H1N1 Swine Flu Or Something Far Worse? The Debate Over What The Heck Is Going On In Ukraine Rages On

At this hour a team of experts from the World Health Organization is on the ground in Ukraine, but the search for solid answers about what in the world is going on there has not made much progress.  Some sources are insisting that it is just the same old H1N1 swine flu that is found in the rest of the world.  Others are speculating that the H1N1 swine flu there has mutated into a much deadlier form.  Other sources are absolutely convinced that the H1N1 swine flu simply could not produce the kind of deaths that are being seen right now in Ukraine. 

The latest government numbers tell us that over a quarter of a million Ukrainians have developed flu-like symptoms, over 15,000 have been hospitalized, 235 are in intensive care and 70 people have died.

Of those 70 deaths, 22 have tested positive for the swine flu, although Bloomberg is reporting that authorities are saying that it is "difficult to tell" whether the pandemic H1N1 virus is responsible for all the cases.

Observers have noted that the death rate does seem to be substantially higher than in other European nations, so some are speculating that the H1N1 swine flu may have mutated into a more virulent form in that region.

The World Health Organization team of experts plans to collect samples from patients in the Ukraine and send them to the WHO’s center in London for diagnosis.  Preliminary data from that analysis should be available in a few days.

Meanwhile, a retired biochemist quoted over on the Urban Survival website is extremely skeptical that the carnage in the Ukraine is being caused by the H1N1 swine flu.....

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What scares the **** out of me is that the bleeding in the lungs is exactly what killed a lot of folks in the 1918-19 pandemic. See the great book "The Great Influenza: The story of the deadliest pandemic in history ." People would literally fall dead walking across the street. The bleeding out of the lungs was most likely the result of a "cytokine storm" that so increased the vascular permeability in the air sacks that blood filled the lungs. The reason why the mortality in the 1918-1919 pandemic was concentrated in the 18-25 yo cohort was that they had the most active immune systems.

Now I've NO conjecture as to who may have let this loose or why. But I do know that the technology is widespread to replicate the 1918-1919 virus that killed 2-4 million Americans and about 50 million world wide. And folks only traveled by ship in 1918. And there is NO vaccine for this flu type.

Hopefully we will know in a couple of weeks the sequences of the 8 RNA pieces in the Ukraine virus. I'll bet the farm that it is a replicant of the "Spanish Flu." If so, the odds are totally infinitesimal that this was NOT a deliberate bioweapon release.

I note that long haul truckers will simply go home and park their rigs if this flu reaches the USA. And exactly what reason do we have to suppose that it will be confined to Ukraine? The average city has 3 days of food. Connect the dots... please...............

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Other early reports indicated that the H1N1 swine flu had been ruled out as the cause for at least some of the deaths in Ukraine.

So just what in the world IS going on over there?

Hopefully the WHO will have some honest answers for us over the next few days.  If the number of deaths starts climbing into the hundreds or thousands we may have a truly serious problem on our hands. 

Up until now, the H1N1 swine flu "pandemic" has mostly been a bunch of hype.  World health authorities tell us that about 500,000 people die from the regular seasonal flu around the world each year, and yet only about 5,700 have died from the H1N1 swine flu worldwide so far.

Hardly something to be worried about.

But if the H1N1 swine flu mutates, or if this outbreak in Ukraine is something else entirely, then we may have something real to worry ourselves about.