Angel Tarragon
Dawn Dragon
It still might. Viruses don't just go away they fade into the background, mutating. It could come back, big time.Dagger75 said:
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Today a sick duck in my town. Tomorrow ... the Chicken Holocaust.
- Thread starter Del
- Start date
Frukathka said:
Or not. There's a significant chain of events that would have to occur before that result would pop up. Meanwhile, there could be a major meteor impact, or you might get hit by a car.
The particular strain of avian flu that's in the news is not really the issue. It is not all that much "closer" to being the Killer Flu than other strains. Yes, it is deadly, but it would need to mutate to become particularly virulent. Other strains are virulent, but they'd have to mutate to be deadly.
Even if this is the big one, and your one box of Tamiflu is brought to bear on yourself so that you survive - the Tamiflu won't protect you against the general society problems that may occur when one fifth to one third of the population falls ill within a small period of time. Fear and ignorance are more deadly than the virus itself.
If you're actually worried about pandemic, get invovled in your local governmental process to prepare your community. That's more likely to save your bacon than the Tamiflu.
Angel Tarragon
Dawn Dragon
Actually it was said in that documentary on the Superflu I saw that it is a distinct possibility.
Angel Tarragon
Dawn Dragon
You are in a silly mood lately, aren't you?Rel said:
Dagger75
Epic Commoner
So why wasn't this in the news last year, or the year before. This bird flu is nothing new. This strain is over 3 years old. 60 people in 3 years in all of southeast ASIA, the whole continent have died. More people choked to death a year on pen caps. ITS PANDEMIC, PENS ARE EVERYWHERE. Its just as likely to mutuate into something completely harmless as it is to mutute into anything that will kill us all.
wingsandsword
Legend
Yes, the media loves hype and fear, it gets ratings and sells newspapers. The documentaries you see on TV are made for entertainment and to get ratings, so of course they are going to present it as a deadly threat, to keep you watching. The news wants you tuning in every night to see what the latest Superflu threat is.Dagger75 said:
SARS, the disease that was hyped to be the feared Superflu that would wipe out mankind and be an apocalypitc nightmare, only killed 775 people, and infected only 8069. A mortality rate of 9.6% is quite bad, but not the end of the world, especially when it was contained as well as SARS was.
Remember the fear about Anthrax four years ago, and people hoarding Ciprofloxacin? Remember the fear-laced news reports saying how weaponized anthrax could wipe out almost all life in the nation? Remember the sensatonalistic fictional movies-of-the-week like the one on FX about a bioweapon pandemic wit the tagline "It's a true story, it just hasn't happened yet". I knew it was ridiculous when I started seeing pop-up ads and getting spam offering to sell Ciprofloxacin.
I'm not afraid of avian flu any more than I am anthrax or SARS. Yes, it could kill me, it could be dangerous, but living in fear is no life, and watching for the latest chicken in another country to get the sniffles will get me nowhere, for now I am preparing against the remote possibility of any disease outbreak by staying healthy, eating well, exercising, keeping clean and being mindful of disease vectors, but I already was like that before the "bird flu plague" hype, so I'm not really changing anything.
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