WHO calls Level 5 Pandemic

While our president was gargling and getting ready to read his teleprompter, WHO raised the level of  the Swine Flu situation to 5. Considering there are only six levels, this is not great news.

The World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert for swine flu to the second highest level Wednesday, meaning that it believes a global outbreak of the disease is imminent.

WHO Director General Margaret Chan declared the phase 5 alert after consulting with flu experts from around the world. The decision could lead the global body to recommend additional measures to combat the outbreak, including for vaccine manufacturers to switch production from seasonal flu vaccines to a pandemic vaccine.
“All countries should immediately now activate their pandemic preparedness plans,” Chan told reporters in Geneva. “It really is all of humanity that is under threat in a pandemic.”

In the meantime, the border areas between Mexico and the USA remain open to anyone who can hop over. Considering that the epidemic started in Mexico, it’s not hard to guess which direction the traffic is going.  The  CDC believes that closing the borders is not necessary.  Using some convoluted reasoning, our government has also decided that thermal scanners are not going to be used on incoming travelers at the border or anywhere else, because those scanners only flag people who have a fever and some people could still have the flu without a fever.  I’ll leave the analysis of that reasoning to you, although it would be nice if they just admitted that we don’t have any thermal scanners available to customs officers.

In an effort to flag potential carriers of the swine flu, some Asian countries reportedly are using scanners that automatically measure the body temperatures of people crossing the border and arriving at airports.

But automatic thermal scanning is not available to U.S. customs officers, who have to rely on their intuition when they think someone who is ill is entering the country.

Wow. We pick out people with Swine Flu using our senses. Cool. That’s technology for you!

“Right now we’re just watching the symptoms and making sure that we’re being vigilant on people that are really displaying any kinds of symptoms that would have to do with any flu or cold,” said Lloyd Easterling, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

He told FOXNews.com U.S. customs officials do not have or use thermal scanners, but that such technology is probably not needed.

“While that may be something that’s being discussed for (the future), I don’t know that it’s necessarily required right now,” he said.

Instead, officers are conducting what’s known as “passive screening.” They have the daunting task of watching out for common symptoms that could reflect an everyday cold, or the swine flu that has countries around the world on alert.

They are going to discuss thermal scanners in the future.  All righty then.

Cases have cropped up in ten states.

Dr. Richard Besser, the acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in Atlanta there were confirmed cases in ten states, with 51 in New York, 16 in Texas and 14 in California. Two cases have been confirmed in Kansas, Massachusetts and Michigan, while single cases have been reported in Arizona, Indiana, Nevada and Ohio.

State officials in Maine said laboratory tests had confirmed three cases in that state, although those had not yet been included in the CDC count.

The good news is they have managed to give the swine flu a more scientific name. It is hereby now named the H1N1 virus. This should come as no surprise after Acts of Terrorism have been renamed “Human-Caused Disasters”. And Kathleen  Sebelius was confirmed,  so she’s going to fix everything. Yesterday our government said that not having a head of HHS wasn’t a problem. Not having a Surgeon General wasn’t a problem. S o, I was just wondering…..why do we have them at all?

But whatever you do, don’t panic. You can get yourself some RELENZA. It’s manufacturer claims it helps prevent you from catching the Flu.

See?

RELENZA (ruh-LENS-uh) is a medicine that can both treat influenza (flu, infection caused by influenza virus) and help to prevent getting the flu.

Side effects are:

In studies, the most common side effects with RELENZA have been headaches; diarrhea; nausea; vomiting; nasal irritation; bronchitis; cough; sinusitis; ear, nose, and throat infections; and dizziness. Other side effects that have been reported, but were not as common, include rashes and allergic reactions, some of which were severe.

So basically, if you want to avoid the Flu, you have to take a product that gives you the Flu. Seems fair.