Posted on 05/18/2014 11:38:44 AM PDT by Kartographer
What is a pandemic? According to Flu.gov, a pandemic is defined as a global outbreak of disease. It’s not determined by the number of deaths, but by how quickly it spreads.
Do they happen? Pandemics do happen, as in three outbreaks of flu pandemic in the 20th century:
Spanish flu killed $40-50 million in 1918 Asian flu in 1957 killed 2 million people 1 million deaths from Hong Kong flu in 1968 What are the chances?
I don’t have a crystal ball, and there is really no way to predict when and how a pandemic can happen. Certain “tells” would be:
A new virus emerges, which means people would have little or no immunity to it The virus is easily spread to others Virus starts affecting various countries around the globe at the same time. This is not hard to imagine, given the speed of air travel. Outbreaks come in waves.
(Excerpt) Read more at apartmentprepper.com ...
MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) is a severe pneumonia-like respiratory disease caused by a virus. It is different from SARS because MERS is caused by another subtype of the virus.
5.56mm
5.56mm
As I recall that was the last year people in the US were given the vaccine.
If we ever had an outbreak, thousands would die.
Not sure but I doubt the vaccine shot I got would still give me any protection.
Asian flu, the world's first artificial satellites and the movie Around the World in 80 Days--some of the things that concerned us in the early months of 1958.
Satellite Fever & the Asiatic Flu--Paul Perryman (1958)
When I went to Europe that year, I also got an Asiatic cholera vaccination, since there were some cases that year in Eastern Europe, which I was planning to visit.
Millions would die. Even those of us over 50 would be at risk because we should have had booster shots about twenty years ago.
No...
10’s of millions
possibly 1/3 population
with another 1/3 badly damaged
The vaccine works for ~20 years, so,
other than the smallpox volunteers in 2012,
there is no useful population resistance left
and precisely none in those < 30 y/o
Yeah, 40 years since I got that booster.
bttt
Wouldn’t want to try to give myself a booster with Cow Pox like John Adams wife did to her family.
http://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/vaccination/vaccination-program-statement.asp
Under the plan, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will work with state and local governments to form volunteer Smallpox Response Teams who can provide critical services to their fellow Americans in the event of a smallpox attack.
To ensure that Smallpox Response Teams can mobilize immediately in an emergency, health care workers and other critical personnel will be asked to volunteer to receive the smallpox vaccine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWxDLG9_eOU
“Does Tamiflu have any effect on the MERS virus?”
No. There is no medicine for this. Those with it in a hospital are just getting meds to help control the symptoms. Like an anti-diarrheal to help control that, oxygen if the patient is having trouble breathing. Liquid food by tube to the stomach if regular food won’t stay down. It is up to the patient’s body to be able to fight this and if that doesn’t happen, the patient dies.
It sure leaves one nasty looking scab.
Itched like fire...
MERS is a virus with no current medicine to kill it.
1. Slowly panic
2. Increase panic rate to medium
3. All out panic.
Smallpox is actually difficult to weaponize, as the virus doesn’t survive outside the human body for more than 50-60 seconds.
You are familiar with the stories about Indians being infected with smallpox blankets? Couldn’t have happened.
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