U.S. officials: Plan for bird flu (what?)

Okay, so I was just going around visiting my normal news sites when this article popped up and just completely blew my mind:

US officials: Plan for bird flu

Actually the part that really blew me away was this part:

After most natural disasters, health-care workers can come from elsewhere in the country to staff clinics in the affected zone. But a pandemic strikes everywhere, and each area needs all the resources it has. It also lasts longer -- a year to 18 months, he said.

Cities, schools and churches need to develop response plans, he said. Businesses, he said, should consider how they would keep going if a significant number of employees are out for weeks at a time.

"Any community that fails to prepare with the expectation that the federal government will, at the last moment, be able to come to the rescue will be tragically wrong," he said.

The government is stockpiling Tamiflu and other antivirals, and it is supporting the development of flu vaccines, he said. It is also gathering masks and ventilators, he said.

But "there is no way in which 5,000 different communities can be responded to simultaneously," he warned.

A "Get out of trouble free" card perhaps?

I don't know about this. I mean, the government (supposedly) is to serve and protect the People whom they derive power from, yet they are telling us to prepare? What happened to the massive orders of Tamiflu? I mean, shouldn't they be pre-positioning those? Unless Tamiflu itself is a hoax and we are all going to face the wrath of Foghorn Leghorn and Woody the Woodpecker.....

Just look at the Katrina mess. It is up to us, the public to take care of ourselves.

Do you suppose they will go around door to door and distribute the infamous Tamiflu? Nah...Go out and buy it if you dare. How else is Rumsfeld & Co. going to line their pockets?

Actually tamiflu is a joke...
it rarely works even at extreme doses (more than anyone will be allowed to have)
the one saving grace is that Rumsfeld will be making some big bucks...
5-25 million for his proud little self...
I wonder if he will kick back any of that fundage to the American people for us giving him that huge contract, OHHH thats right... it probably already went to the president...

source AHRP website: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who served as Gilead's chairman in 1997 when he joined the Bush administration, stands to gain handomely from his stock in Gilead, manufacturer of Tamiflu-- between $5 million and $25 million.

for all you needed to know regarding the joke that is the tamiflu scandal:
tamiflu will only save rumsfeld

i wonder why they are planning for it to strike this year. according to cnn tosmorning they said were looking for it. hum makes you wonder why. sounds planned to me.

Everything is suspicious. Keep your eyes on the skies for chem-trails.

It's interesting that this article sounds as though they expect H5N1 to hit the entire US population "simultaneously".

As Vis Miga points out in his/her Scary Developments post, this bird flu 'warning' and 'preparation' and 'save yourself' mentality that our governmedia is spreading, sounds much more like a cover up story to get us to prepare for something else... Perhaps something they know but cannot tell us for fear of revealing something untoward.


And yes, I agree that Tamiflu is just another income potential for Rummy.

just few facts outside the official word

The few crossover deaths that have occured, were amongst people that kept chickens as pets, or handled them daily... (even in areas already hit)

these areas are yet to be pandemic or even dangerous...

Heat will kill the virus (hen farmers are told to pile bodies in heat generating piles) so eating it probably wont hurt us...

it is all about the ability to spread it, and as long as testing is going on, it wont...

wild birds have yet to show any crossover strains...

the massive contradictory evidence from several scientific bodies tells me, that it is more concern from fears of the unknown, than from a known fear.

I can worry about lots of things that i dont know about... for this one, I will worry when it is seen here on a small scale, but not before...

BTW... some people are immune... for all we know, only certain asian groups are suceptable... (not likely, but that is the point... we dont know)

Originally posted by Shar
i wonder why they are planning for it to strike this year. according to cnn tosmorning they said were looking for it. hum makes you wonder why. sounds planned to me.

Scientists have been warning about new pandemic diseases for decades - bird flu is just one disease on the list.

In 1997 mutations took a giant leap forward when microbes hit the SOC - self-organized point of criticality. Now they're coming fast and furious.

We changed our world chemically and at the molecular level - everything is mutating and adapting. Microbes are adapting faster than complex organisms like humans and animals.

Nobody "planned" it - they just didn't do anything to stop it.


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Originally posted by LazarusTheLong
I can worry about lots of things that i dont know about... for this one, I will worry when it is seen here on a small scale, but not before...

Worry is against my belief system. I refuse to be afraid or worry about any of this. Whatever happens, I'm not going to allow it to subtract from my life NOW and I sometimes forget that not everyone has adopted a similar state of mind.

I'm not going to 'beware' or 'fear' or live in doubt or depression or anxiety. All of that does nothing for the good.

BH,
You dont know it, but you've done me a world of good today.

I wont let any of it get to me anymore. My own mother isnt picking up the phone when i call today.

A personal thank you.

Take it for what it is A Warning. Here at ATS people have been posting for nearly a year about the upcoming bird flu and at that point everyone had the tone of not us it isn't going to hit us. And here it comes and alot of people are scared. There isn't any reason to be scared just be cautious and prepared which is what most of these posts have been trying to get everyone else to do anyway.

The gov is basically telling us that they do not have control of the situation so take it as it stands. At any given time none of the countries nor the US has ever said we have enough Tamiflu, ventilators, vaccines etc...so why then the surprise that at the witching hour officials are telling people to prepare?

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic

Worry is against my belief system. I refuse to be afraid or worry about any of this.

This is exactly the rationale authorities used to block prevention strategies like environmental clean-ups and animal quarantines.

They even made up a song to push their agenda, "Don't worry, be happy."

Whatever happens, I'm not going to allow it to subtract from my life NOW and I sometimes forget that not everyone has adopted a similar state of mind.

I'm not going to 'beware' or 'fear' or live in doubt or depression or anxiety. All of that does nothing for the good.

The Western mind judges facts as "positive" or "negative." But what is, is - without value. What might be, might be - without value.

One can be aware without that awareness causing "feelings." Of course, allowing oneself to be aware without judgment and emotion is more Zen or Wicca - definitely non-Western.

...Whomever survives the coming pandemics - and bird flu is only one contender - will be those who weren't afraid to face the possibilities, and to plan. Without despair - or an overwhelming emotional need for blindness.


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Originally posted by soficrow
This is exactly the rationale authorities used to block prevention strategies like environmental clean-ups and animal quarantines.

Not exactly. What I mean is I'm not 'worried', as in standing around wringing my hands, changing my plans, consumed with thoughts of future disease and destruction. I'm totally aware and I have prepared for just about anything 'they' can throw at me. But I refuse to give in to the "BE AFRAID" mindset of bird flu, terrorism and economic collapse. I do, however, advocate the BE AWARE, be educated and be prepared mindset.

Zen
...
...Whomever survives the coming pandemics ... will be those who weren't afraid to face the possibilities, and to plan.

Yeah.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
... I refuse to give in to the "BE AFRAID" mindset of bird flu, terrorism and economic collapse. I do, however, advocate the BE AWARE, be educated and be prepared mindset.

Zen
...
...Whomever survives the coming pandemics ... will be those who weren't afraid to face the possibilities, and to plan.

Yeah.

I knew that.

...There is a big push on the "be afraid of terrorist bogeyment and economic collapse." ...It's redirection IMO - and "economic collapse" would not be such a bad thing. Then maybe we could start over and do it right. Do ya think?

Originally posted by soficrow

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
... I refuse to give in to the "BE AFRAID" mindset of bird flu, terrorism and economic collapse. I do, however, advocate the BE AWARE, be educated and be prepared mindset.

Zen
...
...Whomever survives the coming pandemics ... will be those who weren't afraid to face the possibilities, and to plan.

Yeah.

I knew that.

...There is a big push on the "be afraid of terrorist bogeyment and economic collapse." ...It's redirection IMO - and "economic collapse" would not be such a bad thing. Then maybe we could start over and do it right. Do ya think?

I don't know if mankind could ever do things "right"? It almost seems to me that withing thirty years the view of what is "right" changes. That's just my opinion. Do things better, yes. Right....I don't know

An economic collapse would pretty much set humanity back about oh, maybe 50 years before we could support ourselves as a civilization and start communication between regions.

I almost think that a collapse would be a bad thing, because then you give those who want to rule the opprotunity to get into power by manipulating the people by saying what they want to hear. Splitting up a project and designating parts to be done by people sure is easier than doing it all yourself, right? For all we know, an economic collapse could set the stage for something worse Just my opinion though.

They talk about the number of health care workers needed, but they dont seem to mention how this group of people would be the first and most greatly affected by this.

I'm a Respiratory Therapist I can assure you that health care workers are exposed to nearly everything on a daily basis. Sure you take precautions, but nothing is foolproof. This is why we are given many sick days as a benefit.

Any pandemic that would occur with a high mortality rate would quickly render the health care system severly crippled, and quite unable to deal with the number of people requiring treatment. Just from the yearly flu epedemic the mediacal center in which I work can become filled with capacity, while we are faced with working short handed.

Originally posted by amisn1957
They talk about the number of health care workers needed, but they dont seem to mention how this group of people would be the first and most greatly affected by this.

I'm a Respiratory Therapist I can assure you that health care workers are exposed to nearly everything on a daily basis. Sure you take precautions, but nothing is foolproof. This is why we are given many sick days as a benefit.

Any pandemic that would occur with a high mortality rate would quickly render the health care system severly crippled, and quite unable to deal with the number of people requiring treatment. Just from the yearly flu epedemic the mediacal center in which I work can become filled with capacity, while we are faced with working short handed.

This is very true. It happened in 1918-1919, and it will happen again. Something else that is wrong (I saw that you are from SE. Kansas amisn1957) is that there are some parts of the country with very few doctors, Kansas being not so bad, but imagine what would happen in some of the lesser populated areas of the country, they would pretty much have to fend for themselve, although since there would be few visitors, the disease may never reach them.

Something else to think about now that I remember some of my reasearch done into the Spanish Flu Pandemic: People in small towns became very isolationist. I remember a story about one town that pretty much stationed guards at the outer roads with signs that said "Turn back." Yet how did the bug get to them? The local mailman....

I don't think we will see the isolationist thoughts as bad as these, due to the co-dependence that has become a weak spot for American cities.

I remember also what a trucker friend of mine said: "If the truckers were to strike, you would see riots within hours."

Originally posted by Sir Solomon

I don't know if mankind could ever do things "right"? It almost seems to me that withing thirty years the view of what is "right" changes. That's just my opinion. Do things better, yes. Right....I don't know

Picky, picky. ...But okay, I'll go with "better."

An economic collapse would pretty much set humanity back about oh, maybe 50 years before we could support ourselves as a civilization and start communication between regions.

IMO - the big question already is, "What color would you like your dictatorship?"

I almost think that a collapse would be a bad thing, because then you give those who want to rule the opprotunity to get into power by manipulating the people by saying what they want to hear. ...For all we know, an economic collapse could set the stage for something worse.

Shades of all my favorite sci-fi.

Rife with survivalist and "Christian" cults - all violent, fortressed and ignorant.

...But who will be the new land barons, really? It's like the great-powers-that-be are orchestrating a shake-up. Back to the feudal system with land barons and sherriffs. All straight out of Animal Farm, 1984, Brave new World....

You're right though - it's the communications systems that count for civilization. Wonder how we all will stay in touch?


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Originally posted by soficrow
Shades of all my favorite sci-fi.

Rife with survivalist and "Christian" cults - all violent, fortressed and ignorant.

...But who will be the new land barons, really? It's like the great-powers-that-be are orchestrating a shake-up. Back to the feudal system with land barons and sherriffs. All straight out of Animal Farm, 1984, Brave new World....

You're right though - it's the communications systems that count for civilization. Wonder how we all will stay in touch?

Yeah, I do watch a lot of sci-fi. But even if I didn't I would probably have made the same arguments just because it's probably what would happen.

But if the carp does hit the fan and things turn for the worse, I already have my plan: rush to wherever my fiancee is and spend my remaining time on this planet with her. (okay, I know it's lovey dovey, but well, it's my perogative)

Originally posted by soficrow
You're right though - it's the communications systems that count for civilization. Wonder how we all will stay in touch?

Time to get a "Ham" radio, learn to use it and plan for how to power it in a worst case type of scenario. Hams have long been and most likely will continue to be the one reliable means of communication in the face of disasters.