No wonder people have little faith in the news media.

John Silveira just called me to point out a misleading news story now being
carried by CNN. The story claims the current swine flu scare has a long way to go to match the 36,000 flu deaths that occur annually in this country. It’s the 36,000 figure itself that is so misleading, because the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) lumps influenza AND pneumonia deaths TOGETHER. There are actually only about 1,000 deaths from flu each year, not 36,000.

Silveira wrote an extensive article about the potential for a flu pandemic in BHM’s Issue #97 (January/February 2006). Unfortunately we never put the article online and we are now sold out of that issue, but here’s a quote from page 58:

The CDC reports 36,000 influenza deaths a year. This is higher than the
number that occurred in 1968-69 (a pandemic year) when 34,000 died. So, why isn’t every year a pandemic year? Because the CDC lumps flu deaths and pneumonia deaths together. The actual number of flu deaths is about 1,000 a year, although in a bad year it can approach 3,000. Why are the flu and pneumonia deaths lumped together? I don’t know. But there are those who feel it’s a scare tactic provided as a favor to drug companies so they can sell flu vaccines.

This is why people read BHM, I think, because we try and research our facts before we print them.

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This “what if” scenario video on CNN is a reasonable portrayal of what may lay ahead for the United States if swine flu takes off. This could become a very serious pandemic, and if you haven’t gotten your prescription for Tamiflu, I’d get it now before pharmacies run out. My local pharmacy has already run out of Tamiflu.

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I assume you are all as alarmed as I am about the onset of this swine flu virus. BHM has written fairly extensively about the possibility of a pandemic involving a 1918-flu-like virus, and have even published a book about how to prepare yourself against this and other society-wide threats. But I always hoped we would never actually have to face such a threat. This swine flu, unfortunately, may be the real thing.

My daughter, Annie, the managing editor of BHM, told me this morning, “Dad, this is like the Perfect Storm. We have the possibility of a disease pandemic, the country is in a severe recession, and there is widespread political dissatisfaction on the right with the Obama administration. I hope we don’t get a cataclysmic weather event on top of this.”

We are battening down the hatches here, preparing to isolate our family against the outside world, and making plans to produce the next issue of BHM with a staff that can isolate themselves in their own homes. I hope it won’t be necessary, but isolation is the only real protection against a virus from which humans have no immunity. We are also buying Tamiflu and Relenza, which will help fight off flu.

We have plenty of food, fuel, and guns and ammo in our home, and we live way out in the woods. Today we’ll buy as much meat as we can, and jerky and freeze it. If this swine flu develops into a pandemic, the supermarket shelves will empty quickly. I advise anyone reading this to take this pandemic threat seriously.

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A comment on this post from www.realselfreliance.com has a link to an excellent video on swine flu from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control): Click here to read it.

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