by Michael Hammerschlag
WHO Ukr Info HAMMERNEWS
Nov 15: KIEV new
Nov 15 Latest numbers from the health dept are that 282 have died, of the total 1,347,538 sick (and better) since Oct 29; 73,373 people have been hospitalized, about 40,000 of those discharged. It seems to be spreading, but that is a significantly lower death rate than normal flu (mortality of 1 in 1000), about 1 death in 5000. Face mask use has been declining as no sick people have been seen anywhere in public.
Oct 30: With 34 confirmed deaths in 11 days, about 3 a day, Ukraine has gone nuclear over the swine flu threat, closing schools and public gatherings for 3 weeks??, banning travel???, and reportedly doing aerial spraying to kill the virus (rumor)???? Now far be it from me to puncture anyone's hysterical balloon, but they say viral pneumonia deaths (what most people die from) are normally about 3000 a year, about 9 a day. The foolish Egyptians slaughtered all their pigs, but the swine flu is harbored exclusively in humans - unless you slaughter them, or spray them with Sarin you can't stop it "in the fields". Ukraine quarantined a plane from the US for 2 hours because one passenger had a headache.
But they also said some of the deaths are in young and healthy (52 from 19-40 years old in spontaneous mutations?) and there are another 40 or so critical patients, so there is some cause for concern. (Actually they now say the most fataalities are in 50-59 age range) Already many people today in the giant Home Depot I shopped for a door for my new aptmt, were wearing face masks, mostly employees.. and metros and restaurants are 60% empty. Ukrainians are a very fad oriented society and quite obedient - they will line up in 30M lines for buses that haven't come yet. One girl's company is ordering all employees to wear face masks and change them every 2 hours. They'd probably be better off getting it, since the 1918 victims who got the first mild form were protected from the rampaging killer of the 2nd and 3rd permutations, which killed (according to book The Great Influenza- J Barry) up to 100 million- 5% of the world then. That also was H1N1, and just to fuel horror movies, they dug up a 1918 Alaska tundra victim and reconstructed that virus. While apparently some mutations inside people have made this outbreak deadly, luckily those haven't been easily transmissible.
PM Yuliya Timoshenko used the epidemic to shut down all election activity, then castigated politicians for using it for their own purposes.:
"All educational institutions without exception ... will be put on a three-week holiday period," Tymoshenko said. She indicated this could be extended if necessary. "Apart from this, we will cancel all mass meetings ... for three weeks," she told an emergency government session. "We will introduce a special system to stop unnecessary travel from one region to another." (No news about any actual restrictions on travel) Yushchenko's Our Ukraine Party has canceled it's convention.
------------------------------------------
Nov 2: As of today's morning 64 people died from flu in Ukraine.
According to an UNIAN correspondent, first Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov said this today at the Conciliatory council.
According to his words, 191 thousand Ukrainians turned for help for hospitals, 7.5 thousand of them are hospitalized. -Unian News Service (Ukr)
------------------------------------------------
the country's deputy health minister said on Monday. 11-2-09
"Vasil Lozoryshynets said 22 out of a total 67 deaths from flu or acute respiratory illness have been confirmed as caused by the H1N1 virus.
The deputy minister said 255,000 flu cases had been reported in the country as of Monday, with 15,000 receiving treatment at a hospital and 170 being admitted to intensive care departments. The government has imposed quarantines in nine western provinces to curb the spread of swine flu, which originated in the Tirnopol Region." - RIA Novesti
----------------------------------------------
Lets do the numbers of the health minister's claims (the most credible- notice the enormous discrepancy of the hospital visits- even vice prime ministers can parrot nonsense here)- 255,000 people have the flu, and there are 67 deaths. A normal flu kills < 0.1 % or up to 1 in 1000, at half that rate (1 in 2000) a normal death toll for 255k would be 128, twice the number that has been reported so far. SO THIS IS A NORMAL FLU!! IT is not Bird Flu, or any rampaging killer, and apparently some is regular seasonal flu.
In fact, the Canadian Broadcasting System reports deaths are less than last year!!!!
"Some Ukrainian health officials and medical experts have accused the government of exaggerating the outbreak ahead of January's presidential elections, given that the total number of flu deaths has dropped by 10 per cent compared with last year, the UNIAN news agency quoted Deputy Health Minister Vasily Lazorishinets as saying." Tymoshenko says deaths are 71 as of Nov 3.
That said it is a possible epidemic- a friend
who had a 850 person conference said ¼ of
them got sick afterwards (one expat diagnosed
with swine says it was a bastard).. and most
is a swine flu-H1N1 (as the monstrous 1918-19
killer was). The terrifying thing is of the
up to 1 million offspring of a single flu
virus- 98-99% of them are mutants, new forms,
most unviable, but some maybe much more virulent
. So every person is a biological weapons
factory, and that explains why it is almost
impossible to make a long lasting vaccine.
If 30% of the country (15 million) gets sick
over 2 months that would be about 3750 deaths
at 1 death per 4000 cases. A WHO team arrived in Ukraine Teus Nov 3, but said
that "border closures and international travel
restrictions are not warranted".------------------------------------------------------------
Last, there is a wild story about some fiendish conspiracy by Baxter Labs to release some bio- weapon in Ukraine- conspiracist gibber-jabber I think. Baxter was involved in the criminally careless accidental dispersal of live bird flu in Feb and killed 1990's hemophiliacs with AIDS tainted blood, but it is the largest blood disease treatment firm in the world- whatever big mistakes happen, they would be part of them. The story, by some David Rothscum (sounds real) says:
-- "A man named Joseph Moshe who was arrested after a hours long standoff with the police because he had supposedly made threats against the White House. The man was able to withstand multiple rounds of tear gas...which left L.A. police officers amazed.
Comments on the Huffington Post website immediately began pouring in about an unreported side to this story, namely that Joseph Moshe was a Mossad Agent who specialized in biological warfare and who called into a radio show to warn people about a biological weapon that was being made by Baxter international that would be spread through vaccine and would cause a plague upon its release."---
It has everything- except any kind of motive, and the conspiracist obsession with killer vaccines will ensure many people won't get swine vaccine (though the 1976 version did kill more people than the virus), which could lead to unnecessary deaths among pregnant women, elderly, and the immune compromised. (Incredibly they are going to do extended testing on the vaccine rather than give it to the vulnerable). The plot really breaks down when he starts raving:
-- "that massive numbers of microbiologists have been dying bizarre deaths. This .... may explain why so many microbiologists have been murdered. The fact that this man managed to predict an outbreak of highly lethal influenza in a place where we would least expect it, 2 months before it actually occurred, lends credence to his claim that Baxter International is responsible for the outbreak and shows that top microbiologists can pose a problem to the people responsible for this ongoing disaster."---
6 microbiologists have died this year (according
to this), including one by head on collision that
also killed the other driver, not a common
CIA assassination technique unless we are
now hiring Taliban; and a few other by unremarkable
means (suicide when depressed over a daughters
death, a lifelong plague researcher of plague)-
not "massive numbers". NOTE: I
just read a sci-fi book where the target
(who was a dissenter in a human-brain-in-supercomputer
project is targeted for killing by claiming
he made a threat against the President, so
am quite susceptible to this, and there is
something very weird about that standoff
story. But still, one should take that story
with a shaker of salt. But there are many people who still think that an explosion bigger than the building, 5 story gas fueled fire, and the kinetic force of a fully loaded 767 going 530 mph wasn't enough to bring down the WTC, when the miracle wasone tower stayed up for over an hour and a half.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This self-generated paranoia has the potential to really hurt Ukraine, just as the IMF is about to perhaps deny the next tranche of $3 billion aid that Ukraine has been living off of for the last year. Other countries are now about to close borders and restrict trade with Ukraine (and Ukraine is also calling for that!), and flu epidemics last 2-5 months:
Slovakia closes border crossings to contain flu;
BRATISLAVA, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Slovakia will close the pedestrian crossings in Velke Slemence and Ubla on the border with Ukraine starting Tuesday Slovakian Interior Minister Robert Kalinak announced Monday. The move, together with the establishment of health check-points on crossings that remain open, is a response to flu epidemic in Ukraine.
Authorities in the Ukrainian region of Chernivtsi have requested that several crossing points on the borders with Romania and the Republic of Moldova be closed. The reason is the risk of the spread of the swine flu epidemic, according to news agency Omega.
"We have already petitioned the border guard service and requested the closing of crossing points on the border with the Republic of Moldova and Romania in places where medical examinations cannot be performed," Chernivitsi Oblast Governor Volodymyr Kulish said.
The centrally generated steam heat just came on over the country 2 1/2 weeks ago, so all the bug-laden dust and particulate matter from the radiators was dispersed in the air of the suddenly sealed apartments (just dropped from 21 to -2 in under 3 weeks). Another stupid thing about these omnipresent masks (saw 2 cops with them and should have asked to take their photo) is that they may protect from airborne virus particles, but that only happens when people are sneezing or coughing (better off washing hands 10 times a day), and I haven't seen one person doing that, except.... me on the subway (to the delight of all present).
LINKS
Health Minister - http://en.rian.ru/exsoviet/20091102/156683867.htm
1 in 1000: - http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11150&page=61
Less than last year: - http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/11/03/h1n1-world.html
WILD STORY: - http://www.rense.com/general88/bax.htm
RELEASE BIRD- http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aTo3LbhcA75I
MOSHE STANDOFF - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/14/man-suspected-of-making-t_n_259330.html
DEAD BIOLOGISTS - http://www.stevequayle.com/dead_scientists/UpdatedDeadScientists.html