Lab Created Swine Flu

Wow, this is "odd" in a bad way. Major Bio Lab Malfunction........ When I first read this my initial thought was "Ok, it's some retired guy wanting to get some face time" but now I'm not so sure as he seems to be quite well respected and also was involved in creating "Tamiflu". Read it below:

An Australian researcher has suggested that a vaccine-manufacturing accident may have created the virus that caused the swine flu outbreak.

Retired Australian National University virologist, Adrian Gibbs, was quoted ON Thursday by the website ScienceInsider as suggesting that a laboratory accident may have created the virus now sweeping the world.

"I bumped into an advertisement for an influenza vaccine for pigs that contained three different viruses," Gibbs told the website.

He added the latest outbreak led him to scour the public databases and compare the genes of the recently-discovered A (H1N1) virus-which is a mix of swine, avian, and human influenzas-with its closest ancestors.

He confirmed, as others have reported, that six of the eight genes appeared to come from North America and two others came from Eurasia, which suggested that there were two parental viruses which had resorted.

"Not killing off the virus could explain the whole thing very neatly, but it's only one of several possibilities."

Scientists with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) -who similarly are skeptical about the hypothesis- have been forced to examine the evidence and publicly discuss the idea.

Gibbs, who contributed to the research that produced the drug Tamiflu used to treat influenza cases, said he was ready to be proved wrong.

"Scientists are trained to be iconoclasts, not to believe what they're told," he said. "And they don't believe until they've really had a good go at it." source

US anti-terror controls delayed swine flu response

Scary report from the Financial Times on the Swine flu. I now appears that a huge delay in identifying the disease had taken place, due to restrictions the USA put into place after 9-11.

US anti-terror controls delayed swine flu response

Tough US import controls on biological materials, introduced after the September 11 2001 attacks, hindered the rapid identification of the H1N1 virus because samples from infected Mexican patients had to be sent to Canada for analysis instead of the US.

Health officials said the detour highlighted how bureaucratic attempts to protect the US from terrorist attacks had backfired. Confirmation of the decision, which delayed the international response to the outbreak, added to reports of hurdles to cross-border co-operation in the fight against the latest infectious disease, health officials said

Whitehouse Aid Infected With Swine Flu

Obama has lost two of his nine lives so far, this is his second brush with the Swine Flu. And un-named Aid has become infected and passed the infection on to his family. Report below:

Barack Obama aide infected with swine flu in Mexico
An official in the Obama administration who took part in the US president's recent trip to Mexico is believed to have caught swine flu and passed it on to his family.

The unnamed man, a Department of Energy employee, "came down with flu-like symptoms associated with his work in Mexico," said Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman.

"He is listed as suspected of having type-A H1N1," Mr Gibbs told reporters, referring to the swine flu strain that is believed to have killed more than 160 people in Mexico, one in the United States and set off a warning of a global pandemic.

The man, his wife, son and nephew "tested probable" for the virus but only suffered mild to moderate symptoms and recovered without receiving medication or being hospitalised.

Mr Gibbs stressed that the president had not experienced any symptoms. The employee began to feel sick on April 16, when he attended a working dinner with the president.

"He was asked specifically if he ever came within six feet of the president, and the answer to that was no," Mr Gibbs said. He did not fly on Air Force One. source

LEVEL 5 ~PANDEMIC~ Level Will be Raised by WHO

According to a report the WHO plans to increase to level 5 very shortly. Additionally, scroll down to the post under this one as 2 people who died in California are suspected of dying from Swine Flu,(UPDATE~ one of the deaths has now been ruled out as having swine flu LINK, no word on the 2nd death yet) California has declared a State of Emergency. Definition of Level 5 is below, followed by report:

Phase 5: The same identified virus has caused sustained community-level outbreaks in two or more countries in one WHO region. A pandemic is officially under way.

Considering the rapidly increasing number of confirmed swine flu cases, WHO officials have decided to raise the pandemic alert level to phase 5.

Swine Influenza (swine flu) caused by type A influenza, regularly leads to influenza outbreaks among pigs. The virus does not normally infect humans.

Confirmed sufferers in the United States and Mexico, however, are believed to have spread the disease to their families and others in close contact.

The alert level was increased to 4 on Monday, and WHO officials now say they will be forced to declare a phase 5 alert soon.
"We're still awaiting for a final confirmation from the US authorities, but it appears that there's a number of cases in New York which appear to be human-to-human transmission," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told a news briefing.

The United Nations agency also raised its alert level to 4 on Monday as the virus was detected in several European countries.

Mexican authorities say the new strain has killed up to 149 people in Mexico. About 64 confirmed cases have been reported in five US states. sourceUPDATED X2 Obama requests $1.5 Billion to fight Swine Flu HERE and information on possible vaccine being created HERE

Swine Flu Outbreaks Around the World

Just wanted to share this with my readers today. It's a good article from the Guardian in England and it reports on situations around the world, county by country. Often we forget the magnitude this can be, for instance the New Zealand cases there were 264 passengers on the same plane traced to their outbreak. Ireland has several people now being tested, results form some are due today. Additionally Ireland has 300 Irish people living in Mexico, with another 1000 currently on Holiday there, scary stuff. This most likely applies to every other country as well. I won't post the report as it's quite long, but you can read it HERE and SKY has a tracking map HERE, Also, another one out claiming possible location of the source of the outbreak in Mexico, you can read that HERE