U.S. Prepares for Possible Flu Outbreak (quarantines, etc.)

[Lori Price CLG]

News Update from Citizens for Legitimate Government
August 25, 2004
http://www.legitgov.org/
http://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news

U.S. Prepares for Possible Flu Outbreak --The United States may have to close schools, restrict travel and ration scarce medications if a powerful new flu strain (created by the 18 now-dead microbiologists?) spurs a worldwide outbreak, according to federal plans for the next pandemic, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. Depending on where a pandemic begins and how virulent it seems, the first protections probably will include travel restrictions, schools closures, restrictions on public gatherings and even quarantines to limit the spread of infection, Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (sic), said. "Good, old-fashioned isolation and quarantine (!!!) have a special role to play in any pandemic," she said. (Holy convenience, Batman!! School closings? People *vote* in schools, on Election Day. Looks like we're going to have to update Michael Rectenwald's ongoing tally of 'election events' which will trigger the 'Grand Refusal.' The Revolution Will Be Webcast! --updated August 25, 2004. Also, see: Will Bush play the bioterror card? (January 22, 2004) by Lori Price.)

http://legitgov.org/mike_essay_rev_will_be_Webcast_072104.html
http://www.legitgov.org/essay_price_will_bush_play_the_bioterror_card_012204.html
http://www.wardrobe.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/murder_inc/deadmicro.html
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/deadbiologists.html

Lori Price

[gmoney]

1. Blue State Flu?

To be released a few days before election day maybe? In blue states?

[NC_Nurse]

2. Whatever...

US prepares to overreact to yet another vague threat of SOMETHING THAT COULD POSSIBLY HAPPEN SOMEDAY....:eyes:

The media has turned us into a nation of hypochondriacs and paranoids.

They made it sound like SARS was the Black Plague, West Nile would cripple us all...and don't forget the ever increasing SHARK attacks...NOT!

AAAAH! We're all gonna die!!!!

[wovenpaint]

3. 24/7 Fearmongering

Quick, let's change the subject! (sarcasm off)
Not even worth taking the time to read it thru, IMHO.

[Strelnikov_]

4. Antigen Shift -> Pandemic

We are overdue for a pandemic. Naturally occurs every so often.

Gonna happen someday. Gonna die someday. So be it.

[leesa]

5. More fear-mongering. They do it every year with the flu.

[amandabeech]

6. Severe flu outbreaks, called pandemics, happen about every 30 years.

The last nasty one occurred in 1968 and was called the Hong Kong flu. I was a kid then, but unlucky enough to catch it. I went to class in the morning, but two hours later I was ready to pass out and my Dad, who worked close by, had to come and take me home.

I've had appendicitis, pneumonia, heavy-duty repeated strep and severe bronchitis, but nothing beat that Hong Kong flu for sheer, long-lasting misery.

In fact, back in 1968, many schools were closed because everyone was really, really sick, and the doctors and hospitals were going completely nuts. Absenteeism at work was the rule, rather than the exception. Thank heavens we had antibiotics for the secondary bronchial infections, and knew how to treat viral pneumonia, or we would have lost quite a few people.

Before that was the 1957 outbreak, and before that, the 1918 Spanish flu that killed approx. 40 million people world wide. Google it for the details. It was really nasty, particularly coming in on the back of WWI.

These nasty flu outbreaks are caused by genetic mutations in flu viruses. Scientists have found out that flu originates in birds, particularly water foul, and spreads to chickens who spread it to pigs and people. Birds carry types of flu viruses that are unknown in people until they cross the species barrier by mutation, and can kill humans who have no immunity to bird flu viruses. That's why people primarily in Asia, where there is a large pool of viruses and people live in very close proximity to domestic foul and pigs get sick with exotic bird flu strains.

In the past few years, the H5N1 bird flu strain has killed a few people and now scientists think that the H9N2 strain now widespread among chickens in Asia may do the same. Normally these bird flu viruses are not contagious from person to person, but different flu viruses can exchange genetic material if they infect the same cell. So if a human infected with an exotic bird flu also contracts a regular human flu virus, then you could get an exchange that would give a bird flu virus the ability to spread rapidly from person to person.

Pigs can also harbor both human and bird flu viruses at the same time. A couple of years ago in China, it was found that some pigs were harboring exotic bird flu viruses and many epidemiologists became very alarmed that those pigs could incubate new flu viruses contagious to humans and against which we would have no immunity.

We're due for a bad flu outbreak since it has been 36 years since Hong Kong laid so many of us low. Scientists believe that the H5N1 or H9N2 have the potential to mutate and really attack the human population around the world with deadly consequences, like the Spanish flu did in 1918.

The Bushies usually have nefarious motives for their actions, so I wouldn't put much of anything past them, but I think that working on a plan to deal with a very, very nasty flu outbreak is not a bad idea, particularly with a Democrat in charge.