Obama declares swine flu emergency

AFP ^ | 10/24/09

[TigerLikesRooster]

Obama declares swine flu emergency

9 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama has declared swine flu a "national emergency," the White House said Saturday, as the United States reels from millions of cases of infection and over 1,000 deaths.

[matt1234]

Oval Office, 23OCT09, 1930 hrs:

"Mr. President, all our polling data suggests that democrats will be pummeled in the election 11 days from now. From coast to coast, conservatives and independents are highly motivated to turn out at the polls, while blacks and progressives are far less likely to show up. What can we do?"

"It's time to declare a swine flu emergency."

[DvdMom]

Death Rate of Regular Seasonal flu and Swine Flu compared

In 2003 the CDC starting claiming that 36,000 people a year died from regular flu. This number is constantly compared to the current pandemic to persuade people not to “panic” or be concerned. Where did this number come from?

According to twenty years’ worth of “cause of death” reporting data from the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, influenza is the official cause of death for an average of 1,263 people in the United States each year. Indeed, the CDC’s most recent official tally of death by influenza indicates that only 849 people died of influenza in 2006. These very low numbers would seem to contradict the often cited figure of “36,000 flu-related deaths per year” in the United States, which appears on the CDC’s own web site.”

The 36,000 number comes from statistical modeling; comparing pneumonia or other similar deaths in the winter and summer. It is not derived from numbers of people known to have died from flu, or people tested for flu, or even generalized lists of people dying from flu. Additionally, 95% of flu deaths are of people above the age of 65, and most are even older. They are people who are already near death from others causes, seem to get sick with “something” and die.
On the other hand, the people really dying from swine flu are mostly younger people, many of who are perfectly healthy. It is true that swine flu is easier to catch as no one has ever had it before and therefore has no immunity to it.

Here’s a quick ‘snapshot’ of the numbers though.
http://www.lungusa.org/site/c.dvLUK9O0E/b.4061173/apps/s/content.asp?ct=67648

CAUSE OF DEATH INFLUENZA

1979 604
1981 3,006
1983 1,431
1985 2,054
1987 632
1989 1,593
1991 1,137
1993 1,044
1995 606
1996 745
1997 720
1998 1,724
1999 1,665
2000 1,765
2001 257
2002 727
2003 1,792
2004 1,100
2005 1,812

Apparently 36,000 influenza deaths per year in the U.S.A. is a myth that has been repeated so often it has been accepted as fact. However, according to the CDC’s own data, they can only confirm an average of 1,263 deaths due to influenza per year from 1979 through 2006.

This seems like a pretty fair account of how the CDC got caught up with the 36,000 figure.

http://www.slate.com/id/2218367/pagenum/all/

This is from the CDC’s website. So when someone quotes 36,000 deaths send them here:

How many people died from flu during the 2007-08 season?

Exact numbers of how many people died from flu this season cannot be determined. Flu-associated deaths (which have laboratory confirmed influenza), are only a nationally notifiable condition among children; however not all pediatric influenza deaths may be detected and reported and there is no requirement to report adult deaths from influenza. In addition, many people who die from flu complications are not tested, or they seek medical care later in their illness when flu can no longer be detected from respiratory samples. However, CDC tracks pneumonia and influenza (P&I) deaths through the 122 Cities Mortality Reporting System. This system collects information each week on the total number of death certificates filed in each of the 122 participating cities and the number of death certificates with pneumonia or influenza listed as a cause of death. The 122 Cities Mortality Reporting system helps gauge the severity of a flu season compared with other years. However, only a proportion of all P&I deaths are influenza-related and, as noted, most flu deaths are not lab confirmed. Thus, this system does not allow for an estimation of the number of deaths, only the relative severity among different influenza seasons. For the 2007-08 season, the proportion of deaths due to pneumonia and influenza was higher than the previous two years, but was similar to the 2004-05 season.

www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/season

In the U.S.A. the official flu season is six months long. Is that about right? So, if we really did have 36,000 annual deaths from “seasonal” influenza, that would be an average of 200 flu deaths per day for six straight months. Statistically, some days at the beginning and the end of the flu season might have zero deaths and some days at the peak of the season might see several hundred deaths. Wouldn’t several hundred flu deaths in a single day be newsworthy?

[stylecouncilor]

ping

[Wisconsinlady]

He always pulls this crap on a Saturday, so Beck and Rush can’t respond. What a wimp.

[imfrmdixie]

Because doctors treat viruses like they are bacterial. God forbid that they tell a patient...you have a virus and antibiotics will not work on a virus...and that person gets sicker and dies. TORT REFORM!! WE NEED TORT REFORM so a doctor can actually treat a patient as they need to be...out of medical knowledge and not medical fear. If a doctor suspects bacterial infection what really needs to happen is a culture of the sputum so the bacteria can be identified to determine the best antibiotic. There is a difference in the presentation of a patient with an upper respiratory infection vs influenza.

[SaraJohnson]

Not only that: He stopped testing for swine flu so he has no data on the seriousness (the death rate) of the virus. We have a shortage of vaccines and he gave away 10% of our vaccines to WHO to use in third world nations. He gave away our tamiflu emergency stock to Mexico in April/May. We don’t know how much of our public health medicines and supplies have been given away by Mr. Global Redistribution.

[Publius6961]

I think this is a smoke screen to pass the ‘HEALTHCARE BILL’

I DON'T THINK SO!

If they can't manage seasonal flu and the H1N1 variety...

What makes anyone conclude they can manage our entire health system competently?

Best thing that happened to that abortion of a "Health Care Bill!"

[Brown Deer]

National Emergency? Is this a joke or what? Can Obama seriously believe that we are that ignorant?

Leading causes of death in the U.S. for 2006:

•Heart disease: 631,636
•Cancer: 559,888
•Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 137,119
•Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 124,583
•Accidents (unintentional injuries): 121,599
•Diabetes: 72,449
•Alzheimer’s disease: 72,432
•Influenza and Pneumonia: 56,326
•Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 45,344
•Septicemia: 34,234

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/FASTATS/lcod.htm

[annieokie]

Does this action qualify for JACK or SQUAT???

[Matchett-PI]

You’re spreading a kook’s conspiracy-theory propaganda with that link.

As a long-time FReeper, I’ll go on the record right now as distancing myself from that, and all other nutso stuff just like it. It’s an embarrassment to FR.

[wastedyears]

But plague isn't a big deal, what with only just millions dead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubonic_plague

[Smokin' Joe]

Thanks, DvdMom!

[AliVeritas]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcHdmnTbH9Q

[SueRae]

Let him battle it out with Farrakhan..he’s saying the fllu shots harm black people. Who to believe?

[DvdMom]

“With seasonal flu, 90 percent of fatalities occur in people 65 and over .............

The disease control centers also released data it complied from 27 states on hospitalizations and deaths from laboratory-confirmed swine flu since Sept. 1, which the agency is treating as the beginning of the 2009-10 flu season. More than half the hospitalizations — 53 percent — were of people under age 25. Only 7 percent were of people over the age of 65.

(((((“This is really, really different from what we see with seasonal flu,” Dr. Shuchat said, describing it as “young person’s disease.” The same disparity existed in flu deaths, she said. Only 12 percent of the people who died of swine flu were elderly. “With seasonal flu, 90 percent of fatalities occur in people 65 and over,” she said. )))))

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/health/policy/21flu.html?_r=1

Doctors Told to Give Flu Medicine Promptly

Published: October 20, 2009

[Red_Devil 232]

10K = 10,000

[SaraJohnson]

Obama gave our tamiflu emergency supply to Mexico and 10% of our short vaccine supply to WHO.

[Brown Deer]

He’s not fooling anyone!

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/10/24/decide-hn-emergency/

[ridesthemiles]

I have been told that there are only 3 phamiceutical firms that are making the vaccine.
Only 1 in the USA, and the other 2 in Europe.

I was told that the American drug firm has “met it’s quota, and that the 2 other firms are behind in production.

I have this question:
WHY would there be any “quota”?

IF the American firm is capable of making more vaccine, and the current rollout is only 17% or so of what was promised, why hasn’t the American firm been put back into vaccine production?

If all of this is true...
Is there anything that this administration can do right?

If I am correct, when this information gets out to the public which has been waiting in long lines to get shots, only to be turned away after a number of long hours, there will be hell to pay.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Thanks. Appreciated. Always like to read stuff and learn something new.

Will post some for for all later as to what Japan is doing, maybe Freepers in other countries can do so as well. Might as well cross check this buzzard in the White House and what he is up to, see if anything "fishy" in his proclamations (which would not surprise me).