Friday, July 24, 2009

Jokes Ringing Hollow?


Swine flu could sicken 40 percent in 2 years Pandemic still in early stages, WHO flu chief says; vaccines expected by fall

U.S. health officials say 20 to 40 percent of Americans could become ill from swine flu over the next two years.

That estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is twice the number of people who usually get sick in a normal flu season.


Officials said that projection would drop if a planned vaccine campaign and other measures are successful.


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Cases in Britain have Doubled in a week to 100,000

Children under the age of 14 have become 'super-spreaders' of swine flu, leaving England battling a raging epidemic.

The number of swine flu cases has doubled in a week to 100,000 with most of the new cases among children below 14 years old, according to officials.


A third of those who have died from the virus have been under 15 and 20 per cent of those who have ended up in hospital were under the age of five.


The NHS is now planning for up to 65,000 deaths from swine flu, with 30 per cent of the population - and 50 per cent of children - catching the infection.


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8 comments:

gxeremio said...

What does the title of this post have to do with the swine flu?

Lowell Fulk said...

Jeremy,
There have been quite a few people making fun and joking about and belittling the WHO and Centers for Disease Control implying that they are alarmist and guilty of vastly overstating the potential effect of the Swine Flu.

Look it up.

Several local bloggers have pooh poohed the serious nature and have claimed the whole affair is much ado about nothing.

I would think that now perhaps those jokes should be ringing hollow.

The number of cases in Britain have doubled from 50,000 to 100,000 in one week. This is not a joking matter.

And most often, the folks jeering at those trying to warn of the terrible potential of a world wide pandemic crisis, are the same ones who claim that climate change is also a hoax, and who make fun of the science behind that warning.

That is the relevance of the title. To me at least.

Anonymous said...

Fear is wonderful. This reminds me of the Ebola scare, the Monkey virus, and the Avian flu. Not much came from that did it? As usual, we pay, the drug companies profit.

Lowell Fulk said...

Avian flu cost many people quite a bit. So also did Ebola. Some monetarily, some with their lives.
What are you trying to say?

Anonymous said...

Lemme guess...some directive from DNC, Inc. probably went out telling Dem hacks to start focusing on the swine flu, probably so as to keep the focus on Obama's flailing Obamacare proposal. Many of those poo poohing the idea were Dems before...what changed, I wonder? Hmmm...

gxeremio said...

OK I get it now. I agree, RockDem, that H1N1 is a serious issue. I took a lot of ribbing for it in the spring, but as I said then the real issue is not that everyone who gets it will die but that so many people will likely get it than even a small mortality rate will impact a lot of people - AND it will likely lead to a significant disruption to daily life in the fall.

BMI Measuring Obesity said...

People need to stop sensationalizing the swine flu. It's a glorified flu.

Anonymous said...

Fulk my understanding of the swine flu is that it is no worse than a normal flu unless you have asthma or some other serious health problem then it can be very deadly am i wrong? Please give us all any updates on this.