The Obama admnistration declares health emergency.

[Humble Janitor]

Not to panic or anything, but when exactly did this flu break out?

I was very sick 2 weeks ago with a virus (or so the doc said) with a high fever, fatigue, sore throat and coughing.

[alyscat]

This is one of the reasons, HJ, that they're having a hard time pinning numbers on it. They don't know how many "mild" cases might be out there - cases undiagnosed, that didn't go to the hospital - and if there are mild cases out there it provides an opportunity for the disease to continue to mutate into something more deadly.

[Karen]

Originally Posted by Humble Janitor

Not to panic or anything, but when exactly did this flu break out? I was very sick 2 weeks ago with a virus (or so the doc said) with a high fever, fatigue, sore throat and coughing.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090425/.../med_swine_flu
Mexican soldiers and health workers patrolled airports and bus stations as they tried to corral people who may be infected with the swine flu, as it became clearer that the government may have been slow to respond to the outbreak in March and early April.

Found linking from http://rense.com which has links to tons of articles

[Dantheman62]

Swine flu could mean new threat to US economy,

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. economy, which was showing tentative early signs of a recovery, faces a potentially grave new threat: swine flu. A widespread outbreak could batter the tourism, food and transportation industries in particular, deepening the recession in the U.S. and possibly worldwide.

With the U.S. and the global economy already fragile, another severe blow could reverse any progress made in easing the recession.

The European Union advised against nonessential travel to the United States and Mexico. And worried Wall Street investors pounded stocks of airline companies, hotels, cruise operators and some food firms on fears that the flu would crimp consumer demand.

But at least three major airlines said their operations are proceeding normally and have not canceled any flights to Mexico.

Brian Bethune, economist at IHS Global Insight, said, "You can argue that the swine flu amplifies the downside risks to the economy."

The U.S. economy could end up shrinking a bit more than now expected. But most experts don't think a swine-flu outbreak by itself would eliminate many U.S. jobs or severely worsen the economy.

Simon Johnson, former chief economist to the International Monetary Fund and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, envisions only a "small hit" to economic activity in the United States -- just a few tenths of 1 percentage point.

But if the problem persists for months, spreads broadly and leads to widespread flu cases, or even deaths, in the United States, the damage could be more severe. It could delay an economic recovery well into 2010, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.

"Consumer confidence is already frayed, and something like that would push it over the edge," Zandi said.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Swine-...-15047304.html

[alyscat]

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=p&msa=0&msid=1064847750902966
85271.0004681a37b713f6b5950&ll=32.639375,-110.390625&spn=15.738151,25.488281
&z=5

Link to map of swine flu outbreak. If you click on the little paddle, it will give you a news blurb.