WHO Boosts Flu Alert Level To Phase 5

National Public Radio ^ | April 29, 2009

[glock rocks]

... and Biden said you ain’t gonna like what he does about it...

[glock rocks]

Gotta love a good multitasker... 151 fills that bill.

[bigbob]

See you in Boulder, dude...

Nadine, honey is that you?

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

I’m as scared of this as I am of the bird flu that was supposed to kill us all—that is until the cops with M-16s show up on my doorstep to herd my family off to an internment camp.

[callmejoe]

” . . .Fukuda, WHO assistant director general, said the situation was moving closer to Phase 5, indicating widespread human-to-human transmission and that a pandemic is indeed “imminent.” . . .”

It was the second emergency meeting in as many days. They went ahead and went to Phase 5 meaning the pandemic is imminent. This is as “real” as it gets.

As someone described it a few years ago, a full-on pandemic (like 1918) will be like a hundred Katrinas hitting a hundred American cities at once (with possibly hundreds of thousands of deaths if it mutates into a tamiflu-resistant variant)

Let’s pray it fizzles out or it is mild like the pandemics of 1889, 1957, and 1968.

But they are acting as if they expect the worst.

[bdeaner]

I hope they're just playing it safe, or do they know something we don't?

What's not to know? We have a Type A flu pandemic which could potentially have a kill rate of 2-6% of those infected (there is reason to be more optimistic, however). This is not something to screw around with. Action is necessary to prepare for this major historical crisis. Failure to act would be an aggregious irresponsibility.

[callmejoe]

“I got the swine flu shot back in 1976 - will it offer any protection?”

No. This is a different strain (a “novel” flu virus).

[bdeaner]

My husband said that he read something that says that it may be getting more virulent as it goes along, and that is why they are concerned.

In the 1918 Spanish flu, it started as a mild flu in the Spring and then in the Fall, during the flu season, it came back with a vegeance and killed more people than WWI and the bubonic plague. A lot of people on the street are in denial about this, or just ignorant. But this is dead serious stuff, not a political game. Be safe, not sorry.

[Squantos]

Agree , I have cured myself with such before......:o)

We keep a stock of spirits around, everclear to jack. home brew beer and enough wine for a few months in the wine cellar. Mainly beer and sun tea are our choices these days ......:o)

[hinckley buzzard]

I hope they're just playing it safe, or do they know something we don't?

It is a fool's errand to try to figure out what the thoroughly politicized WHO knows and what it doesn't. Years ago they did the biggest study in the world on "secondhand smoke" and proved it is harmless. The results were buried by nonscientific bureaucrats, never to be seen again. No doubt the same level of dishonesty can be counted upon now.

[hinckley buzzard]

I hope they're just playing it safe, or do they know something we don't?

It is a fool's errand to try to figure out what the thoroughly politicized WHO knows and what it doesn't. Years ago they did the biggest study in the world on "secondhand smoke" and proved it is harmless. The results were buried by nonscientific bureaucrats, never to be seen again. No doubt the same level of dishonesty can be counted upon now.

[RandallFlagg]

You all notice that Captain Tripps is in the popular keywords list on FR now?

[BunnySlippers]

Don’t eat out.

[BunnySlippers]

No.

[BunnySlippers]

OK, I had to look up Chuck Berry on Wikipedia. He’s 86 years old and still rockin’.

[chae]

The walking dude.

[divine_moment_of_facts]

WHO Boosts Flu Alert Level To Phase 5

CUE ABBOTT & COSTELLO
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LOL! What?

[divine_moment_of_facts]

Captain Tripps..

[RandallFlagg]

Ummm, who’s that?