| This thread has been locked, it will not receive new replies. |
|
Locked on 05/07/2006 11:16:52 PM PDT by Jim Robinson, reason:
Enough already! |
Posted on 05/06/2006 3:16:11 PM PDT by blam
Expert: H5N1 Worst Flu Virus He's Ever Seen
Thursday, May 04, 2006
SINGAPORE — A leading expert said Thursday the H5N1 virus is the worst flu virus he's ever encountered, and far too many gaps in planning and knowledge persist for the world to handle it in the event of a pandemic.
The virus is a vicious killer in poultry, moving into the brain and destroying the respiratory tract, said Robert G. Webster, a virologist at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.
"I've worked with flu all my life, and this is the worst influenza virus that I have ever seen," said Webster, who has studied avian flu for decades. "If that happens in humans, God help us."
(For complete bird flu coverage, visit Foxnews.com's Bird Flu Center.)
So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds, but experts fear the virus will mutate into a form that easily spreads from person to person, potentially sparking a global pandemic.
Webster predicted it would take at least 10 more mutations before the H5N1 virus could potentially begin spreading from human to human, but said there's no way to know when — or if — that will ever happen.
"All of those mutations are out there, but ... the virus hasn't succeeded in bringing it together," he said at the end of a two-day bird flu conference in Singapore organized by The Lancet medical journal.
Webster also called for more vaccine to be stockpiled, calling current efforts "miserable."
He said research in ferrets suggests that vaccination with a bird flu virus that circulated earlier in Hong Kong protected the animals from dying when they were later infected with the H5N1 virus now spreading in Vietnam. Such vaccination could potentially be used as a primer...
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Bravo, my friend.
Well, as Einstein said, "the difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
I read an article this past week that said the pollen count in the USA this year is the highest it's been in ten years.
Through your smugness and sanctimony you have brought the acrimony upon yourself.
What a swell guy you are.
And here the Government goes restricting our access to decongestants. Coincidence? I think not...
L
Judith Anne has my confidence more than anyone else on this thread.
You feel that way, and I feel that way.............but apparently at least one other on this thread has taken offense at our positions.
Oh well...I'll just continue doing what I have been doing all along, pay attention to those I know and trust and ignore the anonymous internet posters with bad attitudes.
I read the first sentence slandering Judith Anne and could get no further.
Look in the mirror, dude.
Just above she's become so unhinged that she thinks we're actually capable of the wholesale theft of private property, forcible kidnapping, and outright murder of our own citizens.
Yet somehow you think I'm the one whose off-base here?
Later on she goes from the just slightly nuts to the completely stark raving bonkers end of the scale when she accuses people in the Emergency Management services of plotting the forced labor and summary executions of people. Doesn't that strike you as well....just the slightest bit...insane?
By her own admission she's a Nurse. Indeed a noble profession but she's not a virologist, she's not an epidemiologist, she's not a Public Health professional, she's had only the barest exposure to her localities Emergency Services sector, she's not a pharmacist, and she's not a Doctor.
She has no training in Emergency Services, and by her own admission has had very little to do with them ever. Yet she says she 'knows our type'. We're all Cartmans dontchaknow, just itching to blast pretty nurses straight to their Maker.(insert Pirate 'aaarrrggh' here.)
And none of this strikes you as odd? You really think a person like this is a reliable source of information on the subject? I tried to counter what I honestly believe is near hysteria with a few facts. For that I get called a fraud, a 'Cartman type' and am accused of plotting theft, kidnapping, gross negligence, misfeasance, malfeasance, and frigging Capital murder.
Oh yea, but I'm the one who's whacko.
Sure I am....
L
The 1918 Spanish influenza did happen, and it killed approximately 100 million people, ranking as the worst epidemic in human history. It drove others crazy, including Woodrow Wilson, who acquiesced in the French insanity shortly after recovering from the great influenza.
I have been on Avian Influenza threads with Judith Anne, blam, and many of the other names you find on this thread for longer than this particular strain has been making the news.
We all know each other and know each other's strong points on the subject. I am not familiar with you or your connection with the issue. I made more than one very civil comment to you in regard to where I am coming from on the issue in relation to some of your posts and not only did you not give me the courtesy of a response you started attacking the group of us as fear mongerers who don't know what they are talking about.
I have been following issues of Avian Influenza for more than 20 years, poultry is a $2billion industry in the area I live, paying attention is not fear mongering - it's prudent. I'm not a scientist or a medicl profession, but when it comes to the poultry industry, which will become one of the first lines of defense, I pretty much know what I'm talking about.
As I said, your attitude toward others who have been working together on this is what brought the acrimony of many of us upon you.
You want to listen to a retired nurse with no formal education or training as a physician, virologist, epidemiologist, public health training, disaster preparedness expertise, procurement or logistical expertise that's fine with me. Go ahead.
Never mind the fact that your govenment is spending hundreds of millions of dollars preparing for what nearly every single person with any expertise on the subject says is an extremely remote possibility. We're all a bunch of dummies who are just going to leave people to rot, or worse yet steal all their stuff and shoot them if they get out of line.
Do you people even read this stuff after you post it? Never mind that, do you actually think about it before you post it?
Here's a little tip for you MPJackweed. Look into what's known as 'Risk Assesment and Hazard Analysis'. Then apply some of that to your everyday life. You're about 8,000 times more likely to die from an earthquake, tornado, hurricane, or a structure fire than you are to get sick with, let alone die from the frigging bird flu.
But we have our orders. They say plan for this, so that's what we do. Our opinions as to whether or not it's a cost-effective thing to do don't enter into it. We treat this one just as seriously as we do any other mass casualty incident, only more so because it has the potential of affecting much larger numbers of people.
Never mind the fact that real live Doctors, real live Public Health professionals, real live virologists and epidemiologists that we talk to say that a massive pandemic on the order of a made for TV Movie Of The Week is about as likely as the 2nd Coming.
But the GP has had the crap scared out of it by the likes of CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, PMSNBC, and FOX to the point that it's almost useless to actually try to point out a few facts to people.
You know what's really funny MP? Most folks on this forum wouldn't believe a Network News Anchor if they said the sky was blue, but let them talk about a disease that has only the most remote of possibility of infecting them or anyone they know and all of a sudden it's as if it were Gospel.
Oh well. You listen to your Nurse friend. I'm sure she's ordinarily very nice and seems perfectly normal, at least most of the time.
We'll keep listening to bonehead people who actually have degrees in those silly fields of study that actually have something to do with the issue. That alright with you?
L
You know what's even funnier L? I know lots of people who have a VERY good possiblity of being infected by this and I haven't learned any of this from the evening news anchors because I don't watch the evening news........I've learned this from the people with the degrees and the people that work with both wild and domestic fowl and in public health on a daily basis.
This is not funny, nor taken lightly the way you do by the people in the know where I live.
One danged bird, wild or domestic found to be infected with this particular strain and the economy of where I live is going to take a major hit in the pants...........and that's only if it is a bird, let alone if even a single person is found to be infected.
Scoff all you want at us "fearmongerers".....when the livlihood of your community is facing a possibility of disappearing don't come crying to us.
Well, you've called me a lot of names, made me the focus of your tirades and given me several psychiatric diagnoses--if I played like you, I'd ask where you got your MD, except I don't think you have one. In fact, I'm positive you don't.
I won't make any diagnoses--I'm not qualified. But a good guess would be that you do not play well with others. There can be various reasons for that--maybe it's time to check your blood sugar, if you're feeling irritable. Take a nap, or a shower, have a nice glass of wine. You seem stressed.
Your posts are getting extreme. Our conversation is over, unless you want to keep insulting me in public. If so--hey! No problem. It's your behavior, not mine.
For my part, I hope you have a nice day. You might want to read the thread about the new flu vaccine that St. Jude's researchers recently tested on mice and ferrets--it's a real glimmer of hope in otherwise grim H5N1 news this year. And I like it a heck of a lot better than I like your emergency planning.
I take back the Cartman remark. He's much funnier than you are.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.