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2006-03-16 Home Front: WoT
Musings on the Coming Plague
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Posted by Steve 2006-03-16 08:22|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 I suspect either Walmart [with numerous local outlets] or someother establishment which can exploit both internet ordering and local delivery of produce will make a 'killing' in the market by promoting the ability to avoid crowds and deliver the goods to your door. Like all 'plagues and disasters' the poor will be hammered the most. The Left will play the guilt card. However, it is a grand opportunity to point out that if you, your parents, your grandparents etc had applied themselves and risen above their economic state by avoiding substance abuse, single parent head of household, or blowing of one's education, and had actively applied themselves to take advantage of multiple opportunites and programs offered for forty years, it wouldn't be a problem. Its grasshopper time. History is about to bite.
Posted by Hupomoling Creremp5509 2006-03-16 08:56||   2006-03-16 08:56|| Front Page Top

#2 But when the government implies it won't be driving the Free Tuna Van down your street, you might want to take heed.

I hate the Free Tuna Van. Damn things air conditioning never works, and I'm a day and a half's drive from the ocean.
Posted by Robert Crawford">Robert Crawford  2006-03-16 09:00|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/]  2006-03-16 09:00|| Front Page Top

#3 As far as what will really, truly matter if avian flu is a bad one, a few simple things matter most of all.

#1 is hand sanitizer. It comes in 8oz and 2oz bottles. When the disease hits, carry the 2oz in your pocket when you go out in public. Use generous amounts on shopping cart handles and be aware when you touch things with your hands to sterilize your hands before touching your face. Buy a case full of the 8oz bottles now. It is cheap and the single most important thing you can do.

#2 Avoid dead birds, sick people including family members, and dumbasses. If it is a choice between embarassment and infection, choose embarassment. Stop eating in restaurants and don't use public toilets. Cooked food is better than raw food, especially fruits and vegetables.

#3 If you want to wear a mask and glasses, most any mask and glasses will do. You don't have to keep out virus sized objects, just the large droplets of moisture that contain them.

#4 Avoid anyone with a gun. Do not try to run a roadblock. Set aside any desire to help your fellow man, either.
Posted by Anonymoose 2006-03-16 09:44||   2006-03-16 09:44|| Front Page Top

#4 Lileks. When he's on, he's ON.
Posted by Glert Thetch2165 2006-03-16 10:30||   2006-03-16 10:30|| Front Page Top

#5 MOOSEY: Set aside any desire to help your fellow man, either.

hokay moose! LOL! Folks helped each other even during the Black Plague...you're underestimating the spirt in us.
Posted by RD 2006-03-16 11:42||   2006-03-16 11:42|| Front Page Top

#6 *spirit*

I overestimated the spelling in me!
Posted by RD 2006-03-16 11:44||   2006-03-16 11:44|| Front Page Top

#7 Better than hand sanitizer:

Get the annual flu shot.

Get a pneumonia vaccination.

More info here

Posted by Chuck Simmins">Chuck Simmins  2006-03-16 12:12|| http://blog.simmins.org]">[http://blog.simmins.org]  2006-03-16 12:12|| Front Page Top

#8 "Avoid anyone with a gun." ???

No.

BE the one with a gun.

Get your concealed permit NOW if you do not already have one, and practice regulary with your chosen pistol.

This goes for normal every day life. If you're one of the sheepdogs and not one of the sheep, that is.

Yes its a lot of responsibility, initiative, expense and work from your end, but it reduces a large amount of the risk for not only you and yours, but for society in general.

If the wolves know the sheepdogs are waiting for them, fang and claw, then they are likely to just move on., and if they do not, you are not at thier mercy (of which they have none, they are wolves after all).
Posted by OldSpook 2006-03-16 12:19||   2006-03-16 12:19|| Front Page Top

#9 Lilecks isn't very funny when he's trying to be Dave Barry. In his normal state, he's often hilarious.

Hm, maybe I just don't like Dave Barry.
Posted by KBK 2006-03-16 13:39||   2006-03-16 13:39|| Front Page Top

#10 Could someone please explain the difference between this "killer" animal flu and the last "killer" animal flu?

I'm of course referring to that great anti-climax known as SWINE FLUE (my god we're all gonna die!)

Posted by AlanC">AlanC  2006-03-16 13:52||   2006-03-16 13:52|| Front Page Top

#11 Don't forget to stock up on asthma inhalers, to help speed recovery when you get that Murphy's Law case of bronchitis instead of pneumonia. And remember that pine twig tips and needles are edible if treated right. Not to mention full of certain vitamins, although which ones I cannot just now remember. (I did get my shots like a good girl, which is why I got bronchitis with my flu, which is clearly affecting my thinking this week -- witness the feedback on my comments the last few days.) ;-)
Posted by trailing wife 2006-03-16 13:58||   2006-03-16 13:58|| Front Page Top

#12 tw, I heard they're loaded with vitamin C. Hope you feel better soon (chicken soup is still safe, I think! ;) )
Posted by Desert Blondie 2006-03-16 14:12|| http://azjetsetchick.blogspot.com]">[http://azjetsetchick.blogspot.com]  2006-03-16 14:12|| Front Page Top

#13 Okay, you want the scary part?

The H5N1 virus can attack not just the airways, like regular flu, but multiple organs and systems, including the kidney, liver, spleen and brain. Infection has been fatal in more than half the reported cases, and most cases occur in previously healthy children and young adults.

Bird flu viruses carry a gene that can latch onto many crucial proteins inside human cells, presumably disrupting their function and causing far more severe disease than ordinary human strains.

The lungs of avian flu victims are racked by infections, clogged with pus and surrounded by fluid, and the severity of the symptoms can predict whether the patients will survive. Even when the disease subsides, permanent scar tissue forms in their lungs with possibly lifelong debilitating effects.

Additional abnormalities discovered in avian flu patients -- include enlarged lymph nodes and cavities forming in the lung tissue.

Posted by Anonymoose 2006-03-16 16:57||   2006-03-16 16:57|| Front Page Top

#14 Anonymoose, that sure sounds like the 1918 epidemic to me, especially the part about healthy young adults. Hopefully it can't make the jump and get more virulent.
Posted by Desert Blondie 2006-03-16 17:23|| http://azjetsetchick.blogspot.com]">[http://azjetsetchick.blogspot.com]  2006-03-16 17:23|| Front Page Top

#15 Anonymoose, you know I take this thing seriously -- I have some of your earliest advice on my PalmPilot, so you go with me everywhere. But now that my pantry is stocked, I have dustmasks, rubber gloves, Coldeze zinc lozenges, vitamin C with rosehip extract, Purell alcohol gel, a dozen jugs of distilled water plus a stash of purifying tablets if needed, I cannot allow myself to quiver every time there is a new item about Bird Flu, else I'd be in an eternal panic. I haven't the strength for that, even when I'm healthy.
Posted by trailing wife 2006-03-16 20:06||   2006-03-16 20:06|| Front Page Top

#16 TW: The proper response is not fear, it is wit. That is, keeping your wits about you. Everything about the AF is relative. When it hits in your area, who you associate with, how you take precautions, what you are willing to do, etc., etc.

Storing food beyond a few days is silly, the disease could be floating around for two years. Any disruptions in supply will be marginal at best.

Put your emphasis on not catching the disease in the first place, that is, avoidance. Stay away from sick people, and where sick people congregate. If you have to go there, like a grocery store, *that* is when you should be at maximum paranoia. For a short period of time at a precise location. Any more fear is wasted. Your biggest concern while you are there is simply to not touch your face, and to decontaminate your hands when you leave. Big deal.

Since most of us don't live alone, you also have to police your families' hygiene, and train them to be active participants in keeping your shared environment reasonably clean. Encourage them to be somewhat standoffish. And knowledge is power, they need to know what you know.

A lot of people will get sick and die because they are lazy, too lazy--creatures of routine--to use even basic precautions during an epidemic.

Others because they are either ignorant, or just didn't *think* about something they did that contaminated them. Somebody has to pick the lettuce we eat, and all.

Still others because even though they know better, they just can't resist doing things like kissing and hugging a dead family member, or involving themselves with sick people instead of calling 911. In this class are the religious, who go to church and try and pray the disease away, en masse.

Finally, and as deadly as the disease, are our fellow man. Armed, scared, maybe a little sick themselves, full of hairbrained panic. They are damn dangerous. They may decide to rob stores or banks for no reason, stick a shotgun through the mail slot at their next door neighbor, just any kind of amazingly stupid behavior.

They have lost their wits. And there will always be more of them than you.

America as a whole will do pretty good. But there will be one hell of a lot of scared, paranoid people for a while.
Posted by Anonymoose 2006-03-16 20:49||   2006-03-16 20:49|| Front Page Top

#17 George Noory on COASTTOCOASTAM Radio had a guest named Katharine ALbrecht on last night - among other things, she inferred that the US government are using the Media-correct diseases of Bird Flu and MAD COW, etc. as justification to install RFID chips on all farm animals, with the ultimate intent/agenda being that ordinary individuals will no longer be allowed to privately farm without some form of collusion with Big Govt. + Big Corporation and other anti-private/individual commercialization, that private farming and lessor corporate farms will be forced into regulatory obsolescence IN THE NAME OF [PUBLIC]SAFETY. Noory himself expressed the belief that, sometine between now and the next 10-15 years, AMERICA WILL BE GOVERNED AND CONTROLLED BY TOTALITARIAN NATIONAL GOVT. + some kind/form of "ONE WORLD ORDER" and "SOCIALISM". Albrecht also expressed her belief that, during roughly/approx the same timeline, iff nothing changes up to 100Milyuhn Americans may die from the Bird Flu and other pandemics. * Iff diseases and pandemics don't kill Americans, the Commies will.
Posted by JosephMendiola 2006-03-16 22:53||   2006-03-16 22:53|| Front Page Top

23:50 JosephMendiola
23:48 Inspector Clueso
23:47 JosephMendiola
23:47 Frank G
23:46 Pappy
23:42 Pappy
23:34 Glert Thetch2165
23:34 JosephMendiola
23:33 Glert Thetch2165
23:32 Glert Thetch2165
23:31 trailing wife
23:23 JosephMendiola
23:22 Glert Thetch2165
23:22 Inspector Clueso
23:18 Glert Thetch2165
23:17 Scooter McGruder
23:16 MO
23:13 JosephMendiola
23:13 MO
23:11 DMFD
23:11 trailing wife
23:10 DMFD
23:10 JosephMendiola
23:09 Frank G









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