The Squamata Report: Pandemic

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Pandemic

Six months ago Obama's Chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said of the financial decline, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste ....Things that we had postponed for too long, that were long-term, are now immediate and must be dealt with. This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before."

Obama certainly shares this sentiment regarding the economy and the current 'Swine Flu pandemic'. The absolute bone rattling fear being peddled by the media and Obama's administration is one more instance of oportunistic partisan politics.

Obama's VP Joe Biden, In an interview today on NBC said, “I would tell members of my family — and I have — I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now. It’s not that it’s going to Mexico. It’s [that] you’re in a confined aircraft. When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft. That’s me. … So, from my perspective, what it relates to is mitigation. If you’re out in the middle of a field when someone sneezes, that’s one thing. If you’re in a closed aircraft or closed container or closed car or closed classroom, it’s a different thing.
Later Biden came out and tried to downplay his statement but it was too late. The damage was done, and I believe they intended it this way.

Obama knows the danger of panicing the public. He knows that Biden's words will cause many people to stop using mass transit like buses, trains, subways, monorails and airplanes. Is this a wise tactic when we are hurting finacially? How much revenue will be lost when all of these industries see a sharp decline like the pork industry did recently? How about foreign travel to destinations other than Mexico? Are all nations equal in this egalitarianism being fostered by Obama? Is North Korea morally and humanely equal to America or Switzerland?

This fearmongering is costing the economy in a way that's certain to provide more oportunity for 'Change' by the administration. In case you're unable to find perspective that's not drenched in pesimism, I'll give you a few facts about the current 'Swine Flu Pandemic'.

First and foremost the title 'Swine Flu' is a misnomer. The strain is actually called H1N1. It is only refered to as 'Swine Flu' because it contains strains of Human, bird and swine influenza. It is not directly contracted from pigs. However, the imediate lableing incited Egypt to slaughter it's 300,000 pigs, leaving farmers greatly harmed financially.

Secondly, the initial numbers of cases and deaths were absurdly overstated. It seemed anyone who sneezed had the swine flu and anyone who died from the flu died of the swine flu. Headlines seemed to suggest people were dropping dead in the street and no one was safe.

Yet yesterday the WHO (World Health Org) released new numbers. This is an excerpt from the WHO website: "The United States Government has reported 109 laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death. Mexico has reported 97 confirmed human cases of infection, including seven deaths. The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths - Austria (1), Canada (19), Germany (3), Israel (2), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (3), Spain (13), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (8)." For those who are counting that is a total of 257 cases worldwide and 8 deaths. Not a very massive pandemic by any standards.

"Let's not lose track of the fact that the normal seasonal influenza is a huge public health problem that kills tens of thousands of people in the U.S. alone and hundreds of thousands around the world," said Dr. Christopher Olsen, a molecular virologist who studies swine flu at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine in Madison.

During a typical flu season in the U.S., between 5% and 20% of the population becomes ill and 36,000 people die. That's just the nature of the flu virus. Scientists reported to the LA Times today that this outbreak will not be as bad as the typical flu season in the average winter.
You cannot get H1N1 from eating pork or breathing air. So don't listen to the sky is falling crowd. Don't freak out and cancel trips or keep your kids home from school. Treat this virus as you would any virus during flu season. Keep your hands washed, don't passionately kiss random strangers and live your life.

1 Comments:

Blogger Mountain Mama said...

Thanks for the great info Ken.
You certainly did a super job of explaining it.

I'm going to share this info!

5/01/2009  

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