Maggie Fox, Reuters, April 29, 2009
A Mexican toddler in Texas has died of the new swine flu virus, the first confirmed death outside Mexico, as the World Health Organization said the outbreak showed clear signs of spreading around the world.
Nearly a week after the threat first emerged in Mexico, Spain reported the first case in Europe of swine flu in a person who had not been to Mexico, underscoring the threat of person-to-person transmission.
{snip}
With Germany and Austria reporting cases, bringing the number of affected countries to 9, Fukuda said the WHO was moving closer to raising its pandemic alert to phase five, the second highest level possible.
U.S. officials said that a 22-month-old boy had died in Texas—the first confirmed U.S. swine flu death—but they added that he was on a family visit from Mexico, where up to 159 flu fatalities have been recorded.
Dr. Richard Besser, acting head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the country now had 91 confirmed cases in 10 states from New York to California.
“We’re going to find more cases. We’re going to find more severe cases and I expect that we’ll continue to see additional deaths,” Besser said.
{snip}
Financial markets are keeping an eye on the spread of the virus, but so far the economic impact has largely been confined to the tourism and pharmaceutical industries.
{snip}
Spain’s El Mundo newspaper said the Spanish patient had recent contact with someone who had visited Mexico.
H1N1 swine flu poses the biggest risk of a large-scale pandemic since avian flu re-emerged in 2003, killing 257 people of 421 infected in 15 countries. In 1968 a “Hong Kong” flu pandemic killed about 1 million people globally, and a 1957 pandemic killed about 2 million.
The new strain contains genetic material from avian, swine and human viruses and appears to have evolved the ability to pass easily from one person to another.
It cannot be caught from eating pork products but Egypt ordered all its pigs to be slaughtered and some countries, led by Russia and China, have banned U.S. pork imports.
{snip}
SCHOOLS, PYRAMIDS CLOSED
The outbreak has deeply affected life in Mexico and ravaged tourism, a key earner. Mexico City was unusually quiet, with schools closed. Many parents took their children in to work.
All Mayan and Aztec pyramid ruins, dotted through central and southern Mexico, were closed until further notice.
Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said more than 1,300 people were in hospitals, some of them seriously ill, out of a total of about 2,500 suspected cases.
“In the last few days there has been a decline (in cases),” he said. “The death figures have remained more or less stable.”
{snip}
Original article
(Posted on April 29, 2009)
Comments
There’s something that seems ultra strange about this entire crises, especially the response by Napolitano.
She refuses to close the border or take the same precautions Mexico has taken to prevent the spread of this virus.
Maintaining that preventative measures won’t help now has got to be the dumbest thing I’ve heard anybody utter about this situation so far. Stopping the flow of people by closing the border certainly would help, as would checking people on incoming flights, plus disallowing travel to Mexico. If and when the virus infects as many here as in Mexico……or worse…..certainly they will be forced to take preventative measures and invoke quarantines also. If they do those things if worse conditions evolve, which they undoubtedly will, how can they support their stand now on refusing to try containment?
The only reason for taking this entire affair so lightly that I can think of right now, without learning more, is that some of the containment measures would hurt the economy even more than this ongoing catastrophe brought on by the sub-prime crash.
If a few of the Washington self-appointed elites get the bug and die, then and only then I believe serious measures will be taken. (Unless of course we have a raging pandemic of great intensity, which they’ll be forced to act on or the pitchforks will be at the castle gates looking for blood.)
This morning the local news in Chicago reported one possible case of Swine Flu in Illinois. By noon there were nine probable cases. It ain’t over yet.
“U.S. officials said that a 22-month-old boy had died in Texas—the first confirmed U.S. swine flu death—but they added that he was on a family visit from Mexico, where up to 159 flu fatalities have been recorded.”
I doubt that he was on a family visit. He probably got sick and his family brought him to Brownsville for treatment. Vdare.com has many articles about this, including many stories of American ambulances being sent in to Mexico to bring patients to the USA.
These losers are bringing their sick and dying across the border for us to pay for??!! That’s absolutely revolting. They won’t close the border because there’s a stream of people crossing for free care, and to close it would make us humanitarian meanies. That is taxpayer abuse.
Obama just announced that he will not close the border. I am convinced that this administration would not close it no matter how many sicken or die. Nutty Napolitano said, “well, it’s already here, so there’s no need to close the border.” Okay,part of the house just caught fire, so there’s no use in trying to save the rest of it or anything in in. The woman hasn’t got a clue. Calderon must be delighted with the new cabinet and various appointed posts.
And, yes, the child who died did come with his family from Mexico, so by Nappy’s reasoning, we should continue to let them come, diseased or not.
Local news reports are that the boy fell ill in Matamoros, Mexico and was taken to Brownsville, TX for medical care then on to Houston.
This looks to be a case of the parents wanting their child to get free health care in the U.S. Sorry for the parents, but this is just an outrage. Texas Children’s Hospital is one of the finest hospitals in the country. Unless your child has a doctor on staff, or you “know” someone, there is a long wait list to get in.
Unless you are from Mexico. Why doesn’t Obama close the border?
Mexico is now part of the United States-obviously! But more
“At a prime-time news conference, Obama said health officials weren’t recommending closing the border with Mexico.
“That, he said, “would be akin to closing the barn door after the horses are out, because we already have cases here in the United States.”
There’s no better example of black inability to logic adequately than the above statement. Giving parity to “closing the barn door after the horses are out,”hardly parallels a situation where open borders would allow even more carriers of the illness into the country to spread around. The man speaks well, although in a stuttering way, but he’s anything but a deep, logical thinker. He’s an empty suit.
The following is the real reason they won’t take the necessary precautions to stop the spread of the virus.
(Napolitano)”She said closing borders or U.S. ports would have enormous adverse economic consequences and would have “no impact or very little” to help stop the spread of the virus.”
It’s money they’re afraid of losing which, of course, would make them look bad. That’s what they’re really worried about.
Here’s an example of the corruption from people who are supposed to be protecting the country and its citizens.
The Republicans would do the same. How right the founders were to stress the importance of not trusting ANY government.
The whole bunch of them are a pack of liars as great as any in the history of mankind.
Note that they are attempting to hide the source of this disease by changing the name from the “Mexican Swine Flu” to H1N1. Note that they don’t want to embarrass Mexico, by closing the border. Note that they are not telling you that the majority of infected people in the USA are either Mexicans or recent immigrants from Mexico. Finally, note this obfuscation: “You cannot catch the Mexican Swine Flu from properly cooked pork.” What this statement does NOT tell you is that you might catch the Mexican Swine Flu from handling the raw, uncooked pork. But we certainly would not want Americans to know that, would we.
It is more important to them to be politically correct than to save American lives. They don’t care if your children die. What is really important is that a protected class (Mexicans) feel good about themselves. We must maintain the self-esteem of the invaders at all costs.
(When I lived in Tucson, almost 20 years ago, I knew a nurse who
If they remained in Mexico they would be turned away from hospitals and would die.
The one certainty about the present pandemic is that Mexicans will stream across the border when they become sick, mingling with crowds of Americans at every juncture and will appear at American hospitals demanding free medical care. The first swine flu death in the United States was a Mexican border crosser—a child brought into the United States for free medical treatment.
More are coming. Many more.
The brain dead comments of the President of the United States that “ha, ha, ha… there is no use closing the barn door after the horse is gone… ha, ha, ha”, made in yesterday’s press conference, shows a profound ignorance of the border situation. Frankly, he doesn’t give a damn.
Interestingly enough, on KIRO-TV in Seattle on April 28, news readers gushed about the wide range of free medical care available for Mexicans here in Seattle—where a network of free clinics for illegals has been built with government funds. Outreach officers are already going door-to-door in the Mexican community providing swine flu assistance of some unspecified type.
So the local government does know the illegals are here!!! Normally, for a government employee even to know they are illegal is a cause for immediate firing. Their final comment was also interesting. They warned that if Americans have symptoms of the swine flu, they should hold off going to the doctor so that they “would not clog up the system”.
Mexicans first, Americans last.
To Anonymous:
Interesting, how in this case, they don’t want to embarrass Mexico, by referring to it as “Mexican Swine Flu”. So they change the name to an alphabet-soup “H1N1”. Who’s going to remember that?
Hong Kong Flu. Russian Flu. Asian Flu. In none of those instances was the name changed to an alphabet soup designation. Only Mexico gets such royal treatment. Just like the U.S. government accepts Mexico’s lies about the source of where the Mexican drug cartel’s guns are coming from.
Napolitano says that closing borders would have enormous adverse economic consequences? Jeez, we’re already in a near depression. How bad can it be to close the border?
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday that three members of an aide’s family are being tested to see if they have the same strain of swine flu that is threatening to become a pandemic. The aide worked in presidential advance, which is responsible for planning and preparing trips.
We just came into Houston from Cancun yesterday. None of the agents wore masks and no one asked us any questions about where we had been or anything about our health. I read that Napolitano testified yesterday that the border agents were actively questioning/screening travelers as they came in. We saw none of this. Now they are saying they didn’t tell them not to wear masks. I’m not sure what to believe any more.
I just watched the news last night and the U.S. Border Patrol here in San Diego had the documentation to prove that the DHS had forbidden our San Diego border patrol agents to wear masks.
(2) Guns and money for drugs going south accross the border
(3) Billions in tax free American dollars going south accross the border from working illegally and taking jobs from Americans while unemployment is around 10%
(4) Billions in tax dollars spent teaching, feeding and curing those who don’t pay a dime in taxes and now the swine flu.
Nothing is being done to stop any of it. Why do we even have border agents?
If a few of the Washington self-appointed elites get the bug and die,
So the outlook isn’t all bad then. I saw a film clip of people in NYC wearing masks in a line at some government office!! it looked like El Salvadore instead of NYC.
Nothing is being done to stop any of it. Why do we even have border agents?
As shown in previous AR posts, we have border agents to assist the illegals, see that their civil rights are adhered to and to clean up the messes of their passing through private property before our government gives said property to said illegals. Does that answer the Q?
“Why do we even have border agents? “
We have border agents, because there are a great number of unemployed Mexican-Americans living along the border that need income. By hiring them to guard the border, the US government (1) Shows compassion for the new immigrants (2) Reduces the welfare rolls (3) Gives the appearance of doing something about the border. (4) Can keep the flow of wage-slaves going strong. (5) gets lots of “subjects” for their social programs. (6) Gets Democratic voters. (7) Keeps La Raza and other Hispanic organizations off their backs.
Maybe the flu was actually cut loose on purpose, as a “dry run” to test people’s reactions, as it’s actually not all that dangerous as first touted in the press.
I’m personally glad that Mexico is not a muslim country.
This is only the beginning. Our state, Texas has seen a big increase in TB, a disease that was almost eradicated is making a comeback. Most of it coming from Mexico. The problem is that many of these cases are drug resistant. Swine flu is only the beginning, sooner or later, there is going to be a deadly contagious disease that comes across the border. If this happens, neither congress or our politicians, the business elites or pro open borders crowd will care one bit if average americans die. They’ll only care if it affects them.
