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Swine Flu Originated In United States - 5/6/2009 8:54:12 PM

ThatDamnedPanda

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Interesting. Ever since this new strain was first identified in Mexico, thinly veiled and downright overt racist condemnations of Mexicans have been not uncommon. Not here on this forum, but throughout the country. I don't expect this will change the thinking of many, but for a few people, it might help illustrate the folly of such xenophobic overreactions.

quote:

Around Thanksgiving 2005 a teenage boy helped his brother-in-law butcher 31 pigs at a local Wisconsin slaughterhouse, and a week later the 17-year-old pinned down another pig while it was gutted. In the lead-up to the holidays the boy's family bought a chicken and kept the animal in their home, out of the harsh Sheboygan autumn. On Dec. 7, the teenager came down with the flu, suffering an illness that lasted three days. He visited a local clinic, then fully recovered, and nobody else in his family took ill.

This incident would hardly seem worth mentioning except that the influenza virus that infected the Wisconsin lad was unlike any previously seen. It appeared to be a mosaic of a wild-bird form of flu, a human type and a strain found in pigs.

It was an H1N1 swine influenza. Largely ignored at the time, the Wisconsin virus was a step along the evolutionary tree, leading to a virus that four years later would stun the world.

Here, I'll show you a trick. If you click this link, you can read the whole article!

< Message edited by ThatDamnedPanda -- 5/6/2009 8:55:16 PM >

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RE: Swine Flu Originated In United States - 5/7/2009 4:50:18 AM

CatdeMedici

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You obviously don't live where a lot of Mexicans are employed--swine flu has nothing to do with it and the "thinly veiled racist remarks" are overt, open, hostile and have been for years---however, they still fill jobs no one else wants to do.

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RE: Swine Flu Originated In United States - 5/7/2009 4:56:40 AM

DesFIP

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I like that line "virally speaking influenza is an awfully sloppy microbe". But it seems to be entirely random, the pig has to come down with two or more strains of influenza to produce this kind of a dangerous one.

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RE: Swine Flu Originated In United States - 5/7/2009 5:55:01 AM

DarkSteven

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Panda, I doubt that this will change anything. Even if ir did originate here, it incubated and grew in Mexico.

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RE: Swine Flu Originated In United States - 5/7/2009 7:16:30 AM

CatdeMedici

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DarkSteven

Panda, I doubt that this will change anything. Even if ir did originate here, it incubated and grew in Mexico.

The flu or racism against Mexicans?

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RE: Swine Flu Originated In United States - 5/7/2009 12:07:35 PM

JonnieBoy

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(In response to the OP)

No ... swine flu originated in pigs

Pirate

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RE: Swine Flu Originated In United States - 5/7/2009 3:26:58 PM

sub4hire

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H1N1 is merely influenza A. A flu shot will help you so you don't get it as bad as you could.

Why did the US make such a huge deal out of it? Who knows?

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RE: Swine Flu Originated In United States - 5/7/2009 5:10:43 PM

CruelNUnsual

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quote:

ORIGINAL: sub4hire

H1N1 is merely influenza A. A flu shot will help you so you don't get it as bad as you could.

Why did the US make such a huge deal out of it? Who knows?

To give Obama a crisis to respond to that he couldnt fail at.

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RE: Swine Flu Originated In United States - 5/8/2009 6:46:00 AM

DarkSteven

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Unlike the pirate crisis? That's the only one he responded to that did not originate with Bush. Evidently you didn't think he did well, or your selective memory has erased it already.

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RE: Swine Flu Originated In United States - 5/9/2009 12:53:35 AM

lazarus1983

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Possibly because of how bad it could get if it mutated?

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RE: Swine Flu Originated In United States - 5/9/2009 8:21:43 AM

Raechard

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People have no immunity to it apparently which is why it is so concerning, especially for the old and very young. I'm not really sure how many die with seasonal flu each year but the deaths in Mexico all seemed to happen in a short space of time and concentrated in one area which is always cause for concern. The rest of the world was only lucky it started there because it gave everyone else time to form a strategy and to have these anti virals that supposedly make all the difference. Probably when it takes people by surprise in another part of the world during a northern hemisphere winter we'll see the real dangers of it. At the moment I don't know of any cases in the rest of the world that haven’t been treated with anti viral drugs. The problem in Mexico is they just don't complain as much when they are ill as we seem to, in a lot of cases they probably thought it was just seasonal flu and so left it untreated until it was too late, then the distribution of it through the population snowballed. We can't say if we'll be any better off; next winter they'll be all kinds of panic I expect as people get seasonal flu thinking it could be swine flu. After the initial news there was probably a large increase in people seeking help for flu like symptoms even those with no apparent exposure to it. Our hypochondria though has helped us track it because those with no apparent links have come forward and so less noticeable links have emerged.

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RE: Swine Flu Originated In United States - 5/9/2009 7:19:57 PM

toughlovedaddy

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quote:

Unlike the pirate crisis? That's the only one he responded to that did not originate with Bush. Evidently you didn't think he did well, or your selective memory has erased it already.

quote:

ORIGINAL: DarkSteven

So, you consider the "pirate crisis" solved? Talk about having a selective and fleeting memory.

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