SWINE FLU

[Specalculator1]

CFIA: An Alberta Swine Herd Investigated for H1N1 Flu Virus





OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire) -- 05/02/09 -- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) indicates that it has found H1N1 flu virus in a swine herd in Alberta. The safety of the food supply is not affected and Canadian pork continues to be safe to eat.




It is highly probable that the pigs were exposed to the virus from a Canadian who had recently returned from Mexico and had been exhibiting flu-like symptoms. Signs of illness were subsequently observed in the pigs. The individual has recovered and all of the pigs are recovering or have recovered.





While further testing is needed to more fully characterize the virus, the CFIA is taking a precautionary approach. The herd has been placed under quarantine, and the Agency is working with public health colleagues to determine the most appropriate next steps to ensure that public and animal health remain protected. The chance that these pigs could transfer virus to a person is remote.




Influenza viruses do not affect the safety of pork, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). As with any raw meat, pork should always be properly handled and cooked to eliminate a range of food safety concerns.




Pigs in Canada are tested for influenza viruses on an ongoing basis across the country during routine investigations into respiratory illnesses. The CFIA is working with provinces, territories, the swine industry, and private sector veterinarians since April 24th to enhance monitoring of swine herds for signs of illness and to maintain enhanced biosecurity measures on farms across the country.


Contacts:

Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Media Relations

613-773-6600

[pelicaninnc]

That wasnt a law already? WTHec are people doing out there. Guess the Fla Crox will sleep better tonight.

[THE_YAK]

Well, here in FL, we just passed a law that people can't sex up their pets, so it might have came from 1 of the 15 states left who think its cool to sleep with animals.

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?Message_id=37485345

[pelicaninnc]

Maybe the pigs are the ones that should worry. Just heard of a worker transmitting the virus to a pig? Not sure how valid that is but certainly interesting.

[THE_YAK]

Data shows that this nonsense is about to stop soon, regular flu kills a ton more people a year than this garbage propaganda.

Everyone relax, eat w/e u want, go w/e u please, nothing is happening. If the media blew out of the proportion the "fact" that sleeping too much might kill you, you would still be taking naps.



>

[rstar]

An Alternative Explanation for the "Health Emergency" in Mexico
Fri, 05/01/2009 - 05:20 — Ciaran Dubhuidhe


What an excellent way to impose martial law without imposing martial law...
http://insolentmediacenter.com/node/33



As many are beginning to notice, the number of deaths attributed to the swine flu in Mexico has been greatly exaggerated. The first sign that something was amiss should have been the absence of information on the identities of the deceased. Missing were the normally present stories on the tragic lives of the victims. The second sign that something was amiss should have been the impressively small number of attributed deaths outside of Mexico. Despite all the hype, we are now finding out that this strain of swine flu is largely benign. How could such a small story have enveloped the world and caused global panic? The only real disaster has been memetic. The virus that threatens us is not a physical virus, but a memetic virus: the false rumor of a pandemic.

This false rumor had a start. It began with the Government of Mexico. The outbreak of a flu no more dangerous than any other flu was spun into an exaggerated story of biblical proportions. Over the past weekend, the President Calderón, without consulting the Mexican Congress, grasped upon this virus and made a decree giving federal authorities the power to invade homes, quarantine people at will, and bring the country to a standstill. His decree was based on a panic intentionally created by the government itself. Why would Calderón do this?

At this moment, Mexico is in the midst of an existential crisis. The combined realities of its corrupt government, the routes of the drug trade, and the neighboring drug market have combined to give rise to a system of drug cartels that rival the Mexican Government in economic power as well as raw firepower. Calderón is losing grip on the country his illegal election stole from Lopez Obrador . This darling of the corrupt Mexican ruling class has little means left with which to hold his grip upon power. Whether or not it will work, he seems to have made the decision to exaggerate a health crisis as a means to consolidate absolute power and to confer upon himself the powers necessary to stamp out those parts of the drug oligarchy not under his personal control. Shutting down the country and gaining access to any and all properties, homes, and businesses serves this purpose. What will come of this naked grasp of power it is too soon to know.

Meanwhile, around the world, the "never let a crisis go unexploited" factions have been having a hay day. In the United States, the pharmaceutical industries, owned in large part by friends of the former Bush Regime, are pumping up the media's drive to scare the hell out of everyone, driving Americans into hospitals and clinics for an injection of Tamiflu and driving politicians to call for the immediate stock piling of yet more Tamiflu. In the Middle East, Islamic Regimes are using the crisis as an excuse to kill pigs and to point to swine flu as Allah's wrath upon infidels. Israel, for its part, has been doing its best to exhibit its ability to control the media by having the name of the flu changed to something it finds more Kosher: The Mexican Flu . Israel has failed to explain how the name "Swine Flu" is any less offensive as the name "Operation Cast Lead ."

Racists are having a good time at it as well. Boston's neo-fascist Jay Severin was suspended from his job as a radio hate show host for referring to Mexican immigrants as "criminaliens," "primitives," "leeches," and "women with mustaches and VD," as well as blaming these defenseless people for bringing swine flu into the United States. There seems to be something in panic for everyone.

The only matter left to determine the end of this story is whether or not Mexico's Calderón will lead the world in a karaoke rendition of "I started a joke" by the Bee Gees.

[MuchCompensation]

Look, the reason I thought BUGS was a good play in the first place is because I thought it was a good environmentally responsible company.

And it probably is. I love green, but I also love green, if you know what I mean.



MC

[harvard_88]

Since Katrina(when BUGS ran to .075/share) the hurricane plays in general haven't been that great. BUGS was very well positioned in Mexico during a couple of what looked to be major hurricanes during the last couple of years, but those hurricanes either hit unpopulated areas or they were diminished by the mountains. BUGS has never advertised themselves as a 'natural disaster' type clean up company. But what they do for companies like Chevron and Pemex(which controls the Mexican economy) can also work in this type of a situation. Is BUGS a swine flu/bird flu play? It could be. And that is what people are looking for right now. There is a lot more that I could post. But....time will tell.

[MuchCompensation]

BTW, If you see a hurricane heading towards Mexico, BUGS is usually good for a 400% jump.

But get out fast, Its usually short lived.

MC

[KuChing]

Mixing Swine Flu with HIV now the concern.

The stakes just jumped several orders of magnitude. And again, NNVC has the solution.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L2516414.htm

HIV patients at higher risk from flu, WHO says 02 May 2009 11:53:21 GMT
Source: Reuters
* HIV patients at high risk from flu, need antivirals most

* WHO fears complications if HIV and H1N1 viruses combine

(Adds background on HIV, seasonal influenza, antivirals)

By Laura MacInnis

GENEVA, May 2 (Reuters) - People with HIV are at high risk from the new flu strain that the World Health Organisation said is on the verge of a pandemic, the WHO said on Saturday.

The United Nations agency said people with immunodeficiency diseases -- including the AIDS virus -- will most likely be vulnerable to health complications from the H1N1 strain, as they are from regular seasonal flu, which kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people a year.

HIV and the new flu strain could also mix together in a dangerous way, as has occurred with HIV and tuberculosis, the WHO said in guidance for health workers on its website.

"Although there are inadequate data to predict the impact of a possible human influenza pandemic on HIV-affected populations, interactions between HIV/AIDS and A(H1N1) influenza could be significant," it said.

"HIV-infected persons should be considered as a high risk and a priority population for preventive and therapeutic strategies against influenza including emerging influenza A(H1N1) virus infection," it said.

The virus widely known as "swine flu" has been most severe in Mexico, where government authorities say it has killed more than 100 people, and caused more mild symptoms as it spread around the world to countries including the United States, Austria, Israel, New Zealand and South Korea. [L2430119]

Although the outbreak remains tiny in scale compared to other epidemics such as malaria, hepatitis, and meningitis, the WHO has raised its pandemic alert level to 5 out of 6 due to its rapid spread as well as the possibility that the flu could cause more devastation in poor and disease-prone communities.

Countries with high rates of HIV -- most of which are in Africa -- should work to ensure that vulnerable people get the drugs they need to fight off the flu infection, the WHO said.

Antiviral medicines such as Tamiflu and Relenza decrease the duration of virus excretion and the severity of illness when used for treatment of ill patients, and may also prevent illness when used for prophylaxis.

"Patients at higher risk for complications of influenza including those with HIV infection should be among those prioritised for antiviral treatment with oseltamivir or zanamivir which shortens illness duration and severity in seasonal influenza," the WHO guidance read.

It is best if people infected with the flu strain start to take the antivirals within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms, according to the WHO. There are no known problems with taking those drugs alongside the anti-retrovirals that HIV patients take to suppress their virus.

According to WHO estimates, there are 33 million people infected with immune-weakening HIV worldwide. (For the full WHO guidance for HIV patient care, see: http://www.who.int/hiv/mediacentre/influenza_hiv.pdf) (For a factbox on global diseases, click on [ID:nL2430119]) (For more Reuters swine flu coverage, please click here: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/swineflu )

[MuchCompensation]

Bugs has been around for a while, in fact, for some reason, every time a hurricane rolls around the price spikes.

But it is generally a dog. I flipped it a few times.

MC

[harvard_88]

BUGS: right now countries are looking at the virus. They are recommending closing schools, wearing masks, staying away from large crowds etc. They are trying to stop the spread of the virus. But, sooner or later they are going to have to deal with the source of the problem. Take a look at that photo in my post. This problem started in Veracruz. BUGS has a long history of clean-ups in Veracruz. They have weaved their way through the politics of Mexico and they are familiar with what is necessary for a U.S. company to do business there. BUGS already has done numerous oil spill cleanups in Mexico for U.S. companies and for Pemex(Mexican). They also have worked on large scale sewage treatment plans in Veracruz. So, they do have the product, the background, and the history in countries in many areas of the world that need to be cleaned up to prevent swine flu year after year. Who knows where they go from here. Just imagine a BUGS contract in China? Here is what is written by the photo: "The source of the outbreak has largely been ignored by the media, as I mentioned previously, but slowly reports are emerging that ground zero for the H1N1 virus (the strange mix of pig, bird and human flu virus now circulating the globe), looks to be a hog farm in La Gloria, Mexico.

Smithfield Foods, the Virginia-based owner of the factory farm, typically denies the connection, despite the evidence that neighboring residents were the first to show symptoms of swine flu, and at least one child was shown to carry the previously rare virus. The conditions of the pig farms in the area are atrocious (Warning: Photos are graphic), and despite one farm claiming that they adhere to sanitary requirements, many of them have massive cesspools of pig feces that contaminate the groundwater. Disturbingly, this is common practice for many industrial animal farms, even in the U.S., and countless other health threats can be traced back to this criminal negligence, including the recent outbreaks of Salmonella and E. coli.

Containing the spread of swine flu is obviously of great importance, but we need to begin seriously addressing the factory farms that are generating these health risks. The pork industry is a powerful force, and with government officials stepping in to protect them from finger pointing, we need an independent analysis of the threat posed by these unscrupulous farms".

Stay tuned for further updates.

[MuchCompensation]

You think? BUGS doesn't seem particularly affected by this "pandemic".



MC

[harvard_88]

BUGS(U.S. Microbics): Swine Flu/Salmonella/E. Coli and much more...
BUGS bioremediation is a 'clean up' technology. It would be great if some type of a PR would come out regarding Swine Flu. Katrina took BUGS to over .07/share. With a swine flu pandemic possibly approaching, there is no telling how high BUGS could run with a few pig farm clean up contracts. And these farms are huge. All that they need to do is sell the clean up product to the farmers. And they are already starting to do that. Evers Tech is one very happy customer. Check out Everstech.com where they say: "Through the use of Everstech's bio-engineered waste management and resource recovery technology processes, agricultural and industrial sites are able to dispose of bio-sludges from waste treatment in an environmentally safe way that also generates value-added by-products which can be used for energy generation or as environmentally-friendly fertilizer. That is a BUGS product that they are talking about. Also, for Swine Flu, take a look at this picture and write-up:
http://www.takepart.com/blog/2009/04/28/swine-flu-google-map-useless-without-including-pig-farm-hungry-for-change/

[aquaspin]

What are some good swine flu stocks? Anyone have a list of them? Thanks in advance.

[bigbux1]

Why the deaths are much higher...(NaturalNews) Much to the annoyance of some critics, NaturalNews has been publicly questioning the "official" statistics reporting infections and deaths from H1N1 influenza. In stories published this week, we noted that the CDC's official numbers are suspiciously low -- the agency claimed only 7 deaths from H1N1 even while Mexico had officially announced 161 deaths.

Today, NaturalNews has learned why the CDC numbers are so low. It turns out that CDC labs are inadequate testing facilities that are utterly overwhelmed with too many influenza samples to test. Thus, the reason why official CDC "confirmed" H1N1 death numbers are so low is simply because the CDC laboratories can't test very many flu samples in the first place.

And remember this: The CDC doesn't count any death unless its own lab confirms the infection. But its own lab can only test 100 flu samples a day, we've learned!

CDC labs are "swamped," reports the Associated Press. "The specimens are coming in faster than they can possibly be tested," reports epidemiologist Dr. Jeffrey P. Davis, according to AP.

Other astonishing facts worth noting:

• New York has had to limit its testing of influenza because too many samples are coming in. "Sure, we'd want to diagnose every case, but we don't have that resource," said Dr. Don Weiss.

• U.S. states have no way to test for H1N1 on their own. They must send samples to the CDC, and the CDC lab can only test about 100 samples a day. (Source: Michael Shaw, associate director for laboratory science at the CDC.)

• "Many labs are overrun," says AP, to the point where they are only testing samples that come from people who traveled to Mexico. Other samples are simply ignored or thrown out.

• AP also reports this quote: "The capacity of the state laboratories to test all the swabs is being exceeded..." - Dr. Paul Jarris of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

• The acting director of the CDC has admitted it may stop testing influenza samples altogether! Why? They say it's more important to focus on detection of community outbreaks than to get an exact count of H1N1 deaths. Thus, the "death count" becomes an abandoned number that loses any scientific credibility at all.

Why the CDC cannot produce accurate numbers
From all this, it should be abundantly clear that not only was NaturalNews correct in stating that the CDC's numbers are artificially low, but also that the CDC is incapable of determining accurate numbers due to the severe limitations of its laboratories. In fact, the CDC openly admits this fact.

Thus, all those people and reporters who downplay H1N1 influenza by saying, "It's only killed 7 people" are delusional. The real truth of the matter is that the number of people killed by H1N1 greatly exceeds these "official" numbers, and yet we'll never know by how much because no one apparently has the laboratory bandwidth to make this determination.

From a scientific standpoint, then, the only truly accurate statement that can be made about this is that H1N1 deaths are greater than six. How much greater? No one knows.

Why does any of this matter? Because people are under the great misimpression that H1N1 has killed "only" 7 people (or 10 as of today, as the CDC has added 3 deaths to its "confirmed" list). Therefore, people say, it's no big deal.

But the number of "confirmed" deaths is merely the product of an overwhelmed, under-staffed CDC laboratory system that is backlogged beyond all hope and can't even get to most of the samples it's being sent. Those who claim that websites, states or individuals are "overreacting to a virus that has only killed 7 people" are kidding themselves. The number of dead is much, much higher than what the CDC has been able to confirm.

[Crazy Money]

, dis flu does not scare me... lol

[gym gravity]

Yes. Could some other country decide to stockpile or permit use of one of the early phase novel vaccine candidates? Some country might decide one of these novel candidates are safe enough to order some doses and permit some kind of trial.

[littlejohn]

Hong Kong?...LJ

[rstar]

Mexico City's citizens are uncharacteristically shaken by flu outbreak
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/67270.html
By Jonathan Roeder | Christian Science Monitor
* Posted on Thursday, April 30, 2009
MEXICO CITY — Mexico's capital is not easily rattled: Its 20 million or so residents regularly shrug off crime, corruption, drought, gridlock, overcrowding, and bad air.

But the outbreak of swine flu, which has killed an estimated 176 people nationwide, is different. City residents are staying home in droves, and many are scared and confounded by the virus that has led authorities to close schools, offices, bars, gyms, and commercial establishments, virtually halting daily life for millions.

With clear information hard to come by, rumors are flying. Years of opaque government and corruption scandals have made many Mexicans instinctively skeptical of most official data, but today's levels of mistrust are noteworthy even for Mexico.

"There's a lack of activity, and Mexico is all about activity and people being around each other," said Alan Santoyo, who sells religious trinkets outside a cathedral in the colonial neighborhood of Coyoacan. A sign on the ancient wooden doors read: "No Mass Due To Health Crisis."

Santoyo and many others hypothesize the virus was created and hyped by Mexico's government to distract the population from some bigger scandal being carried out. Others argue the official death toll is being purposely undercounted to prevent alarm from spreading, and fearful patients with mild symptoms are flooding hospitals and clinics.

In a survey this week of 410 Mexico City adults by the Mexican daily newspaper Reforma, 57 percent said they believed the government was underreporting the numbers, while 10 percent said they thought the statistics were being exaggerated. Only 19 percent believed the official figures. Another 14 percent were unsure of what to think.

Gerardo Bravo Escobar, an ear, nose, and throat surgeon who has examined patients with probable cases of swine flu in a Mexico City hospital, says his private practice has been flooded with patients exhibiting minor symptoms that can be a common occurrence in a dusty city with high levels of air pollution.

Others are disregarding Health Ministry recommendations that they wear surgical masks, stay away from congested areas and wash their hands frequently, he says.

"There's an important percentage of people who are downplaying the problem because they think (the government) is trying to cover up other problems," Bravo Escobar says.

"Other people think the opposite, and are going into a state of hysteria because they believe this thing is extremely serious and all or most of the sick patients are going to die," he adds.

Analysts say President Felipe Calderon's administration has compounded the problem by releasing only limited and sometimes confusing data about the epidemic.

For example, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova reported last Monday that there were close to 150 probable deaths from swine flu in Mexico, with 20 of the fatalities proved to be caused by the virus.

Since then, the Health Ministry has adopted stricter criteria, so the number of proven fatalities has dropped to eight, even as the number of probable deaths has risen to 176. The shift caused skepticism in the media that has apparently trickled down to the general population.

Further complicating the cloudy picture is the information trickling from state governments, which sometimes appears to conflict with federal statistics and may be judged with different criteria.

Meanwhile, health officials have also been reluctant to release demographic and geographic information on where the outbreaks are occurring.

"The information doesn't seem to be complete," says Dan Lund, whose polling firm, Mund Americas, is carrying out a study on Mexicans' perceptions of the health scare. "We don't really know the demographics of who's sick and who's dead."

In a session in Mexico's Senate Wednesday evening, opposition lawmakers blasted Cordova, accusing him of failing to keep the nation updated on the situation.

"These are overly conservative numbers and they seem to be hiding information," said left-leaning Sen. Ricardo Monreal, according to Reforma. "This is creating confusion because there's no clarity; it's opaque."

In addition to the perceived lack of information, strict measures closing schools, bars, restaurants (which are only allowed to offer takeout service), and pretty much anywhere people congregate have angered the business community.

"The economic blow is worse than the blow from (swine flu)," says Mario Sanchez Ruiz, president of a national confederation of service, trade, and tourism chambers.

He estimated the closures are causing losses of $36 million a day in the restaurant industry alone, while retailers and supermarkets are also experiencing pain.

"What's going to happen tomorrow? We can't live as a country like this, paralyzed," he says. "If this lasts four weeks, what's going to happen? No one will work for four weeks? The effect on the country would be fatal."

(Roeder is a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor based in Mexico City.)

[pkripper]

Wisconsin is now at 5 cases. (probable)

[pkripper]

Three probable swine flu cases in Wisconsin, two in Milwaukee

Three probable cases of swine flu were identified in Wisconsin on Wednesday, including two in Milwaukee, prompting officials to close four city schools indefinitely as global health authorities warned that the virus could soon become a pandemic.

One adult and one child in Milwaukee are believed to have swine flu, Bevan K. Baker, the city's health commissioner, said during a news conference Wednesday.

The adult and child are not related, Mayor Tom Barrett said.

A third probable case was identified in Adams County, according to state health officials.

As of Wednesday, the state reported it has submitted 144 suspected cases for testing, 41 came out negative, 100 were pending and the three were listed as probable.

A number of children with connections to the two Milwaukee cases are exhibiting symptoms of swine flu, Baker said. Those children attend various Milwaukee Public Schools and are being monitored by health professionals, Baker said.

"Our goal is to minimize the spread of disease in this community," Baker said.

Officials did not identify any of the people who may have swine flu, provide information on their conditions, or say whether they had been hospitalized or quarantined.

But the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune, quoting a Wood County health official, reported on its Web site that the Adams County victim works in Wisconsin Rapids and had traveled to San Diego, where he was exposed to the virus.

The developments came as the global threat reached its highest level yet, with the World Health Organization raising its pandemic alert to Phase 5, the second-highest on its scale. The U.N. health agency said a pandemic is imminent and urged government, business and health officials to start planning accordingly.

The virus had spread to at least nine countries. In the United States, nearly 100 people have been sickened in 11 states. The first U.S. death from the outbreak was a Mexico City toddler who traveled to Texas with family and died Monday night.

President Barack Obama said Wednesday that Americans must maintain great vigilance but that health officials aren't recommending closing the U.S. border with Mexico, where more than 160 people have been killed but where new cases finally seemed to be leveling off.

In Milwaukee, officials said the following schools will be closed until further notice:

• Alexander Mitchell Integrated Arts School, 1728 S. 23rd St.

• Riverside University High School, 1615 E. Locust St.

• Clement Avenue Elementary School, 3666 S. Clement Ave.

• Rogers Street Academy, 2430 W. Rogers St.

As of September, the four schools had a combined enrollment of nearly 3,400 students. The three elementary schools are heavily Latino.

All programming at the four schools - including Head Start, athletics and before- and after-school activities - also is canceled, according to a statement from MPS.

Staff members at each school are asked to stay home, according to MPS. School students or employees who have flu-like symptoms should seek advice from health professionals.

Students at MPS schools that have not been closed should continue their normal routines, school officials said.

Some students played basketball Wednesday outside Mitchell elementary school, while others hung out and discussed the day's events. Signs on the school's doors, written in English and Spanish, stated that the school is closed until further notice.

Amy Skiff, 24, who was baby-sitting some children at the school's playground, said she has three young children of her own and is concerned about the spread of swine flu. She said her 3-month-old baby has been sick and that she plans to take the baby to the doctor.

The Boys & Girls Club at Rogers Street Academy also was closed because of concerns about the flu. Parents who were picking up their children from the club Wednesday evening didn't yet have all the details about the closure.

"They called my wife at work, and she called and told me to come and pick up my daughter," said Sergio Macias, who left his job at an auto body shop to pick up his daughter, Priscilla. "They said something about the flu," he said, still trying to catch up on the closures, which had been announced only about an hour earlier.

Barrett said he learned of both probable cases Wednesday and said he wanted the community to be informed.

"I don't want people to be alarmed," Barrett said.

Test samples from the adult and child who are believed to have swine flu have been sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for analysis, Baker said.

City and state officials reacting to the news that the virus probably had spread to Wisconsin urged residents to stay calm, practice good hygiene and seek medical advice if they exhibit flu-like symptoms.

"This is a time to use precaution, use common sense, and closely follow the direction of our state and local health officials," Gov. Jim Doyle said in a statement Wednesday.

On Sunday, Milwaukee activated its emergency response plan for pandemic influenza, which coordinates testing of people exhibiting swine flu symptoms and keeps the city in close contact with area hospitals monitoring patients for the disease.

Officials who spoke at a city news conference Sunday said it was probably only a matter of time before swine flu, which first emerged in Mexico, spread to Wisconsin.

"It would not be surprising to me if we continue to find some probable cases," Seth Foldy, administrator of the state Division of Public Health, said Wednesday. "Surveillance efforts are very intensive."

A 2008 report outlining the steps Wisconsin health officials would take in the case of a pandemic states that as many infected people would be treated with antiviral medication as possible. That treatment would come on a first-come, first-served basis.

However, the report acknowledges it is unlikely there would be enough medication to treat everyone in the state.

The report states that a vaccine probably would not be available for at least six months - the time it generally takes to produce and distribute vaccines.

In addition, health officials will follow a strict protocol about how and where antivirals will be handed out, and who will have priority.

Patients with symptoms will be the first to receive treatment, but others who work with patients or who may have had direct contact with infected individuals also may receive the medications as a precaution.

Health officials have urged people to wash their hands, cover their mouths when sneezing or coughing, and avoid people with flu-like symptoms.

Business owners should develop plans in case employees have to stay home, officials said Wednesday.

Jesse Garza and John Diedrich of the Journal Sentinel staff, The Associated Press and McClatchy News Service contributed to this report.
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http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/44019787.html

[rstar]

Nearly 300 Schools Shut Amid Swine Flu Scare

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/30/AR2009043001734.html?hpid=topnews?ref=fp2
By Maria Glod and Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, April 30, 2009; 2:37 PM

Nearly 300 schools nationwide have shuttered as education and health officials take precautions to avoid the spread of swine flu, the U.S. Education Department reported today.

As of yesterday at noon, the department had counted about 100 school closures....

[rstar]

Scientists See This Flu Strain as Relatively Mild: Outbreak Won’t Even Be As Deadly as the Average Winter Flu Season
April 30th, 2009
http://cryptogon.com/?p=8321
If there are eye witness accounts of this thing being much worse than it appears, we need to get at that information. So far, all I’ve seen along those lines is an unconfirmed message that was supposedly sent by a doctor to his email list.

Via: Los Angeles Times:

As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked to swine flu inside U.S. borders, scientists studying the virus are coming to the consensus that this hybrid strain of influenza — at least in its current form — isn’t shaping up to be as fatal as the strains that caused some previous pandemics.

In fact, the current outbreak of the H1N1 virus, which emerged in San Diego and southern Mexico late last month, may not even do as much damage as the run-of-the-mill flu outbreaks that occur each winter without much fanfare.

“Let’s not lose track of the fact that the normal seasonal influenza is a huge public health problem that kills tens of thousands of people in the U.S. alone and hundreds of thousands around the world,” said Dr. Christopher Olsen, a molecular virologist who studies swine flu at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine in Madison.

His remarks Wednesday came the same day Texas authorities announced that a nearly 2-year-old boy with the virus had died in a Houston hospital Monday.

“Any time someone dies, it’s heartbreaking for their families and friends,” Olsen said. “But we do need to keep this in perspective.”

Flu viruses are known to be notoriously unpredictable, and this strain could mutate at any point — becoming either more benign or dangerously severe. But mounting preliminary evidence from genetics labs, epidemiology models and simple mathematics suggests that the worst-case scenarios are likely to be avoided in the current outbreak.

“This virus doesn’t have anywhere near the capacity to kill like the 1918 virus,” which claimed an estimated 50 million victims worldwide, said Richard Webby, a leading influenza virologist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

When the current virus was first identified, the similarities between it and the 1918 flu seemed ominous.

Both arose in the spring at the tail end of the flu season. Both seemed to strike people who were young and healthy instead of the elderly and infants. Both were H1N1 strains, so called because they had the same types of two key proteins that are largely responsible for a virus’ ability to infect and spread.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health published genetic sequence data Monday morning of flu samples isolated from patients in California and Texas, and thousands of scientists immediately began downloading the information. Comparisons to known killers — such as the 1918 strain and the highly lethal H5N1 avian virus — have since provided welcome news.

“There are certain characteristics, molecular signatures, which this virus lacks,” said Peter Palese, a microbiologist and influenza expert at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York. In particular, the swine flu lacks an amino acid that appears to increase the number of virus particles in the lungs and make the disease more deadly.

Scientists have identified several other differences between the current virus and its 1918 predecessor, but the significance of those differences is still unclear, said Dr. Scott Layne, an epidemiologist at the UCLA School of Public Health.

Ralph Tripp, an influenza expert at the University of Georgia, said that his early analysis of the virus’ protein-making instructions suggested that people exposed to the 1957 flu pandemic — which killed up to 2 million people worldwide — may have some immunity to the new strain.

That could explain why older people have been spared in Mexico, where the swine flu has been most deadly.

The swine virus does appear able to spread easily among humans, which persuaded the WHO to boost its influenza pandemic alert level to phase 5, indicating that a worldwide outbreak of infection is very likely. And the CDC reported on its website that “a pattern of more severe illness associated with the virus may be emerging in the United States.”

“We expect to see more cases, more hospitalizations, and, unfortunately, we are likely to see more deaths from the outbreak,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters Wednesday on her first day at work.

But certainly nothing that would dwarf a typical flu season. In the U.S., between 5% and 20% of the population becomes ill and 36,000 people die — a mortality rate of between 0.24% and 0.96%.

Dirk Brockmann, a professor of engineering and applied mathematics at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., used a computer model of human travel patterns to predict how this swine flu virus would spread in the worst-case scenario, in which nothing is done to contain the disease.

After four weeks, almost 1,700 people in the U.S. would have symptoms, including 198 in Los Angeles, according to his model. That’s just a fraction of the county’s thousands of yearly flu victims.

Just because the virus is being identified in a growing number of places — including Austria, Canada, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, Spain and Britain — doesn’t mean it’s spreading particularly quickly, Olsen said.

“You don’t ever find anything that you don’t look for,” he said. “Now that diagnostic laboratories and physicians and other healthcare workers know to look for it, perhaps it’s not surprising that you’re going to see additional cases identified.”

And a pandemic doesn’t necessarily have a high fatality rate. Even in Mexico, the fatalities may simply reflect that hundreds of thousands of people have been infected. Since the symptoms of swine flu are identical to those of a normal flu, there’s no way to know how many cases have evaded government health officials, St. Jude’s Webby said.

As the virus adapts to its human hosts, it is likely to find ways of spreading more efficiently. But evolution also suggests it might become less dangerous, Olsen said.

“If it kills off all its potential hosts, you reach a point where the virus can’t survive,” he said. Working to calm public fears, U.S. officials on Wednesday repeatedly stressed the statistic of yearly flu deaths — 36,000.

Sebelius and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano also rejected calls to close the borders, which several lawmakers reiterated Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

“We are making all of our decisions based on the science and the epidemiology,” Napolitano said. “The CDC, the public health community and the World Health Organization all have said that closing out nation’s borders is not merited here.”

Though scientists have begun to relax about the initial toll, they’re considerably less comfortable when taking into account the fall flu season. They remain haunted by the experience of 1918, when the relatively mild first wave of flu was followed several months later by a more aggressive wave.

The longer the virus survives, the more chances it has to mutate into a deadlier form.

“If this virus keep going through our summer,” Palese said, “I would be very concerned.”

[rstar]

Homeland Security Issues Alert On Mandatory Quarantine Procedures
BATF and FBI to forcibly detain Americans despite only 7 confirmed swine flu deaths in Mexico

Paul Joseph Watson
Propaganda Matrix
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/april2009/042909_mandatory_quarantine.htm


The Department of Homeland Security has sent out an alert to health care providers outlining how BATF, FBI, and U.S. Marshals will be called upon to impose mandatory quarantines in the event of a widespread swine flu outbreak in the U.S., despite the fact that the virus has only caused seven confirmed deaths in Mexico.

According to the report, "DHS Assistant Secretary Bridger McGaw circulated the swine flu memo, which was obtained by CBSNews.com, on Monday night. It says: "The Department of Justice has established legal federal authorities pertaining to the implementation of a quarantine and enforcement. Under approval from HHS, the Surgeon General has the authority to issue quarantines."

The memo states, "U.S. Customs and Coast Guard Officers assist in the enforcement of quarantine orders. Other DOJ law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Marshals, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives may also enforce quarantines. Military personnel are not authorized to engage in enforcement."

However, a separate Defense Department planning document on dealing with pandemics states that the Pentagon will use the forces at its disposal to assist in "quarantining groups of people in order to minimize the spread of disease during an influenza pandemic" and aid in "efforts to restore and maintain order."

As we reported yesterday, so-called "involuntary isolation" is already being enforced in certain areas of the United States. The state's health director in North Carolina, Dr. Jeffrey Engel, said that authorities were already involuntarily isolating patients who may have the swine flu virus. He refused to divulge the location of where the victims were being quarantined.

(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)



News reports such as this one from MSNBC are prevaricating around the contention that quarantines are a normal event that Americans should be comfortable with. In reality, there has only been one case of "involuntary quarantine" in the U.S. in the last 45 years.

"In 2007, Andrew Speaker, an Atlanta lawyer, was quarantined inside a hospital in Denver on suspicion of having extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. It turned out that the CDC was incorrect and Speaker had a milder form of the disease," states the CBS report.

The MSNBC report also falsely claims that quarantines will solely be handled on a state/local level, when in reality, Bush's executive order 13375 outlines a federal response, and the DHS memo lists numerous federal authorities that will have powers of quarantine.

In addition, the Bush administration's National Strategy For Pandemic Influenza, released in November 2005, states that the federal government will impose "quarantines" and "limitations on gatherings".

With Time Magazine busy preparing Americans to accept enforced mass vaccination programs and telling them to "trust" the government and "forgive" them when the vaccines cause death and injuries, the prospect of mandatory quarantines will likely be the precursor for any such nationwide vaccination program. The vaccine to supposedly combat swine flu is being manufactured by Baxter International, who were caught red-handed last month attempting to release bird flu vaccines which were contaminated with the deadly avian flu virus itself.

Swine flu has killed one toddler in the U.S. and in fact only seven of the supposed 159 fatalities in Mexico have been confirmed as swine flu - meaning the other 152 could have been due to any number of infectious diseases that routinely kill Mexicans in the thousands on a yearly basis.

The comparative threat of swine flu does not correlate with the feverish reaction of authorities, who in the initial stages of the outbreak refused to take any measures to contain it, such as closing the border with Mexico, but after the virus had already begun to spread, they were quick to prepare draconian control measures while hyping the inevitability of a pandemic.

Meanwhile, the hysteria whipped up by the media has spread faster than the actual virus itself.

[rstar]

Texas Doctor Claims Swine Flu Cases Far Worse Than Reported, Level 6 Pandemic In Effect

Up to 25 times more victims than official figure, hospitals overwhelmed, virus already at level 6 pandemic phase

http://www.prisonplanet.com/texas-doctor-claims-swine-flu-cases-far-worse-than-reported.html
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, April 30, 2009

A doctor in Texas claims that swine flu cases are at least ten times worse than officials are letting on, and that hospitals are becoming overwhelmed as the virus has already crossed the threshold to be considered a phase 6 global pandemic.

Dr. Marcus Gitterle, an emergency medicine physician based out of New Braunfels, Texas, sent out an internal alert which contains several stunning claims about swine flu that, if true, officials have presumably sought to keep from the public.

“After I returned from a public health meeting yesterday with community leaders and school officials in Comal County and Hays County, (name removed) suggested I send an update to my patients in the area, because what we are hearing privately from the CDC and Health Department is different from what you are hearing in the media,” writes Gitterle.

The doctor claims that the actual number of confirmed cases of swine flu is 10 to 25 times worse than has been reported, and that people are not recovering easily, as has been claimed, but that many Americans are in fact seriously ill.

Texas Doctor Claims Swine Flu Cases Far Worse Than Reported, Level 6 Pandemic In Effect 300409email1a Texas Doctor Claims Swine Flu Cases Far Worse Than Reported, Level 6 Pandemic In Effect 300409email2a
CLICK FOR ENLARGEMENTS

“The way they fudge on reporting this is that it takes 3 days to get the confirmatory nod from the CDC on a given viral culture, but based on epidemiological grounds, we know that there are more than 10 cases for each “confirmed” case right now,” claims Gitterle.

“This has not been in the media, but a 23 month old in Houston is fighting for his life, and a pregnant woman just south of San Antonio is fighting for her life,” he writes.

Gitterle’s mention of a “23 month old in Houston” obviously refers to the Mexican toddler who died on Monday night and was announced as the first U.S. fatality on Tuesday morning.

(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

Texas Doctor Claims Swine Flu Cases Far Worse Than Reported, Level 6 Pandemic In Effect obama 340x169

Quick access to drugs like Tamiflu and Relenza, as well as ventilators, is preventing fatalities on the scale of Mexico, but Gitterle warns that “within a couple of weeks, regional hospitals will likely become overwhelmed”.

Gitterle warns, “ER’s south of here are becoming overwhelmed — and I mean that — already. It is coming in waves, but the waves are getting bigger.”

The doctor states that the severity of the situation has already crossed the threshold of the definition of a WHO phase 6 pandemic. “This has not happened in any of our lifetimes so far. We are in uncharted territory,” he writes.

Gitterle claims that President Obama is being advised to declare a national emergency and that this could happen within the next 48 hours.

“This may not happen, but if it doesn’t, I will be surprised. When this happens, all public gathering will be cancelled for 10 days minimum,” writes the doctor.

Gitterle advises people to avoid all public gatherings, especially those held indoors, to avoid going to their ER if they feel ill, and to take the nutritional supplements N-Acetyl-Cysteine and Oscillococinum. He recommends Relenza as a more powerful drug than Tamiflu but warns that supplies of both drugs are running out fast.

The doctor states that swine flu is infectious for about two days prior to symptom onset and that the virus can spread for more than seven days after symptom onset. The symptoms are the same as normal flu, although it has been discovered that swine flu causes a distinctive “hoarseness” in many victims.

“Since it is such a novel (new) virus, there is no “herd immunity,” so the “attack rate” is very high. This is the percentage of people who come down with a virus if exposed. Almost everyone who is exposed to this virus will become infected, though not all will be symptomatic. That is much higher than seasonal flu, which averages 10-15%. The “clinical attack rate” estimation from CDC and WHO may be around 40-50%. This is the number of people who show symptoms. This is a huge number. It is hard to convey the seriousness of this to those outside of the medical fields,” he writes.

[rstar]

great video!

[Crazy Money]

Urgent video about swine flu

[rstar]

White House Swine Flu: Aide Has Suspected Case

April 30, 2009 02:58 PM EST | AP


WASHINGTON — A security aide helping with arrangements during President Barack Obama's recent trip to Mexico became sick with flu-like symptoms and three members of his family later contracted probable swine flu, the White House said Thursday.

The disclosure from press secretary Robert Gibbs comes days after the White House played down risks to the U.S. delegation on the two-day trip that started April 16. Gibbs remained steadfast that the president was never at risk of contracting the flu, which has quickly spread across the globe.

The employee, who was not named by the White House, is an aide to Energy Secretary Steven Chu and helped plan the Mexico trip.

"This individual never flew on Air Force One," Gibbs said. "He was asked specifically if he ever came within 6 feet of the president and the answer to that was no."

The aide arrived in Mexico on April 13, Gibbs said, and became ill on April 16. He developed a fever on April 17, the day Obama left Mexico for the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. The person in question flew back commercially to Dulles on a United flight on April 18; Gibbs had no details yet on whether people on that flight have been notified.

"Obviously we'll do everything in our power to ensure that what can be done to alert them will be done," he said.

The man visited his brother on April 19 and his nephew became ill. In the next two days, the aide's wife and son also became ill, Gibbs said.

Gibbs said the three members of the aide's family are being tested to see if they had the same strain of swine flu that is threatening to become a pandemic. They have since recovered.

Gibbs said the aide is listed as suspected as having had the virus, but that the virus has run its course and the employee is back at work.

The aide worked on Chu's security detail and went ahead to prepare for the trip. He attended a dinner with Obama on April 16 but Gibbs said the aide never was close enough to Obama to put the president at risk.

Obama has had no symptoms of the virus and doctors see no need to conduct any tests on his health, Gibbs said.

He also said the energy secretary hasn't experienced any symptoms.

Asked about others involved in the U.S. delegation to Mexico City, Gibbs said no one else has gotten sick.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/30/obama-security-member-has_n_193832.html

[Crazy Money]

cough cough sniffle sniffle you are doomed

[jaybird249]

TRIB:NASDAQ Flu test kits. 5 Forward PE
TRIB is by FAR cheapest profitable flu play.
JUST ANNOUNCED $.12 EPS for last quarter and forecast earnings to increase. TRIB has skyrocketed in past flu outbreaks. TRIB will go to $8 even without Swine flu issue tyey should earn $.75 for 2009.

http://www.trinitybiotech.com/Products/A...

[cocktails and dreamz]

Swine Flu in case in Nashville! f@*@ me! lol....let's do what Egypt did and order a slaughter of all PIGS! they need to order a slaughter of themselves cause they are a bunch of idiots imo

[devilmonk]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2221852945040630461

[devilmonk]

[devilmonk]

http://www.projectcamelot.org/Alex_Jones_Bill_Deagle_Steve_Quayle_27_April_2009.mp3

[big_island]

You better check VRDEE: it is going bonkers!!!

[Specalculator1]

here' have some Habenero peppers to go with your Pork :)

I'm down to oatmeal and a glass of Oj, gotta keep the cholesterol down to a dull roar.

[gym gravity]

baller, is that a real shep fairey?

ask kermit if he can spare a dime.

[rstar]

DVAX news:
Dynavax Presents Data From Novel Universal Flu Vaccine Candidate
Last update: 4/30/2009 6:00:06 AM
Proprietary Approach for Protection Against Influenza
BERKELEY, Calif., Apr 30, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Dynavax Technologies Corporation (DVAX) today announced the presentation of preclinical data from its novel Universal Flu vaccine at two medical conferences this week. Through the addition of highly conserved antigens, Dynavax's Universal Flu vaccine is designed to offer protection against divergent influenza strains, increase the efficacy of standard vaccines, and potentially reduce the dose of vaccine to extend the quantity available during a pandemic. The Company currently expects to initiate a Phase 1 clinical trial for its Universal Flu vaccine in the first half of 2010.
"As we see new pandemic threats emerge, we believe that our Universal Flu approach represents a state-of-the-art intervention with the potential to provide broad protection against new strains of the influenza virus," commented Dino Dina, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Dynavax. "We have an urgent need for vaccines that can protect against unpredictable mutations of the influenza virus and reduce mortality and morbidity during pandemic outbreaks."
About Dynavax's Universal Flu Vaccine
Standard annual flu vaccines are designed to provide protection against the three strains of the influenza virus that are predicted to be most prevalent in the upcoming flu season. As such, these vaccines do not provide protection against divergent strains that emerge unexpectedly.
Dynavax's novel Universal Flu vaccine is designed to offer protection against divergent strains as well as increase the efficacy and potentially reduce the dose of standard flu vaccine. This unique approach is based on combining two highly conserved antigens and Dynavax's proprietary second-generation TLR9 agonist with standard flu vaccines:
-- Two highly conserved antigens NP and M2e offer protection against divergent strains
Dynavax's Universal Flu vaccine includes two conserved antigens, NP and M2e, which are present in all flu strains. NP, or nucleoprotein, is highly conserved across human and animal strains, while M2e, the extracellular domain of the matrix 2 protein, is conserved but with some variations among species. NP provides cytotoxic T-cell protection and M2e offers protective antibodies for protection against divergent strains.
-- Dynavax's proprietary second-generation TLR9 agonist to enhance efficacy and enable dose-sparing
The conserved antigens NP and M2e are linked to Dynavax's proprietary second-generation TLR9 agonist. This approach has demonstrated the potential to boost the immune response and enable dose sparing, which could extend the quantity of standard flu vaccine available during a pandemic.
-- Standard flu vaccine
Dynavax's Universal Flu vaccine combines the conserved antigens NP and M2e with the Company's proprietary TLR9 agonist and the standard vaccine, which provides neutralizing antibodies. The Company's proprietary component (NP/M2e-ISS) could be combined with any standard flu vaccine, including standard trivalent influenza vaccine (TIV), and emerging strains such as H5N1 or H1N1.
Dynavax's research and development program has been partially funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dynavax has established a worldwide supply and option agreement with Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, Inc. for the Company's Universal Flu vaccine program.
Data Presentations at Medical Conferences
Dynavax is presenting data on its Universal Flu vaccine this week at two medical conferences:
-- Third International Conference on Influenza Vaccines for the World in Cannes, France April 27 - 30, 2009
-- Twelfth Annual Conference on Vaccine Research in Baltimore, Maryland April 27 - 29, 2009
These presentations are titled "A Universal Influenza Vaccine: Generating Broad Immunity Using an M2e/NP Fusion Protein" and are posted on Dynavax's website at .
About Dynavax
Dynavax Technologies Corporation, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers and develops a diversified pipeline of novel Toll-like Receptor (TLR) based product candidates. Based on Dynavax's proprietary technologies, these products specifically modify the innate immune response to infectious, respiratory, autoimmune, and inflammatory diseases. Dynavax has partnerships with leading pharmaceutical companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, and Novartis as well as funding from Symphony Dynamo, Inc. and the National Institutes of Health. For more information visit .
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including statements about preclinical data for the Company's Universal Flu vaccine, whether preclinical data can be replicated in human subjects, potential product features, whether or not Novartis would exercise its option for rights and the possibility and potential timing of planned clinical trials. Actual results may differ materially from those set forth in this press release due to the risks and uncertainties inherent in our business, including difficulties or delays in development and initiation of pre-clinical studies and clinical trials; competition from other companies; the ability to obtain additional financing to support operations and other risks detailed in the "Risk Factors" section of our current periodic reports with the SEC. We undertake no obligation to revise or update information herein to reflect events or circumstances in the future, even if new information becomes available.
SOURCE: Dynavax Technologies Corporation

Dynavax Technologies Corporation Amy Figueroa, 510-665-7211 Investor Relations and Corporate Communications [e-mail]

Copyright Business Wire 2009

[BIG BALLER]

smoked pork is good~it's just hard to keep lit!LoL!

[littlejohn]

I'm certainly gonna avoid kissin any pigs for awhile but giving up some b-b-q spare ribs or pork chops may be harder to do...LJ

[BIG BALLER]

ok,show of hands~who has stopped eating pork?...i'm about to eat some pork chops and sour kraut i'll try n' report back if i survive !!!
lol
*peace world!HA!

[CHA$E]

TAMIFLU MANUFACTURER PREDICTED A 531% INCREASE IN SALES IN 2009

Given all that is going on with the "Swine Flu" this should come as no surprise. What is a surprise, however, is that this prediction appears in a 2008 report to stockholders.

Talk about foresight huh? From the report:

"FY 2009 Outlook
Increased Sales and Income Expected in FY 2009
Due to Higher Sales of Growth Drivers
In FY2009, we expect revenues of ¥400 billion, up 22.4%
year-on-year, driven by further growth of our major
products. We project a 7.6% increase in product sales
excluding Tamiflu to ¥337.3 billion.
For the year, we forecast sales of Tamiflu to reach ¥53.0
billion, up 531.0%, due to expected resumption of gov-
ernment stockpiling in FY2009 and the ongoing recovery
of the prescription rate for seasonal influenza."s

You can download the stockholder report PDF here: (the info is on page 6)

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-252013

Oh, and here's another little "fun fact/coincidence" about Tamiflu: (some people are just ALWAYS in the right place at the right time huh?)

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20ME20051026&articleId=1148

[littlejohn]

Huntsville, Al., Madison Elementary closing for 7 days due to potential testing of 2 students with the H1N1 virus...Unconfirmed testing right now...

Fort Worth, Texas, closing all schools due to potential of students encountering the H1N1 virus until May, 11th...

As of now 74 schools nationwide have announced closings to address and assess the virus impact...

Level 5 move is to contain the potential virus impact that appears to be unfolding...

This is somewhat of a new occurence for most of us watching things unfold...LJ

[CHA$E]

Obama Didn't Get Sick on Mexico Trip?


In the midst of dealing with the widening swine flu outbreak, the White House struggled Monday to convince the world -- and in particular the media -- that the president had not been infected.

Speculation had exploded after foreign newspapers reported that the president's tour guide at a Mexico City museum on April 16 had died from flulike symptoms the next day. (He did die -- but not of swine flu, it turns out, or on April 17.)

In his daily briefing to reporters, press secretary Robert Gibbs became exasperated after saying over and over again that Obama was not infected, not even sick.

"I just, again -- boy, I'm glad I'm not a public health spokesman," Gibbs said. "Let me just do this one more time. The doctors have informed me, based on my personal curiosity, knowing of yours, that the president's health was never in any danger; that he has not exhibited any symptoms; neither has anybody traveling with him; neither has any of the press that traveled with him, that I'm aware of, exhibited any symptoms that would cause some reason for concern."

Hours later, the White House felt compelled to distribute a statement from the Mexican Embassy backing up its story:

"Mr. Felipe Solís, Director of Mexico's National Anthropology Museum, died on April 23rd, a week after he welcomed Presidents Obama and Calderón at the Museum. He died of complications of a preexisting condition and not of swine flu," it said.

Later came an official White House fact sheet stating it again, this time in Q&A form: "Was Felipe Solis the President's tour guide in Mexico city, and did he die of swine flu? No. The Mexican embassy has issued a statement clarifying that Mr. Solis's death was not caused by swine flu."

-- Michael D. Shear

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/27/AR2009042703597.html

[BIG BALLER]

".. swine flu was God's revenge against "infidels."..."?????ROTFLMFFAO!!!!!LOOK OUT McRIBBBBBBBBB!!!!!!HA!BWAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!

[rstar]

Corporate Social Responsibility at Smithfield Foods
The way we see it, how we bring you good food is just as important as the food itself. In all we do, Smithfield Foods remains committed to environmental leadership, food safety, employee safety, animal welfare and community involvement.

[rstar]

Flying Pigs, Tamiflu and Factory Farms

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=ENG20090429&articleId=13408

by F. William Engdahl

Global Research, April 29, 2009


If we are to believe what our trusted international media report, the world is on the brink of a global pandemic outbreak of a new deadly strain of flu, H1N1 as it has been labelled, or more popularly, Swine Flu. As the story goes, the outbreak of the deadly flu was first discovered in Mexico. According to press reports, after several days, headlines reported as many as perhaps 150 deaths in Mexico were believed caused by this virulent people-killing pig virus that has spread to humans and now is allegedly being further spread from human to human. Cases were being reported hourly from Canada to Spain and beyond. The only thing wrong with this story is that it is largely based on lies, hype and coverup of possible real causes of Mexican deaths.



One website, revealingly named Swine Flu Vaccine, reports the alarming news, ‘One out of every five residents of Mexico's most populous city wore masks to protect themselves against the virus as Mexico City seems to be the epicenter of the outbreak. As many as 103 deaths have been attributed to the swine flu so far with many more feared to be on the horizon. The health department of Mexico said an additional 1,614 reported cases have been documented.’ We are told that the H1N1 ‘shares genetic material from human, avian and swine influenza viruses.’1



Airports around the world have installed passenger temperature scans to identify anyone with above normal body temperature as possible suspect for swine flu. Travel to Mexico has collapsed. Sales of flu vaccines, above all Tamiflu from Roche Inc., have exploded in days. People have stopped buying pork fearing certain death. The World Health Organization has declared a ‘a public health emergency of international concern,’ defined by them as ‘an occurrence or imminent threat of illness or health conditions caused by bioterrorism, epidemic or pandemic disease, or highly fatal infectious agents or toxins that pose serious risk to a significant number of people.’2



What are the symptoms of this purported Swine Flu? That’s not at all clear according to virologists and public health experts. They say Swine Flu symptoms are relatively general and nonspecific. ‘So many different things can cause these symptoms. it is a dilemma,’ says one doctor interviewed by CNN. ‘There is not a perfect test right now to let a doctor know that a person has the Swine Flu.’ It has been noted that most individuals with Swine Flu had an early on set of fever. Also it was common to see dizziness, body aches and vomiting in addition to the common sneezing, headache and other cold symptoms. These are symptoms so general as to say nothing.



The US Government’s Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta states on its official website, ‘Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza viruses that causes regular outbreaks in pigs. People do not normally get swine flu, but human infections can and do happen. Swine flu viruses have been reported to spread from person-to-person, but in the past, this transmission was limited and not sustained beyond three people.’ Nonetheless they add, ‘CDC has determined that this swine influenza A (H1N1) virus is contagious and is spreading from human to human. However, at this time, it is not known how easily the virus spreads between people.’3



How many media that have grabbed on the headline ‘suspected case of Swine Flu’ in recent days bother to double check with the local health authorities to ask some basic questions? For example, the number of confirmed cases of H1N1 and their location? The number of deaths confirmed to have resulted from H1N1? Dates of both? Number of suspected cases and of suspected deaths related to the Swine Flu disease?



Some known facts

According to Biosurveillance, itself part of Veratect, a US Pentagon and Government-linked epidemic reporting center, on April 6, 2009 local health officials declared a health alert due to a respiratory disease outbreak in La Gloria, Perote Municipality, Veracruz State, Mexico.



They reported, ‘Sources characterized the event as a ‘strange’ outbreak of acute respiratory infection, which led to bronchial pneumonia in some pediatric cases. According to a local resident, symptoms included fever, severe cough, and large amounts of phlegm. Health officials recorded 400 cases that sought medical treatment in the last week in La Gloria, which has a population of 3,000; officials indicated that 60% of the town’s population (approximately 1,800 cases) has been affected. No precise timeframe was provided, but sources reported that a local official had been seeking health assistance for the town since February.’ What they later say is ‘strange’ is not the form of the illness but the time of year as most flu cases occur in Mexico in the period October to February.

The report went on to note, ‘Residents claimed that three pediatric cases, all under two years of age, died from the outbreak. However, health officials stated that there was no direct link between the pediatric deaths and the outbreak; they stated the three fatal cases were "isolated" and "not related" to each other.’

Then, most revealingly, the aspect of the story which has been largely ignored by major media, they reported, ‘Residents believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies, which in turn led to the disease outbreak. According to residents, the company denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to "flu." However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms.’4

Since the dawn of American ‘agribusiness,’ a project initiated with funding by the Rockefeller Foundation in the 1950’s to turn farming into a pure profit maximization business, US pig or hog production has been transformed into a highly efficient, mass production industrialized enterprise from birth to slaughter. Pigs are caged in what are called Factory Farms, industrial concentrations which are run with the efficiency of a Dachau or Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. They are all conceived by artificial insemination and once born, are regularly injected with antibiotics, not because of illnesses which abound in the hyper-crowded growing pens, but in order to make them grow and add weight faster. Turn around time to slaughter is a profit factor of highest priority. The entire operation is vertically integrated from conception to slaughter to transport distribution to supermarket.

Granjas Carroll de Mexico (GCM) happens to be such a Factory Farm concentration facility for hogs. In 2008 they produced almost one million factory hogs, 950,000 according to their own statistics. GCM is a joint venture operation owned 50% by the world’s largest pig producing industrial company, Smithfield Foods of Virginia.5 The pigs are grown in a tiny rural area of Mexico, a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and primarily trucked across the border to supermarkets in the USA, under the Smithfields’ family of labels. Most American consumers have no idea where the meat was raised.

Now the story becomes interesting.

Manure Lagoons and other playing fields

The Times of London interviewed the mother of 4-year-old Edgar Hernandez of La Gloria in Veracruz, the location of the giant Smithfield Foods hog production facility. Their local reporter notes, ‘Edgar Hernández plays among the dogs and goats that roam through the streets, seemingly unaware that the swine flu he contracted a few weeks ago — the first known case — has almost brought his country to a standstill and put the rest of the world on alert. ‘I feel great,’ the five-year-old boy said. ‘But I had a headache and a sore throat and a fever for a while. I had to lay down in bed.’’

The reporters add, ‘It was confirmed on Monday (April 27 2009-w.e.) that Edgar was the first known sufferer of swine flu, a revelation that has put La Gloria and its surrounding factory pig farms and ‘manure lagoons’ at the centre of a global race to find how this new and deadly strain of swine flu emerged.’ 6

That’s quite interesting. They speak of ‘La Gloria and its surrounding factory pig farms and ‘manure lagoons.’’ Presumably the manure lagoons around the LaGloria factory pig farm of Smithfield Foods are the waste dumping place for the feces and urine waste from at least 950,000 pigs a year that pass through the facility. The Smithfield’s Mexico joint venture, Norson, states that alone they slaughter 2,300 pigs daily. That’s a lot. It gives an idea of the volumes of pig waste involved in the concentration facility at La Gloria.

Significantly, according to the Times reporters, ‘residents of La Gloria have been complaining since March that the odour from Granjas Carroll’s pig waste was causing severe respiratory infections. They held a demonstration this month at which they carried signs of pigs crossed with an X and marked with the word peligro (danger).’7 There have been calls to exhume the bodies of the children who died of pneumonia so that they could be tested. The state legislature of Veracruz has demanded that Smithfield’s Granjas Carroll release documents about its waste-handling practices. Smithfield Foods reportedly declined to comment on the request, saying that it would ‘not respond to rumours.’8

A research compilation by Ed Harris reported, ‘According to residents, the company denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to ‘flu.’ However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms.’9 That would imply that the entire Swine Flu scare might have originated from the PR spin doctors of the world’s largest industrial pig factory farm operation, Smithfield Foods.

The Vera Cruz-based newspaper La Marcha blames Smithfield’s Granjos Carroll for the outbreak, highlighting inadequate treatment of massive quantities of animal waste from hog production.10

Understandably the company is perhaps more than a bit uncomfortable with the sudden attention. The company, which supplies the McDonald’s and Subway fast-food chains, was fined $12.3 million in the United States 1997 for violating the Clean Water Act. Perhaps they are in a remote tiny Mexican rural area enjoying a relatively lax regulatory climate where they need not worry about being cited for violations of any Clean Water Act.





Pig Factory Farm Industrial Production is a classic breeder of disease and toxins but little attention is being paid to this source

Factory Farms as toxic concentrations

At the very least the driving force for giant industrial agribusiness outsourcing of facilities to third world sites such as Veracruz, Mexico has more to do with further cost reduction and lack of health and safety scrutiny than it does with improving the health and safety quality of the food end product. It has been widely documented and subject of US Congressional reports that large-scale indoor animal production facilities such as that of Granjos Carroll are notorious breeding grounds for toxic pathogens.

A recent report by the US Pew Foundation in cooperation with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health notes, ‘the method of producing food animals in the United States has changed from the extensive system of small and medium-sized farms owned by a single family to a system of large, intensive operations where the animals are housed in large numbers in enclosed structures that resemble industrial buildings more than they do a traditional barn. That change has happened primarily out of view of consumers but has come at a cost to the environment and a negative impact on public health, rural communities, and the health and well-being of the animals themselves. 11



The Pew study notes, ‘The diversified, independent, family-owned farms of 40 years ago that produced a variety of crops and a few animals are disappearing as an economic entity, replaced by much larger, and often highly leveraged, farm factories. The animals that many of these farms produce are owned by the meat packing companies from the time they are born

or hatched right through their arrival at the processing plant and from there to market.’ 12



The study emphasizes that application of ‘untreated animal waste on cropland can contribute to excessive nutrient loading, contaminate surface waters, and stimulate bacteria and algal

growth and subsequent reductions in dissolved oxygen concentrations in surface waters.’13



That is where the real investigation ought to begin, with the health and sanitary dangers of the industrial factory pig farms like the one at Perote in Veracruz. The media spread of panic-mongering reports of every person in the world who happens to contract ‘symptoms’ which vaguely resemble flu or even Swine Flu and the statements to date of authorities such as WHO or CDC are far from conducive to a rational scientific investigation..



Tamiflu and Rummy



In October 2005 the Pentagon ordered vaccination of all US military personnel worldwide against what it called Avian Flu, H5N1. Scare stories filled world media. Then, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced he had budgeted more than $1 billion to stockpile the vaccine, Oseltamivir sold under the name, Tamiflu. President Bush called on Congress to appropriate another $2 billion for Tamiflu stocks.



What Rumsfeld neglected to report at the time was a colossal conflict of interest. Prior to coming to Washington in January 2001, Rumsfeld had been chairman of a California pharmaceutical company, Gilead Sciences. Gilead Sciences held exclusive world patent rights to Tamiflu, a drug it had developed and whose world marketing rights were sold to the Swiss pharma giant, Roche. Rumsfeld was reportedly the largest stock holder in Gilead which got 10% of every Tamiflu dose Roche sold. 14 When it leaked out, the Pentagon issued a curt statement to the effect that Secretary Rumsfeld had decided not to sell but to retain his stock in Gilead, claiming that to sell would have indicated something to hide.’ That agonizing decision won him reported added millions as the Gilead share price soared more than 700% in weeks.



Tamiflu is no mild candy to be taken lightly. It has heavy side effects. It contains matter that could have potentially deadly consequences for a person’s breathing and often reportedly leads to nausea, dizziness and other flu-like symptoms.



Since the outbreak of Swine Flu Panic (not Swine Flu but Swine Flu Panic) sales of Tamiflu as well as any and every possible drug marketed as flu related have exploded. Wall Street firms have rushed to issue ‘buy’ recommendations for the company. ‘Gimme me a shot Doc, I don’t care what it is…I don’ wanna die…’



Panic and fear of death was used by the Bush Administration skilfully to promote the Avian Flu fraud. With ominous echoes of the current Swine Flu scare, Avian Flu was traced back to huge chicken factory farms in Thailand and other parts of Asia whose products were shipped across the world. Instead of a serious investigation into the sanitary conditions of those chicken factory farms, the Bush Administration and WHO blamed ‘free-roaming chickens’ on small family farms, a move that had devastating economic consequences to the farmers whose chickens were being raised in the most sanitary natural conditions. Tyson Foods of Arkansas and CG Group of Thailand reportedly smiled all the way to the bank.



Now it remains to be seen if the Obama Administration will use the scare around so-called Swine Flu to repeat the same scenario, this time with ‘flying pigs’ instead of flying birds. Already Mexican authorities have reported that the number of deaths confirmed from so-called Swine Flu is 7 not the 150 or more bandied in the media and that most other suspected cases were ordinary flu or influenza.



(To be continued)

F. William Engdahl is author of Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation (Global Rersearch, 2007, see below) and A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order (Pluto Press). His new book, Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order (Third Millennium Press) is due out end of May. He may be contacted through his website: www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net.



Notes

1 Health Advisory, accessed in http://www.swine-flu-vaccine.info/.

2 Ibid.

3 Centers for Disease Control, Swine Influenza and You, accessed in
http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/swineflu_you.htm.

4 Biosurveillance, Swine Flu in Mexico- Timeline of Events, April 24, 2009, accessed in
http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/biosurveillance/2009/04/swine-flu-in-mexico-timeline-of-events.html.

5 Smithfield Foods website, accessed in
http://www.smithfieldfoods.com/our_company/our_family/Norson.aspx.

6] Ruth Maclean in La Gloria and Chris Ayres in Mexico City, I had a headache and fever’ says boy who survived, London Times, April 28, 2009.

7] Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 Ed Harris, Bloggers Examine Environmental Role in Mexico Swine Flu Outbreak, April 27, 2009, accessed in
http://www.planetthoughts.org/?pg=pt/Whole&qid=2870.

10 Ibid.

11 The Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm

Animal Production in America, accessed in http://www.ncifap.org/_images/PCIFAPFin.pdf.

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid.

14 F. William Engdahl, Is Avian Flu another Pentagon Hoax?, GlobalResearch, October 30, 2005.

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An Egyptian girl provides food for pigs at her family's private farm located in one large pig farming center north of Cairo, Egypt Wednesday April 29, 2009. Egypt began slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country Wednesday, as a precaution against swine flu even though no cases have been reported, infuriating farmers who resisted the move and demanded compensation. (AP Photo/Nasser Nouri)
Egypt orders slaughter of all pigs over swine flu
By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF – 5 hours ago
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt began slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country Wednesday as a precaution against swine flu even though no cases have been reported here, infuriating farmers who blocked streets and stoned vehicles of Health Ministry workers who came to carry out the government's order.
The measure was a stark expression of the panic the deadly outbreak is spreading around the world, especially in poor countries with weak public health systems. Egypt responded similarly a few years ago to an outbreak of bird flu, which is endemic to the country and has killed two dozen people.
At one large pig farming center just north of Cairo, scores of angry farmers blocked the street to prevent Health Ministry workers in trucks and bulldozers from coming in to slaughter the animals. Some pelted the vehicles with rocks and shattered their windshields and the workers left without killing any pigs.
"We remind Hosni Mubarak that we are all Egyptians. Where does he want us to go?" said Gergis Faris, a 46-year-old pig farmer in another part of Cairo who collects garbage to feed his animals. "We are uneducated people, just living day by day and trying to make a living, and now if our pigs are taken from us without compensation, how are we supposed to live?"
Most in the Muslim world consider pigs unclean animals and do not eat pork because of religious restrictions. One Islamic militant Web site carried comments Wednesday saying swine flu was God's revenge against "infidels."
Pigs are banned entirely in some Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Libya. However in other parts of the Muslim world, they are often raised by religious minorities who can eat pork.
In Jordan, the government decided Wednesday to shut down the country's five pig farms, involving 800 animals, for violating public health safety regulations. Half the pigs will be killed and the rest will be relocated to areas away from the population, officials said.
In Egypt, pigs are raised and consumed mainly by the Christian minority, which some estimates put at 10 percent of the population. Health Ministry spokesman Abdel-Rahman Shaheen estimated there are between 300,000-350,000 pigs in Egypt.
"It has been decided to immediately start slaughtering all the pigs in Egypt using the full capacity of the country's slaughterhouses," Health Minister Hatem el-Gabaly told reporters after a Cabinet meeting with President Hosni Mubarak.
Global health experts said the mass slaughter of pigs is entirely unnecessary and a waste of resources. But Egypt's reaction was colored by its experiences with bird flu.
Bird flu started sweeping through poultry populations across Asia in 2003 and then jumped to humans, killing more than 250 worldwide.
Egypt was among the countries hardest hit. According to the World Health Organization, it has the world's fourth highest death toll — after Indonesia, Vietnam and China — and the largest outside of Asia. WHO has confirmed 23 deaths in Egypt and Egyptian authorities have reported three more deaths in recent weeks.
Chickens used to roam every dusty street in every village across Egypt, and many of its city alleys too. But when the disease first appeared here in February 2006, 25 million birds were killed within weeks, devastating the poultry sector and particularly the family farmers. Chickens nearly all vanished from sight, slaughtered, abandoned or locked away by a population increasingly aware of, and frightened by, the disease's stubborn grip.
The latest measure appeared designed to avert a similar panic.
Swine flu is blamed for more than 150 deaths in Mexico and U.S. health officials reported on Wednesday the first known death outside Mexico — a 23-month-old Mexican boy in Texas. It has spread to Europe, Asia and Israel, which shares a border with Egypt.
Experts suspect swine flu, a strange new mix of pig, bird and human flu virus, originated with pigs then jumped to humans and is now spreading through human-to-human contact. Health authorities have said you cannot contract the flu by eating pork.
"It is unfortunate," the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Chief Veterinary Officer Joseph Domenech said of Egypt's decision. "The crisis today is in transmission from human to human. It has nothing to do with pigs," he told The Associated Press.
In the northern suburbs of Cairo Wednesday, health authorities killed 250 pigs and buried them. Angry farmers demanded compensation and provincial governors paid them around 1,000 Egyptian pounds (about $180) per head. The farmers asked for an official government decision to set a price for each pig slaughtered.
Agriculture Minister Amin Abaza told reporters that farmers would be allowed to sell the pork meat so there would be no need for compensation.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jc_pijXYi6E50wDepameI2ZTf9iAD97S7UPG2

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Nope, too much spice in my diet..lol