Legal Arguments proving Israeli War Crimes. Fwd: Defending Israeli War Crimes

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: JMD Morgan <JohnM...@email.non>
Date: May 31, 4:43 am
Subject: Defending Israeli War Crimes
To: soc.culture.indonesia, soc.culture.malaysia, soc.culture.pakistan,
soc.culture.canada, soc.culture.australian

Defending Israeli War Crimes

Posted By Stephen Zunes On May29,2009@9:00pm

In response to a series of reports by human rights organizations and
international legal scholars documenting serious large-scale
violations
of international humanitarian law by Israeli armed forces in its
recent
war on the Gaza Strip,10U.S. state attorneys general sent a letter
[.pdf] to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defending the Israeli
action. It is virtually unprecedented for state attorneys general ?
whose mandates focus on enforcement of state law ? to weigh in on
questions regarding the laws of war, particularly in a conflict on the
far side of the world. More significantly, their statement runs
directly
counter to a broad consensus of international legal opinion that
recognizes that Israel, as well as Hamas, engaged in war crimes.

The wording of the letter closely parallels arguments by Bush
administration officials in support for Israel?s devastating offensive
during their final days in office. Having been signed nearly11weeks
after the end of the fighting and made public only late last month, it
may have been part of an effort to undermine tentative efforts by the
Obama administration to take a more balanced approach to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A statement by state attorneys general putting forth a legal rationale
for the large-scale killings of civilians is particularly distressing
as
concerns about civilian casualties from U.S. air and missile strikes
in
Afghanistan and Pakistan have grown.

The attorneys general signing on to the letter included Republicans
Rob
McKenna of Washington, Mike Cox of Michigan, John Suthers of Colorado,
Bill McCollum of Florida, Jon Bruning of Nebraska, and Mark Shurtleff
of
Utah. Signatories also included such prominent Democrats as Richard
Cordray of Ohio, Patrick Lynch of Rhode Island, Jack Conway of
Kentucky,
and Buddy Caldwell of Louisiana.

Facile Legal Reasoning

The legal rationale put forward in the March30letter is
extraordinarily facile. For example, they claim that the war waged on
the civilian infrastructure of the Gaza Strip was taken in furtherance
of Israel?s ?right to self-defense under Article51of the UN Charter.?
In reality, however, while Article51does allow countries the right to
resist an armed attack, it doesn?t grant any nation the right to
engage
in such a disproportionate response.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak admitted that the Israeli invasion
had been planned for months, back when a six-month cease-fire was
still
in effect. Even when Hamas resumed firing rockets into Israel in
December, following a deadly Israeli raid into Gaza the previous
month,
there were few casualties. Indeed, not a single Israeli had been
killed
by Hamas rocket attacks for more than half a year prior to Israel
launching its war on Dec.27. During the subsequent three weeks of
fighting, Palestinians killed10Israelis, three of whom were civilians,
while Israeli forces killed more than1,400Palestinians, the vast
majority of whom were civilians.

Incredibly, these attorneys general insist that these mass killings by
Israeli forces were ?justified and, in our view, met the international
legal standards.?

The attorneys general also ignored the fact that Article33of the UN
Charter explicitly prohibits nations going to war unless they ?first
of
all, seek a solution by negotiation, inquiry, mediation, conciliation,
arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or
arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.? However,
Israel ? with strong bipartisan U.S. support ? had refused to even
meet
with Hamas to negotiate a long-term cease-fire, which Hamas had
offered
prior to the breakdown of the six-month lull in return for a lift in
the
Israeli siege of the enclave.

The letter correctly accuses Hamas, which had lobbed rockets into
civilian-populated areas in southwestern Israel, of violating
Article48
of Protocol I to the Geneva Convention of1948, which states: ?Parties
to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian
population and combatants and between civilian objects and military
objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations only against
military objectives.?

However, the attorneys general refused to acknowledge that Israel had
also violated that same provision on a far grander scale. While
virtually every human rights organization, intergovernmental
organization, and international legal authority that researched this
recent conflict recognizes both Hamas and Israel were guilty of war
crimes, these attorneys general still insist that Hamas alone was to
blame and that Israel?s actions were perfectly legal.

Ignoring the Facts

Human Rights Watch (HRW) ? which has been highly critical of Hamas
attacks on civilian areas of Israel as well as repression by the
Islamist group of Palestinian opponents within the Gaza Strip ?
reported
during the fighting that in using heavy shelling against heavily
populated civilian areas, ?Israel is committing indiscriminate attacks
in violation of the laws of war.? In a comprehensive report published
in
March, HRW noted that ?Israel?s repeated firing of white phosphorus
shells over densely populated areas of Gaza during its recent military
campaign was indiscriminate and is evidence of war crimes.?

Similarly, while Amnesty International also ?found evidence of war
crimes and other serious violations of international law by all
parties
to the conflict? and attacks by both sides against civilian areas in
which no fighters were present, the attorneys general insisted that
the
Palestinian side alone was guilty of such illegal actions.

An independent United Nations inquiry documented six major Israeli
attacks against UN buildings, including schools in which children were
killed, noting that actions by Israeli forces ?involved varying
degrees
of negligence or recklessness with regard to United Nations premises
and
to the safety of United Nations staff and other civilians within those
premises, with consequent deaths, injuries, and extensive physical
damage and loss of property.? The report concluded that ?no military
activity was carried out from within the United Nations premises in
any
of the incidents.?

Without presenting any evidence to the contrary, the attorneys general
categorically rejected such findings, insisting that Israel was
engaged
only in ?a limited and directed action against the source of Hamas?
military acts.?

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) focused on other
war
crimes, noting how the ?Israeli military failed to meet its obligation
under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the
wounded,? citing instances in which Israeli forces prevented Red Cross
or other medics safe access to assist seriously wounded civilians. The
Israeli chapter of Physicians for Human Rights reported with ?
certainty?
that Israel violated international humanitarian law by attacking
medics,
damaging medical buildings, engaging in indiscriminate attacks on
civilians, and delaying medical treatment for the injured. The ICRC
declared Israel?s ?delay in allowing rescue services access
unacceptable.? In addition, Israel rejected pleas by international
humanitarian agencies by closing border crossings days at a time,
denying access to food, medical supplies, fuel, and water sanitation
equipment. Despite this, the attorneys general instead praised Israel
for ?allowing the entrance of humanitarian aid into Gaza.?

A report by a delegation of prominent U.S. attorneys which visited
Gaza
Strip soon after the fighting reported that ?that Israeli forces
deliberately targeted civilians during the Gaza offensive.? The
Israeli
press has reported testimony of Israeli soldiers who killed
Palestinian
civilians under highly permissive rules of engagement that allowed
soldiers to kill any Palestinian in certain areas regardless of
whether
they were armed, and were ordered to intentionally destroy civilian
property. An investigation by the British newspaper the Guardian
revealed a series of Israeli missile attacks against clearly
distinguishable civilian targets.

United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied
Territories Richard Falk, noting Israel?s ?unlawful uses of force on a
large scale? against Gazan society as a whole, referred to the
operation
as a ?flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, as set
forth
in the Geneva Conventions.? Falk, an American Jew and emeritus
professor
at Princeton University who is arguably the country?s preeminent
international legal scholar, also noted the illegality of Hamas rocket
attacks into Israel, but stressed that Israeli air strikes?were aimed
at
civilian areas in one of the most crowded stretches of land in the
world.?

Ignoring such evidence, the attorneys general insisted that Israel was
directing its artillery, bombings, and missile attacks only toward ?
the
source of Hamas? military attacks? and the Israeli government should
therefore not be held responsible for any military action that harmed
Palestinian civilians because they did so ?unintentionally.?

Defending Mass Killings of Civilians

These attorneys general try to absolve Israel of any responsibility of
the hundreds of civilian deaths by accusing Hamas of ?using these
civilians as human shields.? They provide no evidence for this charge,
however, save for a quote from the notoriously right-wing editorial
page
of the Wall Street Journal.

Independent human rights groups have accused Hamas of less-severe
violations of international humanitarian law, such as not taking all
necessary steps it should to prevent civilian casualties when it
positioned fighters and armaments too close to concentrations of
civilians. However, this isn?t the same thing as deliberately using
civilians as shields. Furthermore, the nature of urban warfare,
particularly in a territory as densely populated as the Gaza Strip,
makes the proximity of retreating fighters and their equipment to
civilians unavoidable in many cases.

Even if Hamas were using human shields in the legal definition of the
term, it still does not absolve Israel from its obligation to avoid
civilian casualties. Amnesty International has noted that the Geneva
Conventions make it clear that even if one side is shielding itself
behind civilians, such a violation ?shall not release the parties to
the
conflict from their legal obligations with respect to the civilian
population and civilians.?

To argue otherwise, as do these attorneys general, is a dangerous
legal
position for the chief law enforcement official of a state to take,
such
as ordering their state police to kill innocent people in a hostage
situation. By this logic, if a botched bank robbery led the would-be
robbers to hold bank employees and customers at gunpoint, these
attorneys general could then order state patrolmen to kill the gunmen
and hostages alike, defending their action on the grounds that the bad
guys were using ?human shields.?

Denying Political Reality

It?s not just this flawed legal reasoning that underscores how this
initiative by these attorneys general was based not upon a legitimate
interpretation of law but for narrow ideological purposes. They reveal
their political prejudices in their insistence in the letter to
Clinton
in claiming that ?Israel withdrew from Gaza in2005? but that the
Palestinians failed to establish ?a flourishing independent state.? In
reality, despite the removal of illegal Israeli settlements and the
withdrawal of occupation forces from that crowded urban enclave,
Israel
has maintained sole control over Gaza Strip?s airspace and territorial
waters, thereby prohibiting movement of people and goods by land and
sea, as well as largely controlling the Gaza Strip?s border with
Egypt.
With Israel effectively preventing any exports or imports, except for
occasional humanitarian aid, the economy has collapsed and, even prior
to the war, the territory was experiencing a serious humanitarian
crisis. Since Israel?s ?withdrawal,? the Israeli government has also
controlled the Gaza Strip?s electricity, water, and telecommunications
and has periodically engaged in air strikes and armed incursions into
the enclave, murdering and kidnapping suspected militants. No people
could reasonably be expected to establish ?a flourishing independent
state? under such circumstances. Furthermore, in maintaining their
siege
on the enclave, Israel legally remains the occupying power.

The attorneys general go on to accuse Hamas of taking advantage of
Israel?s ?withdrawal? to ?cause a civil war with the Palestinian
Authority, leading to a coup d?etat in2007.? However, while Hamas is
indeed guilty of innumerable political intrigues and inexcusable
violence towards its Palestinian opponents, this is a gross
misrepresentation of recent history.

Rather than making war against the Palestinian Authority, Hamas was
part
of the Palestinian Authority. Indeed, they controlled the legislative
branch of government as well as the post of prime minister and most
other ministries as a result of winning the plurality of the vote in
parliamentary elections in January2006. The following year, Saudi
officials negotiated a power-sharing agreement between Hamas and
Fatah,
which still controlled the presidency. U.S. officials, however,
unsuccessfully encouraged President Mahmoud Abbas to renounce the
agreement, dismiss the entire government, and abolish parliament.

The Bush administration then began secretly arming Fatah groups to
enable them to fight Hamas and pushing Fatah to stage a coup. This is
what led Hamas to launch a countercoup by overrunning Fatah offices
and
taking full control of the Gaza Strip in June2007. Alvaro de Soto,
former UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process,
stated
[.pdf] in his confidential final report leaked to the press a few
weeks
before the Hamas takeover that ?the Americans clearly encouraged a
confrontation between Fatah and Hamas? and ?worked to isolate and
damage
Hamas and build up Fatah with recognition and weaponry.? De Soto also
recalled how in the midst of Egyptian efforts to arrange a cease-fire
following a flare-up in factional fighting earlier that year, a U.S.
official told him that ?I like this violence. ? [I]t means that other
Palestinians are resisting Hamas.?

Though all this has been well-documented and is widely known in both
Israel and Palestine, this bipartisan group of attorneys general has
instead sought to defend the Bush administration?s provocative and
illegal intervention by putting the entire blame on Hamas.

This letter to the secretary of state was put together by a right-wing
group calling itself the American-Israel Friendship League (AIFL),
which
boasts that the organization has sent42state attorneys general to
Israel in the past21years. It refers to the letter as ?a strong
rejoinder to those who have castigated Israel over its role in Gaza
and
used it in an attempt to delegitimize the Jewish state.?

Dangerous Precedent

The Bush administration strongly supported Israel?s war on the Gaza
Strip as an extension of its ?war on terror.? It was in the name of
this
?war on terror? that President George W. Bush shamelessly politicized
the U.S. Justice Department to justify spying on nonviolent dissidents
at home and the torture of suspects abroad. Now we have a bipartisan
group of state attorneys general who have shown themselves similarly
willing to politicize their offices by putting forward twisted and
perverse interpretations of the law in the name of fighting terrorism.
Unless these rogue attorneys general are challenged by elected
officials
and ordinary citizens in their respective states for their signing on
to
such a reckless statement, it could mark a dangerous precedent
regarding
respect for human rights and the rule of law.

URL to article:http://original.antiwar.com/zunes/2009/05/29/defending-
israeli-war-cr...

Unofficial list of fatal Swine flu chronic conditions

From another newsgroup:
http://groups.google.com.my/group/talk.bizarre/browse_thread/thread/cdd3979b4e4f143e/ee83b940c069ecdd?hl=en&q=swine+flu+death#ee83b940c069ecdd

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/nyregion/27flu.html

A complete copy of the whole article:
Two More New Yorkers With Swine Flu Die
Evan Abramson for The New York Times

The most important information from this article is a list of pre-cond
"While the ailments that may have made the four New Yorkers who died
more vulnerable to the flu have not been identified, federal and city
health officials have released a list of conditions that increase the
risk from flu. They include being older than 65 or younger than 2;
respiratory ailments like asthma or emphysema; a weakened immune
system because of pregnancy, diabetes or immune-suppressing drugs like
steroids; tuberculosis; heart disease; kidney disease; and morbid
obesity."

A waiting area at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn was converted
to a flu clinic, which was filled with patients who were awaiting
evaluation on Tuesday.

* Sign in to Recommend
* Sign In to E-Mail
* Print
* Reprints
* ShareClose
o Linkedin
o Digg
o Facebook
o Mixx
o MySpace
o Yahoo! Buzz
o Permalink
o

Article Tools Sponsored By
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Published: May 26, 2009

Two more New Yorkers have died with confirmed cases of swine flu, the
city's health commissioner said on Tuesday, bringing the city's total
number of deaths related to the virus to four. Emergency room visits
and hospitalizations also continued to rise.
Skip to next paragraph
Related
Times Topics: Swine Flu (AH1N1 Virus)
Readers' Opinions
Comment Post a Comment on City Room

The commissioner, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, said the two latest
casualties, a 41-year-old woman in Queens and a 34-year-old man in
Brooklyn, were linked to the H1N1 virus by lab tests completed on
Monday and Tuesday. Both patients had underlying health conditions
that put them more at risk, he said. He added that he could not say
officially whether the flu had caused their deaths until autopsies
were finished. Both died on Friday.

Officials have cited underlying conditions as a factor in all four
deaths in the city, but they have not revealed those conditions,
citing medical confidentiality.

Five more public schools were closed on Tuesday because of suspected
swine flu cases, while more than a dozen that had been closed were
reopened.

"It's good that they're back because they were missing a lot of school
days, but in a way it's frightening," said Elizabeth Rosa, 33, a home
attendant, after seeing off her daughter, Jasilyn, 11, and son,
Kristian, 8, at the entrance of Public School 19 in Corona, Queens.
"When I kissed them goodbye I thought, 'Is it going to be O.K.? Is the
school safe?' "

Dr. Frieden, speaking at a news conference at the health department,
noted that both patients who died were relatively young. Health
officials have said that there is some evidence that people born
before 1957 may have been exposed to a similar virus and may have some
immunity to the novel strain of flu that is circulating.

Hospitals that normally get about 200 visits to the emergency room
each day are getting 2,000 per day, he said, and more than 25,000
people have gone to emergency rooms over the past month. The numbers
are highest in Queens, but are increasing in Brooklyn and, to a lesser
extent, in the Bronx and Manhattan.

Over the last five days, he said, 20 to 25 people a day have been
hospitalized with the flu. Before the weekend, the city had recorded
only 57 hospitalizations for flu during the entire preceding 30 days.

Dr. Frieden said the numbers of emergency room visits have been rising
over the past week, perhaps driven by the publicity surrounding the
deaths, but also by the pervasiveness of the virus through the general
population.

To put the current situation in perspective, Dr. Frieden said that in
a regular flu season, 400,000 to 1 million New Yorkers get the flu,
and about a third of them never even realize it.

Of those who have gone to the emergency room, fewer than 1 in 50
needed to be admitted to the hospital, Dr. Frieden said. "The vast
majority of people going to the hospital emergency department probably
shouldn't be going," Dr. Frieden said. Similarly, he said, a spot
check of schools with high absenteeism showed that two-thirds of the
children who were kept home were not sick.

The pressure on emergency rooms could be seen on Tuesday at Maimonides
Medical Center in Brooklyn, where many sick parents came in with sick
children. The hospital created a flu clinic in an area that usually
accommodates patients who have been admitted and are waiting for a
bed. It was filled on Tuesday with people in masks being evaluated for
flu.

Last year in May, the Maimonides emergency room saw an average of 263
patients a day. On Monday, emergency room doctors saw 480 patients.

"The consensus among these physicians," said Dr. Steven J. Davidson,
the chairman of the hospital's emergency medicine department, "is that
the influenza is mild but the patients are unusually scared."

While the ailments that may have made the four New Yorkers who died
more vulnerable to the flu have not been identified, federal and city
health officials have released a list of conditions that increase the
risk from flu. They include being older than 65 or younger than 2;
respiratory ailments like asthma or emphysema; a weakened immune
system because of pregnancy, diabetes or immune-suppressing drugs like
steroids; tuberculosis; heart disease; kidney disease; and morbid
obesity.

With reports of new flu cases tapering off around the country — except
in New York, New Jersey and New England — federal health officials
said on Tuesday that they would concentrate on tracking the swine
flu's progress in the Southern Hemisphere and preparing for a surge of
cases in the fall.

Outside of the Northeast, reports of people with flu symptoms who
visited doctors and hospitals dropped to normal levels for late May,
said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of immunization and respiratory
disease for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Although Dr. Schuchat would not say that the flu had peaked for the
season, she said the country was "at a transition point" and officials
would look ahead to the next season, which usually begins in November.

Since the flu was identified in New York in late April, the city has
closed 42 schools in 31 buildings, Dr. Frieden said. Schools have
generally been closed for five days.

Since then, 25 have reopened, including about 20 on Tuesday. Most of
the newly reopened schools had more than 85 percent attendance on
Tuesday, although more than a quarter of the students at Public School
35 in Hollis, Queens, were absent. The handful of schools that
reopened on Friday also appeared to have resumed normal routines, with
more than 90 percent in attendance, according to the Department of
Education's Web site.

A spokeswoman for the department, Marge Feinberg, said that the
overall attendance rate in the city was 82 percent on Tuesday,
compared with 87 percent on May 4, before the flu had struck many
students. The attendance rate in Queens was 82.6 percent on Tuesday,
compared with 88.5 percent at the beginning of May.

Five additional schools are to be closed on Wednesday until Monday:
Q811, a special education program at P.S. 822 in St. Albans, Queens;
P.S. 231, a special education school inside P.S. 180 in Bensonhurst,
Brooklyn (the rest of the building is open); P.S. 369 in Boerum Hill,
Brooklyn (only the special education part of the building); P.S. 68 in
Wakefield, the Bronx; and the Audubon School (P.S. 128) in Washington
Heights.

Reporting was contributed by Ann Farmer, Donald G. McNeil Jr.,
Jennifer Medina and Mathew R. Warren.

Australia is a good test ground for Swine Flu

The reason is that many had escaped surveillance at Australian
Airports thinking that it is just like normal flu, contrary to what
the 13th UK victim had mentioned. Before taking Tamilflu it was bad
but after taking Tamilflu the symptoms almost disappear instantly.

A lot of Australians are confused by the severity of Swine Flu of
before taking Tamilflu and after Tamilflu.

Experts appear to be convinced that what made Spanish Flu of 1918 very
fatal in the winter was a genetic mutation but there is no proof of
this. Evidence clearly points out the effect of weather of the Case
Fatality Rate of Spanish Flu.

A better theory is that Spanish Flu does not thrive well in warm
weather because of lots of sunlight reducing the amount of exposure to
flu virus for each person.

Another theory is that in the cold, our body has less resistance to
flu virus. This is more feasible because the current Swine Flu is only
fatal against those that have immune systems that are compromised
regardless of age, except those older than 50.

The low fatality rate of Spanish Flu in 1918 in summer could be due to
this reason as well. Those who died in summer of 1918 should be
checked in order to verify this theory.

In winter, with poor heating and living at below normal summer
temperature of 15 degree Celsium, our bodies are less resistant to flu
virus. Examples are the Eskomoes where fatality rate reach 80% in
winter. Not sure about Summer though.

Swine flu containment critical

Tony Eastley reported this story on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 08:12:00
Listen to MP3 of this story ( minutes)

Alternate WMA version | MP3 download

Professor Anne Kelso, the director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for
Influenza in Melbourne, advises the Commonwealth's chief medical
officer. She tells AM that while the swine flu has not killed any
Australians, containment of the spread is still very important. She
says it is possible the virus will mutate and after this Australian
winter, there will still be a danger from the Northern Hemisphere
winter.

TONY EASTLEY: Professor Anne Kelso is the director of the WHO
Collaborating Centre for Influenza in Melbourne. She advises the
Commonwealth's chief medical officer.

Professor, good morning.

Every day more cases of the virus are turning up on planes and on
ships. Is it too late to try and contain this virus now?

ANNE KELSO: Well, Tony I think it, the cat is out of the bag in some
ways of course. Clearly the virus is here and it's spreading to some
extent in our community but there's still value, I think, to be had in
attempting to slow down that spread and there are a couple of reasons
for that.

The first is that it gives the community more time to prepare and
secondly, it gives us more time to develop a vaccine.

It is going to take some months for vaccine to be available but the
more that we can slow down the spread of the virus in the community,
the more people who can benefit from that work.

TONY EASTLEY: Now the virus hasn't killed anyone here yet and people
who have it appear to have only mild symptoms. Why should we be more
alarmed about this H1N1 virus compared to the normal influenza that
does kill people each year?

ANNE KELSO: Well of course, there have been very few cases in
Australia so far and in other countries where there has been more
extensive spread, particularly in the US, it's clear that there have
been a number of deaths.

But you are right that the number of deaths is still low compared with
the numbers we might see in a normal flu season.

One important difference is that the people who have died with
illnesses associated with this virus have been relatively young. We
are used to seeing it mostly being elderly people who are killed by
influenza during the winter season but it is much younger people who
are being killed by this virus.

They are people who have other underlying health conditions that must
be exacerbating their ability to fight the virus so I think as we see
more cases here, of course, there is a risk that people in that
category in our own community will also have much more serious
illness.

TONY EASTLEY: Professor Kelso, is there also a possibility that this
flu will somehow mutate in Australia?

ANNE KELSO: We certainly are concerned about that because as the
conditions become more suitable for the spread of flu in winter here,
then if there is wide-spread circulation of this virus then inevitably
it will mutate.

What we won't know of course, until it happens is whether those
mutations will make the virus worse or better so that we simply have
to wait and see.

TONY EASTLEY: Will it more likely mutate in the next northern winter
because that was the worst fear?

ANNE KELSO: I think that the longer it spreads, the greater the chance
of mutation and so the first concern is our Southern Hemisphere
winter. If we get through that without too many difficulties, then
yes, the next concern will be the Northern Hemisphere winter.

TONY EASTLEY: At present, people with the disease are being treated
with antivirals and I think you said you have around nine-million
doses in stock in Australia. Are the antivirals reducing the period
that people are suffering from and could transmit this H1N1 virus?

ANNE KELSO: Well, certainly if the antivirals are used early enough
then they do limit the disease. It is harder to say that it reduces
the transmission of the virus, there is much less evidence for that,
but there is certainly strong evidence that it reduces the disease and
therefore helps people to recover more quickly and of course, part of
the reason to use antivirals is to limit the illness in the people who
have the virus.

TONY EASTLEY: So if I got this flu this morning while I am talking to
you, let's say, would I survive with antivirals?

ANNE KELSO: Well, I hope so Tony. I believe you're young and healthy
and therefore have a very good chance of fighting the virus but there
may be many people in the community who have other diseases, heart
disease, diabetes, other sorts of conditions that make it more
difficult for them to fight the virus.

TONY EASTLEY: And if someone gets the virus here and now, does it
somehow give them immunity down the track somewhere?

ANNE KELSO: Well, certainly being infected with an influenza virus
does give you immunity to that influenza virus. If this virus mutates
rapidly and deviates, diverges a lot from the virus that is currently
circulating then that immunity would be less protective.

TONY EASTLEY: Right and if it was to mutate, does any immunity I have
now, would that be lost against a more virulent and deadly strain?

ANNE KELSO: It is a question of time really. I think that if it
mutated soon but was still pretty similar to the current virus, then
the immunity that you had from a current infection would be
protective.

Unfortunately from what we know so far, immunity due to infection with
previous seasonal influenza viruses probably isn't very protective.

TONY EASTLEY: Professor Anne Kelso, the director of the WHO
Collaborating Centre for Influenza in Melbourne, who also advises the
Commonwealth's chief medical officer.

US considers itself lucky to have Swine Flu

The journalist believe that it is just a joke but deep down it is the
feeling of the entire nation of USA.

For the victims of Swine Flu fatality, it is indeed very tragic.
We expect to see more fatality in USA with this kind of attitude and
facts prove it very clearly. The fatality rate of Swine flu in USA is
much higher than Mexico NOW.

Swine flu victim's wife rips Mayor Bloomberg over 'lucky' gaffe

BY Erin Einhorn, Sam Goldsmith and Nicole Bode
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Monday, May 25th 2009, 9:57 PM
Smith for News

Mayor Bloomberg is taking heat for comments he made about the swine
flu.
Take our Poll
Mayor's swine flu comments

Were you offended by Mayor Bloomberg's comments about the swine flu?

Yes. He was completely insensitive to those who have lost loved ones
to the swine flu.

No. He was just telling the truth.
Related News
Articles

* Second New Yorker dies from swine flu
* Widow and family of first swine flu death in NYC mourns
* Economy, not swine flu, sends chill thru tourism
* NYC health chief Frieden: No silver bullet for swine flu
* Swine flu outcry: classes nearly empty, but school still open at
P.S. 12
* Wiener's son throws no-hitter for swine flu victim

Lucky? The widow of the city's first swine flu victim blasted Mayor
Bloomberg for saying New Yorkers should "consider yourself lucky" to
get the virus.

"I'm not feeling very lucky. I'm sorry I can't agree with that," said
Bonnie Wiener, whose husband, Assistant Principal Mitchell Wiener,
died last week.

"My children are not feeling very lucky either," the widow added.
"It's a very puzzling comment to make."

Bloomberg made the awkward remark a day after the city suffered its
second swine flu death.

"In some senses, if you have H1N1 [virus], you should consider
yourself lucky because it so far seems to be a milder flu than the
garden variety," Bloomberg said Monday.

The mayor quickly explained that he wasn't downplaying the deaths.

"It's very sad that those that we've lost are gone, but the good news
is that so far it does seem to be a relatively mild flu."

Mitchell Wiener died from swine flu last week, followed by a Queens
woman in her 50s with an underlying health issue, the city's Health
Department revealed Sunday.

Bloomberg refused Monday to identify the city's second victim "out of
respect for the family." He said she did not work in the schools.

His decision to stay silent on her identity also rankled Wiener's
widow.

"When my husband died it was on the media before they called to tell
me," said Bonnie Wiener, a teacher at Intermediate School 238, where
her husband also worked.

She added she hoped the latest victim's family has "a strong support
system like I do."

"You're going to be angry," she said. "It's 2009 - who dies from the
flu anymore?"

The number of confirmed cases of swine flu in the city jumped by 50 -
up to 330 cases from 280 the day before, Health Department spokeswoman
Jessica Scaperotti said.

A Chicago-area resident died of swine flu, the first death in Illinois
and the 12th nationally, from the illness.

Authorities in Mexico, where the swine flu outbreak started, announced
three more deaths, raising its total to 83. Canada reported its second
death.

The continuing outbreak was worrisome for parents at 20 city schools
slated to reopen Tuesday.

"We don't know if the outbreak is gone," said Khemraj Ramnauth, whose
daughter Yanera attends IS 238. "It's very nerve-racking."

Others said they were ready to head back.

"Flu is a thing that comes and goes. It's not like a plague," said dad
Rahman Ali, 57.

nbode@nydailynews.com

With Benjamin Peim

Read more: "Swine flu victim's wife rips Mayor Bloomberg over 'lucky'
gaffe" - http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/05/25/2009-05-25_widow_raps_bloombergs_swine_flu_gaffe.html#ixzz0GaoMENJp&A

better foolish than dead

Examples are plenty of people who are not scared and resulted in the
loss of their lives. The Tsunami and SARS epidemic.

If they had been extra careful, lives would have been saved.

It may come to a case where too careful will also cause deaths as the
case of the false tsunami at Kota Kinabalu that killed two elderly
women.

SARS is treated as a false alarm in quoted article, but it led to
large losses of lives because people were too careless initially. Once
people panic and initiate the correct response to this disease, its
fatality rate had gone down completely to much less than normal flu
that keep on killing millions every year.

SARS is much more deadly than normal flu, but how could it be possible
that SARS kill less than normal flu? The simple answer is because
people treat normal flu lightly because of its low fatality rate,
whereas the much higher fatality rate of SARS made people more
careful.

Swine flu is not as fatal as SARS or Bird Flu but it is up to 4 times
more deadly than normal flu, killing people in the ages 5-50 that
normally will not die due to normal flu, despite their illnessess,
such as pregnancy(?).

If you treat Swine Flu as you treat normal flu, it will cause more
unnecessary deaths and sufferings. Worse, it is more infectios than
normal flu and even Spanish Flu of 1918. Untreated and monitored, its
fatality rate is worse than Spanish Flu so just imagine the havoc that
it can create in developing nations. This current Swine Flu is bad
because it appears to be infections even in warm weather compared to
normal flu and even Spanish Flu.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-swine-flu24-2009may24,0,5538525.story

Twitter trackers follow public reaction to swine flu
A survey on the micro-blogging site offers a rare look into people's
thinking during a potentially dangerous outbreak. The quick drop-off
in interest troubles researchers.
By Rebecca Cole
May 24, 2009
Reporting from Washington -- As two Stanford University researchers
described their experience watching public reactions in the initial
days of the swine flu outbreak, it sounded like one of those nature
films in which tiny fish dart back and forth in perfect unison.

The researchers were tracking thousands of Twitter posts pouring into
an Internet site. With every twist and turn of the flu reports, the
researchers noticed, the mass of tweets swung this way and that as if
they were one, even though most of the individual Twitterers had no
contact with one another outside of the website.

It was a rare window into the public psyche amid an explosion of
information about a potentially dangerous disease outbreak.

The researchers -- James Holland Jones, an associate professor of
anthropology, and Marcel Salathe, a biologist -- had devised an online
survey to gauge people's anxiety about the H1N1 virus as it unfolded.

Posted early in the outbreak, the survey generated about 8,000
responses in a matter of days, but as doomsday predictions did not
come to pass, responses dropped off -- a development that worried
Jones.

"Swine flu is still out there and will be back next flu season," he
said. "We've dodged the pandemic for now, but I think it's a very open
question whether we have really dodged it."

The shifting reactions to H1N1 suggested that as the country has
become more wired, people may move from indifference to anxiety and
back in the blink of an eye.

After flu cases in Mexico soared at the end of April, U.S. government
officials took to the airwaves, declaring a public health emergency as
the World Health Organization raised the global threat level to5 --
the second-most severe.

With little known about the virus, people's reactions were immediate:
Travel to Mexico fell dramatically, pork-belly futures collapsed, and
protective masks flew off the shelves. Mexico City virtually shut down
-- closing gyms, restaurants, movie theaters and other nonessential
businesses -- costing the already teetering economy $2.2 billion in 10
days, according to the nation's finance secretary.

But as the number of deaths in Mexico attributed to the disease
plateaued at about 60 -- and as widespread U.S. fatalities failed to
materialize -- the media coverage backed off, causing public interest
to flag and some experts to fear that the early warnings may make it
harder to get the public's attention in the future.

"We've cried wolf one too many times here," said Michael Osterholm,
director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at
the University of Minnesota.

"I actually think this situation has set us back. It really is two
strikes, and now we're almost out," he said, referring to initial
panic and then loss of interest in recent outbreaks such as SARS and
avian flu.

More than 4 in 10 people followed news about the H1N1 outbreak very
closely, according to a Pew Research Center survey. Even in a week
filled with news of President Obama's first 100 days in office and
Chrysler filing for bankruptcy, attention to news of the swine flu was
so great, Pew found, that it became one of the top stories of the year
to date.

Osterholm said the media had to be a crucial part of how health and
government officials communicate during such an event. "We need to
take a step back and see what we can learn from it -- how we should do
it in the future," he said.

Initial public reaction to H1N1 was way out of proportion to the
magnitude of the disease, said Richard Thaler, professor of behavioral
science and economics at the University of Chicago.

"Psychologists say we have two brain systems, the old and the new,"
Thaler said. "The old one is fast and emotional. When we react by
jumping in response to a snake, that's old. The new one is analytic.
But often we don't get past the first emotional system."

The country is a bit on edge, Thaler said, and people on edge are less
likely to react in a rational way. "It's hard to imagine a time when
so much was going [on] on so many different fronts," he said.

He added that the Internet "is bad enough," but that the "velocity of
rumor and gossip" had increased exponentially with Twitter.

Dan Ariely, author of "Predictably Irrational," invokes the concept of
learned helplessness to describe how people behave when conditioned by
a series of seemingly random, harmful events.

"When we have all these unexplained shocks, we just do what we're
told," said Ariely, a professor of behavioral economics at MIT.

When people don't know how much risk to take in stressful situations,
Ariely said, they look around to see what others are doing. But "if
other people are doing foolish things," he said, many times "we do it
too."

Swine flu easily immune to Tamilflu

Read the whole article in order to find out. It is not my idea but
ideas from professional scientists dedicated to this field but even
they can be wrong. Keep our mind, eyes, ears and noses open all the
time.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1186913/Tamiflu-work-swine-flu-Governments-scientists-warn.html

Mail Online
news

* Home
* News
* Sport
* TV&Showbiz
* Femail
* Health
* Science&Tech
* Money
* Debate
* Coffee Break
* Property
* Motoring
* Travel

* News Home
* World news
* Headlines
* Pictures
* Most read
* News Board

* Horoscopes
* My Stories
* Logout
* Login

Find a Job Dating Wine E-Editions Feedback
Sunday, May 24 2009 This Morning 10°C This Afternoon 21°C 5-Day
Forecast
Tamiflu might not work against swine flu, Government's own scientists
warn

By David Rose
Last updated at 10:45 PM on 23rd May 2009

* Comments (0)
* Add to My Stories

Swine flu could soon become resistant to Tamiflu, the drug being
stockpiled to fight it, say Government scientists.

A strain of seasonal flu closely related to the swine virus has
already mutated so that Tamiflu is virtually useless against it.

But the Government is spending more than £100million to bring
Britain's stockpile of Tamiflu up to 50million doses – enough for 80
per cent of the population.

swine flu

Stockpile: But swine flu could soon mutate to become resistant to
Tamiflu

Dr Steve Gamblin, the joint head of molecular structure at the
National Institute for Medical Research, told The Mail on Sunday that
the mutation renders Tamiflu about 250 times less effective than it
should be.

'Our research suggests that if Tamiflu is used extensively, mutant
swine flu viruses that are resistant to the drug may well arise,' said
Dr Gamblin.

'Instead of relying on Tamiflu alone, it would be better to use a
cocktail of Tamiflu and Relenza,' – another anti-viral drug to which,
so far, flu viruses have not developed resistance.

However, the Government has stockpiled only about ten million doses of
Relenza and it is more difficult to take. While Tamiflu can be
swallowed as a pill at home, Relenza is a powder that must be
administered with an inhaler, normally under medical supervision.

The NIMR in Mill Hill, North London, is one of four World Health
Organisation centres spearheading research into developing a swine flu
vaccine. But a Health Department spokesman admitted that this is
unlikely to be available in large quantities until the end of
December. If swine flu starts to spread rapidly during the autumn,
Tamiflu and Relenza will be the only lines of defence.

Because swine flu is a new strain no one has inbuilt immunity, which
increases the risk of a pandemic. Two more cases were confirmed in
Britain yesterday, bringing the total to 122.

Dr John McCauley, one of three flu research directors at the NIMR,
said the timing of the start of the annual flu season will be
critical. He said that in 1918, when a pandemic killed more than
50million worldwide, the virus responsible first appeared in the
northern hemisphere in spring, just as swine flu has, then
'disappeared' for the summer.

In recent years, seasonal flu has not started to spread widely until
December or January. But in 1918, the virus re-emerged in September.

'If swine flu comes back in December, it probably won't be too bad,'
said Dr McCauley. 'Much earlier, and we could be in trouble.'

So far, research suggests that swine flu is not exceptionally
virulent. According to the WHO, it is likely to kill about 0.4 per
cent of those who get it.

However, if it did quickly infect millions of people, the death toll
would be substantial, while the strain on the health service and the
wider economy would be immense.

Both swine flu and the Tamiflu-resistant seasonal flu are descendants
of the 1918 pandemic virus, and are classified as H1N1 viruses because
of the distinctive proteins that form their coating.

Tamiflu works by attacking the N1 protein. If taken early, it ensures
that symptoms are mild and reduces the chance of a victim giving the
illness to someone else. But according to Dr Gamblin, it takes only a
'point mutation' – a change to a single amino acid in a virus's DNA –
to render Tamiflu ineffective.

By the winter of 2007-08, he and his colleagues had identified this
problem, while their hopes that the mutation would also make the virus
weaker were later dashed. Worse, the mutation appeared to be an
inherent characteristic of the N1 virus protein, making it likely that
other strains – such as swine flu – would in time undergo it.

The laws of natural selection mean that if swine flu does mutate, the
new strain would quickly become dominant , Dr Gamblin added.

Share this article:

* Digg it
* Del.icio.us
* Reddit
* Newsvine
* Nowpublic
* StumbleUpon
* Facebook
* MySpace
* Fark

Add your comments
Comments (0)

No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send
us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards.

* Newest
* Oldest
* Best rated
* Worst rated

View all

Click to rate Rating

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and
do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.
Add your comment

Please provide your full name
Name:

Please enter a valid email address
Email:

Please provide your Town and Country
Town & Country:

Please enter a comment
Your comments:
Make text area bigger You have 1000 characters left.
Remember me - this will save you having to type out your name,
location and email address when you next leave a comment.
Terms & conditions Clear Submit Content
Ads By Google

Banking NewsFinancial & Banking News -Register today for a free trial!
www.eFinancialNews.com
Soccer News SearchSearch through hundreds of footballstories updated
every 5 minutes.www.veryquiet.com
Find UK Online NewspapersThe Paperboy UK connects you to allBritain's
best online newspapers.www.thepaperboy.com/uk/
Enter search term: Search Advanced Search

FEMAIL TODAY

* Peter Andre reunited with his children...as Katie Price's car is
spotted at hunk's stables Hugs for Junior and Princess Tiaamii
* How Heartbeat star Jason Durr and his partner met the mother of
their twins in an LA Starbucks car park Couple's heartrending quest
for baby
* Tragic Spider-Man 3 actress Lucy Gordon was 'so in love' Starlet
revealed feelings for much older boyfriend just before committing
suicide
* Can Susan Boyle live up to the hype? Britain's Got Talent semi-
finalists are revealed Scottish spinster returns to stage in front of
millions of people
* The words that helped me survive the death of my beloved John
Thaw, by SHEILA HANCOCK Actress reveals how poetry helped her through
her darkest days
* Lampard buys £2.8m home in Chelsea for Elen Rives She moves from
rented flat to six-bedroom townhouse overlooking Chelsea Harbour
* It's based on Third World rations and has been called 'organised
starvation'. So how safe is the LighterLife diet? Jackie Llewelyn-
Bowen lost five stone on diet
* Into battle with warrior woman: A tribute to the feisty,
fabulous new breed of women Fearless campaigner Joanna Lumley leads
the charge,
* Did M&S pay you to wear that dress Myleene? Klass is an advert
for store as she jets off TV host travelled in a very familiar outfit
* Just 13 days after giving birth Robbie Keane's wife Claudine
slips into a skin-tight dress WAG gets amazingly slim figure back
* Teenage motherhood: 'Sefi is the best mistake I ever made'
Novelist TILLY BAGSHAWE on her very special relationship with her
daughter
* Is that really Peaches and Pixie? The Geldof girls go for
glamour at Cannes Peaches and Pixie look stunning at D&G party
* 'I've got it all and I love my life - but I sometimes think I'm
never going to be happy' Simon Cowell reveals all about his lonely
single life and his dark moods
* Marina Berlusconi lets her hair down at club launch Italian
President Silvio Berlusconi's daughter in raunchy dance routine

Events Offers
Today's headlines Most Read
Today's headlines Most Read

* Mole who blew whistle on MP expenses is a 'swashbuckler' with a
£7million trail of debt
* Cameron orders 'thieving toad' aide to resign... and pressure
mounts for Andrew MacKay's MP wife to quit too
* Head to the polls on June 4 but don't vote for the BNP, plead
Archbishops
* Britain's oldest mother had IVF 20 years ago
* Palace security breach as reporters in disguise are shown
Queen's cars by royal chauffeur
* Boy, 13, arrested in connection with stabbing of talented young
footballer
* Brown's candidate for Speaker is right wing turncoat hated by
many Tory MPs
* 'We are all over the moon': Family tell of their joy at first UK
sextuplets for 25 years
* 'Maddie paedophile' has been under investigation for four months
* Navy warships dispatched as Spanish invade seas around Gibraltar
* Now drinkers must wait in 'post office-style' queues at their
local pub
* Where did it all go? Sir John Harvey-Jones leaves just £30,000
in his will
* Sheer lumenacy: EU to replace watts with continental 'lumens'
* Tamiflu might not work against swine flu, Government's own
scientists warn
* Furious Albanians give nul points to 'insulting' Norton
* Brace yourselves: Sunday is due to be the hottest day of the
year so far
* Returned after 64 years... the harrowing Stalag scrapbook of a
British prisoner of war
* William, nine, tells BBC: Stop Robin Hood's snogging
* Arsenal striker Andrey Arshavin demands huge pay rise ...
because taxman takes half his £80k a week
* Al Fayed fails to gag crucial Diana witness
* It's a fair copter! Millionaire businessman pursues thief for 2
hours ... from his helicopter
* F1 acceleration, no suspension and a nasty habit of flipping
over on corners ... Ben-Hur's chariots are coming to Britain
* Son secretly remortgaged parents' house to splurge £55,000 on a
flat, car, clothes and restaurants
* South Korea former President Roh Moo-Hyun plunges to death in
suspected suicide
* Heatstroke soldier whose death led to landmark human rights
ruling 'passed out sunbathing'
* Return cash by the time you're 120: Jobless mother gets 81yrs to
repay £60,000 benefit fraud
* Christian fears for NHS hospital job after refusing to remove
her crucifix
* MORE HEADLINES

* Asbo disgrace of Mandy Allwood - the woman who lost her eight
babies
* Navy warships dispatched as Spanish invade seas around Gibraltar
* Labour MP spent £2,575 staying in 'riot of gold, marble and
silk' hotel with girlfriend
* A very Scarlett lady: Sexual adventuress Vivien Leigh and one
shocking secret about leading man Clark Gable
* McCanns urge 'seriously ill' paedophile to co-operate with the
Madeleine investigation
* The real-life Rapunzel: The moral of Millie's grim tale is,
don't chew your hair
* Special investigation: The streets where Alfie, 13, grew up
offer a disturbing glimpse of the moral anarchy engulfing Britain
* Pictured: Like a scene from Snatch - 'pre-arranged' bare-knuckle
fight at country horse fair
* Mother gave birth to six babies in just five minutes by
Caesarean section
* How BNP 'backers' are really foreign actors and models
* Mother killed son, 3, TWICE in shock U.S. crime
* Now disgraced Tory MP Andrew MacKay's politician wife admits her
brother stays at taxpayer-funded home
* Bonnie and Clyde: How a pair of two-bit crooks became the
world's most famous gangsters
* The real Inglourious Basterds: Why Britain's secret Jewish
commandos were far more heroic than the Nazi scalpers in Tarantino's
new film
* Mother celebrating her 50th dies after eating oysters for
birthday meal at Quaglino's
* MPs' expenses whistleblower: 'I wanted to expose the system to
its rotten core'
* 4x4 backlash: Owners of 100 Chelsea Tractors find their tyres
slashed by environmental activists
* In chains, the 14-year-old boy accused of killing his 'abusive'
father with a single shot to the head
* David Southall branded 'truly shocking' by judge as he loses
High Court case
* BT forces up its bills for some pensioners by 35%
* Strewth! There's a wallaby at the bottom of our garden (in
deepest, darkest Cornwall)
* Brace yourselves: Sunday is due to be the hottest day of the
year so far
* Return cash by the time you're 120: Jobless mother gets 81yrs to
repay £60,000 benefit fraud
* CE+CI+CS+VCxC=PC: The formula a female police chief constable
devised to win back public confidence
* MOST READ IN DETAIL

MONEY EXTRA:

*

What next for the stock market?
*

What next for the pound?
*

New look This Is Money
*

What next for house prices?

EDITOR'S SIX OF THE BEST

*

VINCE CABLE: Why I couldn't face life in the Speaker's chair
*

PETER HITCHENS: The last thing we need now is an election... not
with the next Hazel Blears and Geoff Hoon lurking on the Tory benches
*

LIZ JONES: No cleansing, plucking, exfoliating, toning, French
manicuring for Susan!
*

F1 acceleration, no suspension and a nasty habit of flipping
over: ROBERT HARDMAN goes for a spin in a chariot as Ben-Hur hits
Britain
*

Strewth! There's a wallaby at the bottom of our garden (in
deepest, darkest Cornwall)
*

The elephant whisperer: How re-homing a violent herd was the
start of a unique relationship

Ads By Google

"25 Pounds in 2 Weeks"Amazing African Weight-Loss Secret.As Seen on
CNN & Dr. Oz.www.AppliedNutritionalResearch.com
Orangutan VolunteeringExperience The Sumatran Rainforest2 Weeks With
Local Research Projectwww.expeditionjungle.com
Volunteer in ThailandEthical and affordable wildlifeopportunities in
Thailandwww.globalteer.org

Find this story at www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1186913/Tamiflu-work-swine-flu-Governments-scientists-warn.html

Why more deaths in USA compared to Mexico

Since April 23, Mexico only suffers 8 deaths while USA now suffers 10
deaths.

Does it mean that USA health control is worse than Mexico?

USA certainly suffer from more infections. Its populations seem to
think that this Swine Flu is just like normal flu despite all the
evidences so far, while Mexico is so scared of it because of the early
deaths that they take extra cautions.

Either way, it seems likely that USA is handling this pandemic very
lightly and therefore suffer from the worst deaths. Hopefully
countries in the southern hemisphere, are not as careless as USA.

One explanation could be that USA is still suffering from cold weather
compared to Mexico but the increase in the number of Swine Flu cases
and deaths, does not make it less virulent than Spanish Flu in 1918.
In 1918, the number of deaths dropped dramatically in summer.

Either way, the southern hemisphere must be better prepared. The
example set by Australia should be followed.

http://www.bet.com/NR/exeres/77BFA068-6C7C-4EF6-A8F7-98B1562A181B.htm??Referrer={0471DDF0-D0D8-48A8-9E30-ADD40CBE0269

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=957105&lang=eng_news&cate_img=316.jpg&cate_rss=news_Health

Mexico reports 2 more swine flu deaths; toll at 80
Associated Press
2009-05-23 07:10 AM
Fonts Size: A+
E-Mail This Email
Printer-Friendly Printer
Mexico is reporting two more deaths from swine flu, bringing the
country's toll to 80.

The Health Department says tests have confirmed 166 more cases _
including the deaths _ for a total of 4,174 nationwide.

Mexico says its epidemic has largely subsided, but the confirmed toll
has been rising as scientists test a backlog of samples from patients.

Only eight of the 80 dead developed symptoms after April 23, when the
presence of swine flu was confirmed in the country and emergency
measures were announced.

The department announced the new toll in a statement Friday.

Excellent advice to officials: Treat victims as adults to reduce panic

I have a bad feeling that US officials and doctors are telling lies to
the US public with their conflicting stories. They sound like those
Chinese officials who try to cover up their mistakes, all in the name
of "preventing" panic.

Telling lies that this Swine flu is just like Normal flu is not going
to help control the current pandemic which is 3-4 times more fatal
than normal flu although it targets only pregnant, asthmatic, gout
(those on medications), obese( probably on some high blood pressure or
heart medications) and those with heart problems.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v459/n7245/full/459322a.html

Pandemics: good hygiene is not enough

Peter M. Sandman1

1. Peter M. Sandman is a risk-communication consultant, 59
Ridgeview Road, Princeton, New Jersey 08540-7601, USA.
Email: peter@psandman.com

Top of page
Abstract

The US government is doing well to communicate uncertainty over swine
flu. It must also help the public to visualize what a bad pandemic
might be like, says Peter M. Sandman.
Pandemics: good hygiene is not enough

R. LARSEN/THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS/AP

Hygiene is useful, but getting ready for a pandemic also requires
stocking up on key supplies.

By the time you read this, the outbreak of H1N1 'swine flu' may no
longer seem to be a worldwide threat and the disease may have receded
from the headlines. As the initial fuss dies down, public-health
experts will remain on high alert, but the media and public will move
on to something else, muttering about fear-mongering.

And whatever the situation is like now, it won't be the end of the
story. A mutated virus (more virulent or transmissible or resistant to
drugs) could appear a few months later.

As a risk-communication professional, I have been watching the US
government walk a tightrope between over-reassurance and over-alarm
about a swine-flu outbreak that could easily turn out to be
devastating, relatively mild or anywhere in between. The United States
hasn't issued false reassurances that they will keep the pandemic from
'our' shores — a temptation to which dozens of governments have
succumbed. Here I will show what else I think the country is doing
right — and wrong.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is doing a
superb job of explaining the current situation and how uncertain it
is. The reiteration of uncertainty and what that means — advice may
change; local strategies may differ — has been unprecedentedly good.

The CDC's biggest failure is in not doing enough to help people
visualize what a bad pandemic might be like so they can understand and
start preparing for the worst.

For the ordinary citizen, the US government has so far recommended
only hygiene. It has told people to stay at home if they are sick and
to wash their hands. It hasn't told people to stock up on food, water,
prescription medicines or other key supplies. Two years ago in
response to 'bird flu' worries, Mike Leavitt, the then US secretary of
health and human services (HHS), was criss-crossing the country with
that advice (http://www.pandemicflu.gov). Today, CDC officials won't
say whether it is still good advice. It is.

Why are officials so wary of describing the worst case vividly and
urging people to prepare for that?

Richard Besser, the acting director of the CDC, isn't understating the
risk. He says he is "very concerned", but expresses his concern with a
soothing bedside manner. He doesn't have that rumpled, exhausted
emergency-manager look that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Harold
Denton perfected in the 1979 Three Mile Island crisis. Denton left
people feeling that the risk was serious and that they were in good
hands. Besser says it is serious but leaves us feeling that he doesn't
want us to worry much.

Still, I don't fault Besser for looking and sounding reassuring. Good
crisis communication means saying alarming things in a calm tone, and
he is doing exactly that.

The problem is that he isn't giving us anything to do except being
hygienic. He keeps telling us, accurately, that the CDC is being
aggressive in its response to the outbreak. But he is not asking the
public to take further action. He needs to urge citizens, schools,
hospitals and local governments to follow Leavitt's advice.

Instead, we have a surreal situation in which the federal government
has released one-quarter of the Strategic National Stockpile of
antiviral drugs, so there will be enough oseltamivir (Tamiflu) to
deploy to millions of sick Americans. But it hasn't yet asked those
Americans to stock up on tinned fruit and peanut butter.

We've been here before. In 2005, the pandemic influenza threat came
from avian H5N1. The CDC and HHS were similarly convinced that the
risk was serious, similarly committed to aggressive preparatory action
— that's why we have that Strategic National Stockpile — and similarly
disinclined to alarm the public. The feeling was that people had been
alarmed enough by the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks and the wars
in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that the government had exhausted its
quota of scary utterances. There is much the same feeling today about
the economic meltdown.

I was in the minority then, as I am now, urging officials to involve
the public in pandemic-preparedness efforts. In early 2005 my
recommendations fell largely on deaf ears.
Don't panic!

That summer, President George W. Bush read about the 1918 pandemic in
John Barry's The Great Influenza. Then Hurricane Katrina hit New
Orleans. The two together convinced the White House that raising
concerns about worst-case scenarios was more appropriate than
confident over-optimism. Soon the CDC and HHS were sounding the alarm
about a possible pandemic. They aroused some concern, but no panic;
they inspired some individual and community-preparedness efforts. And
then attention shifted elsewhere, until now.

Why are officials so wary of describing the worst case vividly and
urging people to prepare for that possibility? There are two reasons —
first, a fear of fear itself. Although crisis-management experts have
known for decades that panic is rare (http://tinyurl.com/ogofyw),
officials routinely expect the public to panic if told alarming
things, and misdiagnose orderly efforts to prepare as panic.

This approach nearly always backfires. Officials terrified of creating
panic make over-reassuring statements, suppress alarming information
and belittle those who are frightened as 'irrational'. Frightened
people are left alone with their fears, persuaded that their
government has betrayed them. This increases public anxiety, which
officials cannot channel into effective action because they have
already delegitimized it. During the2003 severe acute respiratory
syndrome (SARS) outbreaks, for example, the Chinese government denied
that Beijing was seeing SARS cases and SARS deaths. These false
denials led to actual panic in Beijing.
Predicting deaths

To its credit, the CDC has not made over-reassuring statements,
suppressed alarming information or belittled people's fears. For
several days before the first US swine-flu death on 29 April, Besser
predicted that there would be US deaths. That is excellent risk
communication. He has not understated how bad things were or how bad
things could get. His failure has been subtler than that: sending the
message that the CDC will do whatever it takes to protect us, and that
we need do little or nothing to protect ourselves. From the outset,
CDC messaging has aimed to keep us calm.

The second reason for the wariness of officials is a fear of being
seen to overreact. Critics are already accusing officials of over-
warning the public. And if the virus recedes and a pandemic never
materializes, these critics will consider themselves proved right — as
if the fact that your house didn't burn down this year proved the
foolishness of last year's decision to buy insurance against fire. The
only consolation I can offer officials is that many more people have
lost their jobs for failing to take a disaster seriously than for
being excessively alarmist about a possible disaster that never
happened.

The risk-communication solution to this quandary is to issue warnings
that are both scary and tentative. Public-health officials need to use
the same sound bite to say, "This could get very bad, and it is time
to prepare in case it does", and "This could fizzle out, and we'll
probably feel a bit foolish if it does".

It might help if officials had a better understanding of the
relationship between taking precautions and fear. Leaving aside the
practical benefits, there are two psychological impacts worth
describing.

First, consider the people officials are most worried about — those
who are excessively alarmed. Here is a secret of preparedness that is
easy to forget: it is calming to prepare. Having things to do gives
people a sense of control. It builds confidence, and it makes them
more able to bear their fear.

Second, there are those who are not worried, or who have already
'switched off'. Each time officials repeat practical advice, more
people take it. Some of them take it sceptically, but take it
nonetheless. Whenever someone acts, the scepticism is reduced. So
urging people to prepare can calm those whose concern is excessive and
rouse those whose concern is insufficient. It also offers the
practical benefits of putting key supplies to hand.

As Besser says, we are currently in a "pre-pandemic" phase. The World
Health Organization raised the alert level up from phase 3 to 4 on 27
April; and ratcheted it up again to phase 5 on 29 April. Phase 6 is a
full-blown pandemic.

In announcing phase 5, Margaret Chan, the WHO director-general, echoed
the CDC advice. When asked what individuals could do to protect
themselves and their families, she advised hygiene and social
distancing; wash your hands, stay home when sick, less hugging in
public. But the WHO's own guidance for phase5 emphasizes that a
pandemic is "imminent" and that the time to finalize preparations is
short. That ought to mean more action than reducing hugging.

We may stay at phase 5 for weeks or months. Or we could progress to a
full pandemic that is mild, not catastrophic, or the threat could
recede. So the key issue is what to say to the public when a pandemic
seems imminent, but no one knows how it will turn out.

Two years ago, my wife and colleague Jody Lanard and I tried to answer
that question in an online article. To aid officials we delineated 25
specific messages (see 'Things to say when a pandemic seems imminent')
and the risk-communication rationales behind them.

Fundamentally, officials need to ask themselves whether they see the
public as potential victims to be protected and reassured, like young
children, or as pandemic fighters — grown-ups — who can play an active
part in the crisis that might be ahead. The difference in tone could
save lives.

A good risk analysis of Swine flu

A lesson on probability.

"low-probability event plus a high-loss outcome = cause for concern."

A lesson of selfishness.

"A one percent chance of one hundred million deaths is, in expected
value terms, one million deaths and that is a big deal. Probably the
United States is less vulnerable than it was in 1918, but how many
people would die in China, India and many other locales? How much
disruption to trade, travel, and the world economy would take place?
Even in the United States, our public health systems would break down
quickly and render many modern medical advances useless (e.g., when
would the Tamiflu run out?)"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/the-meaning-of-swine-flu_b_205793.html

The Meaning of Swine Flu, the Universe, and Everything
digg Share this on Facebook Huffpost - stumble reddit del.ico.us
ShareThis RSS
Read More: Ban Ki Moon, Cdc, Epidemic, h1n1, Pandemic, Swine Flu,
Swine Flu Pandemic, World Health Organization, World News

Be the First to Submit
This Story to DiggBuzz up!
Get Breaking News Alerts
never spam

*
Share
*
Print
*
Comments

Wait a second. First we couldn't get away from that swine flu story,
although we were told that it had affected less than 100 people in
Mexico and only a handful here in the US. It was getting round-the-
clock high decibel coverage on all channels. Twitter, our new
electronic central nervous system, was going ballistic. Andy Borowitz
seemed to be on to something when he wrote, "CNN Warns Swine Flu Could
Continue Through Sweeps."

By May 7 the Associated Press and others were writing stories about
the overhyped flu. It seemed resolved in a lot of people's minds: Just
another overplayed media story.

But wait. Now the World Health Organization is reporting nearly ten
thousand cases of the virus worldwide, with more than half of those
occurring in the United States. "We are not out of the woods," a CDC
director said (on CNN.) 16 schools have been shut down in New York
after an assistant principal died of H1N1. Cases are "ballooning fast"
in Japan and elsewhere, says Forbes. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon
alled for international solidarity, which includes ensuring that "all
have access to drugs and vaccines."

We went from apocalypse to afterthought in about two weeks, and now
we're swinging back. It's hard to know what to think. Here's a way to
reconcile some of the different and seemingly contradictory
perspectives we've been hearing, which include:

It's no big deal. The CDC estimates that 36,000 people die each year
as the result of regular flu. Very few people have died from swine
flu, but it's all people can talk about. It's an overhyped phenomenon,
a distorted perspective caused by media sensationalism.

It's an emergency. An assistant principal dies in New York. 103
students at nearby schools develop flu-like symptoms. Then a toddler
dies in Queens. Forget the statistics: Death is a singular tragedy for
the deceased and everyone who loved them. Why take chances?

It's unlikely I'll get it. 5,000 people have it in the US. Even if
that number increases a hundredfold my chances of getting it are still
only one in six hundred. And it probably won't be worse than any other
flu.

I should take serious precautions. I should carry disinfectant and
wash my hands regularly. I should stay home if I'm not feeling well,
and should look for instructions from my local health authorities.

Let's take the last two statements first. Which is correct? The
answer, based on what we know now, is: Both. It's unlikely you'll get
it, but you should take precautions anyway. You should be taking some
precautions already to avoiding getting routine illnesses. But you
should be even more careful with swine flu.

Why? To use Homeland Security symbolism, our individual threat level
is "yellow" but our collective risk is "orange." Your chance of
getting it is low, and you don't need to be too concerned about your
own health right now unless you have other complicating conditions.
But you should be concerned about all of us. As more people get it,
the chance of pandemic increases. And a pandemic is a catastrophe. So
even though your individual risk is low, our collective risk level is
high enough that you should take precautions - for humanity's sake, if
not your own.

Concepts from risk management should help. Your risk of contracting it
is low, and the outcome if you got it probably wouldn't be severe. The
chance this could become a pandemic is also low - but the outcome
would be catastrophic. So we need to treat the possibility of pandemic
very seriously.

Tyler Cowen does a good job of summarizing the way this kind of risk
analysis should be conducted:

A one percent chance of one hundred million deaths is, in expected
value terms, one million deaths and that is a big deal. Probably the
United States is less vulnerable than it was in 1918, but how many
people would die in China, India and many other locales? How much
disruption to trade, travel, and the world economy would take place?
Even in the United States, our public health systems would break down
quickly and render many modern medical advances useless (e.g., when
would the Tamiflu run out?)"

Expected value calculations are a good way to look at problems of this
kind. And the fact that the United States is less vulnerable than it
was one hundred years ago does not mean it isn't vulnerable at all.
What's more, the deaths of millions abroad should concern us for both
selfish (e.g. economic) and altruistic reasons.

This kind of risk analysis should be standard operating procedure in
the business community. That's why it's still surprising when business-
friendly politicians strip money from the budget because they think
bad events aren't likely to happen (e.g. Bobby Jindal's mockery of
volcano monitoring, or Susan Collins' removal of flu pandemic money
from the stimulus budget). Remember: A low-probability event plus a
high-loss outcome = cause for concern.

To sum up, based on what we know today: Swine flu is not that grave a
threat to us as individuals, but it's a serious danger for all of us -
collectively. Think of it as an exercise in interconnectedness, a real-
world and scientific example of that "one world" talk we're always
getting from pop stars and movie actors.

Because we are interconnected: A farmer coughs while tending livestock
in Mexico. At lunch he shakes hands with his cousin the policeman, who
writes a ticket for a visiting tourist later that day. The tourist
goes home to Belgium, where his colleague leaves the next day to visit
his cousin the day-care worker in New York. A week later a 16-month-
old child dies in Queens.

It could have happened that way. We don't know. And washing your hands
today might save thousands of lives in Bangladesh or West Africa next
month. We don't know. But we do know that, in a a very literal sense,
that "one world" business is real. It's a good reason to take health
precautions. It's a good reason to support flu management and other
risk management funds in the Federal budget. And it's a good reason to
care what happens anywhere and everywhere in this interconnected
world.

RJ Eskow blogs when he can at:

A Night Light
The Sentinel Effect: Healthcare Blog

Swine Flu worse than Spanish Flu 1918

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/health_science/daily/20090520_1918_flu_epidemic_worse_second_time_around.html

Look at the graph above:
The peak Case Fatality Rate is 548 per 100,000 in March but dropped to
less than 250 in May.

The picture indicated Fatality Rate which is most probably wrong. The
figure is most probably death/cases, without taking into account the
duration of the disease.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/05/19/swine.flu/
This current Swine flu has a Case Fatality Rate of 80 in 10176 cases,
making it at 786 per 100,000 which is much higher than the Case
Fatality Rate but this rate is for May which is usually has much low
flu rate because it is at the end of the spring season.

In US it is 128 / 100,000 but this is misleading because the flu has
just started in late April in USA.

It may not be as high as the peak 1918 flu deaths, but it is already
at 62%. It will be worse in winter when there is no UV light of the
Sun to kill Flu virus.

Since in 1918, the flu deaths peak in winter, it shows that genetic
mutation is less likely compared to the larger dose that patients get
of the Flu virus in winter. The larger dose of Flu virus overwhelms
the victim's immune system even for those with previous vaccination.

Factually this Swine Flu is already worse than Spanish 1918 Flu, it
can only get worse instead of better.

My old photos

My pictures when I was about 2 years old in 1960.

Conditions that may make Swine Flu dangerous

Despite the title of the web page, obesity only accounts for 4 out of
30, which is similar to the distribution of obesity in USA, depending
what is defined as obesity.

Based on the reports of the deaths attributed to Swine flu in USA,
obesity seems to be quoted but the husband of the first US victim
denied flatly.

Late pregnancy could explain based on a theory proposed in this
article but I doubt that it is true. It is just a coincidence.

There are 5 out of 30 serious Swine flu cases in California, who are
pregrant but not know at what stage of pregnancy. The first death was
when she was at her 8th month of pregnancy.

We need more facts to verify but it is better to give special
treatment to these people if they experience flu.

Someone who still believes that Swine flu is just like normal flu
should study these facts.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/19/AR2009051902609.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Survey Finds Link Between Obesity and Flu Severity

TOOLBOX
Resize
Print
E-mail
Yahoo! Buzz
Save/Share +
Share this Article:
COMMENT

POST A COMMENT
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Log in | Register
Why Do I Have to Log In Again?
Log In Again?
CLOSE
We've made some updates to washingtonpost.com's Groups, MyPost and
comment pages. We need you to verify your MyPost ID by logging in
before you can post to the new pages. We apologize for the
inconvenience.

Discussion Policy
Your browser's settings may be preventing you from commenting on and
viewing comments about this item. See instructions for fixing the
problem.
Discussion Policy
CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other
inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site.
Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by
someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will
take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards,
terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this
site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and
discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging
» Links to this article
By David Brown and Robin Shulman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 20, 2009

A survey of people hospitalized because of swine flu in California has
raised the possibility that obesity is as much of a risk factor for
serious complications from the flu as diabetes, heart disease and
pregnancy, all known to raise a person's risk.
This Story

*
Swine Flu Spreads in Japan, Despite Quarantine Inspections
*
Survey Finds Link Between Obesity and Flu Severity
*
Complete Coverage: Swine Flu

In all, about two-thirds of the California patients had some
underlying medical condition, according to a report yesterday in the
weekly bulletin of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nationwide, 47 states and the District have reported 5,469 cases and
six deaths since the start of the outbreak in late April, according to
the CDC's count. Yesterday, officials in Missouri reported a seventh
U.S. death -- that of a 44-year-old man who had no underlying medical
problems, wire services reported.
ad_icon

"We were surprised by the frequency of obesity among the severe cases
that we've been tracking," said Anne Schuchat, one of the CDC
epidemiologists managing the outbreak. She said scientists are
"looking into" the possibility that obese people should be at the head
of the line along with other high-risk groups if a swine flu vaccine
becomes available.

Other studies have shown that pregnant women are also at higher risk
for serious influenza infection, especially in the third trimester,
when the fetus and womb compress the lower parts of the lungs. This
makes it harder to breathe deeply and cough forcefully; it may also
alter blood flow in the chest. A similar thing may be occurring in
severely overweight people, some experts speculated.

The average age of the 30 Californians hospitalized for swine flu was
27.5 years. Nearly three-quarters were women, and 65 percent were
Hispanic. Half lived in two counties bordering Mexico.

Of the 30 people, 11 had a lung ailment such as asthma or emphysema,
six had an immune disorder, five had heart disease, five were
pregnant, four had diabetes and four were obese.

In New York, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) said officials were
investigating whether 16-month-old Jonathan Castillo, who died with a
high fever Monday night at a Queens hospital, had contracted the H1N1
virus. The toddler's 3-year-old sibling was treated for flulike
symptoms and released.

The mayor said lack of health insurance or immigration status should
not deter people who feel sick from seeking attention.

"Whether you have health insurance coverage or your immigration status
is in question, it doesn't matter," Bloomberg said. "We will not ask
about that."

The mayor also said four inmates at a Rikers Island jail had been
confirmed to have the H1N1 virus and four more are likely to have it.

The union representing the city's correctional officers criticized the
response to the swine flu outbreak among inmates and filed a letter of
protest with the state Labor Department.

"If I had to design a place where you could put people who were sick
and get as many people sick as possible, it's the New York City jail,"
said Richard J. Koehler, a lawyer for the Correction Officers'
Benevolent Association.

Shulman reported from New York.

US doctors and journalist lying about Swine Flu deaths

I never believed in the newspaper reports on the death of the first US
flu victim. Her picture does not add up and her family was not
interviewed, only the doctors who have every reason to hide their
incompencies.

The truth is finally out. She never had any pre-existing condition
such as asthma or obesity. Pregnancy is not such a severe condition so
as to compromise her immune system. In fact, I don't recall my wife
getting sick when she was pregnant with my 6 children at all, not even
flu.

I believe her husband better than any of the journalists who didn't
interview the husband and tell the family side of the story. The
verbal statements of the 13th UK victim was also an eye opener
compared to all the officially published news about the Swine flu.

Trunnel should sue the American Pig farm in Mexico as well as the
doctors that had attended to his wife. He should open a paypal account
for everyone to donate in order to help in his case against these
industrial giants as well as journalists who keep on spreading lies.

http://www.valleycentral.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=301699

Steven Trunnell talks about wife's swine flu death on CNN Watch
Video See Photos

News
StoriesVideo
LATEST
Local/State Headlines
Uncertain future for Harlingen's red light cameras
Authorities see increase in delivered package theft
Anti-voter fraud bill sails through Texas Senate
Steven Trunnell talks about wife's swine flu death on CNN
Students unharmed in Elsa ISD bus accident
Lockdown lifted at Donna school following pellet gun scare
Carnival operator speaks about McMillan arrest
Police find 3 severed heads in southern Mexico
More Local/State News...

National/World Headlines
Astronauts say goodbye to Hubble for good
Boy wrote threatening note before school shooting
Credit card reforms up for Senate vote
More National/World News...
ADVERTISEMENT

PopularCommented
MOST
Stories of interest
RAW Video from interview with Lesley Perez's mother
Lesley Perez found in Mercedes
Photos from kidnapping victim Lesley Perez back at home
Amber Alert suspect was 'casing' neighborhood before kidnapping
Amber Alert suspect's car registered to Edinburg address
RAW VIDEO from Lesley Perez interview
Hidalgo family in search of daughter gone missing
Man Caught Taking Improper Pictures Of Women
Abducted Girl Returns Home
Robert Garza Visits Valley For Mother's Citizenship Ceremony
More News

Associated Press Video
Most Recent Videos
• Netanyahu Visits Capitol Hill
• Search Is on for Survivors of Plane Collision
• Raw Video: Rescue Off Mississippi Coast
• Wii Helps Video Gamers Shed Pounds
• First Person: College Students Fear Economy
• Need a Lawnmower? How 'bout a Goat?
• Auto Emission Standards Set to Toughen
• Raw Video: Terrell Owens, the Sportscaster
• More NYC Schools Close After Swine Flu Death
• Atty: Blagojevich's Wife Mulling Reality TV Spot
More Video

CONSUMER INFO
ADVERTISEMENT
RGV Vein, Laser and Aesthetic Clinic
KGBT HOT LINKS

» Deals 4 Dining
» Heathcare Connections
» Better RGV Jobs
» KGBT Buyer's Guide
» Ask an Expert
» Sunrise Mug Giveaway
» Going Green
» Business Leaders
» Pump4Less
» KGBT Twitter
» KGBT Facebook
» KGBT YouTube

Make KGBT 4
Your Homepage

Steven Trunnell and the couple's children
Slide Show
Photo: 1 of 2
Hide Caption [Hide Caption ]
See Larger Images
Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at 9:51 a.m.

The husband of the first American to die from the swine flu is denying
media reports that she had a pre-existing medical condition.

Harlingen man Steven Trunnell appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live" with
the couple's children and the family's attorney on Monday night.

Trunnell is launching an investigation into the conditions at a pig
farm in Veracruz, Mexico where the deadly disease is believed to have
originated.

The grieving husband said his late wife Judy Trunnell was "a healthy
pregnant woman" who had never been diagnosed with "major medical
complications of any kind."

Judy slipped into a coma while in the hospital but gave birth to a
healthy baby girl.

Steven Trunnell said Judy wasn't sick before coming down with the
swine flu.

"That's absolutely false…she was a healthy, pregnant woman eight
months pregnant until she contracted the virus," Steven told Larry
King. "She became acutely ill but never diagnosed with any major
medical complications of any kind."