Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Mexican flu puzzle
The CDC is trying hard to rename the swine flu, saying that the hog and corn industries are suffering from the bad advertising. Silly, but they may be right in a deeper sense. It seems that the cases in the US are not coming from people who have actually been around pigs and chickens, but rather from Mexican resort areas.
Another salient fact: Washington state has about 100,000 Mexican migrants working the apple crops, covering a large part of the state. These migrants are constantly traveling back and forth to Mexico, and they would presumably come from agricultural areas where they would work with livestock. Despite this, the state public health agencies have been watching carefully and have found no cases of flu at all.
So the basic assumption (spread from pigs) may be incorrect.
= = = = =
Later: the CDC's attempt to rename the virus isn't working. They want the media to call it the 2009 H1N1, which sounds like an expensive sports car. But the media, normally enslaved to the priestly verbiage of official "scientists", have decided to stick with plain old Swine Flu. It's nice to see this small rebellion against official "science", especially when the "science" is owned by Democrats.
Update 4/29: Gov Gregoire says there are now about 40 possible or suspicious cases in Wash, but still no confirmed infections.
¶ 1:44 PM
Another salient fact: Washington state has about 100,000 Mexican migrants working the apple crops, covering a large part of the state. These migrants are constantly traveling back and forth to Mexico, and they would presumably come from agricultural areas where they would work with livestock. Despite this, the state public health agencies have been watching carefully and have found no cases of flu at all.
So the basic assumption (spread from pigs) may be incorrect.
= = = = =
Later: the CDC's attempt to rename the virus isn't working. They want the media to call it the 2009 H1N1, which sounds like an expensive sports car. But the media, normally enslaved to the priestly verbiage of official "scientists", have decided to stick with plain old Swine Flu. It's nice to see this small rebellion against official "science", especially when the "science" is owned by Democrats.
Update 4/29: Gov Gregoire says there are now about 40 possible or suspicious cases in Wash, but still no confirmed infections.
¶ 1:44 PM
