Flu ( incl Swine, Bird etc ) 01 (Apr 09 - Sep 12)

[winston]

The so called "Pandemic"

For most of 2009, it's been the Year of the Ox in China.

For everywhere else: Year of the Swine. Swine flu, that is. And what better place to start our year-end recap of the Top Outrages of 2009 than with the fearsome H1N1 "pandemic."

I put "pandemic" in quotes because it would never have been a pandemic at all, if World Health Organization officials hadn't actually changed their definition of the word.

Before May 2009, a pandemic required "enormous numbers of deaths and illness." Once those six words were removed from the definition, the pandemic was on! And so was the gold rush. Governments all over the world placed orders for hundreds of millions H1N1 vaccine doses.

Just two months later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised state health officials to do two things:-
1) Stop testing patients for H1N1.
2) Stop counting cases of H1N1.

A CBS News reporter thought that was a bizarre move in the middle of a pandemic. So she asked CDC officials: Why stop testing and counting? The CDC response: No comment.

So the reporter went state to state, checking on flu numbers and found that confirmed H1N1 cases accounted for only a small fraction of the total number of flu-like illnesses.

Gee. It's almost as if there were no pandemic at all!

As the year closes, the only thing we can say for sure about H1N1 is that this mild flu has sold a boatload of vaccines that have been slow to arrive.

One word: Outrageous!


Source: HSI

[kennynah]

it's good that this swine flu did not kill as many people as had been expected...so, i'd say, it is a blessing that WHO and CDC over prepared for that pandemic... money can be earned one.... spend more to help prevent the escalation of this killer disease is no problem in my books... life is precious and no amount of money can ever come close to replacing it..

[winston]

Probe as man falls sick after flu jab

Health chiefs are investigating what could be the city's first case of an adverse reaction to the human swine flu H1N1 vaccine .

A 58-year-old man complaining of lower limb weakness after receiving the jab has been admitted to Queen Mary Hospital, the Centre for Health Protection said last night. No other details were available.

An expert group will meet today to discuss the case.

Lower limb weakness may be a symptom of Guillain-Barre syndrome, which is a known side effect of receiving vaccines.

A mass vaccination program for people in five high-risk groups began on December 21. The government has said it will closely monitor incidences of serious side effects.

So far at least 104,692 people have received the jab.

These include at least 10,209 people who got it in the 24 hours ending at 1pm yesterday. Meanwhile, the center also said an 85-year-old woman died yesterday at Tuen Mun Hospital, days after being confirmed with swine flu.

The woman, who had been bed-ridden and fed through a tube, was admitted after going to the accident and emergency section of Pok Oi Hospital on December 22 with a fever and acute shortness of breath.

She was the third death this week, bringing to 55 the number of people who have died from swine flu.

As of December 30, 34,128 people have been confirmed with the virus.

Source: MARY ANN BENITEZ, The Standard HK

[millionairemind]

Jan 14, 2010
H1N1 is 'global scam': Expert

LONDON - BRITISH media are reporting that a prominent health expert has claimed that the H1N1 flu scare was 'faked by drug companies'.

The Daily Star newspaper reports that Wolfgang Wodarg, head of health at the Council of Europe, says the H1N1 scare was 'one of the greatest medical scandals of the century'.

Dr Wodarg also said that drug companies convinced the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare a pandemic in order to increase profits. The newspaper also reports that the Council of Europe will be holding an emergency debate on the issue before the end of January.

'It's just a normal kind of flu. It does not cause a tenth of deaths caused by the classic seasonal flu,' Dr Wodarg told the Daily Star. 'The campaign of panic provided a golden opportunity for representatives from labs who knew they would hit the jackpot in the case of a pandemic being declared.'

The British government, however, slammed Dr Wodarg's comments on Thursday, saying that there were 'no grounds whatsoever' for his claims.

A GlaxoSmithKline spokesman from the UK said: 'Allegations of undue influence are misguided and unfounded. The WHO declared that H1N1 swine flu met the criteria for a pandemic. As WHO have stated, legal regulations and numerous safeguards are in place to manage possible conflicts of interest.'

[winston]

You know that H1N1 flu vaccine that's been scarce in many areas?

It's about to get a lot scarcer.

Recently, U.S. officials announced they would cut in half their order of vaccine doses from one of the five companies that supply the vaccine.

This same thing is happening in other countries too. The UK has reduced a vaccine order with one company and may completely discontinue another order. Both France and Germany are attempting to cut their entire orders in half.

Reuters Health reports that the Netherlands and Switzerland have surpluses. Officials there are planning to ship unused vaccines to countries that have a shortage. I guess they plan to leave the vaccines on the front porch of those countries, ring the doorbell and run.

In a simpler era we'd all be lining up to get our shots. We'd have complete faith in Modern Medicine and the idea of "better living through chemistry."

But here in the not-so-simple 21st century we were able to get the word out that the dreaded killer swine flu pandemic was mostly about vaccine sales.


Source: HSI

[winston]

Reminds me of Y2K ....

It's official: The swine flu "pandemic" is now an embarrassing fiasco.

And let the blaming begin!

You know things have really broken down when World Health Organization officials have to publicly deny that drug companies influenced WHO's reaction to the H1N1 virus.

No doubt, WHO officials have a tough job. If they overreact to an epidemic (as they did with H1N1), they look like drug company stooges. But if they under react and millions die on their watch, they look like inept stooges. So they have to get it exactly right or they lose, and lose big.

Last month, WHO began an internal review of the organization's handling of H1N1. A WHO official told Reuters, "We will consider whether we can define things better."

Good call! Because defining--or rather "redefining"--is what got them into this mess.

As I mentioned about four months ago, WHO actually changed the definition of "pandemic" in May of 2009. Under the old definition, "enormous numbers of deaths" were required. The new definition dropped that requirement.

And the media LOVED it! News anchors immediately started calling H1N1 a pandemic and speculated wildly about how many millions might die. The result: widespread fear--the perfect atmosphere for selling TONS of vaccines.

Maybe drug companies really didn't influence the WHO H1N1 policy. But what we do know for sure is that the definition change was a great big beautiful gift to those companies.

Too bad Reuters missed that one little detail in their report.


Source: HSI

[kennynah]

biggest con of 2008/2009......

[winston]

H1N1 virus' death toll as high as 17,000, CDC estimates By Miriam Falco, CNN Medical News

Health officials continue to urge people who haven't received a swine flu vaccination to do so.

* CDC estimates between 8,330 and 17,160 people have died from H1N1
* In a regular flu season, about 36,000 people in U.S. die from seasonal flu
* 90 percent of those deaths usually are people age 65 and older


Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- The H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, may have killed as many as 17,000 Americans, according to new estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.

Though 2,498 confirmed deaths linked to the H1N1 virus had been reported to the CDC as of January 30, the agency estimates that between 8,330 and 17,160 people actually have died from H1N1.

The overwhelming majority of the people who died -- between 6,390 and 13,170 -- were 18 to 64 years old, the CDC estimates. Between 880 and 1,810 children 17 years old and younger also died from this flu, according to CDC estimates.

In comparison, the CDC says that in a regular flu season, about 36,000 people in the United States die from seasonal flu, with 90 percent of the deaths usually occurring in people age 65 and older.

Since this new flu virus emerged in April 2009, health officials have recognized that the reported numbers of people who have been hospitalized and died provide only a partial picture of the full outbreak. Underreporting of influenza cases and deaths is common, especially in the early weeks or months of an outbreak.

By mid-July last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) no longer recommended that countries with known H1N1 transmission test everybody who had flulike symptoms, as laboratories were being overwhelmed. Patients were to be diagnosed based on symptoms alone, since nearly all of the circulating flu strains were H1N1.

Only severe cases of flu, which lead to hospitalization or death, were to be tested. The CDC adopted these recommendations for the United States, also.

Despite the recommendation that deaths suspected to be from H1N1 be tested, the CDC is aware that many are not, and in many cases H1N1 might not have been suspected.

The new CDC estimates are based on laboratory-confirmed cases, flu surveillance data and mathematical modeling, CDC spokesman Richard Quartarone told CNN.

According to the report released Friday, the CDC estimates an average of 57 million people have been infected with H1N1 and an average 257,000 cases resulted in hospitalizations.

Health officials continue to urge people who haven't received a vaccination to do so.

"The real tragedy is that people are still getting sick and we have a vaccine that will help prevent illness," Quartarone said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/1 ... index.html

[iam802]

Just heard that a friend's kid (a toddler ) just kena H1N1.

Temperature goes up to 40...

Still trying to think how it got transmitted....but one thing is clear. H1N1 is still alive.

[winston]

Somebody made a lot of money. Not too different from Y2K or those short-sellers who were using forums, newsletters, analyst reports, CNBC, Bloomberg etc to create fear while they cover their short position ...

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Hong Kong to dump 2.8 million doses of unwanted swine-flu vaccine

Jun 10, 2010, 5:52 GMT

Hong Kong - Around 2.8 million doses of unwanted swine-flu vaccine worth 220 million Hong Kong dollars (28.2 million US dollars) are to be thrown away, government officials said Thursday.

The vaccines are part of batch of 3 million ordered at the height of the pandemic when it was feared the H1N1 virus was a serious threat and could mutate into a more deadly form.

It was offered free to health professionals, pregnant women, babies, the elderly and those at risk because of illness, but was shunned because of safety concerns after two people had seizures and two women gave birth to stillborn babies after having the vaccine.

Despite government reassurances of its safety, less than 200,000 doses were administered.

A health department spokesman said the vaccine would be discarded when they reached their expiry date in October.

He added that people would be offered a new 3-in-1 jab in the autumn which provided protection from swine flu and two other strains of seasonal flu.

The densely-populated former British colony is particularly sensitive to virus outbreaks after the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) killed 299 people and infected around 1,800 in 2003.