Onions, onions the magical flu food
"Onions are the answer" is the birdshot splattered around the world via the modern carrier pigeons of e-mail. The story goes, at e-mail IQ level, that a country doctor in 1918 was amazed by the health of his patients, as well as their old wives, including their old wives' tales.
Hiding flu facts behind captain of men of death
In 1918, William Osler, "the father of modern medicine," christened pneumonia "the captain of the men of death," due to pneumonia's competence in killing. Even today, despite antibiotics, when someone dies after an intense bout with influenza, it is rarely the flu that kills the patient, but pneumonia; however, do not be deceived.
Faith in the swine flu magic bullet
Seeking Paul Ehrlich’s “magic bullet,” a wonder drug that can be aimed at those cells in black hats, and with a loud bang, everything is solved, the virus is dead, and we are saved. Is the h1n1 swine flu vaccine the proverbial magic bullet that science promised? That our friendly government will deliver, very, very soon?
The swine flu elephant in the room
Colorado Springs - Money talks, and walks, and is power, and power rules. "Right" is not the question, but "might." And when pork producers indicate they do not appreciate the valid moniker, "Swine Flu," the CDC, WHO and most of the media, clicks its heels, turns itself around, does the hokey pokey and slaps on an obscure "h1n1" label.
Masking Ukraine in hysteria: 315 dead
As if expressing a Halloween prank, the news media around the world began reporting on the crisis clutching at Ukraine with early headlines that might have been snatched directly from 1918-1919 newspapers...
Flu diary: Great Pandemic 2009, part 1
The words of positivity emerge from my mouth on Friday, November 13, 2009, and I am not even bragging, just verbalizing that I am not too worried about the Swine Flu: "I think our immune systems are strong enough. It looks like the flu won't be a problem."
Flu diary: Great Pandemic 2009, part 2
So you have probably heard the one about the onions. I even debunked the silly tall tale. But when you have an eighteen-month old with a little nose pouring water like a faucet, you really do not have the option to pass judgment on a silly Internet pass-along (especially when there is some hidden truth in the tale).
Flu diary: Great Pandemic 2009, part 3
Wednesday morning I think I am going to have this flu under control, but I wake with the same sensations of old-man ricketiness, creaking bones, aching teeth. It is still there, the flu, deep down in the bones. The battle is yet on. It ain't over. This "mild" flu has sank its vampire teeth deeply into my garlic-rich, onion-cloaked body.
Flu diary: Great Pandemic 2009, part 4
Thursday morning, November 19, 2009 and I wake at 4:30 a.m. and know, right off, I will be doing no work today, no artwork, no writing, and none of those things that make money for my family.
Flu diary: Great Pandemic 2009, part 5
Friday morning, November 20, 2009, and a terrible noise from Bronté's room gets me out of bed at 5:30 a.m. (I've slept beyond my usual 4:00 a.m. flu wake-up call). She has made a terrible snorting noise. When I see her, I know. After surviving nearly one week without coming down with the flu, my little girl is sick.
Flu diary: Great Pandemic 2009, part 6
Sabbath, November 21, 2009: Wolfy's sixth birthday, I wake and feel good, and it is an amazing sensation, as if it is something I never have experienced before, I actually feel life thrumming through me, welling up inside like a clean spring, and this is so different than the last five days. But the thing of it is, it does not feel as if it has been five days, but more like five weeks of not feeling quite alive.
Flu diary: Great Pandemic 2009, part 7
Sunday afternoon, November 22, 2009 and I make a mistake. It is a very bright, very warm day, and Dirklan wants to go outside and play. There is only a little snow left from last week, and the temperature is in the 60s, so I say: "Sure, but dress warm, and don't run around too much."
Flu diary: Great Pandemic 2009, part 8
My first day back among the living at a paying job, Monday, November 23, 2009, and I pretty much feel dead, sitting at my desk. My boss asked me if I felt better (he was the only one who seemed to realize I had not been in for many days). I do feel better, a little, compared to last Friday, or Thursday, all the way back to Monday a week ago. Of course, worries about Thanksgiving are already elbowing me, and how we are going to pull that off while recovering from the flu.
Flu diary: Great Pandemic 2009, part 9
Tuesday, November 24, 2009 and work a second day is easier in some ways, and much rougher in other ways. The tougher way, chiefly, is due to my cough, which thinks it is something really quite special. It shows off at every opportunity, and especially becomes bubbly and effervescent when other people are nearby.
Flu diary: Great Pandemic 2009, part 10
It is amazing to read in the varied news releases that things have progressed far enough that those suppressing the truth, cannot contain it any longer.
Flu diary: Great Pandemic 2009, part 11
A happiest Thanksgiving, but I will not be doing too much today, as I am a tad murky, a little punchy. Feeling better, but nowhere near up to normal everyday living kind of life.
H1N1 developments: Mutation & Reinfection
In August and September 2009 many experts were already claiming that the so-called "novel" h1n1 Swine Flu pandemic was much ado about nothing. In the following months more experts were claiming that the Swine Flu fears were never realized, and that this "pandemic" was nothing more than hype, propaganda, and political fear-mongering.
Looming H5N1/H1N1 flu amalgamation
The potential amalgamation between the two viruses H1N1 (Swine Flu) and H5N1 (Bird Flu) has troubled the sleep of leading flu scientists for several years, as the two viruses continue to emerge and erupt. The fear is that the two viruses will reassort and produce a new, more virulent virus, one with as high a mortality rate as Bird Flu and as easily transmissible from human to human as the Swine Flu.
H1N1 Swine Flu second wave defined
December 2009 marks a marginal lull in the Great Pandemic 2009, and many headlines are already distributing handshakes and congratulatory pats on the back, proclaiming “it is over” and “we have won” — one headline proclaims not only that the h1n1 Swine Flu pandemic is over, but that it ended with a whimper, utterly skipping the projected bang.
H1N1 and everything that is needed
When Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko stated that she was not planning on receiving the h1n1 Swine Flu vaccination, that she instead chose to rely on proven, natural remedies, jeers echoed almost immediately in cyberspace, around the world in headlines.
H1N1 Flu Pandemic: the second wave
Somewhere, someone is speculating, right now. Soon this person will speak, and someone will hear and repeat what this person has speculated and burbled, and from there the idea will branch out and soon be reported as fact, and not speculation.
Deviled eggs and the kingdom of profits
Once upon a time there was a great kingdom of deviled eggs, and profits, where all owned a home, and all were brave, and free was the word. The eggs were valued and greatly loved. They provided food and with great invention even medicine to quell and quash threats to the land, including dire epidemics of both swine and fowl.
Swine flu and lust for flesh
Cramming sick animals together is not generally considered the best way to ensure health, including health for the animals, or even the humans that beat, prod, poke, inoculate, vaccinate, aerate and convert the animals into "food." But to meet the world's great and overwhelming lust for the tang of flesh, the sensuous ripping of bloody meat from bone, pigs are packed together, chickens are crammed into clumps, cows are driven together so tightly that they cannot move.
H1N1 Swine Flu: natural remedies
If you contract the flu (any version of the virus, whether you have received flu shots or not), be prepared. Prepare BEFORE you experience any of the typical flu symptoms (and forget the over-the-counter flu "medications," which only treat the symptoms, and cripple the body in its very fight against the virus).
H1N1 vaccine hoax: mounting evidence
For years flu experts and even flu vaccine manufacturers have admitted that it is nearly impossible to develop an effective flu vaccine, due to the constantly-shifting and mutating nature of the influenza virus. It is not a stationary target like the Small Pox virus, but constantly moving, twitching, almost as if it is responding to the human attack against it. The efficacy of flu shots has been greatly exaggerated.
H1N1 Ukraine death toll 940, India 1,098
While the United States and Britain share congratulations on surviving the pandemic of 2009, the rest of the world is roiling in an oven of pandemic flu that can in no way be described as mild, or imaginary. People are dying. In Ukraine, the death toll is rising, and now stands at 940. With over 4 million people struggling with influenza, it is difficult to describe what is happening as exaggeration. Most affected Ukrainians do not feel that their plight is a hoax.
H1N1 death spike despite low activity
With h1n1 swine flu numbers down (lowered level of reported cases) and yet a spike in both influenza and pneumonia-related deaths at a level that rivals peak numbers since the beginning of the pandemic in April 2009, early signs indicate that the second wave of the h1n1 swine flu pandemic may be beginning right now.
