He said at this stage other passengers on the flight were not being sought and the next step would depend on what the tests showed.

“We don’t believe at this point that there is a need for that.

“We might get no positives, we might get one, we might get all of them. It’s a pretty big step to be taking (and) it’s something that would be considered.”

Presumably part of that casualness is due to the fact that New Zealand currently has a large stockpile of Tamiflu (from the bird flu scare) and the current strain is susceptible to Tamiflu. Perhaps he’s thinking “at least we’ll get rid of those stocks before they expire”…

Unfortunately, while the Borg may consider that “resistance is futile”, viruses have different ideas. It is very conceivable that a simple mutation may render Tamiflu ineffective, so complacency is not an option. There are warning signs that this particular flu is potentially far more dangerous that bird flu:

1. The spanish flu epidemic of 1918 that killed 20 million people worldwide was also thought to have originally shifted from pigs to humans.
2. This particular flu transmits directly from human to human. At no time did bird flu become human to human transmissible. This puts it a WHO Alert 4 or 5 (6 is a pandemic). Note: WHO still have their alert notification on their web site set at 3. They seem to have taken this to a committee to monitor. Worry.
3. So far the mortality rate seems to be about 6%. Expect this to be considerably lower in countries with better access to medicine than Mexico and considerably worse in the third world. 

So, according to the information at my disposal, this flu scare is considerably more worrying that the bird flu fiasco, yet authorities everywhere seem unconcerned. The possibilities are:

1. They know something I don’t (eminently possible).
2. They are afraid of looking as stupid as they did in the bird flu scare
3. They really are that stupid
4. They have lulled themselves into a false sense of security by stockpiling Tamiflu.
5. Engaging conspiracy mode, they might be encouraging a good solid flu epidemic to blame it for the coming economic meltdown.
6. Engaging complete paranoia mode, they may be trying to reduce the world population to combat global warming.

Now, I’m just popping out to buy some Tamiflu…

Disclaimer: I have no shares in Roche, the makers of Tamiflu.

Related posts:

1. Swine Flu (Update 1)
2. Swine flu update 6
3. Swine Flu Myths