And while we’re on about healthcare dangers. In the UK doctors have been put on alert over fears that the drug Tamiflu (above) can put some people at greater risk of suffering a stroke. A Government watchdog is concerned that the anti-swine flu drug can interact with the blood-thinning medication Warfarin, which is taken by more than 600,000 people in Britain. The combination can dangerously thin the blood, putting patients at risk of uncontrolled bleeding which can lead to a stroke. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has already received reports of such cases and has asked health professionals to watch out for more. So they’ve just realised there’s a problem ? Really makes you confident about the safety of the new swine flu vaccine they’re launching, doesn’t it ?

There have been an estimated 100,000 new cases of swine flu (above) reported in England since last week and 840 patients are in hospital with the virus, 63 of them in intensive care, the Department of Health said yesterday. This means the number of people consulting their doctor because they think they have swine flu has almost doubled in one week, up from 55,000. Which just goes to show how effective a load of alarmist bullshit spread by the government, eager to be seen to be “doing something” – or at least seen to be talking about doing something, can be.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) emergency committee has raised the pandemic threat level for swine flu from phase 3 to phase 4 after the death toll at its epicentre in Mexico, where masks now appear mandatory (above) surged to nearly 150, the number of cases in the US doubled and the first infections were confirmed in Britain. The WHO committee raised the threat level as the spread of the disease across the globe put the virus beyond containment measures – requiring the mass production of vaccines and urgent support for health systems in countries that face being overwhelmed if the infection rate continues to rise. Dr Keiji Fukuda, of the WHO, confirmed the decision to raise the level, but added that a pandemic was not inevitable. He urged countries to strenghten their preparations for flu, but said that the WHO did not recommend closing national borders or restricting travel. But apparently many people need not panic – only yesterday I heard a bloke in the pub seriously trying to convince his fellow drinkers that Jews and Muslims were immune from swine flu. With medical and religious knowledge like that, he may well be the next New Labour Secretary of State for Health.

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