H5N1
Do we all know those letters and numbers? Are any of us scared? No? Were you scared about the prospect of global chaos at the millenium?
Well let me tell you this, I will buy Tamiflu over the internet and stash it in a very safe place. Why? Am I "Chicken Little?" Chicken Little is a bird and will croak if infected. So will you. Unless something is done to mitigate symptoms. Enter Tamiflu. I will stockpile enough for each member of my family for a certain hit. Get the new flu shots, but if H5N1 is present in the community and a virus hits any member of my family, then Tamiflu it will be for them.
The Discovery Channel did a neat little piece about it which they repeated tonight. That is enough. It was not a scare session, but a reasoned analysis of the threat. So what if it costs me $1000 to secure a source? Mercifully I can afford it (or would sell a car to be able to). If this baby goes global -- and it is really only a matter of time before one of them does -- then you are at the mercy of your government for treatment. And I, for one, do not like that prospect. And I am also about to run out and secure a good source of masks -- just enough so that I can transact what I need to in the event of the virus hitting these shores.
What transactions? Food. Enough for a month. School? Are you kidding me? Perhaps I can get the teacher (if still alive, in the worst case) to send the information by internet and the kids can return work product accordingly. If a highly virulent and morbid strain comes to Boston, I figure that in about a month, the worst will be over and we can at least poke our heads out and deal with what is left.
Of course, if nothing happens, I have a rotating food supply to manage and drugs to keep in good condition. If all hell breaks loose, I am headed north to ski country and keep the heck away from my door in that case.
The risk here is actually far larger (as posted before): who in the world will venture out to malls and work (let alone school) if it hits? We are talking a trigger of vast proportions to global economic ruin. Let's fund what we can to keep the lid on this beast at its point of origin: currently south-east Asia.
By the way the 1918 pandemic was direct bird to human, without the mixing of human genetic code that is the norm with virtually all flus since. H5N1 is a direct vector, just like 1918. Enjoy your cornflakes tomorrow morning.
Well let me tell you this, I will buy Tamiflu over the internet and stash it in a very safe place. Why? Am I "Chicken Little?" Chicken Little is a bird and will croak if infected. So will you. Unless something is done to mitigate symptoms. Enter Tamiflu. I will stockpile enough for each member of my family for a certain hit. Get the new flu shots, but if H5N1 is present in the community and a virus hits any member of my family, then Tamiflu it will be for them.
The Discovery Channel did a neat little piece about it which they repeated tonight. That is enough. It was not a scare session, but a reasoned analysis of the threat. So what if it costs me $1000 to secure a source? Mercifully I can afford it (or would sell a car to be able to). If this baby goes global -- and it is really only a matter of time before one of them does -- then you are at the mercy of your government for treatment. And I, for one, do not like that prospect. And I am also about to run out and secure a good source of masks -- just enough so that I can transact what I need to in the event of the virus hitting these shores.
What transactions? Food. Enough for a month. School? Are you kidding me? Perhaps I can get the teacher (if still alive, in the worst case) to send the information by internet and the kids can return work product accordingly. If a highly virulent and morbid strain comes to Boston, I figure that in about a month, the worst will be over and we can at least poke our heads out and deal with what is left.
Of course, if nothing happens, I have a rotating food supply to manage and drugs to keep in good condition. If all hell breaks loose, I am headed north to ski country and keep the heck away from my door in that case.
The risk here is actually far larger (as posted before): who in the world will venture out to malls and work (let alone school) if it hits? We are talking a trigger of vast proportions to global economic ruin. Let's fund what we can to keep the lid on this beast at its point of origin: currently south-east Asia.
By the way the 1918 pandemic was direct bird to human, without the mixing of human genetic code that is the norm with virtually all flus since. H5N1 is a direct vector, just like 1918. Enjoy your cornflakes tomorrow morning.
posted by Zaphod at Monday, November 14, 2005
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