Bird Flu

“Just interested in what people think on the topic... any body getting nervous?”

“I've been coughing up feathers and I have a runny beak... should I be concerned yet?”

“...not concerned until it mutates and can be passed human to human.”

“Ditto what skiracer said.”

“I have heard a microbiologist twice on local radio. She described cases of human-to-human transmission and was very doom and gloom. Said to stockpile at least 3 months of food and water because the infrastructure will fail with so many people ill. Who knows what's true.......

It's never a bad idea to have extra food and water stored. Out here in CA, we're always waiting for the big one. Not that I've done anything about it yet, but I do think it's a good idea.”

“I'm freaking out. Like, totally.”

“Sorry, shouldn't joke about it. I understand you can end up like this:

”

“I think it's just another case of the media getting carried away with itself.

When was the last big bird flu? The 1918 Spanish influenza, right? Killed how many? 50-100 million people, worldwide, in a population of about 2 billionish.

In 1918 there no, none, zero, nada, nichevo, zilch, government control of this sort of thing. None. Not at all. Governments did nothing to try and prevent it because they had no idea what it was, what caused it, where it came from, how to stop it, or even slow it down. There was no antiviral science as we know it today. There weren't even any flu vaccines at all.

Today there was a news story that reports that the goverments of Turkey and Romania are slaughtering huge flocks of domesticated birds to slow down the spread of the disease. This didn't happen in 1918 at all, because no one knew what the transmission vector was. The UN is discussing ways of increasing the production of flu vaccine. The US government is requesting special powers to be able to respond to it here in the US. In 1918, governmental response was to hope it didn't happen here. I don't even know if they were screening immigrants to try and keep it out of the US then.

So I'm not too awful worried about. It's just the media chasing eyeballs again.
last edited: 10/11/05 10:11:57 PM”

“I am more concerned with the dog flu
that can go from dog to human.”

“personally I like human to human but maple if you want to go dog to human..have fun”

“Well, isn't this a timely thread for today's comics in the SF Chronicle!


”

“oh yul ewker!!!”

“Bowlder, those cartoons are too funny.”

“Oh yeah! Once in a while he has one that you kind of go, "Huh?" but the vast majority often make me spit my orange juice all over the table in the morning!”

“It would benefit us all to have a healthy index of suspicion about bird flu.
I'm more than a little nervous, as our food products come from all over the world. I am mostly vegetarian, but eat fish and poultry...this has me rethinking even THAT.

All it takes is one contaminated chicken to reach a McDonald's or a bad egg to find its way into your tastycakes.

I think our gov't's performance recently (Katrita) has clearly defined what we can expect should we ever need help. Sadly, a stockpile/survival kit at home has now become a necessity.”

“Hey, I just realized that my Thanksgiving handle is perfect for this thread!!”

“What would a 3 month stockpile of water for an average sized family look like?”

“An Olympic-sized swimming pool?”

“Wouldn't that be ugly?

”

“I kinda like that look. Especially the weird aura around each tank.”

“It's people!”

“I think we can all rest easy knowing that Homeland Security is on top of this. *cough, cough*

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9654456”

“remember the swine flu back in 1976 - this has all the earmarks of another swine flu snafu

ref: http://www.haverford.edu/biology/edwards/disease/viral_essays/warnervirus.htm”

“Yup...I even got the vaccine in school.”

“Hmmm, can I substitute beer for water in my three-month supply. I mean if I'm living in quarantine then I need something to do.”

“Sure, but you will still need one of those gigantic towers to store it all in.”

“Hawg, I bet you remember better than me, but I vaguely remember nutcases talking about the whole Swine flu vaccination program being either a Commie plot or the Evil US Government giving us obedience serum. Of course I was 13 at the time. Do you remember anything like that?”

“what I remember is all the hype and the fact that no one died of the flu but more than 600 died from the f'ing vaccine after that f'ing fiasco I stopped getting flu shots for more than 20 years”

“RE the 1918 scare
Governments did nothing to try and prevent it because they had no idea what it was,

Actually, the city of Seattle closed down all public places. Theaters, pubs, etc. Maybe I should be stockpiling Net Flix and beer! LOL!
last edited: 10/12/05 6:23:55 PM”

“The fear of the Y2K possibilities was a media generated false alarm.

There must be a reason and someone behind such campaigns.



Really, its simple, at the onset of symptoms give your chicken plenty of water, 2 aspirin, put it to roost and call the doctor in the morning.
last edited: 10/12/05 6:43:08 PM”

“With authorities killing off flocks of birds because of this flu, I'm wondering if it continues, how long it will be before the down supply starts to decrease?

I thought I heard on the news that Russia has started to reject feather products and has killed off some birds with the flu.

If down does become in short supply as always you can expect prices to rise. It'll be interesting to see if that happens.”

“Doesn't most down for our sleeping bags come from China? Of course it's ground zero for the bird flu.”

“Oh, and as far as bird flu news goes:

Hungarians develop human vaccine for H5N1”

“That's what I was thinking, but I believe they eat the birds for food and the feathers are the by-product of that. It probably all depends on how much this thing spreads and how many birds have to be killed. If it does spread, I can't see how it wouldn't have an impact on the supply of down.”

“You are no doubt right. And because the only source of down is more birds, killing off the flocks has a big impact on future down supplies as well.

Maybe if down gets expensive enough, some company will finally come out with an artificial fiber that is closer to down that what we have now.”

“So far Primaloft comes pretty close to the softness of down and I like the material, but I doubt anything will match downs lifespan and weight anytime soon.”

“I thought eastern europe was a big source of down, fortuately I think I have all the down I'll ever need. As long as the new sleeping bag gets out in time.

I did see they were ordered to burn feathers in Romania.”

“I imagine that anything you would have to do to the down to make it safe would also render it unusable.

Weight doesn't bother me all that much, I just lost 25 pounds. But compressibility is the big factor for me. I had to buy a compression stuff for my artificial-fill bag so it will fit into my Osprey pack. Without it, the bag takes up most of the space in the pack.”

“I read something today that asked the question, "What can Joe and Jane American do help stop the bird flu?", and the answer was "Convince Asians to stop living with their livestock."

Apparently the poor regions of Asia are the last place on earth where people live in close proximity (i.e., their hut is also their barn) with their farm animals. This allows the flu strains to hop back and forth between species with the greatest of ease, so to speak.”

“Q "Why did the Chicken Cross the Road?"




-Hmmmmmmmm....







A: To start a Global Pandemic
last edited: 11/02/05 12:36:09 PM”

“lol...I vaguely remember a movie where a guy got on a plane in Asia and the natives brought their chickens aboard.”

“Sunday night, The History Channel had a program about the Bird Flu detailing the worst case scenario if a worldwide outbreak occured on human to human level. It was frightening to see what would happen if the entire world were held hostage by a flu bug. Economies would collapse, millions could die and suffering would be something nobody in this generation ever saw before. It may not happen on that scale, but if it does the results looked really bad.”

“I saw that program rich--it was pretty scary! Not much you can do. All the plastic sheeting and duct tape in the world won't protect you.



This seems to be getting more Government attention than AIDS since it has the potential to kill a lot of old, conservative, white people!
last edited: 11/02/05 3:43:35 PM”

“And I can give you 1001 more worst case scenarios of "great disasters" that could befall the human race. This whole thing is being blown out of proportion, just like everything else that manages to garner a little air time on CNN (Y2K, the flu vaccination shortage, meteors passing within 100 million miles of earth, the myth of global warming, and many more).”

“It is with extreme pleasure that I now exact spelling revenge on bitpusher:

Should that say “bird flew”? LOL!”

“Avian Flu and its ability to directly infect humans comes from extremely unsanitary Factory Farming. Or, I should say, this type of infection coincides with the introduction of Factory Farming into Asia.

Flu Pandemics occur when An Avian strain mixes with a pig strain mixes with humans.

Flu, of any strain, recombines with itself as an evolutionary survival skill. This rarely causes major outbreaks due to the fact we can still recognize the new varient.

Mix in different species/strains of flu and BAM! PAndemic.

Happens about every 50 yrs and has nothing to do with individual farmers.

The scary thing now, as stated earlier, is avian flu jumpimg the species barrier all on it's ownsome.

Don't blame the small farmers for this. Tis false.”

“I agree with TrailKicker....”

“There have been worldwide illnesses before so it's not impossible that it couldn't happen again. Hopefully, it is blown out of proportion and does not happen, but history seems to repeat itself.”