The official government advice this week was: don't get alarmed by the Swine Flu virus, don't unnecessarily close schools, don't worry that our country has about half the doses needed for vaccination. Meanwhile, "socialized medicine" countries like Israel have dosage for every citizen.
The CDC, which has changed its reporting from daily, to weekly, to not at all on a state-by-state basis, yesterday released its total deaths for the U.S. and it showed an acceleration in mortality. The new list was 436 dead, up 83 in one week. Compare that to 107 of our troops killed in both Iraq and Afghanistan in all of July, and tell me this is not a real pandemic.
Equally alarming, hospitalized total cases jumped 5,514 to 6,506, the biggest weekly increase so far. That doesn't count outpatient treatment, because CDC used to report that, but stopped when the total approached 40,000 a couple weeks ago. I blame the chamber of commerce types for keeping a lid on the facts of this tragic outbreak, and the usual actors from the Repugnican party and the bitchy blue dogs.
The AP, reporting on Obama's visit to Mexico, also noted trade and tourism concerns:
"In April, when Obama visited Mexico City, the first swine flu cases were just surfacing. Now, it's a global epidemic that's sickened more than 43,000 people in the United States and is blamed for 300 deaths. The toll in Mexico is at least 15,000 cases and 141 deaths; in Canada it's 10,000 cases and 50 deaths.
"While the H1N1 virus is in a summer lull in the Northern Hemisphere, it's expected to roar back in the fall. Public health officials are readying medicines and public education campaigns, hoping to curb the flu without disrupting vital cross-border trade and tourism."
What kind of lull? Most deaths in one week is a lull. Lies, lies, lies.