minnesota 1
Missouri 1
Nebraska 1
Nevada 1
New Hampshire 1
New Jersey 7
New Mexico 1
New York 63
Ohio 3
Rhode Island 1
South Carolina 15
Tennessee 1
Texas 40 1
Utah 1
Virginia 3
Wisconsin 3
TOTAL (30) 226 cases 1 death
International Human Cases of Swine Flu Infection
See: World Health Organization
*Case is resident of KY but currently hospitalized in GA.
Before "this" is over, Mount Athos could be one of the safest places in the world.
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