Posted on 03/12/2006 5:22:46 AM PST by Lessismore
I predict illegal aliens will be the ones that spread it around. Just like they are carrying tuberculosis and diptheria right now. I have started to update the 12 vaccinations I had in the military. I was never healthier than when I had those antibodies swimming around. I only got sick once in 6 years and that was from something I ate.
Lvov said the pandemic virus could strike at any moment, and would most likely come from China, leading to tens of millions of human deaths, or one third of the global population. He added quarantine measures could delay the pandemic for a few days but not prevent it, and that vaccination would not stop people getting sick.
Gosh, tens of millions or one-third of the population. I wonder what convoluted calculations leads to those two mutually exclusive predictions. No, my grasp is just that this article is typical of the State of Fear and based on past experience the bird flue will turn out not to be the big one.
They'll be among the first ones rushing the Emergency Rooms and getting on the scarce ventilaors. They never have been shy about swarming our hospitals for "free" healthcare at the first sign of the sniffles.
Our intensive care medical resources are spread much too thin for a serious pandemic like this which will task it over the limit into "breakdown" mode in a hurry.
I thnk that's my mini pinglist.
I haven't pung you to articles I've seen lately but figured I'd start again since it may be in Alaska in a while...
I belive I heard it reported that there are only 150 ventilators nationwide. Don't expect to get onto one of those if you get severe pneumonia. The safest course looks like isolation (which is my plan)...don't get it in the first place.
14 emergency rooms have closed in southern CA because of illegal aliens. 2 years ago I went to the emergency room in a wealthy district for what I thought was a heart attack. It was not. My body is healthy except for my left arm pulling the tendons off my rib cage right above my heart. That's West Hills hospital. I got a full physical over 3 days. The illegal aliens swarm to Northridge Hospital and Holy Cross medical center in Mission Hills. I will not go there for any reason. Those are likely the next emergency rooms to close down.
From what I've read, the opportunistic infections were not the primary cause of death, rather the cykotine storm (over reaction of the immune system). It has been stated on FR by medical community people that there are only 115,000 ventilators in US hospitals and the hospital bed capacity is not large at all.
Modern medicine won't help people if the hospitals have no more beds and all machines that help people breathe are being used.
Antibiotics would only be of use if there is a secondary bacterial infection.
It was JA who posted the 115,000 number of ventilators in the US IIRC.
Still, that is a miniscule number if millions of people fall ill.
We should also note that on the averge 36,000 people die of regular flu a year in the US.
Funny you should bring that up.
The New York Times today had a long article and informative on this potential shortage.
According to the article, there are approximately 105,000 mechanical ventilators, nationwide. In any given flu season, around 100,000 are in use at any given time. The Strategic National Stockpile has 4-5,000 additional for distribution. Unfortunately - according to the National Emergency Plan issued last November - we would need approximately 742,500 at any one time (assuming the pandemic doesn't get any worse than a lower case scenario).
In other words - if this thing hits - somebody's gonna get left out. And without a mechanical ventilator, he/she ain't gonna last long once this thing settles into the deep lungs, which is where it heads.
By the way, these ventilators cost around $30,000. So, it is unlikely the Average Joe can get one to stash in his basement. Besides, the world's largest manufacturer of these things says they can ramp up production only to about 10,000 a year. So there still won't be enough to go around - even if you could afford one.
Here is the Link, but you have to register to read it...
See my Post #50.
I doubt it would do you much good if you went there anyway - unless you were in the very early stages and they had Tamiflu readily available.
There is another option. Wear double face masks. That is what a nurse I know from Brazil does after they have their Carnival. Strange diseases occur in the tropical areas. She's healthy:)
Wash hands frequently. Cremate what you eat. And don't walk around BSing with people at work all day long:) Their kids are the source of most colds, flu, whatever.
I agree with Gritty: It'll be much ado about nothing once we have an entire new vaccination technology invented and the infrastructure for it fully constructed and ready to put into operation at a moment's notice. The problem with something like bird flu is that there is no expiration date on the problem. With Y2K, once we woke up on 1/1/2000 and saw that the world hadn't ended, we were able wipe our hands of the entire mess and forget about it. With H5N1 (or any other flu variant), the magic mutation could happen tomorrow, it could happen ten years from now, or it may never happen at all. It's just a never-ending game of craps being played every time another human gets infected from an animal. The odds for every individual crapshoot are greatly on our side, but when you're playing an infinite number of games...
I'm not an average Joe Blow. I know where I can "borrow" a bottle of pure anhydrous oxygen at 2000 PSI. I have the regulator and the ball flow indicator needed. Pure oxygen is like some sort of drug. You get wide awake, think and act quickly. And all the bad things in your body get oxidized and dumped when you go to the bathroom. Fighter pilots breathe it. That's why they are always bright-eyed and bushy tailed:)
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Thank you for the ping little jeremiah
Great!
You had best set it for an ambient altitude above 34,000 ft to get some serious pressure breathing going in there...
Thanks for the correction. 150 did seem too small a number.
Then I will also need to "borrow" a ball flow indicator that measures cubic feet/min. I know where it is.
Do you belong to the Mile-High club?
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