I saw one medical official say that this stuff is so bad that you can contract it in the morning and be dead by evening. Forecast for up to 100 MILLION dead if the "pandemic" spreads.
I'm stocking up on cigars and Scotch and staying inside for the next 6 months!
JC
"Only those who attempt the absurd achieve the impossible"
Posts: 435 | Location: Buffalo, NY | Registered: January 19, 2005
National Geographic magazine had a very interesting article on this subject in their latest issue.
We have had deadly wide spread epidemics in the past and will have them in the future. We understand how and where they start better now than ever and new anti-viral drugs come out all the time and the WHO and CDC get better and better at predicting what strains of the flu that will come out each year in order to produce a vacine to protect us.
There are several problems that we must stay ahead of to prevent a "deadly flu" or any other viral or bacterial epidemics. First is that these pathogens are constantly mutating and can jump species like the bird flu jumping from only infecting birds to infecting humans. Also drugs that work today may not be as effective tomorrow. In the countries where many of these pathogens start are not as prepaired to isolate and quarentine people and or destroy the animal source. Add that to the ability of people to hop on a plane and be in another country in a matter of hours.
If more people would get their flu shots and when the get sick STAY AT HOME instead of trying to be a hard ass and going to work, school, or Walmart it would not spead as fast or to as many people. We are not so critically important where we work that it is worth risking the spreading of our illness to our co-workers and their familys.
Yes we will in the future see deadly outbreaks of mutated existing pathogens and from new emerging pathogens.
Bottom line DONT PANIC you have a better chanch of being struck by lightning than dieing from a flu epidemic.
*********************** "He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion." - Anonymous
I had a biology profesor in college that told us he viewed the earth as a living creature. Humans and animals were parasites to this "living creature" and pathogens were the earths immune system and its way to keep these parasites from destroying it.
He was a bit of a nut but I guess thats one way to look at it.
*********************** "He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion." - Anonymous
Staying away from WalMart...that is gonna be tough.
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Posts: 10302 | Location: Avenida de las Nalgas, Quericæstan | Registered: May 02, 2002
Hmm...kind of glad I'm stuck at home on disability. I work with a bunch of single women with kids...so a big chance of people carrying it to work there. Luckily my wife is a college coach so besides the athletes for 2 hours a day, she rarely has contact with anyone. And of course Payton stays home with me...so we don't have to worry about him bringing something home from day care. All-in-all we're pretty insulated from stuff compared to a lot of families.
Posts: 259 | Location: Florida | Registered: March 28, 2005
I might be wrong but i'm pretty sure that its a Health and Safety code violation to go to work with a contagious illness.
I think i spelled that right but i'm to hungover to look it up.
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Posts: 1798 | Location: Hollywood, CA USA | Registered: September 16, 2003
Originally posted by raven35031: I had a biology profesor in college that told us he viewed the earth as a living creature. Humans and animals were parasites to this "living creature" and pathogens were the earths immune system and its way to keep these parasites from destroying it.
He was a bit of a nut but I guess thats one way to look at it.
I guess bio professors are all a little crazy, my first year bio prof. used to tell us all the time that the world is going to end because we use antibacterial soap
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Posts: 420 | Location: "Yo soy un hombre sincero de donde crece la palma" | Registered: August 03, 2005
I have been telling people about this for almost two years. The WHO(world health organization) basically stated that it wasn't a matter of if a pandemic hit it was a matter of when.
The strain of virus currently labeled bird flu is thus far unable to travel from one human to another. Their fear is that it will be caught by someone who also has human influenza and the two viruses will swap genentic material. If the bird flu gains the ability to transmit from human to human directly, we are in serious trouble folks. This is going to be on a bigger scale that spanish fever and swine flu. The estimates range from 30-60 percent of world population will fall ill in a matter of weeks and somewhere between 7 and 50 million will die. This is compiled from several different articles. The WHO actually predicted between 2 and 7 million. Others have said it will be much worse. The pandemic at the turn of the century killed 45-50 million worldwide and the world population has multiplied since then.
I think thus far there are about 120 confirmed cases and half died. The problem is that birds are carrying along migratory routes and infecting people they come in contact with. All the conditions are in place. Oh, and to those of you who think you might be allright because you are young and healthy... Think again. Almost half of the people who died in the 1918 were young adults in their 20s and 30s. The playing field will be more level on this one since nobody has immunity to it. This is a brand new animal we are going up against.
Should be interesting. I don't think I'll quit my job and run up the credit cards just yet.
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I have a subscription to national Geographic, the latest issue is all about the bird flu. If you are at all interested about this i suggest you go out and get a copy. The bird flu is crazy, there is some scrary statistics in there.
Hey that would be a good costume, go to a halloween party dressed as the bird flu, aint nuthing scarier!
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Posts: 989 | Location: Victoria ,BC. Canada | Registered: December 28, 2004
Originally posted by BrendanMOC: Yeah this new strain is so bad . . . . it Un-TWEET-able :P
I always heard that the best way to treat bird flu is to keep the bird warm,have it drink lots of liquid, give it 2 aspirin and call the doctor in the morning.
Originally posted by BadFish: I might be wrong but i'm pretty sure that its a Health and Safety code violation to go to work with a contagious illness.
I think i spelled that right but i'm to hungover to look it up.
In Alabama the State Health Officer can order a quarentine under the State Health Laws and can order that Animals and dwellings be destroyed if he believes it is nessasary to stop or contain a deadly epidemic.
*********************** "He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion." - Anonymous
Originally posted by raven35031: I had a biology profesor in college that told us he viewed the earth as a living creature. Humans and animals were parasites to this "living creature" and pathogens were the earths immune system and its way to keep these parasites from destroying it.
He was a bit of a nut but I guess thats one way to look at it.
It's called the Gaia theory, and it's not so nutty.
The pathogens are definitely at a major advantage. They reproduce so much faster that mutations occur more frequently. Kinda makes you feel like a dinosaur eh?
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LMAO 
