Swine Flu Goes Global
The swine flu has gone global. Britain is currently investigating seven suspicious cases. Earlier, media health officials said that one man in Spain and two in Scotland have come down with the flu following trips to Mexico.
The news comes at a time when European governments warned citizens against traveling to the U.S. and Mexico.
Meanwhile, ‘Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan said they would quarantine visitors showing symptoms of the virus amid a surging global concern about a possible pandemic.’
At this moment, 149 people were killed by the virus in Mexico. 40 cases were confirmed in the United States thus far, six in Canada.
“Today we’ve seen increased number of confirmed cases in several countries,” WHO spokesman Paul Garwood told The Associated Press. “WHO is very concerned about the number of cases that are appearing, and the fact that more and more cases are appearing in different countries.”
President Obama said that although the reports are cause for “concern,” they are not cause “for alarm.”
Despite Obama’s calming words, citizens and governments worldwide worry.
The U.S. Defense Department joined the fun by saying it is monitoring the situation but not yet willing to release anti-viral drugs from its stockpiles.
Although there is certainly cause for concern, I agree with Obama that we should not panic. Global viruses come and go. It is part of life. It is also important to note that the only deadly victims thus far have occurred in Mexico. Every government is on stand-by. When suspicious cases are reported, medical doctors rush to the scene to help the patient and to limit the fall-out (read: spread). It is a serious problem, but let us not pretend that “it’s going to kill us all!”
Meanwhile, Matt Drudge deserves a lot of appreciation from everybody. He paid attention to this at the moment the first cases were reported in Mexico and he constantly kept an eye on its travel across the North American continent. Without his linking, most would not have been aware of the threat, and governments may have ignored it for a few days more, possibly leading to many more infections.
Yeah, kudos to Drudge.
It seems this latest calumny (because the universe decided we didn’t have enough to deal with) has a mortality of 6 % in Mexico. The Spanish Flu clocked in at, eh, 2.5 %, and has been hitting the young quite harshly. Hurm.
The blogs are the place to go to, quite plainly. Listen to the media for too long and you’d think people were having dreams about mother Abigail and Randall Flagg. Still, if there is something that could really clean our clock, it’s this sort of thing. China must be on total lockdown by now.
I agree blogs and online news seem to be more measured in their coverage of the issue.No need to panic, just wash your hands extra well, seems to be the overall, message. There is a really informative story about this on Newsy.com I highly suggest you check it out, here is the link: http://www.newsy.com/videos/the_world_on_swine_flu_alert/
good news is, our Spender-in-chief is one who’s frugal with the pocketbook.
the US can easily absorb this if it outbreaks and kills a huge percentage of the population.
The virus will go global, that seems quite clear. But then, pigs can’t fly. So the main path of infection will remain among humans. And with the growing awareness my guess is, the problem might resolve quicker than the previous bird flu.
ahhh, it’s good we have prudent leadership of the left