World Health Organization Declares Swine Flu Pandemic
June 11th, 2009Via: Reuters:
The World Health Organization declared the first flu pandemic of the 21st century on Thursday, Sweden’s health ministry said.
The health ministry said the United Nations agency was raising its pandemic flu alert to the top phase 6 on a six-point scale, indicating the first influenza pandemic since 1968 is under way.
“Today… the Minister for Elderly Care and Public Health Maria Larsson has called a press conference following a decision by the WHO to raise the pandemic level to six for the influenza A H1N1 virus,” the ministry said in a statement.
WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan was due to give a news conference on the influenza (A) H1N1 pandemic at 1600 GMT, following a meeting of the WHO’s emergency committee of flu experts, and WHO spokesmen declined to comment before that.
The move will trigger heightened health measures in the WHO’s 193 member states as authorities brace for the worldwide spread of the virus that has so far caused mainly mild illness.
The move to phase 6 reflects the fact that the disease, widely known as swine flu, was spreading geographically, but not necessarily indicate how virulent it is.
“Phase 6, if we call a phase 6, doesn’t mean anything concerning severity, it is concerning geographic spread … Pandemic means global, but it doesn’t have any connotation of severity or mildness,” WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said.
“In fact, what we are seeing with this virus so far is overwhelmingly to date mild disease. So we would think that this event is really a moderate event for the time being, because the numbers are high but the disease is overwhelmingly mild,” he told Reuters Television before the committee meeting.
Here’s the WHO deinition of a pandemic (according to Wikipedia):
* Emergence of a disease new to a population.
* Agents infect humans, CAUSING SERIOUS ILLNESS.
* Agents spread easily and sustainably among humans.
And here’s what WHO are now saying;
“…Pandemic means global, but it doesn’t have any connotation of severity or mildness,” WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said.”
Why is the world not pointing the finger and laughing at these clowns.
I know the MSM works for the bad guys and not for us, but have they no shame whatsoever when it comes to beating up a story. I mean, I’ve been out of bed for about ten minutes and I’ve already done a better job of investigating this issue!