No thanks...(on the Flu Shot)

ATLANTA (AP) — A government panel is now recommending that virtually all Americans get a flu shot each year, starting this fall.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices had gradually been expanding its recommendation for flu shots — 85% of Americans were already included.

On Wednesday, the panel voted to recommend a seasonal flu vaccination for everyone except babies younger than 6 months and those with egg allergies or other unusual conditions.

Now...at this point in time...the choice is yours as to whether you get a "flu shot." However, how do you think this story would read should the US Government take over the health care system?

You can bet your house that the flu shot would be required under the guise that it would lower costs for everyone in the long run. It would be a violation of the law NOT to get a flu shot.

I've never taken a presciption medication in my life. I've never been hospitalized. The last illness I experienced was a minor cold some 25 years ago. Yet, nationalized health care would likely require me, by law, to take this shot.

What's the big deal, you ask. How about the fact that natural immunity would be compromised? How about the fact that forcing a flu shot on someone isn't too far away from telling you what your diet should be, and enforcing such violations of liberty and freedom?

It begins with a whimper...and ends with no freakin' Ring Dings...

Models of nothing...

In the waning days of April, as federal officials were declaring a public health emergency and the world seemed gripped by swine flu panic, two rival supercomputer teams made projections about the epidemic that were surprisingly similar — and surprisingly reassuring. By the end of May, they said, there would be only 2,000 to 2,500 cases in the United States.

May’s over. They were a bit off.

On May 15, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that there were “upwards of 100,000” cases in the country, even though only 7,415 had been confirmed at that point.

Funding...funding...and more funding. Plus, if you are a political machine type operation like the Center for Disease Control, you alway error to the worst case scenario to protect your worthless behind, and increase funding...funding...and funding.

Liberals and their "models." You have to love them. Who knows, maybe some day they will use a half-ass model to predict the end of the world.

Like clockwork...

It would be more than a week before Mrs. Gutiérrez went to Oaxaca’s General Hospital, where she arrived listless and barely able to breathe, her extremities blue from a lack of oxygen.

That delay in getting expert help may explain why Mrs. Gutiérrez, 39, a mother of daughters ages 10, 17 and 20, became Mexico’s first death from a new, virulent strain of influenza A(H1N1). It may also suggest why this country’s death toll from the virus is higher than any other’s.

Epidemiologists are still puzzled by the virus, its origins and its modes of transmission. But they agree that prompt medical attention is crucial to treating it.

Expect a follow-up piece by the New York Times' MARC LACEY and ELISABETH MALKIN sometime in the next week. The yet to be published piece will stress the necessity of early treatment to confound the "Swine Flu." Then, the piece will dive into the necessity of amnesty for illegal aliens so that they don't delay their treatment due to fears that ICE officials will throw them back to their country of origin.

What is the NY Times waiting for? Well, in order to play on our emotions, and make their case, they need a heap load of illegal aliens to expire in the United States due to late diagnosis or delayed professional treatment.

Anyone want to take the bet?

This has been a message from the NYC Office of Tourism and Gambling...

Hey, everyone...come to New York City and ride the subways. It's GREAT!!!!

Korea's turn to sweat...

Local scientists have created a genetically modified pig whose organs can be used for transplanting into human patients.

The cloned piglet was born by a surrogate mother on April 3 and remains healthy at a lab at the National Institution of Animal Science in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province.

Ok...let's not just pick on China (as I did in the previous post). Let's pick on South Koreans...since they seem to be the most aggressive in the pursuit of cloning exercises for xenotransplantation.

Pigs are born with a retrovirus that is capable of infecting humans.

As interest in using animals as a source of donor organs rises, some researchers warn that this strategy, known as xenotransplantation, may introduce dangerous new viruses into the human population (SN: 11/4/95, p. 298). Those fears received some support in the March Nature Medicine, where Robin A. Weiss of the Institute of Cancer Research in London and his colleagues report the first discovery of a pig retrovirus that can infect human cells.

And, it's not just pigs, mind you.

In 1999, a 35-year-old American HIV patient received a baboon liver, but died just two months after the transplantation after contracting a virus that is known to only affect the animal.

I've always been a proponent of cautious advancement. Scientists and researchers, however, seem to be motivated these days by securing credit and being the first to do something without spending one hell of a lot of time determining the ramifications.

I am reminded of Jurassic Park (Movie).

Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.

Yeah...I know...I'm floating out conspiracy theory crap. I'm doing it on purpose, because up until this point the WHO (a political entity, by the way) has been mum. The more theories thrown out there...the sooner they are going to have to step up and actually make a substantive statement.

Puzzles are cool...and made in China...

Tinfoil connect the dots:

In this respect, the swine flu pandemic might be the one surprise event of 2009 that could engender a quick run into gold for the duration of the panic phase.

Then there is this:

Now the IMF is attempting an end-run around the U.S. Congress, as it quietly moves toward selling gold, most likely to China. Why does the IMF need the money? Just three years ago, the bloated organization (half of its 2,600 staff are economists) was nearly defunct; headquartered in Washington, D.C., the IMF was desperate to create an endowment fund to provide for its continued existence.

And this:

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- China boosted its gold reserves by 76 percent since 2003 and has the world’s fifth-biggest holding by country, said Hu Xiaolian, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

Then this:

Analysis and Commentary on the Phylogenic Tree of Current U.S. Swine Flu Cases

Researchers are puzzled over the origins and spread of the current H1N1 human borne influenza and that has health officials around the world worried.

The current virus mixes an existing triple combination of human, avian and swine influenza identified in 1998 with two new swine virus genes from Asia and Europe, both of human origin.

...

The H1 protein (hemagglutinin) shows evidence from past cases from Korea, China and Turkey as well as Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Kansas.

The N1 protein (neuraminidase) shows evidence of having come from China, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Hokkaido, Japan, Chonburi and Chachoengsao (Thailand) and Italy.

Added to our little game of tic-tac-toe, played a few days ago.

Habitantes de la comunidad de La Gloria, ubicada en el municipio de Perote, pidieron la intervención del Gobierno de Veracruz para que gestione ante autoridades federales la inspección de las instalaciones de Granjas Carroll de México, a quienes atribuyen el foco de infección que afectó al 30 por ciento de su población.

A town in Mexico (in which a significant number of residents spend their week in Mexico City) claims that 30 percent of their residents have flu symptoms and respiratory problems. The town houses a very huge hog farm owned by Smithfield Foods. Which...by the way:

CHICAGO, April 22 (Reuters) - Smithfield Foods Inc's (SFD.N) shares rose as much as 9 percent on Wednesday amid rumors that the company may be the target of a takeover by Chinese agriculture company COFCO.

You can't make up plots this rich...but, I'm sure it's all just...you know...coincidence.