Why is it every time ......

Plainsman,

Please understand that a lot of these people have been following bird flu for two years or longer...  They have been thinking about the "what-ifs" and sometimes lying awake at night thinking what was previously unthinkable - for a long time.  They want (and probably need) a way to cohesively say "we're all in this together" and to collectively let go of the strain for a while.

I don't agree with everything that is said on this website.  But I do believe that everyone here is trying to take this seriously and do the best they can for themselves and their families.  Sometimes that will take the form of some fairly far-fetched or paranoid-sounding ideas as people feel their way through these previously uncharted waters...  But they are doing the best they can in a very scary situation  with very little concrete information.

Cut 'em some slack and enjoy the personalities here - and take the good information that you find and use it.  That's why we're all here.

I’ve concluded that denial can be as contagious as any virus ever known because I am seeing a whole lot of people around me just sticking their heads in the sand. (couldn’t resist). Or maybe nervously trading bird jokes – but in most cases, they are carefully avoiding the subject. Some will mention petulantly that it won’t be easy to stop eating chicken, since it’s such a basic part of their diet. Truth is they don't have a CLUE.

Plainsman< this post is in favor of your humor>...I think the sense of humor is good and I also think we all need to keep our heads about us. If we can joke and still focus on reality we are doing good. I came to this board because I lost a son to the flu in 2005. I didn't find this site to grieve I came because it didn't matter whether it became the pandemic that they were saying might happen ..I came to see what people thoughts were on what we were all reading and being told by worldwide governments. I wanted to see if what was being released to the press was being evaluated and sucked in by the readers as the absolute, that WHO etc were trying to pass off. There are just as many people who go overboard with the flu pandemic scare as there are who won't even think about it, as if,  it will NEVER happen. I am the inbetween, I am amazed at how this is being handled or not handled depending on your perspective. But the long and short of it all is...I think humor is a really good thing to hang on to ...it will get us through the worst of things one way or the other and its good when humor can still work its miracle. I know for me there was a time when I couldn't even smile....thank goodness I  have found how to do that again. We just all need to find that balance thats the most important thing. PS(what is tasteful humor obviously is different for each one of us but hopefully whatever works can't be all bad either, just my last thoughts for what its worth.)

Keep laughing and smiling and don't lose the balance, thats what i tell myself anyway. 

plainsman I sometimes compare this forum to where I work.  We have 'Diversity' groups.  I (of course) am active in the Bible study group.  There is a huge range from religious to life style choices.  One of the life style group is called the Lesbian, Gay and Transgenger group.  They like to go onto our website (the Bible group) and read what we have posted, then take things that offend them to HR.  Now you want to bring comedy into something, things there can get a little hilarious....

Remember years ago when people thought those who claimed to be taken up by flying saucers loonitics?  Now there are shows where military personal, pilots and even astronauts give their accounts of encounters of the third kind.  There are things out there we just don't know about, yeah it's good to stay lighthearted about it - but a good reality check may help keep you alive with this one.

I would rather think about going into oblivion..then in time find out I will be oblivious....

I have been following avian flu for a long time now..and let me tell you if you are just finding out about it now..it has been a scarey roller coaster ride..and the ride is not just thought of this going H2H....it is the lies and false reports,the non reports the cover ups...

We are the sane ones...it is the sand hidders and governments cover ups that are the " Close Encounters of The Third Kind"... if they would report the truth and tell more people to get ready just in case..with out causing a huge panic...

I cannot tell you how many times a story has hit about a person who has not been in contact with a bird has gotten sick and there has been no follow up to the story..or how when they do report, it was 3 months ago that said person got sick and had H5N1...imagine there are over 6 and half BILLION person on the earth and it will only take ONE>>ONLY ONE...to have this mutate....odds are ONE in 6.6 billion this will go H2H and cause the next human pandemic...when I first stared reading about avian flu they reported it would take at least 5-10 years for this to mutate and become a concern..now it has been since 1997,possibly earlier that H5N1 has been around and started its killing spree in birds..first chickens,and then it went to pigs...now swans and ducks...this is a rolling snowball and it keeps rolling and growing well sooner or later it will hit the wall and explode...

Muskrat I guess the experts who said 5-10 years in 1997 were right on the money. You can consider yourself lucky to have had so much time to observe the sit. and prep.  I wish I had!

 At the risk of going into another bad personal story....... My cousin's wife came down with what her Dr. said was a bad stomach virus. She had all the usual symptoms but they were severe and continued for 3 days. On the 3rd day my aunt went over to her house and said "I'm taking you to the hospital" - good thing - she was almost in complete renal failure. She was at a fundraising dinner on Wed. evening (got sick that night) and by Sat. she was air lifted to NYU and went right to #1 on the liver transplant list waiting for a donor. She had been a slim, fit and healthy woman in her early 30's one minute (had just had her 2nd child less than a year earlier) and at deaths door the next.  A donor with a good match was found and she had the transplant on about the 5th day she was there. I'm told NYU is the #1 hospital in the area for this surgery. They almost did her kidneys too which were starting to go but they decided not to and they did come back to functioning well.  The big question we all had was how could this happen? And the Dr.s told us that they get 3-5 cases like this a month  and they attribute it to unknown viruses just floating around out there. BF is not the only one. There are many of these weird viruses out there that most people never hear of because they don't know anyone who has gotten sick but the transplant team said they had seen some really scarey ones and this was about 5 or 6 years ago now. They had no idea where she might have picked it up and if it would've done the same damage to someone else exposed to the same virus but it is out there.  Truly scarey stuff. BTW, she is alive and doing ok.