Swine Fever Outbreak.

[circmand]

Al Gore wanted to capture manbearpig and now we have manbirdpig. This is obviously a vast liberal conspiracy to scare the American Citizenry to the point that they allow the Democrats to tax away all our money and give it to big business.

Wait isnt that what they accuse the Republicans of doing?

[CrnCnn]

Plus, My first fears might come true. The Mexican Government wants to make people take five days off. I am not certain if its the whole country yet or what but that kills a production based company.

[Marlin]

Al Gore wanted to capture manbearpig and now we have manbirdpig. This is obviously a vast liberal conspiracy to scare the American Citizenry to the point that they allow the Democrats to tax away all our money and give it to big business.

Wait isnt that what they accuse the Republicans of doing?

LMFAO, manbearpig was right after he invented the internet and global warming. He is a busy guy.

[Jolly Roger VX'er]

Al Gore wanted to capture manbearpig and now we have manbirdpig.

That's a hoot!

[crotchrocket]

Crotchrocket,

You seem to start some threads lately that get crazy in a hurry. Not saying anything against you, I just think its funny.

lol, and i never get to get involved, its always happening whilst im asleep!!!!!!!

anywhoo......me and my gf are just gonna be cautiouse, take lots of vitamins and ride it through!!

[Osteomata]

Would that be this Dr Mercola, featured on QuackWatch.org?:
http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/mercola.html Perhaps he has a natural cure for sale from his website.

It is rather unfair to attribute the whole of the swine flu panic to media hype when the WHO, CDC, HHS and every other relevant organization is directly telling the media reps that there is reason to be concerned. There are three reasons for the "over" reaction:

- We don't know what we don't know: In this case we have a NEW strain for which there is NO vaccine, that managed to jump the human to human vector, with unknown transmitibility and unknown mortality, but with early suprising indicators, including what might be high mortality rates from Mexico.

- The world's various health organizations have been worrying about an influenza pandemic for decades. The Spanish Flu from the early part of the century killed millions, and managed this feat with only a 2.5% mortality rate. Imagine what an equally transmitable flu with a 7% mortality rate could do? Also, the Spanish Flu defied traditional mortality patterns in that it tended to kill not just the very young and very old, but also had a big spike in the 15-35 age group.

- When doing Risk Planning and management, you focus on two different aspects: What is the likelyhood of bad things happening, and how bad is the bad thing? If the bad thing is a global pandemic with millions of deaths, then even if it is really unlikely, it is generally considered wise to take significant precautions. The entire world health multi agency is not filled with morons, they have some experience in this stuff.

- Os

I think some people in this nation - namely our irresponsible media - are in an unnatural panic about this issue. There's some good info in this article as we think about our life, work and health options.......the highlights therein are mine. And, by the way, Dr. Mercola is a nationally known osteopathic physician.

[VehiGAZ]

DO's are all quacks, it seems!

Anyway Os, what you said may be accurate, but the WHO and CDC's reaction of treating the outbreak as if it were ebola lacks any measure of wisdom or good sense.

They are afraid of getting lambasted by the media for not doing enough and so they choose to do way, waaaaaay too much. Cancelling all school sports throughout New England for the next 2 week?!?! WTF??? We have lost our way...

[Osteomata]

I just dont get that particular part of your perspective. Cancelling school sports for a couple of weeks is your primary measure of over reaction and loosing our way? That seems incredibly minor. Closing borders, restricting movement, airport shut downs, ceasing mass transit, cancelling MOAB, etc etc, these would be major reactions. Not having high school track meets for a while is not.

Look, Im not saying this is or is not an overreaction, Im saying you can't possibly know. If no mass outbreak occurs, people like you will say "see, it was an overreaction" and people like me will say "see, they might very well have prevented mass outbreak," Its kinda a loose loose situation for them: either "over react" and get called a bunch of pants wetters, or don't "overreact" and risk dealing with pandemic. What they have, which you and I don't, is a whole lot of epidemiologists telling them what to do.

They are afraid of getting lambasted by the media for not doing enough and so they choose to do way, waaaaaay too much. Cancelling all school sports throughout New England for the next 2 week?!?! WTF??? We have lost our way...

[circmand]

their jobs are tied to disease outbreaks. Just like the weather people and every hurricane being the Storm of the Century and every year being predicted as bad. They get no press or money if they say Chill its no big deal.

[Osteomata]

Well, just so I'm clear on this view:
Faced with the whole of the world's numerous and various health agencies saying that there is a major health threat that deserves significant attention and preventaive measure, you have two options:
1. Believe that they are probably expressing reasonable assessments, though they certainly, and appropriately, err on the side of caution.
2. Assume that a massive, world-wide, multi-agency scam is underway in which these agencies have colluded in order to decieve the world regarding a largely made up threat, all for the purposes of securing their agency budgets.

Also, it is helpful to differentiate between the health agencies (CDC, WHO, etc) and The Media.

- Os

their jobs are tied to disease outbreaks. Just like the weather people and every hurricane being the Storm of the Century and every year being predicted as bad. They get no press or money if they say Chill its no big deal.

[vt_maverick]

Well, just so I'm clear on this view:
Faced with the whole of the world's numerous and various health agencies saying that there is a major health threat that deserves significant attention and preventaive measure, you have two options:
1. Believe that they are probably expressing reasonable assessments, though they certainly, and appropriately, err on the side of caution.
2. Assume that a massive, world-wide, multi-agency scam is underway in which these agencies have colluded in order to decieve the world regarding a largely made up threat, all for the purposes of securing their agency budgets.

Also, it is helpful to differentiate between the health agencies (CDC, WHO, etc) and The Media.

- Os

Organizations acting in their own best interest is called capitalism, not a conspiracy.

[Osteomata]

Well, private organizations acting in their own best interest is a aspect of capitalism. These government organizations, by supposedly acting in their own best interest by massively exagerating to the point of coordinated international lie-festivals, might also take as their best interest the risk of being called out by legitimate, qualified specialist that disagree. So far I have a couple of news paper editorial wirters and a quack. I'm going with the CDC and the thousands of epidemiologists that have experience on the subject.

Organizations acting in their own best interest is called capitalism, not a conspiracy.

[vt_maverick]

Well, private organizations acting in their own best interest is a aspect of capitalism. These government organizations, by supposedly acting in their own best interest by massively exagerating to the point of coordinated international lie-festivals...

Point taken on private v. public. Perhaps evolution / natural selection is a better fit. We see it all the time in the government / defense sector. If your agency doesn't stay relevant, you'll disappear. And there's nothing high-level bureaucrats fear more than that.

Again, just because multiple organizations have the same motivations and therefore act in the same way does NOT mean they are part of a "coordinated international lie-festival" conspiracy in the same way that the hundreds of people who flock to a Chevy dealership for an employee pricing sale aren't part of some anti-foreign automaker conspiracy. They just all have the same motivation, and therefore take the same action on the issue.

Btw, I don't think the agencies are overhyping either. Heck, I hope it's the JOB of organizations charged with worldwide disease control TO be paranoid. I agree with others however that the media is recasting cautious statements and actions to create a ratings spike.

[Osteomata]

OK, I can buy that much easier, as I made the distinction between The Media and the multiple health organizations earlier. I don't particularly care what the media is saying, I based my assessment of the threat on the warnings from every (that is, I have found no exceptions) national and international health organization, both government and non-profit.

Also a member of the government /defense sector, and my program looks solid for another five years, heh.

Point taken on private v. public. Perhaps evolution / natural selection is a better fit. We see it all the time in the government / defense sector. If your agency doesn't stay relevant, you'll disappear. And there's nothing high-level bureaucrats fear more than that.

Again, just because multiple organizations have the same motivations and therefore act in the same way does NOT mean they are part of a "coordinated international lie-festival" conspiracy in the same way that the hundreds of people who flock to a Chevy dealership for an employee pricing sale aren't part of some anti-foreign automaker conspiracy. They just all have the same motivation, and therefore take the same action on the issue.

Btw, I don't think the agencies are overhyping either. Heck, I hope it's the JOB of organizations charged with worldwide disease control TO be paranoid. I agree with others however that the media is recasting cautious statements and actions to create a ratings spike.

[don moore]

ok.. I just ordered 100 cases of EMERGEN-Cs and 200 cans of chicken noodle soup..Im set