LaRouche: Globalization Is Without Question A Cause of This Influenza Epidemic

May 1, 2009 (LPAC)—As the new Type A influenza continues its spread across the globe, with confirmed cases reported so far in 11 countries from North America to Europe, Southwest Asia, and New Zealand, many questions about the origin and nature of this particular virus remain unanswered, but one of its causes, without question, is globalization, Lyndon LaRouche stated today.

This epidemic is evidence of the need to end globalization, especially in food production, LaRouche said. Look at the insanity of concentrating food production in one area for global distribution! We must go back to pre-globalization standards. Monsanto Co. should be declared "morally inedible."

The march of the epidemic makes brutally clear that globalization and the human race can not long continue to coexist. In Mexico, still the epicenter of the outbreak, the government ordered all non-essential functions, both government and private, canceled in Mexico City until May 5, a measure which several states also enacted. The government, with help from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), is working to equip and man five more desperately needed laboratories, which they expect to be operational by next week, reestablishing a part of the capabilities stripped under free trade's rampage.

The biggest disease factor, however, is the poverty and hunger which globalization has entrenched in Mexico. According to official figures, 21 million Mexican live in extreme poverty; that is, unable to cover basic food necessities daily. With reports that some able to do so are beginning to hoard food, government officials today promised government social welfare agencies would guarantee basic foods such as milk; they claim to have sufficient stockpiles of corn for the next three or four months.

In the United States, where the CDC had confirmed cases of this flu in 11 U.S. states as of this morning—with New York state registering the largest number (50), followed by Texas (26), California (14), South Carolina (10), with one or two cases each reported in Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada and Ohio—CDC official Anne Schuchat emphasized to a House Health subcommittee hearing today that flu viruses are extremely unpredictable, in general, and this is a very unusual virus, containing genetic pieces from four different virus sources. We expect the number of cases and their severity will grow, and our understanding of the virus change, she said.

Media reports that people flooding into hospital emergency rooms, fearing symptoms of the flu, are up 21% across the country—one week after the Association of Emergency Room Physicians again warned in a meeting in D.C., that the U.S. faces an emergency of the shutdown of emergency rooms. Nationwide, the U.S. has 50,000 less health care workers than in 1980!