Posted on 10/28/2004 10:07:24 AM PDT by anniegetyourgun
The world is on the brink of a major flu epidemic — one that could claim more than a billion lives, the head of the Russian Virology Institute, Academician Dmitry Lvov said at a press conference organized by the RIA-Novosti news agency on Thursday.
“Up to one billion people could die around the whole world in six months,” Lvov said. The expert did not give a timeframe for the epidemic, but said that it is highly probable that it will start this year. “We are half a step away from a worldwide pandemic catastrophe,” the academic said.
The Russian expert said that U.S. researchers possessed data suggesting that if a pandemic hits, up to 700,000 people will fall ill in the United States. He said that the population of the United States can be roughly compared to that of Russia and thus the number of cases will be approximately the same.
The academician said the pandemic was most likely to be caused by the so-called bird flu stem. “The death rate among those who contract this type of flu reaches 70 percent,” Lvov said.
The expert called for the Russian authorities to prepare for the epidemic. The country will need a reserve of at least 300,000 hospital beds if an epidemic breaks out, he said.
NYT Headline: Minorities and women will be most affected
I can't wait until Kerry starts campaigning on this gem.
In my expert opinion, this guy is a buffoon.
Is this guy talking about the same strain of flu that the vaccines are actually designed for, or something entirely different, or is he just nuts?
Sounds so good to me!
My father-in-law, a devout Kerry supporter, and I got into an argument last night about the flu vaccine. He seems to think "the government" (Bush) "should have had a plan."
Wouldn't listen to the reasons why we have a shortage (litigation protections that Kerry/Edwards voted against, price drop of vaccine when Hillary arranged for the "government" to start buying the vaccine, etc.).
This scare story will definitely be brought up by Skerry.
maybe we should pull out all those dire SARS threads from a couple of years ago.
Remember all the freepers panicking like everyone was going to die from sars? It was just a matter of time, and anyone that said differently had their heads in the sand!
I'll tuck this away in my mental Rolodex along with everything else that's bad for me or might kill me. These guys just can't quit.
Smells like a response to the recent news that the Russians helped Sadaam, and an attempt to keep the flu vaccine brouhaha alive as an election issue. A bit annoying that a country that can't get democracy right is trying to influence ours...
If only I could choose the population affected.....
details, details.....
Complete nonsense. A pandemic is not in the cards regarding flu. 1,000,000,000 is a sh!tload of 0's.
If we could only find a way to target the Dems with it.
Does anyone here have numbers of how many died in the great flu pandemic of 1918?
Government Now Admits Flu Vaccine Did Not Work
Amongst reports that this year’s flu season started out earlier and was harsher than normal, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that this year’s flu vaccine had "no or low effectiveness" against influenza or influenza-like illness. Depending on how the data were analyzed, the vaccine protected from zero percent to 14 percent of study participants.
Some are saying the results may be unreliable due to several of the study’s limitations, for instance only 61 percent of study participants responded to the survey, and participants reported whether or not they had the flu based on their own observations, not lab testing, but the numbers seem to speak for themselves.
I hope your father got the vaccine.....and understands that it's efficacy is only about 53%. Or does he think that's Bush's fault too?
Roughly 1 in 6 humans on the planet to die from the flu over a 6 month period.
I have a hard time believing this, regardless of historical precedent, but stranger things have happened.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.