follow link for report in its entirity
I prefer the Swine flu, I survived that debacle
TT
Its going to happen, because Mexico, Canada and the US are planning for it.
Advancing Cooperation on Avian and Pandemic Influenza. Leaders agreed to the following
principles to guide collaboration on all stages of avian or pandemic influenza management:
• Share information among our governments in an open, timely and transparent manner.
• Adopt an integrated and comprehensive approach that incorporates animal and public
health aspects in managing avian influenza and influenza pandemics.
• Ensure coordination within our respective national governments on all aspects of
emergency management for an avian influenza outbreak or a human influenza pandemic,
by building on existing mechanisms of cooperation and strengthening them as required.
• Coordinate our actions and leverage our respective capacities to ensure rapid and
effective steps are taken to deal with avian influenza outbreaks or a human influenza
pandemic in North America.
• Advise one another in advance of making any decision that could seriously affect the
other countries.
• Base our actions on the best available science and evidence-based decision-making.
• Agree that the imposition and removal of veterinary or public health measures on the
movement of people, animals, and goods, under our national laws and international
obligations, will not be more restrictive or maintained longer than necessary to achieve
the veterinary or public health objective so as to avoid unnecessary interference with the
movement of people and goods within North America.
• Ensure that the business continuity plans of our respective governments consider the
highly interconnected nature of our economies.
• Strive to utilize clear and consistent messaging to the public and international
organizations that is proactive, timely and accurate.
http://www.spp.gov/pdf/security_and_prosperity_partnership_of_north_america_fact_sheet.pdf
Check this gem out:
so as to avoid unnecessary interference with the
movement of people and goods within North America
Can't stop the illegals if we have a disease pandemic in the US.
ping. Did you see this show last night? I missed it.
I have absoultely no doubt that the scenario MSNBC presented is feasable. But it is still fiction. Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda.
The bottom line is that there are a lot of professional people out in the world, actively studying how best to prevent the spread of avian flu, on many different levels.
The biggest thing that protects the US by default is that our domestic poultry industry has been raising birds for years in almost complete isolation from outside contamination from diseases that are known to be spread by migrating flocks of wild birds. You cannot even drive onto the property of a commercial chicken farm without having your car, and shoes decontaminated, but you'll also be donning a protective suit; to protect the birds from what you might be bringing in to them
Asia has been hit particularly hard because their animal husbandry is much different from ours, in that their poultry is raised by citizens all over the place, in the open air, where they are easily contaminated and infected from migrating wild birds..
A tangential issue that deserves mention as well is the fact that there hasn't been a case of porcine-transmitted trichinosis in the US since the sixties, because we improved dramatically, the conditions under which we raise hogs, and have essentially eliminated that hazard from our foodchain...
I just do not believe that it is possible to have another pandemic like the media keeps predicting. Not only does the US lead the world in safe production of food, our Medicine and Sanitation standards are light years beyond what they were at the turn of the last century. It's certainly possible for an outbreak to occur, but I simply do not believe that it would be able to spread very far before it could be stopped. To believe that is to give way too much credibility to MSNBC, instead of the entire health care industry, and all of Medical Science.
IMHO, MSNBC produced a pretty good made for TV featurette, but that is all. It is not News, it is Fiction.
Since the Avian Flu question seems to reach the public in a rational, calm way, without the baggage of say, surviving a nuclear detonation.
I would like to see the government piggy back on Katrina by using these Avian flu concerns, to gradually shape the publics perception of preparation for survival as a mainstream, responsible thing to do.
I believe the acceptance of a new attitude, of each individual and family being prepared for interruptions in the delivery of food, utilities, and entertainment would strengthen us as a people, and lessen the effects of future terror attacks and natural catastrophes.
Beyond the practical effects of being prepared (and learning how to do that), I think it would have a positive effect on the nations personality.
"We're all gonna die" ping
In the meantime. The midwest has mumps.