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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- | |
| WHO: Containment is no longer feasible | |
| 2009-04-28 | |
| GENEVA -- While confirmed cases of swine flu increased only slightly on Monday, the World Health Organization voted to raise its global pandemic flu alert level, but at the same time recommended that borders not be closed or travel bans imposed. The WHO's emergency committee, after meeting until 10:30 p.m. in Geneva, also recommended abandoning efforts to contain the flu's spread. "Because the virus is already quite widespread in different locations, containment is not a feasible option," said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the organization's deputy director general. The WHO also recommended that vaccine-makers keep making seasonal flu vaccine instead of switching over to a new one that matches the swine flu strain, but it urged vaccine makers to start the process of picking a pandemic strain, weakening it and making large batches of it, which could take six months. Fukuda emphasized that the committee felt that "a pandemic is not inevitable -- the situation is fluid and will continue to evolve."
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| Posted by:Steve White |
| #6 Some interesting parallels between pandemic flu and terrorism. In particular, when only a few individuals are involved (flu infected or active terrorists) the problem can be contained. However, because the resources required for containment are disproportionate (especially when taking a law enforcement approach to terrorism) then a small increase in individuals, either infected or involved in terrorism, outstrips the resources available for containment. Mexico is well past the possibility of containing this flu outbreak and several countries, including the UK, are past the point terrorism can be contained. |
| Posted by: Phil_B 2009-04-28 19:39 |
| #5 Give us your tuberculosis, your swine flu infected masses. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2009-04-28 11:58 |
| #4 I heard she siad something about 'no need to close the mexican border'. Of course left unsaid is that we can't close the border even if we needed to - thanks to her, Bush and company. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2009-04-28 11:50 |
| #3 Some society. We have a mom stick a plastic knife into her elementary school kid's birthday cake in their lunch and the kid will get expelled by school administrators under a 'zero tolerance' policy. How many people have died from such a 'weapon'? We have governmental bureaucrats both internationally and nationally who shrug their shoulders and say there's nothing that can be done to make life more secure from these contagions. How many people die every year from various flu strains? We need to move the principals out of the local schools and into DHS and PHS, and move the bureaucrats into the principal offices in the schools. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-04-28 11:50 |
| #2 Not if Jan Napoleontini makes good on her promise to cure any Mexican who makes it to/across the border claiming illness. (I think that is what she said last night, she's such an idiot talker it was difficult to get exactly what she said; saw it on a PBS news program so if I misheard her please correct me) |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2009-04-28 10:41 |
| #1 Travel to Messico discouraged... but as always, the borders remain fully open for northbound |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-04-28 07:13 |