H5N1 PANDEMIC POSSIBILITIES?

Conspiracy or Truth? ...

"Scientists from two universities are now in the process of publishing papers on how they weaponized bird flu, while the WHO says this information should not be made public in case it gets into the wrong hands. Meanwhile, the H5N1 disease has claimed some lives again in Asia, but authorities assure us the cases did not involve human-to-human spread.

The picture I get from all this is that if there were ever a true, deadly bird flu pandemic, it could only be the result of the kind of weaponized virus intentionally created by virologists like these- but has someone much higher up put them up to this?"

China: Bird flu death not from human-human spread

BEIJING (AP) -- The strain of H5H1 bird flu that killed a Chinese man cannot spread among people, a health agency said Monday, appealing for calm after the country's first reported case of the disease in humans in 18 months.

Genetic analysis indicated the virus spread directly from poultry to the victim, who died Saturday in the southern city of Shenzhen, the Shenzhen Disease Control Center said in a statement reported by the official Xinhua News Agency.

"Though it is highly pathogenic to human beings, the virus can not spread among people," the statement said, according to Xinhua. "There is no need for Shenzhen citizens to panic."

H5N1 rarely infects humans and usually only those who come into close contact with diseased poultry. Scientists are closely watching the virus for any signs it is becoming more easily transmissible from human to human.

A 39-year-old bus driver surnamed Chen developed a fever Dec. 21 and was hospitalized Dec. 25, according to an earlier statement by city and provincial authorities. The provincial health department said Health Ministry experts confirmed Saturday that he was infected with H5N1.

Xinhua said health authorities still were trying to figure out where he was infected.

E

AP


Ma Hanwu, vice director of Shenzhen Center for Disease Control and Prevention, right, speaks as Zhou Boping, director of the Shenzhen No. 3 People's Hospital looks at the documents during a press conference about a bird flu patient in Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong province.

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/story/2012-01-03/China-Bird-flu-death-not-from-human-human-spread/52358102/1

Scientists Brace for Media Storm Around Controversial Flu Studies

by Martin Enserink on 23 November 2011, 4:48 PM | 

ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS—Locked up in the bowels of the medical faculty building here and accessible to only a handful of scientists lies a man-made flu virus that could change world history if it were ever set free.

The virus is an H5N1 avian influenza strain that has been genetically altered and is now easily transmissible between ferrets, the animals that most closely mimic the human response to flu. Scientists believe it's likely that the pathogen, if it emerged in nature or were released, would trigger an influenza pandemic, quite possibly with many millions of deaths.

In a 17th floor office in the same building, virologist Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Center calmly explains why his team created what he says is "probably one of the most dangerous viruses you can make"—and why he wants to publish a paper describing how they did it. Fouchier is also bracing for a media storm. After he talked to ScienceInsider yesterday, he had an appointment with an institutional press officer to chart a communication strategy.

Fouchier's paper is one of two studies that have triggered an intense debate about the limits of scientific freedom and that could portend changes in the way U.S. researchers handle so-called dual-use research: studies that have a potential public health benefit but could also be useful for nefarious purposes like biowarfare or bioterrorism.

The other study—also on H5N1, and with comparable results—was done by a team led by virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the University of Tokyo, several scientists told ScienceInsider. (Kawaoka did not respond to interview requests.) Both studies have been submitted for publication, and both are currently under review by the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), which on a few previous occasions has been asked by scientists or journals to review papers that caused worries.

NSABB chair Paul Keim, a microbial geneticist, says he cannot discuss specific studies but confirms that the board has "worked very hard and very intensely for several weeks on studies about H5N1 transmissibility in mammals." The group plans to issue a public statement soon, says Keim, and is likely to issue additional recommendations about this type of research. "We'll have a lot to say," he says.

"I can't think of another pathogenic organism that is as scary as this one," adds Keim, who has worked on anthrax for many years. "I don't think anthrax is scary at all compared to this."

Some scientists say that's reason enough not to do such research. The virus could escape from the lab, or bioterrorists or rogue nations could use the published results to fashion a bioweapon with the potential for mass destruction, they say. "This work should never have been done," says Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute who has a strong interest in biosecurity issues.

The research by the Kawaoka and Fouchier teams set out to answer a question that has long puzzled scientists: Does H5N1, which rarely causes human disease, have the potential to trigger a pandemic? The virus has decimated poultry flocks on three continents but has caused fewer than 600 known cases of flu in humans since it emerged in Asia in 1997, although those rare human cases are often fatal. Because the virus spreads very inefficiently between humans it has been unable to set off a chain reaction and circle the globe.

Some scientists think the virus is probably unable to trigger a pandemic, because adapting to a human host would likely make it unable to reproduce. Some also believe the virus would need to reshuffle its genes with a human strain, a process called reassortment, that some believe is most likely to occur in pigs, which host both human and avian strains. Based on past experience, some scientists have also argued that flu pandemics can only be caused by H1, H2, and H3 viruses, which have been replaced by each other in the human population every so many decades—but not by H5.

Fouchier says his study shows all of that to be wrong.

Although he declined to discuss details of the research because the paper is still under review, Fouchier confirmed the details given in news stories in New Scientist and Scientific American about a September meeting in Malta where he first presented the study. Those stories describe how Fouchier initially tried to make the virus more transmissible by making specific changes to its genome, using a process called reverse genetics; when that failed, he passed the virus from one ferret to another multiple times, a low-tech and time-honored method of making a pathogen adapt to a new host.

After 10 generations, the virus had become "airborne": Healthy ferrets became infected simply by being housed in a cage next to a sick one. The airborne strain had five mutations in two genes, each of which have already been found in nature, Fouchier says; just never all at once in the same strain.

Ferrets aren't humans, but in studies to date, any influenza strain that has been able to pass among ferrets has also been transmissible among humans, and vice versa, says Fouchier: "That could be different this time, but I wouldn't bet any money on it."

The specter of an H5N1 pandemic keeps flu scientists up at night because of the virus's power to kill. Of the known cases so far, more than half were fatal. The real case-fatality rate is probably lower because an unknown number of milder cases are never diagnosed and reported, but scientists agree that the virus is vicious. Based on Fouchier's talk in Malta, New Scientist reported that the strain created by the Rotterdam team is just as lethal to ferrets as the original one.

"These studies are very important," says biodefense and flu expert Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. The researchers "have the full support of the influenza community," Osterholm says, because there are potential benefits for public health. For instance, the results show that those downplaying the risks of an H5N1 pandemic should think again, he says.

Knowing the exact mutations that make the virus transmissible also enables scientists to look for them in the field and take more aggressive control measures when one or more show up, adds Fouchier. The study also enables researchers to test whether H5N1 vaccines and antiviral drugs would work against the new strain.
Fouchier says he consulted widely within the Netherlands before submitting his manuscript for publication. The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), which funded the work, has agreed to the publication, says Fouchier, including officials at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. (NIH declined to answer questions for this story.) Now, Fouchier is eagerly waiting for NSABB's judgment.

Osterholm says he can't discuss details of the papers because he's an NSABB member. But he says it should be possible to omit certain key details from controversial papers and make them available to people who really need to know. "We don't want to give bad guys a road map on how to make bad bugs really bad," he says.

But some scientists say the board's debate comes far too late, because the studies have been done and the papers are written. "This is a good example of the need for a robust and independent system of PRIOR review and approval of potentially dangerous experiments," retired arms control researcher Mark Wheelis of the University of California, Davis, wrote to ScienceInsider in an e-mail. "Blocking publication may provide some small increment of safety, but it will be very modest compared to the benefits of not doing the work in the first place."

Scientists have long discussed whether to have mandatory reviews of dual-use studies before they begin, and given the global risks, some have even argued for some international risk assessment system for pandemic viruses. For instance, a proposal by four researchers from the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland would have classified Fouchier's work as an "activity of extreme concern" that would have required international pre-approval.

But NSABB advised against such mandatory systems in 2007, and most countries don't have formal mechanisms in place to review studies before they start. (In the United States, it's "recommended" that researchers ask an institutional review board for advice if they think a study raises concerns.) Fouchier's study was greenlighted in advance by the Dutch Commission on Genetic Modification (COGEM), but that only means the panel is satisfied with safety procedures at Fouchier's lab, explains chair Bastiaan Zoeteman; it's not COGEM's job to decide whether a study is desirable. NIH didn't give the funding prop
osal a special review either, says Fouchier.

"The creation of a pandemic virus has been the classical example of dual-use research of concern the past decade," says Ebright. "It's remarkable that the NSABB is discussing it in 2011."

Keim agrees about the need for reviews up front. "The process of identifying dual use of concern is something that should start at the very first glimmer of an experiment," he says. "You shouldn't wait until you have submitted a paper before you decide it's dangerous. Scientists and institutions and funding agencies should be looking at this. The journals and the journals' reviewers should be the last resort."

NSABB does not have the power to prevent the publication of papers, but it could ask journals not to publish. Even Ebright, however, says he's against efforts to ban the publication of the studies now that they have been done. "You cannot post hoc suppress work that was done and completed in a nonclassified context," he says. "The scientific community would not stand for that."

http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/11/scientists-brace-for-media-storm.html

Pandemrix Trials 5 Die 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20770775/Pandemrix-Trials-5-Die-Page-16

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  DO YOU THINK THAT IT IS LIKELY TO BE LIKE LYME DISEASE?  ...  OR DO YOU THINK THAT THIS IS JUST FEAR MONGERING TO KEEP THE PEOPLE UNDER THEIR CONTROL?

Bird Flu - You won't believe how many chickens!!!

Bird flu strikes farm in Kagoshima / Devastating blow for prefecture, farm in close proximity to crane site

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A poultry farm where chickens were culled Wednesday morning in Izumi, Kagoshima Prefecture

KAGOSHIMA--A strain of the highly virulent avian flu virus was detected Wednesday in chickens at a poultry farm in Izumi, Kagoshima Prefecture, according to the agriculture ministry and the Kagoshima prefectural government.

The prefecture culled 8,600 chickens at the poultry farm and ordered other farms within a 10-kilometer radius to refrain from transporting chickens and eggs. The area has 5.22 million chickens in 162 poultry farms.

According to the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, the avian flu outbreak was confirmed at the poultry farm, which is located near the country's largest wintering site for cranes.

Since December, six hooded cranes on the Izumi Plains have been confirmed infected with the highly infectious H5N1 strain of bird flu. The farm is located about 2.3 kilometers southeast from the Izumi City Crane Center.

On Tuesday afternoon, the farm reported to the prefecture's livestock hygiene service center that birds were showing signs of avian flu infection.

Having confirmed the death of 85 chickens at the farm, local government officials conducted preliminary testing for avian flu on nine chickens, including dead birds, and found eight tested positive for bird flu.

According to the farm, the chickens started dying around Jan. 20. Thirty died on Sunday, another 30 died on Monday and a total of 160 had died by Tuesday, the farm's owner was quoted as saying.

The prefectural government conducted genetic testing Tuesday evening and detected the highly pathogenic H5 strain of the bird flu virus in the farm's dead chickens early Wednesday.

Following confirmation of the infection, the prefecture started a mass cull of the chickens from early Wednesday, which was completed by around 8 a.m. All the infected chickens were expected to be buried near the farm on the day.

The Kagoshima case marks the fourth avian flu outbreak this winter, following outbreaks in Yasugi, Shimane Prefecture, in November and in Miyazaki and Shintomicho, both in Miyazaki Prefecture, earlier this month.

The Kagoshima prefectural government has started checking for signs of bird flu in other poultry farms in the area.

Kagoshima Prefecture is known as the nation's largest livestock-producing prefecture. According to the farm ministry, the prefecture's combined output of poultry farming--both broilers and eggs--was the nation's largest in 2009. The prefecture was ranked first in the production of broilers at 50.5 billion yen and third in the production of eggs at 24.6 billion yen.

"Izumi is one of the most famous poultry farming areas in the nation. If the bird flu problem lingers, this will likely adversely affect the distribution of chickens and eggs in the country," said an official of the ministry's animal hygiene section.

(Jan. 27, 2011)

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110126006642.htm

H1N1 Surge

"Doctors are reporting a severe form of H1N1 that goes straight to the lungs, causing severe illness in otherwise healthy young people and requiring expensive hospital treatment, the World Health Organization said Friday.

Some countries are reporting that as many as 15 percent of patients hospitalized with the new H1N1 pandemic virus need intensive care, further straining already overburdened healthcare systems, WHO said in an update on the pandemic.

"During the winter season in the southern hemisphere, several countries have viewed the need for intensive care as the greatest burden on health services," it said.

"Preparedness measures need to anticipate this increased demand on intensive care units, which could be overwhelmed by a sudden surge in the number of severe cases." -- Reuters

Pandemic Defined.

Definition of Pandemic

Pandemic: An epidemic (a sudden outbreak) that becomes very widespread and affects a whole region, a continent, or the world.

By contrast:

An epidemic affects more than the expected number of cases of disease occurring in a community or region during a given period of time. A sudden severe outbreak within a region or a group as, for example, AIDS in Africa or AIDS in intravenous drug users.
An endemic is present in a community at all times but in low frequency. An endemic is continuous as in the case of malaria in some areas of the world or as with illicit drugs in some neighborhoods.

The word "pandemic" comes from the Greek "pan-", "all" + "demos", "people or population" = "pandemos" = "all the people." A pandemic affects all (nearly all) of the people. By contrast, "epi-" means "upon." An epidemic is visited upon the people. And "en-" means "in." An endemic is in the people.

Source: MedicineNet.com
************************************************************************

Epidemics and pandemics refer to the spread of infectious diseases among a population. The difference between an epidemic and a pandemic is two-fold. First a pandemic is normally used to indicate a far higher number of people affected than an epidemic, and a pandemic refers to a much larger region affected. In the most extreme case, the global population is affected by a pandemic.

An epidemic is defined by an illness or health-related issue that is showing up in more cases than would be normally expected. However, in the case of a pandemic, even more of the population is affected than in an epidemic.

Let's take a hypothetical example and assume several people contract the same flu-like symptoms in a particular area. Let's further assume that cases show up across the state, but the concentration remains localized in a few original cities. Some cases even turn up elsewhere in the nation, but the illness doesn't catch on elsewhere. In the hubs where it is seen the infection rate remains more than you would expect to normally see. This is a classic example of an epidemic.

Now let's take that same scenario but imagine the rate of infection started growing exponentially so that more and more cases were cropping up locally. When the rate of infection grows very fast it is likely, given favorable circumstances, that the epidemic grows into something more. Now we start seeing cases across the nation and the rate of infection is exceeding even that of an epidemic. It turns out in our hypothetical scenario that most of the population in the nation becomes affected by this flu. This is a pandemic.

To put a finer point on it, if the entire nation was affected but the rate of incidence never rose above that of an epidemic, it would still be considered an epidemic, even though the disease was nationwide.

Conversely, you might have a small population in a remote area of Africa, for example, that is nearly 100% affected by an illness or health problem. Because the incidence is so high, and the area relatively widespread in that it is affecting an entire population, this could be termed pandemic.

You can see with these subtle but significant differences how the terms might be confusing, but normally epidemics that grow out of hand due to the nature of the disease and other factors, turn into pandemics.

A pandemic may be regionally localized if it involves more cases than a simple epidemic; and an epidemic may be widespread if not enough of the population is affected to term it pandemic. Though in this latter case, you might still see it termed pandemic by some, just because the geographical area is so widespread. View Source

Source: WiseGeek.com

Swine Not the Killer You Think It Is

May 2nd, 2009 2:06 PM Eastern

DR. MARC SIEGEL: Swine Flu — It’s Not the Killer You Think It Is
By Marc Siegel, M.D.

FOX News Medical Contributor/Associate Professor, NYU School of Medicine/Author, “False Alarm; the Truth About the Epidemic of Fear and Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic”

I was listening to a conference call on Friday, organized by the NYC Health Department about — you guessed it — swine flu (now known as H1N1). The discussion centered around “Influenza-like illness” and it was soon clear to me that…

1) It is a late influenza season this year and some of these illnesses are from the garden-variety mild influenza B.

2) A lot of the so-called “influenza cases” are really just reports by worried people with the sniffles. When all is said and done, it is looking more and more like H1N1 (a designation which describes two proteins on the surface of the flu virus which help it spread) will end up being a mild, over-hyped virus despite the fact that it is new.

In the current swine flu scare the virus is assumed to be a more powerful human killer than it actually is. In reality it appears to losing virulence as it spreads human to human and is not that transmissable, and is NOT becoming widespread.

As I described in my book “False Alarm; the Truth About the Epidemic of Fear,” there is a history of hysterical ovverreaction to health risks in this country especially as evidenced by the swine flu fiasco of 1976, SARS in 2003 and the bird flu scare in 2005.

In each case, Some of this overreaction was due to a distortion of the scientific information about the virus itself. In 1976, when a swine flu virus appeared to kill a military recruit and then be present in the blood of 500 others (who never got sick) this led to a massive hysteria and vaccination program for a pandemic that never occurred. Forty millon Americas were vaccinated and ascending paralysis (also known as Guillain Barre Syndrome) was associated with recipients in close to 1,000 patients.

The fears that prompted the mass vaccination were due to the ghost of the 1918 Spanish Flu, which killed at least 50 million worldwide. In 1976 and 2003 SARS, and again in 2006 with the bird flu, false assumptions were made connecting the memory of 1918 with another potential scourge.

Back in 1976 the prevailing theory was that pigs had been the source of the 1918 Spanish Flu, which was later disproven but served as an impetus for the hysteria at the time. In 2005, the knowledge that the 1918 scary virus was “bird-like” led the fearmongers to point a finger at an equally scary H5N1 virus that was killing millions of birds. But lost in the panic was the knowledge that human pandemics had likely never been caused by an H5 virus before.

In the current swine flu scare the virus is assumed to be a more powerful human killer than it actually is. In reality it appears to losing virulence as it spreads human to human and is not that transmissable, and is NOT becoming widespread.

The vast overreaction to this virus and its potential has severe economic consequences as it did previously in 1976, 2003, and 2006. This time the hysteria may lead to billions of dollars lost to the travel industry, tourism, the Mexican economy, and to closing schools due to hysterical children and overreacting nurses. Vice President Biden’s statement that we should all avoid planes, trains, and crowded places was not at all consistent with the very low prevalence of the virus. It made me think he had become disoriented and suddenly thought he was back in 1918! Even President Obama’s statement that we should wash our hands (of course we should, they are loaded with bacteria and viruses of all kinds) sent the wrong message that there is far more of this particular virus around than there actually is. (The chance that this virus is on your hands as you read this is extremely close to zero).

Despite the fact that you can’t get this virus from eating pork, Egypt is destroying its pigs and several other countries are not importing pigs from the U.S. or Mexico. This is another form of hysteria.

Perhaps the greatest overreaction of all is the new pandemic alert system that the World Health Organization developed in response to the 2005 bird flu scare (an alert system developed in response to a scare??). Though it is reasonable to call a pandemic for an extensive spread of a new strain of killer flu to many parts of the world at once, what is sorely lacking in this alert system is any counting of actual cases or number of deaths before raising the alert level. As a result, we may end up with the first pandemic in history with less than a thousand deaths. Consider that the last pandemic, the 1968 Hong Kong Flu, which was controlled with the help of vaccines, public health measures, and treatments for secondary infections with antibiotics, killed 750,000 worldwide.

It look like H1N1 is another pandemic of mostly of fear — something that is stronger and more infectious than any virus.

Marc Siegel M.D., a FOX Medical Contributor, is the author of “False Alarm; the Truth About the Epidemic of Fear and Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic.”

Diversionary Tactics? Economy Worse.

Now that you have comparative data (prior post), showing that the true resistant flu is not the Swine Flu (H1N1), but instead H3N2, you may want to see the newest twist.

First, by now you may have already read or heard the we had our first "American" death from the Swine Flu. Well, while I have sympathy for anyone who loses a loved one, the toddler wasn't really "American". It happened on our soil, yes. However, the child was visiting from Mexico.

While any spread of illness is a serious issue (and I am certainly of the opinion that you should be prepared), flu illnesses are not uncommon and that includes new strains.

I still wonder why there is so much attention being paid when a simple warning could be put into place for prevention measures (i.e., washing hands which everyone should do anyway).

When you read the story below (along with the fact that $1.5 billion has been pulled off by Obama as an emergency fund even though we have strategic reserves of antivirals) you may wonder why the economy has not been touted the main story of the day...

Economy shrinks at 6.1 percent pace in 1Q

Jeannine Aversa, Ap Economics Writer
WASHINGTON – The economy shrank at a worse-than-expected 6.1 percent pace at the start of this year as sharp cutbacks by businesses and the biggest drop in U.S. exports in 40 years overwhelmed a rebound in consumer spending.

The Commerce Department's report, released Wednesday, dashed hopes that the recession's grip on the country loosened in the first quarter. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a 5 percent annualized decline.

Instead, the economy ended up performing nearly as bad as it had in the final three months of last year when it logged the worst slide in a quarter-century, contracting at a 6.3 percent pace. Nervous consumers played a prominent role in that dismal showing as they ratcheted back spending in the face of rising unemployment, falling home values and shrinking nest eggs.

In the January-March quarter consumers came back to life, boosting their spending after two straight quarters of reductions. The 2.2 percent growth rate was the strongest in two years.

Much stronger demand for big-ticket "durable" goods, including cars, furniture and household appliances led the increase. That spending rose at a 9.4 pace, the most in a year. Consumers also boosted spending on clothing, shoes, recreation services, medical care, gasoline and other energy products. But not on food, where spending dipped slightly.

Still, the consumer rebound was swamped by heavy spending cuts in virtually every other area.

Businesses cut spending on home building, commercial construction, equipment and software, and inventories of goods. Sales of U.S. goods to foreign buyers plunged as they retrenched in the face of economic troubles in their own countries. Even the government trimmed spending. It was the first time that happened since the end of 2005.

All told, the economy logged its worst six-month performance since the late 1950s.

The sharp cuts underscore the toll the housing, credit and financial crises — the worst since the 1930s — are having on the country. The recession, which began in December 2007, has taken a big bite out of national economic activity and snatched 5.1 million jobs.

To cushion the impact of the downturn, the Federal Reserve has slashed a key bank lending rate to a record low near zero and rolled out a string of radical programs to spur lending. The Fed at the end of its two-day meeting Wednesday is expected to keep its key rate near zero and probably hold it there well into next year.

Wall Street shook off the weak gross domestic product reading as it awaited the Fed's assessment of the economy. The Dow Jones industrial average added more than 155 points in midday trading and broader indices also rose.

President Barack Obama is counting on his $787 billion stimulus of tax cuts and increased government spending on big public works projects to help bolster economic activity later this year. The administration also has put forward programs to rescue banks and curb home foreclosures — big negative forces weighing on the economy.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called the first-quarter's showing a "pretty severe contraction," but added that some more up-to-date signals on the economy have been more encouraging. "We continue to get, as the president said, some glimmers of hope," he said.

Even in the face of Wednesday's weaker-than-expected report, some analysts stuck to predictions that the economy would shrink less in the current April-June period — at a pace of 1 to 2.5 percent — as Obama's stimulus begins to take hold. Those analysts also continue to hope the economy would start to grow again in the final quarter of this year.

"The recession was bad in the first quarter but won't be as bad going forward," said John Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia. "I don't think this lessens the expected pattern that the economy will be entering a recovery by the end of this year."

However, the recent outbreak of the swine flu, which started out in Mexico and has spread to the United States and elsewhere, poses a new potential danger. If the flu stifles trade and forces consumers to cut back further, those negative forces would worsen the recession.

Before the flu outbreak, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the recession could end this year if the government succeeds in stabilizing the shaky financial system and getting banks to lend again.

In recent weeks, Bernanke and his colleagues had cited "tentative signs" of the recession easing in some consumer spending, home building and other reports. Finance officials from the U.S. and other top economic powers meeting here last week also saw some hopeful signs for the global economy.

Fresh glimmers of hope emerged in the U.S. Tuesday. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index rose far more than expected in April, jumping more than 12 points to 39.2, the highest level since November. And a housing index showed that home prices dropped sharply in February, but for the first time in 25 months the decline was not a record.

However, in the first quarter there was much weakness in those areas and others.

Spending on home building fell at a 38 percent annualized rate, the most since the second quarter of 1980. Businesses cut spending on equipment and software at a 33.8 percent pace, the most since the first quarter of 1958.

Inventory reductions shaved 2.79 percentage points off overall first-quarter economic activity. But with stockpiles slashed, any pickup in business sales would help increase production and bolster the economy in the current quarter.

Still, U.S. exports plunged at a rate of 30 percent, the biggest drop since the first quarter of 1969, reflecting the crimped appetite of struggling foreign buyers. The government also cut spending 3.9 percent, the most since the end of 1995.

Even if the recession were to end this year, the economy will remain feeble and unemployment will keep climbing, government officials and analysts say.

The Labor Department on Wednesday said that all 372 metropolitan areas tracked saw their jobless rates rise in March from a year earlier. The rate in Indiana's Elkhart-Goshen region soared to 18.8 percent, up 13 percentage points, which was the biggest gain in the country.

The national jobless rate is now at a quarter-century high of 8.5 percent and is expected to hit 10 percent by the end of this year. It will probably rise a bit higher in early 2010 before starting to slowly drift downward. Still, the Fed predicts unemployment will stay elevated into 2011, and economists don't think it will return to normal — around a 5 percent jobless rate — until 2013.

More layoffs were announced this week. Textron Inc. said it will expand layoffs, eliminating 8,300 jobs, or 20 percent, of its global work force as the recession weakens demand for corporate planes. The maker of Cessna planes, Bell helicopters and turf-maintenance equipment earlier this year said it would reduce its work force by 6,200 jobs, or 15 percent, mostly at Wichita, Kansas-based Cessna.

General Motors Corp. laid out a massive restructuring plan that includes cutting 21,000 U.S. factory jobs by next year. Clear Channel Communications Inc., the largest owner of U.S. radio stations, said it's cutting 590 jobs in its second round of mass layoffs this year amid pressure from the recession and evaporating advertising budgets. And bearings and specialty steels maker Timken Co. indicated it will cut about 4,000 more jobs by the end of this year after earlier suggesting about 3,000 jobs already had been targeted.

Swine Flu. Comparative Statistical Data. Resistance.

CDC site

Influenza A (H1N1) 0.4% resistant
Influenza A (H3N2) 100% resistant

Swine flu spreads in 10 US states, Europe

WASHINGTON – Virulent swine flu spread to 10 U.S. states from coast to coast Wednesday and swept deeper into Europe, extending its global reach as President Barack Obama mourned the first U.S. death, a Mexican toddler who had traveled with his family to Texas. Total American cases surged to nearly 100, and Obama said wider school closings might be necessary.

The World Health Organization said the outbreak is moving closer to becoming a full-scale pandemic.

Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the organization's top flu expert, told reporters in Geneva that the latest developments are moving the agency closer to raising its pandemic alert to phase 5, indicating widespread human-to-human transmission. That's just one step below level 6, a full-fledged pandemic.

In Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was questioned closely by senators about whether the U.S. should close its border with Mexico, where the outbreak apparently began and the casualties have been the greatest. She repeated the administration's position that questioning of people at borders and ports of entry was sufficient for now and said closing borders "has not been merited by the facts."

Dr. Richard Besser, the acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control, said in Atlanta that there are confirmed cases now in ten states, with 51 in New York, 14 in California and 16 in Texas. Two cases have been confirmed in Kansas, Massachusetts and Michigan, while a single cases have been reported in Arizona, Indiana, Nevada and Ohio.

In a possible outbreak north of the Mexican border, the commandant of the Marine Corps said a Marine in southern California might have the illness and 39 Marines were being confined on their California base until tests come back.

Marine General James Conway told a Pentagon briefing an initial test indicated the sick Marine — who was not identified — might have swine flu but his illness did not appear life-threatening.

Obama said he wanted to extend "my thoughts and prayers" to the family of a nearly two-year-old Mexican boy who died in Houston, the first confirmed U.S. fatality among more than five dozen infections. Health officials in Texas said the child had traveled with his family from Mexico, to Brownsville on April 4 and was brought to Houston after becoming ill. He died Monday night.

"This is obviously a serious situation," and "we are closely and continuously monitoring" it, Obama said of the spreading illness.

Those sentiments were echoed by the Senate's top Republican. "This is a very worrisome situation and we're all following it very closely," said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "We stand ready to closely work with the administration to protect the American people as this situation unfolds."

Meanwhile, Egypt's government ordered the slaughter of all pigs in the country as a precaution, though no swine flu cases have been reported there. Egypt's overwhelmingly Muslim population does not eat pork, but farmers raise some 300,000-350,000 pigs for the Christian minority.

The disease is not spread by eating pork, and farmers were to be allowed to sell the meat from the slaughtered animals.

In fact, officials appeared to go out of their way on Wednesday to not call the strain "swine flu." Obama called the bug the "H1N1 virus."

"The disease is not a food-borne illness," Rear Adm. Anne Schuchat, CDC's interim science and public health deputy direct, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

She said the strain is particularly worrisome because "it's a virus that hasn't been around before. The general population doesn't have immunity from it."

People have various levels of protection against other more common types of flu because they are exposed to it over time, and that protection accumulates. She suggested that some older people might have more resistance to this particular strain than younger people because its traits might resemble outbreaks of decades ago.

Germany became the latest country to report swine flu infections. It reported four cases on Wednesday.

New Zealand's total rose to 14. Britain had earlier reported five cases, Spain four. There were 13 cases in Canada, two in Israel and one in Austria.

Obama said it is the recommendation of public health officials that authorities at schools with confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu "should strongly consider temporarily closing so that we can be as safe as possible."

He was underscoring advice that the CDC provided earlier to cities and states, and that some schools — most prominently in New York City — already have followed.

"If the situation becomes more serious and we have to take more extensive steps, then parents should also think about contingencies if schools in their areas do temporarily shut down, figuring out and planning what their child care situation would be," Obama advised.

He advised people to take their own precautions — washing hands, staying home if they are sick, and keeping sick kids home.

Obama said the federal government is "prepared to do whatever is necessary to control the impact of this virus." He noted his request for $1.5 billion in emergency funding to ensure adequate supplies of vaccines.

CDC for days has said people with flulike symptoms should stay home — but now also is stressing that other family members should consider staying home or at least limiting how much they go out until they're sure they didn't catch it.

Besser, the acting CDC director, called it "an abundance of caution," but stressed that it's voluntary and that the government hasn't urged actual quarantine, which isn't really effective with flu.

Human Infections with Swine Influenza A Virus:
On April 17, 2009, CDC and the California Department of Public Health determined that two cases of febrile respiratory illness occurring in children who reside in adjacent counties in southern California were caused by infection with a swine influenza A (H1N1) virus. On April 22, CDC confirmed an additional three cases of swine influenza among residents of the two counties, two adults and one adolescent. All case-patients had symptoms of ILI. Additional testing at CDC identified swine influenza A (H1N1). All five had self-limited ILI and have recovered; one required hospitalization. Two additional cases were identified from Texas and confirmed as swine influenza at CDC on April 23.

Of the five case-patients with swine influenza A (H1N1) infection from California, two are a father and daughter and other than the father-daughter, the five case-patients have no known epidemiologic link or contact with pigs. The two new case-patients from Texas are schoolmates and an epidemiologic investigation is currently underway.

The viruses from all seven cases are closely related genetically and contain a unique combination of gene segments that have not been reported in the United States or elsewhere. Viruses from 6 cases are all resistant to amantadine and rimantidine and sensitive to zanamivir and oseltamivir, and sensitivity testing is underway for the remaining virus.

Vaccination with seasonal influenza vaccine containing human influenza A (H1N1) would not be expected to provide protection against swine influenza A (H1N1) viruses.

Additional information on swine influenza is available at http://www.cdc.gov/flu/swine/index.htm

Death Toll Rises in Mexico

Mexico: suspected swine flu deaths climb to 149
April 27th, 2009 @ 11:02am

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico's government is ordering closed schools nationwide as the suspected death toll from swine flu climbed to 149.

Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova says only 20 of the deaths have been confirmed to be from swine flu and the government was awaiting tests results on the rest.

He says 1,995 people have been hospitalized with serious cases of pneumonia since the first case of swine flu was reported on April 13. The government does not yet know how many were swine flu.

Of those hospitalized, 1,070 have been released.

Cordova says school at all levels nationwide are suspended until May 6. Schools had already been suspended in Mexico City and five of Mexico's 32 states.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

MEXICO CITY (AP) _ Mexico's government is ordering closed schools nationwide as the suspected death toll from swine flu climbed to 149.

Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova says only 20 of the deaths have been confirmed to be from swine flu and the government was awaiting tests results on the rest.

He says 1,995 people have been hospitalized with serious cases of pneumonia since the first case of swine flu was reported on April 13. The government does not yet know how many were swine flu.

Of those hospitalized, 1,070 have been released.

Cordova says school at all levels nationwide are suspended until May 6. Schools had already been suspended in Mexico City and five of Mexico's 32 states.


(Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Understanding Swine Flu

Understanding Swine Flu Outbreak: Questions and Answers

By John Lauerman

April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Swine flu, a virus that normally infects pigs, has been detected in people in Mexico, the U.S., New Zealand, Canada, and the U.K. Health officials around the world are checking to see whether infections have occurred in their countries, and readying measures to prevent its spread.

Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about swine flu. The information is drawn from the data released by the World Health Organization in Geneva and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Q: What is swine flu? A: Influenza is a virus that infects people, birds, pigs and other animals such as ferrets. Swine flu, or swine influenza, is a form of the virus that normally infects pigs. There are many forms of flu, and the different varieties have the ability to exchange genes with one another. The form of flu that originated in Mexico is a genetic mixture of viruses that have been seen in pigs, birds and people. It’s being called a swine flu because the overall structure of the virus is of the type that affects pigs, said Keiji Fukuda, a WHO official.

Q: How do people catch swine flu? A: Studies are still ongoing on how this particular swine flu is transmitted. Flu is generally transmitted through the respiratory tract. Droplets of infected body fluids can carry flu when people cough or sneeze. Studies indicate that masks called N95 respirators that, when properly used, filter germs from the breath and hamper the spread of flu. Neither contact with pigs nor eating pork has been linked to the spread of the flu, Fukuda said today. Still, health researchers are working to establish that the virus is spreading from person-to-person.

Q: What are the symptoms of swine flu? A: About one to four days usually elapse between the time a person is infected and the onset of symptoms. Influenza normally causes symptoms such as coughing, sneezing, headaches and body aches, fever, chills, and sometimes vomiting and diarrhea. Swine flu causes the same symptoms, and may be difficult to distinguish from other strains of flu and respiratory illnesses. Severe cases of flu that lead to death are normally seen in very young and very old people whose immune systems are too weak to fight off the virus. Adults with severe illness may also have difficulty breathing, dizziness, confusion, or severe vomiting and diarrhea.

Q: How can I tell if my child is sick? A: Children who are breathing abnormally fast or slowly may have respiratory illness. Bluish skin indicates a need for quick attention. Children who are abnormally sluggish and sleepy, irritable, or have fever or rash may also need attention.

Q: Have there been outbreaks of swine flu before? A: Yes. Health officials said in 1976 that an outbreak of swine flu in people might lead to a pandemic. Widespread vaccination was carried out in the U.S. before experts determined that the virus was not dangerous enough to cause a pandemic. Swine flu occasionally infects people in the U.S. without causing large outbreaks. From 2005 through January 2009, there were 12 reported swine flu cases in the U.S. None of them caused deaths.

Q: Why are health officials concerned about the outbreak of swine flu? A: When flu viruses mix their genes with one another, they can take on new forms. New flu viruses are harder for the immune system to defend against. With little or no opposition from the immune system, they can grow quickly and invade many tissues and organs. They may also set off a harmful immune overreaction in the body, called a “cytokine storm,” that may be lethal in itself. The swine flu virus from Mexico may have the ability to spread quickly and kill people, possibly causing a worldwide pandemic, according to the World Health Organization. Researchers are conducting studies right now to determine how easily the virus spreads in people and how dangerous it is.

Q: What’s a flu pandemic? A: Flu pandemics occur when new influenza viruses emerge that spread quickly and few people have immunity to them. While influenza viruses were only discovered about a century ago, researchers believe flu pandemics hit about twice or three times each century. Some pandemics are relatively mild, killing just a few million people globally. The most severe flu pandemic on record was the 1918 Spanish Flu, and researchers estimate it killed about 50 million people around the world.

Q: Are there any similarities between the swine flu and earlier pandemic viruses? A: Flu viruses are classified by two proteins on their surface, called H for hemagglutinin and N for neuraminidase. Both the swine flu found in Mexico and the 1918 Spanish Flu viruses are of the H1N1 subtype. Both viruses appear to have originated in animals; researchers believe the Spanish flu spread to people from birds. The two viruses are not identical, and there are still many genetic differences between them that researchers are studying.

Q: Do all H1N1 viruses cause pandemics? A: Not all H1N1 viruses cause pandemics. H1N1 descendants of the Spanish Flu virus continue to circulate in people and sometimes cause outbreaks of seasonal flu.

Q: Is there a vaccine against the swine flu from Mexico? A: Flu vaccines generally contain a dead or weakened form of a circulating virus. The vaccine prepares the body’s immune system to fend off a true infection. For the vaccine to work, it must match the circulating, “wild-type” virus relatively closely. There is no vaccine currently that exactly matches the swine flu. However, if the virus is sufficiently similar to circulating forms of H1N1 flu that are included in current vaccines, they may offer some limited protection from swine flu. While U.S. health officials are investigating this, the possibilities for this protection are poor, they said yesterday on a telephone call.

In addition, millions of people in the U.S. were vaccinated against swine flu in 1976. While that was not the same strain of flu as the one from Mexico, people who got the 1976 vaccine may get some limited protection from the currently circulating virus. Health officials may do some research on this issue as well.

Vaccine makers have contacted the World Health Organization about obtaining samples of the virus needed to make a vaccine. Making flu vaccine can take three to six months, depending on the type of manufacturing used.

Q: Are there drugs that treat swine flu? A: Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu and GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Relenza both have activity against swine flu. The U.S. has released its stockpile of Tamiflu to treat people with swine flu. Flu viruses sometimes develop resistance to antiviral drugs. The human form of H1N1 that’s currently circulating is resistant to Roche’s Tamiflu (not Relenza). If the two viruses were to exchange genes, the swine flu might become resistant, too.

Q: How else can I protect myself from swine flu? A: Personal hygiene measures, such as avoiding people who are coughing or sneezing and frequent hand-washing, may prevent flu infection. Those who aren’t health professionals should avoid contact with sick people, or those who are coughing or sneezing. People who get sick with flu symptoms should stay home. Studies have suggested that closing schools, theaters, and canceling gatherings in the early stages of a pandemic can limit its spread. Such measures would likely take place if health officials determine that the virus is spreading quickly enough and is deadly enough to cause a pandemic.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Lauerman in Boston at jlauerman@bloomberg.net; Jason Gale in Singapore at j.gale@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 26, 2009 22:29 EDT

Utah. Swine Flu

Swine Flu - Utah Public Health Officials Order Supplies From Strategic National Stockpile
Main Category: Swine Flu
Article Date: 27 Apr 2009 - 9:00 PDT

While no cases of swine influenza (H1N1) have been documented in Utah, public health officials are taking a proactive approach in order to be prepared for a possible outbreak. As of this afternoon, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reporting 20 cases of swine flu in five states - California, Texas, Ohio, Kansas and New York. In addition, CDC along with the World Health Organization is assisting the Mexican government in tracking an outbreak caused by the same swine influenza virus.

Earlier today, the United States Department of Health and Human Services declared a Public Health Emergency as a consequence of the outbreak. The declaration will assist public health officials in responding to the outbreak.

As a precaution, the UDOH has initiated the process of ordering 25 percent of the state's pro-rated share of anti-viral medications and other supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile. State and local health officials are coordinating their response with Gov. Jon Huntsman, the Utah Department of Public Safety, as well as other federal government partners.

"Even though we don't have any cases in Utah, this is still a situation where we need to be on high alert, but not to panic," said Utah Department of Health Executive Director Dr. David Sundwall. "The UDOH has increased its disease surveillance efforts and asks that all physicians be on the lookout for patients who may be exhibiting flu-like symptoms and report them to public health officials."

Symptoms may include fever, body aches, runny nose, sore throat or cough; some patients may also have nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. The UDOH recommends people who have flu symptoms remain home and limit contact with others unless the severity of illness requires medical care. Physicians who see these patients should collect specimens, such as a nasal swab, and submit them for testing at the Utah Public Health Laboratory.

It's also important for individuals to realize the swine flu virus is not transmitted by food and that you cannot get swine flu from eating pork products.

"We recognize that it is difficult to foresee the extent to which Swine Influenza A will affect our local communities," said Lloyd Berentzen, Health Officer for the Bear River Health Department and President of the Utah Local Health Officers Association. "Because of this uncertainty it is important that we ramp up our awareness and preparedness practices. We will do all we can to protect our communities and empower individuals to know what they can do."

Public health officials also stressed the importance of the public's cooperation and participation in preventing an outbreak and offered the following tips:
As is the case with any respiratory illness, people who are sick should stay home from work or school to avoid spreading their infection,

Avoid close contact with people who are coughing or ill,

Cover your cough with your shirt sleeve,

If you are sick, avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth if possible,

Everyone should wash their hands frequently.
Source
Utah Department of Health

Pandemic...Swine Flu

Plan in place to deal with swine flu in Utah
April 26th, 2009 @ 9:38pm
By John Hollenhorst
(AP Photo/Guillermo Arias)

SALT LAKE CITY -- Churches are closed, events have been canceled, and the entire world is on alert as a contagious and possibly deadly disease is spreading throughout the globe.

The swine flu was first detected in Mexico and has since crept into the U.S. and other countries. The unique type of flu has now been diagnosed in five different states. New York has the most confirmed cases with eight, followed closely by California with seven. Kansas and Texas both have two, and Ohio has reported a single case, bringing the total to 20 in America.

While the disease is a growing medical mystery, health officials emphasize all the detected case here are minor. Still, they are taking every precaution to prevent an epidemic.

Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security Secretary, said, "I wish we could call it a declaration of emergency preparedness, because that's really what it is in this context."

Richard Besser, acting director of the CDC, said, "We do think this will continue to spread, but we are taking aggressive actions to minimize the impact on peoples' health."

In the wake of the emergency declaration, Utah's top health officials gathered in a rare Sunday conference. They started fine-tuning an existing plan to keep Utahns safe, just in case the disease makes its way here.

Bear in mind, there are no reported cases in Utah so far, and the cases in other states have been mild. So one important message is: Don't panic if you get a cough or a runny nose!

At University Hospital, the declaration of a national emergency may have changed the atmosphere but not the staffing.

University Hospital spokesman Chris Nelson said, "It makes us a little more vigilant. One of the things I would say is that all hospitals, including University Hospital, have been practicing for this scenario for a long time."

State health officials huddled in telephone conferences with national health experts. They say the basic playbook was adopted two years ago.

Dr. David Sundwall, executive director for the Utah Department of Health, said, "Do we close the schools and when? How do we distribute these anti-viral medications? We're not starting from scratch. I'm really glad that we did that planning."

Some experts say Mexico was late in closing down schools and public events, but it's not even being considered yet in the U.S.

"This is just a menu of things that you'd consider if you start seeing clusters of illness crop up, but we're not anywhere close to that now," Dr. Sundwall said.

Infectious disease experts at the U did retrain emergency room staff over the weekend on handling patients with flu-like symptoms.

"You know, they're put into an isolated room with negative pressure. We don the proper masks and gloves and protocols," Nelson said.

They're asking people with respiratory symptoms to stay at home but to go to a doctor if they have the serious hallmarks of flu -- like a fever, muscle aches, exhaustion, chills, sweats and headaches --not just a cold.

"Well, I think you have to use common sense. You know we're subject to colds, to respiratory illnesses all the time. I think though, if I were running a fever, had muscle aches and felt unusually tired along with a respiratory illness, yeah, I'd go to the doctor," Dr. Sundwall said.

The most basic advice is what you're always advised to do. "Hand washing, hand washing is always key. Whether you go into a hospital, or a daycare or a restaurant," Nelson said.

The state did begin ordering anti-viral medications today. Still, officials emphasize that it's not a time for alarm, just alertness.

One other thing, health officials emphasized today that swine flu is not spread by eating meat, so feel free to eat all the pork you want.

Travel requirements by airline

Because of the outbreak in Mexico, health authorities in that country have started to implement flu prevention measures.

As travelers arrive at various airports in the country, they are handed surgical masks with the hope of containing the disease. Millions of masks have been handed out so far.

For those wanting to change their travel plans to Mexico, many airlines are making it a little easier. American, United, Continental and US Airways are allowing people to change their reservations without penalties; however, they all have different policies.

American Airlines: Waive its usual penalty for changing reservations for anyone traveling to, from or through Mexico from Saturday through May 6. Tickets must be purchased before Saturday.

United Airlines: Passengers who purchased tickets on or before Sunday for travel through April 30 may change their plans without penalty.

Continental Airlines: Offering to waive change fees for passengers traveling to, from or through Mexico City, Puebla and Toluca, Mexico between today and April 28.

US Airways: Waiving the standard change fee, advance reservation and ticketing requirements for customers with Mexico City travel plans through April 30.

Mexicana International: Passengers traveling to Mexico City, or those who are required to catch connecting flights at the Mexico City airport, may reschedule their flights and/or travel dates at no extra charge.

US declares public health emergency for swine flu
April 26th, 2009 @ 2:58pm

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. declared a public health emergency Sunday to deal with the emerging new swine flu, much like the government does to prepare for approaching hurricanes.

Officials reported 20 U.S. cases of swine flu in five states so far, with the latest in Ohio and New York. Unlike in Mexico where the same strain appears to be killing dozens of people, cases in the United State have been mild _ and U.S. health authorities can't yet explain why.

"As we continue to look for cases, we are going to see a broader spectrum of disease," predicted Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We're going to see more severe disease in this country."

At a White House news conference, Besser and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano sought to assure Americans that health officials are taking all appropriate steps to minimize the impact of the outbreak.

Top among those is declaring the public health emergency. As part of that, Napolitano said roughly 12 million doses of the drug Tamiflu will be moved from a federal stockpile to places where states can quickly get their share if they decide they need it. Priority will be given to the five states with known cases so far: California, Texas, New York, Ohio and Kansas.

Napolitano called the emergency declaration standard operating procedure _ one was declared recently for the inauguration and for flooding. She urged people to think of it as a "declaration of emergency preparedness."

"Really that's what we're doing right now. We're preparing in an environment where we really don't know ultimately what the size of seriousness of this outbreak is going to be."


Swine flu outbreak raises global alert

Posted: April 27, 2009 09:49 AM MDT


Hundreds of cases of a deadly flu outbreak is causing fears of the threat of a pandemic and public panic.

The swine flu virus is suspected in up to 103 deaths in Mexico. Spain has reported its first confirmed case Monday and says another 17 people are suspected of having it. In the United States, about 20 cases have been reported.

Of the confirmed cases of this new swine flu outbreak in United States, the greatest concentration has turned up at a school in New York City. Eight students from Saint Francis Prep in Queens apparently brought back the virus after spending a week in Mexico. School officials closed St. Francis Prep on Monday so a cleaning crew could come in and disinfect the building. There is so far no evidence that the sickness has spread beyond those students.

President Barack Obama told Americans not to panic while he spoke Monday morning at the National Academy of Sciences meeting.

"If there was ever a day that reminded us of our shared stake in science and research, it's today," Obama said, "We are closely monitoring the emerging cases of swine flu in the United States. This is obviously a cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert, but it is not a cause for alarm."

President Obama says the Department of Health and Human Services has declared a public health emergency as a precaution.

The swine flu is a virus that primarily infects pigs. People do not normally acquire swine flu, but human infections can occur and sometimes from person to person.

Just like regular influenza, the best way to protect against the swine variation is to cover nose and mouth with a tissue when coughing or sneezing, washing hands frequently and avoiding close contact with sick people.

Swine Flu...CDC and WHO

Swine flu leads to more schools closures
Reported by: WPTV staff
Contributor: Associated Press

UNDATED (AP) -- Concerns about a deadly swine flu have now led to several school closures across the country, including an entire school district in south Texas.

There have been a total of 20 confirmed cases in the U.S.: in New York, California, Kansas, Texas and Ohio. Health officials in Michigan are looking into one suspected case.

All American victims have recovered or are recovering. Still, the U.S. government has declared a public health emergency.

In New York, St. Francis Preparatory is closed for several days after reports of eight confirmed cases among students and possibly more. Testing continues on dozens of other students.

An elementary school in Ohio is closed for the week after a student was found with the virus after a family trip to Mexico. Authorities say he has a mild case and is recovering at home.

A school in South Carolina is also closed, after some students returned from Mexico with flu-like symptoms. There have been no confirmed cases in the state.

The outbreak has some people on edge. The mother of a St. Francis student admits she might be driving her son crazy "taking his temperature in the middle of the night."

From the CDC...

Swine Influenza (Flu)
Swine Flu website last updated Monday, April 27, 2009 10:15 AM ET

U.S. Human Cases of Swine Flu Infection
(As of April 26, 2009 9:00 AM ET)
California 7 cases
Kansas 2 cases
New York City 8 cases
Ohio 1 case
Texas 2 cases
TOTAL COUNT 20 cases
International Human Cases of Swine Flu Infection
See: World Health Organization

Human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection have been identified in the United States. Human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection also have been identified internationally. The current U.S. case count is provided below.

Investigations are ongoing to determine the source of the infection and whether additional people have been infected with swine influenza viruses.

CDC is working very closely with officials in states where human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) have been identified, as well as with health officials in Mexico, Canada and the World Health Organization. This includes deploying staff domestically and internationally to provide guidance and technical support. CDC has activated its Emergency Operations Center to coordinate this investigation.

Laboratory testing has found the swine influenza A (H1N1) virus susceptible to the prescription antiviral drugs oseltamivir and zanamivir and has issued interim guidance for the use of these drugs to treat and prevent infection with swine influenza viruses. CDC also has prepared interim guidance on how to care for people who are sick and interim guidance on the use of face masks in a community setting where spread of this swine flu virus has been detected. This is a rapidly evolving situation and CDC will provide new information as it becomes available.

The Amero and The North American Union. Real? Hoax?

Are the rumors about the Amero and the North American Union real or a hoax? You decide!



One World Government? Wouldn't the people have something to say about that? Oh, that's right, look at how they voted. And many who were interviewed who voted didn't know about any of the issues. They gathered their information from the mainstream media.



Martial Law. What is martial law?

"Martial law is sometimes imposed during wars or occupations in the absence of any other civil government. Examples of this form of military rule include Germany and Japan after World War II or the American South during the early stages of Reconstruction. In addition it is used by governments to enforce their rule, for example after a coup d'état (Thailand 2006), when threatened by popular protests (Tiananmen Square protests of 1989), or to crack down on the opposition (Poland 1981). Martial law can also be declared in cases of major natural disasters; however most countries use a different legal construct, such as a "state of emergency".

In many countries martial law imposes particular rules, one of which is curfew. Often, under this system, the administration of justice is left to a military tribunal, called a court-martial. The suspension of the writ of habeas corpus is likely to occur. -- Wikipedia



"Transcript:-

Congress shall now vote for approval of HR 8791 Homeland Terrorism Preparedness bill, err, said bill requests emergency response funding up to and including, I'm sorry this section is CLASSIFIED er, dollars to prepare for national level terrorist attack and or attack from CLASSIFIED funding for first responding personnel and vehicles would be doubled if said attack leads to more than 80% of national population being affected by CLASSIFIED this funding shall commence in conjunction with the first attack on erm, CLASSIFIED or the first large scale outbreak of CLASSIFIED depending upon which comes first, civilian and military units shall be trained in containment and combat of CLASSIFIED including irradiated CLASSIFIED with possibility of CLASSIFIED airborne CLASSIFIED flesh-eating CLASSIFIED and/or all of the above in such event as CLASSIFIED viewing CLASSIFIED escape are released or otherwise become uncontrollable, Air Force units my also be directed to combat said CLASSIFIED due to their enormous size and other-worldly strengths, should event occur in urban areas, J****, thats CLASSIFIED far surpassing our darkest nightmares should casualties exceed CLASSIFIED body disposal actions shall be halted and associated resources shall be re-allocated to CLASSIFIED underground CLASSIFIED protected birthing centers er, new Bill of Rights shall be drafted and approved by CLASSIFIED, having now reviewed the bill I ask you to now please cast your votes."

Note: The interesting thing is that there is no Rep. John Haller. The current Rep. for Pennsylvania's 12th District is John Murtha, a Democrat.