Preparing for a flu pandemic

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2009/04/24/preparing-for-a-flu-pandemic-91466-23462986/

Preparing for a flu pandemic
Apr 24 2009 by Andrew Pugh, South Wales Echo

SOUTH Wales is prepared to handle the potentially catastrophic impact of a flu pandemic, according to a top police chief.

At police headquarters in Bridgend yesterday, representatives from the emergency services met with members of the military, NHS, Assembly and local government as part of Exercise Taliesin, to work out how they would respond to a deadly strain of flu striking South Wales.

As well as pushing the NHS to breaking point, the emergence of a new flu virus could cripple the economy and communications and transport infrastructure.

There would also be widespread shortages of gas, oil, electricity, food and water – and the risk of widespread civil unrest.

Of the major threats facing the country, including flooding and other natural disasters, a flu pandemic is seen as one of the biggest.

In the event of an outbreak, South Wales Police would oversee the response to the crisis.

Chief Superintendent Cliff Filer said: “A flu pandemic is a world threat and we have to put plans in place. Exercise Taliesin is not just about testing our plan but refining it too.

“Many other countries are visiting us to see how it’s done.”

He added: “We don’t want people to be worried by this exercise – they should be reassured.”

Pandemic flu occurs when a new and highly infectious strain of the influenza virus appears.

[NickB79]

1. Considering there is an outbreak of swine flu on the US-Mexico border right now

That doesn't seem like a bad idea at all.

[MorningGlow]

2. Aw geez not this shit again

I thought we were done with all these attempts to incite fear and panic in the masses.

[get the red out]

4. No bird flu was for REAL!

I read somewhere that feathers WERE ruffled. Some birds did die, and a handful of chicken farmers. :sarcasm:

Bird flu was a personal pet peeve of mine after my sister bombarded me with emails about how we were all going to die from it any day during the heyday of the hysteria. I told her it was BS and that just about made her mad enough to kill me before bird flu even had it's chance.

[NNN0LHI]

5. Let me guess. Your sister is a big fan of Lou Dobbs?

He went completely ape shit over this BS.

Don

[get the red out]

9. No, she's a complete liberal

She would be green party if it would do any good here in Kentucky.

[DearAbby]

11. Yeah, one more thing

to illicit hate towards "those nasty brown people" coming over the border to snot and sneeze on you!!! Clogging up our hospitals for free healthcare.

:sarcasm:

Don't they ever get tired of their hatemongering shit?

[MorningGlow]

7. Gaah! Run around in circles waving your hands in the air!

:rofl:

I worked in TV news at the height of the insanity; I did get sick--sick of having to treat the latest bird flu-hysteria story like it was real news.

[Echo In Light]

15. It's come around so many times it's easy to blow it off...but isn't that when ya get clobbered? lol

Sort of in keeping w/the Pride Goeth Before The Fall proverb

[MorningGlow]

17. Nah, see my post downthread

If there's a legitimate threat, then preparedness and alerting the populace is essential. It's these hypothetical apocalypses that get my dander up.

[Echo In Light]

19. Personally I'm convinced it'll eventually be the nukes that wipe us out

One can frame that religiously, metaphysically, or just chalk it up to human futility.

[MorningGlow]

21. I grew up during the '70s and '80s

so nuke fear was in my blood. Personally I think we've turned a corner, and it's no longer an issue. I DO hope I'm right!

[Echo In Light]

25. I was born late 60s, so the same for me. We were shown The Day After in school

There's a very stark, informative doc that came out recently titled Original Child Bomb, http://www.originalchildbomb.com/ which examines the use of nukes against the civilian populations of Hiroshima/Nagasaki, and explores these weapons and how there are still THOUSANDS of them on moment's notice delivery systems. As the world becomes less stable, for a host of reasons besides our own govt's foreign policies, the likelihood of their use, or even an 'accident' - which has happened before - increases, and once the Pandora's Box is opened will likely not be closed again. Keep in mind the PNACers WANTED to move nukes up to the level of common weaponry being used/threatened. Fucking insane.

And you've brought up a crucial point, too...people do have this out-of-sight/out-of-mind attitude about it since the threat isn't part of the national discourse/foreign policy PR, so people forget that those most lethal monsters still lurk in their caves, on land or sea, awaiting their fateful launch codes. Or, someone's fuck up.

[NickB79]

6. Well, 60 people have already died in Mexico so far from swine flu

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30386163/

[MorningGlow]

8. I don't doubt there are pandemics

I don't question that. What I have issues with is the repeated "preparedness" stories that inundate the media to get people in a panic about something that hasn't happened yet. If there's a strong potential for an outbreak of any kind of disease, then I say go for it. But all this "we're preparing for an apocalypse that could happen ANY MOMENT...or not..." is the cheapest kind of "news".

[get the red out]

10. People die of flu every year

It is a very sad thing, but there are a lot more people that die of flu every winter than we usually think here in the US. I forgot the statistics, but I was surprised. But it is a regular occurrence so it isn't covered as if the sky is falling. They just remind people that the should get vaccinated.

That being said, I hope they stop the outbreak in Mexico. I don't want to minimize loss of life. But we have been members of the "world ending event of the month club" for a number of years now and it makes it hard for me to look at things that way.

[DearAbby]

12. I remember back in the 1970s

having an inoculation against swine flu, anyone else remember that?

[NeedleCast]

18. No, the article says "as many as 61"

It doesn't say 61 people died of swine flu, it essentially says 61 people MIGHT have died from swine fle.

[lunatica]

3. I think that's just a cover story

They're expecting widespread civil unrest over the confluence of climate change, job losses and economic collapse.

[Echo In Light]

13. Could be. Sometimes I think those among the 'shadow govt' aren't THAT recklessly evil as to....

...unleash all out plague upon the land as a means of control during a major global shift ...but then I remember that these are some of the same people/types of people who thought extinction-ensuring weaponry set to mass, instantaneous delivery systems was a dandy idea for maintaining "peace." And that's not even including the chemical and germ weapons. Shit...

[MorningGlow]

16. A primary goal of PNAC:

Population reduction.

I'm just sayin'.

[Echo In Light]

20. I know. There's other charming folks out & away from that clan that want that also

"Necessary for the survival of the species/planet, etc"

Good grief

[MorningGlow]

22. What I never understood

was how they expect to control and stop it. Haven't they ever seen The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Of course, there are those vaccinations for the special people. Because "some are more equal than others".

[lunatica]

24. They say they're preparing for a flu pandemic but it could be that

they're practicing population control and they don't want us to know why. It's not about them unleashing the pandemic as much as them saying that so all the heavy duty military style exercises won't alarm us.

[Echo In Light]

26. That's what I was getting at in my post #13 - it's too uncontrollable

But that it could possibly be used as a cover of sorts for something else...again, dark speculation.

[NeedleCast]

14. Flu Scare Version 4.0?

Sorry, I might be confused on which version this is. So much data has been lost during the SARS, West Nile Virus and Bird Flu pandemics that nearly wiped out the population of several countries that it's hard to keep track of history these day, from my shelter far underground, where the earth is still warm.

[SPedigrees]

23. Real threat or not, I've got my tamiflu and amantadine. nt