First confirmed case in Houston of a native who hasn't visited Mexico lately... female high school student at one of the poshest private schools in town - Episcopal (http://blogs.chron.com/schoolzone/2009/04/confirmed_swine_flu_case_at_ep.html).

Here (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/health/30flu.html?hp) is a general article from the NYTimes about the WHO raising their alert level to code 5 (apparently we're doing numbers this time rather than colors).

On the back burner, while the "pandemic" takes center stage - torture, Chrysler's impending bankruptcy, and Obama making noise about Pakistan again...

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/HEALTH/04/29/swine.flu/art.flu.afp.gi.jpg
http://images.chron.com/photos/2009/04/29/16445443/image-custom.jpg

I had the tube on tonight and watched a little of Bloomberg's 11:00 pm EDT Asia show. Wish I'd recorded it. The doc who handled the SARS epidemic said that there was not relationship in terms of mortality between the 1918 pandemic and this version of the swine flu. He said it's similar but this version lacks the avian genetics of the 1918 version. When asked what flu to compare it to, he said last years or the year before.

OK, I'm dying for the link but don't have it. It did occur. I figre that this guy was right and what we're hearing is hysteria bull shit.

Amazing

I had the tube on tonight and watched a little of Bloomberg's 11:00 pm EDT Asia show. Wish I'd recorded it. The doc who handled the SARS epidemic said that there was not relationship in terms of mortality between the 1918 pandemic and this version of the swine flu. He said it's similar but this version lacks the avian genetics of the 1918 version. When asked what flu to compare it to, he said last years or the year before.

OK, I'm dying for the link but don't have it. It did occur. I figre that this guy was right and what we're hearing is hysteria bull shit.

Amazing

Well, not quite because the difference is that because no one has been exposed to it before, there will be a TON more cases, which even with a very, very low % of mortalities still adds up

I had the tube on tonight and watched a little of Bloomberg's 11:00 pm EDT Asia show. Wish I'd recorded it. The doc who handled the SARS epidemic said that there was not relationship in terms of mortality between the 1918 pandemic and this version of the swine flu. He said it's similar but this version lacks the avian genetics of the 1918 version. When asked what flu to compare it to, he said last years or the year before.

OK, I'm dying for the link but don't have it. It did occur. I figre that this guy was right and what we're hearing is hysteria bull shit.

Amazing


Absolutely, did you see the headline change two days ago?? The W.H.O. declared that the number of deaths was 7, not the 156 originally reported at that time...hhmmm...

Absolutely, did you see the headline change two days ago?? The W.H.O. declared that the number of deaths was 7, not the 156 originally reported at that time...hhmmm...


Strangely enough, over a two day stretch NPR was alternately reporting the two numbers without rhyme or reason or explanation. Top of the hour they were saying 156, at the half hour 7. Cracked me up - all dead pan and straightforward, in each case emphasizing the number and prominently featuring it as though it meant something.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/05/aporkalypse-now-finding-the-real-swine-in-the-pandemic-pandemonium/


Aporkalypse Now: Finding the Real Swine in the Pandemic Pandemonium

by Lucinda Marshall / May 2nd, 2009

For the last eight years, there has been no shortage of things to worry about: Bin Laden, Al Queda, Saddam Hussein, Anthrax, Bird Flu, Katrina, sub-prime mortgages, health care costs, gas pump prices, unemployment, stock price plunges and now we have H1N1, the non-Kosher virus formerly known as Swine Flu.

The news media is pigging out (sorry, I’ll try to contain myself) with 24/7 coverage of the potential pandemic and breathless reports that this is the new Black Death and millions could die. According to MSNBC, “H1N1 swine flu is seen as the biggest risk since H5N1 avian flu re-emerged in 2003, killing 257 people of 421 infected in 15 countries. In 1968 a “Hong Kong” flu pandemic killed about 1 million people globally, and a 1957 pandemic killed about 2 million. Seasonal flu kills 250,000 to 500,000 people in a normal year, including healthy children in rich countries.” However, as I write this, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that, only 12 people have died so far of this outbreak of H1N1.

To put all of this in further perspective, it is useful to compare these numbers to the annual number of deaths from other causes. According to WHO:

* 1 million people die from malaria each year
* 2 million from AIDS
* 2 million from air pollution
* 7.4 million from cancer
* 17.5 million from cardiovascular disease
* 1.6 million from tuberculosis

more at link above