Schools to close and sport banned if bird flu hits

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=43458a15aac42743&cat=c08dd24cec417021


By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Published: 16 October 2005
The Government believes that a pandemic could kill some 700,000 people in Britain Emergency plans in the event of a British bird flu pandemic - including closing schools, banning sporting events and dealing with disorder on the streets - are to be announced by ministers this week, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

They will also disclose a contract to buy two and a half million doses of flu vaccine to enable essential workers to operate during the pandemic, and publish a booklet to be sent to every GP on how to combat it.

The move follows yesterday's discovery that the deadly virus has reached Europe for the first time. Tests at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, Surrey, revealed that wild birds in the Danube delta in Romania had died of the H5N1 strain of the disease, which scientists fear will mutate to spread rapidly among people, killing tens of millions worldwide.

The Government believes that a pandemic could kill some 700,000 people in Britain, and that it would be impossible to stop it once it reached the country. The new plans are designed merely to mitigate its worst effects and to try to stop a total breakdown of services and public order.

more...

I noticed Nurses with children would be told to stay home!!!
That cuts the medical staff quite a bit!!!

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. And I'd go on unemployment since I work in two very public

venues - a museum and a movie theater.

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. So, wouldn't it also hold true that grocery stores, malls, etc.

would either voluntarily or mandatorily be closed, too? If there's a domino effect for quarantining government and state agencies, what's to stop the tumble of the economic structure?

...just thinking out loud....

[rainbow4321]

24. Healthcare system will be crushed also

Cuz once you start quarantines you will end up eventually keeping people who are in the health care profession from going to work...we may take care of sick people but **we** get sick, also...and so do our families. So who does that leave to keep the hospitals running? Even if we get to work, who is going to be able to get medical supplies and medicines to the facilities that are in the quarantined areas? This whole scenario may make the New Orleans' hospitals problems <no supplies, unable to care for the patients> look like a walk in the park.

[Mojorabbit]

31. nothing

It is why the clusters of cases are not being reported in Indonesia. It is bad for tourism. In Romania which depends on exports of poultry, it is a disaster. Levitt was in vietnam today and saw that it would be impossible to try and prevent this from spreading. If this manifests into pandemic, it will be crush the economics of every country.

[lovuian]

3. yep and when a hospital is in Quarantine it means Nobody out

and ususally Nobody In!!!

[depakid]

4. Not really news

This was all well considered back last winter when Britain put out its pandemic contingency plan.

http://www.dh.gov.uk/PublicationsAndStatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/PublicationsPAmpGBrowsableDocument/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=4106153&MULTIPAGE_ID=5131082&chk=QstgaV

[lovuian]

5. Does this mean Cheney and Scalia won't join Blair for any

pheasant hunts!!!

[oblivious]

6. A government has to be prepared for anything, but this is paranoia.

We went through this in HK during SARS. No one was sure what was happening, so schools and universities were closed, almost everyone wore face masks in elevators, on buses and when shopping, and people washed their hands with alcohol when entering their homes and before they touched their face.

SARS was beaten and the usual flus and colds seemed to disappear as well (anecdotal evidence) because of people's new awareness of how to protect themselves against them.

What I object to in the US and UK plans is this preparation for social disorder. Why? What possible reason, unless they are planning to shut down banks and stores so that people starve or something.

I find this sinister.

[teryang]

8. It is sinister

Leonard Horowitz has written a piece on this on globalresearch.ca. This is more corporate bullshit from the descendants of IG Farben, just like the anthrax attacks.

[oblivious]

10. Thanks, that was an informative piece.

[progressivebydesign]

9. Yes, it has a Y2K feeling to it, doesn' it?

If this flu EVER mutates to people are we supposed to stock up on food? Never leave the house again? I mean.. have these people actually mentioned how the pandemic is supposed to end? Or are we homebound forever? Did I miss that part? Do we all stay home until we starve to death? Or does this run its course?

[oblivious]

13. Yes, that's the point. Life has to go on. People have to make a living.

SARS was disastrous for bars and restaurants, but great for grocery stores because people were cooking at home and book stores, for example, because people had more time for reading at home. The check-out clerks wore masks to make people feel more comforatable and most customers did as well.

With almost everyone wearing facemasks, one could have predicted an upsurge in crime like bank and personal robberies, but crime went down.

Almost everyone continued going to work, though there was more company cooperation in allowing people to work at home - a good thing in many ways.

Like you said, we have to take as many precautions as we can and let the flu run its course.

[kestrel91316]

28. Wearing surgical facemasks and obsessing about handwashing

make a LOT more sense than a quarantine, in the long run. Life has to be able to go on. The economy has to function. They will fail and have total anarchy if they actually try to enforce a quarantine by ordering everybody to go indoors and stay there.

[SaveElmer]

11. Blame the Media...not the Government...

It's the government's job to assume the very worst case scenario (though Bush just seems to have realized this), it is the media that turns that planning into the assumed likely scenario!

[depakid]

14. No, it's not paranoia

Public health services would very quickly be overwhelmed. Britain- and to a much greater extent- America- simply lack the capacity to treat people in the sorts of numbers that would be expected in a pandemic.

New Zealand already acknowledged this in no uncertain terms based on modelling BACK IN 2002:

"The first step in preventing a pandemic, Ferguson said, is for doctors to quickly recognize that the virus is something unusual and notify government health officials.

Then, infected patients should be isolated from other populations. Steps such as closing schools and work places and limiting access to gathering spots should be taken to increase "social distance"--reducing opportunities for infected people to transmit the virus to others.

http://www.newstarget.com/011006.html

Then late last winter, they acknowldged:

Birdflu pandemic may mean some stay home to die
11 March 2005

New Zealand medical authorities may tell some people likely to die from a birdflu pandemic to stay home and not clog up hospitals.

Research published today in the latest New Zealand Medical Journal predicts up to 3700 deaths in New Zealand from a first wave of pandemic influenza and up to a million people infected. "It is likely that some difficult decisions will be required in limiting hospital care to those where it would most likely affect final health outcomes," the researchers said.

However, that death toll could be as high as 6210 people dead from 20,806 cases of serious illness.

<snip>

Priority would probably be given to health professionals, essential services workers keeping water, sewage and electricity flowing, and people who remove corpses from hospitals and homes.

The plan envisages all patients in an influenza pandemic, except the most seriously ill, would have to be cared for at home, and district health boards have been told to consider using community centres or hotels for outpatients or post-acute patients.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3214301a10,00.html

For a little more "tamer" version, here's their most recent offical government statement to the public:

http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/238fd5fb4fd051844c256669006aed57/32f53ed306070a6bcc25707a0013d55a?OpenDocument

This isn't paranoia- it's sensible planning. Let's hope it never has to be implemented.

[oblivious]

15. I was referring to their concern about disorder on the streets.

I'd rather take my chances surviving the an avian flu at home anyway than going to a hospital. They injected horrible steroids and other incredibly expensive poisons into SARS patients here because a pharma company thought they might help. Most survived SARS but will live with the terrible side-effects of the "cure" for the rest of their lives.

The death rate in mainland China, where they couldn't afford such expensive 'cures', was the same or lower than in Hong Kong as I remember, but those patients who survived there are now healthy.

[depakid]

17. People didn't know what SARS was

That's why some of the things you cite happened. No one could even figure out how it was transmitted (turns out it was a corona virus- and they stay viable on surfaces (like handrailings for weeks- unlike other viri, that dessicate within minutes).

That's why there was such a "fear factor." It was all too unknown, and people feared the worst and health officals didn't know how to plan or what precautions to reasonably take.

We pretty well know how influenza works- and what's likely to be effective and what's not- even though H5N1 acts on multiple organ systems.

Trouble is of course, there's only 1 efficacious treatment, and it has to be administered withing 48 hours of the onset of symptoms- or else it's ineffective.

That's a situation that can lead to massive disorder, should some variant of this stuff break out.

[oblivious]

18. If the virus doesn't even exist, how can we say there is only 1 treatment?

There is no known human to human form of the avian flu, right?

[depakid]

19. Indications are that Oseltamivir (Tamiflu)

will be probably effective against any influenza virus in this class- provided that resistent strains aren't cultivated through its overuse (or misuse)- which is what happened with amantadine and zanamivir (Relenza).

[UKCynic]

56. Does Tamiflu work?

My newspaper and magazine reading, and I can't quote a source, led me to believe that Tamiflu did not prevent one catching flu and did no more than reduce the duration of the symptoms by a day. If so, I don't know why it is seen as an answer.

Does anyone here know?

[Dogmudgeon]

23. 'Tain't that simple ...

It's not a matter of a virus being transmissible or not. All viruses can be transmitted any which way. The Bird Flu is transmissible between and among all mammals. It always has been.

HOWEVER -- it's the rate of transmissibility and the pathogenicity that count. Most people who have had the Bird Flu virus pass through them never even had an immune response, and the virus' reproductive system -- basically RNA transcription -- didn't work with human DNA/RNA enzyme systems.

What the press is chattering about is what will happen when a form of the Bird Flu comes along that CAN splice itself into the enzyme systems. Since viruses mutate at a high rate, it's inevitable that it will happen. At that point, it's our public health response to the virus that will determine whether this will be isolated or whether it will bloom into a pandemic.

Sadly, although the fundamentals of virology are simple enough so that even Bush can learn them, there are a number of little nuances that often escape even physicians. How a virus becomes contageous to a species or a population is one of those tricky nuances. But also keep in mind that the most effective defense against disease is education. With the flu, maintain hygeine, good eating and sleeping habits, and take commonsense precautions. Read what you can about it. This flu doesn't HAVE to be a big killer.

--p!

[kestrel91316]

30. "All viruses can be transmitted any which way. " ???????

:wtf:

Um, this is news to me.
Please cite a medical source.

[Dogmudgeon]

33. Is this a real question, or an Internet Citation fight?

Viruses are ubiquitous in the environment, including the air we breathe. There is no way, short of extensive filtering of all air, water, sterilization of food, and living in a sterile container, that they can be avoided. And that viral load includes lethal viruses that for any number of reasons don't "take". I'm sure thousands of people and hundreds of millions of birds have harbored Bird Flu, which didn't become established, and which eventually died in the host.

As to the means of transmission, yes, viruses may have favored vectors, hosts, and environments for transmission, but they can be transmitted in a very wide variety of ways.

Viruses even transmit genetic material which eventually becomes part of a species' genome. A horrible pandemic in one era can become an important part of the immune system a thousand generations later. A fiction book that explains this quite well is Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear. (Yes, for Citation Warriors, Bear has footnotes.)

The medical sources are standard textbooks of virology and infectious illness. There are hundreds of such works. I would think, though, that the adaptability of viruses would be self-evident. They are tough little bastards that can adapt to anything, which means that eventually they'll find the method they prefer, and suddenly, e.g., Bird Flu will be highly contageous from person to person, airborne, able to survive on dry surfaces for 96 hours, etc.

Lest I be accused of promoting Lamarckianism, Intelligent Design, or Mopery with Intent to Flaut, keep in mind that I'm using metaphorical language, and assume most people will understand that these anthropomorphic behaviors are really the results of mass replication and mutation of viruses, leading to adaptions like airborne human-to-human transmission.

There's also the hope that H5N1 Bird Flu never does find its "magic" contageous form. I personally don't count on it.

--p!

[kestrel91316]

49. I would be content if you would acknowledge and correct your misstatement.

It is absolutely false that "all viruses are transmitted every which way". COMPLETELY FALSE.

I assume you have not studied virology so you are unaware of your error. I certainly hope you are not making alarming, untrue statements to unnecessarily frighten the uninformed.

You could say "viruses are transmitted every which way" and this would be true. Every virus has its own means of transmission. West Nile is transmitted via arthropod vectors, but not via fecal-oral. Canine parvovirus is transmitted fecal-oral, but not via bite wounds. Rabies is transmitted via bite wounds primarily, but not via arthropods. I could go on, but I think you get my point.

To state unequivocally that all viruses are transmitted via all means is to needlessly pass false, alarming information to people who we know by now jump to a lot of conclusions. Words have actual meanings. We should be mindful of this.

[WindRavenX]

55. hear, hear

I've been seeing a LOT of just flat out WRONG information on H5N1 on DU lately, and even basic virology.
As far as I know, H5N1 isn't spread via human-human contact; it's still bird-human contact.
The panic that is being created by the press is frightening people to the point of panic.

[Dogmudgeon]

70. Somehow, I doubt that

Until shown otherwise, I will continue to make a point that I have learned is central to the science behind public health and contagious disease transmission. Re-stating a consensus scientific opinion hardly requires a high level of credentialed authority.

I am even willing to correct awkward semantics, but you've pointed none out. Some people might be scared? If that's so, let them ask me for clarification or better explanation. They aren't children who need to be protected from distress.

And your contentment is not my concern.

You've accused me -- heatedly -- of being wrong, but offered no clear rebuttal of fact; you've misquoted me, you've called me out regarding my education, then conceded the very same point you saw fit to chide me for making; you've claimed a moral high ground based on the assertion that you're the rightful protector of the fragile psyches of DUers.

Your opening argument was an unsupported blast with both proverbial barrels; your final remark said nothing more than "STFU" with added arrogance. And you still haven't seen fit to correct what you claim to be scientific misinformation.

The alarmism is on your part alone; if you re-read my posts, you will see that I am clearly calling for popular education, better public health procedures, and heightened biosurveillance. The current state of events isn't likely to be confined to H5N1 Bird Flu, especially if it does NOT develop pathogenicity. If you really want an antagonist for this drama, you should have no trouble finding one among the incompetents in Washington, DC.

--p!

[kestrel91316]

29. Those "horrible" steroids are the treatment of choice for the

immune-mediated vasculitis which was at the heart of all the SARS mortality, IIRC. This disease is analogous to FIP (feline infectious peritonitis), a fatal coronavirus infection in cats. That any humans survived this disease's fulminating form AT ALL is nothing short of miraculous, and I am not at all surprised that some of them suffered permanent damage. Beats death.

[oblivious]

32. But the permanent bone damage was due to overuse of steroids.

...not the disease itself.

[kestrel91316]

48. A more correct way of putting it would be to say that

the bone damage was an unfortunate consequence of the steroid use necessary to save the patients' lives. I don't think the patients would agree that the steroid use was excessive, and I am sure the doctors wouldn't. Steroids are a two-edged sword and we doctors all know it, but we use them anyway because they save lives.

I am fortunate in that MY patients (cats) are by and large resistant to nasty side effects from adrenocortical steroids.

[oblivious]

52. No, the way I put it was correct.

You are assuming that all hospitals used a "correct" level of steroid treatment. In fact the differences were great.

In Beijing and HK the steroid treatment was higher and longer than in Taiwan and Toronto and the consequent incidence of bone disease from steroid treatment was significant, compared to zero incidence in Taiwan and Toronto.

Beijing 2,521 33%
Hong Kong 1,755 14%
Guangzhou 1,512 3%
Taiwan 346 0%
Canada 251 0%
Singapore 238 0%
Vietnam 63 0%
U.S. 8 0%

I'm sure you can understand and explain this article better than me.

http://www.sarswatch.org/comments.php?id=359_0_1_0_C

[kestrel91316]

53. In a previously unknown disease there could not be a "correct"

level of steroid use. There is only the level which worked, and the level which didn't. They were on terra incognita. I don't fault the doctors.

"Overuse" implies error, fault, and blame. None has any place in the story of the battle against SARS.

[oblivious]

54. It sounds like there was indeed a known "correct" dose.

But when it came to deciding which SARS patients should receive the drugs, what the dosage would be, and -- perhaps most important -- how long the treatment should last, practices in one city differed radically from the next. In Beijing, a picture is emerging of a medical system that turned to corticosteroids with zeal bordering on recklessness, according to interviews with intensive-care clinicians, orthopedic surgeons and patients there. Hard questions are also being raised in Hong Kong, where the bone disease has appeared in 14% of more than 850 former SARS patients who have been screened with magnetic resonance imaging.

...
This from Guanzhou's Dr. Zhong, who pioneered steroid treatment of SARS

...In March, as SARS spread in Hong Kong and Beijing, Dr. Zhong visited those cities to tell doctors what he knew. Hundreds of physicians attended his presentations. While his slides mentioned precise dosages he'd used, he didn't dwell on the matter in his talks, assuming other doctors also knew the rule of thumb he'd been taught for treating severe asthma attacks: roughly 2 mg of steroids for each kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, that a patient weighed.

In hindsight, he says he wishes he had "made it more clear what the optimal dose should be." He says he was surprised to learn of the size and duration of dosages that some doctors in Hong Kong and Beijing were using. In Beijing, doctors were turning to steroids at the first sign of fever, going against his advice to use it only for patients who had developed difficulty breathing and showed evidence of "shadowing" in their chest X-rays.

"Those dosages were wrong, really wrong," says Dr. Zhong. "Some of the doctors found, 'Well, if you get good results with one kind of dose, why not go higher?' " he says. "They didn't think of the side effects."

[Dogmudgeon]

21. Disorder on the streets?

Are they serious?

Having already survived a brutal, life-threatening bout with a plain-vanilla H1N1 type-A flu, I defy ANYONE to be disorderly on the streets in such a condition. It just can't be done. All you want to do is lay down and die.

About the SARS patients, well, SARS wasn't a flu, and the steroids kept them from suffocating to death from the swelling in their lungs. The steroids used were almost always the basic generic ones, so the pharmaceutical companies didn't make much money on the patients' suffering. I'd also say that SARS itself caused a lot of those side-effects. It was, and is, a nasty disease, and I'm glad it never became more contageous than it did.

It's always a good idea to be a little cynical where the drug companies are concerned, but they had very little involvement in the SARS mini-epidemic.

For instance, Tamiflu and Relenza are still under patent and would be pretty pricey. Amantadine and rimantadine are old, generic, oral anti-virals, which may explain why we don't hear much about them these days.

--p!

[oblivious]

25. It was the anti-viral drug Ribavirin that was incredibly expensive.

They combined that with high doses of steroids in HK and Beijing, less in Taiwan and Canada. It seems the higher the rate of steroid treatment in SARS patients, the higher the rate of bone disease in survivors.

[depakid]

27. Yep- had a nasty A-strain myself

back in 98. Chills, sweats, 104 fever, migraines, bones that felt like someone beat me with a bat, lungs on fire, weak to the point of barely getting to the bathroom.

It's not the people with the actual pathogen I'm worried about- it's their families- or anyone else with a little rhinovirus or sniffle.

They'd be the dangerous ones- because they're going to panic and want that medicine- whether they need it (or whether it would help their SO's or not).

[muriel_volestrangler]

34. I imagine the 'disorder' would be from the healthy people

who might, for instance, demand they are given prophylactic Tamiflu.

It seems to me that it's good that the police are planning to be able to deal with that. I'd rather they do that, and then find that nothing happens, then for them to say "don't worry, everyone will behave perfectly normally" and then to find they don't.

[oblivious]

37. Oh yes, I can imagine millions of Americans storming the hospital gates.

:sarcasm:
Better have the storm troops ready just in case. And put up a canopy in case the sky falls in.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. Before polio vaccines, there used to be mini-epidemics of polio, and

cities would order swimming pools, movie theaters, and other places where children might gather, closed.

[JoFerret]

38. Nonsense

This is not sinister. This is good public health PLANNING.

[CHIMO]

7. So

The way that I read this is that publishers and postal employees will get the necessary medicinal prescriptions?

[awoke_in_2003]

12. 100 people have caught this...

60 have died. No proof of human to human transmission. Clear case that we need to pump up big Pharmas bank accounts to stop this :sarcasm:

[BattyDem]

16. Fear ... flu ... terror ... flu ... fear ... flu ... terror ... flu ...

:eyes:

[kath]

44. You gotta get your pronunciation right, and say things the way the

Chimperor does -- it's Terra, Terra, Terra.
:-) :-) :-)

Keep beating the drums Georgie - Terra, Terra, Terra, Fear, Fear, Fear, (and now) Flu, Flu, Flu, Terra, Terra, Terra...

[lovuian]

20. Wait a minute guys this is Europe!!! They don't have to terrorize

their population and they are terrified of it!!! So no this is the real deal...

[oblivious]

26. Not Europe. This article is about the UK. Blair country.

Same mode of operation.

[muriel_volestrangler]

35. When did you remove Britain from Europe?

You might have told us before you made your decision. Anyway, reaction on the European continent seems to have been more than in Britain:

So far there has not been a rush on antivirals in Britain, although it is happening in Switzerland, France and Italy.

The French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, asserted on Friday that people 'should not give in to panic'. But all his statement did was spark a rush for bird flu remedies. 'Tamiflu? There is none. I could sell 20 packets a day if I wanted to,' said Parisian pharmacist Helene Cohen.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1593221,00.html

[oblivious]

36. Britain is not Europe and Europe is not Britain.

Britain is in Europe. But then I guess you knew that.

I haven't heard of other European governments making plans to deal with disorder in the streets. I have seen reports of the US and UK governments planning for this.

But maybe you have read the same thing of other European governments??

[JoFerret]

40. Perhaps that means better planning?

...for all possible contingencies?

[newfaceinhell]

64. You said "not Europe", not "not all of Europe"

So the original poster was right- this is happening in Europe, and your correction was completely unwarranted. You could probably have saved face if you'd just admitted that, instead of trying to slither out of it with the dazzling geographical insight that Europe and Britain are not territorially coterminous. But then I guess you knew that.

[oblivious]

69. I can see you're a clever one newfaceinhell.

Not one to let even a preposition slip by in the interests of natural conversation. Let's keep it formal, eh? Good on you.

[JoFerret]

39. More nonsense

Not to defend Blair on Iraq but don't mix public health planning into your paranoid cocktail.

[oblivious]

41. The OP says the govt is planning for a total breakdown in law and order.

The US is considering using the military to enforce quarantines.

Bush Considers Military Role in Flu Fight
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1826007#1826408

And when I point out that the US and UK are the only two countries I have heard of whose governments who are talking about such extreme possibilities, you have the audacity to call me paranoid?

:rofl:

[JoFerret]

43. Short answer:

Yes.



http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16538034%5E28737,00.html

Canberra's plan is to contain the disease in zones: " if there is an explosive spread within the population, containment may not be possible. the strategy will shift to an emphasis on maintenance of essential services." The plan includes quarantine centres and fever clinics, bans on mass gatherings and closures of schools and childcare centres.

[oblivious]

45. Thank you for that article.

I note the grabber cites experts who predict a "breakdown in social order", but in the text the only reference to this is in para 12 - a US plan. In para 7, Australia's chief medical officer says that won't happen in Australia.

So it appears to be still only the UK and US who are predicting possible social disorder.

They are paranoid, wouldn't you say?

[JoFerret]

46. I tell you what

...I would rather put my money on a country with a national health system, an understanding of the importance to maintain social order by virtue of the equitable distribution of support and services, an adequate public health infrastructure, and a government that understands the need for shared resources in a time of crisis.

[oblivious]

47. That sounds sensible.

[DawnneOBTS]

42. The Bird Flu is really no BS...

...look, I had to take a course in Florida, AIDS 104, that is required for all health professionals. I am in a medical technology program-I'm the person who will have to test blood samples for the presence of such a thing as AIDS or the Bird Flu. The man who taught the course, the public health director for Brevard County (I can't remember his name) said that the bird flu would surpass anything like AIDS-it would look more like the Black Plague. Remember that from history?

[Copperhead 2000]

50. Bird Flu is why we need socialized medicine

It will kill a lot of people while only the rich or those with health insurance will have the vaccine. All the poor countries will be hit hard and poor people in the U.S. will die, too because they won't be able to go to a doctor.

[JoFerret]

51. Flu pandemic is but ONE of MANY reasons

...why we need a single payer national health system in the US. Why should we be the only industrialized nation without the right to basic health care?
Bring it on (please.)

[UKCynic]

57. What about churches?

With the plagues in London in the 16th Century, the theatres were closed, but not the churches. The logic was partly to do with uncertainty about the causes of the plague and partly to do with certainty about God's providence as a factor in events.

Today we in the UK are more certain of our medical than of our theological data, but what about the US. In the face of a flu pandemic, will your government shut the churches?

[rfkrfk]

58. how is Britain coping with the increased demand for burials?

The news blackout, of this ongoing British catastrophe,
is disturbing.

[Nihil]

59. Pardon?

> The news blackout, of this ongoing British catastrophe, is disturbing.

Or, if you'd prefer, :wtf: are you talking about?

[rfkrfk]

60. I've seen every episode of Monty Python at least three times.

so I am very familiar about life in the British Isles.

I assume Britons have some type weekly or twice weekly
curb pickup, a modern version of the service seen
in the documentary ... Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

[JoFerret]

66. They''re are "NOT DEAD YET"

but the Yorkshiremen have suggestions.

[UKCynic]

61. Not yet necessary

Like many threads, this is about a possible future not a current reality.

Contemplating potential future disaster distracts us from noticing present disasters.

[Javaman]

62. The only shining point in all of this flu outbreak crap is....

our great elected leaders are still human and can get the flu just as easily as the average person can. Ain't that a crying shame.

[superconnected]

63. Oh you can bet dumb dumb is taking precautions with this cabinet.

They're probably estimating how many poor people can get it and gleeful about people with compromised immune systems (HIV) getting it. Bet dumbdumb has already got the statistics and can't wait.

BTW, medicare and social security doesn't go to dead people. Carlyle has a big investment in the company distributing the antibiotic, so gee, dumbdumb is set.

[are_we_united_yet]

65. Bravo Javaman!

A very astute observation. With any luck, the inflicted birds will all migrate and roost in Washington DC. maybe build nests on the White House roof.

[Javaman]

67. I see moron* turning into a germaphobe like howard hughes...

Now that would be fun and scary to watch, huh?

[are_we_united_yet]

68. LOL!

At this point, anything is accepatble that will have him take up a new job other than POTUS