Hi everyone. I live in Mexico City and as many of you will know there is an epidemy of human swine influenza in Mexico City and supposedly there has been reported this disease in other countries such as the U.S, England and France. The media are only spreading mass histeria with this virus. I think that the way that the information is being handled is a little obscure. Of course there are a lot of conspiracy theories about this disease, like that Mexico requested a large credit or that it is way to distract attention from the fact the military troops from the U.S. can do whatever they want in Mexico. I would like to know what do you think about this Inluenza disease or what you have heard in your countries. Thank you.
Stay safe mate, it's a common HN1 variant/mutation and it happens naturally now and then. NO one ehre is talking conspiracy theories yet but it is a hot topic. BBC News website is usually good http://news.bbc.co.uk/
meh... conspiracy theories are just that. Theories.. and usually very poorly constructed ones. The story is in all of the media and is relatively accurate so far. All the different media outlets will put their own bit of spin on it... but they all source their stories from the newswire services. Associated Press, AFP etc. The virus is very real and it a real threat. There are confirmed counts of dead people due to the virus and it has spread to other places so far. Besides... the US troops wouldn't set foot in Mexico. LOL!! We are too in debt from our last ridiculous military adventure and the cartels would definitely give the army et. al a run for their money. So I wouldn't worry about that. Mexico has been taking a beating in the US as of late anyhow over illegal immigration and over the cartel wars that are heating up. But so far the news media luckily hasn't been referring to it exclusively as 'the mexican swine flu' or 'the mexican flu'... so that's a good sign. I know that in Hong Kong when we had the SAR's virus outbreak - also a flu virus... but associated with civet cats and birds... HK had a hell of a PR job because HK is commonly referred to as the S.A.R. - special administrative region of China... so having a deadly virus killing people calles SARs sure hurt the tourist industry. So yeah killer flu's are the real deal. Humanity has to deal with them every once in a while... it's only a short time since we've actually been recording the specifics of disease history... the last big flu being in 1918: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic So yeah it's real. No it's not being touted as a reason to invade Mexico. Come on man... we got Obama for yo mama and he's too busy cleaning up the mess left by Bush et. al
You're so naive, this is clearly an attempt by the New World Order(R)(C) to control us through the use of tamiflu. Fight the Power! Or it could just be flu.
The only conspiracy is that people in rich countries don't seem to be dying of this flu and yet poor mexicans are. So maybe the Rich western countries could spare some Tamiflu for the source of the disease and then shock of shocks it might not spread. The Bear.
Would be a brave country that would part with even a tiny part of it's own flu med stockpile at the moment. Far too late for containment now anyway, just gotta hold on and ride it out.
Im waiting for Dhalsim On to come on here to tell us its a conspiracy by the governement in population control, and the strain was invented in a US lab somewhere. A secret US Lab of course. Garth
You'd think if it was meant to be used as a weapon they would have made it a bit more dangerous and/or drug resistant. By jove I've got it! It's a conspiracy by big pharma to get us to buy more flu meds. It was so obvious!
I'm not worried yet, in the uk we get 3-4000 deaths a year attributed to bog standard influenza and so far we've had two people with the new swine flu who caught it in mexico and are recovering. Personally I'm going to enjoy the cheap pork and start thinking up some jokes revolving aroung bird flu and male chauvinist flu.
pulp fiction> I agree with you that media portrayals haven't been great on this and have leant towards the alarmist. Though it's definitely not a conspiracy so the US military can enter... I wrote an article discussing this very topic, have a look if you want:http://godknowswhat.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/swine-flu-hysteria/
man, i was looking forward for some puerco pibil. As Slip said, just be careful and follow the safety pre cautions. This (obviously) hurts tourism for Mexico, especially over in UK where Britons love to visit. Also about the SARs breakout in Hong Kong, I remember many Chinese people being herded into a coach and sent to a camp to avoid spreading the illness. Then a whole load of villagers turned up saying they want em gone. It wasnt a nice time, I had a lot of flack from people turning up at my restaurant giving ignorant comments.
Not to detract from the more serious issues in Mexico, but for the rest of the world: How to survive the APORKALYPSE
Here's a film idea: APORKALYPSE - THE REVENGE OF PORKY PIG I think I will get a double order of Baby Back ribs to go & spend the night watching the 2008 movie "DOOMSDAY". EPIDEMIC, AND I'LL RAISE YOU A PANDEMIC! I wonder if anyone can ask at one of these reactive medical press coverences: How many people on average died in any given year of garden variety "influenza"? Answer: In the USA it is estimated at 41,000 deaths annually.
Earlier this afternoon, the pandemic threat level or whatever was raised to level 5/6. I live in northwest Indiana, and there have been a couple cases of swine flu nearby. Correct me if I'm wrong, but going off of history, the 1918 flu pandemic also started spreading in the spring, and the first wave wasn't as deadly as the subsequent two that followed. It's the possibility of a deadlier swine flu mutation that worries me.
Jokes about Influenza are really funny. About Obama invading, LOL, we don´t want Texas back. Today they upgraded the threat to number 5. In my epidemiology clases I learned that this level was only given to realy deadly virus, like Ebola that there is a mortality rate of 90% and 3 days later the disease disappears. So I don´t know why level 5, the mortality rate of this Human swine influenza is very low. As you have already said, more people die from AIDS or car accidents than influenza.
My parents are due to jet off abroad in a couple of weeks and they're a bit worried about this swine flu (they have a bit of the old hypochondriac about them but with good reason which I'll not go into detail now). In fact, my mum went to Boots the Chemist to pick up a couple of face masks, and guess what, they had completely sold out! Apparantly, Boots (and perhaps other pharmacy chains etc.) have sold out of their entire UK supply of face masks and aren't able to get any more in as supplies are being shipped elsewhere in the world! However, from what I've been reading online and seeing on the news, it seems that simple personal hygiene can help reduce the chances of infection or spreading.
Your epidemiology class was wrong or you are thinking of a different threat system. Level 5 in this context means that a global pandemic is imminent, which is pretty freaking obvious really. Level 6 would mean that a pandemic is underway. Expect Level 6 within a month or two.
