How about a little perspective....109,000,000 people live in Mexico...2500 sick...160 deaths...not like these are huge percentages. How many people in the US have a cold or the flu right now? Should we shut down the borders? Cancel all incoming flights? Cancel cruises? In an average year 36,000 people die from one strain of flu or another. Just use some common sense, wash your hands regularily, keep them out of your mouth, don't sneeze or cough all over everyone and if you are sick, stay home.
Hi Sallldy, nice to see you post again. Welcome to a silly free for all. I don't think anyone has suggested closing borders or airports, but the cruise ship dilemma is indeed different. There are plenty of stories available about what can happen when a usually benign infection runs rampant on a confined boat - something those barge owners reasonably want to prevent in their pod people - except this is indeed different.
Mexico has but a vague idea of the numbers it seems. The official
tested & confirmed count is up:
Mexico Swine Flu Death Toll Rises To 19
Mexico Swine Flu Death Toll Rises To 19
Mexico's health secretary says the number of confirmed swine flu cases has risen to 473, including 19 people who died.
While the official
reasonably suspected death count is down:
Mexico lowers swine flu death toll
The number of suspected deaths from swine flu in Mexico has been cut by 75 to 101, indicating the outbreak may not be as bad as initially feared.
It's still a little worrisome that 19 of 473 or 101 of 2500 are both 4% death rates - which may sound like a small number unless you're one of the 4%. Really, Mexico doesn't seem to know what the numbers are. A 4% death rate is
twice as high as with seasonal flu, but if real numbers are to come forward - we hope for lower rates. It's just not reasonable to include the national population of 110 million as they're still assessing damages from the hottest outbreaks.
But there are significant reasons why this has not been like typical seasonal flu outbreaks...
In a seasonal flu season, the highest mortalities are in the ages under 4 and over 60 groups, but with a pandemic like in 1918 you see a startling loss rate in the 20-40 ages - uh, like we're seeing in this Phase 5 pandemic. Others have tried to downplay this as no worse than seasonal flu, but the claims failed for lack of facts...
And while you may not have read thru all the posts here, some have enjoyed the freedom to call me a fear monger, thinking it silly for me to predict deadlier second and third waves yet to come from this but I didn't make that up. Just referencing what real & accomplished experts with a lot more proven experience than anyone in this thread have pointed out - like in 1918, for which the best records that can be found show a surge in June, followed by more tremendous losses in the fall and then in late winter...
"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." Edmund Burke
The 1918 pandemic was erroneously labeled the Spanish Flu as best research findings really point to a specie cross over in an Army Fort in Kansas where soldiers raised some of their own in the livestock there then. Experts are still debating whether it was a bird & swine combo or jumped directly from birds to humans, without traveling through swine, a debate that may live on and on.
Lamont has mentioned the
cytokine storm a few times and possibly readers who aren't here to learn have skipped over that without looking into what it is, but it's kinda like a healthy body killing itself as an overreaction, a little like my body mistakes pollen for pathogens as happens with us hay fever suffers...
An effort to recreate the 1918 flu strain (a subtype of avian strain H1N1) was a collaboration among the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York; the effort resulted in the announcement on October 5, 2005 that the group had successfully determined the virus's genetic sequence, using historic tissue samples recovered by pathologist Johan Hultin from a female flu victim buried in the Alaskan permafrost and samples preserved from American soldiers.
On January 18, 2007, Kobasa et al. reported that monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) infected with the recreated strain exhibited classic symptoms of the 1918 pandemic and died from a cytokine storm an overreaction of the immune system. This may explain why the 1918 flu had its surprising effect on younger, healthier people, as a person with a stronger immune system would potentially have a stronger overreaction.
You see, if a young, healthy adult treats this like seasonal flu and calls in sick for a few days, his/her own body can self destruct. More here:
Cytokine Storm and the H5N1 Influenza Pandemic: The Bird Flu
Well, I live here in Mexico and I don't know anyone with the flu, nor have I got the flu. This is what happens when there are no checks and balances with the media. They can say anything and not be held accountable...it must be true if the guy on CNN says so...lol.
Sorry, that's false science. If we were to base our plans to fight a phase 5 pandemic on your personal experiences and the few hundred people you personally know - we're doomed. :shocked2:
It was just the ordinary flu, you know the one that kills a whole lot more people than this current one so far at least. Pandemic smandemic the word alone excites people, it sounds like panic. Then they call it Alert level five. O boy sound like terrorists are here. Dont you just love political correctness. Yawn.
but still take care of yourself. I hope you finally got to leave the basement......
