Swine Flu

I thought that I saw on a WHO site that the virus had strains of normal flu, as well as a swine flu... so it had mutated from the flu that swine themselves have.  Somewhere, somehow that had to have jumped, but I don't think that anyone has found where the link is.  But it did have (whatever they use to identify flu) from swine as well as human.
 
The madness rages on in Egypt:

...pigs being beaten with iron bars, piglets being stabbed and animals being kicked alive into bulldozer buckets...

...In the video, Mohamed el-Mugharbil, deputy mayor of Kashkus near Cairo, describes how chemicals are also poured on animals caged in lorries, leading to a slow death.

Ali Shaaban, head of the site where the corpses are buried, confirms the method. "The pigs are covered with chemical products and left for 30 or 40 minutes until they are dead, then we throw them in the ditch."...


Poor animals.
 
Disgusting.  I'm not one who usually rages about animal rights, but that is sick.  And, as far as I understood from the article, the farmers are not compensated in any way, so a lot will lose their whole business or job.

And here I was thinking Egypt was one of the more progressive countries in the Middle East...
 
Invader said:
And here I was thinking Egypt was one of the more progressive countries in the Middle East...

...and it still is. Most other Muslim countries don't even allow pigs in.
 
Actually, I tried to use that as an indicator to point out how much less progressive other Muslim countries are, but well.
 
I understand that.

Well, even if it still is, I wonder was it is worth, when such a country uses such orthodox medieval methods.
 
There's a difference between "more progressive" and "progressive".  Egypt may be "more progressive" than states like Syria, Saudi Arabia, etc.  but it is not "progressive" in a Western European sense.
 
Ah year...SARS, bird flu, swine flu. Epic pandemias, horrors, total < 50 people dead from all three and billions of $ worth medicine purchased.
 
Zare said:
Ah year...SARS, bird flu, swine flu. Epic pandemias, horrors, total < 50 people dead from all three and billions of $ worth medicine purchased.

I thought at least 2 million Chinese died of Bird flu and the Mexican papers have reported 40 dead in Mexico from the swine flu....
 
Onhell said:
I thought at least 2 million Chinese died of Bird flu and the Mexican papers have reported 40 dead in Mexico from the swine flu....

The "billions of $" is still unfortunately true.
 
I wouldn't know why it's so terrible to spend money in order to help people.
A better destination for money is hardly possible.
 
Spending money to help people in case of an unlikely media-blown epidemic, to be more precise.  Spending money on helping people is good, spending money on medicine that will expire in a fews years is wasted money that is not helping anyone.  Spending such money to help people in real situations would be preferable.
 
I think that flu vaccinations are good things, but I think that the media did a wonderful job blowing swine flu up into a huge "thing", that probably did more harm than it did good.  A lot of gov'ts bought flu vaccine that doesn't work with this current flu strain, for instance.  That is hopefully going to be useful, but has the possibility that it very well may not be.
 
That's how it goes in the world of health care. No unnecessary risks. They will get the blame if they won't make enough medicins. So whatever they do, people always complain.
 
Wait, I didn't hear about that one; seriously?!  they purchased medicine that has no real affect?
 
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