The Swine Flu Pandemic...Disaster by Design?

As I was going to the store earlier today, I heard no less than six different 'news breaks' relating to the Swine Flu and it's dangers here in Dallas.

Schools in Texas from San Antonio to Richardson are closing for a week, the State Government is preparing to have massive quantities of flu vaccines/medications shipped in and everyone everywhere seems to be on the verge of panic.

Well, it didn't take long for the scuttlebutt on line to get around speculating as to the sinister potential of what looks to be the Great Swine Flu Pandemic of 2009.

There are some rather interesting factoids making the rounds on line today, some of which are out and out silly and some that are just weird and coincidental enough to be scary...

Here's a Retired General on CNN raising the question: 'Did it come out of a lab?'

That's a good question...

Here's a link to the Google Map to trace the outbreak thus far:maps.google.com/maps/ms

Here's one all the way from Thaiindian.com (a pretty circuitous route for local news) about the 'secret school closings' in Texas that are 'banned from the news.' www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health1/texas-health-department-closes-school-bans-sick-reporters-from-news-conference_100184672.html

Some folks are saying that this is just an excellent opportunity to sell old vaccines to people. Be on the lookout for the 1976 Swine Flu panic to be touted as a victory of prevention through provision of vaccines.

Surely BigPharma wouldn't look to make a buck off of people who have been whipped into a frenzy...would they?

According to Telegraph in London, GlaxoSmithKline's stock prices are soaring like a rocket while the international airlines are dropping like a rock:www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/pharmaceuticalsandchemicals/5228593/GlaxoSmithKline-leads-pharmaceutical-shares-higher-on-swine-flu-outbreak.html

Here's a nice, ambiguous fear generating story from Reuters dated two days ago - www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE53N22820090425  the World Health Organization is talking about 'flu like' illnesses and seems rather in the dark.

It's interesting and more than a little bit scary that two days ago, this was a "never-before-seen-virus" that was a complete mystery and yet here are some links supplied to the World Health Organizations (internal) briefing memos that outlines darn near everything you need to know, complete with the name of the virus, how lab techs should conduct themselves and other tidbits of information:

www.cdc.gov/swineflu/index.htm

www.cjfw.ca/news/14/918493>

www.aphl.org/aphlprograms/infectious/outbreak/Pages/swineflu.aspx>.

Is it just me or they learned an awful lot in just 36 hours...maybe they had all that stuff on a stick drive.