Tracking the next pandemic: Avian Flu Talk |
“Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America |
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Posted: May 07 2006 at 1:27am |
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WASHINGTON – Bodies piling up so quickly it takes dump trucks to haul them away. Barbed wire to keep whole neighborhoods quarantined. It’s Hollywood’s version of bird flu, a blur of fact and fiction that some scientists say could confuse the public.
“Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America,” an ABC made-for-television movie, airs Tuesday just as scientists are to begin testing of wild birds in Alaska that could herald the arrival of bird flu in North America. Scientists fear the bird flu virus could evolve so it could be passed from human to human, sparking a global pandemic. The two-hour movie plays up that notion to the fullest, with a running ticker that tallies tens of millions of victims worldwide. In one scene, the bodies are thrown on a pyre, like the carcasses of cows torched in the 2001 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Great Britain. The producers of the movie, from the writer of 2002’s “Atomic Twister,” bill their work as a “thinking man’s disaster film.” “We call this a plausible worst-case scenario. This could actually happen. It may not be this bad but it could be this bad. The reason to portray it this way is to kind of give a wake-up call to everyone and this is something we shouldn’t ignore and we should be as prepared as we should be,” said Diana Kerew, one of the movie’s executive producers. Bird flu expert Michael Osterholm said the movie realistically portrays the shortages of goods and services, and some of the ensuing panic, that could occur in a pandemic. But Osterholm frets the blurring of information and entertainment could do the public a disservice and hopes to arrange a conference call with television critics before the movie airs to set the record straight. He singled out for criticism how the movie shows Virginia officials using barbed wire to fence off and quarantine entire neighborhoods. “This is too far important an issue to create further confusion in the public’s mind,” said Osterholm, who directs the Center for Infectious Disease Research at the University of Minnesota. For the record, a spokesman for Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said the commonwealth has no plans to roll out cyclone fences and barbed wire. “We haven’t done that since, oh, the ’50s,” joked Kevin Hall. “Fatal Contact” begins in China, where – in the movie – the bird flu virus has mutated to the point where it’s being passed human to human. It’s only when an American businessman – “patient zero” – prepares to catch a flight out of Hong Kong, after crossing paths with an infected factory worker, that the global pandemic really gets started. Playing supporting roles are a wadded-up cocktail napkin, stuffed olive and an apparently less-than-sterile martini. The movie suggests the Richmond, Va., businessman infects several dozen airline passengers, who scatter around the globe. Viewers may never accept a hot towel from a flight attendant again. Health officials catch on quickly, but apparently are slow to tell the rest of us. At least two weeks pass before the president bothers to let on that it’s the 1918 flu pandemic all over again. That apparently didn’t faze the dozen or so Department of Health and Human Services officials who screened the film at the request of The Associated Press. Dr. Bruce Gellin, director of the National Vaccine Program office, praised the movie’s timeliness in raising public awareness of bird flu, as well as its portrayal of “a number of potentially realistic scenarios.” Those include the limited availability of antiviral medicines in a pandemic, the months it could take to develop an effective vaccine and in turn how the United States could be dependent on other countries – yes, that means France – to provide vaccine. The movie’s stressing of the importance of planning also won kudos from the department. ABC will broadcast the movie during sweeps, when networks often trot out scare fare to boost the ratings that help determine local advertising rates. The network isn’t pushing “Fatal Contact” hard but has played up the bona fides of the movie, which it claims was “meticulously researched.” “There’s a lot of science in the movie about why this would be scary if this were to arrive,” said Judith Verno, who co-produced the movie with Kerew for Sony Pictures Television. The filmmakers even brought in historian John Barry, author of the best-selling book “The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History,” to review the script and make suggestions. Barry, in a telephone interview, said his involvement was much more limited than ABC has suggested. He did, however, dissuade them from showing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as having its own fleet of jets. “I have some problems with it,” Barry said. “It’s certainly not a documentary.” He did, however, dissuade them from showing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as having its own fleet of jets. HERE |
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It's being played down, but who thinks it really could get like this?
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Foxglove
Valued Member Joined: April 15 2006 Status: Offline Points: 4 |
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I take it we in the UK can not see this. Is it only being aired in the US?
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The best things in life aren’t things.
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KOMET163
Admin Group Joined: January 15 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 278 |
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I suppose some smart alec will rip it apart and say that nothing like that would happen. But, as long as it scares the crap out of the soccer moms, that is what make me wonder.....
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Oke ... easy now ... 'soccer mom' prepping here!!!
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To tell the truth, I wonder if people will take it seriously or write it off as just being a movie. Will it make our job of educating and informing harder?? I sure hope not, but it worries me. How about some monitoring of all the doubting thomases afterwards to see if there is any change??
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They will tear it apart, but some will take it to heart.. Some may even panic..no way of knowing, for sure, until it airs. I cannot wait to watch it. Peace.
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Tulip
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Thanks ReadyMom.
Another 'soccer mom' preppin' here, also!
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Penham
Chief Moderator Moderator Joined: February 09 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 14913 |
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I am really anxious to see this movie on Tuesday. I really do hope it gets people to prep! Not a "soccer mom" but I am a "softball mom" LOL.
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Viceroy
advanced Member Joined: March 16 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 28 |
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This is how it will go down in a wost-case scenario... there's nothing hollywood about it. The government is just ***sed because it will be a real wake-up call to the american public about the situation.
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Viceroy
advanced Member Joined: March 16 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 28 |
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this is the internet, it will be somewhere for you mates to see... |
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janetn
V.I.P. Member Joined: February 04 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 333 |
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I dont see John Q public going out after this movie and buying as much as a can of soup. I hope Im wrong. Ive seen to much simply dumb behavior on the part of the general public. Anyone remember after Katrina another hurricane that hovered out in the ocean for days. Well what did we see after that hurricane and plenty of warning? People lined up for miles to get ice and bottles of water. Reporters sticking mikes in their faces so that they could complain about how long they had to stand in line.
No theres not going to be a mad rush to get supplies untill bodies are piling up Im afraid
Id be so pleased if Im wrong
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JaxMax
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I see the impact of the movie not in the plot line, but simply by the fact that it will apparently portray VISUALLY some of the potential scenarios IN AMERICA. In TV land, bird flu has been a problem in the lesser countries, far, far away.
If the producers really want to send a message, they could show attractive Soccer Mom, 2 young pre-teens in the SUV, Business Exec Dad, Dog and Cat before the epidemic in their typical life. The pandemic comes, Dad calls home tearfully that he is stuck while on a business trip in one of the midwest square states (show mass casualties), Soccer Mom gets sick and dies at home, choking in her own blood. Blue eyed blond haired young kids wonder around thier middle class neighborhood looking for help, and neighbors turn them away. The kids cry as doors slam...
Many Americans now have difficulty imagining anything without pictures.
The pictures do not have to be true, fiction will suffice, they just must be visually stimulating.
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He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.Proverbs 13:20, The Bible
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AVanarts
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[quote]'.... If the producers really want to send a message, they could show attractive Soccer Mom, 2 young pre-teens in the SUV, Business Exec Dad, Dog and Cat before the epidemic in their typical life. The pandemic comes, Dad calls home tearfully that he is stuck while on a business trip in one of the midwest square states (show mass casualties), Soccer Mom gets sick and dies at home, choking in her own blood. Blue eyed blond haired young kids wonder around thier middle class neighborhood looking for help, and neighbors turn them away. The kids cry as doors slam...'[quote]
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I, too, am a soccer mom. Hear me ROAR...Nothing, and I mean Nothing messes with my kids. My friends don't call me mother hen and my kids don't call me safety patrol for nothing.
Have to say it again, I am so Grateful to have found this website and all you wonderful people :)
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MAJDAD
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Ready Mom: The reason that everyone rips on the "Soccer Mom" is because, in most cases, is smart, is able to "guide" her husband to do what she wants and VOTES. When all of the Soccer Mom's stand up together they get the ATTENTION of the politicians, and news agencies. |
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Major Dad hopes you are all alive and well and looking out for each other
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You handled that very well, Majdad! No wonder you'll be celebrating #26! -k
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What exactly is a 'soccer mum' referring to?
Is it like our Chav? |
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What is a chav?
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MAJDAD
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Don't know what a Chav is however A soccer Mom is a lady, middle to upper middle class, with 1 -3 kids between the ages of 7-13 whose children play an organized sport. Average age is late 20's to early 40's and who care very much about their children. You do not want to threat a soccer mom's kids, that is a real no-no.
Ready Mom the reason I have made #26 is that I am the boss because my wife tells me that I am, right after she tells me what pants I am wearing that day.
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Major Dad hopes you are all alive and well and looking out for each other
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Samoa
Valued Member Joined: March 30 2006 Status: Offline Points: 507 |
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"Soccer Mom" (or Mum for our members in the UK and Canada) was a
stereotype voting-age woman that was targeted by Al Gore during his
unsuccessful Presidential campaign in 2000. They are seen
as either stay home or working Homemakers. Americans are rather
fond of categorizing voters.
BTW, Gore actually received MORE votes than did Bush. That's why you will sometimes see Bush referred to as "President-Select". You do realize, of course, that the US is run by the Freemasons. Getting back to the Movie-of-the-Week, I'm afraid that this type of exposure will trivialize the pandemic threat. Every spring you'll see a different form of devastation on the tube, anything from a Meteor strike to an Alien invasion. |
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JaxMax
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For the record, I am happily married to a "Soccer Mom" (actually football, basketball etc.) I only used the term in the demographic sense, in no means derogatory.
Soccer Moms would be devastated by a movie showing a realistic portrayal of kids like theirs becoming orphans.
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He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.Proverbs 13:20, The Bible
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Non taken!!!! It's all in good humor!!!
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Valgard
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Well it certainly could be a different world next week for some,
perhaps a few more folks will wake up when they see the
pictures... I would be pleased if they did...I'm going to tape it
and make sure my adult children see it, perhaps, just perhaps, they'll
divert some of their money from frivilous pursuits and look at
survival...
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Do Right and Fear Not
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Penham
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I am happy because my two adult DD's are going to watch this movie on Tuesday. One kind of listens and did watch the Newt special the first time it came out, but her busband and his friend were teasing her so bad that she couldn't watch it. The other DD has not shown any interest in much of anything anything. Now all of a sudden since the President released the flu pandemic plan last week they both made trips to the grocery store last week to stock up on stuff and both are going to watch the movie, both have briefly visited this site but have not registered as of yet (still working on that). I am hoping that since one just graduated from college this weekend and the other is almost through with her semester in another couple of weeks, they will both have some free time to do a little research on their own. At least they have a few preps, the one that lives here near me (with 2 kids) I can help out if the need is there, but the other one I am more worried about since she is in living in CA.
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What is the date of the movie time and channel
Thank You |
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outsidethecamp
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Okay...here's my slant on this...
I used to be a "soccer mom" but found that there is something far better... When my two "very athletically proned" daughters turned 14 & 10, DH & I decided to pull them from everything they had ever known & expose them to "the real world". I quit my job as a special ed. teacher in the Jr. High School where I worked & decided to homeschool my two daughters. We purchased a 6 bdrm., 1911 farmhse. in need of various repairs, & decided to expose our girls to the "REAL WORLD". In order to make the repairs that our old farmhse. needed, we started up our own "cleaning business" (which, I might add, paid far better than any teaching job I ever did). That was 7 years ago...since then...our eldest daughter owns & operates her own web page development business which she operates from her home. She has a precious 13 mo. old son who "helps her" with her business on a regular basis. She & her husband are very happily married & plan to homeschool their own children based on their experiences. As for our second daughter, She has excelled beyond our wildest dreams... To date, she is 19 years old, owns & operates her own photography gallery & studio & is in the process of writing a novel about her experiences of going from a "soccer kid" to a "homeschool kid". I don't doubt that either girl will succeed beyond that of most "soccer kids". What does being a soccer kid teach our kids, afterall? I leave that up to all of you to reply. I've been there, and I've done that... By the grace of God, I found something better...& it's really working! I only ask all of you to think of all that I have said. I'm 43 years old & have tried every route in search of the best interests of our children. This way works...I challenge all of you to try it. God help us all... Peggy S |
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Jefiner
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:::looking for the illuminati:::
Nothing to see here, move along, move along
/descended from six generations of freemasons
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Jefiner
Either you had no purpose Or the purpose is beyond the end you figured And is altered in fulfilment. T. S. Eliot |
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all you need to know here. They, although ridiculed, are taking over the UK. They are like some sort of disease and they are growing and they are a HUGE problem in UK towns and cities check the link below and when at site the main menu column will let you know all you need to CHAV . |
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Samoa
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To whom are you referring to Kev, the Freemasons? Or Chavs?
What IS a Chav? When I lived in London (Stoke Newington) the
first wave of Asians had just started . They seemed to be
everywhere. Is that the "Chav" that you are talking about?
Go, Tottenham, up the 'Spurs!! |
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sounds like a good show - hope they show it in aust
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Legacy
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DANG, otc...that IS cool! I can't wait to read your daughter's novel when it comes out. In my opinion, kids are CRIMINALLY overscheduled with sports and extra-curric as it is. It makes my head hurt just to hear about their schedules. Good for you, Girl! Leslie
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I do everything my Rice Crispies tell me to....
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Evergreen
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You know, I was getting a lot of good stuff from the thread until you inserted that innane comment. It felt a little like someone had just thrown cold water in my face. Totally Not appropriate for here, take it to the "members only" section. I am reading this discussion because its about "Fatal Contact". I am NOT here to read unrelated and totally frivolous comments designed to quite possibly derail this whole thread. |
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235365 - Energy follows thought. As you think, so you are.
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Samoa
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Evergreen:
You wanna survive ANYTHING you need a sense of humor. Take a chill pill, it was a joke. joke: A humorous fictitious anecdote |
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Evergreen
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So let's keep to the subject and I'll laugh with ya. |
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235365 - Energy follows thought. As you think, so you are.
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outsidethecamp
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LEGACY...
YOU'VE HEARD WHAT I'VE HAD TO SAY & IT'S THE TRUTH! I WOULD LOVE TO TALK TO Y0U FURTHER ON THIS MATTER. I'M NOT A RELIGOUS FANATIC, IN FACT, I'M NOT EVEN "RELIGIOUS" AS THE WORLD SEES IT, AT ALL. I SIMPLY LOVE MY LORD & SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST!!! I'M SIMPLY A SINNER SAVED BY GRACE THAT IS LIVING THE TRUTH THAT I'VE BEEN GIVEN. MY DH & I ARE NOT INVOLVED IN ANY ORGANIZED RELIGOUS ORGANIZATION. WE JUST FOLLOW THE SCRIPTURES. ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. MAY GOD HELP US ALL...YOUR KIDS & MINE... PEGGY |
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fiddlerdave2
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"Worst case scenario" ???
Sorry, if the descriptions of this movie are accurate, this is by no means the worse case scenario. Even if the disease is not as deadly as shown (but likely it will be more deadly than that in reality), never understimate the power of human beings to make a bad situation worse. Certainly, it doesn't cover the (to me) great likelyhood of wars being initiated to take advantage of weakened state of countries, by countries that may be too weakened to follow through. Certainly is time to make use of whatever low-manpower-requirement nukes a country may have lying around if it thought it would gain an advantage or feared an attack by others. Generally old and recent history shows us when death is all around you, life doesn't get more precious, in general, it gets cheaper.
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Dave
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Samoa
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fiddler-
I've not seen the movie, but I would imagine that the writers had most likely toned it down somewhat to stay within the bounds of "believe-ability". If they were to air something that completely offends the senses, you'd have viewers switching over to M-TV or whatever. I'm afraid that if it does go pandemic, the ensuing panic could cause the collapse of Civilization as we, in the latter half of the 20th Century, have come to know it. Who wants to watch that on a Sunday evening at home? |
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Thanks for the thread KevO. Nice to see you back. And you're doing a good job educating our American friends about that key element of British culture, the Chav. Beth
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2ifbyC
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[swerving back on topic]
This is what bothers me:
"And television programmers know fear is a great motivator to spike ratings during a sweeps month."
" ...this is a smart sweeps stunt"
Let's just hope that viewers don't read the press reviews!
.
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Survival does have an 'I'!
Dodging 'canes on Florida's central Gulf Coast |
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There have been other significant disaster type films. One might note what happened shortly after China Syndrome which was much played down in reference to the real life disaster at Three-Mile Island. Another serious one was Day After - which was a fairly reasonable assessment of a post-nuclear war scenario. Of course, it won 2 Emmy's and brought the Joint Chief's of Staff of the U.S. to stone silence. They did not chuckle or pick it apart.
So with the upcoming "Bird Movie" which I will view tonight, it is likely to face a major wave of criticism and nitpicking. Notice, that very few films since Day After would touch a realistic format of this while there was almost a wasteland of commercials run in Day After. None were run after the bombs dropped. Fact is, the current Avian outbreak, is probably like to come from China or Southeast Asia, if not already started. An interesting comment made concerning a several hundred page report on what to do it Avian went pandemic as effectively "we're screwed" is probably not unrealistic. We of the health profession do not have the resources or support to handle a large magnitude pandemic. Since the current strains are mutating and can now infect the gastrointestinal system (rectal swab confirmation), live in the blood stream (which was considered impossible), make it past the stomach (family infected by eating Duck's blood soup), and a continual denial of person to person transmission, when there are cases where there seems to be no evidence of bird involvement, especially in once case where it was passed from patient to medical staff. I was told by one person that only 6% of the population really are seriously concerned about an Avian pandemic and the average family has less than a 2 week food and water supply. Recently an Oregon post clarified a rather obvious point, that despite inferences of some type of cooperation, a massive widespred pandemic would leave each town, area, and state, and even country with their own problems and viral supply. A focus on a flu criteria disease, which may have become systemic with some cases not even exhibiting any lung involvement, and the last of effectiveness of aersol treatment when IV infused vaccine is needed makes the scenario all too possible. I don't think the accuracy of the film is a key issue. I think the attacks at the accuracy are about as motivated as the official appointed by the organization who sells poultry in the U.S. to discredit any possibility or credibilty to the idea we have a real threat here. Why scare the children. I don't tell my immediate family and relatives much of what I have learned concerning the real threat. One can only wonder, in the midst of such a plague, no matter how great the loss, will the media coverage ever stop. Probably not. |
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Evergreen
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Your post was very thorough and to the point. Especially your analysis of how the virus has progressed in how it infects. I didn't know it had gone "gastro". I am puzzled by this last paragraph. Are you suggesting we should not alert others? Are you also censoring the media for doing so? Thoughts? |
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235365 - Energy follows thought. As you think, so you are.
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I just read this post about the BF movie a week late- crying here-
anybody know how to get a copy of it or is it going to be shown again?
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