Swine Flu on the Rise, Vaccines Won’t Be Ready, Weird Swine Flu Toys
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on September 2, 2009
Swine flu hasn’t been in the major headlines for quite a while. But it hasn’t gone away. In fact, NY Daily News has a story this morning about plush swine flu toys… this bizarre marketing ploy was reportedly intended, according to the toy’s manufacturer, to “provide kids a ‘cuddlier’ face of the potentially lethal germ.” What’s next… smiling Al Qaeda puppets? Dancing E. coli music videos?
The fuzzy swine flu toy is available for purchase at the Centers for Disease Control’s headquarters gift shop, I kid you not.
Per NY Daily News: GIANTmicrobes's version of the swine flu virus looks a lot cuter than the real thing. Toy is on left, real flu microbes on right | AP photo credit
A Delaware-based toy company is hoping swine flu fever will turn into a cash cow when parents buy their 7-inch plush novelty microbe to teach their kids about the H1N1 virus.
The stuffed toy – complete with porcine nose and eyes – is being sold online by doll manufacturer GIANTmicrobes, reports London’s Daily Telegraph, and is meant to provide kids a “cuddlier” face of the potentially lethal germ.
From Momlogic:
…The toy is marketed and sold by a company called GIANTmicrobes. “Each of our GIANTmicrobes comes with an image and information about the real microbe it represents. They make great learning tools, as well as amusing gifts for anyone with a sense of humor,” the company says on its website.
“The Common Cold, The Flu, Sore Throat, Stomach Ache, Brain Cell, E. coli, Kissing Disease, Ulcer, Martian Life, Beer & Bread, Black Death, Ebola, Flesh Eating, Sleeping Sickness, Dust Mite, Bed Bug, Bookworm” are all among the “best sellers”, according to the GIANTmicrobes website.
I wrote about the swine flu threat back in June.
From Associated Press, Napolitano: ‘Big Influx’ of new infections likely:
WASHINGTON – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday that people should expect “a big influx” of swine flu cases this fall and prepare as best they can.
“The best thing we all can do are the very simple things, the washing of the hands, the coughing into the sleeve,” Napolitano said in a nationally broadcast interview. ” … We’re in all likelihood going to have them (new infections) before the vaccine is available.”
Napolitano was among a host of Cabinet officers who briefed President Barack Obama Tuesday on the federal government’s preparations and planning for the fall. Another of those Cabinet members, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, said in a separate interview that it’s critically important to keep schools open and education uninterrupted.
“We got a little bit lucky” in the last school year, he said, because the H1N1 didn’t surface until very near the end of the academic year.
“We’re not going to be so lucky this year,” Duncan added, “so the more we’re prepared, the more we’re talking … the better we’re going to be able to handle this as a country, the more we’re going to be able to keep our schools open.”
There have been over 550 deaths in the United States from H1N1 and a scientific advisory panel recently sent the White House a report saying it was possible that anywhere from 30 percent to half the population could catch what doctors call “2009 H1N1″ and that it was also possible there could be between 30,000 and 90,000 deaths…
Related reading:
Washington Post: Obama Urges Swine Flu Precautions
ABC News: The Swine Flu Goes Mainstream
Momlogic.com: Swine Flu Toy Sold at CDC Headquarters
Publius, Big Government: Monday Open Thread: Pandemic Edition
Baltimore Sun: Swine flu rules the world
Jewish Breaking News: El Al: Swine Flu Passengers to be Isolated from Others
The B.S. Report: Napolitano: Get Ready To Catch The Flu; 30,000-90,000 Deaths Possible
NWO News: Why swine flu vaccines just don’t add up: Doing the (fuzzy) math
Georgia Public Broadcasting: Emory Students With Swine Flu Housed Together
Canada.com: Swine flu could pose threat to Vancouver Games
Doug Powers, Michelle Malkin: Biden: Avoid planes and subways, but not really and Too pig to fail: Officials seek to remove “swine” from flu name to save pork industry
Written on the Wind: H1N1, Swine Flu News
Scared Monkeys: Fox News Chris Wallace To Kathleen Sebelius & Janet Napolitano: Is Biden A ‘Crack Pot’?
Founding Bloggers: Worst Vice President Ever
Below the Beltway: Biden on Swine Flu: Panic, Panic, Panic!
Stormin’s morning java: Good advice to Obama: Move Joe Biden to Las Vegas
Gateway Pundit: Fear-mongerer Joe Biden Tells Family: “Stay Off Planes & Subways”
Steve McGough: RadioVice Online: Biden shows zero leadership – swine flu freak out
Another Black Conservative: The Joe Biden Teleprompter Fund, Biden Blunder #8,263
Patterico’s Pontifications: Swine Flu: Obama’s Katrina?
From The Pen: AlphaNumeric Society outraged at world for naming flu virus N1H1
Hot Air: Video: Biden’s “symphony of stupid” and Dems retreating on healthcare
RadioVice Online: Wash Your Hands
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[...] (video): UPDATE – School Propaganda on Sept. 8, “I Pledge to Give Service to Obama” and Swine Flu on the Rise, Vaccines Won’t Be Ready, Weird Swine Flu Toys and Rush’s Quotations: Sen. Ted Kennedy, HuffPo’s Bizarre Mary Jo Kopechne Comment, ObamaCare, [...]