WHO is considering raising their alert level to five

[nadinbrzezinski]

this indicates good human to human spread

MSNBC breaking

Oh and I am sorry if this scares a few on DU

[Ian David]

1. BBL... going out to buy duct tape and plastic tarps. n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Wash hands, far more effective

stay home if sick, far more effective,

Now if you want to keep in them in business, by all means

Be my guest

[Ian David]

26. I was kidding. n/t

[Soylent Brice]

23. i recently stocked up on pixie sticks, myself.

[wyldwolf]

2. Eminence front - It's a put on

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Nah after all the flung poo for posting news stories

It is fear, purely, the only conclusion, so I am truly sorry if NEWS is scary

[Echo In Light]

8. Seems to contradict other "news" items that downplay its significance

Odd, indeed

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. WHO its moving at its own pace

also each step releases more resources

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. You may be looking at it from an American standpoint.

WHO has to consider all those other nations which don't have our EXCELLENT medical response system.

[Coyote_Bandit]

13. Excellent?

Not if you don't have and can't get health insurance. I know a fellow in that sad state who was unable to secure health care even when he offered to prepay all the expected charges including diagnostic expenses for a medical consult. That kind of crap ought to be criminalized.

And then there are all the folks just llike me who haven't seen a doctor for any reason in well over a decade. If I get the swine flu I will not know it. So if I happen to infect you please realize it was not intentional.

Our fucking health care system is such a joke that we are almost deserving of a deadly pandemic. Maybe the prospect will wake up some of the comfortably complacent and ignorant among us.

[The Backlash Cometh]

30. I thought the obvious exaggeration would be a tip-off to the sarcasm.

I agree with your assessment.

[wyldwolf]

14. actually from a British 60s band standpoint...

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Excellent, you kid me right? We have 50 million people with no access

how do you think they will react if they get a case of the sniffles that becomes serious, as in life threatening? That is when we will see them at the local ER

Now if we saw them at the local clinic and gave them a course of tamiflu or relelnza they might not be in the ER and be that MUCH cheaper to treat.

Did I mention those in the ER will have a greater death rate than those who went to their doctor early on?

:banghead:

ANd yes anecdotally I have had people tell me right to my face, I don't have health care, so what do you want me to frackin do?

[The Backlash Cometh]

31. Yes, I kid you.

[FourScore]

5. Can someone please explain to me

WHY they have not already raised the alert to level 5? The criteria states:

"Phase 5 is characterized by human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region. While most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short."
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/phase/en/index.html

Surely, this criteria has been met.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Answer, and purely speculation

my guess why they had not raised it yet, or considered it? They were waiting for lab confirmation from NYC

[jeff30997]

6. A ain't not scared...

cause I'm prepared:




:P

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. delete

[Oregone]

12. WHO just doesn't want to talk about torture and the economy

Big smokescreen. I bet they are owned by Rupert Murdoch. Fear, fear, fear


:sarcasm:

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. So that's what they wanted to remove from the news screens

I was wondering the non-important news we had yesterday move the all important flu from the screens

:-)

So did the CIA thrown some piggies to distract?

[Occam Bandage]

15. Dick Cheney's clearly trying to distract people from Arlen Specter. nt

[rcrush]

17. Damn that Roger Daltrey!

Who gave him the right!?!

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. And now I am finally NOT missing those jokes

sadly I like the BAND

[lunatica]

19. Here in Oakland they closed down three grammar schools as a precaution

I must say, this morning I was thinking that Janet Napolitano sure isn't a 'heck of a job Brownie' and I felt really grateful for that. Imagine if Brownie were in charge right now, or Bush. Or Reagan with the way he ignored the AIDS epidemic. I'm counting our blessings.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. They would JUST NOW be acting, and probably using the Patriot Act

to round up all them ...

yep

[Hannah Bell]

22. i'm only scared of you.

[Texasgal]

24. Link?

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. From the source

In Geneva, WHO flu chief Dr. Keiji Fukuda told reporters that there was no evidence the virus was slowing down, moving the agency closer to raising its pandemic alert to phase 5, indicating widespread human-to-human transmission.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30398682/

[RufusTFirefly]

25. I give up. Who?

(Yes, I'm making light. But I still take this seriously.)

[nichomachus]

28. No, I give up is on third.

[bluedawg12]

29. There is good info. here with updates and links as they come from CDC and WHO

This link has some good general info from the last few days:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5545680&mesg_id=5545680

Trying to keep info in one place and will add this as soon as WHO posts it on the net.

Thanks nadinbrzezinski !

[bluedawg12]

32. Just as a follow up: they did raise the Alert level to Phase 5 today. n/t