Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Depending on what business you`re in, the recent Swine flu crisis will have both negative and positive impacts for business.

The makers of vaccines, emergency preparedness kits, pharma and over the counter medications will all find themselves benefiting from the crisis.

What of the pork industry?

The fact that Swine Flu has nothing at all to do with swine, pork products or raising pigs and hogs, has me baffled. And I am not alone. U.S. agencies have said time and again since the outbreak that Swine Flu has nothing to do with pork. Pork is safe to eat and pork products are safe.

The fact is that perception in the media is a powerful thing. People tend to rely on soundbites and hear what they want to hear. It doesn`t matter if pork is safe or not. We will witness a drop in the sales of pork and pork products, simply because people will make the connection between Swine Flu and pork.

This is not the first time we have witness this. When Mad Cow Disease was running rampant, we witnessed a dive in the beef industry. But the fears were legitimate at the time and the risk factors were not explained. Reports of contaminated beef were reported on the books. So, Mad Cow Disease had something to do with cows. Swine Flu has NOTHING TO DO WITH PORK.

The economics of the crisis will, of course, depend upon the seriousness or expansion of the outbreak. Only time will tell.

I feel for the farmers and manufacturers in the pork industry because they will, indeed, feel a slide in sales in the midst of an already difficult economy.

Words are powerful, and used the wrong way they can be harmful and cause unnecessary damage.

Will Griffith
www.griffithcorp.com







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Will Griffith
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS TRIBUNAL

Does it bother anyone else that this whole story seems to have "exploded" on the scene over the past week? Doesn`t it seem like a sort of sudden panic, almost like a cattle stampede?

All of us have a susceptibility to illness, and we also have an immune system. People have been getting the flu for a long time. Yes, some people die. Others don`t. Most don`t. What`s so special about this particular outbreak?

Today`s financials show that "fear" over this particular flu outbreak is causing havoc. With travel projections down, stocks in the entire hotel and travel industry are declining. Fuel and energy stocks are declining.

Then there`s the amount of money banks are supposedly holding in reserves. Somehow, not explained, an increase in the flu will mean a higher demand on money from these banks. Suspiciously, we`re about to hear the results of a Federal Reserve stress test on banks. How much money do those banks have in reserve?

Wouldn`t it be helpful if under-capitalized banks could quickly shift the blame to something out of their control? Like, say, a worldwide flu epidemic?

Apparently this flu is getting special attention because it`s some sort of super flu, from what I understand. If I`m getting it right, the common flu virus melded with the avian flu virus and human flu virus. The result is an unstoppable juggernaut of a flu that we have no working vaccine for and that our immune systems have no experience with. However, there are a plethora of standard antiviral medical procedures that seem to do a good job. Scientists are wondering why so many Mexicans are dying while most Americans are surviving. Some say we`re only getting the weakest strains of this flu. I`m not sure that`s likely. I think the mortality rate is an issue of wealth and quality of care.

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Making limitless possibilities much more limited.

It`s a shame that we live in a time where so many people are ignorant enough that they hear something by rumor or in the papers and believe all of it. Rumor has it that eating beef will make you crazy, and there goes the beef industry.

We`ve had the same with secondhand smoke, cellphones on airplanes, nuclear power plants, global warming, and the list goes on and on. If the pork industry gets destroyed, so what? People will figure that somehow we`ll eat something else.

Peanuts, tomatoes, spinach, alfalfa....there too, the list goes on and on. Salmonella will kill us all. Pretty soon we`ll only have tofu to eat. :-)

I was in England a couple of summers ago for one of the Mad Cow scares, and I didn`t let that stop me from enjoying a good steak. It`ll take a lot more than a slow, painful death to keep me away from a good pork chop. You only live once.

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Making limitless possibilities much more limited.

I see that the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced they`re not going to call it "Swine Flu" anymore. Too many associations with pork. Note the number of ignorant people in Egypt. Jeez...!


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Interesting...

An estimated 250,000 people die every year in UK from new strains of flu.

Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist but...

Doesn`t it seem a bit odd that `swine flu` (once you name it, it becomes more scary) and `pandemic` are being used during the worst economic downturn in decades?

Off course the effects are real - but could it simply be that the authorities are blowing it`s severity out of proportion...so as to divert the masses attention from matters where a few CAN be held accountable?

Just a thought...

Authorities? I doubt it. There are a million ways to make stupid people complacent. No need wasting time picking a new farm animal for the bubonic plague of the year. Even congress has better things to do. I figure it`s the news at fault. Will Kim Jong Il make a nuclear missile that can launch further than he could throw it? Probably not. And, rightly so, nobody gives a damn about North Korea - just a lunatic with short guy syndrome trying to get a minute in the spotlight. Madoff`s ponzi scheme is old news, and lots of people equate the Madoff victims with the bailout recipients - less than legal trade practices all around. Most of the news, nobody cares about. How long can you be pissed about Obama printing another trillion? Sure, come August the US currency will be worth less than the material it`s printed on, but most people don`t care. I think the news needed something. Nobody cares about swine flu anymore because June was celebrity death month, that, and because it`s just a flu.

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Making limitless possibilities much more limited.