Here's what's real (as far as we can know, now):
1) Influenza A/California/04/2009 is a real, new, human adapted virus, descended from the Influenza A virus which caused the 1918 pandemic.
2) It has the ability to spread very rapidly in human populations. We don't know if this is unusual or not, since the molecular and communications tools to follow spread like this did not exist in 1968, at the time of the last pandemic.
3) Calling this event a pandemic is definitionally correct.
4) So far, this new, pandemic flu strain causes either asymptomatic infection or mild illness in the vast majority of affected people. Although this is definitionally a pandemic, it may not be what most people mean when they use the word.
5) The federal and international responses are inconsistent and not well justified by the known facts (they may of course know other facts that are not public information).
What follows is opinion:
There have been major efforts at formulating response plans for pandemic flu for at least seven or eight years. These plans contain elements of useful interventions, but they also (never let a crisis go to waste) contain political structures which do not now exist, to exercise authority over sovereign nations.
In the third week in April 2009, it was reasonable to be concerned that this might be "the big one". By now, it's clear that this is a "normal" flu pandemic, similar to 1943, 1949, 1957, and 1968 - none of which required political changes in the international system.
There are people at WHO and in the State Department who are dying to "pull the trigger" on a major, new form of international response to this event, but they are inhibited by the facts of the event - the mild or nonexistent illness, the low mortality rate, and public skepticism all are holding them back.
In areas of strong government control (hospitals through OSHA, state health departments through CDC) very strong and probably unjustified responses are either being made or are in the cards.
And that's the way it is.
Wonder how much they are going to profit from this vaccine they try to force on everyone.
***Tens of millions died in 1918, so anything is possible. ***
No antibiotics to fight the flu caused pneumonia back then.
If they really cared about people dying they would stop promoting the behavior that spreads AIDS. THOUSANDS die from AIDS every year.
By the time fall rolls around, so many people will be unemployed because of Obama’s policies, that people will not have to worry about contracting it at work.
Well, should we ask M.O. which people are in the “right demographic” to have priority for receiving the vaccine?
So naturally they approve the manufacture of the 2009 vaccine that does not include Swine Flu.
Doesn anyone else get the feeling that they like saying this?
....or not.
Hey, look--it's Michael Jackson's autopsy!!
This “prediction” wouldn’t be planted to give anyone an incentive to support Obama’s healthcare reform would it? I mean what better than to claim the sky is falling and that only I can provide a secure shelter?
This is the the death culture red’s dream come true. With dead flu people, plus Obama knocking them off before birth as after age 65, Utopia is just beyond the watermelon.
The government is trying to steer us into a panic so that we will embrace government-run health care (for some, euthanasia for others).
They can talk all of the sh*t they please, I’m not taking any damn shot from anyone that has anything to do with any government in any country. End of story. If the ful gets that bad, I will just leave here and head for a secluded island.