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  H1N1: Preparing for The next plague
By Michael Werbowski, guest columnist
It really amazes me how the mainstream media is whipping up the hype and hysteria over the H1N1 virus as we move into the Fall and closer to doomsday. Is the H1N1 virus more severe than the common flu by which hundreds die each year in the U.K for instance? Perhaps it’s not. In North America (Canada) nightly broadcasts show reporters interviewing various health officials who look like the just got of bed. If there is such urgency, then it is not evident on the faces of these various talking heads and so called medical experts who are possibly well paid shills for pharmaceutical industry, and who warn us of the impending disaster if you don’t get the flu shot. Is this another hoax to cow and coerce the citizenry into a state of absolute submission and compliance towards the authorities? Most of the taxi drivers who lost a months’ of income during the pandemic scare there that I spoke to during the “swine flu” in Mexico City thought it was exactly just that. Is this latest flu going bring a windfall of profits to big pharma? If this panic continues then don’t the authorities realize they have to resort to harsh measure to control its citizens? Do mayors of big North American or European cities wish to resort to the same draconian actions as was the case in Mexico City this past spring? Are they prepared to order the shut down of schools, universities, government offices, sporting events restaurants etc, in case of a very “deadly” contagious outbreak? By “outbreak” I refer to Mexican medical standards which means several thousand reported cases of individuals showing symptoms of the illness is classified as a pandemic. The Mexican government’s warnings of an immanent plague certainly sufficed to create total terror among the populace.
Are health officials in the industrial world aware (in times of a worsening global economic crisis) of the economic devastation of measures similar to those taken in Mexico, would cause in the cities targeted by these emergency regulations? If not then they better to put less diplomatically either “put up or shut up” and stop the fear mongering right now.
This spring throughout the height of what was then called the “swine flu” but has morphed in the “H1N1 virus”, I reported from Mexico City for Global Research on the pandemic. I saw entire neighbourhoods bustling with activity and traffic the day before, emptied overnight for several days and main boulevards with shuddered shops and eateries deserted in mid week in one of the world’s largest cities. If you want to close down a huge metropolis, then the best way to it is to install great fear (which leads to things like panic food buying at supermarkets which believe me is quite a nuisance ) among its inhabitants. In May and June in Mexico City, I experienced a sense of terror among the population which was very similar to what I witnessed during martial (LAW) in Poland in 1981 and during the aborted coup in Moscow in August of 1990. The only difference is unlike during those classic military crackdowns in the former communist countries, in Mexico City, you lived as if there was a coup, yet there aren’t any visible signs that an actual oppressive operation is underway. That is there were no tanks, no troops on foot patrol or armoured personal carriers roaming the city streets. In the Mexican capital there was just raw fear and unbearable uncertainty, as most people stayed at home, cowering in their flats and waiting and watching for the next update on the news show. Many of the inhabitants of the capital listened obediently to their officials’ warning and stayed home avoided gatherings and so forth. As the next wave of the greatest plague of the 21 century approaches I wonder how we in the wealthier developed world will act and react; with fear and panic . Will we dare to go out wearing mouth masks covering those terrified faces or just stay quarantined at home like they did in Mexico earlier this year? We shall soon see.
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