Crying Wolf?

[tinytim]

OK..
First read this.. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/01/obama-flu-run-course-government-preparing-worst/

It appears the "Swine' flu.. (No I won't call it H1N1 in order to be Politically Correct and not offend the Jews or Muslims! :laugh is not going to be any worse than regular flu.. .JUst what I suspected the other day...

I also heard a report on the radio today that there is some good news.. the swine flu isn't as contagious as it first appeared to be...

So.. we have schools shutting down over something that isn't any worse than the flus going around this past winter..
We have the WHO raising the alert to level 5
We have the media going overboard...
Biden keeps sticking his foot in his mouth, (This hasn't affected that though...Although, I wonder if he has foot in mouth disease)

And all of this has me wondering....

What happens NEXT TIME when there really is something to worry about.

It seems the news ALWAYS wants to sensationalize things for ratings.. whether it is CNN for the Left.. or FOX for the Right...

So who are we going to believe?

 

[Mexdeaf]

Spot on! Too many 'Chicken Littles' out there. Mostly the same folks who believed in "Change".

 

[tinytim]

Here's another good article...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/01/navarrette.biden.flu/index.html

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- The Obama administration forgot the first rule in a crisis: Never send Vice President Joe Biden to calm people's fears.
During a television interview Thursday, Biden had a recurrence of his trademark foot-in-mouth disease when he said he had warned members of his own family that -- while some people are steering clear of Mexico -- they should be extra cautious and not get on airplanes altogether or, for that matter, go into any "confined places" where germs could spread.
"If you're out in the middle of a field and someone sneezes, that's one thing," Biden said. "If you're in a closed aircraft or closed container or closed car or closed classroom, it's a different thing."

Watch Biden's remarks »
You don't know whether to laugh or cry. Recognizing that Biden could create a panic and cripple the airline industry, Biden spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander went into damage control mode and put out a statement that read, "The advice he is giving family members is the same advice the administration is giving to all Americans: that they should avoid unnecessary air travel to and from Mexico. If they are sick, they should avoid airplanes and other confined public spaces, such as subways."
How sad. That's not what Biden said. His comments weren't limited to Mexico, and he wasn't talking about what people should do "if they are sick." It was about what you should do if someone else is sick. So, the administration's response initially was basically, "Are you going to believe us or your own lying ears?"
The White House later apologized "if anybody was unduly alarmed" by Biden's comments, and press secretary Robert Gibbs tried to explain what Biden "meant to say."

Watch Gibbs' comments »


Up to now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, has gone only so far as to advise people to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico, which seems to be ground zero in the imminent pandemic.
It's there that at least 2,500 people may have been infected. Mexican authorities also suspect that 159 deaths have resulted from the infection, although only a small number of cases -- less than a dozen -- have been confirmed. And in most of those cases, it wasn't the flu that was fatal but some another illness that took advantage of a weakened immune system caused by the H1N1 flu.
And by all means, for the sake of beleaguered pig farmers who are bound to take a serious economic hit before this is over, let's keep referring to it that way. The real significance of Biden's boneheaded comments is that they help feed the national hysteria over the virus formerly known as swine flu.

 

[tinytim]

After a few days of fear mongering by the elite.. we get this...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,518578,00.html

<H1 class=head _extended="true" itxtvisited="1">Signs Point to Milder Swine Flu Outbreak Than Once Feared


GEESH! The media! The Politicians...

Chicken Little!
</H1>

 

[Marcia]

I was thinking this was the "whine flu" as well until I heard today that the real reason many are concerned is not knowing how it will mutate and show up in the Fall. It's possible it will have mutated by then and could be more deadly.

This is a flu that has not been seen before so they don't know what it will do in the future.

 

[Enoch]

I was thinking this was the "whine flu" as well until I heard today that the real reason many are concerned is not knowing how it will mutate and show up in the Fall. It's possible it will have mutated by then and could be more deadly.

This is a flu that has not been seen before so they don't know what it will do in the future.

Which is what happened in 1918 although we are much more advanced in health care. Who really knows.

The plague emerged in two phases. In late spring of 1918, the first phase, known as the "three-day fever," appeared without warning. Few deaths were reported. Victims recovered after a few days. When the disease surfaced again that fall, it was far more severe. Scientists, doctors, and health officials could not identify this disease which was striking so fast and so viciously, eluding treatment and defying control. Some victims died within hours of their first symptoms. Others succumbed after a few days; their lungs filled with fluid and they suffocated to death.

 

[annsni]

I agree with both sides on this issue.

I do think it's kind of ridiculous to close down a school because one student MIGHT have the flu. We went to a friend's house tonight who's a teacher of a student who has been confirmed to have the flu. He said the news media is camped outside his school and it's ridiculous. This particular flu has NOT been bad for the vast majority of those who got it - just a few days of being ill and that's it. A regular winter flu can be MUCH harder on a person because it can last DAYS and knock you out for a good while. I watched the news on Monday night and they were interviewing a student who had been confirmed to have had the flu and he said his first symptoms were Saturday morning. This was Monday night and he was on the news feeling fine. That's just 2.5 days. Not bad for a flu!

On the other hand, it's a flu we've never seen before. It's a mixture of a couple of flues and it seemed to spread pretty quickly over a large area. Because of modern science, we are able to pinpoint very quickly just where the flu is and let the world know about it so it seems like it's going even faster. To know that the 1918 flu mutated and by the third round was deadly, I think people are fearing that scenerio. We're still not sure what this flu will do in the future but it's important to realize just what CAN happen in our age of widespread travel and large masses of people. We are in contact with SO many people because of our larger population and in large cities where public transportation is used by a significant portion of the people, things like this can spread like wildfire. We do need to be diligent with disease knowing that something that can injure or kill is right around the corner.

Look - we all know the world is going to get worse before it gets better - the Bible promises that. So I don't doubt that someday there will be some disease or something that will affect many of us. I'm not convinced that we're going to live in freedom forever.

But I know Who holds the future in His hand and I'm His child. My soul is secure in Him as are the souls of my family. My goal is to spread the news about Him to everyone I meet.

Al Mohler had a great blog article on this the other day. It's well worth reading:

http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=3713