Tell me if it's tin hat time or if I might be right to be paranoid

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

1. An announcement is made that a killer flu is being purposely recreated in a lab.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3719990.stm

2. One-half the world's supply of flu vaccine is amazingly, oddly not produced this year.

3. The most divisive election in history is being held in weeks, coupled with a deteriorating world condition.

Is it a hint of possible (probable?) crowd control in the event things go south for certain criminal enterprises?

Yes, I know, most likely a conspiracy theory. But remember, just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're NOT out to get you...

[BlueEyedSon]

1. I am the new Number 2.

Wouldn't it be CONVEEEENIENT if everyone was sick in bed on election day?

(I decided to skip the "No. 2/diarrhea" jokes.)

[Nickster]

2. Can't say I haven't had the same thoughts lately.

This truly is the scariest time in my life. I can't wait until this is all over, say Jan 20th or there about.

[bushisanidiot]

3. I've never had a flu shot and I don't intend to start now. I'm more

skeptical of the announcement about the "killer flu" and that it's being used as a scare tactic.

I'm not getting any damned flu shot.. period.

[rooboy]

4. Interesting connection...

which makes me wonder whatever happened to all those panicked warnings about smallpox. Of course, Eli Lilly has probably made their millions from the contracts for that vaccine.

[hippiechick]

5. Ever read 'The Stand ' ?

:tinfoilhat:

[Shopaholic]

9. I still have nightmares about reading that book--

and I've thought about it a lot over the years.

[reprehensor]

6. It's tin hat time...

AND you have a right to be paranoid. You see, the tin hat filters out the bad signals.

Wargame on election day

The administration of fear loves this shit.

Hey, when are we getting together for a beer, neighbor number six?

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

11. I don't drink, but I'll be glad to share a sody pop wit' youse any time

I'm all over the city on a daily basis. Wouldn't be hard to arrange something. :bounce:

[shaolinmonkey]

7. I will crawl to the polls if it kills me. eom.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

8. I'm thinking more of crowd control AFTER they steal it

Hard for ten million of us to gather at the White House and paint it Black if there ain't enough barf bags to go around...

:evilgrin:

[LisaLynne]

15. If they steal it ...

I'll go and barf on the WH lawn. Who needs a bag?

[Flagius]

10. Sigh...

1) The Spanish Influenza of 1918 is being recreated to study what exactly made it so deadly (it killed a large chunk of the worlds population and there was a fear that since so many were dying, civilization was close to ending), and to maybe make and stockpile vaccine so that if it ever resurfaces (it just disappeared on its own, no one knows why exactly) an outbreak can be prevented.

2) The vaccine only works on a single strain of influenza, and it wouldn't work on the Spanish Flu anyway.

3) These people don't have that intricate of an imagination, if anything it would be a barely thwarted terrorist attack involving WMD's and "We don't believe we stopped all of the cells, we know there was more than one plot and that they would involve WMD's and that it would be a simultaneous attack on election day".
Not to mention once you let a virus out, its virtually impossible to control, just as many Bush supporters would be affected as Kerry supporters (if not more due to the elderly tending to vote conservative), so overall I don't think its a concern.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

12. Man, don't you know that interjecting logic into a tin hat discussion

just ain't no fun? :evilgrin:

Beside, haven't you heard of "scorched earth"? If they win, they know they'll have a hell of a fight on their hands when the civil war starts up...

[Flagius]

16. Umm...

Its fun for me. ;P

[tom_paine]

13. Probably Tin Hat Time, but in a nation like Imperial Amerika

who can tell?

Sad that Amerika has sunk so low into Orwellian Tyranny that such is a posibility.

[troublemaker]

14. The flu vaccine in question wouldn't work on the 1918 Spanish flu

Flu vaccines are speciffic and the baych that's been under-produced this year wouldn't work on the re-engineered Spanish flu. So the only corelation between stories 1 and 2 is the word "flu."

[HysteryDiagnosis]

17. We ramble and scramble for flu shots because we don't know any

other way. Make SURE you read this first abstract before you flame me.... I don't want a flu shot, I won't take a flu shot, I don't need a flu shot. My 80 year old mother used to be on antibiotics MONTHLY 4 years ago.... she has not been on any since. She does go for the shot though... and perhaps for the very elderly it is a good idea... not for me though.

Point is... micronutrition in the elderly is extremely important for maintaining their innate immune response at a more youthful level. The FDA knows this, the AMA knows this, your doc knows this... but they remain silent, and worse.. they try to debunk the truth of some dietary supplements that are SPECIFICALLY formulated to increase natural killer cell activity, increase the body's ability to release interferon and other immune system chemicals that ward off disease or lessen the severity of it.

1: JPEN J Parenter Enteral Nutr. 2004 Sep-Oct;28(5):348-54. Related Articles, Links

Effects of a nutritional supplement on the immune response and cytokine production in free-living Chilean elderly.

Bunout D, Barrera G, Hirsch S, Gattas V, de la Maza MP, Haschke F, Steenhout P, Klassen P, Hager C, Avendano M, Petermann M, Munoz C.

Department of Medicine, Central Campus Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile. [e-mail]

BACKGROUND: Immune response is impaired in the elderly. Our aim was to study the effects of a special nutritional formula on the immune response and response to influenza and pneumococcal vaccination in elderly subjects. METHODS: Sixty healthy subjects aged > or = 70 years, with a Mini Mental score > or = 22 were studied. Half of the subjects received a special nutritional formula (in addition to the regular diet) providing, among other nutrients, 480 kcal, 31 g proteins, 120 IU vitamin E, 3.8 microg vitamin B12, 400 microg folic acid, 10(9) cfu Lactobacillus paracasei (NCC 2461), and 6 g of fructo-oligosaccharides. At 4 months of follow-up, subjects were vaccinated against influenza and pneumococcus. Lymphokine production by mononuclear cells (PBMC), lymphocyte subpopulations, and natural killer cell (NK) activity were measured at baseline and 4 months of follow-up (before vaccination). Antibodies against influenza and pneumococcal antigens and flu-stimulated production of interferon gamma and interleukin-2 by PBMC were measured at 4 and 6 months. Skin response to 7 recall antigens and body composition were assessed at baseline and at 4 and 12 months. All infections occurring during the study period were recorded. RESULTS: NK activity increased in supplemented subjects and decreased in nonsupplemented individuals. Interleukin-2 production by PBMC and the proportion of T cells with NK activity decreased in controls and did not change in supplemented subjects. Supplemented subjects reported less infections than nonsupplemented individuals (in 13% and 22% of scheduled visits, respectively; p = .02). CONCLUSIONS: This nutritional supplement increased innate immunity and protection against infections in elderly people.

PMID: 15449576


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15467180
1: Perspect Biol Med. 2004 Fall;47(4):590-6. Related Articles, Links

From the Great Barrier Reef to a "Cure" for the Flu: tall tales, but true.
Laver WG.

How we discovered that sea birds on the Great Barrier Reef are riddled with influenza viruses, and how one of these led to a new drug now being used in the battle against the flu.