Swine Flu. Is it deadly, or just the flu?

I keep seeing panic, and desperation, and blame. Everyone is worried about the Killer swine flu. Yet nobody seems to stop and think about what it actually is. Every year a flu virus comes around. And every year the CDC or whomever, develops a vaccine they hope will combat the outbreak. EVERY YEAR this happens. This year they called it "swine flu". I don't know why. It doesn't matter. Except to the pig farmers who are loosing their asses. Is this strain any more deadly than the regular flu? NO. Why is it that it is such a big deal then? My theory is that the media was directed to deflect attention from the really bad problems that keep happening daily in our world. You know, the money thing. It is sad that we as a world have come to the sad truth that our entire lives can be controlled by the idiot box.

I'm still new at posting, not sure how to attach a link. I did see on the front page of the FOX news site earlier today a breakdown on this and how to try to avoid it ie. washing your hands, covering your mouth when you sneeze.... the basics.
It seems that H1N1 has quieted down a little in the news recently, but the above mentioned article does say the number 2 weeks ago was around 350 now the deaths worldwide are at 700. A big jump in 2 weeks imo.

Still not taking any vaccine give me my oranges and a bar of soap.

I wouldn't call this just another flu. It is aparticularly bad one. But in my opinion, you're on the right track. Eat right, (no junk food, no fast food, lots of fruits and veggies....), excersize, wash your hands, get proper rest, avoid crowds whenever possible, avoid dirty places.....

I'd much rather take my chances this way than with any under-tested vaccine that they slapped together in a hurry. And if you really want to see TSHTF, try and make it mandatory. No way, no how am I getting this shot. Simply not happening.

I think the article was in WSJ not FOX, WSJ has alot of info. on this.
I can't find it now, back to work

For someone more knowledgable at uploading a link, go to WSJ type is swine flu on their search engine, then click on Flu Outbreak link. There's a cool little map to the right. I don't think cool is the right word, but alot of info. and stats.

reply to post by 5 oClock


so do you think it's going to kill us all, or is it just more media hype?

This Flu has made the front page on Comcast Headline News Today...

I think it is going to get VERY UGLY in the U.S.A. in the fall...About September...

It is already very ugly in other parts of the world right now...

The headline on Comcast says..."Flu death toll at 700,school closures an option:WHO"...

The death toll jumped from 429 to over 700 in two weeks...here is the link...

www.comcast.net...

I will just add to my post by saying that , the WHO says in that article that "this is the fastest-moving pandemic ever"also...

I am sure that there has been many more deaths than they have told us, the general public...From the beginning...

Because in the beginning...They were saying people that had this H1N1 flu , but that they were dieing from Pneumonia...a secondary cause...
Now if you look at the symptoms of this Flu...It gets deep in peoples lungs and that is what is killing people...

I think they were trying to keep down panic...

I have no intention of taking a vaccine that has not been tested either...I have never taken any flu shots and I sure don't want these they are pushing out now...

This is how I feel about this Flu anyways...

reply to post by sapphirearaidia


I want you to look at this

It says:

How many people die from flu each year in the United States? The number of influenza-associated (i.e., flu-related) deaths varies from year to year because flu seasons often fluctuate in length and severity. CDC estimated that about 36,000 people died of flu-related causes each year, on average, during the 1990s in the United States. This figure includes people dying from complications of flu. This estimate came from a 2003 study published in the Journal of the American Medication Association (JAMA), which looked at the 1990-91 through the 1998-99 flu seasons [10]. Statistical modeling was used to estimate how many flu-related deaths occurred among people whose underlying cause of death on their death certificate was listed as a respiratory or circulatory disease. During these years, the number of estimated deaths ranged from 17,000 to 52,000.

Fromcdc web site

Now how impressive is 700? that is why I think this is a scam. A good magician works on illusions through misdirection. He will make you look at the shiny coin over here, and pull a rabbit out of his hat with the other. I give you the MSM.

edit: cuz I cant spel

[edit on 21-7-2009 by network dude]

I agree, but for different reasons. Given the figures, I don't think this necessarily should have been classed as a 'pandemic', not yet anyway. I'm also leaning towards the numbers of death being incorrect but I think its jumped in the opposite direction. The media are actively trying to stir up a panic about swine flu and the only reason I can think of why, is that they are encouraging the population to be scared like hell so that they accept the vaccine.

Awwww, your kitty's so cute Jenny !!! .. another reason they hype this flu is simply because theres nothing else to report, and perhaps flu news sells a few more papers,.... at the end of the day its just a " flu". This will pass just as the big bad Avian bird flu passed.

Hehe thank you, he's my little bubby! My other half took that pic at 4am when we were both asleep!

I just found this article on BBC's news site..

'Need for perspective' on swine flu

By Roger Harrabin
Environment analyst, BBC News




More people die on the roads around the world than from common flu
Modern society is wobbly around "risk". The same newspaper editors who pillory head teachers for banning conkers are swift to castigate the authorities for any "avoidable" death.

So it is perhaps understandable that people in the firing line of blame sometimes take a precautionary approach that can look like an over-reaction.

On swine flu we have had earnest re-assurances from President Obama and Gordon Brown that all necessary precautions are in place and that the response is proportionate to the threat.

But it's hard to tell a proportionate response if your risks are hard or impossible to quantify.

In 1990 came the scare over vCJD from beef. We were warned that thousands of people might die.

And tens of thousands of cows were destroyed to stop the spread of BSE - the bovine version of vCJD. The final death toll from vCJD stands at 164.

In 2002 we had a global panic about Sars - a disease described in parts of the media as probably worse than Aids. It caused 774 deaths worldwide.

In the flap over bird flu in 2006 we were told that one in four Britons might die. In fact the global death toll was 257.

Policy actions

What we can't know in any of these cases is how much precautionary action by the authorities mitigated the health risk, or whether the health professionals were crying wolf.

Policy-makers... are damned if they do and damned if they don't

And we cannot know how far media hype contributed to policy-makers' zealotry actions.

The virologist John Oxford, for instance, was berated on BBC Radio 4's Today programme by columnist Simon Jenkins for describing a swine flu "Armageddon".

He replied that he had been asked by a journalist to speculate on an Armageddon scenario - which is what he did.

He went on to say that swine flu was probably being beaten, and that he was more worried about on-going bird flu. It is a fact that crises sell newspapers and increase TV audiences.

Media headlines

To put the scares in perspective, about half-a-million people die from common flus in an average year.

More than a million die on the roads. But governments are often more easily moved to tackle a short-term crisis than a long-term crisis, and on-going situations like road deaths don't register as news.

Take the two risks identified by the physicist Stephen Hawking as the biggest threats to humankind - climate change and a GM virus modified by terrorists with no human immune response.

On climate the world's politicians are failing to mitigate the risk as described by scientists. On the GM terror, there may be little biologically they can do.

Policy-makers goaded by media headlines in the current flu outbreak are faced with one uncomfortable certainty as they ponder future precautions - they are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Makes a change for a respectable news channel to put it into perspective!

Article link.

I found this on another forum and hope the person won't mind me posting it here.

"Interesting blog from a UK MP.

"Until now. The current swine flu epidemic has, I have to admit, for the first time in a decade, inclined me to question my own bravado. There's a flip and cynical media reason for that. In the past, the experts seemed to have an interest in talking up the threat, whether because they wanted money for more research, or were just covering themselves. So I, in my contrarian way, discounted the danger. But now that the establishment experts are queuing up to tell us that everything's going to be all right my suspicions are automatically aroused. If they are trying so hard to reassure then there really must be something to worry about.

But, deeper than any reaction provoked by old-fashioned journalistic scepticism, comes the fear that springs from fatherhood. What is distinctive, and deeply unsettling, about swine flu is the specific danger it poses to children. My children.
The establishment experts say that the thousands who may die as a result of this epidemic need to be seen in the context of the thousands who die every winter as a result of seasonal flu. Every death is a tragedy, but flu is an annual generator of thousands of tragedies and we must not get this outbreak out of proportion.

The words are designed to reassure, and there is nothing ignoble in that. But they ignore one inconvenient truth. Those whom flu normally claims every winter are those already frail and aged. Those who have already made old bones and sense their vulnerability with every new winter's onset. Swine flu is different. Its victims are younger. Much younger"

[link to www.michaelgove.com]

The way that the seasonal flu figures have been erroneously trotted out as a comparison made my hackles rise immediately. It cannot be considered a like for like comparison by any criteria.

How many seasonal flu deaths in summer from regular flu v Swine flu.

How many seasonal flu deaths from VIRAL pneumonia v Swine flu.

How many deaths in people aged under 65 in seasonal flu v Swine flu.

These are examples of true comparisons the other stuff is just meaningless nonsense."

I really hope that doctors, other health workers, scientists, MP's, etc, will all remember that they're also human beings with families and for them to be honest about this flu and the vaccine.

We need to know the real comparison figures asked in the 3 questions above and then maybe we can get a better overall picture. Does anyone know those figures or where to find them?

[edit on 22-7-2009 by Maya00a]

With an estimated/guesstimated figure in the region of a 0.3% death rate, I'd say there were many more things to worry about and the chances of you dying from it are so ridiculously small..... that it's almost insignificant.


It may come back bigger and badder in the Autumn/Winter, who knows.... but for now....don't panic.
Eat plenty of fruit and veg, keep healthy and you should be fine.