The flu in perspective

[Marnieworld]

Plain old flu risk?

http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r030107.htm

"Using new and improved statistical models, CDC scientists estimate that an average of 36,000 people (up from 20,000 in previous estimates) die from influenza-related complications each year in the United States. In addition, about 11,000 people die per year from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a virus that causes upper and lower respiratory tract infections primarily in young children and older adults. The study demonstrates that most deaths caused by RSV occur in the elderly."

Bird flu risk?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/conditions/10/21/birdflu.main.hk/

"According to the World Health Organization, there have been 118 cases of bird flu in humans of whom 61 have died, all in Asia"

If there ever was a generated propaganda distraction the bird flu emergency is it:

Bush Outlines $7.1B Flu-Fighting Strategy

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051101/ap_on_he_me/bush_flu_16;_ylt=AofhsglLUCGCUzArRWJcHHmEBMoA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

- President Bush outlined a $7.1 billion strategy Tuesday to prepare for the danger of a pandemic influenza outbreak, saying he wanted to stockpile enough vaccine to protect 20 million Americans against the current strain of bird flu as a first wave of protection.

It's a non-emergency and the MSM is helping catapult the propaganda yet again.

Don't panic. Don't fall for it. Don't be distracted.

[SaveElmer]

1. Sort of agree...

I do think a pandemic is a possibility, and these kinds of steps do need to be taken. On the other hand, this has been pretty well hyped by the media. Day after day, new and alarming headlines, with no actual new news to report. I mean are they gonna report everytime a bird dies. I don't mind them reporting the potential consequences, but that is all they report. They only talk about the worst case scenario with this. When, in fact, it is more likely that the pandemic will not occur with this strain, that if it does it is likely to be less lethal, and that there are well respected scientists who do not believe this strain has the capability to mutate to a human to human form.

We need all the information, not just what is gonna sell papers!!!

[mia]

2. Bio-Fascism? Or are they trying to save time & money on testing?

BIRD FLU INTRODUCED VIA VACCINE?

Thursday, October 13, 2005 - FreeMarketNews.com

Little known but much too broad, Project Bioshield is a $5.6 billion program Bush signed into law in July 2004 that would apparently strip U.S. citizens of any recourse in the event that the feds decide on certain health-care remedies. These would presumably include the mandatory application of unproven vaccines to counter real or perceived health threats worldwide.

Recent reports use the term "Bio-Fascism" to characterize initiatives such as Project Bioshield, describing it as "the merging of the military medical establishment with public health bureaucracies, to enforce the will of the ostensible federal regulator (the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)) and Big Pharma. The latter is a descriptive term for the gigantic transnational drug companies who have used their enormous clout to generate government programs that mandate the use of their products for so-called public safety purposes. Too often, as has been seen recently, what is initially perceived as a drug for the public good evolves into a danger because of unforseen side effects. Vaccines are usually rushed into production without prior testing, allowing side effects to manifest themselves only through broad application.

President Bush's recent remarks about mandating vaccinations for avian flu is further evidence of the militarization of public health care and would also seem to reflect a dangerous misunderstanding about disease and palliative methodologies. Medical science, especially in its initial stages, is replete with side effects and even ramifications that can carry over into the next generation. What is perhaps even more worrisome than Bush's plans to militarize public health care is his focus, one might say obsession, on martial law as a curative for almost every weighty issue of his second term.

According to an article recently posted on a major alternative news sight entitled Avian Flu Fright - Politically-Timed For Global 'Iatrogenocide,' Leonard G. Horowitz, DMD, MA, MPH writes that the current hysteria over Avian flu, which Bush seems to share, is actually resulting in its manufacture in military labratories in the United States and abroad. He points out that the Avian Flu, currently causing the slaughter of thousands of wild birds, has shown no propensity to "mutate" and jump to humans - and in fact such a mutation is highly unlikely. Rather, what will happen, he predicts, should the hysteria continue unabated is that the West will respond to public concerns by first creating and then making available a vaccine for which there is as yet no disease; in other words - since a vaccine is a weak form of what it is intended to combat - introduce into the real world the deadly virus that probably would not otherwise make its appearance....

http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=1320

[arikara]

14. Good article...

thanks for sharing.

I'm not against believing that a pandemic *could* happen some day... along with the big earthquake that is supposed to occur in our area sometime within the next 200 years that they also enjoy terra-ing us with every now and then.

However, I am against believing that these morans know what they are talking about, or would be able to handle it if one should occur.
Force inoculations at gunpoint somehow don't seem to be the solution.

In the meantime I'm just not going to worry about it. And I'm not going to take their "medicine" either.

[peacetalksforall]

3. 7.1 billion - you see, this is how they steal. The vaccine is Rummy's -

Rummy will take a cut and the rest goes into the pot to take over the world. Imperialism isn't free.

Combine Rumsfeld Avian and Gilead in a search and start reading.

The MSMs are cooperating. Big Time. They must also be getting a cut.

Stockholders are getting a cut.

Do you know who you invest in?

[w8liftinglady]

7. This infuriates me..

they'll take food out of peoples' mouths,and let them freeze for this BULLSHIT.

[mzmolly]

4. You are so right.

Recommended.

[mzmolly]

5. *

dup

[ovidsen]

6. Two words. Swine flu

Thank you Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swine_Flu

In 1976, a swine flu scare provided the biggest embarrassment of US President Gerald Ford's administration. On February 5 an army recruit at Fort Dix said he felt tired and weak. He died the next day and four of his fellow soldiers were later hospitalized. Two weeks after his death, health officials announced that swine flu was the cause of death.

Despite the fact that only one person died, alarmed public health officials decided that action must be taken to head off a major pandemic and they urged that every person in the United States be vaccinated for the disease. The vaccination program was plagued by delays and public relations problems but about 24 percent of the population was vaccinated by the time the program was cancelled.

The vaccine was blamed for 25 deaths (more people died from the vaccine than died from the swine flu itself) and a small, but statistically significant, rise in the incidence of a rare illness called Guillain-Barré syndrome or GBS.

Be cautious. But don't let the Chimp or the media panic you.

[Avalux]

8. You know what's so unfortunate about all of this?

An avian flu pandemic will happen. When and how severe we don't know.

If Bush really wanted to provide the people of this country with protection - he would quietly set up governmental development of a vaccine that can be produced rapidly and leave the drug co's out of it. He would ensure that state and local governments have the resources necessary to handle mass infections. He would tell people the facts and what they can do on a personal level instead of just trying to scare the hell out of them.

There are two vaccines in development now but they are not close to being completed and when they are, it will cost gobs of $$ to purchase them from the greedy pharma cos. None of it will be done for the benefit of humanity. And guess what? The effectiveness of any vaccine, unless made from the pandemic-causing virus itself (we haven't seen it yet) is only speculation. We don't know if it will protect us. We don't know if tamiflu will work either.

Bush is using a possible pandemic scenario as a political tool to manipulate the people of this country. By the time we are in real danger, no one will care and no one will be prepared.

[mia]

9. Well said..

but I doubt that the avian flu will reach 'pandemic' proportions.

[jbonkowski]

12. Are you a doctor?

Medical experts are taking this seriously. Many European countries are taking this very seriously. The flu mutates very easily compared to other viruses. The last time a bird flu mutated, millions died. This is not business as usual.

Bush is way behind the EU on this issue. Bush is not making this stuff up. If you can't believe anything Bush says, search for info from outside the US on this. Just because the White House benefits from unease over a pandemic, doesn't make the possibility of one impossible.

[Avalux]

13. This is my area of expertise

We've been following H5N1 since it was identified in 1998; I don't want to say it's inevitable, but what we know says pandemic in the future. Could be this year, could be 3 years from now.

[Fly by night]

11. "An avian flu pandemic will happen." If you're a bird reading this, ...

...be afraid, be very afraid.

If you're a human being, there's lots more to worry about with a greater likelihood of occurrence, like the thawing of the permafrost releasing megatons of methane gas across the northern hemisphere. Or Bush getting us into another war (in Syria or Venezuela or (put any name here)). Or China calling our notes and bankrupting us overnight.

Me, I'm going to go mow my pastures for the last time and think pleasant thoughts. Like Bush dipping too heavily in his sack of nose candy, or Cheney having a real Big Mac attack. A boy can hope, can't he?

[unblock]

10. note that the vaccine protects against the CURRENT strain -- not a threat

the $$$ is to stockpile a vaccine for the CURRENT strain of bird flu.

but, in order for the pandemic to actually happen, it has to EVOLVE (much better term than mutate) into something that can be communicated far more readily than this strain is. i.e., it must become airborne.

but there's no guarantee that the vaccine will work against THAT strain. if it's evolved to become airborne, it might also have evolved to become immune to the vaccine.


in fact, for all we know, the presence and use of the vaccine might just create the environment needed to cause and/or naturally select the feared mutations.

[JJackFlash]

15. There are 500,000,000 tons of human flesh

on the planet for a virus to feed off.
The avian flu pandemic of 1918-1919 had a mortality rate of 1% and killed 100,000,000 people. The currently evolving H5N1 strain has a mortality rate of 50%.
For a pleasant afternoon's reading you might brush up on The Black Death of The Middle Ages (and it wasn't the bubonic plague).

http://black-death.iqnaut.net/