Flu "pandemic"

[Maki]

The lunacy regarding the swine flu continues. Can anyone explain to me what the point of quarantining people left and right who may have the swine flu, when it is inevitable that at least 50% of the population will get it at some stage anyway? It's milder than normal flu, so what is the panic for goodness sake?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=10576325

"Dr Peters said that based on modelling by the World Health Organisation, it was predicted that 60 per cent of people would become infected with the new virus, A (H1N1)."

Health authorities should just tell people to stay calm and get on with their lives and stop pretending to do things that they know perfectly well don't do any good whatsoever, like closing perfectly healthy productive people in their homes for days on the odd suspicion that they "may" have the swine flu.

[oldrider]

Well...that should keep W.H.O. happy - '"swine flu" is rampant' they scream. 'Everybody stay home - gobble up tamiflu - wrap your kids in cotton wool and stick 'em in glass cases...' Just heard someone canceled their trip to Mexico despite going to a place 1000km away from the outbreak...talk about over-reaction...

Dunno about anyone else but I could feel the glee as I listened to the first reports from the chief boohoo of W.H.O. Sounds like a media beatup to me. Flu. Pah. I seem to recall the race surviving all the flu epidemics that came through when I was a kid. Guess we must have got soft in modern times huh..?

Man made for/by the drug companies and the United Nations, WHO etc!

People are in more danger from the vaccines and the medical fascits than they are from the "Virus".

Vaccines kill or damage more people (especially children) than they ever cure!

Conspiracy theory? Wait and see, if you live through it!

[mowgli]

Perhaps it's all a ruse to divert attention from climate change in the lead up to Copenhagen. Wouldn't want the truth to get in the way of the emissions trading scheme.

[Badjelly]

Climate change conspiracism and vaccine conspiracism in one thread. Cool!

[Winston001]

LONDON. As billions of people continue to remain healthy, media organizations say they have grave concerns that the current outbreak of swine flu might not evolve into a global pandemic. "This is a doomsday scenario for us," said a media spokesman. "We've invested hundreds of millions in pandemic scare-mongering, and we really need this one to pay off."

Speaking to themselves this morning, media stables confirmed that they were now bracing for a catastrophic non-pandemic, as reports continue to flood in of areas unaffected by swine flue.

"It's worse than anything we imagined," said spokesman Heinrich Shank. "They assured us this thing would kill millions within days. Apocalyptic horror, they said. People bleeding out of their eyes in every city on the planet.

"And now you wake up to read this kind of stuff. Four kids coughing in Hong Kong and two blokes who feel a bit sweaty getting off a plane in Brazil.

"It's really disturbing, and a lot of people in the industry are pretty frightened at this point."

He said that many journalists now faced a "dark future" and would be forced to start writing their own stories instead of publishing press releases from estate agents explaining why the collapse of property prices was an optical illusion.

However, he said the media would remain proactive, and urged Mexican pig farmers to indulge in more high-risk contact with their pigs, "just in case one of them hits the viral jackpot"........

http://www.hayibo.co.za/articles/view/1031

[Brett]

I blame the recession. Swine Flu is clearly another symptom of the recession and Obama is doing nothing to save the world from it.

On the otherhand...if it knocks the world population down that might be a form of 'stimulus package'.

[oldrider]

Climate change conspiracism and vaccine conspiracism in one thread. Cool!

I can accept the isolation part (if they were consistent) but they are not filling me or mine up with their "mandatory" vaccinations!

It is the vaccinations that the epidemic is really all about! $$$$$$$ (IMHO) Tamiflue anyone?

[vifferman]

In The Harold this morning, there was the usual lame attempt to beat up the 'pandemic'. The WHO (not the rock band, the bunch of bureaucrats) have decided that the Swine Flu is officially a pandemic. So, I skim through all the bollocks, looking for some vital statistics.
Here we go: so far, 141 people (Shock! Horror!! ) have died from the Swine Flu.
But (however!), the less important and famous "ordinary flu" kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people a year.

Media beat-up, anyone?

[Badjelly]

I can accept the isolation part (if they were consistent) but they are not filling me or mine up with their "mandatory" vaccinations! It is the vaccinations that the epidemic is really all about!

I suspect you and I have very different opinions about the risks and benefits of vaccination. I wasn't aware that mandatory vaccination was being considered. In principle, I think there are situations where mandatory vaccination could be justified, but I don't think the current swine flu pandemic is it. (Yes, it is a pandemic, though of a relatively mild disease.) I expect that I will have the swine flu vaccination when it becomes available. I don't think the pandemic is an excuse by the evil vaccinators to have their way with you and yours.

And there I must leave this discussion.

[cambridgedan]

the swine flu hahaha thats a joke, how do we know that the people that have suposedly died from it havnt died from somethink els, i think they are just making a big deal out of nothingk and the media are loving it in fact they are ringing it dry, reminds me of the bird flu a bit, oh no its the end of the world haha what ever

[Winston001]

The cynicism about this flu is justified although I'm sure the relatives of the people who died wouldn't agree.

This particular virus has proven to be much milder than expected. Thank goodness.

What the media consistently fail to do is set out the background and reasons for the World Health Organisation concern. There is an excellent post on KB somewhere which touches on the virology of influenza and explains why we need to be vigilant.

The 1919 pandemic wasn't a figment of the imagination. We are only one viral mutation away from that. So I have great sympathy for the health authorities and despair that our journalists can't inform us in a rational way.

[Street Gerbil]

Medicine has moved a very very long way since 1918.

Yes and no.
Yes we are better at treating secondary infections.
No we know about the flu virus about as much as in 1918.

[Pixie]

Man made for/by the drug companies and the United Nations, WHO etc!

People are in more danger from the vaccines and the medical fascits than they are from the "Virus".

Vaccines kill or damage more people (especially children) than they ever cure!

Conspiracy theory? Wait and see, if you live through it!

Too many humans anyway

kill 'em

kill 'em all

[Pixie]

....and despair that our journalists can't inform us in a rational way.

Why?

They can't even use English correctly.

[Street Gerbil]

I say it is all hogwash. It is a well known fact that the black plague is a punishment from heavens and treating it with some cockamamie injection is akin to futile attempts of thwarting the God's will with a pagan ritual. Besides only the wicked get smitten, and a truly righteous churchgoing member of the society has nothing but God (and charlatan doctors) to fear.