Germany Confirms Human-to-Human Infection.
The confirmation of a 37 year-old man just returned to Germany from Mexico who has passed A/H1N1 to a nurse means that the conditions are now correct for WHO to move the pandemic alert to Phase 6. There is no Phase 7. At the same time, Britain confirms cases of flu from likely human-to-human contact. The first case was a 12 year-old boy recently returned from Mexico. Now there are two cases unconnected to the boy -- a 42 year-old man in Gloucestershire, and now a 24 year-old man who was exposed to a friend recently returned from Mexico. The European region now matches the North American region as showing human-to-human infection in more than two countries not contiguous. Phase 6 means simply that the global pandemic is now confirmed.
Origin Unknown.
Betsy McKay, Wall Street Journal, writes that the search for the origin of the infection continues without good direction. The swine herd at La Gloria, Veracruz remains the number one suspect, but there is no evidence to confirm it is those animals. Meantime, the CDC asserts that the illness may not be severe -- that death is not commonplace. Said the CDC Director Nancy Cox, "We do not see the markers for virulence that were seen on the 1918 virus." This is not overwhelmingly convincing. So far, one in four people exposed to the A/N1H1 virus develop respiratory illness, which is a slightly worse infection rate than seasonal flu. However the outbreak continues to spread, and until and if the investigation identifies the source of the flu, major caution will remain in place. Quarantines, thermal imaging, diversion of aircraft, school closings, and stockpiling of anti-viral dosages are all continuing. Phase 6 will make these precautions accelerate. The politics of WHO, the tribal fears that the rich nations are dominating the treatment protocol, even the wildly different attitude toward pigs, will change the story as it drags out over the next weeks. The precise origin of the 1918 pandemic (below) worldwide remains in debate. The first instance of the 1918 pandemic in America was in March 1918 in both Fort Riley, Kansas and Queens, New York. By August 1918, a more virulent strain had appeared in Boston, in Brest, France, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, with a 2.5-5% mortality rate. If this outbreak imitates in the timeline, if not the mortality rate, it will expand for at least another four to six months. And then it could explode in a more virulent fashion.
(1)
Violence is the hallmark of an intellectually impoverished people. We see it everywhere where political indoctrination substitutes for education. We see it playing out in our own country where the focus of our educational system has become the destruction of the Republican Party and anyone associated with it. We have seen our schools become little more than Marxist madrassahs …and then we wonder why our institutions are failing one by one.
The only thing more virulent than pandemic viral infection is ignorance. Stoked in a climate of fear, it can incubate for decades before exploding into full-blown socialism. Depending on the length of time stupidity is allowed to incubate, symptoms can range anywhere from listlessness - an unwillingness to fight (for one’s dignity) - to outright suicidal behavior (such as suicide bombings). The expected duration of the disease can last generations (as it has in the Middle East, parts of Africa, South America and Asia) or it can be of relatively moderate duration as demonstrated historically by Germany and Japan. Instances of relapse can remain high as (especially) history is often subject to being manipulated or erased altogether.
The last serious spike in the mortality rate attributable to socialism was seen in Cambodia in 1975-1979. Death rates may have reached critical levels since in other nations thus afflicted, except we will never know about it. Nations suffering pandemics are seldom known to be honest in their reporting.
HONEST REPORTING IN MEXICO?
It seems odd that people (tourists?) traveling back from Mexico could have come into contact w/anyone who has the flu -- given that Mexico has reported 400 or so cases spread throughout a country of 109 million. Thus, there is a very low probability of foreigners coming into contact w/anyone of them, unless everyone who is sick -- foreigners and Mexicans alike -- all happened to stay in the same resort town. Or, there is a huge large number of carriers who are not sick, themselves. Or Mexico is under-reporting. Or Mexico is not the origin.
It seems human to human transmission trait of the virus is weak. Immediate family members not getting sick, especially when their children do, is curious; i.e. little Eddie and the Texas toddler.
This swine flu is a big lie. It is covering up the 10 trillion dollar banker bailout and BushCO war crimes.
If WHO cranks it up to Level 6 then I suspect it will be martial law in the states. There will be a similar crack down in other countries.
Infowars:
Statements of this nature on the "inevitable spread" of the disease, create, quite deliberately, an atmosphere of fear, insecurity and panic. They also serve to distract people’s attention from a devastating global economic crisis which is leading the World into mass poverty and unemployment, not to mention the war in the Middle East and the broader issue of US-NATO war crimes.
The Real Global Crisis is marked by poverty, economic collapse, ethnic strife, death and destruction, the derogation of civil rights and the demise of State social programs. The EU announcement of the swine flu pandemic inevitably serves to weaken the social protest movement which has spread across Europe.
In Mexico, the swine flu emergency measures which have "closed down" entire urban areas, are widely perceived as a pretext of the Felipe Calderon government to curb mounting social dissent against one of the most corrupt administrations in Mexican history.
In Mexico, the May 1st Parade, which was directed against the Calderon government, was cancelled."
I look around my country and no one is panicing. In fact, life seems to go as normal here. In spite of the "so-called threat," I havent seen any real fear around here.
B. Raman has just been quoted in The Times of India (Chennai Edition) saying that the reason the world community has not been able to negotiate a cease fire between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers is because China continues to actively support the government. It is seen as doing so to expand its scope of influence throughout the region. Some Indians see it as a slap at India because the Tamil Tigers are seen as linked to the people of India’s southern-most state of Tamil Nadu. Also, a traditional rivalry between India and China cannot be denied.
India's official foreign policy stance with regard to the troubles of its southern neighbor appears to have been neutral. Yet, they have been quietly working behind the scenes to intercept arms shipments intended for the Tigers.
There have been major protests against the Sri Lankan government on the streets of London in recent days. It's interesting that these comes just before the point when Sri Lanka will likely be able to claim total victory over the separatists, thus ending one of the longest running armed conflicts in Asia. European (particularly academic elite) support for the Tigers seems to follow the predictable Marxist pattern of wanting to foment constant chaos. Witness, the annual May Day riots in the various European capitals.
The Chinese, in their alleged support of this phase of the Sri Lankan government’s 30+ year old struggle with the Palestinian trained insurgents are signaling that they prefer regional stability over the chaos of never-ending revolution. It is a sign of having matured since Mao’s heyday. At the same time, western Marxists cannot claim a similar maturity as they continue to revel in blindly smashing shop windows, upending cars, burning tires and attacking police with the gleeful abandon of a bunch of three-year olds.
I had a sister-in-law,a microbiologist employed by county govt.
When the Anthrax scares were running rampant she was heldover many nights to assess,investigate etc the many cases that poured into the county's Dept of Health.
I'm a firefighter, and had to deal with a number of these cases as HAZ-MAT incidents.
One thing we both agreed upon: The PUBLIC wasn't being informed of the many unreported incidents, and there were many,many that were kept out of sight of public view.
Initially the FBI would rush in and take over the testing, whereupon she'd remark:"They won't be doing this much longer...they're gonna be swamped".
She was right, eventually she was doing a lot of lab work into the night.
When she did get home, she'd spray the bottom of her shoes with disinfectant...and leave them outside, not wanting to expose her children to the possibilities inherent.
DEJA VU
Take it for what it's worth.
Protect yourselves, stay healthy.
"Cowards die many times before their deaths.
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the things I yet have seen, it seems to me most strange
That men should fear
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it come."
Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare
*Some people selectively mention war crimes , if it suits their needs. Funny how they leave out the most relevant info, don't you think?* Think?
Latest reports of Iraqi civilians who have lost their lives due to the conflict: MSNBC excerpted 4/24/09
BAGHDAD - Iraq's government has recorded 87,215 of its citizens killed since 2005 in violence ranging from catastrophic bombings to execution-style slayings, according to statistics obtained by The Associated Press that break open one of the most closely guarded secrets of the war. The data obtained by the AP measure only violent deaths — people killed in attacks such as the shootings, bombings, mortar attacks and beheadings that have ravaged Iraq. It excluded indirect factors such as damage to infrastructure, health care and stress that caused thousands more to die.
Combined with tallies based on hospital sources and media reports since the beginning of the war and an in-depth review of available evidence by The Associated Press, the government figures show that more than 110,600 Iraqis have died in violence since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
The number is a minimum count of violent deaths. The official who provided the data to the AP, on condition of anonymity because of its sensitivity, estimated the actual number of deaths at 10 to 20 percent higher because of thousands who are still missing and civilians who were buried in the chaos of war without official records.
But of course, in order to draw any important conclusions regarding the efficacy of our invasion, one would have to know, at a minimum, the number of deaths that would have occurred had we not invaded. Why don't we see if we can't dig up some Kurds and ask them?
Possible death today in Stamford, CT. Child in a immigrant community. Still preliminary. This is not a lie.
www.stamfordadvocate.com
Understood, Lou. This was info for the ones who have tried to say that millions of Iraqis have succumbed at the sword of the Americans and that Americans are evil and do these terrble things on purpose in the quest to takeover of the world.
You know those types I speak of.
The part not mentioned above was the data that showed the majority of deaths were due to "executions" in some fashion or another.
Lou: At least you acknowledged it was an occupation.
America has 789 military bases world-wide. It has 8 permanent bases in Iraq alone and one the size of Vatican City built by alleged slave labour.
From Inter Press Service News Agency:
IRAQ: Death Toll 'Above Highest Estimates'
By Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail*
BAQUBA, Jun 2 (IPS) - The real number of the dead is far higher than even the highest declared in death tolls, many Iraqis say.
A study by doctors from the Johns Hopkins School of Health in conjunction with Iraqi doctors from al-Mustanceriya University in Baghdad, published in the British medical journal The Lancet in October 2006, estimated the number of excess deaths as a result of the occupation at above 655,000.
Just Foreign Policy, an independent organisation "dedicated to reforming U.S. foreign policy" offered an updated total of 1,213,716 at the time of this writing.
On Sep. 14, 2007, Opinion Research Business (ORB), an independent polling agency located in London, produced a figure of 1,220,580 deaths as a result of the invasion.
These estimates are above any official figures from Iraq, but they do consider the reported official figures.
Iraqis believe that the authorities are hiding these figures. "The U.S. military benefits from hiding the real totals," said a political analyst who declined to give his name because of the atmosphere of fear within Iraq. "And the Iraqi government is a puppet of the Americans, so their figures are ridiculously low as well."
The report published in The Lancet did not take into account many circumstances of death, say residents in Baquba, capital of Diyala province 40km north of capital Baghdad.
"All people know that a large number of bodies are dropped into the Diyala river," said a local resident. "I was kidnapped and taken to a village called Huwaider, which is completely Shia and located on the Diyala River. Sunnis there are killed and dropped in the river by militiamen, but I was freed by the U.S Army.
"People in all the villages on the river have gotten used to seeing bodies floating in the river," he added.
"I lived in Gatoon district, the volatile stronghold of the militants in Baquba," Yasir al-Azawi, a 37-year-old truck driver told IPS. "Everyday I saw vehicles dropping bodies in the river. Everyone in my district knows this truth; that the river contained an extraordinary number of bodies to the extent that living in that place became impossible. We left our home and moved to live in the north of Iraq."
An officer at the directorate-general of police for Diyala province said the number of dead is impossible to calculate exactly.
"When the new security plan began in Diyala, some of the arrested militants confessed that they were burying bodies," the officer said. "Some of them led us to the places where they buried the bodies. We found hundreds by digging in the areas that are a stronghold of the militants, and sometimes in the gardens of the houses they were living in, or in a place nearby."
An eyewitness at the Baquba morgue spoke with IPS on condition of anonymity.
"I was looking for my relative who was kidnapped and then killed, and I saw an ambulance moving the dead who were killed by militants," he said, "I asked the driver about these bodies. He said that the Iraqi army found them in houses and in holes dug within the houses. I also saw a skeleton among the bodies."
Many believe that the number of the dead is higher than these studies reflect also because the lack of access to areas controlled by militias and other fighters prevents police and army personnel from finding and collecting bodies.
"These militia strongholds have prevented access to police for over two years now," Ali Hussein, a local vegetable seller told IPS. "Dozens, and sometimes hundreds were kidnapped everyday and taken to the militants strongholds. People heard nothing about thousands of them. Even today, thousands of families know nothing about their loved ones because they were not found in the morgue."
A policeman, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS that "we were moving the bodies from the main streets of the city through patrols. A body that may have been dropped in the street is a message for people. They dropped it purposely. But these are only a few; the bodies of most we believe were killed, were never found."
"The morgue continues to receive bodies brought by the police or the ambulance," said an employee at the Baquba morgue. "We used to receive many daily. The capacity of the morgue was not enough, so they were buried after certain procedures like taking photos or waiting for the families to ask about them and to take them. Sometimes, at times of bombing and disastrous accidents, we were receiving hundreds of bodies."
Other officials also offered bleak assessments.
"Hundreds of families come to the provincial office everyday to ask about their loved ones who were kidnapped; they do not know whether they are dead or alive," an employee at the governor's office told IPS. "Often the Iraqi army finds records of the dead from the militants through their confessions. Every week there are new lists of names of those who were killed by the militants. People come to find out whether their loved ones are dead, in order to stop searching."
New burial grounds are found often, and the dead are usually not recorded. Many residents told IPS that farmers commonly find bones in their fields.
America is not evil. It is the Global elite using the puppet presidents making America look evil. Certainly, BushCo didnt help matters much with secret prison camps, torture, wire tapping, eliminating the posse comitas act, declaring Continuity of Government (still going on since 9/11), outing a CIA agent, and 10 trillion dollar debt. America and the rest of the world has been tip-toeing to tyranny ever so slowly.
They never found Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq did they.
I figured that's why you were posting it, but my take on a fact (or factoid) should be independent of who posted it. That's my own personal stress test! Looks like I passed.
I have a little problem with people who tally deaths. Like flu deaths - 5 confirmed deaths, now 10, now 100 .... when the annual toll is 30,000 or more from the seasonal flu. To get some excellent perspective on all this, I recommend Dan Henninger's column in today's WSJ.
But I digress. The problem I have about people (mostly liberals) who tally deaths on blog posts is that the truth be told, they don't really give a rat's red patootie about the people who died. Like Arlen Specter's using Jack Kemp's death from cancer as a reason to switch to the Democrats..... bet Kemp's family really appreciated that one.
I now take a solemn oath for you all to hear and remember: When I die, if my death is used in any way as an excuse for someone to become a Democrat, I will rise up from my new condo on the 7th level of Hell and make that person very, very sorry for making any such claim.
Well it's about 650, 000 Iraqis have died due to US military negiligence as an occupying power according to a John Hopkins University study. Over 1 million refeguees that have feld Iraq for safer havens. No doubt, Iraq is in state of choas. The report does note that it could not get into certain areas because of the tribal warfare and many unmarked graves still yet to be discovered.
Let's not forget the 8 permanent miliary bases sitting in Iraq that dont exist. One military base which is as big as Vatican City, but that doesnt exist either.
If people valued life rather making human beings expendables or "collatral damage" then perhaps there would be less conflict in the world.
I agree with this!!
"If people valued life rather making human beings expendables or "collatral damage" then perhaps there would be less conflict in the world."
I cited this:
"The part not mentioned above was the data that showed the majority of deaths were due to "executions" in some fashion or another."
How many regional conflicts are there in the world where Muslims don't want to live in peace with their neighbors and therefore foment and perpetrate violence against them?
Saami- you can believe balderdash, if you care to... you can make corned beef hash, if you want, too... but, don't you ever talk bad about the men and women in US uniform. You are a not worthy to even mention them... even if you feinted some praise for them.
There does not exist a finer group of smart, savvy, loving, and dedicated people.
And the corrollary question: Why does it only matter the lives for which the U.S. is responsible, but not the lives for which the Muslims (or other aggressors) are responsible?
All other foreign policy considerations aside for a moment, if we define the sanctity of life as the be-all and end-all, then if we knew we could stop needless deaths by invading a particular country, the blood would be on our hands for not invading that country.
But the death talliers drone on and on about the U.S. this, and Bush that, and conveniently ignore deaths from all other causes. It's as I said earlier in this thread: it's because these death talliers do not, in fact, give a fiddler's faddle about deaths; death tallies are just a convenient sound bite with which they hope to discredit the United States. However, after the ten or fifteen thousandth time they go to the same well, it starts getting pretty obvious, I think.
And they are so robotic in their droning on about it too. If someone asks them to explain the why and wherefor of this obsession with U.S.-caused deaths, they pause for a second like a record that a DJ has brought back "to catch the break", then drone on , 5,323 deaths caused by Bush, 5,324 deaths caused by Bush, 5,325 deaths caused by Bush, as long as I keep counting I personally am above all culpability, and also can spell poorly with impunity - pretty neat, huh?, 5,326 deaths caused by Bush, etc.