Swine flu conspiracy theory

As the disease spreads, so do rumours about how it is associated with bio terrorism. MiD DAY finds the most interesting rumours online...

Swine flu conspiracy theory

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Swine flu conspiracy theory

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As the disease spreads, so do rumours about how it is associated with bio terrorism. MiD DAY finds the most interesting rumours online...

There are times when we think of conspiracy theorists as crackpots, but there are several sane ones out there too. They've been crying out loud on the Internet with claims of conspiracy theories that are quite palpable.

The dangers they say, may not have anything to do with the disease...

"There is some talk of this vaccine, coincidentally developed a mere 8 months before the recent swine flu outbreak, is really a bio-weapon developed at Fort Dix from an 1918 Alaskan corpse," says this report.

It's from a lab!

Alex Jones, writing on prisonplanet.com says that swine flu is a beta test.

"It was a hybrid strain created from human, swine, and bird flu from North America, Europe, and Asia. It was created in a laboratory. This doesn't happen in nature," he points out.

It's not natural!

Even journalists, who are supposed to report and refrain from taking sides, seem to be drawn into the controversy.

Jane Burgermeister, an Austrian investigative reporter, has recently filed criminal charges with the FBI against both the WHO and the UN. According to naturalnews.com she charges that the entire swine flu pandemic business is premised on a massive lie that there is a natural virus out there that poses a threat to the population.

It's the Govt!

Kim Sbarcea, in her blog associated with thinkingshift.com feels that one should look at the past before over reacting.

According to her blog, when the US faced swine flu in 1976 and authorised a mass inoculation program, "more than 500 people are thought to have developed Guillain-Barre syndrome a paralysing nerve disease, after receiving the vaccine and more than 30 died."

Logic Prevails

But before you believe these conspiracy theorists, you should probably hear an educated voice, that of Michael Le Page, biology features editor, newscientist.com. Le Page says that "The virus is far more likely to be a product of our lust for bacon than of a hatred for humanity."

He also adds that, "The new virus is a mixture of four different viruses: North American swine flu, North American avian flu, human H1N1 flu and a swine flu strain found in Asia and Europe. The claim of the conspiracy theorists is that this new combination could not have occurred naturally, but this is not true."

But he says that it is manmade because of our growing appetite for meat.

"There are now over 6 billion people on the planet, and each year we raise more than a billion pigs and perhaps as many as 70 billion chickens. The result is a paradise for influenza viruses."