Is there really the threat of a swine flu pandemic, or is it just a cash cow for big pharma?

The media has been having a heyday with the fear of a “swine flu” pandemic, and rumors and fear-mongering have taken the stage. One doctor tries to cut through the crap with his article, “Swine Flu: New Pandemic or Just Makin’ Bacon?“

“Back in 1975 a soldier at Fort Ord CA died in a training exercise on a very hot day. A very mild virus that came to be known as swine flu virus was found in his body, though never proven to be the cause of death. Just as probable he died of overexertion, since it was a very hot day and they were on a training exercise. The virus was a member of the H1N1 virus family reportedly found in hogs, which had not previously been transmitted to humans. So nothing was known of its virulence or its ability to cause even a local outbreak, let alone a global epidemic. There was no evidence that it could be a serious disease for humans.”

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Fast forward to 2009:

“We have conflicting reports of several hundred Mexicans ‘infected’ with swine flu, 150 of whom are ‘believed to have’ died from it. And now we’re also beginning to see reports of each day more and more people in the US have come down with the illness, supposedly 70 cases, at first, then more.”

The doctor goes on to lay out the pattern of slim allegations, endless unsubstantiated inferences and unreasonable predictions about the ‘swine flu‘:

A global pandemic is in the offing

Thousands of Mexicans will die first

Americans are dying

A vaccine is in the wings

Tamiflu is being ramped up to save us

Within a week of the so-called ‘outbreak’, the media had begun to tally the numbers of infected and dead, but what are they counting?

“There is no screening test for the disease! No culture protocols, no titer amounts, no incubation periods set, and what is most important, no specific pathogen has been identified. Without a specific pathogen, there is no epidemic.”

He calls it the Case of the Disappearing Threat, which has happened the same way with anthrax, SARS, smallpox, and avian flu. According to the article, this is the pattern of events:

A disease is named

Mass hysteria is created: global threat

The disease is loosely correlated with a microbe

With insufficient testing, a vaccine and drug are ordered, costing billion$

Soon after, the treat disappears and is never heard from again

Regardless of your convictions about the origins and validity of the ‘swine flu‘, it would serve all of us well to read the article and ask some good hard questions about the nature of the ‘swine flu pandemic’. Full text is here: SWINE FLU: NEW PANDEMIC OR JUST MAKIN’ BACON?

Image: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com at Flickr under Creative Commons