Posted 1/14/2010 06:04:00 PM by Douglas

Just when you thought pig flu was here, getting worse, getting better, or even gone, boy, were you wrong.

A top World Health Organization official Thursday dismissed charges that the agency exaggerated the threat posed by the H1N1 virus and that it had been unduly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry to issue dire warnings about the swine flu pandemic.

So they didn't overreact. Did they under react?

"WHO has always been very balanced and sober in providing its assessment. We have tried very hard to neither overplay or underplay the situation."

Hmmm, that might be believable, if you hadn't see any pig flu news in the past year. So I guess they got it just right, eh?

He also said part of the reason for the relative mildness of the pandemic has been the unprecedented response by countries around the world that were prompted by the WHO's warnings.

See, they said it was going to kill everyone, and it didn't. It didn't because the WHO acted like a bunch of virgins on prom night. Typical governmental self-congratulatory bullshit. You're doin' a heckuva job, WHO.

Labels: pig flu

Posted 12/16/2009 11:21:00 AM by Douglas

Remember how short we were on that pig flu vaccine and how critical it was to protect those most susceptible to the certain death that was, pig flu? Well, turns out the vaccine didn't work.

Hundreds of thousands of swine flu shots for children have been recalled nationwide because tests indicate the vaccine doses lost some strength, government health officials said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials said there is no reason to revaccinate children who received the weakened doses, but it stressed that children younger than 10 need a second dose of the vaccine 30 days after the first dose was received.

Sleep tight, America, the government is in control.

Labels: pig flu

Posted 11/30/2009 10:08:00 PM by Douglas

Yeah, I know it's almost December and half the word isn't dead from pig-flu yet, but that's no reason to get complacent now.

"We're certainly on the downward slope of the curve," said Thomas Skinner, spokesman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

So it's going down, right? That's good, right?

The level of flu activity across the nation has dropped for the fourth week in a row, federal health officials reported Monday, indicating that the second wave of the swine flu pandemic in the United States had peaked.

This is just getting comical. When they use declining numbers to show increasing pig flu, how could you spot a fleck of reason in any of their hysterical bullshit?

Labels: pig flu

Posted 5/07/2009 05:57:00 PM by Douglas

World Health Organization flu chief Keiji Fukuda, hit me with a slow pitch on the new relaxed stance on pig flu.

The World Health Organization said Thursday that up to 2 billion people could be infected by swine flu if the current outbreak turns into a pandemic. The agency said a pandemic typically lasts two years.

WHO flu chief Keiji Fukuda said the number wasn’t a prediction, but that experience with flu pandemics showed one-third of the world’s population gets infected.

“If we do move into a pandemic then our expectation is that we will see a large number of people infected worldwide,” Fukuda said. “If you look at past pandemics, it would be a reasonable estimate to say perhaps a third of the world’s population would get infected with this virus.”

Well that's just super. It was getting kinda crowded around here anyway.

Labels: pig flu

Posted 5/03/2009 01:00:00 PM by Douglas

I'm shocked, SHOCKED to learn that pig flu isn't as bad as the fear-mongers would have you believe.

When the World Health Organization raised its swine flu threat level last week to suggest the first pandemic in more than four decades was imminent, the group’s director warned that “all of humanity is under threat.”

Across the country, it’s looked like that. School closings will keep more than 300,000 Texas students at home this week. Stores have sold out of masks that experts don’t recommend. Sports events and concerts have been canceled. Headlines have warned that “Outbreak Threatens Global Recovery.”

By the week’s end, an increasing number of experts were questioning whether it was overreaction.

“I don’t see anything to justify this panic,” said Robert Krug, a flu researcher at the University of Texas in Austin. “From all the evidence, this doesn’t look like a particularly lethal virus. People need a little more perspective.”

SARS, bird flu, now pig flu. Maybe global pandemics are something most people should keep in the back of their minds, but it's certainly NOT something the media, fueled by the CDC, needs to worry about on a daily basis. 35,000 Americans die, every year, from influenza. 400 infections and less than 50 deaths in Mexico doesn't strike me as a reason to cry the sky is falling.

Labels: pig flu

Posted 5/02/2009 06:18:00 PM by Douglas

Two of the most annoying things of the 21st century, why not combine them? Yep, you guessed it, iphones and pig flu.

Calling all iPhone owners anxious about the spread of swine flu: A potential app, the Swine Flu Tracker, may be on the way.

The Swine Flu Tracker, still pending approval from Apple, would be free. It was developed by IntuApps, whose founders, Barry Schwartz and Lilly Gold, say they want to keep people informed about the virus and where it is spreading.

That's just great. Is there any way it can give pig flu to obnoxious mactards with their iphones?

Labels: pig flu

Posted 4/29/2009 05:56:00 PM by Douglas

Pig Flu. PIG FLU!!!! That's all that's on the news today. Pig Flu.

Swine flu arrived in Houston Wednesday as a Fort Bend County teenage girl became the first local resident confirmed to have the disease and a 2-year-old Mexico City boy who fell ill in Brownsville and was taken to Texas Children’s Hospital became the disease’s first U.S. death.

PIG FLU!!! 35,000 people in the United States alone die, every year, from the flu. Not Pig Flu, but just the regular old flu. So it's going to take a lot, in my mind at least, to push pig flu up past SARS and bird flu or whatever the last GLOBAL PANDEMIC they're trying to scare me with this week. So let's not lose our shit just yet, people, m'k?

Labels: pig flu

Posted 4/29/2009 05:25:00 PM by Douglas

Pig Flu! This time, High School athletics.

Also, officials suspended all high school athletic and academic competition statewide until at least May 11 because of the spreading flu, which has prompted five districts to cancel classes entirely, including three in suburban San Antonio.

Let's be honest. Canceling high school athletics the last week in April in Texas is like 86'ing the "talent" portion of the Miss America contest. Who the fuck cares?!? But it kind of puts it in perspective, doesn't it? Texas is willing to cancel the "all participant Jr. High track meet" due to pig flu. Just another indication that I could give a shit less about pig flu. On the contrary, had Texas canceled a Friday night football game? I'd be pretty worried right now. And if Texas had canceled a high school playoff football game for pig flu?!? I'd be robbin' a Walgreen's at gunpoint for some tamiflu.

Perspective, people.

Labels: pig flu

Posted 4/29/2009 05:05:00 PM by Douglas

This is a bit outdated since Texas has already had a pig flu death, but it's still pretty damned funny. Closing the border off with Mexico. Boy, that's rich.

U.S. Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, called for the border shutdown, saying, “The public needs to be aware of the serious threat of the swine flu, and we need to close our borders to Mexico immediately and completely until this is resolved.”

Ha ha! That's a good one, Eric Massa, D-umb of N.Y. Have you ever been to the Texas-Mexico border? Obviously not, so here's a news flash for you: saying "it should be closed for health reasons" is about as effective as closing our flight schools to people that want to learn to fly, but aren't interested in learning to land airplanes. Which is to say, not at all.

Labels: pig flu