[Eleutheria5]

How about that time there was a national emergency because a chicken said the sky was falling?

[StAnDeliver]

Thanks for this blast from the past. Let’s see what Bobo was doing at the same time. BRB.

[Syncro]

This was Obama’s fault.

He waited for 6 months after the outbreak and 1000 dead before declaring it a Nat’l emergency.

If he had gotten on it right away, the vaccines would have been created earlier and saved thousands of lives.

As it was, I believe over 10,000 died.

[StAnDeliver]

One Year Later: 5 Lessons from the H1N1 Pandemic

"On April 2009, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) discovered that two children in California had been infected with a new strain of influenza virus — originally dubbed "swine flu" but eventually and more accurately known as H1N1 — even as Mexican health officials grappled with major outbreaks of a new flulike illness. By the end of the month, with new cases popping up in New York City, Canada and Europe, officials had come to realize they had a global emergency on their hands."

"On April 27, 2009, World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Margaret Chan announced that the agency would raise the global flu pandemic alert level from 4 to 5 — the first concrete step toward acknowledging that the world was caught in the grip of its first new pandemic in more than four decades."

"Within weeks, the H1N1 virus was spreading around the world, and by June the WHO had raised the alert level again, officially declaring an influenza pandemic. Since most people had no immune protection against the H1N1 virus, which had been simmering in swine populations for years before jumping into human beings in Mexico, it spread rapidly."

"U.S. cases piled up in late spring, and both the sick and the "worried well" flooded hospitals, taxing health care resources. Schools shut down, sometimes for weeks, to stem the spread of the disease, leaving millions of schoolchildren — and their parents — stranded at home. In other countries, the response was more severe: in Mexico, the government banned public gatherings; in China, travelers from affected regions who showed signs of flu were quarantined."

From the start, the vast majority of H1N1 cases seemed relatively mild, but officials still had to work to keep the population from panicking. "This is obviously a cause for concern," said President Barack Obama on April 27, 2009. "It's not a cause for alarm."

As it turned out, Obama was right — almost painfully so. Pharmaceutical companies had crashed an H1N1-vaccine-production program, and governments around the world (including Washington) had drawn up hasty plans to fend off a potential "second wave" of H1N1, which they feared could turn the upcoming fall flu season into a public-health disaster.

Yet catastrophe never came, and the total U.S. death toll from H1N1 — about 13,000 people over the past year — was considerably smaller than the 36,000 people who are estimated to die each year from the regular, seasonal flu. Millions of doses of H1N1 vaccine expired unused on doctors' shelves, and health officials are now under fire for overhyping what eventually seemed like a harmless bug. So, was H1N1 much ado about nothing?

[dfwgator]

“WE DIDN’T LISTEN!!!!!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ-GcC3YXfg

[a fool in paradise]

‘we’

[RetiredArmy]

This crap may be the same. What world wise have died now? Look how many die each year world wide from the regular ole flu’s. That is more deadly than this crap and we didn’t/don’t go nuts like we have over this crap. Funny how all the nations are suddenly clamping down on people. No large gatherings, no sports, old folks stay home, movies, restaurants, theaters, etc., all closed. We have never done this for normal colds or flu’s, which are more deadly than this corona crap. Why the shut downs, crack downs, on this stuff. Colleges, high schools all closed. No body going to work. I guess we can call this crap: THE DAY THE EARTH WAS SHUT DOWN AND THE GOVERNMENTS TOOK OVER ALL LIFE!!!!! Sounds like a take over by the global’s to me.

[VideoDoctor]

You just read an article from 2010.

Now some REAL statistics from 2020:

CDC estimates* that, from October 1, 2019, through March 7, 2020, there have been:

36,000,000 – 51,000,000 flu illnesses

17,000,000 – 24,000,000 flu medical visits

370,000 – 670,000 flu hospitalizations

22,000 – 55,000 flu deaths

And how about the 2018 flu season in the U.S.

CDC: 80,000 people died of flu last winter in U.S., highest death toll in 40 years.

It may be nothing more than the Good Lord's way of "thinning the herd."

[Eric Blair 2084]

I remember 2009 when they shut down the 2009 NCAA tournament and every restaurant and bar because 22 million people Were infected with the swine flu and 9000 Americans died. Do I really need a sarcasm tag here?<\sarcasm>