[Peace-discuss] Wasn't even close [flu vs. public health]

[John Fettig]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/influenza/maps/
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/influenza/maps/>This is one very valid reason
why we need a vaccine.
The 1918 virus was mild in the spring, but extremely deadly when the
flu season hit.

John

On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 10:34 PM, Stuart Levy <slevy at ncsa.uiuc.edu> wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 07:57:52PM -0500, E. Wayne Johnson wrote:
> > *<venom>*
> >
> > If one can set the war aside just for the moment----
> >
> > The  lies about the so-called A(H1N1) flu virus [aka Swine Flu] ought to
> be
> > enough by themselves to cause the huddled and befuddled masses to rise up
> > and take torch and manure fork in hand. But, it's only $25 or so for each
> > citizen, so its /very Reasonable/...
> > You can't expect our debt-ridden masses to Rise Up for twenty-five bucks.
> >
> > But seriously, folks, about 35,000 people in the US die every year from
> > P.O.F. (plain old flu) and its manifold complications, every year, year
> > after year after year.  So what so unusual about this A(H1N1)?  Nothing.
> > At.  All.
>
> It does seem to be clear now, but was that clear from the outset?
>
> I'm not sure whether you're criticizing the residual hysteria,
> which seems terrifically wasteful to me too, or the early alarm
> in the first few weeks, which seemed reasonable.  Wasn't it?
>
> As I understand it, the story has been that...
>
>   - This year's H1N1 is a new variant of a flu virus which has
>        crossed from pigs to humans in the past.
>
>   - Eventually it's expected that *some* animal flu virus,
>        to which humans haven't yet adapted and react badly,
>        will become transmissible enough among humans to propagate fast,
>        and it'll be a big deal.  When that happens, stopping it fast
>        will be important.  People today are a lot more mobile than
>        in 1918.
>
>   - This year's H1N1 is transmissible between humans.
>        Early on it wasn't clear how transmissible.
>
>   - This H1N1 was lethal for at least a fair number of people.
>        Early on it wasn't clear how lethal.
>
>   - It was more lethal for young healthy adults than among
>        the elderly or children, which is unusual among flu viruses,
>        but was true of the very serious 1918 H1N1 variant.
>
> Is any of that wrong?  Given that early picture, wasn't it
> reasonable for public-health people to raise an alarm at the time?
>
> It's since become clear that this one *isn't* very lethal nor
> very transmissible.  It's just a run-of-the-mill flu virus as you say.
>
> So we don't need to hear in today's national news that someone in
> such-and-such city has died of this year's variant -- it's unfortunate,
> and it's worth tracking in public health circles, but it shouldn't be
> news any more than the daily obituaries are.
>
> And so it seems we should be mad if we're going to spend $1.5 billion
> on fighting *this* H1N1 outbreak, which was the plan when it was put into
> the supplemental in late April (when, given what was known then,
> it might have been a real emergency, right?).
>
> If that is still the plan, sure enough, it'll be a ridiculous waste.
> We could provide a lot of real public health service, for
> tuberculosis or diabetes or drug treatment or whatever, for $1.5 billion.
>
>
> > About 40% of the cases of P.O.F. are caused by A(H1N1) influenza viruses.
> > So that roughly about 35 to 40 deaths every day 24/7/365 are caused by
> > Plain Old "A(H1N1)".   While a few odd cases constitutes a Pandemic.
> >
> > As Costello said, "One of us is NUTS!!!"
> >
> > So, one might say this whole business of the flu is what is generally
> > referred to as a Fraud,  a Scam, an Artifice.
> > It's about the m-o-n-e-y...but, it's only about a $100 for a family of 4.
> >
> > Plus another $100 or so for the cronies and operatives at the IMF... [ty!
> > :-) ]
> >
> > &...Enjoy your stimulus...*SUCKERS!!!!*
> >
> > ****
> >
> > We now return you to the War, which is already in progress.
> >
> > *</venom>*
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/attachments/20090616/9d03d4cc/attachment-0001.htm