Pandemic

[Jozanny]

Dispatch from a Mexican freelancer

[The Atheist]

Meh ditto librarys, I hve a theory about books incubating diseases.

Your theory will be wrong.

Hard covers might retain infectious disease bacteria or viruses for a day or two, but paper isn't conducive to keeping them alive and books are probably the safest thing you could handle.

Please don't forget to post a photo!

I'll try! (Finding a sombrero in Auckland's the hardest part!

Dispatch from a Mexican freelancer

Yes, the Mexican economy isn't going to be helped by all this.

[Remarkable]

Dears,

This is a fresh article for all you Europeans.

http://www.upi.com/Emerging_Threats/...6441240945149/

I'm beggining to wonder now, over this whole thing. I haven't touched a school book all afternoon but now I'm an expert on pandemics.

Well, there is still around the atrocious but probably not-so-very-wrong theory that a major pandemics is indeed needed, sooner or later, to slow a bit this disastrous growth of world population. I think I remember Thomas Malthus having to do something with it.

Anyway, since you probably know this and it might have already been discussed here (and I don't have the patience to search around) I'm just writing over my musings. I'm afraid, truth be told, because, you know how much faith we all put to the safety, security and warmth of this world we live in? I mean, we know there are diseases, there is poornes and there are hurricanes, but no way we ever think of a phenomen seriously endagering our well being and furthermore, our existence. Just like no one wants to believe that we might be destroyed by a big meteorite or an earthquake can suddenly tear the whole world apart, we can't also believe that this... this flu we call it, might firstly kill us and secondly destroy our view of the world.

It's a bit weird, isn't it? Most of us are used to the idea that flu is a common illness one does have to catch at least once a year. Most school kids desire for days and weeks to catch the flu and so to rest from school for some days. But isn't it ironic now? This swine flu and the noise it's getting is worthy of... well, if not an apocalyptical movie, certainly one with Bruce Willis in it...

[The Atheist]

This swine flu and the noise it's getting is worthy of... well, if not an apocalyptical movie, certainly one with Bruce Willis in it...

Well, the noise it's getting might be, but a lot of that is speculation and a lot more is nonsense.

It may well spread around the world, it seems to be very easy to catch, but colds and flu do exactly that all the time.

The most important point so far is this:

People who have caught it from another human are not getting very sick at all.

New Zealand's first confirmed case is amazed he had it, because he didn't feel that ill!
That's a very good thing, because I've had influenza two or three times only in 50 years and it's a horrible thing and I'd never describe it as "not feeling too bad".

At this stage, it is not a serious illness.

[Nightshade]

Your theory will be wrong.

Hard covers might retain infectious disease bacteria or viruses for a day or two, but paper isn't conducive to keeping them alive and books are probably the safest thing you could handle.

eh it wasnt a particularly serious theory, however, if books are not kept in the rigt conditions they begin to decompose, paper quality is a major factor in this but in libraries wityh a lot of books frm say the 1950s this is very much a factor. High acidity and all that , they end up producing this noxsious dust, now let me ell you as someone who has woked with that stuff it is NASTY.not only can it give you blisters , rashes and sores it can make you cough sneeze choke , you name it.
Also while I am obviously a mad supporter of libraries (YAY use your public library) there is no escaping the fact that all sorts of people handle those books and I could tell you stories about some of the books that have come back to us that would have you running to jump in to the shower just from hearing about it. Not literally , well unless you have atendecy towards that kind of thing I guess. and I had to stop a cjhild licking the counter the othger day and those thinsg are so disgustingly filthy it is unbelivable, and then a book gets put on it, then someone is eating food and reading at the same time and doesnt wash their hands ... and well you get the picture, I hope.

[Emil Miller]

[QUOTE=Remarkable;712259] Well, there is still around the atrocious but probably not-so-very-wrong theory that a major pandemics is indeed needed, sooner or later, to slow a bit this disastrous growth of world population. I think I remember Thomas Malthus having to do something with it. QUOTE]

It is becoming increasingly obvious that, with the growth in world population, this planet will be unable to sustain humankind, anyone who thinks otherwise is living in cloud cuckoo land. Handing out condoms and birth control pills will not stop the relentless march of population increase. Punitive laws in China have had some success but the horse had already bolted before the stable door was closed. Humans are but a link in the chain of life and therefore natural forces will protect the whole chain by restricting human activity one way or another. If that requires a major depletion of human beings, then that's what will happen. Imagine what the world population would have risen to were it not for the "Black Death"

[NikolaiI]

So, what's the conclusion?

[IndigoStorm]

"A pandemic (from Greek παν pan all + δήμος demos people) is an epidemic of infectious disease that spreads through populations across a large region; for instance a continent, or even worldwide."

Personally I am always very cynical/suspicious when this kind of thing suddenly rears its ugly head ...

We are currently experiencing a worldwide recession and I am certain that the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry is also in a downturn ...

What better way to make a couple of billion bucks than for someone to scare up some new pandemic?

[The Atheist]

So, what's the conclusion?

Far too early to come to any concluions, although the first recorded human-human transmission outside of Mexico has occurred.

I'd hesitate to even go with too strong a likelihood at the moment, but from the very limited data available, it would appear to be about as bad seasonal influenza.

Unfortunately, viruses don't co-operate with us and can mutate at the drop of a nostril.

I'd say we won't have clarity for at least another week.

Personally I am always very cynical/suspicious when this kind of thing suddenly rears its ugly head ...

We are currently experiencing a worldwide recession and I am certain that the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry is also in a downturn ...

What better way to make a couple of billion bucks than for someone to scare up some new pandemic?

Nope.

While a couple of drug companies will make a killing, every other facet of the world's economy will take a severe hit it can't afford.

As to the head of it being raised, cynicism's all very well, but we do know that influenza does just this quite frequently - mutate into a new virus. A classic example is the "Hong Kong" flu of the late 1960s.

The only problem thus far has been the over-reaction by media.

[AimusSage]

Ooooooh... Phase 5... I'm so excited! Will it turn into an actual Pandemic? What will the news tell us next.

Seriously though, I guess they found out everyone got a little tired of the pirates and the recession, so they jump on the next big thing as if there is no tomorrow.

Wait...Is there a tomorrow?

[Taliesin]

The way I have heard it, the reason why this new flu is so scary that it comes from pigs and is therefore totally new and it means that people would be totally unresistant to it - the flu people get every winter is the same virus, it just mutates a bit - so it can make you ill but since your immune system has known something very similar, it can get healthy soon - it may not be so in the case of a totally new virus - but as it is said, if people's immune systems can deal with it, it mightn't be so bad.

Anyhow, I don't see why people panic about such a tiny thing like the swine flu when there are more spooky things to panic over- peak oil, the economic crisis that will perhaps destroy Western civilization, the combination of the former two, the end of the world in 2012 because a digit is changing in the ancient Mayan calendar which is apparently a really spooky thing (perhaps the pots and pans and all other things will animate themselves and start hitting people, thereby killing them all - what? it has happened before, if I remember my Popol Vuh correctly) the planet Nibiru, of which there is no scientific evidence but which will surely appear soon and collide with Earth, destroying everything, the New World Order, a ball of plasma coming from the Sun inducing currents in long electrical lines, thereby destroying most of the electrical systems, Yellowstone volcano erupting again, causing a new Ice Age, Cthulhu and the other Elder Gods awakening and causing unspeakable horrors, return of the disco, that really spooky exam that is coming in the end of May...


Really, folks, these are the things you should be worried about. What's a tiny pandemic compared to all of this?

[The Atheist]

Ooooooh... Phase 5... I'm so excited! Will it turn into an actual Pandemic? What will the news tell us next.

Seriously though, I guess they found out everyone got a little tired of the pirates and the recession, so they jump on the next big thing as if there is no tomorrow.

Wait...Is there a tomorrow?

Yep, an that's probably when we go to DEFCON 6!

[Stargazer86]

A child in Texas died

They closed the high school down the street from me for at least a week...I hear some of the kids from there got it.

[Virgil]

I've come to the conclusion that humanity has an apocalyptic mentality engrained in it. This is a bunch of nonsense, blown way out of proportion by the fear mongering class.

[The Atheist]

I've come to the conclusion that humanity has an apocalyptic mentality engrained in it. This is a bunch of nonsense, blown way out of proportion by the fear mongering class.

Yep, I think that sums it up pretty well.