http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30467300/
Isn’t that just lovely? Mexicans are pigs. I never knew!
The level of irrationality is astounding.
The level of irrationality is astounding on both sides though. MSNBC is covering this as I Am Legend too, in which case it would make perfect sense to close all borders and implement a 24 hour curfew.
Also, Michael Savage and that guy on the Alex Jones website aren’t representative of the Conservative movement. This article is attacking Conservatives is a whole, and their only point is Michael Savage’s racism. There are dozens of better arguments against their position on immigration than “look at those racists”. Unfortunately, making them would conflict with everything MSNBC stand for.
That said, I like your title for our Forum’s swine flu thread. It’s quite accurate.
[PS] Ironically, on this subject the most reliable source for news is Comedy Central’s Daily Show. Out of all the news I’ve been bombarded with on the swine flu, they were the ones who pointed out how ridiculous the coverage is.
Savage is the honest conservative. I’ve heard similar things from characters like Hannity about how this wouldn’t be a problem if the borders had been secured. Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the leading American authoritarian was on Cavuto yesterday talking about how it’s all the fault of open immigration advocates. This isn’t even a minority position amongst the conservatives, it’s just that Savage states it so bluntly and in that abrasive manner.
How millions of people listen to him for more than 5 minutes is beyond me.
It’s not just NBC, CBS, CBC, BBC… It’s the vast majority of news outlets in my opinion. Somewhere in the not too distant past news became ALL about the next fear, or the newest scandal.
News was replaced with infotainment and in order to keep the population infotained they needed a constant stream of crises and mini “morality” plays where the average person could look down their nose at someone and say, to paraphrase Rand… “At least I’m better than the crippled Dwarf or Drug addicted Lesbian”.
It’s not just NBC, CBS, CBC, BBC… It’s the vast majority of news outlets in my opinion. Somewhere in the not too distant past news became ALL about the next fear, or the newest scandal.
News was replaced with infotainment and in order to keep the population infotained they needed a constant stream of crises and mini “morality” plays where the average person could look down their nose at someone and say, to paraphrase Rand… “At least I’m better than the crippled Dwarf or Drug addicted Lesbian”.
Some of my pals and all have taken to calling it ManBearPig flu. I just bought some Vitamin D (which I ought to have anyway) and left it at that.
It might have been better if they hadn’t led off with the racist stuff, and had stressed the more rational perspective at the beginning instead of at the end:
Often, a disease outbreak is an excuse to vent pre-existing prejudices. “It’s fear of people we do not know or who look different,” said Dr. Howard Markel, a medical historian at the University of Michigan and author of “When Germs Travel: Six Major Epidemics That Have Invaded America Since 1900 and the Fears They Have Unleashed.” “You take the fear of the unknown that already exists and then combine that with a real or perceived threat that is contagious disease and it’s explosive."
During the medieval Black Plague, Europeans blamed Jews, saying they poisoned the wells. In an 1892 cholera pandemic, the U.S. blamed immigrant European Jews. In the flu of 1918, Markel said, “Italians blamed the Spanish. The Spanish blamed the Italians. For HIV it was gay men and Haitians.”
…
Tamping down blame and fear isn’t just the right thing to do morally, experts agree, it’s also the right thing to do medically. Germs, Markel stressed, don’t care about skin color or national origins or borders.
“These are naturally occurring events,” he said. “We expect flu pandemics every 30 to 40 years. It’s the cost of living in a world of emerging infectious diseases. That’s the folly of prejudice. They are wherever humans are.”
Gee, I’m glad I don’t have to come into contact with any Mexicans on a daily basis. They sound dangerous! 
They steal the innocence of white women everywhere!
Cuba has banned all flights to and from Mexico. France is pushing for an EU-wide ban on travel to and from Mexico.
Cuba has banned all flights to and from Mexico. France is pushing for an EU-wide ban on travel to and from Mexico.
Again, if this virus were a real threat, that would not be a racist move. As it is, it’s a stupid move, but not a racist one.
Again, if this virus were a real threat, that would not be a racist move. As it is, it’s a stupid move, but not a racist one.
It is a threat. Still, what can you do about travel to and from Mexico?
Authorities at Mexican airports are scanning passengers with infrared devices, to measure for signs of fever. Those who’re detected get tested for the bug and aren’t allowed out of the country if they test positive (I don’t know what tests are made or how reliable they are).
Authorities at the destination airport could do the same. What they’d do if a passenger tests positive is open to debate. A plane being a closed space with recirculated air offers a good chance of contagion.
So there’s no need to ban travel to or from Mexico, not as things stand.
BTW at least tens of thousands of Mexicans fly to the US every week, all perfectly legal. Millions drive, walk or take a bus across the border every week, too, and gain all legal with US-issued visas at manned border crossings.
In Egypt they’re slaughtering all pigs in order to keep an outbreak from happening. That’s as stupid as stupid moves get.
They steal the innocence of white women everywhere!
Thankfully!
Kissing has been outlawed in Egypt too, D’kian…what’s wrong with those people?! lol!
While some of the precautions people might be taking may seem overboard, the fact remains that this flu is dangerous and that we do not have enough Tamiflu in this country to treat everyone. Furthermore, though the strain does not cause serious problems in some, in others, it certainly kills if not treated right away.
I think it is great that we have reached the point in medicine where a virulent strain that could cause a pandemic can be controlled. It is still important to take precautions, however, because regardless of whether this flu might kill you or not, you still don’t want to have it and take that chance.
Furthermore, though the strain does not cause serious problems in some, in others, it certainly kills if not treated right away.
That sounds to me like every strain of the flu.
Or hell, if you get vague enough, every disease known to man.
Kissing has been outlawed in Egypt too, D’kian…what’s wrong with those people?! lol!
They’re Muslims. don’t they stone you for that anyway? No having fun, you people…
Update time.
Schools will reopen May 7th. Restaurants will be allowed to open again provided they limit their clientele to no more than 4 people per 10 suare meters of floor space (I’d like to see how that will be enforced). Movie theaters, bars, night clubs, gyms, etc will remain closed til further notice. No word on when department stores will re-open.
Most people are annoyed now rather than frightened by the swine flu. A majority stil wear surgical masks, and you can’t find hand sanitizer alcohol gel anywhere (lucky me I had some at the office for years), but the epidemic is now more a nuissance than a mortal danger. You hear more comments like "Everything’s closed,2 and “there’s nothing to do,” than “Don’t even breath until this is over.”
It will be months before the tallies are all in, but it seems more people dropped dead of pneumonia than swine flu during this time.
Still I’m not complaining. I think that by reacting, or overreacting, to an outbreak it dies more quickly than it would otherwise. So in the end it’s a case of the dog that dind’t bark.
BTW there’s also some PC-mongering about the swine flu. The name is undergoing daily changes for some reason.
Thus far the local papers and radio stations (I hardly watch news on TV) are split between calling it “Influenza A” and “Human Influenza.” The latter is idiotic as naturally any diseases that affect people can be labeled as “human.” What I don’t know is why “swine flu” fell out of favor. We had “bird flu” not too long ago and no one complained.
Fact is the flu is a multi-species bug that constantly mutates as it jumps from one species to another. That’s why a new vaccine is needed every year, and why vaccines sometimes are ineffective. This current outbreak is not the first time a bad kind of flu has come from swine. Typically any of the semi-benign (meaning non-lethal) varieties of flu are as likely to come from pigs as from other species. So why the fuss?
Oh, pigs are physiologically similar to humans. Indeed pig skin has been used in skin grafts, and heart valve replacements used to be taken from pig hearts (for all I know they still are). Add to that they are domesticated animals widely spread in most human populations, and the chances of sharing diseases with them are high. This isn’t unique. We share rabbies with cats and dogs (though humans typically aren’t carriers), anthrax with cattle, and I’m sure many other things.
Lastly, please don’t ever take antibiotics unless a doctor prescribes them. Antibiotics have ZERO effectiveness against viral diseases like the flu or the common cold (all varieties). They only work against bacteria and some parasites, not on viruses. But taken in low doses, sporadically, or for insufficient time, they help bacteria become resistant to them. This means taking them won’t ease your flu or cold symptoms at all, but makes you mroe likely of dying later of an antibiotic-resistant bacterial diseas like, say, pneumonia or TB.
Also don’t take antiviral drugs without prescription. These drugs are very new and hard to come by. Thus far they are effective only part of the time against only some viral strains. Viruses mutate faster than bacteria, too, when given the chance.
This time the swine flu proved treatable with two antivirals. I don’t want to even imagine what wil happen when we get an anticiral resistant strain of deadly flu.
BTW there’s also some PC-mongering about the swine flu. The name is undergoing daily changes for some reason.
Thus far the local papers and radio stations (I hardly watch news on TV) are split between calling it “Influenza A” and “Human Influenza.” The latter is idiotic as naturally any diseases that affect people can be labeled as “human.” What I don’t know is why “swine flu” fell out of favor. We had “bird flu” not too long ago and no one complained.
It is an Influenza A strain. Why is swine flu a better name than Influenza A-H1N1?
Lastly, please don’t ever take antibiotics unless a doctor prescribes them. Antibiotics have ZERO effectiveness against viral diseases like the flu or the common cold (all varieties). They only work against bacteria and some parasites, not on viruses. But taken in low doses, sporadically, or for insufficient time, they help bacteria become resistant to them. This means taking them won’t ease your flu or cold symptoms at all, but makes you mroe likely of dying later of an antibiotic-resistant bacterial diseas like, say, pneumonia or TB.
This time the swine flu proved treatable with two antivirals. I don’t want to even imagine what wil happen when we get an anticiral resistant strain of deadly flu.
I would assume we didn’t have any major antiviral resistant flu outbreaks because of the same reason antibiotic resistant bacteria are less viable: their ability to resist the drugs costs them in viability, making them less “fit” when the drug is not present.
So, while in the presence of the drug, the fittest variants of the mutating virus are the resistant ones, when the drug isn’t present, the fittest variants are the non-resitant ones. It is my understanding that it takes a lot more than just some isolated misuse of antivirals for a drug resistant Influenza virus to evolve and spread.
What I don’t know is why “swine flu” fell out of favor. We had “bird flu” not too long ago and no one complained.
Here in the US, the pork industry was getting bent out of shape because meat sales are down considerably even though there is no danger of contracting the virus from cooked pork. I assume the pork lobbyists sprang into action, took their congressmen out for a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, and demanded that government spokesmen call it the H1N1 virus going forward.
