On pandemics, the WHO and Peter and the Wolf...

[nadinbrzezinski]

Well, well we have the usual... but this might be the pandemic...

And of course the who cares? They have warned us how many times of this? I mean com'on...

First some perspective... the world has had a pandemic every two generations or so... since we really started keeping tract, which actually is 1918

Why we started keeping tract you might ask? Well that one was particularly bad... the rest that have come along have killed people, reached the technical definition of pandemics and then fizzled out. Why? I dare say partly because of measures such as what Mexico City is taking right now.

In order for something like this to spread like wild fire... you need concentrations of people... now if and when they close the metro... we know it is REALLY serious. I mean that only means they are closing down the city.

Now this takes me back to Peter and the Wolf. I get it why people get a little cynical. I mean, SARS didn't quite get that bad and H5N1 hasn't really reached its full potential... and quite frankly people are tired of the breathless media screaming PANDEMIC... except that this time they're not.

Remember how that story ended? In the end Peter did face a wolf... and nobody listened

Well Peter is the World Health Organization... and quite frankly the wolf is that pandemic we are overdue for... the one that the WHO... those of us in the front lines of health care have heard the warnings enough times... have been warning about since 1996

Now I am peachy keen that the Mexican Government, unlke US Citizens on the intertubes who are making fun of it, are taking this seriously. IN fact. seriously enough to close museums, theaters, schools... and warn the population

Perhaps, due to good public health measures it will be another dud...

And if it not, I fear in the US those measures would require the national guard and public health officers like oh... 1918

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Peter and the Wolf and The Boy Who Cried Wolf are two different stories.

[SidDithers]

5. How about The Boy Who Cried Peter?...

:evilgrin:

Sid

[dbt]

7. You'd stick your dick in a blender for the attention, wouldn't you?

:rofl:

[Warpy]

2. Most of us can afford a course of antibiotics

if the flu turns into pneumonia. That's not the case for Mexicans making low wages doing their shitwork. Mexico has to take this very seriously, as do governments all over the third world, because that's where people are likely to die of something supposedly no worse than the average flu.

Here we need to encourage people who are sick to stay the hell away from their jobs. That's the way it spreads here, from stupid people who are wiling to infect everybody else just so they'll have unused sick leave to cash in later.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. IN mexico you also have to take into account the fact

that for many people, still today, you only go see a doctor if you are REALLY sick

They are not unlike Shamans

We are facing that with one of the ladies that works at home with my parents... she needs to have gall bladder removed, and has an eight month old kid

She'll get the surgery (my parents are paying for it) but my mother cannot force her to take baby to the pediatrician... never mind baby is covered under the health care plan

Trust me, I used to hit my head against the wall as a medic... and now tried to do the intervention to convince her to take baby to doctor

[Warpy]

4. Curanderas are popular here in NM, too

although people do take their kids in for their shots so they can get them into school.

The advantage is that, since they don't run to the doctor screaming for antibiotics for every earache, those kids have cast iron immune systems and aren't colonized with resistant bugs.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Yeah she has met the vaccination schedule

But barely

[havocmom]

8. Sadly, in America, not everyone HAS sick leave.

Lots of people risk jobs, definitely risk their budget, if they stay home sick a couple of days. Lots of people WITH sick leave have ridiculous rules about it to contend with. If many stay home 3 days they need a doctor's statement, only a lot of the population would have to wait weeks to get an appointment WITH a doctor to get a damned statement so they could go back to work. It means, people will go to work sick and everybody will be exposed.

I have people come in sick, or with very sick kids, because they can't stand to be home with themselves of their kids for 2 or 3 days. My hands are a shambles for all the scrubbing and wiping down furniture at work. Have to take immune-suppressing meds so I REALLY have to be careful. People hacking in my face, bringing in sneezing, puking kids because they are not willing to take care of themselves and are looking to have them entertained have made me pretty ill the past few years.

Local school punishes kids for staying home, by requiring them to take extra tests that kids who miss 2 days a semester get a pass from. So, the kids all go in sick. Teachers complain of puke fests and so much coughing they can't be heard over the din. But the school has butts in chairs and they get money for that. Oh, and no money for a school nurse.

We need sick people to stay home, but fact is, the economics of the day make sure they can't stay home until they are well.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Like I said if any Murican city had to go to this level

of public health action, we'd need the guard out

Then again, I doubt my city has a plan to deal with this.

Happy thought huh?

And trust me, Mexico City has not even gone all the way yet... if this continues to go on... they will... and it will not look pretty

(Yes I do have a clue... saw plans back in the day)