"In a world where proponents of the old ways fiercely battle those with progressive minds, the intrigue and tension quickly reach a boiling point against the devastating backdrop of the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race—the Black Death"
Ken Follett
World Without End

That is a fiction novel from a brilliant writer.

This is not. Learn how one man is trying to save the economy and the world from Swine Flu...and nobody will listen.

(Originally posted at http://www.fohboh.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1411008%3ABlogPost%3A322344 and reprinted here directly by the author himself)

August 21, 2009
TITLE
On The Pillars Of This Earth Lies A World Without End

The ‘literati’ amongst you will instantly recognize that I shamelessly ripped off the title of this blog post from two truly epic novels by renowned author Ken Follett and if you’ve read them both, by the time you are finished reading this, you will completely understand why I chose the title I did.
What is ironic to me is that gathering the information and material for this posting was actually easier than figuring out what to title it.

If you are not willing to set aside the time to read this from beginning to end, then you do not deserve to benefit from the unique perspective and valuable information I am about to provide.
If you are sick of hearing and reading about ‘Swine Flu’ then this post is an absolute must read.
If you are in any of the following industries, you simply cannot afford to avoid reading on…

Foodservice HRI Operations and Management
Catering, Concessions, Special Events
Food Production Sales and Marketing
Restaurant Supply (Food, Supplies, Chemicals, Equipment, R&M)
Travel
Tourism
Small Business Owner
Entertainment/Nightlife
Sporting Events and Event Planning

Your business is at risk, your children’s health is at risk, your customer base is at risk, the healthcare system is at risk and not to be overlooked, the entire economy is at risk. I assure you I am not trying to be alarmist and get everyone all hot and bothered. I am only stating facts and I will post all reference material at the bottom of this blog. That is not to say that what I’m about to expose isn’t alarming and shouldn’t get you all hot and bothered, it’s just not my intention.

I am going to tell you the ‘real story’ about H1N1, I’m going to put ‘pandemic’ into its proper relevant context and I will explain why this virus may be far more dangerous than you think. I’m going to educate you on the vaccine pursuit and give you ‘realistic’ expectations for what it may or may not achieve. Then I’m going to show you the difference between the two types of pandemic interventions and how one of them might put you out of business in the near future… and finally, I will share with you what I‘m trying to do to prevent that from happening.

I know it sounds like a lot. It is. Grab a coffee, or your beverage of choice, come sit down for a little while….and learn more than you ever thought you would about the most important thing happening in the world today.

In order for me to adequately explain things and put them into proper perspective, I must first play ‘Professor’ and give a lecture full of facts and details on current and past events, as these details are critical in understanding the nature of what is likely about to happen.

Some of you may remember a blog I posted a week before Mexico City shut down last May, warning of the potential consequences the restaurant industry faced in light of this growing viral threat that we now call Novel H1N1.
At the time, I had no idea how correct I was, yet a week later, in the worlds most populous city, the only business restaurants were allowed to do was takeout….for the entire week of Cinco de Mayo!
It appears that this was just a harbinger, a sign of things to come.

Within six weeks, H1N1 appeared in almost every major country in the world. To be sure, the world has gotten smaller over the past few decades, but six weeks from initial outbreak to full blown Stage 6 Global Pandemic is not just unprecedented, it is astounding!.

Now, unless you’re a scientist at the South Pole or a submarine crew member, your chances of being exposed to H1N1 is fairly substantial. You have also probably heard certain government and health officials stating to the media that even though this virus has spread globally at an alarming rate, its health impact is fairly mild and most people are recovering after a few days. They are right…..so far. However, there is a lot more to this than meets the eye.

The Southern Hemisphere is currently heading towards the end of its ‘flu season’ and we in the Northern Hemisphere are heading towards the beginning of ours. Folks living in the equatorial and sub tropical regions are kind of caught in the middle, between that proverbial rock and hard place. More on that a little later.

Of particular interest right now is the fact that regular seasonal flu in the Southern Hemisphere has all but disappeared. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 90% of all lab confirmed influenza cases in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina are H1N1. I've even seen a couple reports that it's over 98%.

So where did the regular old flu go? On vacation? Of all the research I did, I could not find any information on why regular seasonal influenza has all but disappeared. I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that H1N1 is continuing to mutate and our familiar old flu has become part of a new family, adopted if you will.
Or it’s possible that it is simply off everyone’s radar screen for the moment. I don’t know, but I would love to find out because that is a scary statistic. Keep reading for more scary statistics because we are just hitting the tip of the iceberg. It’s notable that seasonal flu generally infects about 10% of the population, but that pandemic flu, like H1N1 can infect 40% or more.

According to the WHO, worldwide, there have been 177,457 laboratory-confirmed cases of novel 2009-H1N1 influenza virus with 1,462 deaths. That is a 0.83% death rate among confirmed cases. For simple math, I’m rounding up to a straight 1%.
WHO is currently predicting around TWO BILLION infections over the course of this pandemic. I’m not a math whiz but I’m pretty sure that 1% of 2 billion is 20 million. I don’t recall seeing that headline anywhere but let’s all be grateful that the media is not over hyping the situation. It’s not going to help anything.

It’s especially important to keep in mind that these numbers only reflect the current situation and do not take into account a possible/likely mutation of the virus. The 1% death rate number has been very consistent in most countries since the outbreak began….um….with one notable exception.

Perhaps you saw the headline last week that read “Costa Rican President has Swine Flu”. Not so surprising, but what was surprising was the numbers in the third paragraph of the story that somehow got completely overlooked by the media. 718 confirmed cases and 27 deaths. That is a kill rate of just under 4%. 400% higher than the international average. How on earth does that statistic get overlooked? Costa Rica may be in Central America but it is no Somalia or really poor Third World country with non existent health care.

Four times the international death rate deserves far more attention and investigation as to the cause. Is H1N1 mutating as it comes back north? I simply don’t know but I certainly hope not.

By the way, if you didn’t know this, H1N1 is basically 1 part seasonal ‘Human’ flu, 1 part Avian/Bird flu and 2 parts Swine flu.
This is a really harsh mix for a number of reasons. I am not a scientist so I should actually be able to explain this in the most simple of terms.

Seasonal flu usually just infects the upper respiratory tract and is easily spread from person to person and person to surface to person. However, our immune system is pretty good at fighting upper respiratory infections.
Avian flu infects the deep lung tissue, is difficult to spread from person to person and usually kills about 75% of its victims.
Throw Swine flu into the mix and suddenly H1N1 makes the best of both worlds. Easy transmission from person to person and if your lungs were a tropical jungle (surprisingly, not a ridiculous comparison), likes to live in the trees and on the floor. Both upper tract and deep inside.
It should be obvious to you that this is not a good thing.

***As a complete side note, many people are familiar with the fact that lab mice have similar DNA to humans, thus are used for certain medical testing. I doubt many people know that ferrets have a similar lung structure to humans and therefore they are the preferred lab animal for respiratory infection testing.***

A couple of other uncommon occurrences these past few weeks forces one to look at history for reference and perspective.

The first is that unlike in normal years, where flu activity in the summer months is virtually non existent, we have continued to have ongoing pandemic activity in the US, Canada and Europe. That is very unusual and disconcerting. This little bug is not only resilient and very persistent, but the fact that it spreads so easily from human to human in non flu friendly environments should make you think how well it might do in more favorable conditions, such as cold damp weather.

Secondly, your normal flu victims who end up dying from complications are usually older, frail folks or other immune system compromised individuals such as people with HIV etc. That is definitely not the case with H1N1. As far as I can tell, the average age of H1N1 related death victims is under 30 years old. Seriously, people in the prime of their lives, all other underlying medical complications aside, dying from the flu?

(Before we go on to look back at history for perspective, allow me to pause and remind you that we are still only covering background information and the real meat and potatoes of how your businesses and personal lives are going to be directly affected still lie ahead. The ‘Professor’ in me is not quite finished yet and this next piece of information is critical to understand.)

There is no point trying to reference the Black Death of the 14th century, which wiped out almost half of Europe, as there really isn’t any scientific value, but there is a lot to learn from the global pandemic of 1918, as well as what happened in the 1950’s and the 1970’s here in the U.S.

The 1918 pandemic killed somewhere between 20 and 50 million people worldwide and it came in three waves. The first wave was fairly widespread but relatively mild and started in the spring. (Sound familiar?) The second wave was strong and deadly and hit in the winter of 1918 like a hammer, with widespread deaths. Clearly it had mutated. Then came the third wave in 1919 which appeared intermittently and somewhat localized but had a very high mortality rate with over 10 million deaths in the third wave alone.

It had mutated once again, and even people who had survived a previous bout had no immunity to the third wave. Then, as if to add insult to injury, the next winter (1920) produced one of the most severe seasonal flu outbreaks of the century! What a start to the Roaring Twenties!

It is something to think about since scientists today admit they still have a lot to learn about H1N1. Nobody needs to go running out buying plastic bubbles to live in, just keep yourselves aware of what’s going on in the world around you.

The 1958-1960 influenza outbreak killed over 40,000 Americans and also came in waves of three. It seems that we get one of these every 30-40 years or so. In the MIT White Paper on H1N1 (linked for reference at the bottom), you will read that we’ve had about 10 pandemics over the past 300 years. Clearly we are due for another and there's a good chance we are right in the middle of it.

Things are obviously different now though. We have solid science behind us and we know how to make vaccines quickly and safely, right? Um…not so fast.
Let’s jump to 1976.

The 1976 swine flu 'non-outbreak' was a vaccination debacle to be sure, but was also caused by a strain of H1N1. Infections were only detected from January 19 to February 9, and were not found outside Fort Dix however the outbreak is most remembered for the mass immunization that it prompted. The strain itself killed one person and hospitalized only 13. However, side-effects from the vaccine caused 25 deaths and also there were over 500 cases of GBS, a paralyzing neuromuscular disorder. It only affected one out of each million doses given, but the public refused to trust a government-operated health program that killed old people and crippled young people.
If the entire country was vaccinated today, that would only be 350 people killed or severely injured…..as long as its not your kid or mine, right? The point is this…if the public does not trust the safety of a vaccine, they will take steps to avoid vaccination and it‘s all for naught.

Now here is something really intriguing and somewhat ironic. You’ve probably heard about the struggle to create a vaccine soon enough and in sufficient quantities before flu season arrives. I’ll go more in depth about that below, but healthcare workers have been put in the front of the line for the first available vaccines.

A recent survey of 1500 nurses in the UK showed over a third of them will refuse to take it. Over 60 percent of them cited safety fears of taking a rushed to market vaccine. Can you imagine the school nurse who refused a shot herself, running down the hall with needle in hand, chasing a screaming child? It could happen since several world governments are considering mandatory vaccinations.

Aside from that, there are also ethical concerns about running around with needles and drugs every time a new virus shows up. As things stand today, we are down to just two ‘pristine’ antibiotics due to overuse in the medical and animal health arenas. Pristine meaning there’s not a lot of resistance to them. Just two left!

Fast tracked vaccines are a little different but the World Health Organization has acknowledged safety issues “will inevitably arise during a pandemic when a vaccine is developed rapidly and administered on a massive scale“. Just like overuse of antibiotics, the more vaccines used, the more mutations occur rendering them useless.

Normally a vaccine is tested for a couple of years across a broad demographic before coming to market and even then it’s closely monitored. The polio vaccine was closer to 4 years of study before widespread use. Right now we’re looking at somewhere between 6-7 months..if that…..and that’s assuming enough can be produced in time. We’ll get to that in a moment.

Here’s a perplexing quote from the CDC website recently:
“…a novel H1N1 vaccine is currently in production and may be ready for the public in the fall. The novel H1N1 vaccine is not intended to replace the seasonal flu vaccine – it is intended to be used along-side seasonal flu vaccine…”.

Seriously? Even though seasonal flu has all but disappeared? I guess George Orwell missed the part where Big Brother wore a surgical mask and had a syringe in both hands.
I really need to buy pharmaceutical stocks because these guys seem to have the authorities by the cajones! …and let’s not miss the fact that the word ’may’ in the quote above is significant and you are about to learn why.

I stated earlier that there are two approaches when dealing with a pandemic. One is called PI and the other is called NPI. You’ll learn about NPI later (and you won’t like it) but right now let’s focus on PI.

PI stands for Pharmaceutical Interventions. Simply put…DRUGS, DRUGS and more DRUGS.
The potential for this pandemic to become a massive global healthcare catastrophe is very real and the authorities are doing the right thing by aggressively pursuing an effective vaccine. However, I can’t help but feel the public expectations with regards to effectiveness and availability of supply are unrealistic.

There are several reasons why I feel this way.
Here’s a quote from a recent article:
“Health and Human Services expected to have 120 million doses of the vaccine by Oct. 15. But it now thinks it will fall far short of that — only 45 million”.

I have reason to believe it will be even lower than that, but before I explain, there is something I haven’t addressed yet about the vaccine.

All indications are that a successful vaccination program will require TWO doses per individual, spread apart over a three week period. Immunization will then occur a full three weeks after the second shot is administered….hopefully. Remember, this does not exist yet. So even if they hit the 45 million dose number (again, I don’t believe they will), that’s actually only 23 million vaccinations.

When you start giving shots in mid to late October, and there is a 6-8 week lag time before inoculation is effective, we have now arrived at the end of December before just 6.5% of the population is vaccinated.

When you start giving shots in mid to late October, and there is a 6-8 week lag time before inoculation is effective, we have now arrived at the end of December before just 6.5% of the population is vaccinated.

The above sentence was posted twice on purpose. Does that sound like enough vaccine and a soon enough time frame? If you think so, then you are guilty of being naïve.

Besides yield and production issues, there is another important complicating factor about this pandemic which has not received enough attention. Historically, pandemics of this nature expand the normal flu season and generally show up several weeks earlier and last several weeks longer than normal. We have seen proof of this all summer long here in the Northern Hemisphere and it is logical to expect increased cases as soon as the second week of September, rather than the normal October-November timeframe.

So what good will immunity for less than 7% of the entire U.S. population by the end of the year, do for all the sick and dead well before then? The answer is absolutely nothing.

As I previously stated, I am not confident that the 45 million dose target will be achieved regardless.
Dr. Robin Robinson, the Department of Health and Human Services official in charge of vaccine procurement said "As we've all along said, if things can go wrong they will,".

Oh yes, they certainly will and they are. The dose yields from the virus batches needed to create the vaccine is much too low. Manufacturers around the world disclosed in July that they were having serious problems brewing shots. The chief ingredient is grown in eggs, and companies were getting far fewer doses per egg than they usually do for regular winter flu vaccine.

In addition to that, now there’s a packaging problem and that is causing a production backlog. Both of the above problems can be overcome in a reasonable amount of time, but there is one concern that is far more alarming than those two.

A lot of the vaccines are produced overseas, in Europe and Australia for example. Health authorities and governments are well aware of the shortage problems and are also staring at their calendars and counting days rather than weeks or months until flu season arrives. The Australian government has already decided it will vaccinate its own citizens first, before sending doses to the U.S.A.

Should we really hope that Swiss, French and German vaccine producers will take care of us Americans before inoculating their own citizens? I think not. As representatives of the people, the foreign governments have a civil duty to protect their own interests first and we cannot blame them. We have a history of doing the same thing ourselves.

So again, I don’t have a great degree of confidence that the projected vaccine doses will be available here nearly as soon as people are being led to believe and I hope I’m wrong.

Please allow me to reiterate that as of today, a safe proven and effective vaccine DOES NOT EVEN EXIST! So everything else above is really moot until that point is reached.

Before I get into the bad news about NPI, as I warned you I would, let’s make a pit stop in the land of the strange for a moment.

Some well respected governments have been acting irrational lately, which is also cause for concern. Even though a vaccine for this current outbreak does not yet exist, the Greek government has mandated that every single citizen and resident must be vaccinated. That’s 14 million people and 28 million doses which we don’t have. I would have thought a world class government would wait to see if it works before declaring such a mandate. “We decided that the entire population, all citizens and residents, without any exception, will be vaccinated against the flu," Health Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos said after a ministerial meeting”

Just last week in the U.K., something very strange happened. I can’t say I ever thought I would read a headline like this and no, it‘s not a joke:
Swine flu hotline run by 16-year-olds: NHS pays GCSE pupils to give advice and hand out drugs over the phone.

They are actually giving out Tamiflu like it’s candy. Almost incomprehensible in light of the fact that:

-More than half the children in England taking the swine flu drug Tamiflu suffer side-effects such as nausea, insomnia and nightmares
-Two studies from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) show a high proportion of schoolchildren reporting problems after taking the antiviral drug.
-Researchers concluded that a "high proportion of school children may experience side-effects of oseltamivir (Tamiflu) medication
-Roche Labs the pharmaceutical company wrote to US doctors warning that "people with the flu, particularly children, may be at an increased risk of self-injury and confusion shortly after taking Tamiflu and should be closely monitored for signs of unusual behaviour
-The US Food and Drug Administration found 103 cases of "neuropsychiatric adverse events", including the deaths of a 17-year-old boy who was killed after jumping in front of a truck and a 14-year-old boy who fell after climbing on a balcony railing.

I have some others too, but I realize this posting is already too long and we’re not done yet….but you will find a couple of extra links at the bottom, if you choose.

Okay, time to talk about NPI and how this soon to be ‘ugly’ word might put you out of business and drag the world right back into a depression.

NPI stands for Non Pharmaceutical Interventions. I previously mentioned that PIs are basically drugs and a vaccination/medical approach to pandemic mitigation and control. PIs and NPIs is all the world has to fight a pandemic.

NPIs include things such as quarantines, isolation, lockdowns, closing of schools, public advisories to avoid travel, and avoid crowded areas such as restaurants and nightlife districts, closing of malls and movie theaters and generally telling the entire population to stay home until the air clears. Basically the physical separation of people to prevent spread.

This happened just last week in two major cities in India, specifically Pune and Mumbai.
Mumbai is to India what New York City is to the United States. We all know this also happened in Mexico City last May.

Unfortunately, we are all painfully aware that it was virtually useless and completely ineffective in preventing the spread of H1N1. Do not assume that because we know this, it won’t continue to happen, it almost certainly will.

It is estimated that the Mexico City shutdown impacted the entire country’s GDP by nearly 1 percent. That was just one city in one country.

Without new and novel approaches to the mitigation of H1N1 spread, these old and tired NPIs are going to continue in the Northern Hemisphere until we have enough of a vaccine for everybody and the pandemic is put to bed. At least until the next 30 year cycle is ready to rear its head again….and this is assuming the virus does not mutate and render a vaccine useless, which cannot be discounted at this time.

Here in the U.S., we are extremely vulnerable economically because of the deep recession we have all been experiencing and the heavy service based sector of our economy. Historically, retail, entertainment and foodservice related industries enjoy about 40% of their entire annual income in the last quarter of the year.

Talk about perfect timing. I can only imagine how many small business owners and restaurateurs have been hanging by a thread and waiting for the holiday season to pull themselves out of a financial hole. I am certain it is a bigger number than I care to know.

Here is what I do know right now…
Our federal government, along with other world governments have put their entire egg stash in the PI basket. They are simply counting on an effective vaccine being created fast enough, and in sufficient quantities to battle this pandemic. That’s all fine and dandy if you have a nice cozy job working for the government or healthcare industry. They can afford to ride things through. Poor old average Joe, though…well he’s in a pickle with the rest of us.

In light of all the above facts and details (which I have obviously shared in great length), if you are self employed, a small business owner, a restauranteur, a bartender or server, a mall landlord or tenant, a movie theater employee, or a parent who can’t work when your kid is out of school etc…..well, you are basically screwed this fall and winter…or maybe not….I’ll get to that shortly.

You see, the government will not have a choice but to advise the public to avoid crowded areas, limit social gatherings in places like restaurants and bars, not to travel or get on airplanes, stay away from malls, close schools etc and pretty much stay home. Again, all your standard NPI’s.
You have already been hearing messages to stay home when you’re sick, avoid sick people, wash your hands frequently, especially after coughing etc. These are current Non Pharmaceutical Interventions the health authorities are employing. We also know that their effect is very limited and it seems inevitable that the more harsh interventions will be required.

I simply don’t think the country and economy can afford it. Can your business survive another 30% drop in revenue over the fourth quarter? You are very lucky if the answer is yes.

I read that this H1N1 pandemic could have a global GDP impact of as much as 5%! I don’t know if that is accurate or not, but I do know that a rapid 5% reduction in global output on top of the deep recession will almost certainly lead to a depression.

I wouldn’t dare bring all these problems and issues to light without attempting to offer some solutions and
I have to admit that I have been very frustrated the last few weeks and I’m going to tell you why.

I put all of these pieces of the puzzle together and did not like what I was seeing, so I decided to focus on solutions rather than just sounding alarm bells and hunkering down for the winter.

The result is that I have developed a double line of defense firewall concept to help mitigate the spread of H1N1 in the worlds major cities during the coming months.

Even though my concept is an NPI, it’s an NPI that helps prevent the government telling people to avoid business, to not travel, to stay away from crowded restaurants and malls etc. It's one of the few 'good' NPI's.

It’s an NPI that can help prevent another dramatic slowdown in commerce and consumer activity, help increase consumer confidence with regards to their safety in public areas and most importantly, help reduce the spread of virus and hopefully prevent the overwhelming of health care services in many places.

In addition, my concept will help prevent illness and by default, probably save lives….Oh, did I mention also create thousands of jobs?

But guess what?

For the last three weeks, I’ve been reaching out to various sectors for support, for guidance, for help getting this off the drawing board and into practice, for endorsements, for seed capital, investments etc, AND I HAVE GOTTEN NOWHERE!!

ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE!!! You would not believe the list of agencies, trade associations, high profile individuals, health insurance companies, foundations etc that I have contacted about this and haven’t even received a response. Completely ignored! I guess everyone is bought into the whole vaccine storyline because they are clearly betting the farm on it.

Here I am, one man trying to save the world from Swine flu….and nobody will listen. Oh, I’m sure everyone will want to listen in a couple months when we are all knee deep in H1N1 doo-doo, but I’m more interested in preventing that from happening in the first place. At least to the best of my ability.

It amazes me that with so many intelligent people in this country, that I seem to be the only one who has put all of the pieces together, seen what’s coming and created a firewall solution to minimize the damage to health, lives and the economy. What’s more amazing is that the federal government and health authorities don’t appear to want to listen to anything new and creative. The vaccine will solve everything.

…and by not listening, they are throwing the country’s small businesses and restaurant, travel, tourism and entertainment industries under the bus at the worst possible time.

But don’t you worry….your vaccine dose is in the mail and you should have it by the middle of October.

(I must apologize for deliberately leaving the specific details about my firewall concept out of this blog post but there are Intellectual Property Rights concerns that require a certain degree of discretion)

Feel free to contact me directly if you would like more information about my concept. I am looking for investors and partners to help me make this happen.

You guys at FohBoh know where to find me...

CatManGroup1@aol.com

"In a world where proponents of the old ways fiercely battle those with progressive minds, the intrigue and tension quickly reach a boiling point against the devastating backdrop of the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race—the Black Death"
Ken Follett
World Without End
http://www.ken-follett.com/bibliography/world_without_end.html


Reference Links (In no particular order)


Deep lung vs. upper Respiratory Tract
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090713212231.htm

MIT White Paper on H1N1 by Prof John M Barry
http://esd.mit.edu/WPS/2009/esd-wp-2009-07.pdf

Costa Rica President and 4% Death Rate
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/08/11/costa.rica.president.h1n1.flu/index.html

CTV Ethical Concerns about rush to vaccinate
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090815/vaccine_safety_090816/20090816?hub=Health

US testing vaccine in kids as young as 6 months old!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,541045,00.html?test=latestnews

1976 Fort Dix
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_swine_flu_outbreak

Sanofi Vaccine shortage for poor countries
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5b2e0bbc-7c3e-11de-a7bf-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

Vaccine Production snag/countries keeping theirs first, eggs, low yield
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,540062,00.html

Tamiflu fiasco UK
Side effects kids 50%
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jul/31/tamiflu-side-effects-children

UK 16 y/old phone doctors? Overprescribe issues including stroke etc
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1205113/NHS-pays-16-year-olds-run-swine-flu-hotline.html

USA 5% decline real gdp= 20+ % for foodservice
http://www.ifpma.org/Influenza/index.aspx?37

Indiana Brother and Sister die, both under 30 and otherwise healthy
http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=79918

http://www.CDC.gov
http://www.WHO.int

India
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/11/bollywood-hit-by-swine-fl_n_256545.html

Over 1/3rd of Nurses surveyed to refuse vaccine due to Safety Fears
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/103733