Swine Flu news and updates thread

Hey guys,

Here is a great article by David Kirby on the Huffington Post on the possible "origins" of Swine Flu:

Swine Flu Outbreak -- Nature Biting Back at Industrial Animal Production?

www.huffingtonpost.com...

"We met with a team of researchers from the University of Iowa who are studying avian flu, and their real concern was the very scenario that may have happened in Mexico - that avian flu may get into a swine CAFO and rapidly mutate and then get passed to workers, and then on to other people very quickly," Bob Martin, who was executive director of the now-disbanded commission and currently a Senior Officer at the Pew Environmental Group, told me.

"Their concern was that new strains of avian flu combining with swine flu could make the swine flu more deadly," he said. "And because viruses pass so easily between pigs and people, the new avian component could make swine flu more virulent."

Also,

The question, then, is could the Asian avian virus contain swine flu components from Eurasian pigs?

"Absolutely," said Ellen Silbergeld, professor of environmental health sciences at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a leading researcher of pathogen evolution in CAFOs. "A pig infected by avian virus can then come into contact with swine virus, which then combines and gets picked up by a bird again. It's a viral patchwork. Wild birds can carry virus with swine components in it - a lot of avian viruses contain elements from pigs."

reply to post by Louther


yeah, i was thinking that too . . . but i can't explain the health care workers who are dying (allegedly) if that's the case.

if 1000 sick people come to the hospital, and the flu is mild to moderate in most people, i'd expect to see very few health care workers dying as a result of their exposure

only thing i can really figure is that we're getting horrible data across the board out of mexico

A third case is, alleged, to been reported in the United Kingdom

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by MonoChromeWrayth


There is no such thing as "hispanics". It happened this way because it started in Mexico. "Hispanic" is a insidious term used to generalize a lot of things. A "hispanic" can be someone who has spanish heritage, native heritage, or mixed heritage. But "spanish" people themselves are europeans, just like italians, english, or germans.
Be careful about "genetic racial differences", that lead a lot of people to very dark places, basing themselves on false precepts.

www.channelnewsasia.com...

what do you think this means?

reply to post by MonoChromeWrayth


Very interesting. I thought about it being engineered to only kill certain people, but aren't latin people a mixed race people of asian, white and black? So how can only latin people die from the swine flu if they are everyone?

reply to post by MonoChromeWrayth




[edit on 26-4-2009 by Teeky]

two scientists in surrey near london may have exposed themselves to avian flu
hisz.rsoe.hu...

This is certainly a very interesting topic. Just thought I'd share some of my thoughts from a non-scientific and quite frankly not very concerned viewpoint.

There has been a lot of speculation on why we haven't seen it killing outside of Mexico as of yet. My guess would just be regional differences in our immunities. It has nothing to do with race/genetics IMO. We all hail from different parts of the world, and all have natural immunities to different things that someone from another region may not, and vulnerabilities that others are immune too. My guess is this virus has properties that people raised in that regions immune system isn't prepared for.

I doubt this is man-made or deliberate, if it were it would be far more deadly.

I'm keeping a close eye, but I am not at all worried at this point. I'm taking the same precautions I take every flu season and nothing else.

Stay safe, but also stay rational!

NAJ

reply to post by Louther



i couldn't agree more with you in this point you made, The infection rate hasn't reach the proportion in the USA and around the world to yet understand the just how deadly this virus is. Only time will tell, and imo i think we've just witnessed the outbreak already spread globally in the past few days. The hype is more alarming at the moment then the actual threat.

This could totally lockdown states and countries around the world in a matter of days or weeks. lets hope not, i'm going to get a mask now.

Has anybody got more info on these 2 scientists in surrey near london that may have exposed there selves to avian flu in a lab?

WTF is going on!

From what I have read, the avian flu is not transferable human to human, Yet...

Calderon said more than 900 people had been declared healthy and nearly 400 others with flu-like symptoms were in hospitals being checked.

reply to post by Lil Drummerboy


Now they are saying they are going to prepare for this flu like they would a hurricane!

Um - Katrina anyone?

We are all screwed = what a dumb thing for them to say

There are questions as to why Mexico deaths and not here. As I've stated earlier it may be just a matter of time. And just think about how many people are in contact with each other on a plane at close quarters. so far, they are only watching people that came from Mexico, what about the people whom sat next to someone from there after they changed flights. that I believe is where we will loose the connection. This is going to be huge. Also I knew Yellowstone was a big deal and not a hoax, I was making light of it

reply to post by parrallel


here is some info:

news.bbc.co.uk...

News just out this morning
NZ Herald

[edit on 26-4-2009 by nzldude]

Originally posted by Lil Drummerboy
From what I have read, the avian flu is not transferable human to human, Yet...

Unless we could somehow merge it with human and swine elements.

I propose we try mixing these with the avian virus to see if we can come up with a version that is similar to swine flu - yet contains the avian virus. This should insure transmission from human to human contact.

Oh wait.... Looks like someone already thought of that.

Readers in Mexico have been emailing the BBC describing the sense of fear gripping the country as a result of a flu virus outbreak,
news.bbc.co.uk...

...and how about this for premonitory:
"The Pentagon’s alarming project: Avian Flu Biowar Vaccine"
This article dates back to August 15, 2008.

www.infowars.com...