04 May 2009

Swine 'Flu UPDATE

I hope this is the last we'll have to talk about this 'flu outbreak.

I think it is now clear that this was a very stern warning to the world. Because the world stands on the brink of destruction and the only ticket to life on the other side of it is teshuva, from both Jews and non-Jews.

All the things that we build our lives upon are being shaken---reliable parnassah, good health, peace among nations, the stability of the earth and weather patterns, etc. The only thing that can't fail is our Holy Torah---"It's a Tree of Life for those who grasp it."

For a moment the Shadow of Death fell across the world and everyone looked up in awe and fear---"Where can we go? What can we do?" I'm afraid that since it hasn't turned out so badly up til now, that people will not recognize the mercy of Hashem, but will promptly forget their fear and go back to sleep. That would be a tragic mistake...

As reported at Global Disaster Watch:

Many public health experts expect the swine flu virus to retreat during the summer, when temperatures and humidity work against the microbe, since it spreads best under conditions of low humidity. "Of course if it doesn't. That's really bad news." These kinds of "herald waves" preceded past pandemics, and flu monitoring systems combined with the UNUSUAL timing for an outbreak may have allowed public health experts to detect the novel flu strain's existence before its expected retreat this summer. "We might be seeing the herald wave for the fall epidemic." It's "good news" that the genes of all the swine flu virus samples thus far analyzed are "99 percent to 100 percent identical." "It will be somewhat easier to produce an influenza vaccine, because the viruses that are spreading are so similar to each other...We'll be looking at what we call the evolution, the molecular evolution, of the viruses." They'll look for possible increased resistance to antiviral drugs — to which the swine flu does now respond. They'll also be looking for signs of increased virulence. The agility of the influenza virus to constantly mutate works both ways - it could also evolve into a more harmless form. "This could fizzle out and turn out to not be a very major event, or it could be a herald wave of some major public health problem."

It's all up to us.