Mexican flu

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This item seems to indicate suspicion that the Mexican flu is in New York City. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/25/nyreg ... ck.html?hp It seems to be moving fast.

This topic is really creeping me out. Pandemic swine flu potential is bad enough...but intentional...

Concenik, you lost me a bit on your opinion of who might be responsible. What/who is the old structure? I have trouble with the idea of something like this being intentional, because of inability for one to protect themself from their own pandemic...unless they might not care.

Concenik, if they wanted to get us, there has GOT to be a more effective way to do so.

I would suggest we ignore the conspiracy angle (or perhaps make another thread if this thing starts to blow up). I would appreciate updates and will try and provide some of my own.

With regards to the NYT link Sand provided, I'd like to know how recent their trip to Mexico was. You'd think that would be important information regarding "whatever the medical term is for how long it takes to show symptoms".

Plz to update more kthx.

Swine Flu May Be Named Event of International Concern

CDC Investigation

Wiki

Yes, it can and does happen in nature. Our own knowledge is not sufficient to reliably engineer this type of thing, and certainly not very quickly. Bioweapons research also has largely stalled since the end of the Cold War- the most advanced bioweapons facility ever built was from the 80s in Kazakhstan.

I'm not a regular reader of the Daily Kos, but I find myself linked there often on Digg and now through google. This is actually a pretty good summary.

Link

Influenza has been infecting all three groups of organisms since before we even knew viruses existed, or that nucleic acid was the genetic material. Viruses are tricky little bastards, and you never know what to expect from them.

I can't even imagine any justification for somebody saying your posts are offensive enough that banning you would even be considered.

I can't understand that at all.

Hey wait, there was a topic here.

From reuters:

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsN ... 25?sp=true

" Health officials worldwide should also be alert to large incidences of severe or fatal flu-like illness in groups other than young children and the elderly, the ages usually at highest risk from normal seasonal flu, she said.

Most of the dead in Mexico were aged between 25 and 45."

This is weird, an epidemic killing off the most vigorous members of the population. Seems I remember reading somewhere that the 1918 pandemic had the same effect.

But if there was some organization capable of pulling something like this off on purpose, obviously a big problem with biological warfare agents is that they're hard to control once they're used. Hmmm, I guess somebody cooking up a virus could also cook up a vaccine for the people they considered worth protecting.

There are maybe a thousand or so people in the world who would be capable of developing bioweapons. Anyone smart enough to be able to pull off something like this would also be smart enough to realize that they wouldn't be able to control it, and wouldn't be so naïve as to assume they could make a vaccine that would guarantee their safety.

I agree it seems unlikely but it also seems to me unlikely that a group of reasonably intelligent and capable people would hijack an airliner and crash it into a New York skyscraper.

I meant in terms of making a vaccine it seems impossible. From what I understand, it is believed that any bioterror attack would be undertaken using stolen biological agents, perhaps from one of the old Soviet facilities. Terrorists lack the scientific expertise necessary to develop bioweapons.

how come pandemics only happen in dirty countries? im not suprised at all that these wierd flus end up comming from like southeast asia and places like mexico. people there practicley sleep with there livestock, and hygine isnt a top concern. anyways, if this does start killing alot of people maybe we can fix our immagration problem once and for all and finally get our wall built along the border

No, Richard, the best thing to do to dirty people coming across the border is to shoot them. This will not only stop the disease but also will sell a lot of soap. And give gun enthusiasts the chance they have been waiting for so long - to shoot real people. Border checks should include inspectors smelling under the arms of anyone entering the country and the penalty for underarm odor should be death on the spot. It wouldn't hurt to see if they brush their teeth and clip their fingernails as well. I'm not sure about belly button fluff. But, just to take no chances, a dirty bell button should demand thirty lashes.All clothes should have a round belly button hole for easy inspection.

everyone is so touchy these days. but i mean, really. apparently you've never been to mexico. being dirty does breed disease, so calm down

Mexico City is cleaner than a lot of places in Europe, if you knew anything about the place at all you'd know that not many people in Mexico City keep livestock (hint: it's a crowded city of 20 million, not a village). And Mexicans usually shower, which isn't exactly universal in many places outside the Americas. Oh, and it's already spread to California, Texas, and possibly New York, and in Mexico it's mostly in Mexico City (which isn't even near the border, for those that can't use a map), so talk of sealing the border is purely political posturing, either the result of total cluelessness or total shamelessness.



To those on conspiracy theories: it would seem obvious that if you wanted to stage a biological attack on the US, you'd release it in, well, the US.