Why All the Swine Flu Drama?

[debra]

Texas has officially announced the largest school closing.

That’s right! Whole districts and day cares are temporarily closing doors due to the swine flu. The Health Department in Dallas and Tarrant Counties, as well as others, has advised parents across the board to keep their children home and away from group gatherings.

So, why all the drama surrounding the swine flu?

Every year citizens participate in a roundup to get the annual Flu Shot. Still, every year thousands lose their lives to the flu, without the appeal of the news media.

Why am I telling you what you already know?

I’ll sum it up for you in one word.

Marketing!

Superb marketing tactics by pharmaceutical companies have the local health departments on edge, spewing panic among the public using news media. Pharmaceutical companies see it as survival opportunity by grabbing government funds through research and development where the private sector has failed due to a tightening corporate economy.

As Marketers, it is up to you to seize the moment. Every reseller of an immune boosting product should be on this bandwagon.

I’ll give you a few examples in making use of the media’s chaos.

Swine Flu has the same flu symptoms we are accustomed to with the annual Influenza. Providing content that is already available for the prevention of influenza can be also applied to the swine flu symptoms.

Providing content in home comfort preventions like with homeopathic recipes, teas, properties in antiviral foods and herbs, etc. will be popular in driving traffic.

Here’s a good one…

The news media has already announced the possibility of boycotting pork products. That’s the worse thing that could happen. Although, it would make the pharmaceutical companies ecstatically happy.

The viral strand that causes the swine flu can not tolerate tempters above 160 degrees. Cooking your pork products above that would kill the strand. We all know that vaccines consist of dead strands. So…eating pork products that harbored the swine flu that has been cooked properly will also furnish you natures own vaccine against the swine flu.

Anyway…you get the idea. Don’t let the media consume you…let it work for you.

[Patrick Pallesen]

Okay I'm a little confused how can people die from the regular flu if they have got a flu shot?

[debra]

Originally Posted by Patrick Pallesen

Okay I'm a little confused how can people die from the regular flu if they have got a flu shot?

Well...every year the strands mutate. The shots are only effective on the strands that are gathered and a serum has been processed. So essentually, your getting coverage for past strands.

[EmpoweredCreator]

They can die from the flu if it's not addressed and the swine flu is just a little bit more resourceful. Still, it's a virus and there is no known cure for any virus. Your immune system is what kicks out all the bad anti-bodies.

A bad or low immune system would not hold up to an attack from any strain of flu without medical attention. That's one reason.

All a flu shot is, is a shot of the virus to help your body build up it's immunities. That's all it is, that's why you get sick after a flu shot.

[Ram]

The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-1920 killed an estimated 20 to 100 million people, more than the Black Death.

Overall, flu can be one of the deadliest things out there. The 1918 strain was marked by the severity of symptoms.

[VeronicaD]

Wow Ram, that's a scary thought isn't it? Guess I'm happy that our son isn't in school yet and we rarely get out (except to go to the store) lol.

I'm surprised we haven't seen an influx in campaigns like Debra was explaining though. Trends and what's hot... well the Swing flu definitely is all over and everyone is talking about it.

[RobinSkeen]

There are a lot of scams already popping up. Offers of a vaccine (doesn't exist), etc. If you have something helpful and genuine to offer, I'd say go for it.

As to the threat itself, I'm just going to use precautions. No groups of people (dining out, sporting events, concerts) and doing my grocery shopping after midnight on a Saturday when there's like 3 people in the store.

[Mark Brian]

Oh well, "Viral" Marketing.

[FearlessIncome]

I must say I've jumped on the bandwagon. I come up on the first page of Google for a certain search term for the Swine Flu, and traffic is okay for now, close to 100 hits daily.

I use StatCounter to track how people got to my page, and some search results are quite interesting, like "foods that prevent swine flu" (I'm on the first page for that search), and some interesting ones like "will kfc affect your chances of getting swine flu" (I also rank for that one, first!)

There are plenty of other strange and funny search results, so maybe this helps in getting keywords set up.

[Josh Anderson]

What is really cool is that the links on this page of the CDC website linking to how to tell the difference between a flu and a cold are broken:

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/disease.htm

Our brilliant government dollars at work.

Perfect timing.

In the last 4 months tens of thousands of cases of the flu have been reported in the US:

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/

55 infants have died.

These are only the reported cases.

Compare that with only 100 cases reported in the US of the swine flu and one death that has sparked the government to distribute stockpiles of anti viral to stem a "possible pandemic."

The one thing that is concerning is the high percentage of deaths among reported cases. However, if you take into consideration the likely much higher volume of unreported cases that statistic would decline.

Swine flu keywords are certainly dominating Google - I just checked the Trends and "Swine Flu in Georgia" is in the top 10.

I think what you're saying is true (about marketing). The problem with the swine flu is that it is relatively new and none of us has been exposed to it yet so no antibodies.

Me? I am drinking lots of green tea (for the immune system) and lemon balm (a virucide and gentle nerve tonic) and going on with my life.

[BH]

Blatant hype and panic-inducing glitz is what I see in the headlines. The regular flu will probably kill far more people this year yet this swine flu is doing its dose of fear-mongering. Remember the West Nile Virus? Y2K? I hate seeing words like pandemic used when it seems like .0000001% of our population will ever be affected by this.

[ExRat]

Hi,

Just saw this - (lower advert)

[debra]

Originally Posted by ExRat

Hi,

Just saw this - (lower advert)

Well...you gotta admit...

That ones unique.

ROFL!...lol

[Steve Sanchez]

So which one did you post?

[Steve Iser]

Fear is money.

[Mo Goulet]

Las Vegas Nevada has a policy which has worked for years. Why can't we learn form them.

What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas ...

We should have this policy ... Stay out of the affairs of the world and keep the world out of our affairs. Keep our money home and trade. If the middle east wants wheat, we can trade them for oil. If they want to be stupid, let them eat their oil and we'll get our own. If someone wants to come to this country, let them do it legally.

BTW, here is a freebie, I have been healthy for close to 10 years...no flu, no cold, NADA.

Here is why and it was highly recommended as the number one preventative against the swine flu, by Larry Harris who was a biologist for the US government who started exposing the threat back in 1994. They managed to silence him.

Ionic colloidal silver...Google it...you can make it yourself with parts from radio shack for under $20 or buy it and pay from $100 - $400 ...I'm going to take one of mine apart and take picture and upload it to a website over the next week and also pull out Larry VHS and see if I can break it down to put online....

If any of you Video experts know how to do this, I'm open to suggestion....hint "Josh"

This is a 30 minute Video that will shock you. His Grand-parents lived through the last 1918 horror and that is why he dedicated his life to the study of Biological warfare defense!

I personally do not see any threat in the near future but the day is coming when you will need to be prepared.

The first step is start speaking the positive and stop confessing the negative...

The missing ingredient in the SECRET is you need to verbally say what you want in life.

If you want a new car then when you leave your house turn to your significant other, even if it's your cat, and say I'm taking the Hummer (or whatever) to the store. It does not matter if you drive a 10 year old jeep.

Remember the Genie say..."Your wish is my Command" But guess what? you have to tell him...He cannot read your mind.

The biggest lie in history which we teach our children is to blow out the Birthday candles and make a wish but...DO NOT TELL ANYONE!!!! Wake up people...

OK...I need to stop here...

MO

[ExRat]

Hi again,

You gotta move fast on these things - just found this - (seriously, it's not my site - I've got better things to do ) Just thought it was amusing, and pretty quick on implementation. I found it on page 23 of a swine flu search on G.

Swinefighter - The Swine Flu Game - Beat the Virus!

[Devon Brown]

I'll be glad when all of this is old news like the bird flu virus. WF have an archive to check that?

[seobro]

If it bleeds it leads/ so a deadly germ that kills will attract more attention than crysisler going under. I mean the banksters and used car dealers are not my fav people. See this video about why I see.

Twilight Zone - Half Hour Video - The Whole Truth - CBS.com

[blargins]

Does anyone know of a swine flu affiliate I could promote?

[Kay King]

What the public is conveniently forgetting is that the last time there was a big panic over a flu strain, more people died from the shot developed to protect them than from the flu.

I just saw a question on Yahoo Answers that blew my mind! A woman asked if she was right to insist on killing her daughter's pet pot belly pig so they wouldn't catch swine flu from it. Then went on to ask if it could be eaten.

OMG

[Randy Bheites]

Originally Posted by debra

The viral strand that causes the swine flu can not tolerate tempters above 160 degrees. Cooking your pork products above that would kill the strand. We all know that vaccines consist of dead strands. So…eating pork products that harbored the swine flu that has been cooked properly will also furnish you natures own vaccine against the swine flu.

H1N1 is NOT transmissible via pork products. It is a mutation that has jumped species and is now transmitted through human-to-human contact.

This sort of ignorant posting is completely irresponsible.

Please educate yourself before posting opinions as fact in ways that could negatively impact public health. Consider going to the Center for Disease Control at CDC.gov and getting some real info.

The last major pandemic that resembles this outbreak was the Spanish Flu of 1918. 50 million people died from it, mostly healthy young adults. I'm pretty sure Big Pharma had nothing to do with it.

[GoGreenGo]

Luckily no matter what my kids and I are always home lol

[Kay King]

The last major pandemic that resembles this outbreak was the Spanish Flu of 1918. 50 million people died from it, mostly healthy young adults. I'm pretty sure Big Pharma had nothing to do with it.

Remember bird flu? SARS? This entire "pandemic" seems to be feeding on media and political frenzy and the public is falling for it.

There was a swine flu scare in 1976 with the same frenzy over "what might happen". For a good story about the frenzy and the reality....

The last great swine flu epidemic | Salon

[traces2757]

Though I agree that pharmaceutical companies are taking advantage, concerns about the swine flu are mostly warranted. It has come at a time when flu epidemics don't usually make their rounds; it is a fresh, new strain that we're not 'quite' sure how to deal with, and it could easily mutate as it makes its way through the population. We didn't see it coming, and we didn't develop a vaccine for it. So yeah, it could cause a lot of damage; 'could' being the operative word. Odds are good that it will run its course without causing any more deaths than any of the other flu strains, and that'll be the end of that. We just don't know for sure, and that is what's making people uneasy.

[Ron Douglas]

I live about 20 minutes from the school in Queens, NY where there was an incident of the swine flu.

The doctors offices in my area are getting bombarded with parents bringing their kids in to get checked. One little sneeze and it's off to the doctor. My daughter was feeling a bit under the weather and of course my wife insisted that I take her to the doctor. She didn't have any of the symptoms and the doctor didn't even bother to test her for swine flu. But he kindly took his insurance money and my co-pay.

I guess financially it's good for the doctors but bad for the insurance companies.

The media is really powerful. I'm waiting for the "Swine Flu Survival Kit" CPA offers to come out.

[Fox30]

It's just what's hot on the news right know. I believe I probably have a better chance of winning the lottery than to get the Swine Flu.

[4thstreet]

There are four different issues as to why the swine flu is getting so much press & why all the closures and the like.

1. This flu strain is hitting in an off season so many were not prepared for it.

2. The name "swine" flu kind of freaks people out. They should have just said that a strain of flu was going around.

3. The numbers that came out of Mexico are all screwy. They only have 18 confirmed deaths and the CDC believes that this strain of flu has been rampant in Mexico for about 4 months without their health department going to any special measures and the estimate is about how many may have had it (and does have it) is about 200,000. Now if you take the death rate of confirmed cases compared to how many people actually had it - it's much less severe than what was originally stated when it was finally announced.

4. Obama --he stated that the last administration screwed up with the communication about Katrina and that he wanted to get this out to everyone as quickly as possible. I think that this is the top reason for all the fear out there. News comes out as fast as it occurs and the facts aren't getting checked. So with all this mis-information it looks so much worse than it is.

The CDC is now stating that there is a good chance that this strain will become much more active in the fall & winter which is the usual flu season.

I have my 22 year old home sick that just tested positive today for strep & the doctor thinks that he may possibly also have the flu. I have no concern about the flu, but strep certainly sucks.

[debra]

Originally Posted by Randy Bheites

H1N1 is NOT transmissible via pork products. It is a mutation that has jumped species and is now transmitted through human-to-human contact.

This sort of ignorant posting is completely irresponsible.

Please educate yourself before posting opinions as fact in ways that could negatively impact public health. Consider going to the Center for Disease Control at CDC.gov and getting some real info.

Alas...another opinion and again presented as a fact.

You missed my point completely. I was not giving medical advise or anything else otherthan the marketing aspect. Using current media to bring traffic to your site and creating your own opportunities.

And...I didn't focus on any one strand. There have been many strands of the swine flu since 1930.

And...who are you to call me irresponsible if you couldn't even grasp the post. shessss.....

There was no medical or political consperecy intent.

Obviously, you will only get out of the post what you want to and nothing else. That's a shame... I guess I should have made a more detail post.

The last major pandemic that resembles this outbreak was the Spanish Flu of 1918. 50 million people died from it, mostly healthy young adults. I'm pretty sure Big Pharma had nothing to do with it.

Any more opinions after the fact?

[Randy Bheites]

Debra, make yourself a victim if you like.

I have no problem with your opinions concerning marketing and hype.

I have a huge problem with your opinions being presented as medical fact in direct contravention of known science.

Have a nice day.

[Kay King]

I think the problem is in using info to market this craze that is not connected with the spread of the virus.

You are correct that properly cooked pork does not spread swine flu - but that's not how swine flu is communicated in the first place.

Plus, for many years we've known that pork products must be thoroughly cooked before consuming them - so that info isn't truly related to swine flu. As swine flu is being spread through the air, just cooking port to a safe temperature doesn't provide protection.

I'm sure homeopathic sites will be touting their "cures" - but there are no proven preventatives other than careful hand washing.

I personally think chasing fads is a poor marketing tactic though I know some do it consistently. One way or another you usually end up spreading inconsistent or incorrect info - or relating things to the problem that have no relation to it.

Many marketers don't care about providing only proven facts and will delve into areas of public belief (and gullibility) and if they are comfortable then it's ok for them. Others refuse to market in that way. Personal comfort zone is what matters.

kay

[Patrick Pallesen]

Well anyway I feel a bit safe of living in Denmark then. Some experts have said that the swine flu probably isn't much worse than what we are used to here.

[Doug English]

Those damn pigs are always out to bring down the innocent man!
(is that a US only joke?)

[angelica0109]

It's been the most talkative issue today from the newspaper,radio and television.Even on internet they gave feedbacks about swine flu.I guess all we have to do is to make our environment as clean as possible to avoid having this disease.

[TelegramSam]

I looked earlier and saw that all of the domain names have gone already for swine flu.

Perhaps the powers that be bought them before announcing the panic to the world.

There are even half built sites trying to get on the band wagon.

Here's just one I saw:

http://www.AvoidingSwineFlu.com

It's not even finished and no doubt it will end up as some kind of swine flu adsense site. Nice design though.

I bet the drug companies are laughing all the way to the bank.

I'm sure they had nothing to do with all this...

The UK government just so happens to have 30,000,000 swine flu injections lying around in some stock cupboard. What a coincidence.

[debra]

Originally Posted by TelegramSam

I looked earlier and saw that all of the domain names have gone already for swine flu.

Perhaps the powers that be bought them before announcing the panic to the world.

There are even half built sites trying to get on the band wagon.

Here's just one I saw:

http://www.AvoidingSwineFlu.com

It's not even finished and no doubt it will end up as some kind of swine flu adsense site. Nice design though.

I bet the drug companies are laughing all the way to the bank.

I'm sure they had nothing to do with all this...

The UK government just so happens to have 30,000,000 swine flu injections lying around in some stock cupboard. What a coincidence.

Hey TelegramSam -

Did you know that the US buys the majority of its Influenza Flu Shots from the UK and Canada?

So...it doesn't surprize me that you guys already have them in supply.

[rlnorthcutt]

FYI - an average of 36,000 people die in the US each year because of the flu (it ranges from 20-50k). Thats with the shots and modern medicine.

The problem with this version is that in addition to being very virulent and aggressive, its actually killing some people that aren't in the high-risk group for flue-related deaths (babies, elderly, immune deficient, etc.). From what I heard, its the overactive immune response to the virus that is causing problems by filling people's lungs with fluid (which is a natural immune response).

So - even hundreds of deaths are just a drop in the bucket compared to the regular flu... Its just that this one is hard on a wider range of people.

[discrat]

Originally Posted by Kay King

What the public is conveniently forgetting is that the last time there was a big panic over a flu strain, more people died from the shot developed to protect them than from the flu.

I just saw a question on Yahoo Answers that blew my mind! A woman asked if she was right to insist on killing her daughter's pet pot belly pig so they wouldn't catch swine flu from it. Then went on to ask if it could be eaten.

OMG

Hey Kay,
This stain of Flu CANNOT be transferred thru cooked food of the contaminated source.

That being said that is still a bizarre story !!

[OmarNegron]

There capitalizing on the FEAR or people.....that's all I see in the paper...SWINE FLU this and SWINE FLU that!

[Pete Egeler]

My 2¢..

1) If you're going to promote around this current topic, get your facts CORRECT, or don't do it.

2) The biggest problem with marketing the "swine flu" niche, folks don't really take the time to get their ducks in a row. There's so much mis-information and pure BS floating around it's ridiculous.


As an example: WHO has already made it clear. This strain of flue is NOT caused by pigs, nor pork products. Egypt's order to slaughter all pigs shows what hysteria can do.

Masks won't stop you from getting this strain of flu, or any other. The carrier spores are so small (100's of microns) that they pass right through masks.

Just a couple of examples to think about. There are many more, and you can find out the facts from World Health Organization, or here in the states, CDC has a website set up dedicated to the flu.

Pete

[BlackWaterBlog]

Originally Posted by BH

Blatant hype and panic-inducing glitz is what I see in the headlines. The regular flu will probably kill far more people this year yet this swine flu is doing its dose of fear-mongering. Remember the West Nile Virus? Y2K? I hate seeing words like pandemic used when it seems like .0000001% of our population will ever be affected by this.

Swine Flu pandemic of 1918 killed 100 million people, more than the Black Plague did in Europe.

The current strain could mutate into the 1918 strain and wipe out 1/3 of the population of the United States.

[Beatrix Potts]

Sweetie, IF you had a baby and you thought for ONE second that it had Swine Flu, you would walk across broken glass, swim a raging river and punch out anyone who stood in your way to help that unfortunate child. All the "Swine Flu Drama" as you put it is about HUMAN LIFE. (I almost said, "You twit" but I held myself back.) Are you THAT insensitive? Get a HEART dear.

All the best,
Beatrix

[Loren Woirhaye]

Why the drama?


BECAUSE PEOPLE FEAR DEATH!

Have some compassion. People are afraid their kids are gonna
get sick and die.

The damn flu just turned up in the Amherst college student
body and my girlfriend has a young daughter in the local
school here. We aren't freaked out but it's no joking
matter.

[jamesdj1]

Regardless of how much money one could make off this why participate in spreading more fear like our gov is doing currently?

Yes I agree if one is going to get involved getting facts straight would be nice but come on...

watch this video of Vice Pres Biden and show me a government doing what's right based on facts. LOL!!

YouTube - Swine Flu Outbreak Joe Biden

If you really want to get into what might be going on listen to this call from Joyce Riley's radio show the last week of March I believe. Talk about making your hair stand up!!

YouTube - EMERGENCY - SPREAD THIS VIDEO! AVIAN...

For even more video fun search youtube for FEMA Camps

[Mike Hill]

Originally Posted by jamesdj1

YouTube - EMERGENCY - SPREAD THIS VIDEO! AVIAN FLU - FEMA TRAIN CONNECTION! UPDATE

What a bunch of crap... This video is so full of it!

Mike Hill

[1 Marketing]

What I see is, a great buzz is created for Swin Flu. Can any one quote the real stats for the effected population and how many are medically serious.

There was one Bird Flu case in one poultry farm. People left eating chicken resulting drastic prices declines. Not even a single patient registered for Bird Flu Virus but the buzzzzz cause a serious destruction of Poultry Industry. The pharma industry enjoyed the benefits.

So I agree, fear is money...

[Martin Luxton]

Lots of thoughts come to mind here.

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Our lives are full of risk.

You are more likely to die in a kitchen accident or a car crash than of swine flu. So don't cook and don't drive.

Also, ladies, please divorce your husbands right now because the chances of them murdering you are way higher than the risk of catching swine flu.

Of course the possibility of a pandemic is worrying but some of the misinformation here is feeding the hysteria and when governments act in response to hysteria they usually get it wrong.

As to making a marketing "killing" out of this - what are you going to promote?

You sell masks. Customer A buys one, thinks he's protected and dies of swine flu. Lawsuit time.

You promote flu jabs. Customer B dies from reaction to injection. Customer C dies of swine flu anyway. Lawsuit time.

We do not know enough about this. Even WHO are still feeling their way.
My advice is to leave this market alone.

Even recommending supplements or products to boost your immune system is problematic because the majority of people who died of the Spanish Flu in 1918 were healthy young adults.

Nobody knows why people are dying in Mexico while in other countries the effects appear to be milder.

I repeat. To enter this market is, at best, irresponsible, and, worst case scenario, you could end up killing people.

If I see a marketer using incorrect information promoting swine flu 'remedies' I will be quite happy to report them to the relevant authorities.

If you would like more information check out these two links from the BBC.

BBC NEWS | Health | Q&A: Advice about swine flu

BBC NEWS | Health | Can masks help stop flu spread?

Martin

[igorhelpsyousucceed]

Originally Posted by debra

Texas has officially announced the largest school closing.

That’s right! Whole districts and day cares are temporarily closing doors due to the swine flu. The Health Department in Dallas and Tarrant Counties, as well as others, has advised parents across the board to keep their children home and away from group gatherings.

So, why all the drama surrounding the swine flu?

Every year citizens participate in a roundup to get the annual Flu Shot. Still, every year thousands lose their lives to the flu, without the appeal of the news media.

Why am I telling you what you already know?

I’ll sum it up for you in one word.

Marketing!

Superb marketing tactics by pharmaceutical companies have the local health departments on edge, spewing panic among the public using news media. Pharmaceutical companies see it as survival opportunity by grabbing government funds through research and development where the private sector has failed due to a tightening corporate economy.

As Marketers, it is up to you to seize the moment. Every reseller of an immune boosting product should be on this bandwagon.

I’ll give you a few examples in making use of the media’s chaos.

Swine Flu has the same flu symptoms we are accustomed to with the annual Influenza. Providing content that is already available for the prevention of influenza can be also applied to the swine flu symptoms.

Providing content in home comfort preventions like with homeopathic recipes, teas, properties in antiviral foods and herbs, etc. will be popular in driving traffic.

Here’s a good one…

The news media has already announced the possibility of boycotting pork products. That’s the worse thing that could happen. Although, it would make the pharmaceutical companies ecstatically happy.

The viral strand that causes the swine flu can not tolerate tempters above 160 degrees. Cooking your pork products above that would kill the strand. We all know that vaccines consist of dead strands. So…eating pork products that harbored the swine flu that has been cooked properly will also furnish you natures own vaccine against the swine flu.

Anyway…you get the idea. Don’t let the media consume you…let it work for you.

I agree.
Government and social media are always
used in order to seed panic among the people.
Panic->Fear->Money for the Government.

Just watch zeitgeist and you'll know what I
talking about.

[ripsnorta2]

The thing is that serious pandemics are are regular occurrence throughout the history of the world. It's not just the flu, cholera for instance, has killed millions over the last thousand years. Add to that diseases like plague, yellow fever, diptheria, and the like and those numbers are almost beyond imagining.

Frankly, it's past due for a pandemic to occur. The last was the Asian Flu that killed a million people in 1968. To think that we are immune from a nasty disease just because our technology is more advanced, or because we live in a lucky country is, put simply, hubris.

The current almost-pandemic is scary simply because it bears striking similarities to the 1918 Spanish Flu which:

• Started in the northern hemisphere summer. It then disappeared and returned with a vengeance that winter during the normal flu season. That's when it killed millions. IIRC, it also took place over two years.
  
• It predominantly killed healthy young adults rather than the elderly or very young. It caused a strong healthy immune system to overreact and drowned the sick in their beds. This new flu seems to be doing the same thing.

If the WHO has put their alert up to level 5 (out of 6) then that means that there are people at that level who are concerned. There are a lot of governments now spending money getting their pandemic plans into action, in the middle of a financial crisis.

The powers that be are worried.

Now that's not going to make me lock myself inside and not come out until it's over. I'm still going to live my life. I might take a few precautions though, and just keep a weather eye out.