Gee, sounds like we're just sitting ducks for the next pandemic. I'm not taking any chances. Construction has started on my backyard pandemic-bunker. It's going to be an underground level 4 biocontainment suit, with a stockpile of Pfizer(tm) antibiotics and anti-virals, Wyeth (tm) vaccines, Fisher (tm) Hazmat suits and a direct T1 to Google (tm) headquarters to monitor the pandemic and communicate with the rest of the world (ok and to check up on my Pfizer stocks every now and then). Oh, wait and some ju-jubes in case I need a snack.
Seriously though, given the theme of GLOBAL pandemic, it would've been nice to hear from a GLOBAL panel. Some perspective from scientists and health-care workers who are actually dealing with the so-called H5N1 outbreak on the front lines. What are their experiences, and how can we deal with these health care issues at their source in the developing world? This naive discussion of how to insulate fortress America from the threat of any conceivable infectious threat is pretty useless, but I suppose a natural consequence of getting together a bunch of North American academics who have no actual experience with the issue they're talking about.
Sorry to rant. Thanks for posting the video. I usually like Charlie Rose but can't usually access his show.
Anyway, I'm interested in hearing what other young biologists out there are thinking on this issue. Is it just me, or the "the imminent pandemic" the latest form of disease-mongering being imposed upon the public to drum up demand for pharma research and products? Are we even in a position to know the difference if the only perspective we get is that of Google, inc, Pfizer and Western academics whose experience with emerging diseases amounts to what they read in the New York Times?
I have been monitoring H5N1 for about 1.5 years. I have seen it go from Chicken to human and now human to human. It seems that the world is hiding a whole lot of truth around the virus and some of the truth is being misrepresented.
To date there have been numerous human to human clusters of this virus in the 3rd world. Problem is that many countries like Indonesia are having natural disaster after natural disaster. People are dieing from other diseases, floods, volcano, earthquakes, etc. and because of this there is no way to know how may have actually died from the disease because not everyone is evaluated before burial.
The last time I actually did the staticits, one person was dieing every 5 days from the H5N1 virus. Depending on where you live the morality rate is slightly different. As high as 80% in Indonesia and as low as 58% in other countries. Bottom line here is that the odds of surviving the bug in the event you get it is very grim!
There are some websites out there that monitor and keep up with the current news about the virus making it easier for myself to monitor the situation. www.tcmp.us has a good forum with current news, but it seems to be hard to become a member.
For myself I have stored one month of non perishables and I purchased 2 nanomasks with about 50 refills just in case. Like they say in the video, you likely will not be able to get one if this bug goes pandemic. I'm ready to self isolate from the world if this occurs!
58-80% mortality is certainly grim. What data are these numbers based on? You first say it is impossible to know how many people the virus is killing in Indonesia due to high death rates and lack of reporting, but then go on to cite an 80% death rate? What's up with that? Are there proper stats or not?
Gee, sounds like we're just sitting ducks for the next pandemic. I'm not taking any chances. Construction has started on my backyard pandemic-bunker. It's going to be an underground level 4 biocontainment suit, with a stockpile of Pfizer(tm) antibiotics and anti-virals, Wyeth (tm) vaccines, Fisher (tm) Hazmat suits and a direct T1 to Google (tm) headquarters to monitor the pandemic and communicate with the rest of the world (ok and to check up on my Pfizer stocks every now and then). Oh, wait and some ju-jubes in case I need a snack.
Seriously though, given the theme of GLOBAL pandemic, it would've been nice to hear from a GLOBAL panel. Some perspective from scientists and health-care workers who are actually dealing with the so-called H5N1 outbreak on the front lines. What are their experiences, and how can we deal with these health care issues at their source in the developing world? This naive discussion of how to insulate fortress America from the threat of any conceivable infectious threat is pretty useless, but I suppose a natural consequence of getting together a bunch of North American academics who have no actual experience with the issue they're talking about.
Sorry to rant. Thanks for posting the video. I usually like Charlie Rose but can't usually access his show.
Anyway, I'm interested in hearing what other young biologists out there are thinking on this issue. Is it just me, or the "the imminent pandemic" the latest form of disease-mongering being imposed upon the public to drum up demand for pharma research and products? Are we even in a position to know the difference if the only perspective we get is that of Google, inc, Pfizer and Western academics whose experience with emerging diseases amounts to what they read in the New York Times?
I have been monitoring H5N1 for about 1.5 years. I have seen it go from Chicken to human and now human to human. It seems that the world is hiding a whole lot of truth around the virus and some of the truth is being misrepresented.
To date there have been numerous human to human clusters of this virus in the 3rd world. Problem is that many countries like Indonesia are having natural disaster after natural disaster. People are dieing from other diseases, floods, volcano, earthquakes, etc. and because of this there is no way to know how may have actually died from the disease because not everyone is evaluated before burial.
The last time I actually did the staticits, one person was dieing every 5 days from the H5N1 virus. Depending on where you live the morality rate is slightly different. As high as 80% in Indonesia and as low as 58% in other countries. Bottom line here is that the odds of surviving the bug in the event you get it is very grim!
There are some websites out there that monitor and keep up with the current news about the virus making it easier for myself to monitor the situation. www.tcmp.us has a good forum with current news, but it seems to be hard to become a member.
For myself I have stored one month of non perishables and I purchased 2 nanomasks with about 50 refills just in case. Like they say in the video, you likely will not be able to get one if this bug goes pandemic. I'm ready to self isolate from the world if this occurs!
Seishin -
58-80% mortality is certainly grim. What data are these numbers based on? You first say it is impossible to know how many people the virus is killing in Indonesia due to high death rates and lack of reporting, but then go on to cite an 80% death rate? What's up with that? Are there proper stats or not?