ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist&reg;.com: Duke's Damage Control</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style1 { font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> <table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr height="79"> <td width="116" height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="24" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="465" height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="18" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="79"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="283" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr height="26"> <td width="624" height="26" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong>HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#149; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#149; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#149; <a href="teflon.html">THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#149; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com">REACTIONS</a> &#149; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="1"> <td width="116" height="2574" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="489" height="1" colspan="3"></td> <td width="18" height="2574" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> <tr height="2573"> <td width="489" height="2573" colspan="3" align="left" xpos="116" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="5"><b> <br /> Swine Flu or Panic?</b></font><p><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b>by John M. Curtis<br> (310) 204-8700</b><br> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright April 27, 2009<br> All Rights Reserved.</i></font></p> <p><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span class="style1">M</span>exican authorities announced the outbreak of swine flu has resulted in at least 149 deaths, stirring panic and causing government officials to shut down transportation, including the Mexico City Metro.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Mexico City health officials indicate the flu virus jumped quickly from human-to-human, prompting the World Health Organization to call a pandemic alert.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Health authorities at the U.N. and elsewhere recall their history, hoping the swine flu won t morph into the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic that claimed between 20 and 50 million victims, more than double the deaths from WW I<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Spreading to six countries, including the U.S., the WHO called a Stage 4 Alert, signaling that epidemiologists believe rapid human-to-human transmission could spread quickly around the globe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Mexico s Health Secretary Angel Cordova suspended public schools and public transportation in Mexico City.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Mexican authorities are trying to contain a growing health crisis, threatening to spread domestically and globally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> We are at the most critical moment of the epidemic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>The number of cases will keep rising so we have to reinforce preventive measures, said Cordova at a press conference, shaken by a mild earthquake in Mexico City.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Rapid human-to-human transmission jumping to six countries prompted WHO to call a Phase 4 alert, notifying the global health system that a pandemic was possible, not likely or inevitable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While Cordova identified in Mexico s statistic-driven nationalized health system 1,985 cases of pneumonia by mid-April, he could not say with certainty whether the illnesses were due to flu.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>More than half of those pneumonia cases were already released from government hospitals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Cordova traced the first outbreak to April 13 in southern Oaxacan state.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <![endif]>Virulent flu viruses cause  cytokine storms, paralyzing the immune system, causing pneumonia and other organ failure, especially in the young and elderly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Such was the case in the historic 1918 epidemic that killed approximately one-third on the European population.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Better detection and improved overall health care have prevented a repetition of the 1918 event.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Mexican authorities suspect Granjas Carroll de Mexico pig farm, a 50% joint venture with Virginia-based Smithfield Foods for originating the recent swine flu outbreak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Company spokeswoman Keira Ultrich said they found no evidence of swine flu contamination among animals or humans working at the farm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>They did admit to an outbreak in early-April of severe respiratory infections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Cordova admitted that the community suffered from ordinary influenza but denied any outbreak of swine flu.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <![endif]>Powerful financial interests sometimes suppress information about disease outbreaks, fearing a boycott of various agriculture products.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When mad cow disease [bovine spongiform encephalopathy] hit the U.K 1980s, it decimated the beef industry, forcing ranchers to dispose of over 179,000 heads of cattle, causing incalculable losses to the cattle business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>British agriculture authorities determined that is was caused by meat and bone meal [MBM], a contaminated nutritional food source feed to otherwise grass-eating cattle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>No one knows yet whether hog-feed caused the latest outbreak of swine flu.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Local authorities also don t want a comparable scare to wreck the Mexican pig industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization official Juan Lubrotrh heads to Mexico to get a better read on the origin of the swine flu and help the Mexican officials plot an effective containment strategy.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <![endif]>Mexico, like most Latin American countries, is reeling from the global recession affecting tourism and agricultural exports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Lubroth warned that panic surrounding the ostensible swine flu outbreak could have devastating consequences to Mexico s already shaky economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Mexican authorities still haven t identified the origin of the swine flu, nor have they rolled out a coherent containment program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While Mexico DF [Distrito Federales] officials suspended school in five of the 32 states, they ve done little other than tell people to stay home to halt the outbreak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Mexico s Tourism Office has witnessed cancellations of flights, cruises and hotel reservations from Tijuana to Mexico City.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Already reeling from widely publicized  drug wars, Mexico s economy can ill-afford another blow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Panic has spread to Mexican health care workers, reportedly refusing treatment to patients with flu-like symptoms.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>So far, cases of Swine flu in Europe and the U.S. have been no different in severity than other common flu viruses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>President Barack Obama urged fellow citizens to not panic, reporting no fatalities from the 40 or so cases reported in the U.S.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>White House officials should do more to contain not the flu but the mass hysteria currently in the mass media, providing 24/7, nonstop coverage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> While calling it a  cause for concern, Obama urged people to keep a level head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Center for Disease Control and Prevention officials and their European Union counterparts don t help matters by raising code alerts and warning citizens against traveling overseas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When the SARS [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome] epidemic hit Hong Kong in 2003, the same panic ensued.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>With so few cases of swine flu reported worldwide, it s irresponsible to hype the story and sow unnecessary panic. </p> <p>&nbsp;<u><b>About the Author</b></u></p> <p><b>John M. Curtis</b> writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.&nbsp; He&#39;s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of <a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet </a>and <a href="books.html">Operation Charisma</a>.<u><br> </p> <p></p> </td> <td width="1" height="2573"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2573"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="116" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="116" height="1"></td> <td width="24" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="24" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="283" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="283" height="1"></td> <td width="18" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="18" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong>Home</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> || <a href="articlesindex.html">Articles</a> || <a href="books.html">Books</a> || <a href="teflon.html">The Teflon Report</a> || <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com">Reactions</a> || <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">About Discobolos</a></strong></font> <div align="left"> <p><font size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">This site designed, developed and hosted by the experts at</font><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"> <a href="http://www.cmeonline.net" target="_blank"><img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">&copy;1999-2002 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>