WHO: Up to 2 billion people might get swine flu

GENEVA (AP) — Up to 2 billion people could be infected by swine flu if the current outbreak turns into a pandemic lasting two years, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

WHO flu chief Keiji Fukuda said the historical record of flu pandemics indicates one-third of the world's population gets infected in such outbreaks. Independent experts agreed that the estimate was possible but pointed out that many would not show any symptoms.

AP Article

This whole thing can get very confusing. One day, everything is ok don't worry about it, the next OMG. Myself, I have not got a flu shot in 25 years and have not got the flu in 25 years, go figure. I do not plan to get one anytime soon either. I do not think I will be one of those 2 billion people.

If you want to see my pun intended view of how not to get the flu, see this:
If you don't want swine flu - read this

[edit on 7-5-2009 by timewalker]

I think those who fear it and are paranoid about it will be most likely to get it, and those who do not, will not. Never underestimate the power of belief and the mind, to control the body and the immune system. That's another reason why all the hype about it peeves me off.

Good god, WHO needs to shut the **** up AND STOP FEAR MONGERING, THEY ARE MURDERING PEOPLE WITH FEAR.

Hmm, 2 Billion people.

On the off chance that this is right, imagine if they all died from it, that would certainly shake things up a bit, 1/3 almost of the world dies. Good god.

That's the fear mongering again. My city (south park like) was scared shtless of the Swine Flu, last week, now their out and about mocking it.

I think the WHO is just one big dmbss add in your own vowels.

If I could say something or report something, the result of which everyone, the whole world over would think and behave in a certain way, what I have I accomplished?

There's a LOT of power and control, and manipulation bottled up in these pronouncements.

A secondary benefit, is global unity against a perceived threat, so it's like a net for the globalization of consciousness, drawing everyone together for a common purpose, in fear towards something, which we will need the PTB to protect us from.

Finally, the end game will involve injection the masses, with antivirals and vaccines which may also contain God knows what and for what purpose, but I have my suspicions. I think we're being set up in all of this to take an injection, who's aim it will be to prevent our dramatic evolution in conscious awareness, and the fear is part of that.

Fear restricts freedom of choice. So it's sucks power away, and transfers power, as stated above, simply by getting everyone to think and react and behave in a certain way, and many participants of ATS are being good little ginnea pigs or hamsters, running the wheel, and through the maze just like they should..

The way i see it - this season flu will be more serious and they have to report it.
This is their job and this is what expected of them, not "it is going to be ok,nothing to worry ,move along" junk.
But it will be a flu never the less, with few percents of lethality max, and this is not reported. One can hear it and start panic. Which is wrong and will achieve nothing, another will say - ok, this year i have to prepare for more problematic flu then usual and stock some extra stuff.
Also - it was known for almost a century that flu epidemics can be more vicious then usual and WHO should have prepared better in the explanatory department. I only imagine what mayhem will be in winter, when flu "blooms", if it is really a nasty combination ,with current media-led over inflation of the issue.

reply to post by OmegaPoint

Finally, the end game will involve injection the masses, with antivirals and vaccines which may also contain God knows what and for what purpose, but I have my suspicions. I think we're being set up in all of this to take an injection, who's aim it will be to prevent our dramatic evolution in conscious awareness, and the fear is part of that.

I will not go down without a fight. They will have to beat me down and restrain me before they will put their poison juices in me. Then I will tense up so much the juice will squirt back out.

My read of the swine flu is that we are being given baby doses of whats to come.
The flu pandemic of 1918 started in the spring, unusual, and in the fall and subsequent winter is when all hell broke loose.
If that pattern holds forth this time around, we in deep doo-doo.

Maybe an honest doctor or medical student could reply to this but....

I was told a few years ago. With any virus our body can halt it's progress.

The natural reaction the body would have is to raise the circulatory temperature- or 'fever'.
Modern drugs aim to stabilise or reduce such a fever.
Whereas what we should be doing is wrapping up and allowing or assisting the body to fever.

At a certain temperature (which I cannot find in notes or recal! - so this should be checked by someone!) which is around body temperature, a virus loses it's ability to replicate and spread. Our T-cells get the break they need, get instructions on where to go and what to do and they go off, put on their sh*t kickers and kick some sh*t

Obviously have someone cool the head from time to time, or at least read up on this.


Also, check out the followingn if you are not happy with this advice:
Clinical Virologist Provides Groundings On Basics Of The Flu

Most people don't really realize it but influenza or (aka) flu kills an
estimated 36,000 people a year in the USA. The vast majority are either under 5
years of age or over 55 years old. Cause of death is almost always pneumonia.

The current swine flu's mortality rate of 7% is not much higher that any other
flu we have recently experienced. So why the media generated scare?

And..

Originally posted by LAUGHING-CAT
My read of the swine flu is that we are being given baby doses of whats to come.
The flu pandemic of 1918 started in the spring, unusual, and in the fall and subsequent winter is when all hell broke loose.
If that pattern holds forth this time around, we in deep doo-doo.

And I believe they have every reason to assume this swine flu will be no different from the 1918 swine flu. I suppose developed countries have been lucky to go this many years without a real pandemic, it's time folks, it's just the law of nature.

....I really can't take credit for this list...

Some final info on the Flu Fearmongering:

Do you know that it was the Americans who alerted us to the efficacy of the
human antiviral TAMIFLU as a preventative.
Do you know that TAMIFLU barely alleviates some symptoms of the common flu?
Do you know that its efficacy against the common flu is questioned by a great part of the scientific community?

Do you know that against a SUPPOSED mutant virus such as H5N1, TAMIFLU barely alleviates the illness?

Did you know that Avian Flu only affected birds? Yet that was supposed to nail us
Do you know who markets TAMIFLU?
ROCHE LABORATORIES.
Do you know who bought the patent for TAMIFLU from ROCHE LABORATORIES in 1996?
GILEAD SCIENCES INC.
Do you know who was the then president of GILEAD SCIENCES INC. and remains a major shareholder?

DONALD RUMSFELD, past Secretary of Defence of the USA.
Do you know that the base of TAMIFLU is crushed aniseed?
Do you know who controls 90% of the world's production of this tree?
ROCHE.
Do you know that sales of TAMIFLU were over $254 million in 2004 and more than
$1000 million in 2005?
Do you know how many more millions ROCHE can earn in the coming months if the business of fear continues?
So the summary of the story is as follows:
Bush's friends decide that the medicine TAMIFLU is the solution for a pandemic
that has not yet occurred and that has caused a hundred deaths worldwide in 9 years.
This medicine doesn't so much as cure the common flu.
In normal conditions the virus does not affect humans.
Rumsfeld sells the patent for TAMIFLU to ROCHE for which they pay him a fortune.
Roche acquires 90% of the global production of crushed aniseed, the base for the antivirus.

The governments of the entire world threaten a pandemic and then buy industrial quantities of the product from Roche.

Predicited Sales before the "pandemic" = £385m
Likely to hit a sales figure of £1billion (=a lot of US $$)

Sounds like a lot of money to be made out of scaring the cr*p out of you!

[edit on 7-5-2009 by matsplat]

reply to post by Republican08


Just to clarify.

2 Billions infected, not 2 billions dead.

[edit on 7-5-2009 by 13Etznab]

In my opinion, since currently people are recovering without medication, I'm not worried yet. If it mutates into something worse, I'll be the first one hiding under my bed. I mean, besides those hiding under their beds already.

reply to post by 13Etznab


I know, I said, let's assume that the infected died.

Worst case scenario, I always picture it that way.

That hit my funny bone when I heard it today.
Not that it was funny, but like OUCH when you hit your elbow.

The bible says in the end 1/3 the earth would be affected by plagues , and there was the magic number.

Ama

reply to post by amatrine


Just 2 questions Amitrine:
Where in the bible does is state 1/3 will die (I'm guessing you'll say revelations - But I mean where?)

And, do you think that because people believe in doom and gloom it could make it so. i.e. If we believe something enough it could be manifest.

I know there have been threads on ATS before asking questions along those lines, some have even questioned the 'angle' of the bible in that it could have been written by the bad guys. By reinforcing messages again and again they ensure that armageddon etc, have more chance being fully realised.

if man has the ability to believe tken away, then what's left?
Personally, I don't buy it- several major 'natural' catastrophies could wipe out a large portion of population - and evidence exists for this happening.

...The WHO is very clear that 2Billion infected does NOT mean 2Billion sick or dead.

If 2Billion people get infected with H1N1 - and most are asymptomatic, don't get sick and walk around as "carriers" - and so are more likely to be exposed to a different virus or strain, then they will become "mixing vessels" for a new reassortment/recombination viral strain.

That's the real danger here.

....This is a VERY important news article. Too bad the analysis did not match its significance. ...Flagged anyway.

-sofi

WOW- This just published on BBC RSS feed:

news.bbc.co.uk...

1 in 3 people worldwide could be "hit" by "swine flu". From the article, and from the journal "Science":


"A third of the world's population could be infected with swine flu, expert projections suggest.

Researchers say swine flu has "full pandemic potential", spreading readily between people and is likely to go global in the next six to nine months.

Although one in three who come in contact will likely become infected, the Imperial College London team declined to estimate the death toll.

The study based on Mexico's experience is published in the journal Science.


This virus really does have full pandemic potential

Professor Ferguson
The number of laboratory-confirmed swine flu cases has reached 5,251 in some 30 countries around the world, with 61 having died from the disease, the World Health Organization has confirmed.

Working in collaboration with the WHO and public health agencies in Mexico, the researchers assessed the Mexico epidemic using data to the end of April and taking into account factors like international spread and viral genetic diversity.

Lead researcher Professor Neil Ferguson said it was too early to say whether the virus will cause deaths on a massive scale, or prove little more lethal than normal seasonal flu.

His "fast and dirty" analysis of Mexico's swine flu outbreak suggests that the H1N1 virus is about as dangerous as the virus behind a 1957 pandemic that killed 2 million people worldwide.

But it's not nearly as lethal as the bug that caused the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which caused an estimated 50 million deaths in 1918.

Its full impact on the UK is not likely to be known until the annual flu season in the autumn and winter, when a "really major epidemic" can be expected in the northern hemisphere, says Professor Ferguson.

FROM THE TODAY PROGRAMME


More from Today programme
Prof Ferguson, who sits on the World Health Organisation's emergency committee for the outbreak, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "This virus really does have full pandemic potential. It is likely to spread around the world in the next six to nine months and when it does so it will affect about one-third of the world's population.

"To put that into context, normal seasonal flu every year probably affects around 10% of the world's population every year, so we are heading for a flu season which is perhaps three times worse than usual - not allowing for whether this virus is more severe than normal seasonal flu viruses."

His study suggests swine flu could kill four in every 1,000 infected people.

Professor Ferguson said his findings confirmed that decisions must be taken swiftly on vaccine production.

"We really need to be prepared, particularly for the autumn. At the moment, the virus is not spreading fast in the northern hemisphere, because we are outside the normal flu season, but come the autumn it is likely to cause a really major epidemic.

"One of the key decisions which has to be made this week by the world community is how much do we switch over current vaccine production for seasonal flu to make a vaccine against this particular virus? I think those decisions need to be made quickly."