Ukraine Flu, Fear Mongering at Its Worst

by Heidi Stevenson

17 November 2009

The widely hyped Ukrainian flu outbreak is nothing more than an election ploy. All the media coverage, suppositions, possible connections to 1918, musings of a weaponized virus or leaking from a lab—all of it is a massive campaign of fear based on nothing but the claim of one politician. On trying to find real information beyond the claims, the only real data are the counts of numbers infected and how many have died. Those numbers tell a tale far removed from the hype.

The latest figures, as of 16 November, show that 299 people have died of "flu and acute respiratory viral infections". 1,364,939 have been infected. That is a death rate of 0.22% of those infected, about two-thousandths of one percent. Note that this figure is the total number of flu-like cases, a description that can easily be applied to a nasty cold. It is not the number of swine flu or seasonal flu or any other single infection.

There is no massive flu outbreak in the Ukraine and nothing to worry about. Nothing unusual going on in the Ukraine, except possibly an exceptionally low rate of death from influenza.

Yet, the media has been having a heyday over it. Particularly sad to me is the fear mongering that's been going on in many alternative medicine sites. Here's a quote from one particularly well-known site that's especially vocal about condemning fear mongering in the medical world:

The virus appears to be either a highly aggressive mutation of the globally-circulating H1N1 strain, or a combination of three different influenza strains now circulating in Ukraine. Some observers suspect this new "super flu" might be labeled viral hemorrhagic pneumonia (meaning it destroys lung tissue until your lungs bleed so much that you drown in your own fluid)...

Bollocks! There have not been any reports of hemorrhagic flu or pneumonia in the Ukraine outbreak. There has been nothing but speculation and suggestions that it may be so. The author rightfully and righteously condemns this technique in mainstream medicine, and then uses it himself. Ultimately, it does tremendous harm to the credibility of anyone who questions mainstream medicine.

Here are a few more quotes found on various sites:

There is a very organized and structured system among us to coordinate the release of a weaponized flu with the goal of killing people at unprecedented rates. The pneumonic plague now being witnessed in the Ukraine may be just the beginning of this global effort.

We could be seeing something of monumental importance happening in the Ukraine. An advanced biological genetically engineered killer virus has been released. Some infectious disease experts are asserting that this virus is not A/H1N1 although it may or may not have some of "Swine Flu" genetic material in it.

There is a report that the temperature inside of the lungs of those dying from this illness reached up to 55 degrees Celsius (over 130 degrees Fahrenheit). In other words, their lungs virtually melted and filled with blood.

A cocktail of three flu viruses are reported to have mutated into a single pneumonic plague, which it is believed may be far more dangerous than swine flu.

These quotations have one thing in common. Not one is based on anything but supposition.

A Political Ploy

Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is running for President, announced a swine flu outbreak on the 30^th of October when only a single case of swine flu had been confirmed. She followed that up by initiating extremely harsh restrictions on citizens. All schools and universites were closed for three weeks. All mass gatherings, including political ones, were banned. Since then, she has gone on television every day to give updates on the so-called crisis, and has used the free public exposure to criticize her opponents, claiming that they have hindered her attempts to protect the public.

As generally happens when a country faces a threat, whether real or perceived, a leader who appears to be strong gains in popularity. That's exactly what has happened in the Ukraine. Though she'd been running far behind her opponent, Tymoshenko has moved to within striking distance in polls.

Of course, her opponent's response has been to fan the flames. He says he'll spend his campaign money for flu medicine and 20 million surgical masks, which, by the way, are useless in preventing the spread of flu.

In condemning Tymoshenko's actions, political analyst Volodymyr Tsybulko has stated:

And it now looks like people will vote for Tymoshenko simply because she is taking action on this flu issue, which has completely dominated public discussion. No one much cares that Tymoshenko was the one who created the issue she is acting upon.

Ukrainian public health officials have expressed dismay at the panic, saying that it's overloading the system with people who are not seriously ill and has caused people to buy up medical supplies, so they may not be available in a genuine emergency.

WHO, CDC, NHS, and Ukraine

What the Ukraine situation most resembles is the fear mongering promulgated by agencies like the UN's WHO, the US's CDC, the UK's NHS and so many other agencies that have come under the sway of Big Pharma. Most nations' medical agencies have been using fear mongering techniques over a relatively mild influenza to press the populace into submitting to pharmaceutical companies' vaccines and drugs.

All that's happened in the Ukraine is the same technique, used no more and no less shamelessly, to bolster the popularity of a politician who was facing an election loss. The sad part is that it has worked, just as it has in creating panic all over the world, stampeding huge numbers of people into submitting to swine flu vaccinations.

In both the Ukraine and agencies pushing swine flu vaccines, fear mongering has massively overstated both the severity and spread of disease. The swine flu pandemic has proven to be milder than ordinary seasonal flu. In the Ukraine, it's just the same. Reports of hemorrhagic disease are suppositions only, not based on any actual reports. There is no weaponized virus that's been unleashed on the world—at least, not from the Ukraine at this time. A new mutated virus has not leaked from a pharmaceutical lab, and fear mongering claims that it has only belittle the genuine risk of that happening.

We should be concerned about genuine problems, such as

• Fear mongering by our own governments about swine flu.
• Epidemic levels of MRSA and C. difficile.
• Epidemic levels of diabetes and asthma in our children.
• Autism in more than 1 of 100 children.

These are real, and they're here now, right in our own lands. With all this going on, let's leave the Ukraine alone, except as an object lesson in how fear mongering can be used to panic and manipulate.