Avian Flu

[Del]

Oh my God! We are all going to die! CNN says so!

Give me that mask! Hey ... is that guy coughing?

Seriously tho, I joke about being a recluse in event of a pandemic, but can I remind people that less then 1 percent of the planet's human population would be killed in a worst case scenario.

The first thing my sis says when I mention it is that she has people on her crafts boards that are freaking out about it (by crafts I mean she's a Martha Stewart type without the felony behaviour).

Just because CNN explodes with coverage today does not mean we are in trouble tomorrow. They adopt stories to sell advertising. I respect CNN a good deal but I remind you their biggest sponsers are drug companies.

Here is some info about influenza:

http://www.who.int/topics/influenza/en/

And even WHO chicken littles about this.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Ahhh, how I love the all-day news channels.

 

[Jdvn1]

Our brave and caring president said he wanted to quarantine any part of the country that was infected.

... Riiight.

*imagines the US Army shooting down birds*

 

[Del]

Our brave and caring president said he wanted to quarantine any part of the country that was infected.

... Riiight.

*imagines the US Army shooting down birds*

Pull!!!

*bam bam bam*

 

[TheGM]

Meh. Part of it is the way reporting is set up. If a person has reported positive then the County is marked "active", even if they came from elsewhere and were quarantined immediately.

The mainstream media reports what sells, unfortunately.

Ever see the site that describes the lies told on mainstream TV during the Hurricane? Rapes and beatings that can't be confirmed, starving people that didn't exist, etc. etc. Makes a little Avian disease seem tame. And we won't even go into the "show the part where the soldier shoots the guy, and don't show anything before that!" idiocy.

I left TV news years ago. Get mine online from reputable sites that spin less than the networks tend to. Or at least spin in a manner that makes more sense to me.

 

[diaglo]

the next pandemic WILL happen. the question really is when.

 

[Umbran]

Seriously tho, I joke about being a recluse in event of a pandemic, but can I remind people that less then 1 percent of the planet's human population would be killed in a worst case scenario.

Yeah, but 1% of the human population is sixty million people or more. What sounds acceptable in percentages gains a bit when you look at raw numbers.

Plus, "pandemics" are usually not actually spread evenly over the world. So we're really talking about 60 million people taken out of some smaller region, so the percentage of the local population effected could be much higher.

I'm not a "chicken little", but I am a realist - disease happens, occasionally en masse. It's a natural phenomenon we can't completely avoid, and just like many other natural phenomenon, it can be very bad for people.

 

[Warrior Poet]

Yeah, but 1% of the human population is sixty million people or more.

In other words, the combined populations of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Antonio, Dallas, San Jose, Detroit, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, San Francisco, Columbus, Austin, Memphis, Baltimore, Fort Worth, Charlotte, Milwaukee, El Paso, Seattle, Boston, Denver, Washington D.C., Las Vegas, Portland, Oklahoma City, Tucson, Albuquerque, Cleveland, Fresno, Kansas City, Atlanta, Omaha, Tulsa, and Miami.

Or thereabouts.

I'm not a "chicken little", but I am a realist - disease happens, occasionally en masse. It's a natural phenomenon we can't completely avoid, and just like many other natural phenomenon, it can be very bad for people.

I'm with Umbran on the realist bench. The sky isn't falling, but it doesn't hurt to get a little perspective. You've probably heard the statistic already (since they're associating it often) that the flu of 1919 killed more people in about a year-and-a-half than died in all four years of World War I. Granted, different time, different medical conditions, and different sanitary conditions. I guess my point is: eat right, get regular exercise, get a physical once a year, wash your hands (!!!), and enjoy life.

Warrior Poet

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

As stated by others, it is only a matter of time before there is another pandemic. The trick is to find the balance between informing and panicking people.

Talking about the threat of a pandemic is good if some real thought is put into how it can be detected, information communicated, and contingency plans implemented.

It is bad if people lock themselves in their homes, afraid that the person coughing on the bus is going to kill everyone, or if plans are made that are worse than the disease.

But in the end I don't see what the big deal is. Morgan Freeman and Renee Russo could come up with a cure for their Outbreak in a matter of hours, surely we have scientists smarter than them working for us, right? (yes, I am kidding, I am employed by a Pharma company with a division actively working on a vaccine for avian flu for use in chickens. I am aware of how hard it really is to develop medicines).

 

[Warrior Poet]

I am aware of how hard it really is to develop medicines.

Not in Hollywood! And Hollywood would never lie!

Right?

RIGHT?

Warrior Poet