Posted on 05/03/2009 5:12:16 AM PDT by truthandlife
When the World Health Organization raised its swine flu threat level last week to suggest the first pandemic in more than four decades was imminent, the group’s director warned that “all of humanity is under threat.”
Across the country, it’s looked like that. School closings will keep more than 300,000 Texas students at home this week. Stores have sold out of masks that experts don’t recommend. Sports events and concerts have been canceled. Headlines have warned that “Outbreak Threatens Global Recovery.”
By the week’s end, an increasing number of experts were questioning whether it was overreaction.
“I don’t see anything to justify this panic,” said Robert Krug, a flu researcher at the University of Texas in Austin. “From all the evidence, this doesn’t look like a particularly lethal virus. People need a little more perspective.”
The perspective involves the seasonal patterns during which flu thrives and dies off, evidence that this virus lacks the kind of killer molecular features seen in some pandemics, cultural factors that could explain Mexico’s fatalities and the stark contrast between the annual U.S. toll from seasonal influenza and this outbreak’s mild severity.
To be sure, many of those factors were unknown 10 days ago, when concern began. Health authorities then only really knew the outbreak involved a new swine virus, which people presumably had no natural immunity to and which already had made its way into U.S. communities.
Such viruses can be nothing if not unpredictable. The Spanish Flu of 1918 seemed relatively mild when it appeared in the spring, but it went on to infect one-third of the world’s population, killing as many 50 million. In some virulent cases, the afflicted died hours after feeling their first symptom.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
“swine flu”, AKA “we don’t want you to know Hussein threatened Chrysler investor flu”
It’s May 3 and the CDC still does not show the three confirmed TN cases, that have been known since Apr 29th.
Michael Moore was shooting a new film which extends 9/11 with a 'what if the planes hadn't been grounded so quickly?'.
One of the planes is on Target for Ellis Island.
Moore wanted some good crowd shots, so the public was not informed, per orders from the 'top'.
And the Administration didn't 'lie'. They said it was a 'photo op'.
(maybe I'm kidding, maybe I'm not)
Damn! I thought I was going to be able to finally use those 50 lb bags of rice I still have left from Y2K.
When the MSM ran with it ( the same folks who give us eviro-alarmism) we should have known either it was either high liberal drama ( government must take control) or the "flu" was suspected of hitting some protected liberal victim group...
Here you go:
The people who have gotten it here have all (AFAIK) had a mild flu for a week and recovered. Are they suddenly going to die two weeks later?
The Mexican government has lied about the disease
If anything they have overstated. They have 12 confirmed deaths. Lots of other deaths suspected (blamed) are more likely due to their extraordinarily poor sanitary conditions.
On the rest of your points, yes, there are probably 1000's of cases here now and it is everywhere and like you said many more mild cases went unreported. On Biden and Asians being spooked, Biden is an idiot and Asian countries have had their own problems with the much more lethal (but not human to human spreading) avian flu. The only wild card that would support your case is the possibility of a random mutation.
The Black Death killed two thirds of the population of Europe. That was the natural flow of life on Earth.
Species die out, become extinct. That is the natural flow of life on Earth.
Pandemics are real things.
I understand your point about . ‘The peasants panic and the millions $$$ roll in!” But I would blame the news media more than governments and drug companies.
The media love a story that’s a little bit scary because those stories get attention and that sells advertising.
I just wish they would post the number of folks in the world who DON’T have H1N1 flu.
Wait until this fall for a second wave.
update: AP says 19 confirmed cases in Mexico this AM
19 confirmed deaths
I have heard them say a couple times that there are a couple of the H1N1 cases every year. It is most likely from pigs, and has very little potential for transmission from human to human. Apparently, the 2009 has mutated to allow for human to human contact much more easily.
Not sure whether the 2 cases in CA are related to this outbreak. The article states that they couldn’t have gotten it in Mexico because they didn’t travel there. It doesn’t explain how they could have been the source of the Mexican outbreak, when they didn’t travel there.
Thank you for the information.
The big thing early on was that there was no vaccine for this flu....BUT WAIT...Here's a whole bunch of Tamiflu "STOCKPILED"....which will work. Imagine that!!
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