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 ...
By LUKE MARGOLIS
WBRZ Reporter
Seven cases of H1N1 (swine flu) have been confirmed in Louisiana by the Center for Disease Control, WBRZ has learned.
Gov. Bobby Jindal will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. on the cases.
Five of the cases are in Lafayette parish, one is in Orleans parish and the seventh is in Ascension parish.
The Ascension parish case involves a student at Lake Elementary School. State officials have advised Lake Elementary school that it can remain open because the student involved has been absent for a while and no other students are showing symptoms at this time.
Yeah. This is cruel to say, but it is about like the joy the media evidently felt at announcing each American soldier's death in Iraq.
About 35,000 Americans die each year from the flu or complications. Sibeleus will be able to point to those.
If she's not already appointed to the Supreme Court.
Only 7 swine flu deaths, not 152, says WHO
It's the flu, folks, not the plague
Dr. Peter Duesberg several years ago on the endless hysteria created around a myriad of "impending" flu pandemics that never materialized:
"The reason why the Flu was so successful in 1918 was primarily the “terrain”, namely the millions of immuno-deficient hosts and hostesses starved and stressed by 4 years of war.
Secondarily, one can speculate that the 1918 flu strain may also have been a “new” recombinant to the 1918 population and thus more successful than a more established seasonal strain may have been. As I found in 1968, flu, unlike practically all other animal viruses, has multiple RNA segments, equivalent to multiple chromosomes and thus can readily form new recombinants - the reason why we have seasonal flus, but have measles, mumps, polio, pox etc. only once in a lifetime.
Thirdly, the odds that the Centers for Disease Control alias World Health Organization ever predicts an epidemic prior to its arrival are not good: They have predicted in past several years numerous epidemics or “pandemics” such as the flu, the hanta-virus, anthrax, the rotavirus, the Ebola virus, the West Nile virus, “mad cow” epidemic, the Sars-virus epidemic, an epi-pandemic of “random, eg. heterosexual non-drug user-AIDS” - but none of these ever materialized (see, Inventing the AIDS Virus, Regnery publishing, Washington DC, 1996). The last one that came close to an epidemic was polio in the 1950s and that was not predicted by American public health scientists.
Fourth, the currently hyped prospective Flu pandemic has long missed its chances. It has been hyped almost daily in the San Francisco Chronicle since November. But all that happened was a dead chicken in Nigeria, a hamster in Germany, two sick (dead?) kids in Turkey, a euthanized swan in Sweden, several dead or euthanized chicken in Iraq (Yes Iraq!!) etc. That is not the pattern of a potential killer microbe. All “new” killer viral or microbial epidemics of the past have spread exponentially within weeks to months and then declined exponentially owing to the induction of immunity or death of susceptible hosts - take Albert Camus’ “Plague” as a classical example.
The current Flu propaganda is thus a mix of ignorance and and self-interest and an exploitation of general ignorance by the CDC, WHO, the vaccine, pill and test-kit manufacturers of our universities and pharma companies, and of our “science” journalists, who need to fill their daily columns - and must sell their aging vaccine stocks before they decompose and their Tamiflu pills before the summer. But despite hyping in dozens of microbial Godots - no Godot has come since polio. People are just too well nourished these days, and thus have optimally maintained immune systems, for microbes to attack more than just the fringes of the ever growing human herd. That in fact is their historical share. The 150 million+ Flu pandemics are hype for fund raising by the ever more costly science/health armies in search for real enemies. Their success is based on the invisible monsters of the microbial epidemics of the (earlier) times, when nutrition lacked vitamins, proteins and sanitation or was lacking all together - and on the never failing microbial and viral horror phantasies of our science writers, politicians and Hollywood producers.
Regards, Peter."
I can tell you that I live in a major city too, and the ERs around here were filled. Clinics were being inundated with inquiries as well.
As for declaring this situation a level five, I hardly think that’s keeping composure in the face of the facts.
The WHO practically melted down over this non-event.
“Phase 5 is characterized by human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region. While most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short.”
Above is the definition for Phase 5. I don’t see how the classification is in anyway incorrect. What are the facts you are speaking of?
Phase 6, the pandemic phase, is characterized by community level outbreaks in at least one other country in a different WHO region in addition to the criteria defined in Phase 5. Designation of this phase will indicate that a global pandemic is under way.
This is the definition for Phase 6. Notice that these classifications have nothing to do with how severe the disease is, or how many deaths have occurred. They concern the method of transmission, and how far the virus has traveled. It appears to me that WHO is correct in its classification. If you want to blame anyone, blame the media. They have failed to properly explain exactly what a pandemic is, and how people should react.
I will ask you again. Do you think it is better for you to have accurate information, so that you can decide the proper level of risk for your family, or should the government keep the information to itself, and make those decisions for you?
News just broke that reported cases DOUBLED worldwide to 784 in just the last 24 hours, and an excellent Japanese television special report last night (with Japanese staff fluent in Spanish canvassing Mexican hospitals by phone from Tokyo with the results from each of Mexico's 38 states) was shocking.
Those on FR who are urging people to stand down on this are doing a great disservice, and when all hell breaks lose I expect them to do the honorable thing and make no requests for Tamiflu as the panic breaks out.
Sometimes I think this flu is a distraction from this:
Drug-war virus spreading like the Swine flu
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2009/05/drug-war-virus-spreading-swine-flu
[snip]Like the Swine flu, the real enemy in the drug war is a virus spread by human contact, and its infection rate is not inhibited by the border or nationality.
No one, regardless of their country of origin or status in society [from indigent street person to U.S. Senator] is immune to this virus (commonly called corruption) — which is spread by the tools of addiction, violence and greed (drugs, guns and money).
In the case of the drug-war virus, the most recent transmission myth foist upon the public is focused on weapons. The myth is that the virus is now being spread, in large part, by guns and munitions being shipped south by criminal actors in the U.S. to the “cartels” in Mexico. Again, the fallacy of this myth is that it presumes the virus respects borders.
The truth is that the guns being used by the DTOs are coming from multiple sources — including the U.S., Central America and other nations on other continents; and from within Mexico itself, via players in law enforcement and the military who have been afflicted with this drug-war virus.
Tell you what, you can have my dose of Tamiflu. I’m not convinced it would be of much use against this strain.
You may not agree with it, but you might find my comments in post 27 interesting, if for no other reason than to take pot shots at.
I was interrupted several times during the writing, and it reflects that unfortunately. I still think you’ll understand my thoughts on the subject.
Take care...
And keep in mind that a huge percentage of the deaths in 1918 were due to respiratory infections, NOT THE FLU and that experts pretty much agree that modern antibiotics would have treated most of these infections.
Also, look at the world today compared to 1957 or 1968. If a person with one of those flus was in a major airport (say JFK, Atlanta, O’Hare, LAX, Heathrow, Paris, Tokyo, Beijing) today, the pandemic would be worldwide within HOURS. The media has been trying to hype this for a week and IT’S NOT SPREADING. Mexico City is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, much of it would be declared a slum by American standards and it’s not even spreading that much there.
This is a mild late-season flu that is being used by Zero and others to scare people into going along with an agenda which will wind up killing far more people that ANY pandemic will.
Thanks for the note of agreement and the question Abigail. I apologize for taking so long to respond. I actually wanted to think about my response.
I believe this outbreak of influenza should have been handled like any other outbreak of influenza. The facts should have been derived before the melt-down, not after.
There have been three pandemics since 1918. “THREE” Every year we have an influenza season. And every year we lose approximately 36,000 people in our nation alone (according to the CDC spokesperson on Friday) to the particular influenza strain of that year. Every year the influenza spreads across national boundaries. And every year... oh wait, no... hardly ever are these termed pandemics. None the less we now stand on level five of six, at the WHO. And only now are we beginning to realize we’ve been had.
And yet, some folks are ‘upset’ that these facts are being pointed out, and that some people are asking for people to return to reason.
A pandemic this is not. One thing can be learned from it though. That is HOW NOT to react to an influenza outbreak.
Cooler heads should have prevailed.
I agree with everything you have said.
I would also state that many good people are merely trying to support safety first and always be prepared codes of conduct. I understand that. I still think you need to keep a more level head and only address something for what it is, in light of what always occurs on a yearly basis.
Don’t quote us guidelines, if those guidelines are applied differently every year, than they are being applied today.
Even if this were a real global life-threatening pandemic, the news of it needs to be reported in an non-inflammatory professional way. These teasers making it sound like we’re all going to die so folks tune in a 6:00 and 11:00pm, have got to go.
Thanks Wagglebee.
And this certainly puts a new light on the definition of Swine doesn’t it.
Our officials are having a hard time understanding that the United States actually has a Constitution, and that the citizenry expects them to live up to it.
Can I split the cookie with you? I predicted it too, and I do know what I’m talking about.
What is necessary is mainly for people to wash their hands, especially when they are out in public. However, this is something that people should be doing anyway.
One day, there probably will be a global health pandemic and the ONLY way that health officials will be able to fight this is if the public HAS NOT adopted a “boy who cried wolf” mentality. That is the REAL DANGER here, a lot of people will quit taking warnings seriously because every year or so we are told that the world is about to end. The media seems to adore flu pandemics, as far as they are concerned a flu pandemic is just like the Y2K virus WITHOUT an inconvenient expiration date.
Sadly, I have to agree with you. Well meaning people just don’t understand how the public becomes lackadaisical after being bombarded with false warnings time after time.
The washing of the hands is one of the best things you can do. One of the worst things you can do is touch your own face constantly. Most of us do it all the time. “Oh I have an itch, I better scratch/rub it.” If you really have to, use a kleenex, not your bare fingers.
Yes we should wash your hands often, but we also need to keep them away from direct contact with our nose, our eyes, and our mouth. We should use utensils when we eat, and wash our hands with an anti-microbial before eating or preparing the food. During a particularly bad outbreak, it is probably a good idea to use a kleenex to handle the food we eat by hand.
Our hands touch counters, community surfaces all the time, whatever they may be. So those are common points of contagion.
Thanks again Wagglebee.
Thanks for your reply! I agree, every flu season would be at level 5 or 6 because the flu travels around globally every year. I guess what might have been different about this one is if it had a higher fatality rate. And I guess they were worried because it is a novel strain. But this is definitely overblown and overhyped!
Thanks Abigail.
The 24 or 48 hours news spin is that this thing isn’t as bad as feared.
Which is true to a large extent on a couple of different fronts. The media was playing this up like it had a 50% fatality rate or something ridiculous, and no flu or even SARS was that bad.
If you caught the Spanish Flu back in 1918, you had better than a 97% of getting well.
So, yes, it’s not as bad as hyped, but now to say that it’s nothing is as irresponsible in the other direction.
I hate the media. They are a pack. Where are the intelligent independent reporters?
AiT
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