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#41 |
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 3,447
Local Time: 01:43 PM
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I hope everything will be alright, but I am scared of how things could go.
__________________In particular, I am scared that this epidemic could go like it was for Sars some time ago... with people denying the emergency while people were dying ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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#42 | |
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 3,447
Local Time: 01:43 PM
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#43 |
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 3,447
Local Time: 01:43 PM
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I was watching tv tonight... there were 4 or 5 ads regarding "italian chicken" that we can consider "safe".
Dunno what to think about it... |
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#44 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Apr 2001
Posts: 16,656
Local Time: 05:43 AM
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I'm boosting this thread because I think it's one of the most important things we should be talking about. Last week's possible human-to-human transmissions in Indonesia, resulting in the deaths of 8 family members, is a new concern, the fact that at least 1 case has been reported in Iraq and we have soldiers returning home all the time, and the fact that the Secretary of Health & Human Services, Michael Leavitt, is going state-to-state urging people to begin preparations, is all a huge concern to me. I disagree that there is nothing we can do. There is a hell of a lot we can do, from preparing our own homes to contacting our state reps to find out how prepared we are locally to respond.
Here are some websites I've been checking for info and welcome all other suggestions for sources of good info: http://www.pandemicinfosite.com/ Read Leavitt's entire speech from New Hampshire on "We're overdue for a pandemic"--has fascinating info from the 1918 pandemic http://online.wsj.com/public/articl....html?mod=blogs Wall Street Journal's hour-by-hour updates on what's happening http://www.fluwikie.com/ has a huge list of how to prepare http://www.effectmeasure.blogspot.com/ a great blog written anonymously by apparently well-known doctors who are all over this thing and are saying wake up and smell the Indonesian coffee http://newsnow.co.uk/newsfeed/?name=Bird+Flu great UK site culling bird flu reports from all over the world. |
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#45 |
Acrobat
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Tempe, AZ, USA
Posts: 435
Local Time: 05:43 AM
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I rarely watch the Oprah Winfrey show, but did tune in today because the topic was the bird flu. The expert guest painted a pretty bleak picture of what would happen if a pandemic did break out, but nothing I didn't already know. Oprah does have a pretty big national audience, so hopefully today's show will make others aware that the possibility of a pandemic is very real and something that should be paid more attention to.
Not to make light of this, but I hope everyone realizes that if this pandemic does break out in the next several months, and let's hope to God it doesn't, you can forget about seeing U2 in Australia, Japan or Hawaii in December. Large public gatherings like concerts or sporting events would be likely prohibited, and I doubt that band would even risk travelling anywhere under those circumstances. I remember reading somewhere that Australia already has plans to immediately keep out all incoming international flights if and when a pandemic starts. |
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#46 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: NY
Posts: 18,918
Local Time: 08:43 AM
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Unfortunately while we can do certain things to prepare as individuals, this is really a government/state matter that must be dealt with on that level. Both from the development of the vaccine, to stocking anti-virals, to the way that primary health care workers respond. If there is a pandemic, the mortality rate will be determined largely on the basis of their state of preparedness.
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#47 |
Refugee
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Toronto, Canada
Posts: 2,320
Local Time: 12:43 PM
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Interestingly this past Saturday the Toronto Star had an entire special interest section devoted to disaster preparedness including supply and equipment lists and how to deal with quickie evacuations.
Even during the SARS outbreak and quarantines I don't remember seeing this type of information in the mainstream. I remember seeing the Oprah show a few months back. The thing I remember most was the CDC guy describing the domino effect of shutting down borders...not only shut to people but to imported/exported goods and domestic distribution channels grinding to a halt. We've become so globally fluid and dependent on trade and JIT inventories that you've got to wonder how self-sufficient any one first-world country can be for any length of time these days. Combine that with people potentially quarantined or otherwise afraid to leave home for weeks and weeks at a time and it wouldn't take much for a public health emergency to trigger a serious economic meltdown with global proportions. |
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#48 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: NY
Posts: 18,918
Local Time: 08:43 AM
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Well we have to be smart about evacuations and things like that.
IMO, college campuses are one of the most obvious breeding grounds. As it is, statistics show that the rates of acquiring meningitis are 6x the normal rate in college housing. If there is an outbreak, this is going to be a big problem for two reasons. First, because there is a large enough population which helps the spread. Second, because young people are generally healthier, it's likely that the more resistant/dangerous strains will take hold here than say, in a nursing home where you will have large numbers succumbing anyway. IMO, this is what you shut down right off the bat at the outbreak of a pandemic. |
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#49 |
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Band-aid Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: The American Resistance
Posts: 4,754
Local Time: 06:43 AM
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Has Pat Robertson said anything asinine yet?
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#50 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Apr 2001
Posts: 16,656
Local Time: 05:43 AM
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What's really a mindfuck to me is that they're saying that the people who are most vulnerable to this particular virus are those with healthy immune systems. I understand this a little bit in terms of my own experience--I am sort of a health freak and have built up a really strong immune system. As a result, this year I started to get weird autoimmune things like eczema that I've never had before in my life. Can you explain this a little bit anitram? For me to not continue building up my immune system in the face of a possible (probable, actually) bird flu pandemic is so counterintuitive that it freaks me out.
I did watch the Oprah rerun tonight and one of the things that struck me most was when this guy said that basically the setup for a pandemic is so clear he doesn't know what can stop it from happening. |
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#51 |
ONE
love, blood, life Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: The Wild West
Posts: 12,518
Local Time: 10:43 PM
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Well define health-freak? Do you get dirty and exposed to as much grit as possible in your day to day life or do you try to stay clean.
Just a point, the risk of the virus becoming more dangerous when spreading among healthy populations is a great illustration of natural selection ~ the stronger immune systems will remove all but the most virulent strains, those leftover ones will be the ones that propogate. Should worst come to worse just lock yourself in your room with tinned food for a year ![]() |
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#52 | |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Apr 2001
Posts: 16,656
Local Time: 05:43 AM
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Quote:
So should I stop all that and start eating junk food, lol? |
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#53 | |
Refugee
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: California
Posts: 1,791
Local Time: 05:43 AM
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Quote:
Yes. Signed, Ronald McDonald |
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#54 |
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Band-aid Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: The Most Important State in the Union
Posts: 4,892
Local Time: 07:43 AM
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What all this reminds me of is how extremely fragile this thing we call life is, on both the micro and macro scale. I'm also struck by how dependent we've become on things beyond our ability to really control or manage--we are deeply dependent on the "systems" in our world working as they should. If these "systems" ever break down. . .we're going to have a mess.
And people like me, who live on small remote Pacific Islands are in even more trouble. I can't imagine what would happen here if there was shut down of world trade etc due to bird flu or something like that. This island can not function without those flights in and out, and the containers coming in. (Actually, I can imagine it. . .I've been working on a novel about something like that happening and I'm beginning to freak myself out!) |
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#55 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Apr 2001
Posts: 16,656
Local Time: 05:43 AM
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^ Yes, you're right about how dependent we are on systems. In that way people in 1918 probably faired better than we are prepared to. My friends and I are seriously contemplating this whole thing and trying to prepare ourselves as best we can. We figure preparations can never be a waste. After what we saw with hurricane Katrina here in the states and what we've seen in other parts of the world with various disasters, I don't think preparedness can be overestimated. At the same time, we realize there is only but so much we can do and in the end, as anitram said, so much depends on how well we are prepared for anything on a local level. Knowing that if a pandemic strikes it is up to each state to handle it means that we here in NM are pretty much on our own.
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#56 | |
Refugee
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Toronto, Canada
Posts: 2,320
Local Time: 12:43 PM
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#57 | ||
Refugee
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Toronto, Canada
Posts: 2,320
Local Time: 12:43 PM
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#58 | |
Blue Crack Supplier
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 33,720
Local Time: 08:43 AM
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Quote:
i haven't been genuinely sick since Thanksgiving of 2000 when some european preschooler gave me a nasty strep throat. i have a spectacular immune system -- the slightest bit of illness, and i have a bunch of water, a tablet of Vitamin C, and the next day, i'm all better. i'm doomed. ![]() |
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#59 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: NY
Posts: 18,918
Local Time: 08:43 AM
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I'm not so sure that people who haven't been sick in a while can safely claim a great immune system on the basis of that alone. A lot of it also has to do with exposure.
For example, when I was at university, I had a bad cold once in 4 years and felt great. When I started working at a pediatric hospital surrounded by SCIDs and kids on chemo who have no immune system and are routinely ravaged by opportunistic pathogens, I picked up everything imaginable. You could compare your immune system with mine and come to the conclusion it's better when in fact it hasn't been challenged even a fraction of the amount. So for those of you who haven't been sick much, I wouldn't panic yet. ![]() The best way to test your immune system is with an array of tests (subclasses levels, total IgG, mitogen and antigen stimulation). Some of these are very specialized and very expensive. |
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#60 |
Blue Crack Supplier
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 33,720
Local Time: 08:43 AM
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actually, i think it was my year long exposure to european strands of colds, flus, and strep that has made me invulnerable to everything -- i spend loads of time on public transportation and work in a big old office and it's still been years.
__________________so i'm doomed. doomed! not even Brangelina's baby can save us. |
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