Flying Pigs, Tamiflu and Factory Farms Part 2

by F. William Engdahl
Global Research, May 4, 2009

WHO takes a page from a Michael Crichton Novel

As the late great American poet Yogi Berra might have put it, ‘this just gets absurder and absurder.’ The international agencies supposedly responsible for monitoring worldwide dangers of new pandemic threats, the WHO and CDC are acting like the directors of a Hollywood ‘B’ grade sci-fi movie or the author of a copycat version of Michael Crichton’s Andromeda Strain novel. The global panic over outbreak of a new human-to-human Swine Flu pandemic is increasingly revealed as a likely operation in mass psychological terror whose only beneficiaries are the few global pharmaceutical giants that are in the business of peddling so-called ‘antiviral’ drugs—Roche, SmithKlineGlaxo and Novavax most prominently. The losers are the rest of us normal folks.

Read the rest of the article here..

Flying Pigs, Tamiflu and Factory Farms Part 1

by F. William Engdahl
Global Research, April 29, 2009

If we are to believe what our trusted international media report, the world is on the brink of a global pandemic outbreak of a new deadly strain of flu, H1N1 as it has been labelled, or more popularly, Swine Flu. As the story goes, the outbreak of the deadly flu was first discovered in Mexico. According to press reports, after several days, headlines reported as many as perhaps 150 deaths in Mexico were believed caused by this virulent people-killing pig virus that has spread to humans and now is allegedly being further spread from human to human. Cases were being reported hourly from Canada to Spain and beyond. The only thing wrong with this story is that it is largely based on lies, hype and coverup of possible real causes of Mexican deaths.

Read the rest of the Article here...

Mexico says flu ebbing, lowers alert level

By DAVID KOOP – 1 hour ago

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican officials lowered their flu alert level in the capital on Monday and said they will allow cafes, museums and libraries to reopen this week. World health officials weighed raising their pandemic alert to the highest level.

Mexican officials declared the epidemic to be waning, announcing that Wednesday will conclude a five-day closure of nonessential businesses that was called to stop the spread of the new virus. Health officials need to finish inspecting schools before students can return to class.

Global health experts however said it was too early for countries to lower their guard, but there were no imminent plans to raise the pandemic alert level.

In New York on Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the World Health Organization "has no plan to raise the alert level to 6 at this moment." WHO chief Margaret Chan also told the U.N. General Assembly by videolink from Geneva that "we are not there yet."

Read the rest of the Associated Press article here...

WHO to Level 6 or not?

Spokesman: WHO may raise alert to highest level (Associated Press)

1 hour ago

LONDON (AP) — A World Health Organization spokesman says the agency may raise its pandemic level to its highest alert, signifying a swine flu pandemic. WHO uses a six-level scale to assess the world's risk.

Last Wednesday, the agency raised the level to 5. Level 6 means a global outbreak of swine flu is under way. WHO spokesman Dick Thompson says Monday the direction WHO will take "will be dictated by the virus."

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais published Monday, WHO chief Margaret Chan implies the agency might raise the level to 6, but cautions that "Level 6 does not mean...we are coming near to the end of the world."

Without that explanation, Chan worries, raising to level 6 could cause "unnecessary panic."

UN says no plans for highest pandemic level yet (Associated Press)

39 minutes ago

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The heads of the United Nations and the World Health Organization say there are no imminent plans to raise its pandemic alert to its highest level.

In New York on Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says WHO "has no plan to raise the alert level to 6 at this moment." WHO chief Margaret Chan also tells the U.N. General Assembly by videolink from Geneva that "we are not there yet."

Level 6 — the highest — would mean that a global outbreak of swine flu is under way. WHO raised the level to 5 last week.

Chan says there were now more than confirmed cases of swine flu in 20 countries, and there is "no indication" the situation is similar to the flu outbreak in 1918. Ban and Chan say there was no justification now for banning imports based on swine flu.

My Take:

Level 6 or not that is the question. The above 2 articles were within one hour of each other. It seems the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

Swine Flu Hysteria Spreads Faster Than Actual Virus

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Friday, May 1, 2009

Despite the fact that swine flu has claimed just one victim all week, a kill rate multiple times lower than the common flu, governments of the world are acting as if armageddon is right around the corner.

The World Health Organization calls a virus that has killed a confirmed 12 people in over a week a “threat to humanity” while talk of martial law, mandatory vaccinations and forced quarantines runs rampant.

Much of the hysteria is being fueled by people inundating hospitals and doctor’s offices who have mundane illnesses like the common cold, but who just want to “make sure” they don’t have swine flu. Such cases are immediately treated as “suspected swine flu cases” by the media and the panic spreads faster than the actual virus, which according to Mexican health officials is now clearly slowing down.

However, while media headlines and government advisors scream about a potential pandemic and hundreds of thousands of fatalities, an anonymous GP writing for the London Guardian today explains that calls from people worried they have swine flu have tailed off, while people with flu symptoms are almost non-existent.

Read the rest of the article at Prison Planet.Com


My take on the week:

It appears that on one side of the coin we have reports that say this swine flu is worse than has been reported (Swine Flu Cases Far Worse...), then on the other side of the coin it's not as bad as we think and the media is hyping it (the above article). So what is the real truth? Somewhere in the middle maybe? To be honest, I really don't know.

IMHO, what ever the truth is it's going to affect the US economy and that of Mexico where tourism, or lack of it, is an economic engine on both sides of the border.

What about schools closing? Where I live a number of schools have closed when there have been only 5 (suspected) cases that have been documented in a city metro area of 181,743 and county area of 1.2 million people. Hysteria? You tell me....

The one thing that has been strangely missing from all the different news pieces I've read since this thing broke out earlier this week:

Has there been an influx of Mexican nationals either legally, ill-legally or both crossing over our border to the US? I mean if the roles were reversed wouldn't you want to go north where there is better medical care? Especially if you saw thousands of your countrymen on TV and in person wearing face masks, and your government shutting things down? I'll leave the answer to you...