We are now in the midst of a pandemic. A world-wide pandemic no less! Is that like repeating something to make it true?
So let me get this straight. The Mexican Flu mutated to the Mexican Swine Flu and then mutated again to become the Swine Flu. That's mutation by media, not by viral cell forms.
Apparently, the Swine Flu is unstoppable. I've seen predictions of 30% to 50% infection rates across the population. If we are lucky.
So of 110 million Mexicans exposed to the highly contagious, unstoppable Swine Flu, about 150 died. And some of those deaths may not have actually been from the Flu. They're not sure.
Do you know what 150 divided by 110 million is, in percentage terms? I tried to work it out but my talking calculator suggests that it's an insult to work with such small numbers. Apparently, I need a particle accelerator to generate the digits.
And then this deadly flu spread to New Zealand. And the people that were diagnosed with it were fed pizza and pancakes (being the only things that slide under the door) and went on to make a full recovery. Some, embarrassingly enough, recovered fully before they could be quarantined. Bastards.
Fancy recovering before stocks of tamiflu or some other vaccine could be manufactured and sold at great expense to ward off the millions of deaths - as predicted with empirical data, computer models and zombie movies.
How about using Mexico ground zero as the data source? 110 million people. 150 deaths. Maybe.
So the Flu got put on hold, and now it's back and the health authorities are calling it a panic, sorry, pandemic. Anyone with the flu can assume they've been struck down by piggy-sue, the modern typhoid Mary.
OK, I know getting the Flu can be serious. People die from it every year, usually due to other complications. But I just don't get the current hype, other than an opportunity to sell vaccines, even if they are coming to market a bit late.
Maybe they are hoping that victims of the flu will suffer high temperatures leading to delusions and loss of critical analysis skills, and will swallow anything, assuming the bitter pill to be medicinal?
If you get the flu, stay at home and rest up. Eat lots of pizza, pancakes, thinly sliced oranges and anything else that slides under a door. And don't bite any pigs.
Related Link: I can't be bothered finding one.
Note: This post does not constitute medical advice. Anyone thinking for one moment that this post can be used to formulate a medical plan in the event of sickness is clearly delusional and should be shipped off to hospital immediately and subjected to shock treatment and psychotropic drugs.
So let me get this straight. The Mexican Flu mutated to the Mexican Swine Flu and then mutated again to become the Swine Flu. That's mutation by media, not by viral cell forms.
Apparently, the Swine Flu is unstoppable. I've seen predictions of 30% to 50% infection rates across the population. If we are lucky.
So of 110 million Mexicans exposed to the highly contagious, unstoppable Swine Flu, about 150 died. And some of those deaths may not have actually been from the Flu. They're not sure.
Do you know what 150 divided by 110 million is, in percentage terms? I tried to work it out but my talking calculator suggests that it's an insult to work with such small numbers. Apparently, I need a particle accelerator to generate the digits.
And then this deadly flu spread to New Zealand. And the people that were diagnosed with it were fed pizza and pancakes (being the only things that slide under the door) and went on to make a full recovery. Some, embarrassingly enough, recovered fully before they could be quarantined. Bastards.
Fancy recovering before stocks of tamiflu or some other vaccine could be manufactured and sold at great expense to ward off the millions of deaths - as predicted with empirical data, computer models and zombie movies.
How about using Mexico ground zero as the data source? 110 million people. 150 deaths. Maybe.
So the Flu got put on hold, and now it's back and the health authorities are calling it a panic, sorry, pandemic. Anyone with the flu can assume they've been struck down by piggy-sue, the modern typhoid Mary.
OK, I know getting the Flu can be serious. People die from it every year, usually due to other complications. But I just don't get the current hype, other than an opportunity to sell vaccines, even if they are coming to market a bit late.
Maybe they are hoping that victims of the flu will suffer high temperatures leading to delusions and loss of critical analysis skills, and will swallow anything, assuming the bitter pill to be medicinal?
If you get the flu, stay at home and rest up. Eat lots of pizza, pancakes, thinly sliced oranges and anything else that slides under a door. And don't bite any pigs.
Related Link: I can't be bothered finding one.
Note: This post does not constitute medical advice. Anyone thinking for one moment that this post can be used to formulate a medical plan in the event of sickness is clearly delusional and should be shipped off to hospital immediately and subjected to shock treatment and psychotropic drugs.
Yep ... it all seems very much a sign of the times, an artefact of the immediate and total dissemination of information before any real or sensible critical assay ... and again by a world body charged with the welfare of all. Scaremongering or pursuit of financial interests doesn't quite 'cut it.'
ReplyDeleteNone of this augers well for the notion of a 'world government.'
Sure, but here's the deal. At the moment swine flu is pretty infective but not very virulent, the opposite of bird flu and SARS. While the virus is out there it will be mutating and there is a risk that it will become more virulent which, combined with that infectivity, would be very bad news indeed.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably very unlikely that a virulent strain will pop up but I quite like the idea that the health authorities are attempting to contain the spread of the virus so less people are infected before the vaccine can be developed.
And yet the more people that are infected by a "weak" strain will build up immunity to a more virulent strain.
ReplyDeleteThat logic applies better than the idea of developing a vaccine for a known strain to combat an unknown mutation of the strain.
The wife thinks they may be blowing it up so they can use up the tamiflu stocks before they expire, to save throwing them away. Then each government with tamiflu can claim however it pans out that it would have been worse without their prompt action, and people may still remember at the next election how wonderful the government was saving everyone. Whereas they would be accused of waste if they had to throw the tamiflu away.
ReplyDeleteIt may all come back to votes.
But if you sit back an let a large number of people get infected with this strain then some will die and many others will become severely ill. I'd still rather have the containment followed by the vaccine thanks.
ReplyDeletetheavatism - are you saying that they managed containment in Mexico after all? Or are you saying that millions died in Mexico?
ReplyDeleteI don't think so to either, so we are back to the usual getting the flu and getting over it.
Every year, people get the flu and just a few die from it. Why no containment there? It's impractical if not impossible.
The other argument is that this flu will mutate into a more infectious and virulent strain that will kill millions. That leads me back to my first point.
Furthermore, rushing an untested vaccine to market to counter a mutation that does not yet exist on the basis of a pandemic yields an interesting opportunity for the drug company to hide behind any result.
A bit like the Meng C campaign.
The Americans have the right approach to this i think, they're not interested, couldn't give a damn.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment the mortality rate is ~0.4%. That's probably inflated because some authorities aren't as active as others in testing but it's clear some people get very ill from the virus. In the long run it will be impossible to contain it but slowing the spread now buys time for a vaccine (which will of course be tested before it's rolled out) and might prevent the virus's peak from coinciding with seasonal flu which could put pressure on the health system. Again, I find it very hard to object to those goals.
ReplyDeleteMK, I don't about the US media but the CDC has been very interested in the pandemic.
There have been commonalities drawn between the Swine Flu and the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic. In the case of the 1918 Pandemic, it came on very mild in the spring and then came back with a vengeance in the fall when millions died. It's still can't hurt to build your immune system and be prepared, just in case, particularly as the southern hemisphere is cooling down. http://tinyurl.com/lhxb6b
ReplyDelete