When Pigs Flu ...

It's been an interesting, if uncomfortable week, suffering from what I first thought were ragweed allergies but quickly evolved into muscle aches, fevers and chills. But not a cold. I am reasonably sure, based on how many others around me who have had it, that I am a recovering swine flu victim.

It wasn't fun but it wasn't that bad, as flu goes, and the better news is that I am pre-disastered. Don't need no damn vaccination. I still remember what happened in 1976 and then there are various other warnings and rumors of warnings out there, for your discernment.

My view? Take your vitamins C and D, build your immune system and take your chances while H1N1 is relatively benign. Unless you have a serious secondary infection or other underlying health risk, you may well be better off with the flu than with the shot.

But that's just a non-doctor's opinion. You may wish to consult your congressman for a more informed medical judgment.

Swine Flu Still Not a Major Threat

Reuters is still beating the drum for the World Health Organization on the A(H1N1) flu virus, also known as the Swine Flu, declaring that it looks and acts much like the 1918 virus that killed between 40 million to 100 million.

Setting aside for the moment that there is a huge discrepancy between 40,000,000 and 100,000,000, I concede that 40 million is a big number.

And I would agree that the potential for the Swine Flu to turn into a 1918-style pandemic killer is there. No doubt it's already pandemic. It's the killer part that has yet to take place. Even WHO admits that of the 1 million infected so far, by their estimates, only 500 have died.

Yes, every death is a tragedy, but when you are mobilizing government action on vaccines, you'd better do good analytical work on the probabilities and the cost-benefit analysis.

In my non-scientific but common sense opinion, the best thing that could happen to you today is to contract the swine flu. It's weak and if you've been getting out in the sunshine a bit to naturally produce Vitamin D, which is vital to maintaining your immune system, you are strong. If you get the flu, your body produces antibodies that can ward off further attacks, even if the virus mutates.

However, if the governments of the world produce a vaccine based on this weak Swine Flu, and it naturally mutates into another, more lethal form, the vaccine probably won't do much good. Millions will have been spent in a fruitless endeavor (which is about what we expect from government these days).

Common sense tells us to eat well and do what we can to build up our immune systems. That's good advice even when no pandemic is present. Don't wait for government to save you. Save yourself by being smart.

Media Again in Panic Over Swine Flu

With so many real potential disasters looming, isn't it odd that the national news media goes into panic mode, once again, on the A(H1N1) flu?

With only three deaths to report thus far, British authorities are warning of the potential for "40 deaths a day" and 100,000 new cases a week.

The World Health Organization -- "WHO" are you? -- says this flu is now unstoppable.

Parents think twice about sending kids to camp.

Hong Kong finds its first case of Tamiflu resistant flu.

The proper responses to these reports, in order, are:

1) Give me a frickin' break!

2) Well, duh!

3) You run a greater risk of a bad traffic accident on the way to and from camp than actually contracting, or dying from, the flu.

4) It's about time.

This flu isn't very lethal. Not so much as the seasonal flu. It may get that way, but the best thing that could happen to people is to contract a case now, develop an immunity to it and get well. No Big Brother government program required. That British and U.S. officials are coordinating this "crisis" is a joke. On us.

If ever the World Health Organization is required to stop an actual pandemic, God help us all. Of course the flu is by now unstoppable. It was probably already unstoppable when we first heard about it last winter, and WHO as well as most other nations did damn near next to nothing to halt its spread. In fact, Mexico was the only country that I witnessed actually trying to do something effective. Mexico!

When you read the camp story, you realize that they are focusing in on camps where they are kids with pre-existing conditions that would make even a mild flu very dangerous. For your average healthy youngster, not going to camp would probably be more of a health hazard. In camp you get your sunshine, your Vitamin D boost, which is an immunizing agent for the human body. Send the kid to camp! They'll enjoy it, probably; you'll enjoy the quiet of their absence. Everyone will be glad when it's over.

As for Tamiflu resistance, it doesn't work in some people, and for people who have taken Tamiflu before there is a small but significant percentage who develop resistance to the vaccine. That doesn't mean the flu has developed anything. It's a statistical probability that such cases would show up.

This particular flu may turn into something ugly next winter, or the winter after that. But it isn't going to happen in the summer months because that's not the way of flu epidemics and right now, if you are healthy, getting a mild case of the mild version might be the best thing that could happen.

So let's worry about something else for awhile, okay?

Cutting Joe Biden Some Slack

Yes, Vice President Joe Biden is a clown.

Yes, it is great fun laughing at Joe Biden's gaffes, especially when he contradicts his boss.

But maybe we should be paying closer attention to what he's actually saying. No, seriously!

Today the vice president said he wouldn't fly in commercial aircraft or ride in subways because of the greater potential to contract the flu, and that's what he would recommend to this family.

"That's me," he said.

Quite simply put, he is speaking for himself. He isn't acting as a mouthpiece for Homeland Security, HHS, or even the White House, just noodling the idea that common sense says you ought not to put yourself in harm's way if there are alternatives and no overriding reasons otherwise.

It's a sad measure of how far we have fallen as a nation when everything anyone says becomes an occasion for ridicule. Now I'm not a big Biden fan -- the thought that he is but a heartbeat away from being Commander-in-Chief is much more troubling than the Mexican Swine flu -- but give the man credit for a bit of clear thinking on the "pending pandemic."

What he said about aircraft? True. Studies have shown that even in normal times flying can be hazardous to your health because of the closed air systems. If you've got 150 people on a flight, and just one has a cold, there is a good chance you will catch it. My own anecdotal experience convinces me that this is so: I don't think I've ever flown without coming down with the cold or flu shortly afterward, except for the times I've flown in practically empty jetliners, or small aircraft. I would imagine subways have the same sort of problems.

Right now the official position of the White House, et al, is that we are looking at a probable pandemic that is very serious, bears watching, should close affected schools, will necessitate quarantines, and yet ... isn't worth closing the border, no one need worry about wearing a mask, the death rate seems rather small, and not to worry because our best and brightest scientific minds are on the case.

In other words, it's deadly serious and it's no big deal. All at the same time.

That may well be true, as several epidemiologists say that is is likely that the Mexican Swine flu, while pandemic in nature, is not yet skilled at killing its hosts. It may take two or three "waves" over the next year or so for it to become so adept.

Which, to me, argues for trying to isolate it and contain it quickly. Don't allow it to find a host more condusive to its killer ambitions. Take sensible precautions now, like tightening border crossings and restricting certain types of travel, and each of us personally doing our part.

As one of our Founding Fathers said, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Ben Franklin and Joe Biden, strange bedfellows. Who knew?

The Sad Story of Patient Zero

If this Reuters story is correct, the first person to die of the new (H1N1) Mexican swine flu was treated very poorly, or not at all, for nine days in early April.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The 39-year-old woman who was the first to die in Mexico's swine flu epidemic spent the last eight days of her life going from clinic to clinic to find out what was wrong with her but doctors were baffled.

The woman, from the southern state of Oaxaca, died shortly after being admitted to hospital as an emergency case. Experts only identified the virus that killed her 10 days later. [SNIP]

The woman, who worked as a census taker in the city of Oaxaca, became ill with what was she thought was a severe case of pneumonia on April 4 but was not admitted to hospital until April 12.

"She went to several private clinics where she was given various diagnoses and various treatments. However, her condition worsened and she was taken to the hospital by emergency services on the 12th and the next day she died," Miguel Angel Lezana, Mexico's chief epidemiologist, told reporters.

Authorities are beginning to believe the flu did not originate on a Mexican pig farm.

Hindsight is 20-20 but you have to wonder how many people were infected because no one thought she was serious enough to warrant earlier hospitalization.

What Not to Call Swine Flu?

Homeland Security director Janet Napolitano and Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack today insisted that reporters not call the disease of the day "swine flu" out of deference to pig farmers.

You gotta be freakin' kidding!

"This is not a food-borne illness, virus. It is not correct to refer to it as swine flu because really that's not what this is about," Vilsack said. Israel has already rejected the name swine flu, and opted to call it "Mexico flu." Jewish dietary laws forbid eating pork.

The Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health also objected to the name, saying the virus contains avian and human components and no pig so far has been found ill with the disease. And there is growing sentiment in the farm sector to call it the North American virus -- although disease expert Anthony Fauci told a Senate hearing the "swine flu" designation reflected scientific naming protocol.

Since the virus has snippets of avian (bird) and human flu strains, maybe we should just concoct a new name for it. Using the Anagram finder, I came up with

AMBUSH REWIND

and all I had to do was lose a couple of letters. We could call it the "Ambush Rewind" virus. A little bird, a little swine, a bit of human.

Then maybe we won't offend anyone. That seems to be the highest protocol of our new Dept. of Homeland Security.

Can we have the grown-ups back, please?

A Side Note:

I liked, but rejected, "Barn Undies Whim" as it sounded like something that might be fun to catch. Similarly the phrase "Bra Nudism Whine" virus seems a bit on the risque side. On the other hand, "Unwashed Rim Bin" seemed like a potential keeper.

Final Side Note:

Only a complete dim-wit, or a Russian bureaucrat, would actually believe that eating pork could give you the flu.