Posted on 04/27/2009 10:02:09 AM PDT by COBOL2Java
Preparing for an epidemic, the feds declared a national public health emergency Sunday after tests confirmed eight Queens teens have mild cases of the deadly new Mexican swine flu.
All 20 confirmed American cases of the sickness that has killed as many as 103 Mexicans have been nonlife-threatening.
Still, federal officials warned the outbreak is spreading and that Americans probably will start dying, too.
"We really need to prepare for the idea that we will have more cases, and I do fear that we will have deaths here," said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
President Obama, who made a state visit to Mexico 10 days ago, was fine even though one of the officials he met there later dropped dead from a respiratory illness.
"The incubation period for this is 24 to 48 hours," said Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs.
"The President's health was never in any danger. We've been gone from Mexico for more than nine days."
From the White House to City Hall, officials urged against panic, simply advising anyone who comes down with a fever or other common flu symptoms to stay indoors.
"If you have a cough or sore throat, stay home. Do not go to work or to school," Mayor Bloomberg told New Yorkers.
He also tried to discourage people from crowding emergency rooms. "If you're not very sick, don't go to the hospital," Bloomberg said. "If you have trouble breathing or feel really sick, by all means, go. But if you wouldn't have gone to the hospital for the symptoms you're having before you got this information, please don't go now."
Officials said parents should start contingency planning for the possibility of mass school closings.
"We are not at that point yet here in New York," said Gov. Paterson. "Parents should feel safe sending their kids to school."
There were no immediate plans to close the borders or ban travel to Mexico, but arrivals from Mexico who appear sick "will be isolated," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
All 20 Americans infected, and reportedly most of the 1,600 victims in Mexico, are younger than 50.
Initial studies of the virus that jumped from pigs to man and is now spreading from person to person suggests younger people may be more at risk.
Scientists speculated that older people have been exposed to more flu strains over the years and have developed stronger immunity.
Work is beginning on a vaccine, should it be needed, and 12 million doses of an anti-viral medicine were released from the federal emergency stockpile and put at the ready. The state has shipped 1,500 doses to New York City, just in case.
Bloomberg giving an address in Spanish on FOX news a second ago.
Captain Trips!
Anything to sensationalize. Imagine the headlines if this had happened a year ago.
Drudge is saying that the U.S. is finally going to issue a travel advisory on Mexico. I guess better late than never. Maybe next week, they’ll start checking incoming flights.
M-O-O-N, that spells moon ...
“President Obama, who made a state visit to Mexico 10 days ago, was fine even though one of the officials he met there later dropped dead from a respiratory illness.....”
And OBozo said there is no need to be alarmed?
Have any of the 20 cases in the U. S. been any worse than ‘mild’?
No? Then what’s the problem if it’s hitting healthy people 20 to 45 years old?
Now if somebody gets it and then dies, THAT changes the ballgame.
Headline would have read:
Martial Law in 3....2.....
Maybe next week, they’ll start checking incoming flights.
When they should be cancelling them now! Stupid A-holes in government!.....(of course that would’nt be P.C.!)
Amazing. The hype just keeps getting ratcheted up by the corrupt MSM.
One case confirmed in Elyria, Ohio now. Radio said 148 confirmed dead in Mezico.
Wait for it.....soon Martial Law will be enforced.
Sometimes I sit back with all the news coming out about so many different things and I wonder....is this stuff really as “urgent” as we’re being told?
I think, could this “swine flu” be a pandemic or a distraction from something else?
Could this “swine flu” be as serious as they are reporting, since no one in the US has actually died (yet)?
Then I wonder, is this the kind of “plague” type flu that happens in the end days?
Or, is this really a pandemic that the government has it’s hand in...possibly to either a) eliminate people, or b) create a crisis/diversion or c) both and therefore make it easier to “take over” and put down Martial Law and control over the people?
I know I know....take of the tinfoil hat.... But nowadays, anything is possible. You have to admit that.
BWAAAAAA!
Yes it does change the ballgame.
This may turn out to be a mild outbreak (we can hope).
I guess a couple of things should be kept in mind however.
First, as I recall, the 1918 pandemic hit mostly young healthy adults, not infants or old people.
Second, as I recall, that pandemic actually hit in (at least) three waves. The first wave was mild enough that it took some retrospective analysis to see it. The second and third waves were the ones that caused most of the ~40 million deaths.
Let’s hope that history does not repeat itself.
(The close proximity of soldiers during WWI didn’t help either).
Trace the progression. The CDC is failing if they have not already done this. How did this strain progress from Mexico to New York and Ohio?
Looks like they're eradicating feral hogs.
Any Americans found with this yet?
Or is this just another round of bird flu?
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