Comic stripped: Lou Dobbs' next job

By GottaLaff

La Cucaracha caught my eye this morning:

(click on image to enlarge)

Snort!

Video- HHS Secretary Calls on Elmo to Teach Chuck Todd How to Sneeze into Sleeve

Swine flu could hit up to 40 percent in US

By GottaLaff

Yikes. I have enough trouble getting through a lousy cold:

In a disturbing new projection, health officials say up to 40 percent of Americans could get swine flu this year and next and several hundred thousand could die without a successful vaccine campaign and other measures.

The estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are roughly twice the number of those who catch flu in a normal season and add greater weight to hurried efforts to get a new vaccine ready for the fall flu season. [...]

Health officials say flu cases may explode in the fall, when schools open and become germ factories, and the new estimates dramatize the need to have vaccines and other measures in place.

A world health official said the first vaccines are expected in September and October. The United States expects to begin testing on some volunteers in August, with 160 million doses ready in October. [...]

"Hopefully, mitigation efforts will have a big impact on future cases," he said. Besides pushing flu shots, health officials might urge measures such as avoiding crowded places, handwashing, cough covering and timely use of medicines like Tamiflu.

Because so many more people are expected to catch the new flu, the number of deaths over two years could range from 90,000 to several hundred thousand, the CDC calculated. Again, that is if a new vaccine and other efforts fail.

In a normal flu season, about 36,000 people die from flu and its complications, according to the American Medical Association. That too is an estimate, because death certificates don't typically list flu as a cause of death. Instead, they attribute a fatality to pneumonia or other complications.

Much more here.

Is it hot in here, or do I suddenly feel a fever coming on?

New Orleans mayor quarantined in China

By GottaLaff

Darn those close quarters:

New Orleans, Louisiana, Mayor Ray Nagin, who traveled to China on an economic development trip, has been quarantined after possible exposure to the H1N1 virus, his office confirmed Sunday.

Nagin flew on a plane that also carried a passenger who is being treated for symptoms suspected to be from the virus, commonly known as swine flu, the mayor's office said in a statement.

Nagin, his wife and a member of his security detail have been quarantined in Shanghai, though all three remain symptom free, the statement said.

If he'd listened to Vice President Biden, he would have steered clear of confined spaces.

I kid because I know he's okay. I heard them say so on the Tee Vee Machine.

Fox Panel- Swine Flu being used to push Obama Health Care

Painfully desperate.

There goes my Purell stock: Flu's threat may be tapering off

By GottaLaff

I'm thrilled to pieces that the corporate media perpetuated their fear tactics in order to get viewers. Nothing helps our economy more than building ratings. Too bad the director of the Center for Disease Control is throwing cold water all over them:

The country’s top health officials indicated a cautionary public may be reducing the threat of the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, but that a vaccine won’t be available until the fall.

Richard Besser, the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Sunday he was "starting to see some encouraging signs" about the disease, although he "wasn’t fully assured" that the influenza strain could not pose a more significant threat. He credited the response from Americans to the disease -- from washing their hands, to staying home when sick -- as helping to stem the strain’s spread.

Keep washing those hands as they resume their over-saturated coverage of Octomom , kidnappings, and devotion to Rushpublic dishonesty already in progress. At least we can keep our hands clean, even if the corporate media doesn't.

Cartoon of the Day

Via.

AUDIO: Jay Severin suspended after blaming swine flu on the ‘millions of leeches’ from Mexico.

By GottaLaff

I remember this bigot from his Tee Vee punditiot days. My question is, why didn't they fire him?

Conservative talker Jay Severin was suspended indefinitely today by Boston's WTKK-FM after using the current swine flu outbreak to attack Mexicans and immigrants. [...]

So now in addition to venereal disease and the other leading exports of Mexico -- women with mustaches and VD -- now we have swine flu. ... We should be if anything surprised that Mexico has not visited upon us poxes of more various and serious types considering the number of cimminalieans already here. [...]

[W]hen scoop up some of the world's lowest of primitives in poor Mexico and drop it down in the middle of the United States. Poor, without skills, without language, not share our culture, not share our hygiene. ... It's millions of leeches from a primitive country. ... Now they are exporting a rather more active form of disease which is the swine flu.

He-e-e-ere's Jay:

Severin's agent thinks Senor Severin "will be back on the air doing great radio soon."

BREAKING: W.H.O. about to raise flu alert to Level 5: Global pandemic

By GottaLaff

The World Health Organization is about to give an update on the Tee Vee Machine. They are expected to raise the phase level to 5.

Via a Tweet from NPR:

declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize [responses] is short." -WHO

This allows for more preparation and prevention. Cover your sneezes and coughs, wash your hands, and stay away from those with flu symptoms.

Here's more:

The World Health Organization has decided to raise its pandemic alert level to a phase 5, declaring swine flu a global pandemic, BNO News has exclusively learned. [...]

It will be the first time the World Health Organization used phase 5 since they introduced the 6-phase system several years ago. According to BNO News sources at the World Health Organization in Geneva, they do not know if they are dealing with "a very mild or a very severe pandemic." A number of actions to be taken will also be announced.

It will be the first influenza pandemic since the Hong Kong Flu in 1968 which killed up to 1 million people.

UPDATE, from the presser, live:

For the first time in history, we can track the evolution of a pandemic in real time.

New diseases by definition are poorly understood. ... No immediate answers, but we will get them...

This phase is a signal to governments, the pharmaceutical industries, etc. that actions should be undertaken with increased urgency...

Ramping up production... Trying to get a pandemic vaccine going.

The question: How severe will the pandemic be? It's possible that the full clinical spectrum goes from mild to severe, but we need to continue to monitor, get better information.... We know from past experience, flu can cause mild disease in AFFLUENT COUNTRIES, more severe IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES.

The international community should treat this as opportunity to ramp up preparedness, response.

It's all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic. We don't have all the answers, but we will get them... with the support of our partners.

President Obama On Swine Flu & Arlen Specter

Anti-Immigrant Wishes Swine Flu on Obama

By GottaLaff

Via DKos:

Barbara Cole lives in my home town, in Orange County, California. [...] [N]ow she's at it again, hoping that Obama is stricken with the swine flu that conservatives are blaming on immigrants. Her recent email reminds me of Falwell's cursing of gays with AIDS when she says:

"As many Christians have often spoken, 'The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways,'"

"Wouldn't it be even MORE interesting if some of the anti-American - pro-illegal alien AMNESTY traitors (posing as U.S. elected officials) who just visited Mexico, also contracted this disease and shared it with THEIR loved ones? We wonder if they would still vote for 'Open Borders'?"

It seems hard to blame the cases in the US on Mexican immigrants. Several of the clusters are US student migrants who have returned to the US FROM Mexico. If you're interested in Ms. Cole's histrionics you can find some background here.

Those compassionate conservatives are everywhere, aren't they? Open up that big tent, Rushpublics! Throw a few more Tea Tantrums, wish death on your fellow Americans, and enjoy the results.

H/t: Dr. President

Sebelius Nomination Up for Vote

It's about time. Keep an eye peeled for some quality wingnut posturing though.

With the swine flu spreading, the Senate is on the verge of confirming Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as secretary of health and human services. Debate is set to begin later this morning, with a vote expected this afternoon.

Sebelius is expected to get the 60 votes needed to prevent a GOP filibuster, though the AP says the vote "could be close. Anti-abortion groups have been lobbying Republican senators to vote against her."

First Read: "The left has been pulling its hair over the fact that conservatives have been holding up her confirmation -- over abortion -- during this swine flu frenzy. Indeed, it's amazing that there's been very little finger-pointing that the president doesn't have an HHS secretary, surgeon general, or his own CDC head. Obviously, if Republicans starting pointing fingers, they'd get grief right back given that members of their party have slowed down Sebelius. This entire incident, as it turns out, is a pretty good lesson for those who believe the partisan nature of Washington can hold up the serious work of government."

"When a Progressive Blog for Profit Like HuffPost Starts Peddling Panic, It's Time for Reflection"

By GottaLaff

Your daily dose of BuzzFlash--excerpt:

We have enormous respect for the Huffington Post and particularly for Arianna Huffington's brilliant analysis. But when a progressive Internet site -- and the leader on the web -- takes a turn toward the sensational and panic peddling, it's time to pause for reflection upon the impact of commercial investment on the web.

Huff Post started out as a sort of a celebrity blog version of the Daily Kos -- and with the oversight of a former AOL honcho and the infusion of millions of dollars in capital, it expanded into a progressive online newspaper. It had the money, the celebrity panache, and the brainpower to create the news source of the future, and people -- particularly liberals -- flocked to Huff Po.

But in the past few weeks, its photos and screaming mile-high headlines on the homepage appear more like the New York Post or an attempt to out-Drudge the Drudge Report.

More here. I have to say, I've heard similar thoughts from a number of people.

President Obama- Flu 'not a cause for alarm'

MSNBC just said that a travel advisory for Mexico has just been declared. Must really suck to be a tourist down there right now.

GOP Fought Pandemic Preparedness

By GottaLaff

UPDATE #2: Swine Flu in Mexico- Timeline of Events

UPDATE-- I was thinking about this very thing while typing up this post, and then promptly forgot to add it in. I'll let AMERICAblog do that for me:

GOP is filibustering the confirmation of the Secretary of HHS in the midst of swine flu preparations

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who are the most shortsighted, destructive, self-serving know-nothings of all:

When House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who has long championed investment in pandemic preparation, included roughly $900 million for that purpose in this year's emergency stimulus bill, he was ridiculed by conservative operatives and congressional Republicans.

Obey and other advocates for the spending argued, correctly, that a pandemic hitting in the midst of an economic downturn could turn a recession into something far worse [...]

The current swine flu outbreak is not a pandemic, and there is reason to hope that it can be contained. [...]

On Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that a national "public health emergency" had been declatred. (Notably, the second question at the White House press conference on the emergency had to do with the potential impact on the economic recovery.) [...]

Rove dismissed Obey's proposals as "disturbing" and "laden with new spending programs." He said the congressman was peddling a plan based on "deeply flawed assumptions."

Like what?

Rove specifically complained that Obey's proposal included "$462 million for the Centers for Disease Control, and $900 million for pandemic flu preparations."

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blot post to bring you breaking news. We have found the source of the swine flu outbreak:

Now back to our blog post already in progress:

The attack on pandemic preparation became so central to the GOP strategies that AP reported in February: "Republicans, meanwhile, plan to push for broader and deeper tax cuts, to trim major spending provisions that support Democrats' longer-term policy goals, and to try to knock out what they consider questionable spending items, such as $870 million to combat the flu and $400 million to slow the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases."

Famously, Maine Senator Susan Collins, the supposedly moderate Republican who demanded cuts in health care spending in exchange for her support of a watered-down version of the stimulus, fumed about the pandemic funding: "Does it belong in this bill? Should we have $870 million in this bill No, we should not."

Yes, we should have.

Even now, Collins continues to use her official website to highlight the fact that she led the fight to strip the pandemic preparedness money out of the Senate's version of the stimulus measure.

We'll be right back after this short break, brought to you by Maine's burgeoning dry cleaning industry:

Now, back to our post:

The Republicans essentially succeeded. The Senate version of the stimulus plan included no money whatsoever for pandemic preparedness. [...]

[S]tate and local governments, and the emergency services that would necessarily be on the frontlines in any effort to contain a pandemic, got nothing.[...]

No serious player in Washington has been unaware of the fears with regard to a flu pandemic. They have been well-publicized and well-discussed. [...]

And it is important to point out that no serious player in Washington could have been unaware of the threat that a pandemic -- or even the fear of one -- would pose to economic renewal. [...]

But they bet that they would be able to score their political points without any consequences.

Senate Democratic leaders bowed to Collins in the process of crafting their chamber's version of the stimulus. [...]

Collins played politics with public health, and the economic recovery. That makes her about as bad a player as you will find in a town full of bad players.

But Senate Democrats bent to her demands. That makes them, at the very least, complicit in the weakening of what needed to be a muscular plan.[...]

There is, however, a hero on the House side. Throughout the process, David Obey battled to get Congress to recognize that a pandemic would threaten not just public health but a fragile economic recovery.

Thank you for joining us. Tune in again next week when we discover that despite Donald Rumsfeld's stake in Tamiflu, he has been foolish enough to maintain his relationship with a Mexican pig named Karlos Rovero, and, to his surprise and dismay, contracted a nasty case of the swine flu.

G'night folks!

Hey Gov. Perry: If Texas secedes, it gets no federal help for swine flu

By GottaLaff

First Gov. Ricky jumps on the secession bandwagon, then he denies it, then he says we're jealous of Texas for all the wrong reasons, and now he has his hand out. Wild guess: Consistency is not his strong suit:

Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) [...] is requesting help from the federal government to deal with a possible swine flu pandemic:

Gov. Rick Perry today in a precautionary measure requested the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provide 37,430 courses of antiviral medications from the Strategic National Stockpile to Texas to prevent the spread of swine flu. Currently, three cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Texas.

Oink.