In God We Trust Blog

29 April 2009

Crucial Damage Control

Posted by Joy Bischoff under: Emergency Preparation; Health .

I want our readers to hold my feet to the fire on what I am about to suggest. Remember it, come back and check the facts in a few weeks. I maintain that the main stream press has and is being incredibly irresponsible regarding their coverage of the swine flu situation. First, they over hyped and engaged in fear mongering. Now they are out right lying to lull the public into a false sense of security, therefore making it harder for people to feel a need to be prepared.

Screaming headlines about a devastating world wide pandemic put many people on edge for days. There is a real chance this virus will fizzle, and if not, and this is a virus that comes in waves, as is common, then unless there is a fast mutation, this first wave will be light. Over reaction will bring needless fear and also will damage our economy more than is called for by the situation. Under-reaction by false reporting will bring about the eventual loss of life, because the time will come, perhaps this fall, perhaps in a few more years, when we will have the prophesied plagues hit the world. Inaction because of what I call, “the boy who cried wolf syndrome” is being insured by the way the media is handling this crisis.

I have read a few reports by doctors in Mexico who are very upset that the numbers have been lied about for political and economic reasons. All these reports are in agreement that there have been many more deaths and cases contracted than is being reported by their health ministry. Now, suddenly, we are supposed to be stupid enough to believe there have only been 7 deaths instead of 159. Do not be fooled. There is a glaring problem with their numbers. They are not testing those other deaths for swine flu because they do not want to report them as official. Most people coming to hospitals in Mexico City are now being turned away and they are testing few patients for the disease, thereby, managing their numbers for world consumption. Tourism is their third largest industry and they are desperate to calm fears to stem some of the damage to that industry.

Mexico is not alone in their irresponsibility. Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, reported yesterday that many hundreds of school children are sick with swine flu symptoms in his city. Almost none of these people are being tested for the flu, which is incredibly irresponsible. Three schools are shut down. I have read reports from people in many states who say they are being told of probable local cases, but these are not making the national news. Why? My guess is that there are three reasons. I will give only two here. First, tonight is President Obama’s address to the nation to celebrate his first 100 days in office. Yesterday there was a drastic drop off in coverage of the outbreak, and a major manipulation in the numbers game began. Nothing must distract from the glory of our beneficent leader tonight.

I believe the second reason to be so that the World Health Organization can give a little more time for the financial community to get their house in order before allowing the public to know how wide spread this is or could become.  The reason the obvious human to human spread in the United States was ignored was because when verified, the WHO had to raise the alert level which is supposed to automatically put precautions in place that could hurt the economy. With the SARS outbreak, they did this and it did tremendous damage to the economies of China and Canada. This is an understandable concern but now after all the hype, then the strange switch to down playing things, there is now general apathy. Even though they just changed to the level five, most people have decided this is a non-event. If the WHO does not want to put the automatic responses in place since this is so far such a mild outbreak, then they should change their standards, but do not lie to the public to justify their actions.

The truth of the matter is this; we hope this fizzles but just in case…knowledge is power, and if ye are prepared ye shall not fear. I have no fear regarding this situation because I spent the time to educate myself on the subject and put together a pandemic treatment program that can be found above under Notable Notes. So far, this virus is presenting in a similar manner (albeit milder) to Avian Flu. The treatment would be effective for either. My family is ready so we are completely calm.

It is very important to let you know that there is a chance this will turn ugly in the fall. In the 1918 Pandemic, the first wave in the spring was very mild and few took notice. In September the second wave hit and killed millions and stunned the world. The similar symptoms, age group effected, and pattern are eerily similar so it would be more than foolish to dismiss this.

We hope, we pray, but we do not say, “if God wants me to die, I’ll die but I won’t worry about it”. Fine, do not worry, good. But do a little research because God helps those who help themselves and if you have a child that could have grown up to do something wonderful but they die because you stubbornly refuse to prepare, then you may regret your inaction. If not this fall, then some day you will thank the Lord that you used wisdom.

Mike Leavitt told the public when he was head of the Department of Health and Human Services, that a severe pandemic would overwhelm health care and people would be forced to treat themselves at home. The government would not be able to save them. Our nanny state is unable to handle the scenario and Leavitt was completely up front about this. Take personal responsibility. When this dies out, do not smirk and say, “I told you so”. Assume a second wave will come this fall and get ready. You buy insurance just in case. This is a surer bet because the scriptures are clear on this subject, we simply do not know the timing.  Complacency and ignorance kill.

Only 7 swine flu deaths, not 152, says WHO

A member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has dismissed claims that more than 150 people have died from swine flu, saying it has officially recorded only seven deaths around the world.

Vivienne Allan, from WHO’s patient safety program, said the body had confirmed that worldwide there had been just seven deaths – all in Mexico – and 79 confirmed cases of the disease.

“Unfortunately that [150-plus deaths] is incorrect information and it does happen, but that’s not information that’s come from the World Health Organisation,” Ms Allan told ABC Radio today.

“That figure is not a figure that’s come from the World Health Organisation and, I repeat, the death toll is seven and they are all from Mexico.”

Ms Allan said WHO had confirmed 40 cases of swine flu in the Americas, 26 in Mexico, six in Canada, two in Spain, two in Britain and three in New Zealand.

Ms Allan said it was difficult to measure how fast the virus was spreading.

She said a real concern would be if the flu virus manifested in a country where a person had had no contact with Mexico, and authorities were watching all countries for signs of that.

“There is no pattern that has emerged at this stage to be able to say that it is spreading in a particular way or it is spreading into a particular country … the situation is continuing to evolve,” she said.

HERE

The following is a little joke from a site I follow to educate myself on influenza from scientists and HCWs. When the new numbers came out of Mexico last night, one of the guys posted this:

This just in -

Mexican casualties, having been rescinded from the list of the dead, resume normal activities:

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Technorati Tags: Avian flu, Bloomberg, fear, flu, Leavitt, Mexico, pandemic, swine flu, virus, WHO

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