Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
Panic much?
Just curious - how are people here responding to this news?
US declares public health emergency for swine flu
WASHINGTON – The U.S. declared a public health emergency Sunday to deal with the emerging new swine flu, much like the government does to prepare for approaching hurricanes.* * *
At a White House news conference, Besser and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano sought to assure Americans that health officials are taking all appropriate steps to minimize the impact of the outbreak.
Top among those is declaring the public health emergency. As part of that, Napolitano said roughly 12 million doses of the drug Tamiflu will be moved from a federal stockpile to places where states can quickly get their share if they decide they need it. Priority will be given to the five states with known cases so far: California, Texas, New York, Ohio and Kansas.
I posted an item about it on my blog yesterday, and for the most part I see this simply a prudent step in preparation. But I find it very interesting that the US government is moving *very* quickly over this - perhaps this was a factor:
Swine flu confirmed in NYC high school students
NEW YORK – New York City was dealing with a growing public health threat Sunday after tests confirmed that eight students at a private Catholic high school had contracted swine flu. Some of the school's students had visited Mexico on a spring break trip two weeks ago.
New York officials previously had characterized the cases as probable, but Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that it was swine flu, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
About 100 students at St. Francis Preparatory School complained of flu-like symptoms; further tests will determine how many of those cases are swine flu.
Bloomberg stressed that the New York cases were mild and many are recovering, but said that parents of the students also had flu symptoms, "suggesting it is spreading person to person."
Thoughts? Do you have the basic preparations for coping with a generalized emergency? I think I'm in pretty good shape, though I might pop out and stock up on my usual scotch . . .
Jim Downey
(Slightly different version cross posted to Communion of Dreams.)
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Probably not "The Big One".
The flu will kill fewer than 100 people in the US, mostly in Texas where it seems most established. There will be a few deaths elsewhere. The new flu will put us in the high end of the bell curve for flu deaths, but it will be no worse than a typical bad flu year.
The flu wil do less damage locally than West Nile Virus. I had West Nile March a year ago. I shivered and sweated and could barely lift 40lbs for a week. West Nile kills a handfull locally and does enough brain damage that one or two people have to learn to walk again. Higher cognitive functions are little affected.
West Nile has faded into the acceptable background of local death. The new flu will be there within a year. Influenza kills the very old, the very young, and the infirm, and it kills quicky. lt will kill, but we will live with that.
Actually -
Bacopa, you may be right that this will be no more of a threat than the usual flu strains, but there are legitimate reasons that our and other governments around the world are being very cautious.
As for this statement:
That is true for the usual flu strains, but in true pandemic strains those who are young and strong are actually more at risk, due to what is known as a cytokine storm. Being over 50 myself, I'm not too worried on that score, but were I 20 years younger I would start drinking heavily and sleeping little, to suppress my immune system appropriately.
(That last sentence is a *JOKE* people, and not to be taken as medical advice.)
Jim Downey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like Science Fiction? Read *or listen to* my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
Waiting to see
I work in a hospital, and I'm waiting for the Infection Control to send me something about any measures that we might start. With the SARS fear, for instance, they alerted the staff for symptoms to watch for, both in patients and ourselves; they put hand sanitizer bottles in the door to the emergency department and some face masks, along with instructions to use it if you (incoming patients) had certain symptoms. And I suppose we developed some procedures for what to do in case we had to shut the building down or had a major outbreak. I posted some stuff on the intranet, participated in a few discussions about how impossible it was to shut down the hospital, then went on about my business. I suspect I'll get something similar over the next week or so.
Otherwise, I'm just going about my business as normal, such as that is.
Frank Moorman, skeptic
"what is the point of giving persons Freedom of Speech... if you then say they must not utilize same? And is not the Power of Speech the greatest Power of all? Then surely it must be exercised to the full." --Salman Rushdie
Not doing a whole lot
If a vaccine comes along for it, I'll get the shot.
Maybe the full-scale response is due to the fact that our president was exposed to it. The latency period is over and he's OK, but still.