Re: Flu Pandemic
PCG,
About a year ago I read the following book:
The book is absolutely chilling. It describes the Epidemic of 1918 in gruesome detail. When we think of getting the “flu”, we in no way invision the worst that Flu can bring us. Literally once a pandemic gets going, the best you can do is hide in your house til it burns out. With some kind of luck we can develop vaccines, but the capacity to mass produce vaccines is very poor, and needs immediate upgrading. Worst of all, we will see Governments, such as China with the initial response to SARS, who are in disbelief and who act weakly and too slowly.
To contain the disease you must act quickly to quarantine an area. No travel in or out, planes grounded, all traffic blocked, and only food and essential medical personel in and out. Literally a state of Martial Law is essential.
Strangely enough, it looks like the Bush administration sort of took the lead in figuring out after earthquakes and hurricanes, what can be worse. Unfortunately, continents like Africa could literally melt down under a plague, with half of the people dying. Let’s hope that this particular virus is not “The One”, as this is the one thing that could make all other natural disasters look pale by comparison.
edit: The problem with the “bird flus” is that the virus leaps species. In other words, the virus mutates to infect people, and then people infect other people. So much like any other “flu”, the disease can be aerisolized and spread by coughing, or hand contact. What makes these strains so deadly is that the way that it attacks the lungs causes a huge overreaction of the body to the infection, and the lungs are literally drown in thier own fluids. That is the nature of the current “bird flu” that looks so deadly.