Neither Sleet Nor Swine Flu Can Stop the Stomp

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Minneapolis, MN

Now for something completely different. Come along as I take a vacation from all the gloom and doom financial news and for what has been, by all rational accounts, a great start for the Obama Administration, and "Break Away" or is that "Steal Away" or any other musical reference you may want to choose, to the greatest live music event of the year, the 8th Annual Ponderosa Stomp.

In a few minutes I will be hopping on my motorcycle for a road trip from one end of the Mississippi River to the other for what will be a blitzkrieg of blues, brews and beyond. Despite a balmy temperature of 41 degrees and a forecast including sleet and even with Mexico City residents dropping like flies from the swine flu*, I'm out of here:  . “Hold on, I'm Coming”....

*Historical Note:   Just before embarking on my trip the “swine flu” pandemic was beginning to spread across the United States.  Believed to have originated in Mexico, by early April 2009 it had spread into California then branched out to the rest of the country. 

The first two cases of “swine flu” in the U.S. were reported on April 17, 2009, via the Border Infectious Disease Program, and both involved California children.  One from San Diego County, CA,  the other a child from Imperial County who tested positive after visiting relatives in Texas.  The actual date of the first U.S. case was later determined to have occurred on March 28, 2009.

By April 21, enhanced surveillance was established to search for additional cases in both California and Texas and the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) determined that the virus strain was genetically similar to the previously known A(H1N1) swine flu circulating among pigs in the United States since about 1999.

On April 22, 2009, the CDC activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC). On April 25, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a public health emergency of international concern. On April 26, a public health emergency was declared in the United States, which was subsequently renewed twice.

On April 28, 2009, the first day of the Ponderosa Stomp Music Festival, the CDC confirmed the first official U.S. death from “swine flu”. The disease then spread widely throughout the U.S. population and by the end of May 2009 had infected citizens in all 50 states. The pattern continued through the summer and into the fall of 2009. It took until early October of 2009 for a vaccine to be developed in sufficient quantities for distribution. On December 10, 2009, the CDC reported an estimated 50 million Americans or 1 in 6 people had been infected with the 2009 A H1N1 Virus and 10,000 Americans had died, by which time the vaccine was beginning to be widely distributed to the general public by several states. 

On December 23, 2009 the CDC reported a reduction of the disease by 59% percent and the disease was expected to end in the United States in January 2010.  In total, it was estimated that 57 million Americans had been sickened, 257,000 had been hospitalized and 11,690 people had died (including 1,180 children) due to the “swine flu” from April 2009 through mid-January 2010. 

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