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

2 Die in US Swine Flu Outbreak~California in State of Emergency

A state of emergency has been called in California as 2 die from Swine Flu. UPDATED One death has been ruled out as having swine flu, no word on the 2nd death yet area bout it HERE.UPDATED X2 Additionally, this just in, it looks like this virus has been in Mexico since FEBRUARY, not March as we have been led to believe, that report is HERE Story on US deaths below:

2 California deaths may be due to swine flu; Schwarzenegger declares state of emergency

Two deaths in Southern California may be due to swine flu, according to the Los Angeles County Coroner's office.

The Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site that tests are being conducted and no official cause of death has been determined.

However, a spokesman for the county coroner told the newspaper that the death of a 33-year-old Long Beach man came after he had swine flu symptoms. Doctors disagnosed him with pneumonia.

The second death also involved pneumonia. Doctors said a 45-year-old man from La Mirada died last Wednesday at a hospital in Norwalk, but the county health department refused to sign the death certificate and wanted to investigate further, the newspaper reported.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency, setting in motion a series of administrative actions, including ordering all agencies to coordinate with public health officials as needed.

The action also suspends noncompetitive bidding for contracts needed to respond to the outbreak and waives certification requirements for laboratories involved in the testing.

In proclaiming the emergency, Schwarzenegger also cautioned that "there is no need for alarm."

The Republican governor said his priority was to limit the swine flu's spread as quickly as possible.

State health officials so far have confirmed 13 cases of swine flu in California. source And here is yet another link to this story from another source HERE UPDATED 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

Three Views on Swine Flu Pandemic

I have just finished listening to the WHO briefing. Having said that, I am posting three different views on this situation. Take your pick of which one you choose to agree with. We'll start with the most extreme version, followed by the less extreme version, followed by my version.

1. SURVIVAL GUIDE Pandemic Flu: A Guide to Last Minute Preparations

You know that crazy neighbor, the one with turrets and razor wire on his estate, five big pitbulls, a basement full of beans and rice, and suspiciously frequent deliveries from Artillery'R'Us? You always thought he was nuts, when he talked about flu being a scenario to end the world.

Swine flu is real, it's here, and we're going to have to deal with it. It's clear that this new flu is spreading person to person. Mexico has confirmed that they now have double-digit fatalities and hundreds of suspected cases. (Edit to add: Things are developing faster than I can keep up.

First off, people might not go to work, either because they've got the flu, they're too scared to show up, their workplace has been closed, or they've got to stay home because their kids are out of school. The results of this might include:

Utility plants (power, gas, water, sewage) left untended, and maintenance and routine chores neglected until they cease to function.
Nobody available to fix things that break: power lines, water mains, etc.
Public transit closed, either because there's no employees around to run said transit (or for quarantine reasons)

Farmers who can't farm, because they're sick or they can't get gas, diesel, propane, or supplies. Items stored in warehouses can't be distributed, including, potentially, food and medication and parts to fix things

Gasoline and diesel shortages
Retail and grocery stores closed

Additionally, local authorities may institute quarantines and closures. Either you may be unable to travel to get your groceries, or the groceries themselves may be stuck inside or outside of a quarantined area. (One would assume that the authorities will figure out how to safely get supplies delivered; one would also assume that there would be some chaos and bureaucracy involved. I'd rather not go hungry for a few days while they wrangle out the details.) It's the rare grocery store that stocks more than enough food for a day or two for a given area.And areas where large groups gather, including schools, retail stores, movie theaters, and nonessential businesses of any kind, may simply be closed to limit spread.

Quarantine is a real possibility.

Finally, a pandemic will put a huge stress on the economy. Businesses will go under. It's kinda hard to keep a cash flow going if you can't sell anything because both your customers and your employees are unable to buy anything because of illness, quarantine, or unwillingness to leave the house. And if people can't work because of quarantines and closures, they won't have money to buy things. Our economy is already a fragile house of cards. A pandemic would yank a few supporting aces out of the base, in unpredictable and potentially disastrous ways.

So. You need to prep in a hurry. What do you do? For those paranoid people you can readMORE HERE Now on to view #2....

2. WHY WORRY Journalist dies, oinking horribly, after failing to take Swine Flu seriously

Yeah, well I suppose there's always the risk but that's just the kind of crazy, devil-may-care guy I am. So here's my prediction: I'm not going to die of swine flu, you're not going to die of swine flu, none of your friends is going to die of swine flu, none of your Mexican pen pals is going to die of swine flu. Not even if we throw caution to the wind and refuse to wear one of those blue masks the World Health Organisation now seems to consider essential if we're not all to keel over going "Soweee. Soweee. Razorback. Oink. Aaagh!"

Obviously I don't wish to be callous about the estimated 80 Mexicans who have died of the pneumonia and respiratory illness associated with the disease so far. But 80 deaths in a country where around 4 million people die every year (mostly of less newsworthy things like heart disease, cancer, road accidents and bloody drug war shootouts) hardly constitutes the next Great Plague. So why do bodies like the World Health Organisation and functionaries like the Government's Chief Medical Advisor insist on talking the disease up as if it is?

Because this is what their government paymasters want them to do. As HL Mencken put it: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

Can you imagine the secret delight with which this swine flu threat is being greeted by embattled, increasingly unpopular leaders like Gordon Brown and Barack Obama? Besides distracting from their economic ineptitude, it enables them to pose as nurturing, caring father-figures-cum-men-of-action who are doing everything in their power to protect the health of their beloved people from this sinister viral threat.For those not worried you can read
MORE HERE Now on to view #3.......

3. My views: IT'S NOT NOW, IT'S LATER " Bait and Switch"

After reading everything I could find for several days about this swine flu, and having just listened to the WHO briefing. I am left with some nagging little problems. Firstly, anyone else a wee bit bothered that they have said "the virus cannot be contained, so we won't try to contain it" we just give up??? Now, my first thought was, Hey there, hang on a wee minute Mister "WHO" man. You just said that closing borders and restricting air traffic would NOT help to contain the virus. Say what??? Well, that makes NO sense to me! Actually, this thing is only a few weeks old, and only just broke into the US and other countries with only a handful of people actually infected so far. So, by telling people to keep traveling, this will surely spread the virus MORE!! Especially in close quarters on airplanes, breathing all that recycled air, touching seats and door handles that have already been touched by hundreds of other travellers (possibly infected) from all over the globe. This is a recipe for spreading this thing even more! So, why would they not want to make SOME attempt at containment at this early stage?

I immediately thought "money" Could it just be because of the global effect on the economy of a great many countries who would suffer financially if tourism and air travel were curtailed? Sure it would! Just think about how many airports there are in the world, airline companies, employees of air ports and airlines, catering companies, air traffic controllers, flight attendants,travel agents, tourism and tourists, millions of people worldwide have jobs associated with air travel. Not to mention the effect of ZERO tourism on countries worldwide. I believe this is the real reason they have not considered curtailing air travel and restricting borders.

Additionally, this meeting held by WHO today, began about 2PM my time, and it was expected to end in only an hour or two. Yet, it ended at 9PM my time, that's over six hours time for heavens sake! Could it be that all of those at this meeting were not all in agreement, and thus had to battle it out until they reached some consensus or were forced to agree with the "big boys" perhaps? Could it be that some of the members DID argue for an attempt to contain the virus and were argued down over the course of this 7 hour meeting? I wonder.

Here are my reasons for why they would choose to let this spread right now, rather than make any attempts to contain or curtail the virus at this time:

Our flu season is almost over in the north hemisphere. The south hemisphere is still in mid flu season though. Additionally, I read that this virus has a Strong chance of returning this winter with a vengeance. And for this reason I believe they are letting the virus go free now, during a "soon to be over" flu season. I think they are doing this so that they can study it now, for later.... I think they see this virus as a cause for real concern, just not now, but later this winter! By letting it go free now, infecting people, they can study how it works, see if people die or recover, and ultimately figure out how to make a vaccine possibly for winter as that would take months to do if at all possible.

So, I believe they are preparing for this winter, when the virus could return in our flu season and really kill many people in a huge pandemic of global proportions. I think the "powers that be" would have no qualms in allowing the virus to go free now to study,and if some people die then so be it, because the real threat is this winter.

Now, you may call me "conspiracy theory-ish" but that makes more sense to me than what I just heard at that briefing. Because if containment was a real issue, and the threat of an immediate pandemic with millions dying, then it would surely make sense to close or restrict air travel and borders IMHO.

So, there you have it, three differing views. And your view makes four:)

UPDATED the panic is beginning, a report just out that people are flooding online pharmacies e.g. chemists, drug stores, for tamifluIt's every man for himself now. Step away from that keyboard, and nobody gets hurt:)

Israel is "Speshul"

Israeli Swine re-name "Swine Flu"
Unwilling to be like everyone else in the world, Israel has decided it does not like the name of the recent flu outbreak used by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the rest of the normal world. Soooooo, since Israel is "speshul" and does not have to go by the same rules as the rest of us, you know like having to adhere to UN resolutions, Geneva Convention, War Crimes Tribunals, Stealing land without punishment, killing without being held accountable, you know, little things like that. So Israel has decided to re-name the "Swine Flu" to the "Mexican Flu" yes, you read that right. Only ONE place in the whole wide world where the virus is NOT called "Swine Flu" is Israel. Never mind that they have probably insulted Mexicans, but hey, Israel is racist and don't recognise racism. Story below:

Israeli Health Minister Yakov Litzman has been updating a nervous public on the swine flu epidemic - and he started by renaming it for religious reasons.

"We will call it Mexican flu. We won't call it swine flu," said Mr Litzman, who belongs to the ultra-religious United Torah Judaism party.
link

Obama and Swine Flu~Strange

Ok, like everyone else I've been reading about the swine flu. I came across this odd difference regarding Obama's visit to Mexico recently. Obama met and shook hands with Felipe Solis, an archeologist who died the following day. Ok got that? Now, Obama goes back to the USA and there was a press meeting today regarding the flu pandemic. The full press briefing can be read at Forbes,(link below) and in that press briefing a reporter asked if Obama had been tested or given any anti-viral flu drugs. The reporter claimed that in another radio interview that Obama had been treated upon returning home to the USA. That is when I noticed the answer on the incubation period from Obama's "expert team" giving the press briefing, seems to be different from what the CDC says on it's website. And how does that play out regarding any treatment or possible exposure Obama may have had. Keep reading, this will make sense. See below:

1.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 link

2. Today's press briefing:

Gibbs: The president hasn't been checked this morning.
Ms. Jarrett indicated today on a Sunday morning program that he had been.

Gibbs: I will double-check. I don't know of any reason why he would have been.
And Dr. Besser --

Gibbs: Let me expand that a little bit. I think these guys obviously have more medical degrees than I do, but the incubation period for this is a 24-48 hour incubation period. The doctors advised us that the president's health was never in any danger. We've been gone from Mexico for now more than nine days.

Just to follow up on what the president--for you, Robert--what the president--did you say that he has not been treated with any kind of --

Gibbs: I said yesterday that he had not been. I will recheck with the doctor. Again, based on the incubation period, neither he, nor anybody that he traveled with, nor anybody in the press corps that I'm aware of would have exhibited any symptoms that would have caused any heightened awareness. link

3. From the CDC website.

How can someone with the flu infect someone else?

Infected people may be able to infect others beginning 1 day before symptoms develop and up to 7 or more days after becoming sick. That means that you may be able to pass on the flu to someone else before you know you are sick, as well as while you are sick. link

Now, given that all of Obama's expert people who are dealing with Swine Flu were the ones taking questions at the briefing today, how come they said the infection period is 24-48 hours, instead of what the CDC says, which is 1 day before and 7 days afterwards. That is a HUGE difference. And moreover, Obama has only been back for one week and he shook hands with a guy who died next day.

The fact that Obama's "experts" don't seem to be in sync with the CDC does not make me feel safe. Either that or they are covering up for Obama who may have been treated upon returning home to the US. Something is not right, that is for sure.
UPDATE just found an artricle that says he WAS tested, yet Gibbs in the press briefing says he was not. They are already lying to the public, this is not good LINK HERE

Karma Coming to Israel

It has been reported today that an Israeli returning to Israel from Mexico, has come down with swine flu and is in hospital. Thus, Israel now has it's first case of the deadly swine flu. Two things, one, Israeli officials are calling on Israelis to "keep themselves as clean as possible" I kid you not (see below). Secondly, for once, Israel's siege on Palestine may have done some good, it has kept Palestinians from being able to travel outside of Palestine, thus keeping them safe from swine flu. Israel on the other hand is now suffering from "karma" Just sayin....

Swine flu scare in Israel: Netanya man feared ill

Authorities fear a case of swine flu may have made it to Israel after a 26-year-old Israeli who just returned from a trip to Mexico on Sunday checked himself into the hospital reporting flu-like symptoms.

After consulting with the Health Ministry, the Foreign Ministry recommended that Israelis keep as clean as possible and avoid crowded areas. It also called on them to visit a doctor immediately if they suspect they have contracted the virus. link

Stay Safe~Please Read This

This is just SO important!!! Today I am making an off topic post, e.g. not about Palestine or Israel. Please, every one who reads this blog, take note and read this post. The recent outbreak of Swine Flu is spreading and getting quite serious now. The virus is now spreading from person to person. What can you do to protect yourself? Visit the World Health Organization (WHO) website where you can get the latest info on the disease HERE. I would suggest signing up for RSS feed there as well and also checking the travel advisories; all this can be done at the same WHO site front page.

A great little resource is the world “health map” which you can find HERE. Screen shot below. On this site you can customize the map to geographical locations. The photo below is for the swine flu only. Below the map on the site you can find latest alerts and breaking news.

HEALTH MAP OF SWINE FLU

ALERT AREA AT HEALTH MAP SITE

So please, people use these resources, keep yourselves well as I don’t want to loose any of my fellow bloggers and Palestine supporters, we have too much work to do to Free Palestine. And, of course, I'd miss you all :)

STAY SAFE AND STAY WELL!!

The Asshat Speaks......Nobody Listens

Nazi Racist Lieberman is at it again........Telling the world Isra-Hell runs the USA, not Obama. I say we start a collection, give him a one way ticket to Mexico.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman assures the world of Tel Aviv's influence on the White House and any new peace initiative.

During his first comprehensive interview on foreign policy since taking office, Lieberman said the administration of US President Barack Obama would put forth new peace initiatives only if Israel wants it to.

"Believe me, America accepts all our decisions," he told Russian daily Moskovskiy Komosolets.

On the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, Lieberman repeated his criticism of a two-state solution as "a nice slogan that lacks substance." source

And HERE is Obama's reply.