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April 27, 2009 9:27 AM

Obama: Swine Flu "Not A Cause For Alarm"

Posted by Daniel Carty
(CBS)
The swine flu outbreak responsible for as many as 103 deaths in Mexico and at least 20 confirmed cases in the U.S. is "obviously a cause for concern … but it is not a cause for alarm," President Barack Obama said Tuesday.

Speaking before the National Academy of Sciences, Mr. Obama said he is "closely monitoring" the swine flu situation, getting regular updates from the various public health agencies grappling with the problem – the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Health and Human Services among them. Mr. Obama said Americans can expect regular updates from these agencies as well.

Mr. Obama also said that the declaration of a public health emergency was a precautionary tool to aid officials in addressing the problem.

So far, there have been 20 cases reported in five states – New York, Texas, California, Ohio and Kansas – but no fatalities. In Mexico, there are 1,600 confirmed infections and Spain reported its first case Monday – the first outside North America. Governments around the world have advised against travel to Mexico and the U.S. China, Taiwan and Russia are considering quarantines of people returning from those affected countries.
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Add a Comment See all 22 Comments
by TheMasses02 April 27, 2009 4:21 PM EDT
Obama: Swine Flu "Not A Cause For Alarm"
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Not cause for alarm; but a good cause to seek medical treatment.
Reply to this comment
by mattcat25 April 27, 2009 4:14 PM EDT
Let's see how the Obama administration uses this crisis. I can see them ramming socialized healthcare down our throats.
Posted by libertydeath at 12:39 PM : Apr 27, 2009

say "ahhhh!"
Reply to this comment
by mattcat25 April 27, 2009 3:09 PM EDT
We are fortunate that have an Administration in place that will take all the necessary steps to protect the citizens of the US. If, lets just say this were a Conservative Administration they would do what Conservatives always do?.nothing.

Failure to act quickly and allowing detrimental catastrophic disaster to take place would allow for the Republicans to divert (steal) Federal Treasury Funds to the Private Sector with no results like what we experienced during the Katrina Hurricane and 7 years of the Iraqi War on Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Pandemic FLU Management and Federally Funded Assistance to the States could be viewed (some say) by the Republicans as:

"SOCLIAIZED MEDICINE!!"
"SOCLIAIZED MEDICINE!!"
"SOCLIAIZED MEDICINE!!"
"SOCIALISM!"
"SOCIALISM!"
"TAXCUTS!"
"TAXCUTS!"
"TAXCUTS!"
"2ND AMENDMENT RIGHTS!"
"DRILLBABYDRILL!"
"DRILLBABYDRILL!"
"TAXCUTS!"
"SOCIALISM!"
"WILLIAM AYERS!"
"TONY REZKO!"
and,
TAX CUTS!.

conservatism in action...
Reply to this comment
by hwy71so April 27, 2009 2:57 PM EDT
I think, in so many words Rowdy, that sums it up... lol

You getting these storms today too?
Reply to this comment
by hwy71so April 27, 2009 2:05 PM EDT
Still messing up. That's 4 networks, not 3.
Reply to this comment
by hwy71so April 27, 2009 1:58 PM EDT
Dude, I was laughing so hard I typed wrong. LOL

You call it "FAUX", yet you're posting on one of the three liberal favored networks? Fox my just favor a more conservative and fair view. What's wrong with that when they Main Stream Media giants; CBS, ABC and NBC ALL favor a liberal agenda. Just look what MSNBC did to Miss California USA just for stating her honest views on the question that fruit loop gave her. MSNBC used her sorely over that; the idiots. Neither CNN, ABC, or CBS gave her her right to independent thought.

You guys are constantly spitting on the rights recognized in the Constitution and then you find the audacity to rail on Fox?

THAT's funny! Windmaster2, don't be a clown. Be honest.
Reply to this comment
by hwy71so April 27, 2009 1:51 PM EDT
Dude, that's funny enough for a second laugh!!! hehehehehehehe

LOL

YOU are SOOOOO bought!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ROTF!!!!!!!!!
Reply to this comment
by hwy71so April 27, 2009 1:48 PM EDT
windmaster2
Are you seriously saying that Fox is the only one that's not biased toward one view? hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Reply to this comment
by homespunlady April 27, 2009 12:26 PM EDT
Just a quick quoted paragraph from info on the flu on Globalsecurity.org

"A pandemic will last much longer than most public health emergencies and may include "waves" of influenza activity separated by months. In 20th century pandemics, a second wave of influenza activity occurred 3 to 12 months after the first wave. In 1957 the second wave began 3 months after the peak of the first wave, while in 1968 the second wave began 12 months after peak of the first wave. The first wave of the 1918 flu occurred in the spring of that year ending in March. That flu was very severe by usual standards but the second wave beginning 6 months later in September was the most fatal. During the 1918 pandemic, the deadly second wave was responsible for more than 90% of the deaths for the entire pandemic. The third wave occurred more than a year later, during the following 1919-1920 winter/spring, and was the mildest of all."
Reply to this comment
by rational_1 April 27, 2009 12:05 PM EDT
Obama: Swine Flu "Not A Cause For Alarm"

Now my fiscal plans on the other hand...
Reply to this comment
by homespunlady April 27, 2009 12:00 PM EDT
So' where are the FACTS about this FLYING PIG VIRUS?

This is a COMBO VIRUS that doesn't make sense and just because it's ONLY DEADLY IN MEXICO doesn't mean that we should simply IGNORE the FACT that it's a HIGHLY IMPROBABLE combination of completely disparate parts.

With SARS they immediately went on the hunt for the SOURCE, when it hit, etc. (once it leaked out to the press)

This time the MSM is satisfied with "reassuring" the "public" like they are children or idiots.

So far we're getting "don't worry, be happy and like Bush with 9/11 - keep shopping. (but little to NO FACTS)

Too late, on the "keep shopping thing by the way - the bottom fell out on shopping with the economic downturn and the "children" are grownups that want a CLEAR rundown on HOW parts of a:
EUROPEAN flu,
an Avian flu,
a North American flu,
a Pig flu
and other components
were blended and cooked in a 3rd world backwater distracted by social stratification, poverty and a murderous drug war.

Unless they're breeding FLYING PIGS by crossing European pigs with American birds on some remote peasant's farm this stinks to high heaven.

ENOUGH of the namby-pamby "don't worry your pretty little heads kids" stuff.

Let's get down to the FACTS so we can stop blaming Jose's pigs and chickens for traveling to Europe without their shots and know some GARAGE DNA LAB didn't "cook this one up" for some stupid reason.
Reply to this comment
by mattcat25 April 27, 2009 11:57 AM EDT
It's a shame that people will to die from this flu virus.
Reply to this comment
by glenaw-2009 April 27, 2009 11:37 AM EDT
oftencensord - do some reading. At WHO and the CDC. Also if you were to do some in depth reading regarding influenza and pandemics you would find that people can be carriers and never show signs of the desease itself.

Also do some reading of the pandemic of 1918. The flu was most deadly for people ages 20 to 40 and these were healthy people before the caught it.

This type of influenza does not have age barrriers.
Reply to this comment
by seriously121 April 27, 2009 11:32 AM EDT
Wow some of these comments are a mess!!!
Reply to this comment
by npkppprc April 27, 2009 11:28 AM EDT
Yes he does turn his head to the side and up, also points at people like he is scolding them, rude, egotistical, socialistic and dangerous for America. Are a lot of Americans iritated? you bet they are.
Reply to this comment
by oftencensord April 27, 2009 11:19 AM EDT
It was reported this "flu virus" has killed young healthy people which are not the usual victims of a flu outbreak.

And what is the time frame of these deaths, and the proximity of the victims to each other?

Are you sure this is a naturally occurring virus and not an engineered one?
Reply to this comment
by pepperpolly1 April 27, 2009 11:08 AM EDT
Is it just me, or is this article dated wrong? Isn't today MONDAY?
Reply to this comment
by glenaw-2009 April 27, 2009 11:02 AM EDT
Just think the pandemic of 1918 was carried around the world by birds and people on ships. Now with airplanes carrying millions of people around the globe think how fast this could engulf the world and how many it could kill. Killing you or your nieghbor.

And yet the majority of people on this forum can't keep thier eye on the ball and talk about the subject at hand.

Amazing.
Reply to this comment
by glenaw-2009 April 27, 2009 10:56 AM EDT
A little background on the pandemic of 1918.

The effect of the influenza epidemic was so severe that the average life span in the US was depressed by 10 years. The influenza virus had a profound virulence, with a mortality rate at 2.5% compared to the previous influenza epidemics, which were less than 0.1%. The death rate for 15 to 34-year-olds of influenza and pneumonia were 20 times higher in 1918 than in previous years (Taubenberger). People were struck with illness on the street and died rapid deaths. One anectode shared of 1918 was of four women playing bridge together late into the night. Overnight, three of the women died from influenza (Hoagg). Others told stories of people on their way to work suddenly developing the flu and dying within hours (Henig). One physician writes that patients with seemingly ordinary influenza would rapidly "develop the most viscous type of pneumonia that has ever been seen" and later when cyanosis appeared in the patients, "it is simply a struggle for air until they suffocate," (Grist, 1979). Another physician recalls that the influenza patients "died struggling to clear their airways of a blood-tinged froth that sometimes gushed from their nose and mouth," (Starr, 1976). The physicians of the time were helpless against this powerful agent of influenza.

In the fall of 1918 the Great War in Europe was winding down and peace was on the horizon. The Americans had joined in the fight, bringing the Allies closer to victory against the Germans. Deep within the trenches these men lived through some of the most brutal conditions of life, which it seemed could not be any worse. Then, in pockets across the globe, something erupted that seemed as benign as the common cold. The influenza of that season, however, was far more than a cold. In the two years that this scourge ravaged the earth, a fifth of the world's population was infected. The flu was most deadly for people ages 20 to 40. This pattern of morbidity was unusual for influenza which is usually a killer of the elderly and young children. It infected 28% of all Americans (Tice). An estimated 675,000 Americans died of influenza during the pandemic, ten times as many as in the world war. Of the U.S. soldiers who died in Europe, half of them fell to the influenza virus and not to the enemy (Deseret News). An estimated 43,000 servicemen mobilized for WWI died of influenza (Crosby). 1918 would go down as unforgettable year of suffering and death and yet of peace.
Reply to this comment
by talk_down_2_you April 27, 2009 10:52 AM EDT
No, Obama-the, all I've noticed as that you turn your head 90-degrees and stick it up, well u know where don't u. Somehow in your rancid Limbaugh delusional "brain" u didn't notice that Bush could not complete a sentence even with the teleprompter running.

But back to the other swine- they've been warning and wanting this epidemic since the late 60's. I first read about it in Science Digest in 1967. I was in an Army Reserve unit that gave swine flu vaccinations to old people in malls in 1974-75. This just ain't that new folks! How many people die from flu in Mexico every year anyway?

Guess it's one fo the reason Jews and Muslims want to destroy pork.
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