NEWS: US Medical Care for H5N1 Bird Flu: Your Options

The US strategy is two-pronged. Some US hospitals now offer luxury accommodations to rival 5 star hotels, in competition with the most luxurious international medical spas. Rich folks in America can pay $200 to $250 a night more for all-new hospital extras like full suites with larger rooms, gourmet meals prepared by a personal chef, bathrooms with Jacuzzi tubs, separate showers, fax machines, Internet access and valet parking. This compares very favorably with $2,116.US per night for a single room in Germany's Brennan Medical Spa, for example. Capitalization for the new US luxury hospital suites appears to rely on the usual combination of corporate tax breaks and hidden subsidies. On the other side of the tracks, ordinary Americans will find emergency medical services in portable or "temporary" facilities built under a no-bid contract awarded to Halliburton subsidiary KBR, the company infamous for cashing in on Katrina and in Iraq.





H5N1 bird flu is spreading rapidly around the world. Over the past few months, more than 35 countries reported confirmed cases, 20 of them new on the list of affected nations. The European Union just issued safety advisories for pets. H5N1 also may be mutating more quickly, and some authorities acknowledge it is endemic in Asia, at least. No country has enough laboratories for routine molecular diagnostic testing, or the doctors and medical facilities needed to handle the expected influx of bird flu patients.





In short - we're facing one mother of a crisis. The records show that H5N1 bird flu has been in the USA -and North America- since 1981, at least. Most likely, we already are dealing with low-level outbreaks from various mutant strains. And rest assured, the truly nasty stuff is on its way.

When it gets here, rich Americans will get state-of-the-art medical care in new luxury hospital suites subsidized by your tax dollars. Ordinary Americans will get triage in temporary portable emergency care facilities built by Halliburton - and maybe a few useless shots of Tamiflu.



More Tamiflu Ordered for Federal Stockpile
Report: Tamiflu "Useless" Against H5N1 Bird Flu
The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe, but it's proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu

Feds warn of possible 6 week quarantine.
The CDC's Police State

Bird Flu Update
Bird Flu: Why Worry Now?
Mutated H5N1 Breeds More Effectively in Mammals
2004: H5N1 detected in pigs in China.


Thanks to Nakash: No Bid Halliburton contracts for....concentration camps




[edit on 6-3-2006 by soficrow]





[edit on 6-3-2006 by Thomas Crowne]

[edit on 7-3-2006 by Thomas Crowne]

Excellent post, soficrow! Way Above. Thanks for keeping us informed.



I know this is true and I won't go anywhere near the death camps called "emergency care facilities". If I get this flu, which I am doing everything I can to prevent, I will medicate myself, and I'd rather die from it in my home before I trust some government run camp with my life. It's just not going to happen.

I think it's important to be prepared for this.

Thanks BH.

"Death camps" is a good description I suspect...

I take it you won't be springing for a luxury hospital suite? Wonder how many ATSers will be turning down that exceptionally good deal...

Wow,
I have little doubt that these "emergency camps" (that we somehow need now, but did fine without for centurys) can be dual use...

Concentration camps, detention centers for immigrants, clinics for the poor, and maybe even housing for UN troops...

The bird flu is a baddy... but biologicals have their own limits... the sicker people get, the less they roam, to make others sick. It is when there are silent carriers that the true doomsday comes to pass...
The bird flu shows every possibility to hide like that...

I am personally worried... but i can tell you... this is one illness, that i doubt i will go to the hospital for, if it hits me...

OJ, the good lord, and lots of positive thinking do as well as anything against a virus...



[edit on 6-3-2006 by LazarusTheLong]

...unless, of course, we're all rounded up for quarantine in the death camps...

-Forestlady

They gotta find me first...
Also, I think the first command to go out in pandemic areas will be to "stay home" and if the populace doesn't abide by a martial law order...
then they will round us up...

which makes sense... but sucks anyway...
i really hope it doesn't hit here...
there is no "good" outlook if it does...

We are only now one step away. This is really getting scary folks..

The world is one step away from a bird flu pandemic that cannot be averted by quarantine or vaccination, a Russian expert said Tuesday.

"One amino-acid replacement in the genome remains to make the virus transferable from human to human," said Dmitry Lvov, the director of a virology research institute at the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences.

en.rian.ru...

I am still trying to find the link that stated about a month ago that we were 2 mutations away. Now we are down to one. Its' bound to find a viable host that is carrying another flu virus to swap with. Then all hell breaks loose.

It'd be no different in communistic countries; the members of the state get the best, the rest get lines.
The best way to survive the flu is to not get it. preventive maintenance is the key.

Good time to post "holistic cures"

In case you get hit, and you dont want to go wait in line with the rest of the snifflers...

Tamiflu only works in cases where you are given a 20times dose... (almost same as placebo)
the other options are not better...

My Personal tips (not a doctor, just a student of holistic and alternative treatments)
megadoses of Vitamin C seem to build up the parts of the body that get hit the most...
I have also heard that other countries are saying that SauerKraut seems to help... (dont know, but hey, get some hotdogs just in case)

I am looking into the various home remedies of the Spanish flu outbreak years, and some ancient Chinese possibilities... will post those if I find anything...

There is a lot of excellent information on various cures and prevention already in the H5N1 Forum here on ATS. It would be great if there was a centralized area for just those links. Here are some:

Lobelia
Masks
Shopping and Countermeasures
Home Air Filters
Plans

And, of course...

Sauerkraut

Also, Tamiflu needs to be given within 6 hours of symptoms appearing.

Will check my files for natural/holistic treatments too.

...The key is to minimize exposure - a small exposure seems to allow the body to adapt, but a large exposure overwhelms the body's systems.

.

Isn't 1.3 billions - 25 millions = 1.275 billions?

Nice post.

As Vitchilo points out the calculation points to a pittance going towards the intended purpose.

I'm also not surprised about the luxury hospital suites. As TC pointed out, it doesn't really matter what kind of government system you have the rich always get a better deal. Especially in a country where being rich means you're better than everyone else, where money is worshiped and the gap between the classes is growing with no end in sight. But some people will still argue that there is no class division in the US .
.

As always Soficrow you do excellent research before posting an article; however, I'm at a loss to see the connection between the spreading availability of luxury hospital suites and the rest of the article. The only purpose I can see for including the luxury suites information is to piss people off because they can't afford them.

As for the bird flu, as many have already pointed out, the best defense is prevention. Besides scrupulous cleanliness in your own home and of yourself, simple air filtration masks and ultra-violet lights would seem to be prudent safeguards to take. Strong ultra-violet light will kill viruses and bacteria and you (if you don't use common sense in using it). If you can incorporate an ultra-violet source within the air stream of your HVAC system it could offer substantial protection against viruses. Secondary air filtration systems with ultra-violet light sources are also good (but not as good).

Yeah Im failing to see the connection to the luxury box appraoch to health care myself. Its always been there mind you especially to the wealthy who can basically move the hospital to thier estate.

250 per night may be more affordable to many but the reality is that these rooms are much fewer than the demand would be in an all out epidemic. In addition, the basic assumption is that the Doctors and nurses will all be at work. Its a full blown outbreak. Most of us will be hunkered down with our families, isolating ourselves as best we can rather that put ourselves and them at risk.

This goes to another point. Alot of these suites are in private, for profit hospitals. I simply refuse to get my healthcare in one of these facilites. You are far far better off in a university based medical center / teaching hospital. The practice tends to be more current and MD coverage is greater.

Astronomer is dead on with the prevention mantra: Handwashing Handwashing Handwashing is the first line of defence.

My concern about the luxury hospital suites has to do with federal budget priorities. ...Capitalization for the new US luxury hospital suites appears to rely on the usual combination of corporate tax breaks and hidden subsidies.

That would be our tax dollars getting siphoned off to help out the needy rich.

So the budget cuts medical/social supports and programs for needy Americans right to ribbons - and redirects the funds to support the wealthy instead?

Did I bring it up just to get people mad? No. I brought it up because it made me absolutely furious.

Think about it. Veterans benefits are cut, school programs, the works - the big plan for bird flu is portable emergency wagons, quarantine and temporary detainment camps - for ordinary Americans. While the federal budget funnels our hard-earned tax dollars into subsidies for luxury hospital suites so wealthy Americans have another option when the poop hits the fan?


.

[edit on 7-3-2006 by soficrow]

Developed in Japan, a new bird flu test identifies H5N1 genetically - in 15 minutes. Current tests take 6 hours in a lab.

Patients must get Tamiflu within 6 hours after symptoms start for the treatment to be effective.

Early indication to detect bird flu possible

Recent reports say bird flu will hit North America within a few months to a year. Found a good overview of bird flu in the Toronto Star.

Bird flu targeting the young

Great links you've been providing Sofi. Any sites showing or projecting the expected migration in North America once it hits?

On reflection, the question asked by the Toronto Star (above) is misleading. H5N1 - not just N1 - has been around for 50 years, at least. So of course older people probably have been exposed, and likely have some immunity.

H5N1 bird flu was first identified in Scotland in 1959 and has been used in experiments since then - first at the Addlestone laboratory. The 1959 H5N1 strain from Scotland is called "chicken/Scotland/1959." We do not know who Addlestone shared the samples with or sold them to, although the CDC and US military do jump to mind. We have no guarantee that genetic materials from these experiments did not escape into the environment - or that "modified" versions of the virus were not used in secret "clinical trials," perhaps in Africa, or maybe given to unsuspecting soldiers in "vaccines" or used in military "wind dispersal" experiments.





Like other type A influenzas, H5N1's claim to fame is that it jumps species without requiring species-specific genetic material. H5N1 bird flu infects birds, people, whales, seals, cats, horses, dogs, ferrets - almost any animal. Sometimes it's deadly; sometimes it's not. If it's not fatal, the infected victim might become a carrier. Current bird flu information campaigns focus on the lethal forms. But what about the non-lethal so-called "harmless" strains?





Both birds and whales migrate - so obviously, H5N1 has been spreading around the world and mutating in the natural environment for almost 50 years. No country can say it has no H5N1 bird flu - that's why information campaigns focus on "strains" and insist that the H5N1 reported in certain countries are "harmless."

The problem is, any strain anywhere can mutate into a virulent fatal form - or else, into a strain that circulates freely to cause low level infection and chronic disease.

Right now, one of the biggest problems is widespread H5N1 contamination of the environment - and the fact that the virus spreads through soil and water.






Relentless - most scientists do not consider migrating birds to be the key vector, although that is the media focus. Again, H5N1 has been around for a long, long time and it's probably endemic everywhere. Each locale will likely develop specific strains, and the important thing is that all microbes have entered a "phase" of rapid mutation.

As far as "spread" - H5N1 sheds through bodily fluids - so soil and then runoff and ground water take the germs to waterways. Birds defacate and urinate over oceans. ...And the virus lives for several days.

Some scientists think fish are the most important route of transmission - others say humans are, because we can carry it -on our clothing, if not inside our bodies- while travelling.

Either way, migrating birds are just one more factor - and probably not the most critical one.


Will check my files and see what I can pull up for you. I do have a quote from one well-known German scientist saying that we've probably been living with H5N1 for a very long time and just didn't know because we never tested for it.

...Later.


ed to add:





[edit on 11-3-2006 by soficrow]