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To: redlegplanner
A little perspective, if you will
1918:
outdoor toilets
1% of US had electricity
no antibiotics
no anti viral agents
no sanitation
10% of US had running water
trench warfare in Europe


need I continue?
10 posted on 01/18/2007 5:35:15 PM PST by xcamel (Press to Test, Release to Detonate)
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To: xcamel

We still get the common cold spreading from person to person, even though sanitary conditions are better now than they were a century ago. All it takes to spread a deadly flu pandemic is people being around other people. That's the nature of viruses.


12 posted on 01/18/2007 5:55:39 PM PST by Abigail Adams
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To: xcamel

further thought:
-how well does your indoor toilet run without electricity to pump water?
-antibiotics work against bacteria, not virus'. By the way, 40% of health care workers say they are not showing up to work. Of the remaining 60%, ~30% of them will be sick. The US has ~ 950,000 staffed hospital beds. On any given day, 95% of them are in use. There is NO spare capacity. Just in time logistics will kill us.
-the anti virals (Tamiflu etc.) are being bypassed by the virus' mutation, are in grossly low supply, and have a single point of manufacture
-hand washing and social distancing were promoted in 1918 as the primary defense against the flu.
-how well does water run w/o electricity or personnel to keep the plant running?
- trench warfare was marked by lousy conditions, poor health, and crowded troop trains - checked the conditions in the slums of mexico city, rio, jo'burg etc. lately?

Bottom line - we are more vulnerable, and more fragile today than we were in 1918. The real enemy is Heineken man and the rest of the grasshoppers who will take what the ant has stored...


19 posted on 01/18/2007 8:23:45 PM PST by redlegplanner
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