Morning Update on the Swine "H1N1" Flu Outbreak of 2009 With Bonus Crazy Conspiracy Theories Included For Your Entertainment

Graphic: Infections and Deaths in the USA due to Swine Flu

Graphic: Swine Flu Numbers as of Friday morning.

The Politics of Swine H1N1 Flu

First, let me note that it appears that science is taking a back seat to politics at the CDC. They've accommodated special interest groups and changed the name of the disease from Swine Flu to H1N1. This is nuts! It does not give me any extra faith in their ability to handle an infectious disease, in fact, it lessens my confidence in the CDC.

Okay, now that that rant is off my chest, let's proceed with the breakdown of the spread of the Swine H1N1 Flu of 2009.

The CDC has a You Tube Channel that has increased dramitically in populairty in the past few days, currently receiving several honors:

#16 - Most Viewed (This Week)

#8 - Most Viewed (This Week) - Directors

#93 - Most Viewed (This Month) - Directors

I have found out that the one death in the USA is not even that of an America citizen...it was a Mexican toddler who was "visiting" Texas with his family and died there.

School Closings

The CDC is also recommending closing schools for at least 14 days if one or more children test positive for Swine H1N1 Flu, and here is a portion for the interim guidelines:

• Sick people (students, faculty and staff) should stay home unless they need to seek medical care and stay away from schools regardless of whether schools and childcare facilities are operating normally or have dismissed students or closed, respectively.
• Dismissal of students in a school and closure of childcare facilities should be considered in schools with one or more laboratory-confirmed or non-subtypable influenza A case among students, faculty or staff in order to decrease the spread of illness in the community.
• Dismissal of students from schools and closure of childcare facilities should be considered for not-yet-affected schools and childcare facilities in the same area (e.g. a feeder school network or a geographic area) if more than one school or childcare facility in that area has confirmed or non-subtypable influenza A cases among their students, faculty, or staff. This would include preemptively dismissing students from schools in that area, including schools without current laboratory-confirmed cases.
• Neighboring schools to those that dismiss students should also consider preemptively dismissing students from schools without current laboratory-confirmed cases. Issues to consider include geographic proximity and extent of mixing of student populations among area schools.
• If a school dismisses students or a childcare facility closes, school or childcare-related gatherings should also be canceled. Parents and students should be encouraged to avoid congregating in large numbers outside of the school setting.

If a school dismisses students or a childcare facility closes, schools and childcare facilities should close for up to 14 days depending on the extent and severity of the illness and in close consultation with local and state public health officials (additional guidance on duration of school closures will be provided no later than May 8). This length of time is recommended because children are likely to be infectious for about 7 – 10 days after the onset of illness. Schools, in consultation with local and state public health officials, should evaluate daily the need for possible extension of the dismissal/closure based on local influenza surveillance information and the occurrence of new infections and severity of illness in the community from this virus.

Source: CDC (Update on School (K – 12) Dismissal and Childcare Facilities: Interim CDC Guidance in Response to Human Infections with the 2009 Influenza A H1N1 Virus)

Over 400 schools are reported to have closed. I guess some school districts are sharing an infected student since there are more schools closing than cases. Some school districts seem to be closing on rumors of Swine Flu being present.

Prevention

There is currently no vaccine for this particular strain of Swine Flu, but even if there were, there are enough atavistic people who would refuse to receive a vaccination to render it useless in preventing spread of the flu for fear of the one in a million chance of dying from the vaccination...even if there is a thousand times greater chance of dying from the Swine Flu itself. Perhaps this marks a return to the Dark Ages for mankind if the general population cannot distinguish the difference between a 1 in 100 or 1 in a 1,000 chance versus a 1 in a million chance. [Reaction to the 1976 Vaccination]

If people are going to refuse to be vaccinated, they should be prepared to be able to stay in their homes for several weeks straight, while the disease runs it's course, and burns itself out for this season.

Here is a section I am swiping from Wikipedia with advice on ways to prevent the spread of the Swine Flu:

Prevention in humans

Prevention of pig to human transmission

The transmission from swine to human is believed to occur mainly in swine farms where farmers are in close contact with live pigs. Although strains of swine influenza are usually not able to infect humans this may occasionally happen, so farmers and veterinarians are encouraged to use a face mask when dealing with infected animals. The use of vaccines on swine to prevent their infection is a major method of limiting swine to human transmission. Risk factors that may contribute to swine-to-human transmission include smoking and not wearing gloves when working with sick animals.^[43]

Prevention of human to human transmission

Influenza spreads between humans through coughing or sneezing and people touching something with the virus on it and then touching their own nose or mouth.^[44] Swine flu cannot be spread by pork products, since the virus is not transmitted through food.^[44] The swine flu in humans is most contagious during the first five days of the illness although some people, most commonly children, can remain contagious for up to ten days. Diagnosis can be made by sending a specimen, collected during the first five days for analysis.^[45]

Recommendations to prevent spread of the virus among humans include using standardinfection control against influenza. This includes frequent washing of hands with soap and water or with alcohol-based hand sanitizers, especially after being out in public.^[46] Although the current trivalent influenza vaccine is unlikely to provide protection against the new 2009 H1N1 strain,^[47] vaccines against the new strain are being developed and could be ready as early as June 2009.^[48]

Experts agree that hand-washing can help prevent viral infections, including ordinary influenza and the swine flu virus. Influenza can spread in coughs or sneezes, but an increasing body of evidence shows small droplets containing the virus can linger on tabletops, telephones and other surfaces and be transferred via the fingers to the mouth, nose or eyes. Alcohol-based gel or foam hand sanitizers work well to destroy viruses and bacteria. Anyone with flu-like symptoms such as a sudden fever, cough or muscle aches should stay away from work or public transportation and should contact a doctor to be tested.

Social distancing is another tactic. It means staying away from other people who might be infected and can include avoiding large gatherings, spreading out a little at work, or perhaps staying home and lying low if an infection is spreading in a community. Public health and other responsible authorities have action plans which social distancing actions to request or require depending on the severity of the outbreak.

Crazy Talk From the Fringe

Now for the crazy talk, presented here for both entertainment and educational purposes. Entertaining because these people are nuts, and educational so that I can preserve their crazy talk so I can refer you to it in the future when the next hysteria arises, and I can point to this and say, "See, these people have no clue what they are talking about! Read what they said about the Swine Flu outbreak of 2009."

So, put you tin foil hats on, fasten your seat belts and follow me into the fevered swamps of conspiracy and paranoia...

There are claims that this outbreak is genetically engineered by people:

Swine flu panic is spreading in Mexico and soldiers are patrolling the streets after it was confirmed that human to human transmission is occurring and that the virus is a brand new strain which is seemingly affecting young, healthy people the worst. Questions about the source of the outbreak are also being asked after a public health official said that the virus was “cultured in a laboratory”.

“This strain of swine influenza that’s been cultured in a laboratoryis something that’s not been seen anywhere actually in the United States and the world, so this is actually a new strain of influenza that’s been identified,” said Dr. John Carlo, Dallas Co. Medical Director (video clip here).

Was this a slip-up or an admission that this new super-strain of swine influenza was deliberatelycultured in a laboratory and released?

Source: InfoWars

InfoWars is the place where ignorant people read news and rumors written by ignorant people. Period, Paragraph, end of story.

Allow me to debunk this story by reporting that he was referrring to the labs' culturing samples taken from people to confirm whether or not the patient had Swine Flu or not. Any normal person who graduated High School (at least 1986 and before) should know this...I have no idea if today's High School students are taught this or not.

And from another conspiracy site:

According to two mainstream media journalists, one in Mexico City and the other in Jakarta, who spoke to WMR on background, they are convinced that the current outbreak of a new strain of swine flu in Mexico and some parts of the United States is the result of the introduction of a human-engineered pathogen that could result in a widespread global pandemic, with potentially catastrophic consequences for domestic and international travel and commerce.

Source: 911 Truth Sherbrooke

The above article goes on to attempt a connection with Fort Detrick, the deaths of Microbiologists (I've seen the Microbiologist deaths tied to everything from 9-11 to Anthrax to SARS to Bird Flu and Equine Encephalitis), and a video report that The Dept of Homeland Security was spreading the Bird Flu.

To cap it all off...here is seven part video of the appearance of Alex Jones and Steven Qualye on Coast to Coast AM so you can hear them in their entirety to get a feel for how utterly wrong these nuts are:

Alex Jones stated in this appearance:

"This is clearly a designer virus. This clearly been man-made."

---Alex Jones on Coast to Coat AM in April 2009

I weep for the future of humankind because so many people believe this complete and total crap.