In the news today: What's happening with H1N1 flu

Why does AnnArbor.com keep reporting about the swine flu when it is a non-event?

http://blog.puppetgov.com/2009/11/23/cbs-reporter-covers-swine-flu-media-hype-hysteria-and-cases-seriously-overestimated/

Why don't you do some real investigative reporting and expose the fraud behind the swine flu. Like, stealing tens of billions of dollars from the American tax payer to enrich big pharma. You can also investigate the CDC, WHO and the Obama admin. for aiding and abetting big pharma.

Maybe if you did some real reporting, you can attract readers and not go the way of Ann Arbor News. Alternative news seem to be gaining on the MSMs because they are not so controlled and are not afraid to report the truth. If more MSMs did their jobs, maybe we wouldn't have been tricked by Bush/Cheney into illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Are you going to standby while we launch wars against Iran and Pakistan? Please do your job!

GoBlu--I suggest that you go back to getting your news from Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. They'll probably make you feel better.

LGChelsea,

You're no different than those right wingers that call people names and ridicule them rather than have open and meaningful discussions. What is so bad about asking AA.com to do some real investigative reporting. Are you that happy with our MSMs that you'd rather accept their propaganda? Can you add anything of value to our discussion?

The premise that H1N1 is a non-event is false. It is an event because it sickens, causes permenant injury and possibly even death. Granted, it's statistics rival those of most other strains of flu, but it is a serious illness. The only problem I see with the news coverage of it is that there should be resources devoted to the other strains of flu and people should be made aware that even those "regular" flus can cause death. Although some alternative news sources can be and are correct, many alternate news sites are gaining only because some of their "investigative reporting" makes some incredible leaps to some equally incredible conclusions and some folks will believe these conclusions because they feed into their personal view of things.

GoBlu, if you don't want to read these articles, don't read them. We have better things to do than wade past your pointless tirades.

And Graz, I agree with you. However, this flu is slightly worse than typical flu because it is causing more infections than regular flu and hitting in unusual seasons. The peak of the usual season isn't until January. Four more months than usual, and a possible much higher peak infection rate, with the same fatality rate, is likely to have much higher fatality.

I'm concerned people think that since the charts show this H1N1 has "peaked" in cases, it's all downhill from here. It's more likely that we've seen the first of two or three peaks, with the biggest one yet to come.

GoBlu: that recycled report you point to is about over-counting in, what, July? Are they even trying to be honest about when they are talking about? Are you suggesting that novel H1N1 is not widespread now? Say something specific on occasion.

Rork,

You are missing the point. The CDC purposely attempted to mislead the public to give the impression that the swine flu was widespread in order to create this hysteria. In order to inject as many uninformed people with the dangerous vaccine. I don't think anyone should be injected with mercury. Again, governments like to rule by fear because it works so well. Have you forgotten, WMDs in Iraq! How many more times are you going to be fooled! Wake up! As of today, the swine flu deaths and infection level aren't close to what was projected. This swine flu is milder than your average flu. Yet, people are still running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Also, our government just spent billions of your money to help line rhe pockets of big pharma.

You know, no matter what you do, or say, I simply cannot get enough of the swine flu stories. As more people get the flu shot, I am less and less afraid, I will get this terrible disease.

I don't think CDC was misleading, and think novel H1N1 may actually have been undercounted earlier this year. See the report below. By not answering I assume that GoBlu thinks H1N1 is in fact rather common now.
By the mercury jab, GoBlu might be saying they think thimerosal causes autism (perhaps they wisely fail to spell it out) which is almost surely false. In fact I don't think any unbiased people thinks thimerosal does squat anymore, and GoBlu knows that, but can't help repeating something vague to scare you.
I find the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology report (see http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/estimates_2009_h1n1.htm) to still be very good, though very rushed and now outdated (made Aug 7). Eric Lander and Harold Varmus and others on that committee are unlikely to cave to politicians under any sort of pressure - that's part of why they were picked.
I find that (estimated) 100,000 hospitalizations, and 4000 deaths (just so far, also on that web page) in the US to be less than their worst-case scenarios, but bad enough, and that their fears that novel H1N1 would be more virulent than now appears were not crazy, given statistics from southern hemisphere over summer. Instead of complaining that the predictions were not perfect (and we'd be really mad if they were underestimates, and have some conspiracy theory for that no doubt), I am just relieved, and the report itself admits the degree of uncertainty.
I see tens of billions have shrunk to just billions now - getting more honest at least.

Several comments have been removed because they were repetitive, because they contained personal attacks, and because they contained links to web sites that were advertising or that purported to support the argument made in the comment but failed to do so.

I have been looking for credible sources for information about the frequency, nature, and possible causes of adverse reactions to the H1N1 vaccine, and I'll share those with our reporters.