World associating pandemic flu with global warming among other terms...

[originalpckelly]

http://www.google.com/trends?q=pandemic%2C+bird+flu%2C+influenza%2C+global+warming%2C+fear&ctab=0&date=all&geo=all

Using Google's new tool "Trends" I searched for: pandemic, bird flu, influenza, global warming, and fear. It is interesting to note all of these spike at the same time on the trend line. It is also interesting to not that in 2004 no major association was made between bird flu and pandemic. This has changed with each major news story produced about the potential for a pandemic.

This is but one use of the "Trend" tool. Just type any search terms you want and separate them with a comma. It will show a trend-line of search volume for each term. It is a pretty amazing tool.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Funny the WHO was talking pandemic

as early as oh what was it, 1996.. the first time I read any alert from them.

Look this is a possibility, and the US government has not gotten ready for it.

But hey, that is just my opinion having had this bird flu thingie in my radar screen well before most people did

[originalpckelly]

2. I have a feeling we are going to be using this thing a lot...

We can use it to find the public awareness on something. Amazing.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. I guess you are right as a tool

in that sense you are right

[originalpckelly]

3. You should look at who.int under disease outbreak news...

has been a bookmark of mine since about 2003. If you look at their disease outbreak news archives for '97, influenza (H5N1) is missing. They reported it later in '98. "A long time, this coming has been." I wax Yoda at times like this.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Correct, HSN 1 was missing

the alert involved some kind of influenza to be far more virulent and we were overdue for it... trust me it was the shall we say, fogiest alerts I ever read. Looking backwards I know it was Bird Flu... they were getting nervous back then becuase historically we are overdue

[originalpckelly]

6. I think I am on to something...

I think bird flu or infectious disease is the Earth's immune system. It really isn't that big of a leap, just think of a deer population.

If too many deer live in the same area they will destroy the environment. Less food, weakened immune systems, diseases flourish, cut back population of deer, and things are in harmony.

I think humanity is like cancer to the Earth. We have destroyed the environment, and the Earth responds. It is all common sense kind of stuff, I don't mean that the Earth is "intelligent" or anything, but I think it follows the same natural laws that govern the behavior of life like amoebas.

Global warming is probably related to H5N1 in a round about way.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Only if you can connect it to OTHER

influenza epidemics. Since we started tracking them (1917) they happen every generaiton or so (25 years) some are more virulent than others, but the last one to hit us was in the 1960s

As to the rest, yes when you have a certain percentage with no antibodies, whammo.

[dysfunctional press]

7. i don't think that it indicates an association in people's minds.

they are individual stories that are each getting their share of media attention around the same time- meaning that people are more likely to be interested in each/both subjects.