Swine Flu Pandemic

JoxerTheDeityPirate wrote:

we in the UK have enough vaccine for 33 million people so only half of us will die.

Make sure you don't waste one of those with Terrence.

Oh, crap!  There's two cases in South Carolina now!  We're all gonna die!

My bitchy suitemate is from NY....she went home last two weekends...I'm gonna smack a ho if she brings it back. :-PAnd  Dan...Mr. Jingles...he's there too.[/QUOTE]

 



 



 



Sir GH wrote:



 



 



 



 



 



 



 

 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 Mr Mercury wrote:

There is now two confirmed cases in the UK and 7 showing mild forms of the epidemic. 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 

I'm no English scholar, but 7 cases do not qualify as being an epidemic.

That is because I was referring to the epidemic that is apparently spreading throughout the world. At the time of writing my last post there was 7 others showing mild forms of the swine flu. English Scholarship lecture over lol. 

 



Erin wrote:



Oh, crap!  There's two cases in South Carolina now!  We're all gonna die!

RIP Erin and Pieter

At least you'll be on CNN

(Authorities have shut down Queenpedia for the rest of the week)

are we dead yet?

JoxerTheDeityPirate wrote:

are we dead yet?

I guess I am because the NY school with all those cases (and trust me, it's not just a few dozen kids from that school, it's a few hundred) is within walking distance from my home. So... yeah. I guess we're all dead, we just don't know it yet... though, I must say, it has been hot as hell here for the last few days.

Hmmm....

You just wait till possum flu hits the stands.  DUCK AND COVER, guys.  Duck and cover.

magicalfreddiemercury wrote:

JoxerTheDeityPirate wrote:



are we dead yet?

I guess I am because the NY school with all those cases (and trust me, it's not just a few dozen kids from that school, it's a few hundred) is within walking distance from my home. So... yeah. I guess we're all dead, we just don't know it yet... though, I must say, it has been hot as hell here for the last few days.

Hmmm....

Anyone wearing those surgical masks yet? Those things are only good for about 5 minutes.

Sweet Insanity wrote:

 



magicalfreddiemercury wrote:



 

 



 



 



JoxerTheDeityPirate wrote:



 



are we dead yet?



 

I guess I am because the NY school with all those cases (and trust me, it's not just a few dozen kids from that school, it's a few hundred) is within walking distance from my home. So... yeah. I guess we're all dead, we just don't know it yet... though, I must say, it has been hot as hell here for the last few days.

Hmmm....

Anyone wearing those surgical masks yet? Those things are only good for about 5 minutes.

This is New York. The only people wearing masks here are the ones planning a clean get-away.

LoL I hear ya! I have a friend who worked down in NYC at a convenience store and he told me they had to have windows with bulletproof glass or bars around the cash register section.


But this "swine flu" going around, it certainly has some conspiracy with it. And I don't think the government is releasing enough information. They don't want fear.

DON'T CALL IT SWINE FLU, FARMERS COMPLAIN

Pork producers and hog farmers around the world say they are being sideswiped by the swine flu outbreak and many want the name of the disease changed to “North American flu.”

On Tuesday, roughly a dozen countries joined Russia and China in banning imports of pork products from parts of the United States, Mexico and elsewhere. South Korea and Ukraine have banned all pork and live hogs from North America, and Indonesia is destroying products already brought in.

Meanwhile, hog prices have fallen steadily since Monday and the share price of food giants Smithfield Foods Inc., [SFD-N] Tyson Foods Inc. [TSN-N] and Maple Leaf Foods Inc. [MFI-T] dropped as much as 12 per cent Monday before recovering somewhat Tuesday.

While Canada has been spared the brunt of the trade action so far, many hog farmers here are worried consumers will stop eating pork. Canada exports about 1 million tonnes of pork products annually, mainly to the
U.S. and Japan.

'It’s important to convey the message that consuming pork will not cause this illness,' the U.S. Agriculture Secretary says.

“It's obviously a concern, it's a big concern,” said Clare Schlegel a hog farmer near Kitchener, Ont. “We want accurate information out there.”

A variety of organizations including the Canadian Pork Council, American Meat Institute and World Organization for Animal Health, or OIE, have called on health officials to drop the “swine flu” name. They argue the pork industry is being unfairly linked to the illness.

“There are serous misunderstandings which the general public in countries around the world have acquired about the role of pork meat in the transfer of the virus, simply because it is being referred to as swine flu,” Canadian Pork Council President Jurgen Preugschas said in a letter Tuesday to federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq.

“It is not justified to name this disease swine influenza,” said Bernard Vallat, head of the Paris-based OIE. “In the past, many human influenza epidemics with animal origin have been named using their geographic name, e.g., Spanish influenza or Asiatic influenza, thus it would be logical to call the disease ‘North-American influenza'.”

So far, the World Health Organization has rejected the idea, saying Tuesday that it plans to stick with “swine flu.” But U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he is considering using another name.

“This is not a food-borne crisis,” Mr. Vilsack said. “It's important to not refer to swine flu. It's important to convey the message that consuming pork will not cause this illness.”

European Union officials have suggested calling the disease “novel flu.”

Linda Smith, a spokeswoman for Toronto-based Maple Leaf, said the company has not seen a significant impact on sales, but it supports the name change “so there is no misunderstanding about the link to pork or
animal health in Canada,” she said.

Health officials have said repeatedly said the virus cannot be caught by eating pork. Some are now saying it isn't even clear the illness originated in pigs, and contains a mix of avian, swine and human viral
genes. “As regards to this virus, it should be called something else,”

Anthony Fauci, a director at the U.S. National Institutes of Health told reporters.

Much of the Canadian pork industry was already in tough shape before the swine flu outbreak. Hog prices had fallen so steeply the federal government offered to pay farmers $50-million last year to slaughter as
many as 150,000 breeding swine. That program and a falling Canadian dollar have helped, but most farmers are still operating at a loss because of the high price of corn and soy meal, which are used in feed.
Feed accounts for about 60 per cent of production costs.

The typical break-even point for hog farmers is about $1.60 per kilogram. Prices have been hovering around $1.30 per kg.

Source: http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090428.wpork0428/BNStory/Business/home

Over 150 casualties in Mexico and now the first child dead in the USA. Maybe we won't make jokes much longer.

"WASHINGTON - Officials confirmed the death of a 23-month-old child in Texas from the new strain of swine flu on Wednesday, the first fatality from the condition reported outside Mexico.
Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, confirmed the fatality during an interview with NBC News."
 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30471035/

The thing about the deaths - as heartbreaking as they may be - is that hundreds of people die weekly of regular flu during flu season but those numbers are not announced for fear of starting a panic. And yet, with this new strain of flu, they cycle information about new cases and deaths on all the 24-hour news channels.

Any new (or old) illness we can't treat is a tragedy. Any death or hospitalization from the illness is sad and frightening. Thing is, at this point, hundreds of people - mainly high school aged kids - have had it and have recovered. If they'd tell us the real numbers - which they've still not done regarding the high school here in NY - then maybe we could put it all in perspective. Instead, they'd prefer to keep everyone frightened and tuned in to the latest news on the subject. It's just wrong on so many levels.

the word to watch out for on these media reports/news bulletins is the word 'potential'.they use it every time.
everything and everyone has the 'potential' to be something or someone,whether it does is another thing altogether.
its only a couple of years ago that the world was gonna end due to a 'potential' bird flu pandemic,what happened? a few dead swans in Dorset and mass hysteria by the media.a few weeks later and its all old news and the world carried on as usual.give it a month and i believe it will be the same will happen with this thing,the summer heat [if we get a summer] will kill the lurgi off.
plus there is a vaccine available so its easily curable,carry on as normal folks but if you do start sneezing a few days after meeting El Gringo from El Paso get in contact with a GP just to be sure.



right,now ive put the world to right,im off to the pub for a beer and a packet of pork scratchings...Arrrribbbaaaa!