RUSH: I have a press release from the Centers for Disease Control. Now, the press release is January 7, 2003. Now, admittedly, this is six years ago. But it’s most recent I could find. ‘Using new and improved statistical models, [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] scientists estimate that an average of 36,000 people … each year in the United States. In addition, about 11,000 people die per year from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a virus that causes upper and lower respiratory tract infections primarily in young children [crumb crunchers] and older adults.’ So in a normal year… The reason I looked this up is because I was asking about this yesterday. In a normal year, 36,000 people die in this country of the flu. Now, this pig flu apparently doesn’t just hit the elderly.
In Mexico it’s targeting people between 20 and 40. Those are the ones who have been hit. We’re not looking at anywhere near numbers of 36,000 a year yet, and yet we’re dead. It’s over, and it’s so bad that closing the borders wouldn’t make any sense. There’s nothing we can do. Now, something’s going on in Mexico, ’cause they’ve closed the schools and they closed all the restaurants. Now, something’s going on down there with this. And people have been asking me, ‘Well, hey, Rush, how come it’s so bad in Mexico and not as bad here?’ One thing, folks: Mexico has socialized medicine. We don’t yet. But here’s some interesting numbers. Two weeks after the first known swine flu death, Mexico still hasn’t given any medication to the families of the dead.
Mexico has not determined where the outbreak began or how it spread. And in fact, some Mexican government official is saying it started here in the United States. It just happened. Let’s see. What’s his name? ‘Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova says it’s ‘risky’ to blame Mexico for this outbreak because it probably started’ here in the United States.’ Right. It started here, but Mexico’s experiencing the majority of the illnesses and deaths. ‘Despite an annual budget of more than $5 billion, Mexico’s health secretary said yesterday that his agency hasn’t had the resources to visit the families of the dead.’ Now, the families of the dead are the ones that would be most prone to being infected and spread it, and Mexico hasn’t even given them any medication whatsoever.
‘Elias Camacho, a 31-year-old truck driver with fever, cough and body aches, was ordered out of a government ambulance on Sunday because paramedics complained he might be contagious,’ and they might get the disease. You wonder why it’s worse in Mexico? They’re treating people who have it like lepers! ‘In Mexico City, Jose Isaac Cepeda said two hospitals refused to treat his fever, diarrhea and joint pains. The first turned him away because he wasn’t registered in the public health system, he said. The second, he said, didn’t let him in ‘because they say they’re too busy.” So one of the explanations for why it’s bad in Mexico and not as bad here or elsewhere is a different in the health care systems of the two countries.