This article by Frank Jordans of the AP reported that the World Health Organization is poised to announce the first flu pandemic in 41 years. Pardon me, but didn't Director-General Margaret Chan (
photo at top) on April 29 already raise the
pandemic level from level 4 to 5? The answer is yes. What Jordans meant, I'm sure, was that WHO will soon, because of a spike in Australian swine flu cases, increase the level to the highest possible: 6. Australia is now up to 1200 cases...but not one person has died! Are they tough or what.
The final paragraph of Jordans' piece ends with:
"The writing has been on the wall for weeks," said Chris Smith, a flu virologist at Cambridge University, adding he didn't know why WHO had waited so long to declare a pandemic. "WHO probably doesn't want people to panic, but the virus is now unstoppable."
Who is Chris Smith, anyway...and UNSTOPPABLE? For the record, let's see where we are on the swine flu. H1N1 Swine Flu cases are now up to 26,563 (
590/day since first observed in Mexico), with 140 deaths (
3 deaths/day). The death rate per day has not changed much from a month ago. I posted an article in the
Huffington Post last week entitled, "
A Pandemic Worse than the Swine Flu." I wasn't exactly poking fun at the swine flu, nor the attitude of WHO, but please read that contribution and let me know your views.
Anyway, here is a quote from my above HuffPo posting:
1. The regular flu kills one in a thousand, while the swine flu seems closer to one in a hundred. That previous avian flu of a decade ago has a 60% mortality rate, but it is not all that contagious. The fear is that the swine flu will morph into a more dangerous form. The potential of this happening is very low, and, in any case, it is appearing that all 50 or so variations might turn out to be treatable with one vaccine. So, certainly, continue the vigilance and spend my tax dollars to develop a common vaccine, but don't close down countries and schools, and, by the way, tourists can safely return to Mexico and Hawaii.
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2. The numbers are embarrassingly obvious. Since the so-called epidemic was announced only a little more than a month ago, we have had about 500 cases and 3 deaths a day. I wouldn't want to be one of those statistics, but consider that a million people daily contract some form of flu and at least a thousand die, every day, usually from complications (heart, pneumonia, etc.). This terrifying swine flu is thus hardly detectable noise. I might further add that traffic fatalities number 3000/day, but we drive on.
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Can anyone who is reading this blog please comment and tell me what the really big deal is about this current swine flu?
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The Dow Jones Industrials dropped 24 to 8739, but world markets were more up than down. Gold settled $3/toz to $953 and oil continued to march up, now at $71.87/barrel
By the way, I sold GMGMQ today from $1.66, providing a 20% profit over the past two weeks.
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There seems to be a weather disturbance forming south and west of the Baha tip. Nothing serious yet.
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