Swine Flu.
There are some questions and answers here.
Jump to more content from this blog
About this blog
The blog for the afternoon news and current affairs programme presented by Eddie Mair.
Subscribe to PM
You can stay up to date with PM via these feeds.
PM Feed(RSS)
PM Feed(ATOM)
If you aren't sure what RSS is you'll find our beginner's guide to RSS useful.
Listen to PM
© MMX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~35~RS~)
Comments
Sign in or register to comment.
It is worth remembering that seasonal flu often poses a serious threat to public health: each year it kills 250,000 - 500,000 around the world.
Oh, nothing to worry about then?
Complain about this comment
Has anyone seen any locusts? It's just we seem to be having a plague at the moment - there was an Earthquake yesterday - I'm just wondering what's next?
Complain about this comment
I am a bit confused. The BBC Science corresponded said: "There is no evidence people can get it from pigs." Why is it called swine flue and why is Egypt killing every pig in the country? What about hearing from the Egyptian minister of agriculture!
Complain about this comment
this morning (Today prog) we heard that they had injected ferrets with pig flu. When can we hope to learn what has happened to the ferrets?
cheers Fiscal
Complain about this comment
Don't panic. It doesn't affect us chickens.
Moooooo, moooooo.
WR.
Complain about this comment
Would anyone care to explain why the UK couple who have been diagnosed with this 'flu have been openly named by the media? Isn't that a gross breach of privacy?
Complain about this comment
Pigs belong to christians, an oppressed minority. An easy target.
Complain about this comment
newlach: are they? I hadn't heard that. Sounds barbaric. Hope GBAM* might pick up on it.
White Rat: I suspect you are having some kind of identity crisis.
sjwill56: re. naming the couple with flu - good point.
*Glass Box AM
Complain about this comment
Well, if you didn't understand it before those diagrams, you're definitely not going to understand after them...
Unless... is swine flu is a bit like fashion?
Complain about this comment
Do you really believe this lurgy outbreak is an accident?
An un-publicised agreement at G20 to drop a phial of engineered virus to take the heat off the capitalists in their self-imposed "squandary" meltdown, which is only a suffering for the usual victims.
So what if a few die miserably, if the greater cause of prima-domination is furthered. Meanwhile we overlook the grand rip-offs, of the poor to the rich.
Mere taxation hasn't been enough for these greedy swine, they want everything, we will be spat out as empty husks, as they bask bloatedly on their expense accounts. My only hope is that the swine virus is specific to these pigs with their noses in the trough. What a lot of space that would free up!
Complain about this comment
Have already posted my comment on another page...seems to have got lost in the ether.. My comment relates to the family you showed on tonight's 6.00pm broadcast (swine fever)... very hysterical.. but no actual threat of any infection.....In my opionion a typical example of people wishing to jump on the bandwagon of wishing to be involved in the latest news story.
I would never underestimate the threat of swine-fever but have to say
I have always been taught to look to BBC for unbiased News but at the moment you are starting to look like a 'red-top' daily
Complain about this comment
koan58 - you need to see a doctor. Sharpish.
Complain about this comment
Koan58 (10) Did you think that all by youself?
Complain about this comment
koan58: I'd like to introduce you to TRWTheRealWorld. I think you'd have a lot in common.
Complain about this comment
koan58, ah yes; when in doubt, blame a conspiracy.
*sigh*
Complain about this comment
I'm getting a little despondent with the reporting of this flu out break. There's too much sensationalism and only a little coherency in the reporting.
What we need is more belief in the listeners intelligence and more programs like 'Case Notes' at 16.30 today which was brilliant(well I thought it was good).
I told my daughter to listen to it as she was concerned by all the misinformation and rumour she'd heard at school.
Give us the facts! preferably all of them.
Complain about this comment
cripes.
what a week to be marketed by all those back-room publicity boys&girls as a "truffle hunter"...
doh.
Complain about this comment
On a lighter note, my sister just sent me an email with a modern prayer. I just thought I'd share the ending wih you:
I'm glad I am British
I'm glad I am free
But I wish I were a dog
And Brown was a tree
Complain about this comment
Certainly evoked some reaction, I wonder how many of you are microbiologists? Would you know reality after it has trampled upon you?
It has predictably resulted in a large investment in the pharmaceutical industry, where I'll be looking for my next career move. Selfish I know, but I'll have a long spoon when I sup with the Devil.
There is no greater control mechanism than ignorant fear, all I would say is watch and learn.
Complain about this comment
koan58 - foolishness like yours always evokes a reaction. As a matter of fact, we have considerable expertise in microbiology here on this blog already.
And the pharmaceutical industry are probably wise to people like you ... have you thought of going into retail?
Complain about this comment
Koan, if your plan was to get a reaction then you are a legend...
Complain about this comment
Sid (20) I think youre a bit late, it is a school night
Complain about this comment
I hope I've not missed this, but no one seems to have made the connection of the elevation (height above sea level) of both Mexico City (7000ft+) and this little village La Gloria (4500ft). Now at those heights, lungs work harder, so anything affecting the respiratory system is bound to have more deadly results. However, this might also mean the virus evolved requiring less oxygen and doesn't do so well at lower elevations where there is more of it. This is great for us at present, but presumably evolution will make it better at surviving in more oxygen, in which case, in six months time, we may have something to panic about. So I'm a little concerned that resources in finding a vaccine may be delayed while we (and the WHO) watch to see how serious it is.
Complain about this comment
Chris (15):
Nah, he's off on the wrong tangent. It's that shadowy Battenburg Group who decided to do it. All those ex-PMs and Presidents, business leaders etc who get together every year to plan how to move the world to their own ends... forcing everyone to eat multi-coloured cake, the fiends!
Complain about this comment
Me (24):
Or do I mean the Build-A-Bear Group?
;o)
Complain about this comment
SSC (25) Build-A-Bear group now there's a conspiracy, cuddly toys to take over the planet - Chuckie style :-))
Complain about this comment
Doesn't the current 'Swine Flu' outbreak increase the risk of triggering a potentially more leathal 'Bird Flu' outbreak/pandemic as the piece that was missing from the H5N1 virus is ease of transmission which the H1N1 flu exhibits?
Are there any cases of H5N1 flu in any human population anywhere in the globe?
If anyone that has H5N1 contracts the H1N1 strain then, from my understanding, the different strains can easily swap geneitc code potentially creating an easily transmissible much more aggressive flu virus.
How likely is that to happen?
Complain about this comment
(27) mcollinge: check RxKaren's posts on the other Swine Flu thread for reassurance.
Complain about this comment
We're all doomed. Time to put the kettle on, methinks.
Complain about this comment
mcollinge(27) - It is a possibility but is thought to be extremely unlikely to happen. An individual would need to be infected with H5N1 and H1N1 at the same time, the viruses would have to rejig themselves and the worst components from both would then need to form the new virus. It could, however, equally go the other way and it could end up as a virus which is not transmitted very well and if it does infect you the symptoms are relatively mild. All the experts are saying that this is a remote possibility.
What is circulating at the moment seems to pass relatively easily from human to human and seems to give rise to relatively mild symptoms. The vast majority of people who have caught it have recovered from it.
Complain about this comment
thanks RxKaren for the clarification.
My own, uneducated, guess is that the reason for the many 'flu' related deaths of those in Mexico could be down to poor living conditions and standards in the first place.
Complain about this comment
Just thought I'd share the following extract from an email recived today from my 'big' brother in New Zealand
"lots of media hype/ panic here about swine flu, still letting people in from Mexico however, think we have 13 confirmed cases,15 people killed on roads last weekend and 35 people serious ill with measles all not having had the jabs, - so no attempt at putting things in context."
IS the only pandemic threatening us media hyperbole? Nice work Eddie at least you have resisted the urge to panic!
Complain about this comment
There've been lots of comments about the flu "spreading".
But I've not yet heard of a case of anyone contracting it who has not recently been to Mexico.
Is there any positive result on anyone anywhere who has NOT been to Mexico recently?
Complain about this comment
The Today programme discussed possibly renaming Swine Flu. How about Flew Flu...beacuse it arrived here by aeroplane, of course.
Complain about this comment
Hi there.
Yesterday's programme assured us that there was no connection between intensive farming practices and the Swine Flu outbreak. I had no reason to doubt this until I came across this article today, which was written by the acclaimed American author and theorist Mike Davis.. He seems to trace a pretty clear line of 'growth' in the, er, virility of this virus.. So perhaps there's a story there after all?
http://socialistworker.org/2009/04/27/capitalism-and-the-flu
Yes, I know, it's from Socialist Worker, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
All the best
Daniel Jewesbury
Complain about this comment
Harriet Harman wishes to reduce the amount an MP to reclaim without a receipt from £25 to zero.
An underground fare without a receipt, using an Oyster Card, costs £1.60. An underground fare with a receipt costs £4, or the MP could also take a taxi.
An MP who presents a travel receipt for £4 would have demonstrated that they had incurred an unnecessary expense.
Complain about this comment
Is it true that if swine flu and avian flu mutate and combine, we will be up against an epidemic of flying pig flu?
I tried to contact the NHS helpline to ask
them, but all i got was crackling!
Complain about this comment
...another cracking headline /banner:-
How experts create swine flu vaccine
fine and dandy, but how are the inexpert getting on?
Complain about this comment
LOL...you couldn't make it up How experts create swine flu vaccine Lab assistant with latex gloves, face mask etc. BBC reporter and THE EXPERT not.
It reminds me of being a volunteer 'guinea pig' at Porton Down. Those administering the tests had all the gear, we didn't!
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS