Swine Flu Pandemic Coming Worldwide

[Veto]

Mexico has already declared emergency powers to ban ALL crowds, ALL public gatherings, schools, movies, concerts, etc., etc. Schools being closed in Texas, Calif., Families quarantined. This is headline news #1 around the world. World Health Organization has already declared out of control.
Will it produce pandemic proportions? That's a guess at best, but leading indicators stating this flu combination of 4 viruses never before seen. Great possibilities it will mutate to several versions of itself over the summer.
How convenient if swine flu comes to Asia and Thailand. Instant crowd control. Government controlled media hyping the scenarios. Quarantines, schools closed, crowds banned...There goes the Red revolution.
Stay aware everyone. Crowds may not be the best medicine.

[Sean Moran]

I suppose that all the "experts" are still gasbagging on about the wonderful new 'flu vaccinations and how all the "beautiful people" should invest in more drug-taking to help breed more lethal variations of influenza in the pleb population? This is what they get for mucking around with nature - like the epidemic 'flus that Europeans passed onto to Pacific Islanders in the 19th century, only this time the epidemic is gonna work backwards because WE invented it.

[Sean Moran]

Worldwide alert for swine flu

April 27, 2009, 9:14 am


Canada is the third country to confirm human cases of swine flu as global health officials considered whether to raise the global pandemic alert level.

Nations from New Zealand to Spain also reported suspected cases and some warned citizens against travel to North America while others planned quarantines, tightened rules on pork imports and tested airline passengers for fevers.
...

Hong Kong and Taiwan said visitors who came back from flu-affected areas with fevers would be quarantined. China said anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms within two weeks of arrival from an affected area had to report to authorities. A Russian health agency said any passenger from North America running a fever would be quarantined until the cause of the fever is determined.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/mp/5524537 ... swine-flu/

I take it that they mean "within two weeks of arrival TO an affected area" but this two weeks is the closest I've come to working out the incubation period even though there are plenty of stories in the news websites.

Too bad if you just happen to be suffering from Ross River Fever or Dengue Fever and they pick you up at the airport - off to the glue factory for you, m'boy!

[potato05]

Time to put this in perspective, Mexico City has a population of 8.8million people (Federal District), 81 people have died of flu so far versus 250 killed in drug related violence to date.

[Sean Moran]

Mexican authorities believe as many as 81 people have died and another 1,300 are infected with the disease.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009 ... 552841.htm

---o0o---

Just for the record, there appears to be two articles on this situation relating to Thailand in the Bangkok Post:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/1 ... u-outbreak

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/1 ... tbreak-yet

One point of interest maybe in the last lines of the first report:

The new flu strain, a mixture of various swine, bird and human viruses, poses the biggest risk of a large-scale pandemic since avian flu surfaced in 1997, killing several hundred people. A 1968 "Hong Kong" flu pandemic killed about a million people globally.


---o0o---

Here's another one that maybe more about business than politics, but the thread is here, so on a lighter note, it's not ALL bad news and if you get in quick then there's every chance that you could make a killing in Biota shares on the paranoia and morbidity of your fellow man:

http://www.thewest.com.au/ <-- the local tabloid here in Western Australia.

Biota shares soar in wake of swine flu outbreak
27th April 2009, 10:15 WST

Shares in anti-infective drug developer Biota Holdings soared in early trading on Monday in the wake of the breakout in swine flu in Mexico and elsewhere.

At 9.56am, Biota shares were 61 cents, or 70.11 per cent, higher at $1.48, with 7.3 million shares changing hands.

Biota is the developer of one of two anti-flu drugs - Relenza and Tamiflu - that are being stockpiled by governments around the world in the case of a flu pandemic.

Biota’s drug, Relenza, is licensed to global pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

...

AAP


http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx? ... tID=138288

See how every cloud has a silver lining providing you have a decent stockbroker.

[VitaminC]

Mexico has already declared emergency powers to ban ALL crowds, ALL public gatherings, schools, movies, concerts, etc., etc. Schools being closed in Texas, Calif., Families quarantined. This is headline news #1 around the world. World Health Organization has already declared out of control.
Will it produce pandemic proportions? That's a guess at best, but leading indicators stating this flu combination of 4 viruses never before seen. Great possibilities it will mutate to several versions of itself over the summer.
How convenient if swine flu comes to Asia and Thailand. Instant crowd control. Government controlled media hyping the scenarios. Quarantines, schools closed, crowds banned...There goes the Red revolution.
Stay aware everyone. Crowds may not be the best medicine.

Pig Flu could already be rife in Thailand. If it was, do you really think the government would admit it, just for crowd control? As with most things that would damage 'the image' of the country, they would deny all knowledge of it and and try to cover it up.

[Veto]

RE: Vitamin C
A good source of information is http://www.rense.com and http://www.infowars.com
Both have many links, live and rebroadcasts on this topic. US declares Homeland Security Emergency over 20 cases. (New York Times)
Japan and Singapore screen all passengers for fevers with infrared technology.
Thailand is ready for something? perhaps allowing it to happen, then springing in action after virus mutates. 95% chance of this being a designed virus. Will it spread globally? Rumors indicate a chance (by choice) to kill off millions, if not a billion people worldwide, many of this number by end of summer. More Government control, quarantines, most likely.
Stocks and currencies on the move today as fears spread. Good luck everyone. Be well.

[Sean Moran]

Japan and Singapore screen all passengers for fevers with infrared technology.

I'm having a bit of an hard time working this out. Let's say I flew back to Bangkok tomorrow and stopped off in Singapore on the way there, as is normal for us cattle-class passengers on low-bucks fares that take off at 3am, and I'm still recovering from this RossRiver Fever and so my temperature is as usual over 38, and so even if I DON'T have this Swine Flu when I jet into Changi, does this mean that they're gonna lock me up in some quarantine ward so that they make sure that I DO catch it?

Meanwhile, anyone who left Mexico City on Saturday and caught this thing at the departure lounge isn't even going to show any symptoms of the real thing when they touch down, so how is this infra-red detection going to do anything more than spread the thing to more innocent people who might have other illnesses with exactly the same symptoms?

Excuse the pun, but it comes across as a lot of hogswash to me.

[Sean Moran]

Influenza is a World Problem.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin ... ld-problem

Flu Toll Rises as Virus Hits Europe.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews ... its-europe

thailand-put-on-full-alert-to-block-killer-swine-flu
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/1 ... -swine-flu

Panic as Swine Flu Death Toll Hits 103.
asia-steps-up-fight-to-prevent-swine-flu-spread
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/1 ... flu-spread

thermal-scanning-at-thai-airports
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews ... i-airports

[Ian]

It seems to have escaped everyone's attention that the only deaths are in Mexico, all other cases in the civilised world are making good recoveries. Their symptoms are no more intense than normal flus.
This would suggest that the main factor in the deaths is impoverished, malnourished people living in highly polluted and unhygienic conditions.
So whilst there are obvious risks in countries which are similar to Mexico, such as Thailand, China, India and most of Southeast Asia, there seems little risk in developed countries. Even westerners in countries at risk, as long as they have not gone native but maintain normal dietary and health standards should face little risk.
I was staying at Ghuangzhou, the epicenter of the SARs outbreak when it happened, and in Hong Kong during the bird flu epidemic, neither caused me concern.