[Al_U_Card]

Now, all of that money wouldn't be for vaccines supplied by multi-national corporations...would it?

Marketing....try to avoid it.

ps remember that the flu is best cured by bed rest, mild fever and no analgesics or other immune-system depressing medications...

[luke warm]

Al_U_Card, on Apr 29 2009, 05:03 PM, said:

ps remember that the flu is best cured by bed rest, mild fever and no analgesics or other immune-system depressing medications...

plus $1.5 billion

[matmat]

i just don't dig on swine.

[kenberg]

1.5B works out to $5 or so per head. I'm in. The Social Security Administration recently sent me a notice that for some reason they will be giving me an extra $250. I have no idea how that will do anything for the nation. Don't get me wrong, I'll take it, I just don't understand it.

Of course I have no idea about how this flu will develop. I do recall from the early eighties that many vocal people thought spending money on a disease that seemed to only be a problem for a bunch of white gay guys was a terrible waste of money.

If 1.5B turns out to be more than needed here, I believe that the Mexican government could use a little help with this. I recommend we give that help.

[Al_U_Card]

luke warm, on Apr 29 2009, 05:10 PM, said:

Al_U_Card, on Apr 29 2009, 05:03 PM, said:

ps  remember that the flu is best cured by bed rest, mild fever and no analgesics or other immune-system depressing medications...

plus $1.5 billion

Likely quid pro quo, banks, big auto, big pharma.....who else? where does the line start????

[kenrexford]

kenberg, on Apr 29 2009, 07:21 PM, said:

1.5B works out to $5 or so per head.

Per healthy head.

If you ignore every other disease orailment, then sure, sounds cheap.

If you add in $1.5B for every disease, gets a little more expensive.

If you add in $1.5B for every group of people the same size as those who have Swine Flu and have died in the U.S., that being 1 I believe, then it turns out to be about $1.5B for each of us.

Heck, if you made the group international-size, you still have a HUGE number.

[kenberg]

kenrexford, on Apr 30 2009, 07:56 AM, said:

kenberg, on Apr 29 2009, 07:21 PM, said:

1.5B works out to $5 or so per head.

Per healthy head.

If you ignore every other disease orailment, then sure, sounds cheap.

If you add in $1.5B for every disease, gets a little more expensive.

If you add in $1.5B for every group of people the same size as those who have Swine Flu and have died in the U.S., that being 1 I believe, then it turns out to be about $1.5B for each of us.

Heck, if you made the group international-size, you still have a HUGE number.

Sure, this is an issue. A billion here, a billion there, ...
Basically, I am ignorant of the threat posed here. Humanitarian concerns aside, I think early action can be cost effective. Pretty much that's a truism and I doubt you disagree, as long as we stick with "can be" rather than "always will be". The issue, unclear to me, is whether this is one of those times where we will severely regret dawdling (as with HIV) or whether this is just one more disease that needs to run its course. I don't know the answer to that. WHO seems to be rather excited. I don't know how to assess that.

It seems to me that $1.5B is not, on its face, crazy. And I think we could do some good for ourselves and for Mexico by spending some cash early on. Cash doesn't solve everything of course.

I am being more than a little iffy in my assertions, I know. But asking for some cash when a new virus is spreading rapidly seems to make some sense.

[onoway]

Not in any position to know for sure either but for some years now there has been an expectation of another pandemic, as apparently we are 'overdue" for another. This flu is a bit more than "sniffles", people have already died from it, and not the usual or expected group, but young healthy adults. Therefore there is a concern that this has the potential to become the next pandemic. I very much doubt Mexico is eager to dissuade people from travelling there so it would seem they have recognized they have a serious problem.
According to Wikipedia the 1918 flu pandemic killed 50 million people. Travel wasn't as common or fast then as now. Certainly SARS was a matter of serious concern when it hit Ontario. The governments of Ontario and Canada spent quite a chunk of change containing it and I think every penny was well worth it. Trying to stop it before it gets going seems to me to be a highly intelligent thing to do.

[Al_U_Card]

You need to distinguish the H1N5 variant (Spanish flu of 1919) that is the really dangerous one.
All the other variants are just the flu bug, more or less. Rest and recover in 3 to 7 days depending on your age and health.
Any money spent on this is a crime.
Spend it on hiway safety and save 50,000 lives a year...

[mike777]

Al_U_Card, on Apr 30 2009, 04:11 PM, said:

Any money spent on this is a crime.
Spend it on hiway safety and save 50,000 lives a year...

Keep in mind about a million people die each year from standard flu.

It would be interesting if the headlines and evening news lead off each night with how many died from Flu each and every day. Lets see about 3000 people die each and every day from flu. Now add swine flu to these numbers.

[barmar]

kenrexford, on Apr 29 2009, 02:17 PM, said:

I saw that Obama is requesting something like 1.5 billion dollars to handle the Swine Flu problem.

WTF?!?!?

I mean, how much precisely will we be spending for the 20-30,000 deaths from the regular flu? Another TARP-style bill? Or, is this some nonsense created crisi to justify more money for government health care, a sort of sneak-in approach?

My guess is that the budget already includes funds for the normal flu vaccine.

[Al_U_Card]

Ah yes, the classic "double dip"...pure (evil) genius!

[Winstonm]

If this were TARP mentality, you would have a group of scientists who were tasked with genetically engineering a cure for AIDS but Whoops!, they accidentally created a deadly flu strain, so the government gives the same screw-ups unlimited funds to salvage their businesses so they can still find a cure for AIDS.

[mike777]

Winstonm, on Apr 30 2009, 10:29 PM, said:

If this were TARP mentality, you would have a group of scientists who were tasked with genetically engineering a cure for AIDS but Whoops!, they accidentally created a deadly flu strain, so the government gives the same screw-ups unlimited funds to salvage their businesses so they can still find a cure for AIDS.

In Tarp mentality.......the government would guarantee 100% all money market accounts regardless of how many millions but only back up around 200k in commercial bank accounts........Yes they really did this!


In europe they did the exact opposite...so bank run on money market accounts!

I know this is technical but in general spreads were about 100 bps...now they are about 1000bps...this is not good!

[barmar]

On the lighter side:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/.a/6...bb02f970c-popup