Wednesday, April 29, 2009

WTF Is Going On?

This flu "pandemic" is starting to sound like Henry Paulson's bailout propaganda. None of the spiel fits the facts, and the announced planned government actions seem out of sync with the facts.

First, we have a World Health Organization official saying there have been only 7 deaths not 152:

"Unfortunately that [150-plus deaths] is incorrect information and it does happen, but that's not information that's come from the World Health Organisation," Ms Allan told ABC Radio today
Further, the cases outside Mexico seem to be mild.

But, then we have this from WHO:

The World Health Organization warned on Wednesday that a global flu pandemic was imminent, raising its threat level as the swine flu virus spread and killed the first person outside of Mexico, a toddler in Texas.
On Twitter, Jack Krupansky wisely remarks:

What would it mean to have a "pandemic" of an illness that has "mild", non-fatal symptoms? That seems like an absurdity.
And Lew Rockwell makes a twitter post that suggests he may know more than he is saying:

Does anyone believe the swine flu story is entirely on the up and up?
UPDATE: During his press conference this evening, President Obama may have answered to some degree the concerns I have expressed in this post. He seemed to indicate the alerts are not about a present danger, but a caution being taken because the H1N1 virus is a new virus where it is not entirely known how it will impact the country or the world, versus an older virus where it would be much clearer as to how it would develop.

We shall see.

3 comments:

  1. In the United States, 36,000 people die annually from the COMMON FLU. I guess we should be celebrating the arrival of the swine flu. If you get it, statistically, you have a better chance of surviving than if you caught the common flu. GO SWINE FLU!

    http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local/story/Common-flu-far-more-deadly-than-swine-flu-in-U-S/SYwVqQF_3Umy0qY3qhp9zQ.cspx

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  2. The WHO likely has a different operational definition of what constitutes a H1N1 flu death. They may require a specific test be positive.

    Public health officials may be focusing on preventing and treating new cases and not testing blood from recovered patients or the deceased.

    The first round of the 1918 Spanish flu was mild. When it went around again, the flu killed millions. Time will show the seriousness of this bug.

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  3. @PEU Report

    What you say makes sense, re the difference in reporting standards.

    It is probably the case, but note how Allan handles the question. She doesn't differentiate between two different standards, but states that others are simply wrong.

    At best, it's poor communication from a WHO official.

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