WHO: Swine flu pandemic has begun, 1st in 41 years

AP via Yahoo! News ^ | June 11, 2009

[Oldeconomybuyer]

GENEVA – The World Health Organization has told its member nations it is declaring a swine flu pandemic — the first global flu epidemic in 41 years.

The move came Thursday as infections climbed in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere.

In a statement sent to member countries, WHO says it decided to raise the pandemic alert level from phase 5 to 6, meaning that a global outbreak of swine flu has begun.

[EQAndyBuzz]

And if we all send Obama money right now, we can stop this pandemic in its tracks.

[Unlikely Hero]

Hadn’t heard about it in a while

[Scythian]

My Advice:

Take NAC (N-Acetyl-Cysteine) 500 mg + 1,500 mg of Vitamin C twice a day on an empty stomach and forget about it.

[cmsgop]

Funny how nobody cares about this anymore once it's not in the news cycle....

[Sacajaweau]

Obama already allotted mucho dollars....Next...we’ll have people lining up for shots....likely unnecessary and ineffective.

[Mr. K]

What is going on here?

Are they trying to CREATE a panic where none exists? To promote a ‘universal health care’ mission or something?

I don’t see or hear about anyone sick with this, except for the few cases last month.

I mean they can’t MAKE people get sick to promote their agenda (can they?), so they try to manufactre one in the media?

[stentorian conservative]

The local high school has three reported cases this week.

Nobody cares.

It was the illness du jour. In fact they have told folks who feel ill to stay home. Two months ago, they would have closed the school and dropped pamphlets from the sky warning of imminent death.

[RebelTXRose]

Has swine flu killed more people than the REGULAR flu in a season yet? If not, I don’t see how it qualifies for “pandemic” - other than to create another crisis not to waste.

[the_Watchman]

In Phoenix, I don’t know of any cases personally. They reported two school children last month about a mile from where I work. Other than that, I hadn’t heard anything.

[The Flying Dutchman]

It was said that Obama would win the White house when pigs fly.

Five months later, swine flu.

[Publius Maximus]

All we need to do is add a few items to the cap and trade legislation:

* An anti-pandemic provision;

* An anti-orbital chaos provision

The article yesterday about the possibility of Earth colliding with Venus in 3.5 billion years, along with the swine flu, clearly demonstrate that we're not thinking big enough with respect to cap and trade policy.

(Yeah, that was sarcasm.)

[Petronski]

Has swine flu killed more people than the REGULAR flu in a season yet? If not, I don’t see how it qualifies for “pandemic”...

"Pandemic" is not a matter of mortality, but rather morbidity. It's a question of how many people have it, how they got it, and where.

Derived from pan (Greek: "all") and demos (Greek: "people").

[Blood of Tyrants]

There have been less than 500 cases WORLDWIDE (so far H1N1 has appeared in only 11 countries) and less than 100 deaths and most of the deaths occurred in Mexico where the health care is pure crap. The first to die in Mexico spend 8 days going from one doctor to another who misdiagnosed her.

Tens of thousand die from the “regular” flu in the US every year.

This is nothing more than an attempt to create a crisis where there is none so that it may be used for political gain by the commies of the world.

[Bigg Red]

Well, my advice is wash your hands before you touch anything that you intend to eat. I am just amazed to see how often people pick up food and eat it without having washed their hands. Drives me crazy when I am at a party and people insist upon shaking hands. (I am a woman and this whole handshaking thing was just a man thing when I was growing up, anyway.) After the forced handshake, I can't pick up any hors d’oeuvres then until I have had a chance to go wash my hands.

I have devised a little trick, though, of holding my drink in one hand and food in the other and acting like it's impossible to transfer anything into my left hand to free my right to take the person's germ-laden hand.

[stentorian conservative]

I just don’t get it.

I was recently at a pond study with the local homeschool group. The kids were picking up frogs, larvae, snakes, bugs. . . you name it.

Then a Mom was running around with a gallon jug of hand sanitizer. I and many other Moms were puzzled as to how we managed to live to see adulthood without such safety measures.

Thing is, these antibacterial soaps kill good germs as well as bad ones. And folks are wondering why all the little darlings are sick and allergic to absolutely everything.

[Republic]

There is a vitimin or supplement called NAC? And if so is it pronounced as knack or the letters N A C ? Is the N niacin?

[Joe 6-pack]

"There is a vitimin or supplement called NAC?"

I'm just familiar with the Army's NAAK (nerve agent antidote kit)...but I don't think we're quite there yet ;-)

[Larry Lucido]

Insert Barney Frank joke?

[elpadre]

I would like to see side-by-side data comparing swine flu cases with other types of flu.