Study: Hospitals would be 'overloaded' by nuclear attack on U.S. (SHOCKER!)

USA Today | 4/15/07

[Mr. Brightside]

Link Only. Read only if you have to.

[3AngelaD]

They don’t want to run the risk that people who know how full of it they are might accidently read their bird-cage liner, which is written for people who read on the third-grade level.

[processing please hold]

The article is pretty good, lots of good stats

I agree.

[GOPJ]

Sun will rise in east...

[HangnJudge]

Anyone know how long Potassium Iodate ‘keeps’ for?

http://www.emergencyresources.com/er_potiod.html

It has a very long shelf life, nearly indefinite

[HangnJudge]

Anyone know how long Potassium Iodate ‘keeps’ for?

http://www.emergencyresources.com/er_potiod.html

It has a very long shelf life, nearly indefinite

[Windcatcher]

That’s the manufacturer of the ones we ordered. Many thanks.

[lndrvr1972]

They are overloaded on a typical Friday night.

[Popocatapetl]

I’ve got a surprise. Our hospital and medical care system can be overloaded by about *any* serious surge in disease or injury.

This is because our entire medical care system is based on what is called “push” supply. This means that there are only tiny reserves of just about every kind of medical equipment, supplies, and drugs available.

For example, one of the most critical pieces of equipment needed during flu season are ventilators. The US has about 102,000 of them. During a normal flu season, we need about 100,000 of those.

But if we get hit with a major flu epidemic, or even worse, a killer flu, we might need 5,000,000 ventilators overnight, or lots of people will suffocate to death, who would have lived.

Whenever there is a major disaster in the US *right now*, hospitals several States away have to send any extra supplies to the disaster area, because the local hospitals will be *out* in short order.

This means a single city can drain four or five States worth of medical supplies, that could take weeks for industry to resupply, because they regularly operate at near capacity, and have no ability to surge their production.

[TASMANIANRED]

Add Mecca to that list.

[HangnJudge]

That’s the manufacturer of the ones we ordered. Many thanks.

In truth, O judges, while I wish to be adorned with every virtue, yet there is nothing which I can esteem more highly than the being and appearing grateful. For this one virtue is not only the greatest, but is also the parent of all the other virtues.

Author: Cicero
Pro Plancio 80
Circa 58 BC

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You ever see the movie. 'Testament'?

A good movie. No bombs seen going off but the bright light and everything goes dead. The aftermath is horrible. Burning bodies in parks, mass graves. People dying from radiation sickness. Food running out.

All in all, a good movie.

[RayChuang88]

What is particularly scary is that with an improvised nuclear device detonated at ground level, not only do you get the blast and immediate radiation effects from the bomb, but also you get a HUGE amount of fallout kicked up into the air from the ground level blast. That could mean anything up to 100 miles downwind from the blast could become unhabitable, and the death toll from fallout radiation poisoning could be just as bad as the death toll from the initial blast. We're talking an economic toll that could well exceed US$1 trillion if the bomb was detonated in the center of a large city.

[Mike Darancette]

The full moon causes ER rooms to be filled too.

[DemEater]

Maybe they should consider changing the headline to:

Hospitals will be destroyed in nuclear attack.

[Scotswife]

file this next to “the pope is catholic”

[Egon]

“Knowledge Is Good.” - Emil Faber

"K o l e g    s    G o ." - Eberhard Faber

[Egon]

It has a very long shelf life, nearly indefinite

Not unlike a Twinkie.

[ApplegateRanch]

Maybe we should spend a Trillion Dollars of public funds so build enough hospitals so that we could handle the millions of injured people that might need medical care should some very unlikely disaster occur.

Sarcasm is as sarcasm does. :)

Be cheaper to issue everybody a "graphic novel" style DIY first aid manual; a PDR; a Merk Manual of Nursing; a Boy Scout Field Manual; and a couple of amps of morphine & atropine.

Just as useful, too.

P.S. I went through grammar school in the early 1950's; I still remember how to 'duck & cover'. That's also just as useful.

[barker]

Did you know that one nuclear bomb could ruin your whole day?

Several years ago I actually heard Cindi Lauper on some tv show say "I mean,a nuclear bomb landing in your back yard could ruin your whole day." Well, no sh!t Sherlock.

[Pontiac]

Just as useful, too.

Actually I think every family having all of those the things you list would be much more useful than a bunch of huge empty hospitals.

Every family would be well advised to have a disaster kit in the home.

But being the Conservative that I am I don’t believe that the Government should supply those items or mandate their purchase or ownership by individuals.