Swine Flu Lands in Moscow

“Fox News has predictably led the anti-immigrant charge with accusations that illness is part of some kind of viral conspiracy against America.”

Predictable, funny and pathetic. Conspiracy mongers of the world unite!

The uniting part may turn out to be a problem, though. After all, in Venezuela they are trying to call it Influenza Gringa. Why? Because, as well informed people know, this virus is a biological weapon created and unleashed by the US. Nothing new in this: the US sneaked a “made in the USA” strain of dengue fever into Cuba. Thousands of innocent Cubans died until heroic Cuban doctors learned how to defeat the disease. So the Gringo Flu outbreak follows the traditional modus operandi of the nefarious capitalist empire. And how diabolically clever they are! Only Glaxo and Roche have the medications to successfully fight the Gringo Flu. And why do you think so few Americans died of it? Well, there is the very real possibility that unbeknownst to them US citizens were already vaccinated against it. It’s a win-win for the US empire and the capitalists. They make others sick, then they sell them the medicines and vaccines, and to top it off they blame the poor pigs. (“Nos enferman, nos venden la medicina, nos venden la vacuna preventiva y después de todo le echan la culpa a los cochinos.” — http://aporrea.org/actualidad/a77079.html)

Several people on the campus where I work have it. It’s truly surreal, with screening centers and informational tables set up all over the place, daily reports e-mailed to the whole campus community, and people sending home employees who are obviously sick, or who might just have a bad case of allergies. Everyone freaked out for a few days, but now no one cares.

It’s a bit disorienting. There is certainly hype, but it is certainly real…

Flu is real. 36,000 people die of flu every year in the US. That’s about 100 people every day. That’s about 2,000 people dead of “regular” flu in the US alone since the “Swine Mexican Gringo flu” panic has erupted.

Thanks for linking to my piece, Sean.

I may have become paranoid for a while, but I still believe it was justified. At the time both new cases and new deaths appeared to be growing at an exponential rate. And then I and a suspiciously large number of people I knew fell ill…

Then it blew over like smoke. After being truly wretched for a day, I recovered quickly. And guess what, the news also brightened up at the exact same time, now saying that mortality was indeed no different from that of regular flu. This whole episode was so weirdly synchronized…

That said my initial post did predict it correctly (I guessed 2 or 3):

“2. Successful Containment – government intervention remains low key; no more than a few hundred excess deaths in the US; life carries on much as before.

3. Mild Pandemic – control not successful; mortality in the hundreds or at most thousands; localized, moderate government measures focusing on showering hot-spots with antivirals, fabric of life remains whole.”

That said we should still stand on guard. The fact is another highly-virulent pandemic WILL happen, either this autumn (perhaps swine flu will come back with a vengeance), next year or the year after that.

Avian flu, with a virulence of 60%, is waiting to mutate into a form transmissible amongst humans. Perhaps another virus will spring up, or swine flu will mutate into something more unholy. Terrorists can conjure something up.

When it does come, I hope the WHO and the world’s governments will be much more decisive at closing borders, quarantine and suppression than the poor effort they displayed this time. Preventing millions of deaths is more important than interrupting global traffic for a few weeks and shaving a couple of decimal points off world GDP growth. Many alarms may be false, but some will be real. Overreaction trumps under-reaction, the latter of which is short-sighted, greedy and frankly immoral.

And when all this is over, we all still die…

Has anyone actually watched the MM segment on Huffington Puffington? The accusations of conspiracy came from cooks like Savage and Bootz, not affiliated with Fox News. The only segment bordering on this was the teaser with some provocative questions for Hannity. But there was no clips from the actual show which leads me to believe there was nothing there.

Nonetheless, Sean makes a pre-programmed template reference to Fox News leading the charge. What gives, Sean?

All of the media is hysterical (in more sense then one) over this. Irresponsible comments and comparisons to 1918 are abound – and here I would certainly mention the same Hannity.

All of them and by making the silly claim about Fox News, Sean as well, abandoned the journalistic mantra of “not to manufacture news” for political expediency.

Btw, why would it be so outrageous to adopt a term “Mexican flu”?

The deadliest flu outbreak went down in history as “Spanish flu” (“ispanka”, in Russian). The other name for Anthrax is “Siberian Ulcer”. Why would it controversial to use a reference to Mexico for the desease that erupted there?

Apparently, the “Spanish flu” was actually “Gringo flu” and not “Spanish” at all. Who said propaganda doesn’t work?

Origins of name “Spanish flu”.

“Although the first cases of the disease were registered in the continental US and the rest of Europe long before getting to Spain, the 1918 Flu received its nickname “Spanish Flu” because Spain, a neutral country in WWI, had no special censorship for news against the disease and its consequences. Hence the most reliable news came from Spain, giving the false impression that Spain was the most -if not the only- affected zone.”

Of course, there was “Russian flu” too.

“It is the earliest flu pandemic for which detailed records are available. In 1889 it “began in Russia and spread rapidly throughout Europe. It reached North America in December 1889 and spread to Latin America and Asia in February 1890. About 1 million people died in this pandemic.”

“Flu is real. 36,000 people die of flu every year in the US. That’s about 100 people every day. That’s about 2,000 people dead of “regular” flu in the US.”

Wouldn’t ‘flu’ be categorized among ‘natural causes’? If I were of an age where quality of life had declined to the point of no return and my lungs were feeble, a bout of flu might do me in. Wouldn’t that be a blessing compared to years of painful old age extended by drugs and institution-delivered therapies and humiliations?

We do seem like ‘wussies’ with our swine-flu paranoia, compared to the ilk of Teddy Roosevelt and that generation of adventurers. He was all for jumping into wars to ‘cleanse’ the population; he probably considered the flu’s of his time another useful means of sweeping out the dead wood – even though these earlier pandemics were killing healthy people in their prime. Judged on today’s standards, he was reckless with his own life. But, was he reckless leader? He was certainly a visionary re: National Park system. One thing you’d have to say is “Joe Biden is no Teddy Roosevelt.” I do ask myself, “Are we becoming so uncomfortable with the concept of death that we’re OK with an institutionalized paranoia that would stop us from living fully. “

Tess, I agree with much of what you wrote. I think, though, that the unrelenting 24/7 news cycle that we have today is also a major contributing factor. To stay competitive now more than ever the various MSM outlets are forced to create big news. And often those big news are the anticipation of events that may or may not happen in the future. Think of how much coverage hurricanes that usually largely fizzle out before they hit the coast.

Much of the news is the creation of mountains out of molehills. Because of it many things have unreasanoble impact and influence, while other developments whose significance are much more substantial are largely ignored.

I’m sure there is a lot of purposeful manipulation (attempts to “wag the dog”), but I also think that most of it is simply the nature of the beast. Once the beast is out, it’s very hard to control it.

Revised: “Think of how much coverage we get on hurricanes that usually fizzle out before they hit the coast.”

Link to original article:

http://nr2.ru/moskow/231032.html

Москва, Май 02 (Новый Регион, Андрей Романов) – Госпитализированные накануне россиянки, прибывшие из США, с подозрением на «свиной» грипп больны обычной простудой. «Состояние их не вызывает у нас никакой тревоги. И как мне сообщили, лабораторные тесты, которые были проведены, дают отрицательный результат по гриппу «Н1N1 Калифорния 04 2009», – сообщил главный санитарный врач России Геннадий Онищенко в эфире телеканала «Вести 24».

Как сообщал ранее «Новый Регион», у прибывших из США двух женщин была повышенная температура, в связи с чем в целях профилактики распространения «свиного» гриппа они были госпитализированы.

Стоит отметить, что по последним данным Всемирной организации здравоохранения в настоящее время подтверждены 615 случаев заражения вирусом A/H1N1 или свиным гриппом в 15 странах. Большинство из них (397 больных) выявлены в Мексике, где уже от свиного гриппа погибли 16 человек.

Вторая по количеству заразившихся страна – США, где выявлен 141 случай заражения и один смертельный случай.

В остальных странах количество менее значительно. В Канаде выявлены 34 больных, в Австрии – 1, Китае – 1, Дании – 1, Франции – 1, Германии – 4 , Израиле – 2, Нидерландах – 1, Новой Зеландии – 4, Южной Корее – 1, Испании – 13, Швейцарии – 1, Великобритании – 13. В этих государствах смертельных случаев не было.

Kyle and Svet

Yes, I agree about the 24/7-cycle media feeding on this type of story, Kolya. thanks also for your parting shot on the ‘torture’ thread. There’s a parallel thought there: Just as I’m asking “Why live, if fear of death leads to exaggerated paranoia and acceptance of a bubble-boy existence, sucking the joy out of living?” I’d also ask (after reading Suskind’s 1% Doctrine on Bush/Cheney and “The Dark Side”)”Why strive for some sort of ‘total protection’ of American lives, if the act protection undermines/cancels the most basic principles that defines who we are.

But…moving away from these important topics,
I have another question for this board. I hope you don’t mind. The son of a friend of mine is working for the Peace Corps in Kyrgyz. He is American and wants to visit Moscow, so is wondering about the visa
process. I’ve used an online visa service in the past to process the visa. Once paid for, I just printed and sent it along with my passport to the Russian
Consulate in SF. They put the two things together and returned the updated passport to me in a matter of days. Wouldn’t there be a
similar Russian embassy in Kyrgyz that would perform this service?
Would it be more dangerous to send/leave one’s U.S. passport there? Money
is tight for this Peace Corp worker, so I’m also wondering if my visa service,
visahouse, is a competitively priced service. Does anyone have any thoughts or experience in this area?

Tess, I cannot give you any useful info for your friend, but I just wanted to say that I totally agree with your first paragraph.

Wouldn’t there be a
similar Russian embassy in Kyrgyz that would perform this service?

Things might have changed but two years ago I was in St Pete on a single entry visa and I was running out of time with passing of my mother. I inquired through friends that had good contacts in RF embassy in Helsinki (a few hours away) and was told that I could not get a Russian visa in a third country, i.e. I had to go back to the US.

Next year I was working in Milan for a US construction company building an oil refinery in Tatarstan and I remember that two US engineers had to go back to the US to get their visas. For what it’s worth.

It used to be that American citizens could get a RF visa anywhere – hence the legions of Moscow-based expats who would make “visa runs” to Baltic and Scandinavian capitals. That has not been the case for 2-3 years now, I think (maybe more).

However, US citizens can still get a RF visa in any country (as far as I know) if they can show that they are resident in that country (i.e., a long-term work visa, work permit, residence card or other proof of residence). I would suggest that the PCV in Kyrgyzstan simply inquire at the RF Embassy as to what would be acceptable as proof of residence – would it have to be a one-year work visa, or would a simple registratsiia (if they still have that in Kyrgyzstan) suffice. For example, some European embassies in Moscow used to (and may still) allow CIS citizens with three-month Moscow registration stamps to get their visas in Moscow (so they don’t have to go back to their CIS country of citizenship).

As for the “invitation” or “voucher” for a tourist visa, I think if your friend shops around online he should find a reasonable price, although I would say that unless there’s a substantial difference he should go with the company you have used successfully in the past (since the whole transaction takes place on-line, there’s a risk of being scammed, plus I think prior successful use is the only way to be sure the inviting travel agency is actually licensed by MID to issue invitations, which I think is important).

Finally, I don’t think he should worry about taking his passport there and dropping it off with the paperwork and fee in person (mailing it in using the postal service in a CIS country is something I would never do). He will need to get a receipt for everything. Assuming he’s in Bishkek (which may not be the case for a PCV), he should be able to just go by the Russian Embassy and see when the consular section is open. There will not be a long line for the Russian visa section, since people from Kyrgyzstan do not need a visa to go to Russia. There may be people milling about trying to resolve Russian citizenship questions or replace lost Russian passports; he should just go to the guard or to the domofon-type communicator and say he is there to get a visa. Hopefully he speaks some Russian, in which case I don’t think he’ll have a hard time getting this done. Sorry for the long comment about this, hopefully it’s useful for Tess’s friend.

Next year I was working in Milan for a US construction company building an oil refinery in Tatarstan and I remember that two US engineers had to go back to the US to get their visas.

Heh! Were you working for Fluor on the Nizhnekamsk refinery project, specifically on the Saipem subcontract?

Certain nationalities, of which Americans are one, have to return to their home countries to obtain a work visa, unless they can prove residency elsewhere. So far, Brits can go to a Russian embassy in certain other countries: next week I will go to KL, last year I got away with going to Tokyo, before that Seoul. Now the RF embassies in both Japan and Korea won’t issue a work permit to Brits. Consistency is not Russia’s strong point.

Nor is sense. A new requirement since January is that all work permit applications must come with a translated, notarised copy of every page of your passport, including all visas and stamps therein regardless of the language they are in. I have over 30 stamps in my passport, from Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, UAE, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Korea, and the Philippines. Some poor soul has to translate all 48 pages, my employer will have to pay a few thousand dollars for it, and the cost of doing business in Russia just went up another notch.

Heh! Were you working for Fluor on the Nizhnekamsk refinery project, specifically on the Saipem subcontract?

Exactly. And before that I was with the Tatarstan group visiting showcase projects for all the bidders. Quite a trip. Interpreting Italian English was a challenge. I always thought that particular accent was a Hollywood fiction.

A new requirement since January is that all work permit applications must come with a translated, notarised copy of every page of your passport, including all visas and stamps therein … and the cost of doing business in Russia just went up another notch.

Good grief. On the other hand, it is not as senseless as one might think. The purpose of RF government regs is not to make Russia more foreign business friendly. The purpose is to provide the state and people that feed off these regulations with gainful employment. It is not too far off the ridiculous tax code in the US, which I am convinced, exists at least partially to make the state more intrusive and thus important, and to provide a large group of people (CPA et al) with very gainful employment.

Exactly. And before that I was with the Tatarstan group visiting showcase projects for all the bidders

I was bidding for work on that job back in late 2007. A lot of the Fluor guys from Sakhalin went over there once the Exxon projects here wrapped up. From what I hear it is a nightmare of a job, with the Tatar govt. demanding detailed meetings every week and their involvement in technical and logistical issues they know nothing about, and the main subcontractors being from Korea, Russia, and Turkey. If that job is finished on time or under budget, I’ll eat my rigger boots. Not that Fluor care, they got the job on a reimbursable basis at approx. $30bn.

Weren’t both Turks and Koreans working under two Italian companies? No matter, as for the involvement of the Tatarstan Govt… I would not comment other then recall that one of the requirements was that ALL 50,000 plus drawings were to be translated into Russian, including those of sub-sub contractors like the Mammoet.

Good to be a translator, innit?

Thanks for all the advice provided on this thread. I’ve passed it all on to the PCV, but don’t yet know his plans. All he wants is a tourist visa; he’s learning Russian and just wants to visit Moscow for about a week. I haven’t heard back from him yet. His next problem will be finding lodging. He’s not going to find many cheap, but clean hotels. Even in the boom years, investors never really had any hopes for the Russian tourism industry did they?

Good to be a translator, innit?
Interpreter, Candide, interpreter.

And yes it is good. It is a unique occupation that allows me to get into somebody else’s life, stay there for a short time and then get the hell out of it.

Where did you get this bs?
In Russia, particularly in Moscow, only this week there was found one man with this diagnosis. He is a professor in one of NYC universities and he got back to Russia being sick. He was hospitalized and so far is getting better with every passing day!
Today there was discovered another man with fever, who was on the flight from the US to Moscow, he was also hospitalized since they think he caught a swine flu. But the Ministry of Health strengthened the checking system in all airports and exemine all people traveling from abroad.

In fact, Doom was examined when he was at the airport.

I had to fill out a form printed on paper of a quality of Soviet-era bog roll when I came into Sakhalin from KL. It asked me where I had been the past 10 days, and I had to hand it to the woman who normally checks your luggage tags, and whose normal job was going undone.

I’m sure this is keeping everyone safe somehow.

I was zapped with some kind of temperature-reading gun.