WHY is "Swine Flu" such a big news story?

Seriously.. 103 deaths have been contributed to "Swine Flu" ... in Mexico of all places..

This has caused a massive rush to close airports, shut down international travel, and order millions of vaccinations from one company who produces Tamiflu. For 103 deaths? SARS all over again?

Influenza:

Each flu season is unique, but it is estimated that, on average, approximately 5% to 20% of U.S. residents get the flu, and more than 200,000 persons are hospitalized for flu-related complications each year. About 36,000 Americans die on average per year from the complications of flu.

www.cdc.gov...

From the CDC it's self.. 36,000 Americans will die from Flu each year, or at least a complication from it. Swine flu: 103 deaths (in Mexico, nowhere else..)

I really see a lot of over reaction. Even if Swine Flue kills 35,000 people in this country, and millions across the World... it's still not quite as bad as normal flu?

reply to post by Rockpuck


the media always needs something to keep the news flowing...within a few months to a year the story will fade away just like Hurricane Katrina and anything else the media drools over with its ADD attention span.

It it also good to point out that those 36,000 people that die of the Flu are usually old people and little kids...the Swin flue is killing healthy Mid-age people..

also... i dont care if its in Mexico or in The usa, when people die its sad and we should be worry, specially if its from a Virus ourbreak...

[edit on 27-4-2009 by Next_Heap_With]

OP you are correct there, mankind has many of these things before, and always will for at least until we can stop flus etc...

But the news is always going to go over the top. Just look at 911, even though it was bad, if it was not on tv, people would of just ignored it for the most art.

They control our perception of the world, this is why i do not watch tv, or watch the news. Just get the news you want from the net it is far better.

When you consider that every time a Bird Flu, or Swine Flu, or Purple Hippopotamus Flu, SARS, what ever.. occurs governments, hospitals, people.. all stock up on Tamiflu .. it makes that company VERY wealthy..

And when you look at the top people in the political spectrum who own stock in Roche Holdings... well ....

Over sensationalized news stories can turn into a wonderful week for your portfolio if you owned before the huge increase in business...

I would say conspiracy for sure.

reply to post by Rockpuck


I will give you my conspiracy angle my friend, with the unrest in the US growing by the minute the government can not do another 9/11 so they are going with a pandemic.

This means a stop to the protest, tea parties and so on due to the dangers of contamination.

Why Mexico first? because Mexico has been battling protest, insurrection and latter the drug wars since the new government took place.

This will put also an end to that.

And that is my conspiracy angle.

reply to post by marg6043


Could be.. perhaps.. Flu only last a week or more.. so all the Mexican drug lords get a fever, start coughing, hide inside for a week or so, eat some chicken noodle soup and before long they will be back decapitating the competition.

It's a one time scenario, it last about a month, it goes away.. but some people, somewhere .. get very wealthy off the little TV stunt.

Well that is the littler bonus that will come with that, my friend, who say the fat rats can not make a buck on the suffering of others?

The big Pharma and tech most be salivating and the prospects of getting their stocks on a good start for the next few weeks on the promise of a cure or what they do best a "treatment"

Because this mutated virus is going to be very hard to kill.

Hey Rumsfeld most be proud.

Mandatory flu vaccines for everyone.

[edit on 27-4-2009 by jvm222]

I agree, for now. I am not sure why it is such a big deal. I just heard a doctor on the news saying there could have been ten of thousands of unreported cases in mexico that didnt kill anyone, but had the same effect it is having on people in the USA. Having flu symtoms but not severe enough for hospitalization.

reply to post by Rockpuck


I think people are worried because this is a new unique virus with an combination never seen before.

Isn't this virus a combination & a mutation of Man, Swine, Bird flu?

And it's airborne!

I guess that: 2 strains of human flu - 3 different continental strains of swine flu combined with a strain of birdflu make this virus rather unique with a risk of a global pandemic like 1918 - and therefore the media hype.

I don't think this is like any other seasonal flu we see every year.

Soo join the panic and the rest of us & rush down to the store and grab some N95 masks before it's too late!

Who knows. Fear, terror terrorists with terror flu. Isn't there a big debate about Mexican Immigrants in the US at the moment, the fact that this is Mexican in origin could be a button the MSM is trying to push. "Killer Flu", "killer bees", "flesh eating super bugs" "super resistent hospital super bugs"...remember ebola virus, SARS, Bird Flu, . The Media love pushing these buttons, fear, fear of foriegners, playing on fear and prejudices. Text book stuff. "Foriegn flu invades" govt. arms itself with "vaccines"...country on Alert. Classic stuff. I would be more surprised if this wasn't a huge story. Thats when you worry, when they ignore these issues.

I think what makes this Flu significant, for me anyway, is that it is killing young people. Not that I am cold, but old people and the frail or ill would be expected, but healthy young people dying, that is different. Given it is Mexico and the circumstances of these individuals is unknown to me(ie health, nutrition, access to early preventative care or treatment) time will tell if the Doomsayers can pull the party hats out for real.

The reason is...because 1. It's a new strain that has NOT been in the human population before. Scientists do not know if we would have any immunity to it and 2. It is killing the healthiest age group which is very rare. In fact the last time that happened was in 1918 - 1919 Spanish Flu.

This is what people are missing...it has potential because of who it's targeting NOT because the regular flu kills 35,000 people a year. But if you think about it, what cases they do know of, of that 103 deaths in a matter of weeks is pretty significant.

The reason why it such a big story is that the swine flu contrary to some earlier posts to me is not to be taken lightly because of the history most people today cannot remember or recall, just go read up on the Spanish Flu pandemic from the early 1900's you'll find out why it is getting the widespread coverage, also look at how long that outbreak lasted (almost two years and it went around the globe)compared to when it first was noted, think about this, back then there wasn't the airline travel like we have and it still spread all across the globe the other notable thing is also how a new strain within months developed from it, I think that just because we are familiar with the normal flu that comes seasonally it is easy to minimize this flu outbreak to the point the majority of people will not take it seriously enough as the headliner of this thread hints at, it is a potentially very big story and it is relatively early to ascertain the full scope of the spread.

As was said above the most healthy are the most vulnerable because it causes the immune system to attack the body, the stronger the immune system the more potent the attack against the body, the name for what this flu does is called a "cytokine storm" .

That is contrary to what people think about who might be vulnerable to normal flu outbreaks where there is concern for the elderly, compromised immune systems and the young.



[edit on 27-4-2009 by phinubian]

DDay is on-point.

Forget that it's a big MSM issue right now. The fact that the CDC and WHO take this as seriusly as they do is worrying. This is the exact wrong time of year for a flu pandemic. Conditions are working against the spread despite the fact that it is spreading. It is a combinant that has never been seen before so no one knows how it will mutate as it spreads through the population. It is related, antigenically, to the 1918 flu that killed millions.

In all likelihood, it will die-out in about a week. But if it doesn't, there could be trouble. Also, now that the virus is out there, it can present a future risk. Forget the conspiracy-someone-is-making-a-boatload angle, this is a real disease it could have very serious future consequences. As soon as it picked up the human flu genes it becase a serious threat.

Actually the 103 number is quite small. Mexico is reporting 1600 possible cases. And that is all that has been reported. There might be as many as 10000 cases that were unreported in mexico. That would put the fatality rate at around 1%. That number is quite insignificant.

Thank you...this is exactly what I have been saying too. I think that people are looking for coverup's and oh the gov's are trying to throw us a curve ball and make us look in the other direction OR fear, they are making us fear.

People just look up past pandemics and study for yourselves and thereinlies the answer.

I thought the bird flu stuff was over the top due to poor handling at the international public health level and made worse by China's tight lips on the situation. The chinese governments lies actually played into the system trying to cover over things and made the country look worse off then it was. I can post more on this later but here is the thing. I think you are completely off base with this one! This is a much bigger news story then the bird flu or SARS because the cases are...

1. Caused by H1N1 and not H5N1- the 1918 flu pandemic was H1N1 although thought to be Avian in origin.
2. The fatalities are all in the 25-37 year old age group! THE EXACT SAME AGE GROUP AS 1918 which is what made it so bad, cause the people who should be doing the care and work are the ones getting sick and dying!
3. The epidemic is now WELL underway unlike the SARS and avian flu where we sat and waited for "possible" cases to emerge here it is already pretty far gone!

Every time a news story concerning terrorism or pandemics breaks the media go into overdrive to terrify the general public. If I remember rightly it was only a couple of years ago that we were all going to be eaten by the flesh eating bug, or bird flu, or Aids . . . and now it's swine flu's turn to hit the headlines. Scare mongering done on a global scale!
Seems to me that it doesn't matter if it's terrorism or desease the first thing the governments do is try to stop our movements and attempt to lock us all down into one place where, they say, they can try to limit the outbreak and control it. I think it's more about controlling us than any desease that may, or may not, be lurking out there.

Almost as if someone at CNN read my little thread here... it would seem they have come to the same conclusion as I:

Regular Flu Has Killed Thousands

An outbreak of swine flu that is suspected in more than 150 deaths in Mexico and has sickened dozens of people in the United States and elsewhere has grabbed the attention of a nervous public and of medical officials worried the strain will continue to mutate and spread.

Experts are nervous that, as a new strain, the swine flu will be harder to stop because there aren't any vaccines to fight it.

But even if there are swine-flu deaths outside Mexico -- and medical experts say there very well may be -- the virus would have a long way to go to match the roughly 36,000 deaths that seasonal influenza causes in the United States each year.

So, once again, swine flu is BS!