after the great sars terror of 2002

8/14/2019 After the Great SARS Terror of 2002

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great flu epidemic of 2009 failed to materialize. Once again, ahealth scare has failed to live up to its hype.

However, this is not over this yet. Flu viruses are notoriouslyunstable. The H1N1 virus could still mutate at any time andwithout warning. The antiviral treatments that seem to behaving some effect at the moment could be rendered uselessagainst an evolved version of the virus. And, although thesummer outbreak in the Northern hemisphere looks to havepeaked, the cooler weather of the autumn and winter may bringthe virus back with a vengeance; perhaps just as we let downour guard. Furthermore, the shadow of bird flu still threatens;

just because we have had swine flu, does not mean we will nothave bird flu. This is not an ‘either, or’ situation.

So, real threat or phantom menace? Who knows? Only onething is certain; nobody responsible for public health is likely tocome out of this well. If governments and health authoritiesunderplay the threat, they stand accused of negligent



complacency, and if they talk-up the threat, they are accused of scaremongering. They simply cannot win.

Ultimately, if we emerge through this scare relativelyunscathed, there will be the predictable backlash against theauthorities for causing unnecessary panic and squanderingpublic resources. What we will never know, however, is howmuch all the preemptive action was responsible for mitigatingthe effects of the disease. As with the millennium bug scare(and, who knows, with SARS?), those in authority may becondemned by the very success of their actions.

In practice, global health authorities have no option but to planfor the worst case scenario, and advise the public accordingly.

However, as they consider ongoing and future precautions,policy-makers must know they are in that familiar territory —damned if they do and damned if they don’t.



Nice outline of the dilemmas! I was reading the whole article,hoping you would say, “damned if they do and damned if theydon’t,” so I was very pleased when I got you your last line.

Because in reality, it goes like this:

DARNED if they do, and DAMNED if they don’t.

The post-mortem critique of disaster management is neversymmetrical.

If you over-reacted, and warned people loud and clear aboutwhat might be imminent, and then nothing really awfulhappens, you get accused of being a fear-monger. A media hog(different word often used, but “hog” will do). You get accused

of mis-directing resources that could better have been targetedat X, the next disaster that actually happens out of all the onesthat MIGHT happen. You don’t usually get fired; you don’tusually lie awake at night thinking about all the people who



The bird flu virus subtype which is causing most concern isclassified as H5N1 (meaning it has a type 5 hemagglutinin anda type 3 neuraminidase), while virus subtype responsible for thecurrent outbreak of swine flu is H1N1. This was the distinctionthat I was making in my article.

Scientists at the Centre for Biochemical Engineering, UniversityCollege London, have described a disturbing (if unlikely)

scenario in which swine flu spreads to countries such asIndonesia where it infects animals or humans who are alreadyaffected by bird flu. Bird flu is currently not easily transmitted,but is highly virulent if caught; while swine flu is more readilytransmitted, but causes relatively mild symptoms. If a personbecomes infected by both strains, it is possible that there willbe an exchange of genetic material resulting in the creation of an easily transmissible but highly virulent virus



On a lighter note, some people say that the real differencebetween bird flu and swine flu is that with bird flu you may needtweetment whereas with swine flu you may need oinkment…

“The antiviral treatments that seem to be having some effect..”Are you sure the antivirals indeed treated the patients.1. Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) causes suicidal tendencies.Already over a dozen kids have committed suicide due to that &

hence it’s banned in Japan for children.2. It only reduces the duration of symptoms by 2 days, as perclinical records.3. It’s side effects are the same as the symptoms of swine flu.4. The only good thing inside it is “star anise”. Why not have itdirectly. Rest all is chemical poison.Do google for “swine flu meta cure” for something moreuseful…



My article was not intended to be a defence of antivirals. Everydrug must be assessed on the basis of its risk/benefit ratio.Some would say that the jury is still out on Tamiflu.

As suggested, I googled ’swine flu meta cure’, and wasparticularly interested to learn that:

“…all flu started with the mass-killer 1918-19 spanish flu [...].

As per nature’s law, thousands of dead bodies lying unattendedduring the 1914-18, attracted destructive agents from outsidethe earth to do what they did best – decompose those bodies as‘the dead must decay’. They were the subtler microvita – thefundamental units of all life – but of the bad type.

They travel uninterrupted unstopped across all the worlds – forexample in the form of bio-photons. Since then they haveadopted our earth as their home as they really fell deeply inlove with some of the herd-minded earthlings here : pig-minded



pigs, bird-headed birds & both pig-minded + bird-headed of allhumans as their well-deserved hosts.”

I encourage any readers to do the same google search anddraw their own conclusions.

after the great sars terror of 2002

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