In just the few articles I’ve read about this — by saying this I admit I need more education on the facts to rule it in or out — but this does NOT sound like a NATURAL occurrence/outbreak/mutation of disease. Like whatever the mutation it happened too quickly, and it’s too “good” at its job, even though the mutation apparently happened SO recently...
Therefore, your worries that this may be a biological attack, I don’t think are unfounded at this point.
No reason to panic at this point, IMHO — one would think that most all the precautions we take to avoid transferring illness already in our daily lives (handwashing, keeping extra distance from those who are sick, good hygiene, etc...) should keep down the rate of infection. Granted, some people will be more prone to catching this than others - healthcare workers, the uneducated and poor, and yes, politicians who are traveling, and shaking hands all over the place.
Maybe some of these things won’t matter, but I’m feeling that unless this is a biological attack or ‘superbug’ created on purpose, the results on the general population may not be as dramatic as the 1913 flu outbreak (simply due to advances in medicine, and public health — sewage, hand-washing, antibiotics, medicines, etc...).
May God bless all those who are affected by this disease, and their loved ones, and may God be with the scientists who are probably working 24/7 to figure this out...
The thing of concern to me is that the fatalities are apparently the younger and stronger because they didn’t get flu vaccines? I’m still not sure. Around here, we tend to have a shortage of vaccine, so when I worked at the hospital, sure...I got the shot. But now that I don’t work there, I don’t get the shot because I’m young and healthy.
I would put the makers of Tamiflu and Relenza on overdrive right now. If it spreads, how long ‘till those meds run out?
I *do* have a sense of humor, really, but if Bush was still president and folks on Democratic Underground were making some of the comments on this thread, wouldn’t we think it was tacky or offensive?
And we all know they do it, but in this instance, where we don’t know the facts, shouldn’t we hold ourselves to some standard?
This thing is kind of scary. And I know that the media can sensationalize, but according to the BBC report that says the numbers of dead in Mexico have been under-reported, I worry that this could be more serious than we know.
That’s not a call for panic, but certainly, I think...an indication that this may be a situation that should cause concern.
Thanks for not ripping me apart. I just hate to see us sink to the other guy’s level. I can mock His Highness with the best of them, I just don’t think this is the time to do so.