Well, folks, the ride seems to have started again. This time they've gone for a great porker of a name: Swine Flu... There will be some benefits; the overreaction of an otherwise ignorant public may result in the bulk of us enjoying a period of cheap bacon. There will, however, be some huge losses: Pig farmers may lose their livelihoods as Joe Public overreacts to the name (or worse, have their properties torched by ignorant mobs) and larcgescale corporate farms continue their takeover of agriculture. Uncle Tom Obama will show himself as no more the bearer of hope or purveyor of truth as his predecessor as Swine Flu helps him to quickly rush through a string of national health 'reforms' to the U.S. And, dear I say it, the end result of all of this could be that if we ever want to fly internationally again we may have to go through not only security checks but also have blood samples taken and tested as we wait in the transit lounge.
Yes, I am a cynic. There will be 'solutions' made into law as a result of this 'problem'.
The purpose of this blog is not to engage in any wild rumour, be it via conspiracy theories or mainstram media, but to dissect information, put it into a little perspective and relate to you, the reader, in what I hope is a sensible and logical manner. There is a lot to cover...
I'll begin with this gem, because mainstream media in New Zealand (TVNZ Breakfast) reported that 152 people had died worldwide from Swine Flu by April 28, 2009. This was rubbished by the World Health Organisation. By April 30, 2009, there have been eight (8) confirmed Swine Flu deaths around the world. One from the U.S. Now, from the website of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) on 'Seasonal 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.
That is just under 99 people dying, on average, every day in the U.S. alone from complications with the normal, everyday flu.
Of course, these figures need to be taken with a grain of salt. Even the Britsh Medical Journal (2005;331:1412) has criticized this number as being outlandishly high, warped by the 'complications of' tag and used as scare tactics to have more and more Americans use flu vaccines every year. I plan to discuss in the next blog the powers behind the flu vaccines, who they are, where they sit in politics and how much money they make by frightening the living hell out of you. However, note that the World Health Organization says this:
Although difficult to assess, these annual epidemics are thought to result in between three and five million cases of severe illness and between 250 000 and 500 000 deaths every year around the world.
So, around 1,000 deaths every day (give or take) from annual seasonal epidemics. And the media has you terrified with 8 deaths over the last week from the Swine Flu strain. How about the 7,992 regular flu deaths that have occurred over the same time?
But the point is that people get the flu all the time. And people die from the flu all the time. Giving it a name like Swine Flu doesn't make you any more suseptible to catching the flu as you were yesterday. Don't buy into the fear.
I'm hoping we can trust the World Health Organization as a reputable source of information. So I'll point you there for definitions of the flu.
Influenza is caused by a virus that attacks mainly the upper respiratory tract – the nose, throat and bronchi and rarely also the lungs. The infection usually lasts for about a week. It is characterized by sudden onset of high fever, myalgia, headache and severe malaise, non-productive cough, sore throat, and rhinitis. Most people recover within one to two weeks without requiring any medical treatment. In the very young, the elderly and people suffering from medical conditions such as lung diseases, diabetes, cancer, kidney or heart problems, influenza poses a serious risk. In these people, the infection may lead to severe complications of underlying diseases, pneumonia and death.
Influenza rapidly spreads around the world in seasonal epidemics and imposes a considerable economic burden in the form of hospital and other health care costs and lost productivity.
In annual influenza epidemics 5-15% of the population are affected with upper respiratory tract infections. Hospitalization and deaths mainly occur in high-risk groups (elderly, chronically ill). Although difficult to assess, these annual epidemics are thought to result in between three and five million cases of severe illness and between 250 000 and 500 000 deaths every year around the world. Most deaths currently associated with influenza in industrialized countries occur among the elderly over 65 years of age.
The virus
The currently circulating influenza viruses that cause human disease are divided into two groups: A and B. Influenza A has 2 subtypes which are important for humans: A(H3N2) and A(H1N1), of which the former is currently associated with most deaths. Influenza viruses are defined by 2 different protein components, known as antigens, on the surface of the virus. They are spike-like features called haemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N) components.
The genetic makeup of influenza viruses allows frequent minor genetic changes, known as antigenic drift, and these changes require annual reformulation of influenza vaccines.
Pandemic influenza
Three times in the last century, the influenza A viruses have undergone major genetic changes mainly in their H-component, resulting in global pandemics and large tolls in terms of both disease and deaths. The most infamous pandemic was “Spanish Flu” which affected large parts of the world population and is thought to have killed at least 40 million people in 1918-1919. More recently, two other influenza A pandemics occurred in 1957 (“Asian influenza”) and 1968 (“Hong Kong influenza”) and caused significant morbidity and mortality globally. In contrast to current influenza epidemics, these pandemics were associated with severe outcomes also among healthy younger persons, albeit not on such a dramatic scale as the “Spanish flu” where the death rate was highest among healthy young adults.
Most recently, limited outbreaks of a new influenza subtype A(H5N1) directly transmitted from birds to humans have occurred in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China in 1997 and 2003.
Transmission
The virus is easily passed from person to person through the air by droplets and small particles excreted when infected individuals cough or sneeze. The influenza virus enters the body through the nose or throat. It then takes between one and four days for the person to develop symptoms. Someone suffering from influenza can be infectious from the day before they develop symptoms until seven days afterwards.
Disease spreads very quickly among the population especially in crowded circumstances. Cold and dry weather enables the virus to survive longer outside the body than in other conditions and, as a consequence, seasonal epidemics in temperate areas appear in winter.
So, from the WHO (the organization and not the band led by Roger Daltry), we can currently state that complications arising from the seasonal Influenza A H3N2 can cause the deaths of 4,800 to 9,600 people globally every week.
Influenza A H1N1 (Swine Flu) has caused the deaths of 8 people in the last week.
People, if you fear the flu here's som things to do: go do some exercise, look at your diet and eat more greens and less fats and sugars, sing, be happy and take a chance to improve your personal hygene (don't touch the escalator rails!)... if you NEED to take something, take some vitamin D... All of these things are equal if not better preventors of any kind of flu than Tamiflu or Relenza, which if you look at their official websites NEVER tout that they are able to vaccinate against Bird Flu, Swine Flu... only that they "can help keep the virus from making you sick".
Thing is I "can" kiss my sister, run all the way to Finland, or spend two hours a day watching Reality TV... but will I?
More on the so-called drug "vaccines" later... In the meantime, be healthy, be happy. Oh, and take a listen to guy who should be the U.S. President if both democracy and common sense were ever to prevail:
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