Pandemic Propoganda?

What is everyones take on this "pandemic issue"?. It seems as if the news/media are taking a "the sky is falling" approach to this issue. Is it really THIS BIG of an issue? Is it a knee jerk reaction to the gov. failure during Katrina? Is a possible pandemic being used as a "ploy" for the government to "look like they have a plan" in the event of another national emergancy?

Any pandemic is a serious issue, but I sense the same feeling I had during the Y2K scare... not to mention, just last year there was much sqwaking about influenza...GO GET YOUR VACCINES... OH NO WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF VACCINES!!....It's all I heard and then the flu season came and went without much fanfar... as it usually does.

Bottomline... did something change regarding the bird flu that has caused a premature siren to go off?

Just curious..

Peace

I know what you mean, serum39.

I fluctuate between thinking the sky IS falling and remembering the Y2K hoax. (I remember being told electronics like VCR wouldn't show the new century so you couldn't use them in 2000 and THAT was not true.)
I wonder who is hoping to cash in on people's fears.

I know a pandemic is different than a technology failure, but still, it would be nice to see a common sense approach to the possible outbreak.
Hopefully, some of our experts will post their thoughts here

I'm honestly being pulled in both directions on this. The flu does appear to be moving worldwide, and could be serious. But the problem is that it seems that the media has blown everything way out of porportion for the last few years. "SUMMER OF THE SHARK" "SARS: WORLDWIDE CATASTROPHE" "TERRORISTS AT OUR DOORSTEP" "FEAR THE HIDDEN NAZIS NEXT DOOR," etceteras. Hell, they were running near round-the-clock feed about a high-school girl who disappeared in Aruba. Meanwhile dozens of other kids go missing each day, who unfortunately are not pretty, white, and from a middle/upper class background.

So yeah, the media has been been crying wolf for the past 10 years now, so it really becomes impossible to tell if this is really serious or not. Lots of people are still unaware about H5N1, people look at me funny when I even say "bird flu."

I totally agree with both of you above...

I wonder though, is it really spreading worldwide or are just being told so. The Flu, in one form or another has been around.. and around.. and around.. you get the picture.

I just cant figure out why "NOW IS THE TIME TO WORRY". From a conspiracy perspective, what would be some reasons for this alarm and who exactly wants us scared of the bird flu?

Peace

Anyone eles remember Severe, Acute, Respiratory, Syndrome or SARS? Or for that matter West Nile virus, or mad cow disease.

The question is the modern media a early warning system or a hype machine?

Unfortunately H5N1 does not read news headlines or political agendas.

Historically, pandemics occure naturally, without help or hinderance of the carbon based lifeforms upon which it shares this planet.

If the MSM and governments start to panic, we are doomed. Prepare yourself and loved ones. The government can't help.

- H5N1 is a very robust virus.
- It has survived many years "in the wild" without burning out
- It has seeded itself (became endemic) throughout SE Asia and is started in Western Europe
- With the larger host range now available, H5N1 has more opportunities to recombine with existing viruses.
- It has jumped several species barriers, furthering it's host range and recombination possiblities.
- It will only be a matter of time before it recombines into a novel variant that will sweep the world.

Our only hope is that when it does recombine to become H2H, that the recombination is a lot less virulent than the 50% case fatality rate it now presents with.

Again, an old adage, yet appropriate...Hope for the best, and PREPARE for the worst.

I read an interesting article on this just last week.

Forget SARS, West Nile, Ebola and avian flu. The real epidemic is fear.

It's a tremendous amount of hysteria for something that hasn't even happened -- and may never happen, if past experience is any indication. For almost a decade, North Americans have been bracing for one cataclysmic threat after another -- superbugs, bioterrorist attacks, apocalyptic plagues. There have been real threats (Y2K, West Nile, mad cow, SARS, anthrax), but in each case, the amount of paranoia surrounding the threat has been exponentially larger than the threat itself.

So fear has become the epidemic -- and safety, or our perceived lack of it, an obsession. Perhaps what's most unsettling is that the definition of what it means to be safe keeps changing. Six years ago, being safe meant building a subterranean bunker and stocking up on bottled water and duct tape in the event the Y2K bug should destroy the world's computers and bring about global anarchy. More recently, safety has meant slathering oneself with DEET to ward off West Nile-infected mosquitoes; swearing off burgers, those purveyors of mad cow disease; donning paper masks on subways to avoid contracting SARS; and stocking up on Cipro, on the off chance some maniac should unleash anthrax in our midst.

It certainly raises some interesting points.

Well the way I look at it is better prepared than not. Must be old Girl Scout training or having parents that lived thru the depression telling me to be sure to have things you need on hand kicking in. And I figure if I don't need what ever I have on hand right away - I will use it up anyway. Even the masks if I get them will be able to be used for sanding things etc.

Shadow I'm not sure I understand your reference - could you clear it up for the slow ones like me

Bird flu reminds me of the swine flu scare in which the vaccines killed more than the actual flu did.

I say it's way over-hyped and over politicized considering the mortality rate and there is no vaccine available until the strain actually surfaces. The system knows how to juice the masses to get them to spend money on errata and fear the unknown. Buy, consume, obey...welcome to the NWO.

It was discussed here thoroughly and I was left as the only one playing "do not fear the chicken reaper" trumpet.

Bird Flu: Hype or Real Threat?

1000's of articles of propaganda say fear the bird flu, but there's little that can be done....makes you wonder why they push it that much.

Fear reduces immunity to many other diseases and illnesses, so what is the CDC/WHO really up to?

Originally posted by justme1640

Shadow I'm not sure I understand your reference - could you clear it up for the slow ones like me

Well Im sure many remember when SARS first appeared in the news there was amazing hype around it and they made it seem like it was going to be the next great plague the successor to the Black Death. Its was in the news all the time.

I think about a massive 250 people have died from it and it has a death rate in the single digits of people effected.. and in the real world we have 20 million people already affected with fatal AIDS and malaria kills 2 million people.

But all the hype was on SARS and the like now the bird flu



[edit on 11-10-2005 by ShadowXIX]

[edit on 11-10-2005 by ShadowXIX]

I am also torn as to what to believe for all the reasons mentioned already. Man! I was ready for Y2K! And yes, I felt a bit foolish, but I would have felt worse if the rumor had been true and I wasn't ready for it.

The one difference now, for me anyway, is the current state of the country and the world and my feelings of trust in those who are chartered with taking care of us on a larger scale. I'm responsible for myself and my safety and I won't be caught with my pants down like our government is so wont to do.

With everything that's going on as I look around, any event could shake the foundation that we all depend on. And a pandemic could certainly do so. I mean, if I lived in New Orleans or Pakistan or Indonesia my foundation would already be shaken.

Plus I have that niggling little intuitive 'something' inside whispering to me that if not the bird flu, then something is happening. And very soon (I'm thinking within a matter of months) we are in store for a great change.

I like change. It's part of life. And I don't want to be unprepared for the panic that might ensue when this change happens. So I will prepare. I may feel foolish if the bird flu turns out to be nothing, or if in a year, everything is peaceful and calm, but for the price of preparations, it hardly seems logical to me to ignore the possibility of a pandemic. Or something.

SARS! I forgot about that one- thanx for reminding us ShadowXIX.

I think the consensus here is we agree that it is much over blown and the comments on "fear" are right on.

I do want to mention, I still feel this Bird Flu is a bit more "prevelant" in the media even compared to previously mentioned "pandemics/disasters".. (OK Y2k was pretty much in our faces daily) aside from that though... this is everywhere. It even reached my 12 year (who is not too news worthy).

He came home asking about it and if we will be ok. I gave a spoonful of ASPARTME and floride stick to suck on and told him not to worry and to just watch Fox News

All kidding aside: Benevolent Heretic, you said "So I will prepare".. how will you be preparing? And what exactly are you preparing for?

Peace

The wworld health experts and bio labs across the globe have been saying that it is not a matter of if but when a pandemic strikes. The avian variant is thought to have been the source of the deadly 1918 Spanish flu outbreak which killed millions, worldwide. H5N1 is also an avian strain.

Where as Foot and Mouth affect bovines, and West Nile - mosquitos, the H5N1 avian vector is why their is a panic. Wild birds are migratory, and adaptaple to cold climates. Mosquitos are not as resilient in cold temps, and Bovines are more or less stationary. Birds can take this virus with them as they migrate the globe, introducing H5N1 into native ecosystems, and rendering them infected.

This is the reason for the great fear in my opinion. As soon as H5N1 becomes tranmittable from human to human , and infected migratory birds spread the virus potentially worldwide, the deathtoll will make the 1918 Pandemic look like a joke. With the population density of the world's cities much greater today, intercontinental travel , common place, the effects of this virus very well may become catastrophic.



Oct. 5, 2005 -- Scientists who re-created the 1918 Spanish flu say the killer virus was initially a bird flu that learned to infect people. Alarmingly, they find that today's H5N1 bird flu is starting to learn the same tricks.

The work involves researchers from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), the CDC, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Jeffery K. Taubenberger, MD, PhD, chief of molecular pathology at the AFIP, is one of the study leaders.

"These H5N1 viruses are being exposed to human adaptive pressures, and may be going down a similar path to the one that led to the 1918 virus," Taubenberger said in a news conference. "But the H5N1 strains have only a few of these mutations, whereas the 1918 virus has a larger number."

In 1918-1919, the so-called Spanish flu killed some 50 million people -- including 675,000 Americans. Most of the victims were healthy people in the prime of life.

The researchers' findings -- published this week in the journals Nature and Science -- come from a remarkable decade-long effort to unlock the secrets of the most deadly flu bug ever known.

To do this, the researchers used a technique called reverse genetics to re-create a living 1918 virus. To do this, they gathered viral DNA from the preserved tissues of people who died in 1918 and 1919 -- including a woman whose body was frozen in the Alaskan permafrost

LINK: my.webmd.com...

Google Earth map of H5N1 Cases



This one is self explanatory:


Alias Jones

[edit on 11-10-2005 by Thomas Crowne]

If anything, those that continnue to spread bird flu propaganda are victims of fear based psyops or the are the psyop perpetrators.
_______________________

Don't Worry, Be Healthy
_______________________

Fear is more likely to get you than the avian flu

Fear works best as a warning system when it is a response to dangers that directly threaten those who are afraid.

Yet the science behind all the worry is questionable. It rests on the unproven claim that the avian flu will develop exactly like the strain that caused the flu pandemic of 1918. It rests on the unproven claim that the avian flu will develop exactly like the strain that caused the flu pandemic of 1918.

The current bird flu, however, has a different molecular structure than the 1918 bug.

Despite the lack of evidence about a huge avian flu pandemic, still we worry. That's a problem because fear causes stress, and stress is bad for your health. Numerous studies have shown the familiar link. The American Heart Association has emphasized a correlation between stress and overeating and stress and smoking, both of which lead to heart disease. A 2000 study in the journal Stroke of more than 2,000 men showed that those suffering from anxiety or depression were three times as likely to suffer a fatal stroke. A study in Psychosomatic Medicine showed that Israeli women with an expressed fear of terrorism had twice the level of an enzyme that correlates with heart disease.

The association between worry and physical disease means that doctors have a responsibility not to upset their patients unnecessarily. Yet many doctors increase worry by ordering tests with little explanation or deploying their assistants to relay a patient's test result as an impersonal statistic. In the same way that public health officials alarm the public about unlikely health threats, some doctors dispense information in a way that alarms their patients about diseases they don't have.

www.slate.com...

Cause of Death/ Lifetime Odds
Heart Disease 1-in-5
Cancer 1-in-7
Stroke 1-in-23
Accidental Injury 1-in-36
Motor Vehicle Accident 1-in-100
Intentional Self-harm (suicide) 1-in-121
Bird Flu 1-in-112,100,000


[edit on 11-10-2005 by Regenmacher]

Originally posted by Serum39
All kidding aside: Benevolent Heretic, you said "So I will prepare".. how will you be preparing? And what exactly are you preparing for?

Flouride stick!

We're fortunate to live in the country outside a small town, and we have a well with storage tanks, so what we are preparing for is a period of independence and isolation. In other words, we are preparing to be self-sustaining for a few months. We are also preparing to avoid getting the flu and if we do get it, to treat it. But I refuse to give more money to the parmaceutical machine, so there won't be any Tamiflu here.

For independence:
Generator (we already had it)
First aid, including OTC Flu symptom treatments and herbs.
Bulk water and food (for people and animals)
hunting tools
Propane, fire necessities

All the regular 'survival' needs (candles, batteries, TP, etc.)

For avoidance:
Nanomasks
Antibiotic wipes
isolation

If there is an outbreak or a quarantine, my husband can work from home and we have a pellet stove and a ton of pellets. So if we're going to have a pandemic or major world-wide event, we're really best set-up for this kind.

Most of our preparation is already done.

And I'd like to add that I am not afraid. I refuse to live in fear, whether it's the bird flu or terrorism. If the flu comes and gets me, I'll go without fear, but I will do what I can to prepare.

We sit at our keyboards and say it is just a scare, media hype, and true H5N1 may never become a virus that will sweep the planet. It may only persist in birds and other species. But if it does mutate into a killer, we will bitch and moan about how the CDC and WHO didn't do enough to protect us from a known threat. People will point the finger at governments for not fixing the problem before it started. If we spend billions on preparations and it never comes to fruition, we'll complain about all the resources wasted on something that never happened.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I think this is a real threat that requires the attention of all of us because it could kill us all. Even if H5N1 isn't the killer that the media presents it as, it ramps up the machine to prepare for the bug that will be virilant enough to do the damage to our species that they now tote.

Is it the Boy Scouts that say "Be Prepared"???
That's a good motto, and sound advice.

My mother used the expression "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure", which is more sound advice.

If a flu shot is available, take it. You create a firewall against a virus that could not only infect you, but those around you.

And for God sake, if your sick, stay home.
Don't be the little trooper that suffers through and spreads your nasty illness to the rest of the people in your office or school etc...

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
We are also preparing to avoid getting the flu and if we do get it, to treat it. But I refuse to give more money to the parmaceutical machine, so there won't be any Tamiflu here.

And I'd like to add that I am not afraid. I refuse to live in fear, whether it's the bird flu or terrorism. If the flu comes and gets me, I'll go without fear, but I will do what I can to prepare.

Sound like a good plan to me...

What happened to the cat avatar? She looked calmed and content...hehe.

Fear is the bodies natural mechanism to protect itself. Ignorance should not be synonymous with fearlessness. Fear can be good, it can cause people to prepare, it can be the motivation for change, it can make the difference between life and death.

Chance favors a prepared mind, and fear can induce preparation. To sit by idly and hope for the best, in the face of direct threat , is foolhardy in the extreme.

Take your chances , and I'll take mine, but when you run out of food and water in a lockdown, quaranteened environment dont come knocking on my door and expect a handout or mercy. Their is fear and fearmongering - seperate things. Fear is good, and should be acted upon, preying on those that are fearful on the otherhand is not and should not .

Alias Jones

Originally posted by anxietydisorder
If a flu shot is available, take it. You create a firewall against a virus that could not only infect you, but those around you.

Flu shots can compromise a body's natural defense system,

Vaccines contaminated with cancer-causing and immunosuppressive viruses unleash new plagues.

Vaccines are responsible for the increasing numbers of children and adults who suffer from immune system and neurologic disorders, hyperactivity, learning disabilities, asthma, chronic fatigue syndrome, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and seizure disorders.

SV40-contaminated polio vaccines to an increasing number of rare cancers of the lung (mesothelioma) and bone marrow (multiple myeloma).

Lab rats and guniea pigs take untested shots, humans do not.