Do you, personally, feel pandemic flu is something to worry about?

[Target_For_Exterm]

I've been watching the History Channel today, and it's showing endless end of the world shows. I guess it's rubbing off on me.

I'm truly not certain what to think about pandemic flu. One the one hand, I want to be "prepared" for a disaster type event because after Katrina, I know I'm on my own if I want to survive. On the other hand, I'm not sure if bird flu is just a disease birds get that humans get every once in a while, or if it's the next pandemic. And if it's a pandemic, how bad will it be?

I think I'm more worried about what might happen if a pandemic hits on the Bush/Cheney watch. I'm not certain we'd have a country left when it was over.

What are your personal feelings about a potential pandemic? Do you think the threat is hype, or the real deal?

[Ian David]

1. Tens of thousands of Americans die each year from the flu.

Five Americans died from Anthrax.

We spent $5 Billion to equip the Post Office to deal with Anthrax. That's $1 Billion per person.

Meanwhile Bush destroyed the program that Clinton created to make sure we have enough flu vaccine.

Yeah, I'm worried about a flu pandemic.

[Feron]

12. Incorrect

I really wish people would stop spreading that fallacy.

The CDC lumps flu and pnuemonia into one statistic in their reports. If you look at the itemized listings, pneumonia kills people in the tens of thousands, not the flu.

In 2004, the flu only killed 1,265 people.

Source:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr54/nvsr54_19.pdf

Flu is J10 and J11

Older reports from 2001-2003 have numbers from about 267 to just under 2,000 deaths.

So your chance of dying from the flu is small and the bulk of the people who die from it are elderly.

Needless to say, I think that the media is just spreading fear. Yes a pandemic could happen, but there isn't a need to worry about it.

Vaccines really are only for the elderly, those will medical conditions that could be deadly with the flu, and people in high risk professions. However getting the vaccine is also not a guarantee that you won't get sick.

[Ian David]

20. Thanks for setting me straight. I got that number from the guy Thom Hartman interviewed

I think that's where I heard it.

[uppityperson]

23. How about people who get pneumonia after the flu?

Influenza sets them up, pneumonia gets them? Happened to a 21 yr old relative of mine last yr, officially died from pneumonia but had had the flu shortly before and never recovered.

[NMDemDist2]

2. global climate change will bring microbes and beastie to places they

have never been seen before-West Nile Virus is a perfect example

I try to always have enough supplies on hand to go 2 weeks just in case (and I could stretch it to 3-4 if pushed)

There will be pandemics, the question is when. It's not something I lose any sleep over, but I try to be prepared to be as self sufficent as possible and am stiving to be more so all the time.

[Delphinus]

11. You're right, AZDem.

Global climate change is going to wreak havoc with illnesses, old, new, and emerging. Yet another thing that the scientists don't know how to tell us to plan for.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. I guess I can add it to my already long list of things to worry about.

There is the possibility it could occur; and if it does within the next two years, you know the Bush Buffoons will handle it in the most incompetent way possible. It would be Hurricane Katrina with viruses. So I suppose I'm worried about it (the inevitable fuckup more than the flu itself), but I'm already fretting about global warming, the lousy economy, the Iraq mess, the destruction of the Constitution, electronic voting machines, E. coli and salmonella in my food, mercury in the water, etc. So I'm not sure when I'll find time to think about bird flu as well...

[jody]

4. Pandemic flu may be nature's way of dealing with over population. n/t

[Pavulon]

5. More than bird flu. less than people in cars

I am more concerned about people spaced out 2 ton missiles. I saw a jerk reading a book and driving the other day. Blew my horn at him.

Heart disease worries me more. Can we hurry up with the liver clone too?

[Critters2]

42. 40,000 die in car accidents a year. This scares me more than

TERRA! TERRA! TERRA!

any day of the week.

[Kerrytravelers]

6. Because I have weak immunity, I am particularly careful.

I've always caught everything... and I'm a teacher. :crazy: Well, I'm no longer in the classroom, but still, I am around children a few days every month. I am very cautious.

[Strelnikov_]

7. It Has Happened Before

Some researchers think that the last really bad one, 1918, was also a Bird->Swine->Human jump.

A months worth of food, batteries, radio, flashlights, blankets, containers to store water etc. etc. works for any possible disruption (biological, geological, economic, political).

[BulletTrain1964]

24. 1918 was a different world

A lot of progress in medicine, sanitation and hygiene has been made since then.

[Strelnikov_]

26. The Bugs Have Made A Lot Of Progress Also

And most of progress in 'medicine, sanitation and hygiene' has been in the first world. The third world is probably even more vulnerable than in 1918 due to overcrowding and transportation.

So, pandemic has happened before, and it will happen again. The public health infrastructure existing at the time will determine how severe the pandemic is. It seems to be working fairly well in keeping things in check, even in the third world, at this time.

Problem is, will the future find an infrastructure weakened by economic depression, energy crises, war, or all of these. Only time will tell.

[BulletTrain1964]

39. Considering that there have only been 2 flu pandemics since 1918

in the United States, 1957 and 1968-69, and that far, far fewer people died in those latter two pandemics than died in 1918, and the fact that most pandemics since then have occurred in countries where conditions are not any better, and maybe even worse, than the US in 1918, I'd say that medical, hygienic, and sanitary advances hold the upper hand on the bugs, at least in the developed world.

[Strelnikov_]

43. All Depends On The Degree Of 'Shift'

And how quickly a vaccine can be rolled out.

[newyawker99]

27. Hi BulletTrain1964!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[BulletTrain1964]

37. Thank you kindly for the welcome!

:toast:

[jwirr]

8. Once we are stocked up as our clinic has suggested I will stop

worrying because I have done everything I can. What I really worry about is that my daughter and granddaughter are both in health care and will be called to help regardless of how dangerous it is.

[sharp_stick]

9. A pandemic will happen

it's just a matter of when. On a normal year more than 10,000 Americans die from the common flu, in an epidemic year at least 40,000. If/when a pandemic does come around many more than that will die.

Bird flu may not be the next pandemic and I'm always afraid of the media doing the old cry wolf. Every time something gets mentioned by the CDC they take it a run because it's a great headline. People will slowly get used to the CDC "being wrong" and start to ignore their advice even though the CDC never called the bird flu a pandemic strain, the media did.

[Raine]

10. No...

I don't worry about it cause I'm a fatalist.

[originalpckelly]

13. There is actually hope that another pandemic of flu may be averted...

Just a few days ago, some scientists in the UK announced they were ready to try a "universal strain" vaccine against influenza.

It's a very potent vaccine, and it works on a protein which almost never changes from one flu strain to another. So instead of having to prepare a flu vaccine for each and every strain, it will be possible shortly to produce one for all strains.

Including bird flu.

Now, because of evolution, this vaccine will probably not be permanent, as there will somehow probably be an evolutionary pressure placed on the flu virus, and it will begin to mutate that protein which the vaccine works on.

So while it may work as a cure in most people who are injected with it, it will not be a complete cure forever. (As much as a vaccine is a cure, it really just helps your immune system target the virus. It's the difference between being trained to be a mechanic and having to work on a car, or completely untrained to work on a car, yet forced to work on it anyway.)

Here is the actual story:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=425227&in_page_id=1774

This vaccine is much more potent than a regular flu vaccine, and stock piling it won't be bad because it can work for regular everyday strains of influenza.

[RB TexLa]

14. No, nor the bird flu, nor the mad cow, nor the squirrel cold .... n/t

[Target_For_Exterm]

16. Oh, now, come on! Do you know how dangerous the

squirrel cold really is?!

:rofl:

[BuelahWitch]

41. But what about the Chipmunk croup?

}(

[Little Star]

15. Don't worry, read this...

The vaccine to prevent every strain of flu
by FIONA MacRAE

British scientists are on the verge of producing a revolutionary flu vaccine that works against all major types of the disease.

Described as the 'holy grail' of flu vaccines, it would protect against all strains of influenza A - the virus behind both bird flu and the nastiest outbreaks of winter flu.

Just a couple of injections could give long-lasting immunity - unlike the current vaccine which has to be given every year.

The brainchild of scientists at Cambridge biotech firm Acambis, working with Belgian researchers, the vaccine will be tested on humans for the first time in the next few months.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=425227&in_page_id=1774

[Left Is Write]

17. No, not really. I don't think about it much.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

18. Not a threat if you take precautions,

which you should do anyway, because it is likely that some form of flu will come our way. Two things to do are wash your hands with hand cleaner and the other is to sneeze into the crook of your elbow rather than your hands. If you do cleaning, disinfect doorknobs and light switches.

I take homeopathic remedies, as they keep you from getting flu and can help the downtime if you get flu.

[hedgehog]

19. I think a flu pandemic is inevitable based upon past history and an

understanding of how influenza evolves. I expect it to be aggravated by the speed of modern air transport. I sincerely doubt that most agencies responsible for public health are taking the right steps to address a pandemic. For example, one recommendation is that local hospitals and clinics stock up on such supplies as masks and gloves so they are ready to react to a fast moving epidemic. Just how are they supposed to pay for stocking up when they are already scrambling to cut costs? Again, New York State just had a commission go through and recommend the shut down of a dozen or so hospitals in order to cut costs state wide. Apparently they never heard the warning not to put all your eggs in one basket. What happens when the only remaining hospital in a region is quarantined?

[BlooInBloo]

21. No.

[GreenEyedLefty]

22. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

We're in an industrialized nation with pretty decent medical care. I think we'll come out okay should something happen. It's the third world that concerns me. Chances are, it will start there, and there it will be devastating. Not a pleasant thought, but there it is.

[newyawker99]

28. Hi GreenEyedLefty!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[area51]

25. Not exactly.

But I do think it could happen; we're probably overdue for a pandemic statistic-wise. The problem is that we reserve healthcare for the wealthy, being the only industrialized nation w/o universal healthcare, so in a pandemic, lots of poor & middle-class people getting sick will be denied medical care.

[Marr]

29. No- because worrying won't help.

I do think that the population could be devastated by disease very quickly in this day and age, but it wouldn't wipe us out. And worrying about it doesn't help in any case.

Besides- whenever someone asks me to be afraid of something, I get suspicious. If they can build a solid case with facts and figures, as with climate change, that's one thing- but these ridiculous flu scares are completely different.

[Beelzebud]

30. It's not worth it to worry about. Will an astroid wipe out Earth tomorrow?

[MorningGlow]

31. I refuse to fear a hypothetical situation

Despite all this noise about bird flu ("It's coming! No, really, it is! Be AFRAID!!!...Okay, not yet, but SOON!!!"), my 3-year-old was wrecked for a solid week with an unpublicized, nonsensationalized, well-above-garden-variety stomach virus that was truly EVIL--just when you start to feel better is the moment just before it gets massively WORSE--over and over and over, seven days' duration, no less, no matter what you do. MG Jr. vomited so much I nearly had to take him to the hospital for an IV to counteract dehydration.

The pediatrician said it's hit half the county, of course with little ones and seniors being most affected. And yet all I hear about, night and day, is this phantom bird flu. Not a hiccup about this thing that nearly sent my son to the emergency department.

So I say "feh"--I will not waste my time fearing something that may or may not happen (more likely "not")--there are enough "real-life" illnesses to contend with every day.

[MindPilot]

32. I'm much more afraid that the next time I see * on the teevee

my BP will will spike and pop an aneurysm in my head.

Car crash, house fire, falling in the shower, power tool accident, there are REAL things to be afraid of.

[sproutster]

33. God yes, in idaho 2k + geese just fell dead in one area

No other types of birds -

It can happen.

[johnaries]

34. Garlic and L-Lysine.

Garlic helps build your natural immune system.

L-Lysine is an amino acid. amino acids are the buliding blocks of proteins. If a cell's protein shell consists of large amounts of Lysine, it makes it more difficult for the virus to form a molecular bond with the protein shell and attack the cell.

L-Lysine is abundant in chicken, although it can be purchased as a supplement as well.

Therefore, the old home remedy of garlicy chicken soup actually IS very effective in fighting viruses.

[Rosemary2205]

35. The asteroid one is my favorite.

I have no worries. I already spit in death's eye once. If he comes and gets me next time round I figure I'm still one up on him. :)

[SmokingJacket]

36. It's a concern, but not a reason for panic. Because how's panic gonna help?

I have no control over whether it happens or not. I would hope the medical experts are doing what they can to come up with vaccines.

And when and if it starts to happen, I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunity to start worrying then.

Meanwhile, I'm busy worrying about all the other shit.

[qanda]

38. If it will be any worse than the flu I have right now

Then shoot me now!

[mcscajun]

40. I don't worry about it, but I do think about it.

I can't worry about things in the future that I have no control over. I can think about my own response to what might happen, though.

It's true that we have made many advances in sanitation, public awareness, and medicine since 1918. However, we also now have airline travel, mass transit, antibiotic-resistant bacteria and a huge population to contend with. I bring up antibiotic resistance because while influenza is a virus and is impervious to antibiotics, most people die not from the virus, but from secondary infections, which are treated mostly with antibiotics.

The most recent news is from Egypt, and it still only involves those who have handled diseased birds. It has still not made the leap from bird-human transmission to human-human transmission. Until it does, there is nothing to worry about, and little for individuals to do.

Our government is behind the curve on this, as they have been on so many things they do not believe in (think Global Warming/Climate Change) and they have no problem with using this as a tool; they are lying, debased characters who've taken control of our country and have their own damnable agendas rather than our welfare as their prime concern. So, they beat on the avian flu drum every so often when "terra terra terra" gets old.

Other governments are taking avian flu more seriously. Scientific organizations and journals around the world are taking it more seriously. Media abroad are taking it more seriously.

True, it has not mutated yet, and unless and until it does, no threat exists. It's the potential that is the only thing we need be concerned about, and now is the time to plan and prepare, not to panic; yet sticking our heads in the sand because BushCo occasionally ratchets up the hype does us no good, either.

I picked up this interesting item at The Guardian website in April 2006: http://www.guardian.co.uk/birdflu/story/0,,1752804,00.html

I've also posted (fairly rationally, I think) on this subject several times in the past year or so. A sampling is linked here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=1103522

Practical steps to consider; one for now, the rest for later:

Stockpile 6-8 weeks of supplies - food, water, medicine and hygiene products.

Do frequent hand washing and hand sanitizing, learn to cough into the pit of the elbow, and wipe down commonly shared phones.

If you're sick, stay home from work. You do no one, either your employer or your co-workers, any good by coming in to spread the flu.

Those last two are good preventive measures to take in a routine flu season, as well. :)