WHO Declares Level 5 Influenza Pandemic Alert; Will President Obama Wake Up?

April 29, 2009 (LPAC)—Lyndon LaRouche welcomed the announcement by World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Dr. Margaret Chan, at a press conference late tonight Geneva-time, that the WHO had decided to increase its pandemic alert to Level 5, a step which, among other things, activates a global mobilization to produce a vaccine against the new form of "swine flu" virus now spreading across the globe. The WHO describes Level 5, on a scale of 1 to 6, as "a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent," and that the time to finalize measures to halt it "is short."

The WHO reports that there are now confirmed cases of A/H1N1 infection in nine countries. The Mexican epidemic continues to spread, and there is now documented human-to-human contagion in the United States as well. The first U.S. death was reported early this morning, along with the first confirmed case of a U.S. soldier on a base in California.

Here the world stands on the edge of a global biological pandemic, and the U.S. President has surrounded himself with an economics team whose declared number one goal, is to cut health care costs! All President Obama had to offer in a press conference this morning, was that parents should figure out how to deal with their children, if widespread school closings are required in the future, because it's not a good idea to send kids to daycare if their schools are closed.

LaRouche, who in his international webcast the day before called for a global economic mobilization to confront this disease and the British Empire's genocide policy which has fostered it, warned again today that Obama just doesn't get it. He "doesn't have a concept. He lives in a propaganda fantasy world, like Emperor Nero."

In announcing the Level 5 alert, WHO director Dr. Chan called for all countries to remain on high alert for unusual outbreaks of influenza-like illness and severe pneumonia. "Influenza pandemics must be taken seriously precisely because of their capacity to spread rapidly to every country in the world... Influenza viruses are notorious for their rapid mutation and unpredictable behaviour.... This change to a higher phase of alert is a signal to governments, to ministries of health and other ministries, to the pharmaceutical industry and the business community that certain actions should now be undertaken with increased urgency, and at an accelerated pace."

"It really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic," she concluded.