18/10/2024
"A deadly strain of swine flu raced across North America in the spring of 2009, infecting 1 in 5 and hospitalizing a quarter million people. World Health Organization issued its highest level pandemic warning.
In the United States, a group of animal food producers and government officials sprang into action to address the crisis. But this wasn't the type of emergency response coalition you might expect: its focus was on saving profits, not people. As a spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council warned, 'This flu is being called something that it isn't, and it's hurting our entire industry. It's not a swine flu, and people need to stop calling it that ...they're ruining our lives.'
The pork industry's fear of lives ruined from 2009 flu pandemic came to pass in ways more literal than envisioned. After suffering advanced flu symptoms like chills,fever,coughs,vomiting,and diarrhea, some 12000 Americans ultimately died from influenza.
At a press conference in April 2009 ,USDA Secretary ,Tom Vilsack reassured a worried nation. "There are a lot of hard-working families whose livelihood depends on us conveying this message of safety ...and we want to reinforce the fact that were doing everything we possibly can to make sure that our hog industry is sound and safe...This really isn't swine fu . Its H1N1 virus."-Meatonomics by David Robinson Simon
Now we all know there's much power in a name and what we choose to call something. To disassociate the virus from its source is an old trick, a cunning attempt to make you forget that the reason for the death of 12000 people is connected to an industry that cares more about its profits than it does about the lives it destroys.
