Is it media hysteria? or are we heading for " flu armageddon?"

[eljudo]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/conditions/11/01/us.flu.plan/index.html


I have a few questions to my fellow pooners, perberts, and assholes... heee


1. Is it media hysteria? are they trying to draw attention away from the "weapons of mass delusions"

2. From the reports I have read, the Avian flu and the Spanish influenza share a lot of genetic information, hence they are very afraid that it might easily cross the species barrier and start infecting homo sapiens.

3. Are the world leaders really up to something? do they know that its coming, and its coming hard on the world population, hence they are already starting to show " stress points"

4.Why is it that most major deseases seems to be coming from asian countries... like china for instance. Could it be that the chinese goverment is trying to cut down its own population growth, experiments getting out of control? or simply, china in most industrial part, is a vey dirty country and deseases seems to jump back and forth.. with todays transportation system, it doesnt take long to spread around the globe.



whatcha all think.

 

[LonelyGhost]

1. The 'flu' comes from Asia because of their farming practices ... they mix poultry and swine and the virus starts in the birds and get passed to swine and then to humans.

2. The easiest but least likely to happen solution is to restrict and even quarantine flights from Asia ... but our gutless politicos won't do that and it would be branded 'racist' so we will all just get sick and die.

3. The Spanish flu was unique because it didn't kill off old people ... it killed young, healthy adults ... and while there is no real 'hard' evidence for the cycles of epidemics or pandemics, there is a lot of historical evidence about them.

4. The media thrives on mass-hysteria, but some of it is factual: we are long overdue for climate changes, major earthquakes, and some diseases ... and while we plan for the 'big one' there may be some little one that sneaks in and does the job anyway.

Best to live everyday as if it were your last and then if it is, you were prepared for it!

 

[mustangjoe]

The media is just feeding us more bullshit as they always do. I guess nothing else is happening lately. Last week the top story all fucking week was the stupid ass school strike. Jesus, it got the first 15 minutes of Global news all week long. A little over kill if you ask me.

 

[Cinnamon Girl]

1.mass media hysteria

disease controls population, its a natural evolutionary occurence.
2. ?
3. it is the best way to sell more pharmaceuticals isn't it?$cha-ching$$
http://www.edgenericpills.com/news/news_pharmaceutical_company_revenues_28sep.html

4.look at the population mass, China has 1,306,313,800 people!!!! Things have changed drastically since the Maoist/communist days where people were killed routinely for virtually no good reason. Population control, maybe?See answers 1 & 3.

A great reminder to stay healthy: take your vitamins, exercise, wash your hands, eat local meat & produce. Theres a bus around that corner, watch your step!!!

 

[Ilovethemall]

malthus

I merely refer to my previous comments about Malthus - the planet can only support so many people and it has nasty ways of making the corrections. More people now live in quake zones, flood zones etc.

 

[Mark Service]

I have several friends in law that swear the booster shot is the governments way of keeping the population down. All conspiracies aside I do know a couple of people who have had cronic sickness since taking a flu shot.

including fatigue/prolonged throat soreness resulting in greatly enlarged glands - glands so large they had to get them watched for a couple of years via quarterly ultra-sounds.

As a result I think I will take my chances riding public transit and drinking lots of fluids rather then pumping viruses under my skin sanctioned by the Canadian Gov.

 

[Cinnamon Girl]

how healthy can it really be?

though the dosage of the pathogen is low, just to trigger your immune system, I still think its creepy, who knows what the hell they are putting in there.

Accupuncture was the best thing I ever did. I used to have sinus problems & get colds often, not so often now & much milder.

I was on the deprovera shot for birth control & it caused HUGE problems that I am still dealing with. Biggest mistake I ever made in my life. Ladies avoid this shot!!!!!!!

I have several friends in law that swear the booster shot is the governments way of keeping the population down. All conspiracies aside I do know a couple of people who have had cronic sickness since taking a flu shot.

including fatigue/prolonged throat soreness resulting in greatly enlarged glands - glands so large they had to get them watched for a couple of years via quarterly ultra-sounds.

As a result I think I will take my chances riding public transit and drinking lots of fluids rather then pumping viruses under my skin sanctioned by the Canadian Gov.

 

[rambler6]

I heard a comedian on the radio the other day saying that every time the White Soxs win the world series that there is a major flu outbreak that kills millions within a year or two. Good thing they don't win to often.

 

[Chantal]

I feel the same way about any needle flu shot..Years ago we beat the flu with vitamine C,vicks..etc...It is mandatory in some hospitals to get this "shot",but again there is no information in "What is in the vile"...My intuition always told me "Don't do it" not enough information.....What are they putting in our systems....It's only a thought.....

 

[therealrex]

These diseases are caused by peasants living in close proximity to their livestock which gives the viruses a much greater chance of mutating into a human virus.

 

[JustAGuy]

This planet is overdue for a pandemic that will significantly reduce the population. Likely candidates like ebola or Marburg emerge periodically in Africa but have thusfar been contained with (relatively) few deaths. The bird flu, while it may not have the kind of incredible death rate associated with either ebola or Marburg, is much more likely to spread across the planet and certainly does merit much of the attention it has been getting of late.

That said, the constant message of "be afraid, be very afraid" that has been getting ever louder in the past few weeks is just one more sad example of the triumph of the Bush administration's tactic of keeping its citizens in a state of constant fear. In all my years (and I'm nearly 60), I've never seen an American administration that places such an emphasis on maintaining fear as an overriding way of viewing the world by its citizenry. Since 9/11, Americans have had their rights eroded and their freedom curtailed, all in the name of protecting their way of life. Few people seem to question the inherent illogic in having your way of life protected by taking away some of the things that contribute to that way of life. But when your government has managed to instill this level of fear in you, you're unlikely to object too much to obscenities like The Patriot Act being passed nor question possible future applications of a law that gives the federal government undue power over many aspects of your life. We're just trying to make you "safer", you silly people. Don't ask questions.

With the fear level already at such a high point on so many subjects with the American populace, the only way non-American groups like the World Health Organization could make themselves heard on the subject of the bird flu was to use the same tactic. It's coming. It's going to kill millions if not hundreds of millions of you. LISTEN UP! Needless to say, the Bush administration bought into this big time, being as it's one more thing for Americans to be worried about and afraid of. The 7.1 billion dollar plan announced by Bush today (has any U.S. president ever thrown numbers around like this one, with no connect to reality, just the mantra that the booming economy will easily pay for all this debt, so don't worry your little head about our profligate spending) seeks to accomplish two goals: something else for the public to fear while at the same time being grateful to the Bushies for trying to deal with it (cost be damned).

On Monday night, the man who should have been president and may yet be president, John McCain, was interviewed by Charlie Rose on PBS. As I sat watching this intelligent, responsible and sincere (everything George W. Bush is NOT) man talk about his views on a wide variety of subjects, I found myself thinking that even he may not be able to clean up the mess that Bush will leave behind as his legacy. But one thing that won't continue under a McCain administration is the notion that fear is the only sensible response to the world of the twenty-first century. And that alone would be a good enough reason to elect him president.

 

[BoyThursday]

Likely candidates like ebola or Marburg emerge periodically in Africa but have thusfar been contained with (relatively) few deaths.

Ebola, Marburg and other similar hemorrhagic fevers will never be in danger of causing a global pandemic, for two reasons:

1/ Too delicate. Need warm, humid climates to survive outside the body. And even then, only in the shade and only for a few minutes tops. This prevents the virus from being spread through aerosol.

2/ Acts way too fast. Kills the subject before it has the chance to spread too far. Because symptoms are so rapid in presenting, and so characteristic that they are relatively easily diagnosed (petechiae, internal bleeding, etc.), cases are usually caught and isolated before the disease can spread far. Even in poorly-serviced rural areas in Africa the diseases rarely spread far from the index case.

Of course, if the proverbial "terrorist" ever manages to engineer a mutation of one of these viruses, then all bets are off. Strengthened and given a longer incubation period whilst retaining their high mortality rate, they'd be truly frightening. No idea how possible or likely this would be -- I can only assume that genetic tinkering on that level would require world-class resources and expertise that only a handful of governments or megacorporations can boast.

As for Avian Flu -- I'm sure there's the theoretical possibility of a global pandemic. But I think that the media is probably making WAY too big a thing of it. With Avian Flu very much on the radar of most governments, and with medical care being so much more advanced than during the flu pandemic of 1918, I think Avian Flu is hardly likely to wipe out millions of people. Hundreds or thousands, maybe; and mostly in poorer parts of the world with inadequate healthcare resources. Harsh, but not what one would think of as a global pandemic.

It makes sense to me, though, that the relevant agencies responsible for planning and responding to such public health threats, such as the CDC in Atlanta, are happy to see the media scare coverage because it makes their jobs much easier. "A public scared is a public prepared!" -- that's probably their unofficial motto. They should just be careful that they haven't cried wolf on this one a little too loudly.

 

[FuZzYknUckLeS]

Does anybody remember the mad panic that was brought about by SARS? And that was a few hundred people. This pandemic, should it take hold, would be tens of thousands, or more. Imagine. I, for one, am glad that the govts. of the world are making preparations for a possible pandemic.
What scares me is that there is but a single pharmaceutical company that makes the antivirus. Roche pharmaceuticals is the only producer of Tamiflu, and as of last week, have halted supply of the drug worldwide. I think Gina Lee nailed it when she said that there was alot of $$$ to be made here. If possibly millions of lives are at stake, the govts. of the world should perhaps take away their monopoly and pool resources to produce an effective vaccine in enough quantities to ensure everyones survival.

 

[BoyThursday]

What scares me is that there is but a single pharmaceutical company that makes the antivirus. Roche pharmaceuticals is the only producer of Tamiflu, and as of last week, have halted supply of the drug worldwide. I think Gina Lee nailed it when she said that there was alot of $$$ to be made here. If possibly millions of lives are at stake, the govts. of the world should perhaps take away their monopoly and pool resources to produce an effective vaccine in enough quantities to ensure everyones survival.

From what I was reading the other day, taking away the monopoly from Roche probably won't do much to improve the supply of Tamiflu. I believe that the main bottleneck lies in the supply of the starting ingredient itself. Interestingly, that starting ingredient is a particular variant of Star Anise that grows only in a limited region of China. Roche already buys 90% of the crop every year.

The other bottleneck lies in the actual manufacturing process. I read what it involves, and it is so absurdly long-winded and complex a process that I won't even try to imagine how the hell they came up with it. Suffice to say, the manufacturing process takes about a YEAR per batch, and parts of the process involve the processing of an intermediate chemical that is extremely explosive and thus can only be done in very small batches in specially-designed secure facilities.

Having said all that, I did read something else recently which indicated that another company has announced plans to manufacture a generic version of Tamiflu. Maybe they have found a more rapid way of synthesising it; but if not, I'm sure it will take months for supplies to hit the market from that source.