Re: canceled HELLO, what makes you think Cape Cod is immune ? Chances just as high of contacting flu in Cape Cod or Cancun. That afraid close your doors and windows and stay home. Why travel at all?
We just watched a National Geographic show about the spread of SARS. During it they mentioned that air filters on airplanes do not stop viruses. I still think people are in more danger of contracting Swine Flu traveling on planes and through crowded airports, than from just being in Cancun.
Whoppie is right and this is what your missing. Taken this weekend. Try this in Cape Cod this time of year.
Cool, it seems many of the British "victims" of Swine Flu now have Max Clifford (famous publicity guy) as their agent. WTF you get sick and your first thought is to contract a publicity agent?! http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/stand...nt fighting swine flu in a bad way/article.do Other stories of them hiding their faces to regular press because of the exclusive deal they have to tell their story for thousands. If that doesn't convince you of the true intention of the World media coverage of this then nothing will.
Outbreak in Mexico May Be Smaller Than Feared Sorry for the long post, but the info is valuable in measuring the degree of hysteria that's surrounded this issue. This is from this morning's NY Times, but for some reason hasn't hit the electronic media yet. I wonder why? Notice the reduction in numbers and the mortality count. Curious, no? Outbreak in Mexico May Be Smaller Than Feared By KEITH BRADSHER, DENISE GRADY and LIZ ROBBINS Published: May 1, 2009 The swine flu outbreak in Mexico may be considerably smaller than originally feared, test results released there on Friday indicate. Of 908 suspected cases that were tested, only 397 people turned out to have the virus, officially known as influenza A(H1N1), Mexican health officials reported at a news conference. Of those, 16 people have died. Mexico had reported about 2,500 suspected cases as of Friday, but the number of real cases could turn out to be less than half the suspected number if further testing follows the same pattern as the original round. Officials said that the tests were being done quickly, and that 500 more would be completed Friday. The World Health Organization announced on Saturday a sharp increase in the number of officially reported cases of a new kind of influenza around the world, but was quick to note that the increase almost entirely reflected laboratory confirmation of suspected cases in Mexico. The W.H.O. said that 15 countries had reported a total of 615 cases of infection with the A(H1N1) influenza virus, up from 367 cases late Friday. But Mexico has also found that a little more than half of its suspected cases subjected to detailed tests so far did not actually involve the virus. José Ángel Córdova, Mexico’s health minister, said, “This is a new epidemic, and we can’t predict exactly” what it will do. “We need more days to see how it behaves,” he said. “Apparently the rate of infection is not as widespread as we might have thought,” he added. The materials needed for the test were provided to Mexico by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Officials at the centers declined to say what the new numbers might mean. “We are continuously assessing new information, but it is still too early to draw conclusions about the extent of the spread of this new virus in Mexico or the severity of disease caused by it,” Dr. Nancy Cox, chief of the influenza section, said by e-mail, when asked to comment on the test results. Dr. Javier Torres, the head of the infectious disease research unit at the Mexican Social Security Institute, Mexico’s main public health care system, said that he had been analyzing the past week’s influenza statistics. “The number of those exposed and infected has gone up, and the number of fatal cases has gone down,” he said. “We can be comfortable with those facts.” Officials at the World Health Organization, which has declared that a pandemic is imminent, declined to comment beyond saying that the investigation into the outbreak was continuing. But a public health and infectious disease expert from Vanderbilt University, Dr. William Schaffner, said the test results were “going to change, I think in a substantial way, the image of this outbreak in Mexico.” If the outbreak is much smaller than initially thought, Dr. Schaffner said, “It would, I think, enable the world’s public health community to take a deep breath and continue to track the outbreak and reduce the tendency, as the W.H.O. has been doing, to notch up on its pandemic scale.” If the testing also shows that the disease has caused fewer deaths than the 170 or so suspected, Dr. Schaffner said, it might resolve a question that has been puzzling health experts since the outbreak began: why did the disease appear to be so much more severe in Mexico than in the United States? In the United States, cases have been mild and there has been only one death, that of a 23-month-old child from Mexico. Meanwhile, the disease continued to spread to other countries and was confirmed in more American states on Friday. The disease is expected to drop off during the summer, because flu viruses do not thrive in heat and humidity, but it could rebound in the fall and winter. The World Health Organization said that the flu vaccine given to millions of people for the most recent flu season appeared ineffective against the A(H1N1) strain, but that health officials were talking to manufacturers about creating a new swine-flu vaccine, which would take four to six months to produce. Considerable activity continued in Hong Kong on Saturday at the Metropark Hotel in Hong Kong, where a 25-year-old Mexican man spent seven hours on Thursday afternoon and evening before going to a hospital with what proved to be Asia’s first confirmed case of the new strain of influenza. Squads of police in green surgical masks stood guard outside the 19-story gray building while roughly 300 hotel guests and staff remained quarantined inside. Six extended vans in police colors lined the streets close to the hotel, including an enormous mobile police command post. A few gawkers watched the police. “We are at the hotel across the street — we got up this morning to get a cup of coffee at McDonalds and thought, ‘what on Earth is happening?’ “ said Sue Old, a 62-year-old stationery designer from Margaret River, Australia, who is in town for a trade show at the nearby convention center. Gabriel Matthew Leung, Hong Kong's undersecretary for food and health, said at a press conference here on Saturday evening that in addition to nearly 300 people quarantined at the Metropark Hotel, about 50 hotel guests were not in the hotel when the quarantine was imposed and have not returned since. The government is trying to track them down through the Hong Kong Hotels Association. Most of those in the hotel have accepted with few complaints that they will be detained there for a week, Mr. Leung said, while adding that the government had not been able to meet all the requests from guests and staff there. He provided no details. A couple people at the hotel have complained of minor fever, but the government has not identified any further cases of influenza there, said Dr. Thomas Tsang, the controller of the Hong Kong government's Center for Health Prevention. The government has also located all 36 passengers who were sitting within three rows of the Mexican traveler on the flight that brought him here from Shanghai at midday on Thursday, Dr. Tsang said. All of these passengers have been placed in isolation and their health monitored, with no sign that any of them have the flu. A few people in the streets were wearing face masks on Saturday, a distant echo of the SARS outbreak here six years ago. But daily life was otherwise little affected, with large throngs lining the street outside the Tin Hau Temple in the Shau Kei Wan neighborhood to cheer a religious procession of thunderous drums, clashing cymbals and athletic lion dances.Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research at the World Health Organization, said that unless the numbers of cases decreased significantly, “it seems mostly likely that the manufacturers will proceed and we will certainly support them.” Officials at the Centers for Disease Control said a decision had not yet been made about whether to manufacture a vaccine, but President Obama said that the government would support it. New cases were reported in Denmark, France, Russia, Hong Kong and South Korea on Friday, but they were not confirmed by the health organization. The United States reported 141 confirmed cases in 19 states, up from 109 cases in 11 states on Thursday. Concerns about the disease are having an increasing impact. On Friday, a United Airlines flight with 245 passengers heading from Munich to Dulles Airport in Washington landed in Boston instead because a female passenger had flu symptoms and the airline thought she needed prompt attention, a United Airlines spokesman said. In New York, the school with the nation’s largest cluster of swine flu to date — St. Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows, Queens — was set to reopen Monday after being closed for a week. Researchers say that some genetic features of the virus may help explain why many cases tend to be mild. “We do not see the markers for virulence that were seen in the 1918 virus,” said Dr. Cox, of the Centers for Disease Control. “However, we know there is a great deal we don’t understand about the virulence of 1918 or other viruses that have a more severe clinical picture in humans.” It is too early to know what economic impact, if any, the flu outbreak might have on the United States economy. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the recession will push this year’s national economic output 7.5 percent below its potential level. A true flu pandemic could shave off an additional 1 to 4.25 percent and could have a similar effect on the world’s output, too, some economists say. Denise Grady and Liz Robbins reported from New York. Reporting was contributed by Larry Rohter and Elisabeth Malkin from Mexico City and Anemona Hartocollis and Catherine Rampell from New York.
So in other words... its just a new flu bug! I wouldn't be surprised if when all the numbers are in it turns out to be no more dangerous or even less so than the "normal" seasonal flu... not counting of'course the economical damages caused by the media's coverage. I just hope we haven't set ourselves up for the real super bugs down the road.. as next time the population might think to themselves.. "this is just like that overblown Swine Flu scare" and not take it seriously.
As I understand it this flu virus could still mutate into something more dangerous and come back around again, or spread further. That's a real concern and may warrant all these precautions being taken to stop the flu. It seems clear at this point that Mexico over-reported the number of Swine Flu cases, or rather they labeled WAY more flu cases as "Suspicious" than actually turned out to be confirmed as Swine Flu. They did this to be cautious, which we can't blame them for. But if they had better labs in Mexico and could have done more analysis here then Mexico would not have reported such big numbers to the rest of the world. I applaud the caution taken by Mexican officials but how about improving the medical infrastructure here??
Rivergirl, I applaud you. Why send Trillions of dollars to Iraq but not recognize us here. We have the oil you want, the workers who will get off thier asses to pick your Lettuce and oranges. Just a little education and help (Not in the Trillions every month) can get you all you need. right next door. Remember Mexico is in NORTH AMERICA too. We are not isn South America. You want resources and workers, help us out and you won't have to spend billions on that frickin' Wall. There are many compitent Doctors here to take care of the problem but the U.S. wants to spend money accross the world. A little ironic I would say. Opps I opened my big mouth again. 312 reported cases here in Mexico (Most in DF and Baja) 8 in Cancun Americans from NY, wh 12 Dead (, none in The Yucatan I might add) And we, the Mexican people have no insurance so we try to avoid going to the doctor. Now I use the term "We" loosly, I have medical care free, and I know most people here have insurance, but if you look across the street that mother and 3 kids has none and her husband is working 2 or 3 jobs (At lest not having 8 kids and making millions off it) I have stated this before and will continue. Help the Mexican people with education and medical supplies instead of Iraq and I think you might find life a little friendlier and easier. Retoracal, know I get that way.
