How many died of Swine Flu? So far… 12
(Update 02-May: the number of confirmed deaths from A(H1N1), aka Swine Flu is up to 15 — 11 in the Federal District (which may be of people who were transferred to one of the specialty hospitals in the Capital). As more testing is done, the number of deaths may rise slightly, but less and less flu is being found, as more and more suspected infections are investigated. The point is that there is that the mass outbreak hasn’t happened, and the percentage of people getting sick is declining).
The Wall Street Journal (hardly a lefty conspiracy site… a righty conspiracy site, maybe) is now reporting that
A picture is now emerging of how U.S. and Mexican officials, with a key assist from a Canadian government lab, first realized they faced a new type of disease and began racing to isolate its earliest origins. Until recently, Mexico was widely assumed to be ground zero. Now, however, some California doctors are questioning that.
The four earliest confirmed cases are divided evenly between California and Mexico. In fact, it appears two children in California got sick in late March, several days before the first two known Mexico cases in early April.
…
But something may have been brewing in Mexico as early as mid-March, when health officials say they first noticed a slight uptick in patients with severe pulmonary problems such as pneumonia. A/H1N1 flu can cause pneumonia.
At the time, the slight increase didn’t cause much worry. An average of 20,000 people die each year from pneumonia in Mexico.
The [Mexico City] News:
At a Thursday night press conference, Health Secretary José Angel Córdova reported that authorities have completed testing on 679 suspected swine flu cases. Córdova said the diagnostic results indicated 312 positive cases.
“Of the total of 312 positive tests, 300 individuals have been treated and cured,” Córdova said. “At present, we can still only confirm that 12 people have died as a result of the H1N1 virus.”
Córdova said officials and health authorities have visited the homes of 77 people suspected of dying from the virus and only two people have been found to be infected by the virus.
This does not mean the emergency is over… but it is a sign that alarmist reports are overblown, and that the “sanitary contingency” probably has worked to prevent an epidemic outbreak.
Updates and previous posts tagged “Swine Flu”:
May Day … ¡PRESENTE!
In the spirit of International Workers Day, when we remember the fights of Lucy Gonzales Parsons and the Haymarket Martyrs, and when it’s up to immigrants — and the children of immigrants (which is all of us, really) — to continue pushing for human rights, I’ll give Nezua the cyber-bullhorn:
Dear Friends,
On May 1st, thousands of us will take to the streets to demand an end to immigration policies that marginalize and dehumanize millions of our people. Our presence will be historic and important, but we must not stop there. Latinos have long been a driving force behind the economy of the United States, but we have yet to speak with a unified political voice that forces our government to do right by all of us. We can—and starting today, with your help, we will.
That’s why we’re launching Presente.org. Our goal is to create a broad-based online community of Latinos and our allies strong enough to make the United States honor its promises and protect our people. We’re starting with immigration, but we won’t stop there—we’ll provide you with ongoing opportunities to make change on the issues that most affect our communities.
The only thing we need now is you. Our power is in our voices and our numbers. It starts by affirming a simple pledge: to stand up and speak out for the interests of Latino communities. Please join us, and just as important, invite your friends and family to do the same:
President Obama has pledged to push for immigration reform, and other politicians are also with us. For the first time in a generation, we have a real chance to drastically change our country’s immigration policy, impacting the lives of millions of friends, family members, and coworkers. But we can’t rely on politicians to pass real and just reforms. There are strong forces who stand against us, and they’ve made it clear that they will fight true reform at every step of the way.
We know that real change will only happen if everyday people speak with a strong, unified voice. That’s what Presente.org seeks to make possible. On immigration and beyond, we’ll use the Internet and national media to hold our leaders accountable, making our political presence accurately reflect our importance to this country. Click here to stand up and be counted, and show the world how large our movement really is:
Thank you,
The Presente.org team
Humans unite!
The working class of the world will bring them back to life every first of May.
(José Martí, 1886, on the Haymarket Martyrs)
When you mention that today is a holiday in Mexico, the foreign residents — mostly from the United States give you an incredulous stare. A few think they’ve mixed up their days, and it’s Cinco de Mayo (a very minor holiday indeed). A very small number recognize that it’s International Workers’ Day, celebrated everywhere on the planet — except the United States, Canada and a few other places. It is not only the only Mexico holiday that celebrates an event in the United States… one forgotten or conveniently left out of history lessons in school, it seems that immigrants are needed to reintroduce American History to Americans.
In 1884, the Federation of Labor, the nascent labor union in the United States voted to push for a nationwide standard work day of eight hours. Employers resisted, considering it “socialist” or “anarchist” (which only convinced socialists and anarchists it was a good idea). With management generally opposed, even after negotiations, the union called for a general strike on the First of May 1886. There were demonstrations and strikes throughout the nation… up to a a half-million workers walked off the job and demonstrations throughout the country were the largest ever seen up to that time.
In Chicago, where 40,000 workers were on strike, an estimated 80,000 marched down Michigan Avenue on May First. The marchers included about half the non-union scab replacements at the McCormick Harvesting Company plant where union workers had been locked out since February. On 3 March, when unionized workers protested in front of the plant, the Chicago Police opened fire on the unarmed workers, killing at least two people.
An anarchist-led (and… organized) protest against police brutality on 4 March attracted a large crowd, including off-duty police officers. Someone (probably a by-stander, and possibly working for McCormick) threw a pipe-bomb that killed a policeman. The police opened fire, killing several of their own officers in the resulting melee.
Of course, the anarchists and other organizers were blamed — all but two of the eight condemned men immigrants, all but one received a death sentence and four would hang.
This is old history to almost everyone — except those in the United States, one of the few places where the First of May is NOT celebrated as Labor Day (the Chicago Historical Society maintains a good website on those of us who never learned this part of our American history — which is most of us ).
August Spies, , Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Louis Lingg, Michael Schwab were German immigrant workers. Oscar Neebe was born in the United States, but raised in Germany. Samuel Fielden had been sent to work in the English cotton mills at the age of ten, had emigrated to the United States in his 20s and was self-employed. Only Albert Parsons was described at the time as being of “native stock.”
Parsons, whose ancestors were New England Puritans, had been born in Alabama, raised in Texas by a black nanny after he was orphaned and joined the Confederate Army as a teenager. In post-Civil War Texas he quickly became unpopular for his support of equal rights for non-whites and his shocking marriage to Lucy Ella Gonzales, who was of Mexican and African-American ancestry. Forced to flee to Chicago, Parsons worked as a journalist until he was blacklisted for supporting workers’ rights. He then became active in the labor movement, especially active in the movement for the eight-hour work day.
He happened to be in Cincinatti on May First, but was giving a speech when the pipe bomb was thrown, and — as a labor organizer, considered a “co-conspirator” in the incident. Parsons managed to avoid arrest, fled Chicago, but turned himself in, believing he and the others could get a fair hearing.
He was wrong. Neebe, the American-born defendant was given a fifteen year sentence. Fielden and Schwab petitioned the Governor of Illinois for clemency, and their sentence was reduced to life in prison. Lingg cheated the state of its revenge. A friend smuggled in a blasting cap in a cigar, and Lingg, the night before his execution, comitted suicide with an exploding cigar. Spies, Fischer, Engel and Parsons were hanged 11 November 1887.
Lucy Gonzales Parsons would continue working for human rights — not only for laborers, but for persons of color, women and the unemployed. She was an orator and organizer, assisting at strikes both in the United States and Argentina. The Chicago Police paid her the fine compliment of calling her “more dangerous than a thousand rioters,” and paid her the backhanded compliment of seizing her “dangerous” library when she died at the age of 89 in 1942.
The working class — and everyone who enjoys a little time off, who has a weekend, who is an immigrant or the descendant of an immigrant, a person of color, who has been unemployed or ever held a job owes a debt to August Spies, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Louis Lingg, Oscar Neebe, Michael Schwab, Albert Parsons and Lucy Gonzales Parsons.
And every First of May we bring them back to life.
Facing a crisis
The ex-pat message boards are full of discussions on the value — or lack thereof– of the tapabocas that the health authorities are encouraging people to wear… in Mexico City. Out here in Sinaloa (where “Cartel Flu” — aka airborne lead poisoning — caused by the AK47 strain of virus is a more common ailment) there is less public pressure to wear one’s tapaboca, though it’s not at all unusual to see people wearing a mask.
Where I’ve been seeing them has been in places like farmacias (which makes sense… sick people go there) and restaurants — but then, food prep people often do wear face masks… for the same reason they’re being recommended in Mexico City.
Because the U.S. Centers for Disease Control poo-poos tapabocas as a means of avoiding the flu, it doesn’t mean here in Mexico there isn’t a good reason to wear them. If I wore a mask, it wouldn’t be so much to protect myself from your germs, as to protect you from mine… not all people carrying the flu virus get sick, and just breathing can expel the germs. So can sneezing and coughing, which the tapaboca at least keeps out of other people’s. And, though I don’t pick my nose, I might be tempted to scratch it, or stick my finger near my mouth… another transmission route for viruses, and one less likely to happen wearing a tapaboca.
It’s only a first line f viral defence, but the tapaboca serves a deeper purpose. The Aztecs spent the “useless days” — the leap-days left when the 360 day calendar turned over — much as today’s Chilangos are spending the time during the “sanitary contingency”: staying home and avoiding all unnecessary activity. The “useless days” were fraught with uncertainty. The cycle of life and nature — represented by the circular calendar — was out of kilter, and until the cycle restored itself, people were at the mercy of the malevolent forces of nature.
During the “useless days” , the people people went “masked/ with maguey leaves” as Chilango poet Juan Jose Tablada wrote.
Mexico City, the navel of the Universe, is at the mercy right now of a malevolent force. Perhaps swine flu is nature’s — or Tezcatlipoca’s — vengance. Perhaps the natural world is out of whack, and the best thing to do is wait for it to return to the cyle. Perhaps it is best to go masked.
Octavio Paz wrote in 1951:
The Mexican, whether young or old, criollo or mestizo, general or laborer or lawyer, seems to me to be a person who shuts himself away to protect himself: his face is a mask and so is his smile.
Perhaps, but self-protection does not mean self-abnegation. the disappearance of personhood. One can, as T.S. Eliot (not a Mexican) said, “prepare a face to meet / the faces that we meet,” — masked — preserve our own nature (of the mask we wish to show the world) through the useless days.
(Guanabee, “Pimp My Swine Flu Mask” includes more examples of creative tapabocas… and a few impractical, but ingenious, substitutes)
Rebranding
“It’s killing our markets. Where they got the name, I just don’t know.”
(Iowa hog farmer Francis Gilmore)
I donno, from swine, maybe?
Apparently, insulting the nation that identified the disease, and took radical steps to control the infection is better than stigmatizing an animal that is taboo. Or something like that.
Pork producers rightly point out that you can’t get the flu from EATING pork (though it probably was transmitted to people by live pigs, sneezing on people), so I can understand why pork producers might want to rebrand the stigma attached to their main resource, but doesn’t it make sense that if you believe that dead swine are something to be avoided in any case, you might think twice about making them less objectionable? (Sombrero tip to “Lawyers, Guns and Money“):
Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman said the reference to pigs is offensive to both religions and “we should call this Mexican flu and not swine flu,” he told a news conference at a hospital in central Israel.
One creative type on Free Republic suggested rebranding the disease “Montezuma’s Final Solution” — which is, I have to admit, kinda witty — but it’s interesting that the same folks who complain about “political correctness”‘ are falling all over themselves to rebrand this illness in an attempt to “blame” Mexico… “Mexican Flu” is a favorite with these folks. At least, like “Hong Kong Flu” it has some historicity in recalling where the disease vector originated.
The 1918 Spanish Flu, incidentally, didn’t originate in Spain,but in North America… specifically the American midwest, probably also a mutated pig disease. It was thought to have been carried to Europe by American troops during the First World War, when health conditions in the belligerent countries made them ripe for an epidemic. However, the belligerents were all under strict press censorship at the time, and public health emergencies were not being publicized. Relatively backwards Spain, being a neutral country, had a freer press than France or England, let alone Germany or Austria, and was where the first reporting on the disease came from.
I’d prefer to call this latest “H1N1 virus” (the preferred bureaucratic name in the United States) either “Porky’s Revenge” or “corporate agriculture caused anarchy” — or “CACA” for short.
Drug decriminalization bill passes Senate
Amid the flupalooza (or, as one political columnist called it, “influenza peddling”) the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate are still in session, and David Agren is still reporting on the doings at San Lazaro. Perhaps it’s “truth in advertising” to see legislators dressed like banditos — at least putting on masks before the meet to rob the taxpayers.
But, they are managing to get work done.
One bill that has passed the Senate, and is headed for the Chamber would decriminalize possession of up to 5 grams of marijuana, 5 grams of opium, 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams of methamphetamine, 500 milligrams of cocaine and 2, 500 milligrams of cocaine. PRD Senators stripped out an original PAN proposal from the Presidency that would have forced small time users to enter rehab programs. The PRD proposal allows for volutary rehab (and, any rehabilitated user will tell you a person doesn’t recover unless they want to… and, the dirty little truth is that all narcotics users are not, ipso facto, addicts), but does mandate rehabilitation programs after a third conviction.
On the other hand, the bill — if it survives unchanged in the Chamber — will increase the penalties for possession with the intent to sell to a five to fifteen year prison sentence.
(By the way, important as this bill is, the bigger story is that democratic institutions are functioning despite of the health restrictions. Those who criticize Mexico for not doing enough need to remember Mexico is not a dictatorial regime like China, nor an authoritarian state like Singapore that could ride roughshod over personal rights in the name of controlling the SARS epidemic, which still spread to other countries).
I’m just a poor boy, from a poor family…
The Bolivian weirdness puts to shame anything that’s ever happened in Mexico. The closest parallel I can think of was William Walker’s ill-fated Republic of Sonora (an attempt by white supremacist invaders to create a breakwaway republic — which sounds like the Bolivian mess ) in 1853. Walker didn’t get bogged down in ideological fine points — it was openly white supremacist and all, but there was no attempt to dress it up as anything other than a grab for resources and land. It did have the novel feature of being self-financed: like so many other wannabe Mexican west coast realtors today, Walker sold properties he didn’t own, and hadn’t built on … but promised he would… as soon as the details were finalized).
The Republic of Sonora never managed to even include Sonora (they were laughed out of Sonora and Sinaloa), rechristened at some point “Republic of Lower Califonia” and reduced from a mercenary force to a couple of clueless gringos by the Mexican army.
Walker was only 29 when he invaded Sonora, and most of his mercenaries were a few years younger, but no one every referred to him as an “impressionable youth.” The United States Consul in La Paz, Baja California sprung Walker and his starving compatriots in 1853 by convincing the Mexican authorities they were dealing with a bunch of idiots, conmen, intriguers and filibustros, who would be dealt with severely in their own country (they weren’t — after eight minutes of deliberation, Walker was found not guilty of attacking a foreign country, and went on to attack other countries, until the Hondurans finally cut the crap and shot Walker and his band in 1860).
The Hungarian Ambassador in La Paz (Bolivia), however, is trying to make the unconvincing case that Elöd Tóasó, like Walker in 1853, a mere lade of 29, is only a “young adventurer…who made mistakes” and not even promising that his country will deal with it’s errant son. Tóasó, unlike his Irish cohort, 25 year old Michael Dwyer, screwed up when it comes to terrorist mercenaries, managing to be taken alive.
The Irish have been falling all over themselves to build sympathy for Dwyer, whose background as a “security guard” for a Shell Oil facility, and whose company looks to have recruited Dwyer and other Irish to work for the Bolivian fascist separatist organization, isn’t the most absurd part of this whole mess.
Here in Mexico, we’ve also had mercenaries in the pay of oil companies, and plots involving shadowy Masonic organizations… and fascist organizations, so that’s not what makes the Bolivian separatist movement so intriguing. Dwyer, and the other “adventurous youths” in this crusade for an Amazonian Reich were under the leadership of what has to be the U.S. wacko right wing’s greatest nightmare… or something dreamed up by satirist “General J.C. Christian” — a gay Islamocommiefascist terrorist. That, at least, is new.
Tóasó (L), trying to impress and Dwyer (R) impressed
Now this could be serious
First the swine flu emptied the schools, but I was not a student.
Then they closed the churches, but I sleep in on Sunday anyway.
Then they came for the futbol games, but you can watch them on TV.
And, now, when they came for the heavy metal concerts...
METAL CHURCH singer Ronny Munroe has been forced to cancel his appearance at the 11th edition of Mortal Fest 2009, set to take place May 3 in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Munroe said in a statement: “I regretfully have to cancel my trip to Guadalajara due to the swine flu that has been affecting Mexico. My apologies to the organizers of the event and to all the fans that have supported me and METAL CHURCH through the years. I wish all of you in Mexico a speedy recovery, and definitely when all this unfortunate situation is resolved, I will be there.”
Flu posts
If you’re looking for posts and updates on the pandemic, I’ve tagged them all “swine flu”:
Flu Fear Factor was a running post, updated between 25 March and 28 March, was getting too long to leave at the top of the page.
Other posts:
Fun and profit from pandemics
The short-term economic impact of the pandemic is devastating, obviously. In Mexico City, even restaurants are closed (except for take out), which is going to be a hardship especially on those who don’t have kitchen facilities (a surprisingly large number of people live in rooms or hotels and eat at cocinas economicas, and eat their main meal out every day), which also is putting huge numbers of workers out of a job for a week or so. With schools and day care centers also closed, office workers are having to stay home to take care of their children, which is forcing some businesses not affected directly by the pandemic, nor related to the retail industry to also curtail activity. Throughout the rest of the country, there is also a slow-down.
Jennifer Rose, in a comment in my “Flu Fear Factor” post talked about a major legal conference looking at cancellation of a meeting n Cabo San Lucas (which isn’t affected by the flu) even though by the time the conference is held, the disease will have run its course. She’s not the only one to notice a plunge in tourism.
Long term, there was already a projected drop in economic activity of between 2.8 and 3.7 percent, to which to pandemic should add another 1.5 percent. But, Diego Cevellos (Inter Press Service) found a few economic bright spots:
By contrast with the blows received by many sectors of the economy, pharmacies around the country have done brisk business selling surgical-style face masks – the use of which has been recommended by health authorities – vitamins, anti-flu medication and disinfectants.
Pharmacies and their suppliers have reported higher-than-average earnings.
The high demand for face masks, which most businesses have run out of, has led some street vendors to start selling them at prices up to four times what they fetch on the formal market.
Also benefiting are doctors and private clinics, which have been overrun with people worried that they have flu symptoms.
Many people continue to turn to the private health sector even though public health centres have been instructed by the government to treat any person with influenza symptoms for free. The order also applies to clinics and hospitals that usually treat only members of the military or the social security system.
Higher-than-usual profits have also been reported by video and DVD rental stores, as more than 33 million students have found themselves without classes, and the government has recommended that people stay home as much as possible.
And pork is on sale!
¡No tenemos dinero!
I believe one of the great lessons of this swine flu epidemic is that we were caught with our pants down. We have great abilities in the area of medicine. We have a good system of epidemiological vigilance and a system of public health of the first rank, constructed with great effort over many years. But the great weakness we show in scientific and technological areas makes us dependent on foreign countries whose experts will have the last word on the origin of this pandemic and how to prevent one in the future.
(Javier Flores in Jornada, translation by Esther, at “From Xico“)
Mexico, as many of us who comment on it get a little tired of continually having to point out, is NOT a “third world country”. It is a major economic player, and is considered a “middle class country”. It only appears “third world” by being next door to the most consumer oriented of the wealthy countries, and usually people who call Mexico “third world” have never been someplace like Bolivia or Bukino Faso or Bhutan, and don’t recognize that “third world” originally referred to political structure and not aggegate wealth. As it is, even with very large, bulging pockets of poverty, Mexico’s health, wealth and general standard of living is about equivalent to a Central European country like Bulgaria or Slovakia. Not rich, but not poor.
U.S. reports on the flu pandemic — even from “progressive” reporters like Rachel Maddow — tend to focus on Mexico as backwards and in need of technical assistance from abroad. The scientific expert interviewed by Maddow (who, as far as I can tell, is neither a scientist, nor an expert on Mexico) claimed Mexico lacked public health facilities. Um… it’s the fact that it does have a good public health care system that — even with mistakes and the usual political mismanagement — has so far limited the damage.
Wire reports collected by The [Mexico City] News suggest it’s not any lack of medical or emergency preparedness know-how, but knowledge of what U.S. news organizations expect:
Mexico has participated in high-level international drills to prepare for pandemics, but the government has been slow to update the world on the flu death toll and not given a clear message to reassure people at home and abroad, analysts said.
“The Mexican government is more prepared for this than most people might think,” said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, who has participated in drills with Mexican health officials.
“I know for a fact they do have the competency to address this issue effectively, but so far there hasn’t been any government official giving any media coverage trying to reassure Americans of that,” he said.
In other words, the story is there is no story. People themselves are staying home and dealing with the situation. Doctors and nurses and health care providers (including the Army) are going a decent job, with somewhat limited (but not by any means unsophisticated) equipment. You don’t see … and you won’t … people looting food stores, or panic buying, or getting crazy and shooting each other. Of course there is political and social fallout, and there will be reports of people turned down for medical care, or occasionally bone-headed actions motivated by fear and ignorance. That’s to be expected. Overall, the system has worked, the government was prepared (unlike some others) and worked very well.
But… as Flores pointed out in his essay, performing well is not performing as well as it could. I’m not sure Bulgaria or Slovakia would have had the facilities it needed to immediately test for new viral strains either, but — as part of the European Union — the tests might have been done quickly outside the country. The North American Free Trade Association is not analogous (nor is there any real incentive for the three countries to create such a union), which means Mexico is going to have to go it alone in growing it’s scientific capabilities.
And that is going to take money.
It’s a bit of a leap, I know, but before the flu outbreak consumed everyone (including me), I had intended to write on justice reforms. I bookmarked a story from Contra Costa County, California (one of the richest counties in the United States). Because of budget constraints, the county attorney
… will no longer prosecute felony drug cases involving smaller amounts of narcotics. That means anyone caught with less than a gram of methamphetamine or cocaine, less than 0.5 grams of heroin and fewer than five pills of ecstasy, OxyContin or Vicodin won’t be charged.
People who are suspected of misdemeanor drug crimes, break minor traffic laws, shoplift, trespass or commit misdemeanor vandalism will also be in the clear. Those crimes won’t be prosecuted, either.
Even a highly advanced, technologically sophisticated, wealthy country’s justice system can only operate with adequate financing. The Mexican justice system is faulted for being slow, and technologically backwards and — like medical testing — not up to the highest standards. And reforms are progressing, slowly.
Medical reforms will progress… slowly.
My concern is that Mexico, dependent as it is (and has been) on the United States, and with a conservative administration that has invested too heavily in responding to U.S. demands to “do something” about a single U.S. concern (narcotics imports) — and has not been keen to explore alternatives to the U.S. connection, is unable to invest what it should in more critical areas, like science, health technology and justice reform.
The spirit is willing, but the cash flow is weak.
Who were those masked men?
Even here in Mazatlan, the tapaboca is rapidly becoming de moda. Restaurant workers often wear them in any season, but they’re starting to pop up as the latest thing in swine flu wear. Even at the bank. Which meant it was only a matter of time until someone (in this case, Laura Martinez) found a story like this to post.
Ah, Mexicans… what a creative, resourceful, bunch. In these days of swine flu panic, some have found a much more practical use of surgical masks: …
… a group of tapabocas-wearing gang robbed a local Sanborn’s in Tlalpan this weekend and although the restaurant has a sophisticated video surveillance system, they couldn’t be identified because of the surgical masks.
Swines!
Likely suspects (as likely as any)
mexfiles.net 