Pandemic ? What's up with this?

[Catchawave]

Wondering if quarantining might work? You know, close our borders to the countries this avian flu is, uhm, developing?

If this is to be taken seriously, it's just another "Diversion Man" infiltrating the MSM right now. And Bush is hammering nails in NOLA right now.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Why worry about avian flu when just plain old human flu is more likely

to kill ya?

[mike_c]

4. the worry is that avian flu-- H5N1 and it's variants...

...will recombine with plain old human flu (there's really no such thing-- all influenza that infects humans is derived from animal varieties) to produce a pandemic variety with the very high lethality already demonstrated by some avain flu strains and the easy transmissibility of a flu strain that already infects humans.

[Deep13]

5. It isn't.

Prior strains of the flu are more likely this year, but avian is a brand new strain. The reason flu does not kill most of its victims is because there is resistance from exposure to previous variants of that virus. Bird flu is brand new with no prior exposure and mortality, therefore, will be high.

Tiny critters like viruses evolve quickly in decades rather than hundreds or thousands of years like big animals. Of all the cases of bird flu in birds, it has already jumped to humans. What are the odds that one of those like bugs will be able to jump from human to human? It is inevitable. What are the odds of throwing a perfect Yahzee with one throw? Pretty remote. With ten thousand players thowing the dice at once, the unlikely becomes inevitable.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. I'm still not worried about it. When 60,000 people instead of 60 have

succumbed, then I will start to worry.

[Deep13]

11. To be honest, 60,000 is pretty optimistic.

The 1918 flu killed around 2,000,000 in this country and there was no air travel then.

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. True. I am not saying that's where the death toll would stop, just the

number at which I will start to feel concerned.

[HereSince1628]

16. Actually this avian flu has been around for several years.

It is important that people come to understand that viral mutation is a form of gene recombination that results in viral chimeras.

More than one virus can invade the same host cell, consequently when new virus particles are assembled they can come to include bits and pieces of both viruses. In this way the traits of a mild form of virus with a great ability for human to human transmission can become mixed with those of a virus that causes pathology but has little or no capacity for human to human transfer. Thus entirely new types of virus regularly burst forth.

This happens all the time, it's the reason that vaccine manufacturers have people in SE Asia swabbing the noses of pigs, ducks and chickens.
Next year's human vaccine is typically based on what was common in the critters the previous influenza season.

[jobycom]

2. The world is starting to look like the Fourteenth century again

Plagues, natural disasters, constant wars started by half-wit leaders--all signs of either a changing ecology or a population growing beyond its means of support, depending on which school of thought you follow.

[tx_dem41]

12. Or the 1910s....

which had a war started by half-wits and culminated in the horrible Spanish Influenze outbreak at the end of the decade.

[mike_c]

3. a quarantine-- essentially travel restrictions-- is already part...

...of the draft pandemic response plan. It also includes provisions for internal quarantine as well.

[sam sarrha]

6. Quarantine really doesn't work like you think.. birds carry it..

in huge population areas the city will be quarenteened..not a couple of blocks.. when it spreads everywhere.. why bother... the problem will be digging the mass grave trenches fast enough to keep up with the bodies.

Homeland Security is providing Shrink-wrap machines for corpses, $50,000 each, to make them easier to transport.. they have a hydraulic lift that raises the semi trailer and the corpses easily slide out into the trench.. no mess mo fuss.

[porphyrian]

7. Build fires around your house to ward off evil spirits!

While we are historically overdue for a global pandemic, and due to globalization more likely to spread one in record time, we are all more likely going to die in an automobile accident than from avian flu. For that matter, we're more likely to die from lack of medical insurance and poverty linked directly to the policies of this current piece of shit administration.

[Catchawave]

22. I hear ya porphyrian !

I survived Times Square during a New Years Eve :SARS and Terrorist: threat a coupla years ago. And survived. In fact, all the other 2 million in attendance survived too!

Otherwise, that would have been news? I also survived the DC protests, and THS bacteria in filters alert during that weekend.

:wtf: AND, what a piece of crap our current admin is "keeping us safe"!?!

Am I close?

[porphyrian]

24. Any closer and you're it. - n/t

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

9. I don't know about you but I'm stocking up on duct tape. Lots of it.

:sarcasm:

[Deep13]

17. Me too!

It has nothing to do with epidemics or whatever, it's just good stuff to have around. Suppose I burst a radiator hose? Duct tape can seal it temorarily until I can replace it.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

23. LOL

:rofl:

[INdemo]

10. I think the risk of avian flu is....

no greater now than it was last year or even 2 or 3 years ago. I believe that this is a scare tatic being used by the Bush regime to divert our attention away from his low approval rating and failed agenda.But the hell of it is, its working.This guy has people scared to death.
The majority of people I talked to are worried as hell,not only about this flu epedemic, but are wondering how they are going to get through this heating season.

[suziedemocrat]

14. Right now Avian flu doesn't spread from human to human contact.

They are all talking about how horrible it could be IF/When the virus changes to spread from human to human.

I don't know a lot about this sort of thing, but it seems to me they are scaring us to death about a virus that doesn't exist.

Or does it....?????

[Deep13]

18. I like Poland Springs better than Avian anyway.

x(

[HereSince1628]

19. See post 16 and maybe you'll have a better appreciation of why

officials are concerned.

You are right that a strain that easily transfers from human to human does not appear to be currently on scene. That could change in a very short time.

[Catchawave]

15. Good responses guys...I'm still

confused....and watching Ron Reagan's show and he's asking these same questions?

Who's in charge ?

[Greyhound]

20. A pandemic cannot, by definition, be quarantined.

http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/wp96glos.html
Pandemic; A global epidemic.
The appallingly ignorant M$M has found a new word! :bounce:

[progressivebydesign]

21. There was a time when you had to have shots to come into the U.S.

If Bush's pharmaceutical buddies can whip up a vaccine, perhaps it'll happen again. I think everyone is getting their panties in a wad over this... it's not the end of the world.

[Deep13]

25. Yeah for smallpox mostly.

The problem with flu is that it is different every year. No, it will not be the end of the world any more than Black Death or the 1918 flu was. Still, it will be bad and as far as I know, there is no vaccine for an as of yet non-existent human strain. That's the problem. Once it happens, it will be everywhere in a very short time. It will be far more contagious than garden variety flu because there will be no bodily resitance. Think of when measles were first brought to America. It was an inconvenience to the Europeans, but was devestating to native new worlders.