[Ferretlover]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Schools urged to stay open during flu outbreak Government guidelines aimed to stop spread of H1N1 virus, limit disruptions By JoNel Aleccia
Health writer msnbc.com:
WASHINGTON - Anticipating a new surge of swine flu in the fall, federal health and education officials on Friday urged schools to stay open, but to plan to segregate sick students and staff and to provide protective gear such as face masks to prevent further infection.
Schools should plan now to react to an influx of cases of the novel H1N1 influenza virus, including finding ways to continue operating even when some children and staff show up sick, officials said. …

[eXpat]

Militarization of Swine Flu Preparations
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he increasing militarization of preparations for an outbreak of swine flu is proceeding rapidly and without very much public debate, despite the relatively mild nature of the disease so far and the fact that many experts believe the panic has been overblown.

Earlier this week, Republican Representative Paul Broun of Georgia warned a town hall meeting that a “socialistic elite” may be preparing to declare martial law in the United States using a pandemic disease as the pretext. “They’re trying to develop an environment where they can take over,” he told attendees according to an article in the Athens Banner-Herald. “We’ve seen that historically.”

In another alarming development this week, National Guard troops are involved in a drill to take over a high school in Maine to deal with potential riots and panic over distribution of treatment for the H1N1 virus, the Maine Sun Journal reported Thursday. “The National Guardsmen will take on the roles of panicked citizens and military police and practice what they would do, such as using tear gas, in the case of a riot,” said the newspaper article entitled “National Guard Drill at High School to Prepare for Possible H1N1 Riot.” The story also noted that local law enforcement would be involved.

This is all despite the fact that the Maine Center for Disease Control has reported just one death tied to the swine flu, and the man actually died from “underlying conditions complicated by H1N1,” according to Dr. Dora Mills, the center’s director.

“This is just a component of moving the stuff from point A to B,” assured the director of Oxford County’s emergency management agency, Scott Parker. He told the Sun Journal that the plan would only be put in place “if needed.”

Apparently concerns about panic and disorder were raised during a conference in April, so the governor and the adjutant General of the Maine National Guard decided to formulate a plan to bring in military police.

But if state military police preparations weren’t bad enough, the federal government now wants to usurp state forces for domestic use under the Pentagon’s command. Though at least the states are fighting back on this issue.

[jupiters_release]

Looks like the vaccinations are working already.

Link to article.

[dukey]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A') warning that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by the Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter.

The letter from the Health Protection Agency, the official body that oversees public health, has been leaked to The Mail on Sunday, leading to demands to know why the information has not been given to the public before the vaccination of millions of people, including children, begins.

[lper100km]

There are two books that should, IMO, be required reading for all health professionals and administrators, and civil administrators.

They are international in scope and detail the mechanism of the great flu pandemic of 1918 and the reaction of the military, civil health authorities, governmental leadership, civic leadership and effect of informed and uninformed decision making and actions taken during that period.

Living with Enza: The Forgotten Story of Britain and the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918 Mark Honigsbaum

The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M Barry

I have read “Living with Enza” and found it to be highly informative, well researched and a study in the interplay of medical pragmatism, politics, ignorance and complacency. In those areas, nothing much has changed to this day. Regardless of whether the swine flu turns out to be a killer of the same virulence as the so-called Spanish flu, there are lessons to be learned in the recurrent waves of infection that occurred with that outbreak and relatively simple if inconvenient and perhaps unpopular practices that can be taken to limit the spread of a mass infection.

I have heard that the John M Barry book is also highly regarded.

Will it happen? Will we learn? Who knows till after the event and yet more books are written.

I have tended to be in the camp of thinking that the current flu preventive procedures are overblown, but after reading this book I am far more open to the possibilities that this could be a severe situation and will be practicing whatever avoidance measures I can. We should know in a couple of months or so.

[oxj]

We should all be aware of Guillian-Barre Syndrome from any vaccine. This article suggests links between GBS and the adjutant, in this case, squalene, or to the virus itself, in this case, the swine flu, but it can also be linked to other mentioned things not mentioned, such as the manner in which the altered virus or protein products were prepared, in many cases, by using chicken eggs, which add other substances to the vaccine.

GBS does not necessarily lead to full-on paralysis as described in this article. For example, after a flu shot, one can get pain within the arm of the shot several weeks after the shot, which then proceeds to a burning sensation in that hand. It then slowly resolves over a several week period. You might not even see a doctor when this happens, and most doctors would not make a connection with the vaccination because it happened so long afterwards. This occurrance is called "brachial plexus neuropathy" and can be one of the manifestations of GBS.

GBS is an auto-immune disease, which means that the immune system becomes confused and decides to attack the body's chemistry, thinking that they are foe. Similar to an allergy, which can worsen after each subsequent exposure, GBS can worsen with each successive exposure.

They have decided that shots since 2005 pose a lower hazard of GBS, I think because they are no longer developed in chicken eggs. Interestingly, this is not discussed in the article's text, perhaps to limit the scope of the article. In fact, many doctors here in the US do not believe that the current form of the flu shot can cause GBS.

[PenultimateManStanding]

My one remaining daughter still in high school thinks that if no one wants the vaccine then they will have agents with blow guns dart out from behind bushes and shoot people with the vaccine. Sounds plausible to me! The question I have is this: why if the swine flu is so mild do they make such a big deal about getting everyone vaccinated?

[dukey]

the answer is obvious, so they can make a shit load of money
it doesn't matter if the disease is real or imaginary, they profit just the same

[oxj]

The deadly Spanish flu was an H1 variety, just as the current swine flu variety is. For more reading on the varieties of influenzae.

I think the rationale behind immunizing people is to prevent the current H1 flu from mutating into the deadly variety. The rule of thumb is that if 90% herd immunity can be achieved, the passage of H1 will cease, and the probability of its mutation into the severely deadly form will disappear.

I'd like to even suppose that somebody, somewhere, ran a Monte Carlo simulation to compare the probability and costs of the many outcomes, those are the varying probabilities of GBS versus the government's ability to achieve herd immunity on the one hand, and the varying probabilities of the virus mutating into the most deadly form on the other hand. However, the existence of this report suggests that this simulation has not been run, instead it is being hotly debated by experts.

Data here suggest that the overlords may think that any GBS concern is unwarranted, however, without reading the paper it's impossible to tell if the data are valid, but I suspect they are not, and that is because their data may be skewed. For example, mostly elderly got the vaccine during this time period, whereas everyone gets the flu. Did their data account for this? Could GBS be more prevalent in youth? Such things are not answered in the abstract. It looks like the purpose of the paper is to illustrate that the vaccine lowers the prevalence of GBS. However, if 100% of the population get the vaccine with a 0.76% prevalence of GBS, fewer people get GBS than when, say, 8% of the population gets sick with the flu with a 7.3% prevalence of GBS. So, it does not really answer the question of whether the absolute prevalence would be lower with the vaccine.

Anyway, no other recent papers could be found on pubmed. Just some food for thought.

[AlexdeLarge]

Depression Assured? Maybe (Swine Flu)
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1349-Depression-Assured-Maybe-Swine-Flu.html

KD is banging the doomer drum hard ! Of course, he qualifies that the source is not substantiated but it should make his blog hits skyrocket. However, doomer porn gets no better than this and makes for an interesting read/debate.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')his article has been making the rounds over on the forum, and I thought I'd comment on it.

The Centers for Disease Control has predicted a 2.1 percent to 3.3 percent death rate among those who come down with swine flu this fall, which translates into an additional 52,000 to 86,000 deaths in the city over a three-month period, Kasdan said.

Has the CDC actually predicted a 2.1-3.3% death rate for those who come down with the swine flu?

(This is known as the "CFR", or "clinical fatality rate", among those in the field.)

I have been trying to source this statement - so far without success. But if it is accurate then there are two things you need to take away from this right here and now:
First, we will have an economic depression. If the CAR, or "attack rate" (the percentage of people in the population) who get the flu is in the typical range of 40-60% of the population, then a CFR of 2-3% means one million or more dead Americans this fall and winter, or more succinctly, somewhere around one in a hundred. If your kid goes to school with 1,000 other people, 10 of them will die (on average.)

This sort of disruption in the economy, given where it is now, guarantees a contraction of GDP of 10% or more from the top, which is the definition of economic depression. We can argue about "how bad of a depression" later.

Second, if these numbers are anywhere close to reality the entire US medical care system will effectively collapse. We do not have 10% of the medical infrastructure necessary to treat 1 million Americans presenting to hospitals over a 2-3 month time frame with critical (and ultimately terminal!) symptoms, nor can we possibly treat the ten times greater count of people who will present to a hospital with what look to be critical symptoms but ultimately survive.

[WildRose]

The info in the article above, re: possible strain on the health care system, disruption to the economy, if those numbers of people become very ill, is the reason why I believe governments are rushing to have enough vaccine for their population. I think they want to try to keep business running as usual, for example, if all the kids are inoculated they can still go to school, mom and dad can still go to work, less strain on hospitals, doctors, nurses, etc. But I still won't take the vaccine myself, nor will I allow my kids to have it - I just don't know enough about it to know it's safe. Staying at home is best - but that will surely interrupt the status quo if lots of people do it!

[Cloud9]

We won't know how dangerous this is until it is too late. The kids will be back in school next week here in Florida. A better vehicle for pandemic transmission has not been invented.

When I get sick, I plan to hug a liberal.

[rangerone314]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cloud9', 'W')e won't know how dangerous this is until it is too late. The kids will be back in school next week here in Florida. A better vehicle for pandemic transmission has not been invented.

When I get sick, I plan to hug a liberal.

[Cloud9]

Cool we may see each other there.

[AlexdeLarge]

How many will consider getting updated on your other jabs?( ie. pneumonia vaccine, etc.) Bugs that could attack if your immune system is weakened by Captain Trips??

If America is becoming a third world country and Obamacare restricts access to doctors, perhaps its best to be vaccinated against everything possible before the doses become scarce!

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '&')quot;That wasn't any act of God. That was an act of pure human f*ckery."
-Larry Underwood

[Armageddon]

Controlled population reduction.

[gnm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Armageddon', 'C')ontrolled population reduction.

[Armageddon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gnm', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Armageddon', 'C')ontrolled population reduction.

[gollum]

I'm planning on a week or so off from work due to the flu this winter, I've got a lot of catching up to do around here. I'll get the shot at the doctor as soon as he has it as to not spoil my week off being sick.

[Novus]

I think the vaccines are more dangerous than the swine flu. As for depression we are already in one.