by Laurence Hecht
Science EIR
July 3, 2009
from
21stCenturyScienceTech Website
The author is
editor-in-chief of 21st
'Century Science &
Technology' magazine |
June 27 - The world is now in the midst of a pandemic condition, of
which the H1N1 swine flu is presently the leading marker. With a few
notable exceptions, the nations of the world are vastly underprepared to deal with a crisis which could hit with deadly
force as early as this Autumn, perhaps sooner.
Do not kid yourself. There is intent here.
The repeatedly stated
desire of Britain’s Prince Philip,
to be reincarnated as a deadly virus
is more than the ravings of a nasty misanthrope.
It has been, and remains, the policy of
the Anglo-Dutch financial empire, now committed to a reduction of
world population from the present 6.7 billion, to under 2 billion
persons, as repeatedly stated in the post-war period by such leading
spokesmen as Lord Bertrand Russell, Julian Huxley, and World
Wildlife Fund founders
Prince
Bernhard of the Netherlands and the still-living
Prince Philip.
Whether or not the virus was willfully engineered for that purpose,
or the policy is to be implemented by sabotage of efforts to
mobilize a proper bio-defense, as by President Obama’s Hitlerian
health-care advisors, the result will be the same.
We provide here a battlefield report of the progress of the swine
flu and the mobilization against it, as matters stand today. In the
accompanying articles, the astounding state of unpreparedness of the
United States under the
Obama Administration, and the
longer-term trend toward a pandemic resurgence are reprised.
The most dramatic development of the past week was the shutdown of
the Philippines House of Representatives, following the death from
swine flu of a 49 year-old staff member. The woman fell extremely
ill on June 18, and died the next day. The Speaker of the House
ordered the suspension of office work for three days to allow
sanitation of the buildings in the complex.
A World Health Organization (WHO) medical officer warned that the flu is
continuing to spread in Asia, and that the Philippines may become
the first country in the region to see a pandemic. Meanwhile, the
Malaysian Health Ministry has suspended leave for 100,000 medical
officers and staff, in view of the H1N1 emergency.
In the U.S.A., the Centers for Disease Control acknowledged
on June 25 that 1 million Americans had so far been infected by the
new flu virus. More worrisome, from an epidemiological standpoint,
was the statement by CDC researcher Lyn Finelli that there is
still no sign of a decline in the rate of transmission. A seasonal
flu would have long since receded in the Northern Hemisphere. The
continuing spread is a sign of an abnormal situation that has been
worrying specialists since the beginning of June.
The expectation among a growing number
of experts is that the number of flu infections will explode during
the Autumn flu season.
In the Southern Hemisphere, where Winter has begun, 11 flu deaths
were registered in Argentina over a 48-hour period, bringing the
total deaths from H1N1 to 21. In Chile, death number 8 - a
22-year-old dental student - was announced on June 25.
New Warnings from
France
Meanwhile, at a conference in Paris today, the director of France’s
National Institute for Health Surveillance noted the
similarities of this pandemic to the 1918 flu, which killed between
50 and 100 million worldwide.
From information available to him,
French specialist, Prof. Claude Desenclos said that the
influenza deaths are tending to appear in the 20-to 30-year age
group rather than primarily in the elderly, who are the usual
victims of a seasonal flu.
At a conference in
Paris of the French National Institute for Health Surveillance,
Prof. Claude Desenclos
compared the current
swine flu pandemic to the murderous 1918 flu,
which killed 50-100
million people worldwide.
Shown: an emergency
hospital in Camp Funston, Ks., during the 1918 epidemic.
The virus causes bronchial irritation,
creating the conditions for severe bacterial pneumonia and death
through suffocation.
In 1918, no antibiotics existed to fight such a
bacterial infection, but today, the flu’s deadliness is unexplained. Desenclos also noted that the WHO is not sharing the important
information that is needed about severe cases.
In France, which is preparing for universal vaccination, there
remains fear that the vaccine will arrive too late. It takes four
months to produce it, and another two months to test it. Some
experts spoke of scenarios from 40,000 to 120,000 dead by Winter.
Sane warnings are also being heard from China. A June 23 editorial
in the China Daily, notes that the flu pandemic threat is not over,
and expresses special concern for rural areas.
Readers are warned not to let down their
guard.
“The real trouble is not that we
cannot deal with its current symptoms, but that several
countries are losing track of its chains of transmission,” the
government daily warns, noting that in a pandemic things could
become much more difficult to control.
Sweden is preparing to vaccinate its
population twice.
Lacking its own vaccine production capabilities,
Sweden has ordered two batches of 9 million doses each from United
Kingdom producer GlaxoSmithKline. The hope is to protect the
population in the early stages and at a later stage of evolution of
the flu virus.
While every effort should be made to step up flu vaccine production,
the ugly reality is, that even a worldwide gear-up for mass
vaccination may not be enough to halt this pandemic, should changes
in the viral genome cause it to turn more deadly. Under generalized
pandemic conditions, vaccinations, which must be prepared months in
advance, may prove ineffective against a rapidly mutating and
re-assorting virus.
They are an essential part of the
defense arsenal, but not a sure bet against a fast-changing flu
virus.
Disease is now becoming the most evident symptom of the long-term
physical economic decay. Under present collapse conditions, the rate
of generation of new diseases is beginning to outstrip the capacity
of the physical economy to deal with them. The reduced conditions of
nutrition and general immune levels of the world population have
produced a breeding ground for influenza, and all manner of other
pandemic diseases.
Add to that, the fact, that, at best,
20% of the world’s population could be protected by presently
existing vaccine manufacturing facilities, and you see that the
present virus might better become popularly known as the
Greenspan flu. (Not all pigs, but certain ones in
particular, should be given credit for their actions.)
British Caught
In Great Britain, attempts to minimize or ignore the seriousness of
the flu danger were called up short today, as the London Times,
newspaper of record, was forced to acknowledge that parts of Britain
now have so many cases of swine flu that it cannot be contained.
Not surprisingly, Britain has been playing the leading role in the
world in stalling and obstructing efforts to fight the flu.
A month ago, at the annual conference of
the WHO, Britain had demanded that it not declare a Level-6 alert,
stalling mobilization against the pandemic. Next, the British
government was caught seriously under-reporting the number of H1N1
cases, and faced serious criticism from France and the WHO
Director-General Margaret Chan.
British Health Secretary Andy Burnham
had also been under fire from the Scottish Health Minister, Nicola
Sturgeon. Facing a spreading pandemic in Glasgow, Sturgeon said
Scotland would break from the containment-only policy and pursue
active measures to halt the spread of the flu.
Today’s admission by the Times might evoke, for some, images of
Edgar Allan Poe’s classic treatment of the black plague. Not even
blue blood will halt the contagion of which the current rapid and
unseasonal spread of the H1N1 virus is a harbinger.
Can anyone say that the flu virus shall
not come to visit His Royal Virus Prince Philip before
he himself is reincarnated?
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