New flu deals another blow to economy

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tuneintokyo at 11:23 AM JST - 20th May

this 'epidemic' is simply a drug industry sales promotion fueled by 24-hour news outlets

What drug are you talking about?
Himajin at 11:31 AM JST - 20th May

this 'epidemic' is simply a drug industry sales promotion fueled by 24-hour news outlets

I think the 66 dead would disagree with you, if they could.
EUgirl at 01:50 PM JST - 20th May

Himajin: 79 dead. And I agree with you.

Maskless: The Japanese media had a a great topic, the arrest of that SMAP guy, to chew on, but they were forced to forget him with this flu. So are you really claiming that Japanese media invented the whole thing what happened in Mexico? And somehow got the U.S. media, CNN and places like that to co-operate?
Himajin at 03:33 PM JST - 20th May

Glad you're 'maskless in Hyogo' I'm masked in Hyogo, let's see who gets it first!

Up to 79 is it?
Bento at 09:54 PM JST - 20th May

Himajin-you're masked in the house? are you going to let your husband back in(to the house) when he gets back from Tokyo?he is a potential transmission threat,case now confirmed in Kanto area,good luck sorting that one out.
Nessie at 10:10 PM JST - 20th May

Swine flu demands rasher measures. ;)
Sarge at 10:16 PM JST - 20th May

It's great for the mask makers and the pharmacies that sell them.
Himajin at 10:58 PM JST - 20th May

bento, read more carefully, dear. I never said I wear a mask in the house, and I said my husband's meetings on the weekend in Tokyo are canceled, so he didn't even get there, he's still down here.
Bento at 11:13 PM JST - 20th May

so you were outside your house on your computer when you wrote 'masked in hyogo' or were you just stretching the truth for effect. Your right about your husband though i read phone and tokyo meeting and assumed the rest..oops perhaps they were cancelled because they realised he was coming from an infection hotspot rather than because tokyo had had its first case. What do you think,pet?
Himajin at 12:04 AM JST - 21st May

Masked whenever I leave the house, oh pendantic one....I really don't think it would matter if Moondog were unmasked in his house...I don't think either of us would ever get the flu then...

I'd let hubby in anyway of course.
cleo at 12:18 AM JST - 21st May

I'd let hubby in anyway of course.

Every serious bout of cold or flu I've had in the past ten years has been a 'gift' Mr Cleo has brought home with him. He's been warned this time, the first sniffle and I change the locks on the door.

:-(
Bento at 12:59 AM JST - 21st May

"Nothing is as peevish and pedantic as men's judgments of one another." erasumus. "twas thee that requested greater care"..Bento
Himajin at 01:23 AM JST - 21st May

Hahaha, thank you Bento, have a nice evening.
XXXXX at 04:24 AM JST - 21st May

somebody was saying the flu was created to cause distraction from the economy...?
Moondog at 08:40 AM JST - 23rd May

Sorry to be away while everyone was reacting to my post on the 19th in which I claimed the current mass hysteria over Swine Flu on drug companies and the media who have to talk about something...

To Himajin who wrote "I think the 66 dead would disagree with me, if they could" I offer this tidbit from the World Health Organization's page on influenza:

"... annual [influenza] epidemics are thought to result in between three and five million cases of severe illness and between 250 000 and 500 000 deaths every year around the world." http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/2003/fs211/en/

I don't want to take away from the deaths of 66 or 79 people or whatever it's up to, but what we are seeing here is most certainly not an unusually large number of deaths. It's simply an unusually extreme media focus on a rather ordinary number of deaths.

To tuneintokyo who wrote "What drug are you talking about?" I suggest you google "influenza vaccine" to learn about flu-fighting drugs.

EUgirl asked if I was "really claiming that Japanese media invented the whole thing what happened in Mexico? And somehow got the U.S. media, CNN and places like that to co-operate?"

No, the disease is real. If you read more carefully, you see I'm claiming the reaction to the disease is hysteria. I don't know exactly where it started but who benefits? My use of the word 'promotion' was of course facetious but there is plenty of reason to suspect drug companies of fueling the hysteria.

As for the media, no, I don't think the Japanese media got the U.S. media to go along on the story. Quite the opposite. The story started in Mexico and got big when the U.S. media picked it up and went into 24-hour nutso mode. Then the Japanese media picked it up kind of, uh, virally.

I stand by my earlier statements.