Swine Flu News Update

While the virus appears less deadly than originally thought, swine flu continues to spread

By Stuart Fox Posted 05.07.2009 at 4:36 pm 7 Comments

A/CA/4/09 swine flu virus Clearly the CDC didn't get the memo from the pork industry about not calling it "swine flu" anymore... courtesy of CDC/ C. S. Goldsmith and A. Balish

So, despite some media hysteria last week, it looks like the swine flu won't be the death of us all. However, that does not mean the virus has stopped spreading, or that it won't reach pandemic levels and possibly cause significant economic damage.

The Wall Street Journal took a look at some those possible economic consequences, in particular the effect the outbreak might have on vaccine manufacturers. The article notes: "The Obama administration is weeks away from a critical decision on whether to trigger mass production of swine-flu vaccine, which could affect the bottom lines of big vaccine makers as well as public health."

In this case, overreaction could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, while underreaction could cost the vaccine companies dearly and negatively impact public health. As Ross Hammond, a flu researcher at the Brookings Institute told PopSci, "Underreaction is dangerous because it interferes with the timing of deploying sufficient measures to prevent the pandemic from getting out of control. Overreaction is bad because it can lead to gridlock, unnecessary confusion, and unnecessary economic consequences." With under- and overreaction so bad, let's hope the government manages to hit the sweet spot of "reaction."

The Associated Press has two slightly dire stores. The first shows that the swine flu has moved to the next level in the U.S., with 90 percent of flu victims receiving the infection in the U.S. rather than during time spent in Mexico. The second AP story quotes a World Health Organization official as saying this virus may infect as many as two billion people.

However, that official does say, "I don't think the two billion figure should scare people because it's not as though two billion people are going to die. The prediction from WHO is that two billion people might catch it. Half of those people won't show any symptoms. Or if they show any symptoms, they will be so mild they will hardly know they've had it." Meaning there is really no reason to start stocking canned goods.

But if you were going to stock canned goods, Serious Eats wants to know what would be on your list of foods to horde during the viral meltdown. Personally, I would save up on bacon, brisket, sourdough bread, Three Floyds brewery beer and DVDs of the The Wire. Yeah, I know that last one isn't food, but man cannot live on bread alone.

And lastly, from Reuters reports that the U.S. Navy has had to cancel operations as a result of the flu. The USS Dubuque had to forgo a humanitarian mission when 403 of its 420 sailors and 900 marines came down with H1N1 swine flu infections.

That's all the flu news for today; see you tomorrow, and please, feel free to pose any questions you have about the flu in the comments section. I will try to answer them in later blog posts. Cheers!

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7 Comments

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Xspot

05/08/09 at 2:21 pm

I wonder if N1H1 is actually Chimera and made in the laboratory. In this case, this is a new organism and nature is just beginning to test it. The evolution of the virus can take place very quickly, because of the extremely rapid spread to all continents and it has infected most of the different human races.

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Carol Brooks

05/09/09 at 2:48 am

The novel H1N1 flu virus is spreading from person-to-person. Consulting a health care professional is important if you experience severe flu-like symptoms. The illness is treatable if medical attention is sought in the early stages. Stay informed and protect yourself. Read about http://asiasmedicaltourism.com/category_story_1466.html

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iTriage

05/11/09 at 12:56 pm

What if this virus was mutated and manipulated to knock out the baby boomers from draining the social secerity?

I hear their is a cure though. Its some kind of Oink-ment.

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ojpetho

05/14/09 at 11:20 pm

I checked roche the makers of tamiflu stock and they were delisted from the market cause the stock went from almost $100 to 80 cents per share now i cant find that chart also they have the virus along with the CDC

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SolarGoddess

06/01/09 at 12:28 am

Lies! Lies! Lies!

And with a little plausible truth added, it all goes down as easy as icecream on a hot summer day.

When will we learn to stop believing everything we hear from the very people who are sitting on their butts in labs and inventing these new bioweapons (or for those of you who only speak Bushism - Weapons of Mass Destruction)?

AIDS, Ebola, SARS, Swine Flu - were all created by man. All were experiments that either became contaminated or were cultured in contaminated animal samples.

It is so easy to believe that AIDS came from Africans doing strange things with green monkeys (remember how well that one went down 22 years ago?) and that Mexicans were responsible for breeding Swine Flu because we all know that, somehow, black and brown people are just dirtier.

It is time to put an end to the lies.

Because we all know that:

From 1943-1993, Fort Detrick in MD was a biowarfare testing institute. It employed over 300 scientist, 240 microbiologist (40 of whom had PH.D.s) and over 250 specialist in other related fields from plant pathology to mathematical statistics. In addition there was a staff of
700 to 1000 other workers there during that time.

In 1969 their yearly budget was $21.9 at the time Richard Nixon supposedly closed them down. In 1970 their budget was $23.9 million. Not bad for a buncha' guys outta' work, huh?

During that time thousands of germs and viruses weaponized. Germs and viruses such as:
cancer virus SV40
breast cancer virus
herpes virus (genital and oral)
melanoma virus
and many, many more...

As a matter of fact, it should strike you as strange that all of the prevalent viruses which we spend trillions treating every month in this country are on this list.

Weaponized virus created right here in the good ol' USA.

I don't know about you but that makes me very ashamed that I have trusted the good name of this great country to scoundrels and a few truly evil men for so long.

SolarGoddess
http://health.6millionrich.com/100Percenthealth

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Tressor

07/10/09 at 4:38 pm

Swine flu has gotten a ridiculous amount of unwarranted press coverage - here is an interesting article on why swine flu has been overrated in the media:

https://www.mindreign.com/en/mindshare/Health-and-Science/Chicken-Little-and-The-Pig/sl36962307bp306cpp10pn1.html

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burak111

08/05/09 at 9:04 am

In this case, overreaction could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, while underreaction could cost the vaccine companies dearly and negatively impact public health. As Ross Hammond, a flu researcher at the Brookings Institute told PopSci, "Underreaction is dangerous because it interferes with the timing of deploying sufficient measures to prevent the pandemic from getting out of control. Overreaction is bad because it can lead to gridlock, unnecessary confusion, and unnecessary economic consequences." With under- and overreaction so bad, let's hope the government manages to hit the sweet spot of "reaction."

http://www.tedavitr.com/

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