“You forget, the terrorists? they have Phd’s in micro virology you know. Think they can’t cook something like this up?”

Actually, I don’t. This isn’t like making Sarin or ordering bubonic plague off the web and thinking you can infect a bunch of rats with it. Making a chimera virus requires the full faith and credit of a sophisticated bio-lab – and unless it is state-sponsored terrorism (like from a China or Russia – which neither is suicidal to try this), I’m not worried about terrorism.

It is perfectly natural and expected that virii and bacteria will mutate and evolve and occasionally kill a substantial number of people (like the 1918 Spanish Flu, Smallpox, or that unpleasantness back in the 14th century).

“this virus naturally mutate as no scientist has ever seen before”

Again, this is not uncommon. Scientists back in the 80s had no idea that HIV existed – it didn’t mutate and jump species until then. Are you also going to suggest that a “terrorist” faction created HIV? Maybe you should get together with Cynthia McKinney and warn the people.

I might also add that it’s big government scientists and researchers from the CDC (which is NOT in the Constitution) who are going to stop this thing, so you know, everyone say thank you to Big Government beaureaucrats.

is that author Dr Preston or just Richard Preston?

You’re the only one saying things like “…shadowy cabal of socialists and authoritarians have created a virus…”

You forget, the terrorists? they have Phd’s in micro virology you know. Think they can’t cook something like this up?

you keep pointing at the government – if I was suspecting a lab, it’d be Islamic fundamental terrorists with Phd’s.

but to set the record straight, I have never suggested anything government oriented about this – only Klute is saying these wild things.

Public Health emergency declared in the US today – conference on Federal Public Health Emergency Law – Implications for State and Local Preparedness and Response scheduled for Tuesday.

The health threat is real. The only question being wondered about is did this virus naturally mutate as no scientist has ever seen before – or did it have human help.

Retroviral drugs only work at the beginning of an infection – everything after that is simply palative care – keeping the patient alive while the immune system sorts out the antigens and wears down the virus.

The only way to stop a virus is to stop it from spreading. The only way to do that is quarantine. If there’s a pandemic, the CDC and the Federal Government will have to institute a voluntary at first, enforced second quarantine.

Scientists who believe in evolution and big government agencies delivering medicine and health care for free are what stop pandemics. Deal with it.

What are they saying? That it has Pandemic potential? Um, yeah, it’s an influenza virus – the influenza has killed more people than HIV ever will. The Spanish Flu killed 25 million people in it’s first 25 weeks of the outbreak – HIV/AIDS has killed 25 million people in since the 80s. You do the math.

Because researchers haven’t “seen it before” doesn’t mean it came from a secret labratory run by the Illuminati using Dr. Mengele’s brain in jar as their chief scientists.

Pigs are natural bioreactors. Most scientists believe that’s how the most recent Avian flu outbreak happened – the avian flu jumped species from bird to pig, combined with either an existing strain of human or swine flu, mutated the extra bits to infect the human body, and then did.

Guess where the H5N1 Avian strain that everyone was up in arms about last year developed? China. Guess what China has a lot of? Pigs and birds in close promiximity to everyone.

You want to connect the dots? Let’s do it with Occam’s Razor – either nature, in its infinite complexity used the known processes of natural selection and mutation to create a new strain of virus that, in one of the world’s most populous cities with a gimpy health infrastructure jumped species OR a shadowy cabal of socialists and authoritarians have created a virus that they’re testing on Mexico before they unleash it on the United States to come up with an excuse to implement IngSoc.

Please.

Again, viruses jump species ALL THE TIME. HIV, Ebola Reston, Bird Flu – read Richard Preston’s “The Hot Zone” for the skinny.

Chill out or S.T.*.U.

You’re so snappy at the keyboard. Do you take timeout to give “two snaps up” or glide your head left to right saying, “Oh no he didn’t!” when you are overcome with a compulsion to respond to everything anyone says?

That behavior kinds reminds me of my 5th grade school marm.

Mrs. K. rolled her knee highs down her hairy legs where they rested on her giant ankles all day.

She’d fuss and fume all day long and showed her love for the students by bopping them on the head with books, smacking their hands and arms with rulers, twisting their arms/hair/ears/cheeks, swatting them with large wooden paddles and the worst – breathing her hot, smelly coffee breath right in our faces.

Her false teeth were rarely strapped down yet she wouldn’t miss one opportunity to lecture us on the ills of children in modern society- slobber and all.

She was a mean, mean lady that no one could stand but she was a decent teacher – if you could get past all of the abuse and mindgames. Sound familiar?

P.S. I went to the Simcox party in the “other” room (broom closet) and the bouncer set me back to this party palace. He said you were on his Host committee. Sorry.

Mexico’s Calderon Declares Emergency Amid Swine Flu Outbreak
By Thomas Black

April 25 (Bloomberg) — Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared an emergency in his country’s swine flu outbreak, giving him powers to order quarantines and suspend public events.

Authorities have canceled school at all levels in Mexico City and the state of Mexico until further notice, and the government has shut most public and government activities in the area. The emergency decree, published today in the state gazette, gives the president authority to take more action.

“The federal government under my charge will not hesitate a moment to take all, all the measures necessary to respond with efficiency and opportunity to this respiratory epidemic,” Calderon said today during a speech to inaugurate a hospital in the southern state of Oaxaca.

At least 20 deaths in Mexico from the disease are confirmed, Health Minister Jose Cordova said yesterday. The strain is a variant of H1N1 swine influenza that has also sickened at least eight people in California and Texas. As many as 68 deaths may be attributed to the virus in Mexico, and about 1,000 people in the Mexico City area are showing symptoms of the illness, Cordoba said.

Obama’s Visit

The first case was seen in Mexico on April 13. The outbreak coincided with the President Barack Obama’s trip to Mexico City on April 16. Obama was received at Mexico’s anthropology museum in Mexico City by Felipe Solis, a distinguished archeologist who died the following day from symptoms similar to flu, Reforma newspaper reported. The newspaper didn’t confirm if Solis had swine flu or not.

The Mexican government is distributing breathing masks to curtail the disease’s spread. There is no vaccine against the new strain of swine flu, health authorities said.

Museums, theaters and other venues in the Mexico City area, where large crowds gather, have shut down voluntarily and concerts and other events canceled to help contain the disease. Two professional soccer games will be played tomorrow in different Mexico City stadiums without any fans, El Universal newspaper reported. Catholic masses will be held, the newspaper said, although church officials urged worshipers to wear breath masks and to avoid contact.

Schools will likely remain closed next week, Calderon said in the Oaxaca speech. The decree allows Calderon to regulate transportation, enter any home or building for inspection, order quarantines and assign any task to all federal, state and local authorities as well as health professionals to combat the disease.

“The health of Mexicans is a cause that we’re defending with unity and responsibility,” Calderon said. “I know that although it’s a grave problem, a serious problem, we’re going to overcome it.”

Normal Airport Operations

Mexico City’s international airport, which handles about 70,000 passengers each day, is operating normally, said Victor Mejia, a spokesman. Passengers are given a questionnaire asking if they have flu symptoms and recommending they cancel their trip and see a doctor if they do. The measures are voluntary, Mejia said, and no case of swine flu in airport passengers, workers or visitors has been confirmed.

Authorities throughout Central America have issued alerts to prevent the outbreak from spreading. Guatemala ordered tighter control yesterday of its northern border with Mexico, according to EFE. Gerberth Morales, who’s heading the Guatemala government’s response, said no cases of swine flu have been reported in his country, the Spanish news agency reported.

Brazil is intensifying vigilance in ports, airports and borders to check travelers’ health, luggage, aircrafts and ships in a preventive action against the outbreak in Mexico, the Agency for Sanitary Vigilance said on its Web site.

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Black in Monterrey at tblack@bloomberg.net

Its a shame you never played dot-to-dot when you were a kid. bet you miss all those hidden things in the picture games too.

The posting contains a lot of factual information on this health matter. Its just so absurd when you stand back and listen to Napolitano and McSame, consider Simcox running for the Senate, a Congress worried about thought crimes.

Out of the entire blog there are only 6 lines in a PS after thought on this matter.

READ the title next time. The opening graphic is from the 1918 Flu Pandemic.

1. VV, actually, it is quite possible for a virus like the flu to mutate and combine varying strains of swine, avian, human, etc. It’s micro-evolution, and it’s happening all the time – like the drug-resitant staph.

2. The flu is humanity’s constant enemy. Anyone here heard of the 1918 flu pandemic? 20-100 million people were killed worldwide. Guess how it was spread? Soldiers returning home from war. Guess what the government did: mass quarantine. I guess Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding were trying to bring about the Apocalypse too.

“And Steve? You noticed I *never* made the denotation that this was anything other than a simpl flu outbreak with possible serious side-effects. The connection is casual at this point in time.”

So, so, so disengenuous. You’re obviously trying to create links that don’t exist. This is how paranoia starts and what leads people to head to compounds in Texas with a sinner Jesus like Koresh and to Guyana with Jim Jones.

And Steve? You noticed I *never* made the denotation that this was anything other than a simpl flu outbreak with possible serious side-effects. The connection is casual at this point in time.

Asia would be easy to pin-point for the exact reason you mentioned it, duh.

This meeting was just called, and will be held on 4/28/09. The following is the text from the FEMA release I just received this morning:

“CDC Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response, will offer a comprehensive overview of the principal federal laws that frame responses to all-hazards public health emergencies. These laws are directly relevant to federal, state, tribal, local, and territorial agencies’ emergency preparedness and response efforts. This call will present an overview of the federal authorities for public health emergency preparedness and response under the Public Health Service (PHS) Act and related provisions of the Social Security Act and the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The Stafford Act and quarantine authorities under the PHS Act will also be discussed.”

I think there was a Conservative Chimera in the crowd at Chris Simcox’s press conference Wednesday morning. He/she must be a member of the true patriot “Third Party” that Simcox has espoused in previous years.

He/she looked like a cross between a Hell’s Angel Ernest Borgnine and Bea Arthur – and then drove off on an XXL motorbike after it was apparent that Simcox was not going to be kidnapped and silenced by the Washington Elite.

Surely this is proof that Simcox is just another Big-Tent Republican.

“Scientists have long been concerned that a new killer flu could evolve when different viruses infect a pig, a person or a bird, mingling their genetic material. The resulting hybrid could spread quickly because people would have no natural defenses against it.”

We’ve been warning about Chimera’s for years!

How about any gringo packed place in Juarez, Tijuana, Nuevo Laredo, Cabo, Cancun, etc etc. Of course, nobody would bother getting it to Mexico, as it’d be much easier to release it in an airport in asia/europe that would carry a whole plane full of people directly into the US.

And, do you seriously think that if someone outside the US developed such a virus they couldn’t actually get it into the US?

I hope you don’t expect anyone (without a HUGE confirmation bias) that reads your dreck to take you seriously.