Saturday, May 2, 2009
Confirmed cases of swine flu jumped by more than 65 percent Saturday with the World Health Organization reporting 615 people in 15 countries.
The organization had reported 367 cases on Friday. The jump in cases was due to ongoing testing of a backlog of specimens in Mexico, the WHO said.
The most cases were in Mexico, where 397 people were infected and 16 deaths were attributed to the virus, according to the WHO. Next was the United States, which has 141 cases and one death.
Meanwhile, in the first reported case of mandatory quarantine nearly 200 hotel guests and 100 staff members were ordered to stay at the Metro Park Hotel in Hong Kong for seven days to stop the spread of the H1N1 swine flu virus, according to a Chinese government spokesman.
The quarantine was ordered after a 25 -year-old Mexican man stayed in the hotel and became sick.
From the Left 
Asian nations don’t think twice about mandatory quarantine to protect their citizens. I would be surprised to see it here. I mean, we can’t even close the border with Mexico for two weeks or a month until we get a handle on the pandemic.
I agree, Rachel. The big airports in Asia were using the thermal imaging equipment last weekend and if a passenger deplaned sick, they were offered before being allowed into the country. But even taking these steps didn’t result in keeping the H1N1 swine flu out of Hong Kong. At first, I thought we should close the border with Mexico but now I see the bug is already here so what good would it do?
The concept of a nationwide, mandatory quarantine is controversial because it challenges our beliefs in civil liberties and freedoms.
It’s always a balance. Sometimes, a precarious one.
At this point, I do not favor a mandatory quarantine in the U.S..
We’re a mobile society today……… we travel, move for jobs, and visit families and friends all over the globe. It is unrealistic to think we can stop the spread of a virus.
Has anyone died yet who didn’t get infected in Mexico? Even the toddler who died in Texas was a Mexican visitor who got the disease there.
I never used that alcohol based hand sanitizer gel stuff before, but decided I should (5 suspected cases in my State, 2 in my city).
Folks are buying up hand sanitizer like crazy…. I had to go to 3 different stores to find a store that had any in stock!
One enterprising college student bought 1000 medical face masks & sold them for $5 bucks a piece on a campus where a suspected Swine flu outbreak is pending CDC lab confirmation. Ugh!
The CDC is slow as molasses in updating their info. They are asking for feedback on their site.
The more suspected cases they have, the slower they seem to be updating.
I suggested besides the official confirmed cases, they should also post an additional “pending confirmation” chart, by State & # pending… delaying said info by several days will only serve to potentially expose more people.
The swine flu is a beta test. Quarantining is much like concentraption camps. They want to take away our freedom for population control purposes. Please read infowars.com
Globalization will be the end of western civilization.
We grow tomatoes in the U.S. but we don’t get to eat them because they’re shipped to Mexico and Japan.
Japan grows soy beans but they don’t get to eat them because they’re shipped to Australia and Canada.
Mexico grows avocados but they don’t get to eat them because they’re shipped to the U.S. and Brazil.
Live locally. Grow locally. Stop the corporate control over our lives. It’s up to us, folks.
My brother — who leans toward the tinfoil in his world view, is convinced the H1N1 swine flu is a face-based engineered virus designed to target the Mexicans.
It is his belief the globalists want 100% control of Mexico and this is the surest way to unravel what’s left of the government there.
Gleneagle – I don’t mean any harm but your brother sounds a bit paranoid.
I remember 20 years ago when antigay conservatives insisted HIV was a “gay disease.” Of course, there is no such thing as a gay disease. Just look at the millions of cases of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of them are seen in heterosexual men and women.
The epidemiology of the H1N1 virus appears to be avian flu-infected fly, which stings the pig, and the infected pig infects the human via airborne transmission. Insect to animal to human.
This is why large corporate pig farms don’t belong near people. Tell it to Smithfield’s of Virginia, who owns the pig farm in Veracruz, Mexico which is said to be ground zero.
Race-specific virus? I don’t believe it.
Now I do think people wish they could eliminate a whole culture or group with a diseases but science isn’t so precise as this. Thank goodness.
Im almost too scared/paranoid to even go out on my B-DAY MAY 4TH, if soo, i guess ima have to wear a sugical mask like Michael Jackson, and a SPACE SUIT! cuz i aint fin to catch no SWINE FLU, ha! and i swear i use soo much soap i think im wasting bottles. But u must stay sanatized.
I’m not worried for myself but I am concerned for my nephew who attends a very crowded public school in a district where suspected swine flu has appeared. I don’t want him to get sick. Schools all across the country are closing at an alarming rate as a precaution and I think this is wise until we see a lessening of new swine flu cases.