Here is a blog from the BBC written by a health care worker in Mexico (with name actually attached):
"There is a sense of chaos in the other hospitals and we do not know what to do. Staff are starting to leave and many are opting to retire or apply for holidays. The truth is that mortality is even higher than what is being reported by the authorities, at least in the hospital where I work it. It is killing three to four patients daily, and it has been going on for more than three weeks. It is a shame and there is great fear here. Increasingly younger patients aged 20 to 30 years are dying before our helpless eyes and there is great sadness among health professionals here."----Antonio Chavez, Mexico City
I got creamed in my diary because I stated that the Obama Administration was misleading the public about the seriousness of this epidemic. When I say "misleading", I mean that exactly: deliberately quoting the figure of 36,000 Americans dying every year of flu as if that equated to the deadliness of this epidemic, when in fact those 36,000 were elderly or people with chronic illness. This is not to suggest that these 36,000 are not people, but the statement is a deliberate attempt to make the public believe that healthy Americans between 10-52 are among those 36,000 who die every year. When this epidemic first started, the CDC director himself said that the worrying thing about this strain is that it is affecting those 10-52 years of age disproportionately, and there were various theories bandied about as to why this was so (it seems the popular explanation is that a healthy person's auto-immune system will overreact and cause pneumonia and death). It is misleading because the Administration is trying to imply that this virus is no different than an ordinary virus.
My personal belief about the "only 7 have died" figure and the "36,000 die every year" statements is that it is a concerted attempt by Mexican, American and international WHO authorities to tamp down the hysteria that grew much faster than they anticipated. It is obvious that the Obama Administration and Mexico thought that they could alert the world about the disaster and make it sound like they were doing something about it, while at the same time keeping "business as usual". The truth is that there is nothing "usual" about this virus.
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The Obama Administration is misleading the American public by its talking point that "36,000 Americans die every year from the flu."
This is misleading because the 36,000 Americans who die from the flu each year are comprised of the elderly, the chronically ill who contract pneumonia with the flu, and those who are suffering from auto-immune diseases and AIDS.
There are NOT 36,000 healthy 10-52 year old Americans who die from the flu each year. And that's what should be scaring the pants off anyone who is keeping up with this pandemic. The majority of those who are dying in Mexico are aged 10-52. That makes this virus special.
The Obama Administration has been sugar-coating the facts of this epidemic. I want to know why. Isn't this the Administration that said there would be transparency? I didn't work hard to get Obama elected just so he would continue the lies and deceit of the prior administration. Just tell us the truth.
I suspect the reason the Obama Administration is misleading the public is because of fears to the economic sector. But let's look at real life-and-death issues here:
So far, this epidemic is following the 1918 pattern. It starts with a relatively mild case in the spring, and then the virus mutates into a deadlier strain in the summer and fall and then begins the killing spree.
Unfortunately, it appears that there are already 2 strains of this virus: the milder strain which has largely been exported from Mexico to other parts of the world and the deadlier strain which has paralyzed Mexico.
Of course, because the Obama Administration did nothing to prevent the virus from crossing the border (and even justified that on national television by saying that it was OK for border patrol agents to waive through trucks and civilians because of the economy), now we have a confirmed case of the deadly Mexican strain in the U.S. -- the Mexican child who crossed the border at Brownsville and then died in Houston. How many Texans did he infect before he died? Could those people have been spared being infected with the deadly strain if the border patrol had been doing their jobs?
I'm mad as hell at the Obama Administration for putting commerce ahead of public safety. This reeks more of the Republicans than of the Democrats.
Wake up, Obama. You may already be too late.