Swine Flu

[PPI Tim]

Hey Guys,
Do you think there is any secret plot behind the recent outbreak of Swine Flu?
Any ideas?

[SCP_Dave]

I don't know. I remember reading a headline a little while back (couple weeks or so) about two vials containing government grown viruses that have gone missing. Now, we have the "Swine Flu"....hmmmmmm.

I don't think so though, or do I?  ::|

[SCP_Dave]

Hmm...make that 3 vials. I JUST found this article. I went searching for the original article I read, the one I mentioned in my previous post (before the "outbreak"), but I stumbled upon this one. http://obambi.wordpress.com/2009/04/25/dontexpect/

the nature of this site looks like a real ANTI OBAMA site. I AM NOT a member of this site AT ALL!!!!!

Here's another article dated April 23rd. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/22/AR2009042202005.html?nav=rss_email/components

[PPI Jason]

I think the swine flu is a bunch of hog wash   

The fact is, according to all that I've read so far, the disease doesn't seem to be any more virulent then the normal already accepted version of the flu that we've been dealing with all along. It isn't new (the earliest recorded cases I came up with, and there may be earlier, is 1976). There have been numerous deaths associated with it but the deaths occur exactly where you would expect them to occur (among the elderly who suffer from weakened immune systems, other people with conditions that cause them to suffer from weakened immune systems, and in locations where there is a lack of adequate health care like, oh say, I don't know, Mexico maybe).

I'm not saying we shouldn't be concerned. I think we should always be wary (pandemic or not) when it comes to diseases that spread as easily as the flu does. But I don't understand why people are throwing terms like pandemic and phase 5 around so easily. Just seems a little alarmist to me.

[SCP_Dave]

Well Said PPI Jason, I completely agree. I hope I didn't lead anyone to believe otherwise. The nature of Tims post is what prompted me to post the articles I had found about a "virus" that had gone missing. I, for one, believe this is a case of the media doing what it does best. Striking FEAR to as many people as they can at once!!!

[PPI Tim]

I was reading something interesting on "Above Top Secret" about the Swine Flu. It mentions a annual report written in 2008 from the manufacturers of the drug "Tamiflu" , the drug currently the first line of defense against Swine Flu, predicting 531% sale increase of the drug in 2009
Hummmm........Imagine that. 
Thank God they pre-planned for this.....

[PPI Jason]

Hmmm Swine Flu as a stimulus package. Very interesting indeed 

I wonder which company will benefit when it evolves into Swine Herpes. I also wonder who will be doing the stimulating THEN  :o

[PPI Brian]

I got a chill today when I heard on the news that the flu was renamed "H1N1" rather than "Swine flu". An H1N1 type A avain flu strain caused the 1918 pandemic that killed 100 million people worlwide. This bug was really freaky because it didn't kill the very young and the very old... it killed people in their prime with strong immune systems.

I was relieved to learn there are three different kinds of H1N1 type A flu: human, avian and swine. When a flu virus makes the jump between animals and humans, and then spreads by human to human contact, it warrants extreme caution. The CDC and the WHO don't know what to expect from this bug. Hopefully this mutation remains mild.

About 4 years ago scientists successfully isolated some 1918 H1N1 virus material and cloned it in a lab. They recovered the virus from the lungs of a woman who died from the flu and was buried in the Alaskan permafrost. They claimed they wanted to learn why it was such a virulent flu, because people who caught it died within hours. They infected some lab animals with the resurrected virus and reported that this strain killed by causing a "cytokine storm"; a fatal overreaction of a healthy immune system. In layman's terms, the flu triggered their immune systems to attack their own lungs.

So far this new H1N1 bug hasn't come close. Let's hope it stays that way. Here's a couple of links about the 1918 strain:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/13/AR2005101301783.html

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v437/n7060/full/437794a.html

http://www.nature.com/hdy/journal/v98/n1/full/6800911a.html

[PPI Tim]

For further information, please the movie "I am Legend" and "The Stand".
Cough,
I'm not having any strange dreams yet.
Working in a public places can be fun.