Pandemic

June 20, 2005 12:28 PM

Warnings of Avian Flu pandemic.
posted by semmi (30 comments total)

Waiting for inevitable "chicken little" comments in 3..2..1...

That said, if Nature is paying attention, then so are the public health agencies, which means quarantining and other tactics will be employed before there are too many victims. I have no problem with being cautious about viral outbreaks.
posted by Rothko at 12:34 PM on June 20, 2005

For nightmares, see also epidemiCA
posted by glider at 12:41 PM on June 20, 2005

54 confirmed dead from lab testing. 107 cases in total. (only includes Vietnam Cambodia Thailand) - W.H.O.
posted by peacay at 12:46 PM on June 20, 2005

Warnings of a population bomb.

chicken
posted by 517 at 12:47 PM on June 20, 2005

Congratulation! You are the tenth PandemicFilter!! poster to bring avian flu panic to the Blue in the last 12 months!

(PandemicFilter!! is not a Chicken Little response. It's a simple fact that MeFi sees a lot of "pandemic coming" FPPs, and as such the average MeFite does not become more informed about the killer bird flu by being linked to paid-reg-required sites.)
posted by graymouser at 12:58 PM on June 20, 2005

Every article on that page is "Free Access", graymouser. Thanks for the link, Semmi.
posted by longdaysjourney at 1:21 PM on June 20, 2005

longdaysjourney -

The linked entry takes you to "news@nature," which is subscriber-only, and "Nature" itself, which is free. I clicked thru to the former, which made me figure it was a subscriber-only thing. My bad.

I still think it's a bad post, lacking in any degree of analysis - which is particularly offensive given the fact that there have been nine other pandemic threads in the past year.
posted by graymouser at 1:39 PM on June 20, 2005

*atchoo*
posted by veryape at 1:46 PM on June 20, 2005

The situation is changing through the course of a year. As for analysis, maybe you should actually read the linked materials.
I think something that has 50% lethality is important enough to mention several times.
posted by c13 at 1:57 PM on June 20, 2005

Wesa people gonna die?
posted by keswick at 2:07 PM on June 20, 2005

Damnit, the real world should not start imitating bad Stephen King novels/miniseries.

looks over shoulder to see if guy with no face is there
posted by unreason at 2:09 PM on June 20, 2005

Looking for less juvenile/more intelligent conversation on this subject? Exit MeFi, stage right.
posted by spock at 2:19 PM on June 20, 2005

So analysis is mandatory now for a FPP? *shrug* Whatever floats your boat, I guess - it's a good link in my book and certainly not "offensive".
posted by longdaysjourney at 2:24 PM on June 20, 2005

don't fear the reaper.
posted by roue at 2:41 PM on June 20, 2005

*bangs on cowbell*
posted by keswick at 2:55 PM on June 20, 2005

c13, longdaysjourney - I don't disagree that the site linked to was interesting, but it deserved more than five words. There's been plenty of news on H5N1 since the last post on the topic. Something beyond the one link was merited.
posted by graymouser at 3:12 PM on June 20, 2005

Dude, the linked site contains about 110 links to papers and articles covering all aspects of flu epidemic. It even has links to editorials (i.e. analysis). About a quarter of them have free access. What more do you want?
posted by c13 at 3:22 PM on June 20, 2005

Details about a proposed flu-wiki.
posted by peacay at 3:45 PM on June 20, 2005

I anticipate the wikitorials, flickr sets, RSS feeds, and del.icio.us tags. Can I expect pandemic related lifehacks? Will someone whip up a pandemic Greasemonkey script? Thank god for the blogosphere!
posted by keswick at 3:49 PM on June 20, 2005

Keswick, its easy to skip a post you think is crap, no?
posted by c13 at 4:24 PM on June 20, 2005

Every blog has its self-appointed jackboots.
posted by spock at 4:42 PM on June 20, 2005

Or perhaps keswick might like to have a read of that weblog link.

"Effect Measure is a forum for progressive public health discussion and argument as well as a source of public health information from around the web that interests the Editor"

and

"In epidemiology an effect is the endpoint of a causal mechanism. An effect measure is an estimate of the influence of a particular factor on a population's health. The Editors of Effect Measure are senior public health scientists and practitioners. Their names would be immediately recognizable to many in the public health community. They prefer to keep their online and public lives separate to allow maximum freedom of expression. Paul Revere was a member of the first local Board of Health in the United States (Boston, 1799). The Editors sign their posts "Revere" to recognize the public service of a professional forerunner better known for other things. "

I was just posting a couple of salient sideline links relating to this topic. MeTa is the place to go to communicate breaches of guidelines, etiquette or any other transgression anyone thinks Flufilter material constitutes.
==============
on preview:

spock writes "Every blog has its self-appointed jackboots."
What is that supposed to mean in english?
posted by peacay at 4:50 PM on June 20, 2005

oh look, i got a bite! *cranks reel wildly*
posted by keswick at 5:00 PM on June 20, 2005

I've been farting a lot lately - is that bad? Rumbly ones.
posted by nj_subgenius at 5:03 PM on June 20, 2005

Bring out your dead!
posted by bwg at 5:50 PM on June 20, 2005

Reading The Stand really doesn't help my outlook on this sort of pandemic talk.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 7:53 PM on June 20, 2005

It's not so much the virus scare that really scares me. These have a, 89-99% recovery rate?

What scares me is what will happen when the CDC and FEMA decide that there is enough of a threat, and decide to quarantine a significant area.
It'll be martial law. Try to leave, and be shot. For the greater good of the country, of course.
posted by Balisong at 8:05 PM on June 20, 2005

"fluwiki" is a Sicilian slang term.
posted by stbalbach at 10:34 PM on June 20, 2005

Balisong- It's more likely than you'd think; 9 people in Texas were quarantined during the SARS epidemic in 2003. The US government would certainly try to quarantine areas that get hit by a bird flu outbreak, in an attempt to keep it from spreading to the rest of the country (or, at least, spreading quite so fast, giving citizens in other areas more time to prepare). Frankly, I don't think that's such a bad idea: force people to stay home, avoid contact and public gatherings, avoid spreading the bug too much. As long as the power stays on and people can still watch the news or get on the Internet, this might be a good thing.

But once the flu goes nationwide, it won't really be a feasible plan, because the people who would be enforcing the quarantine will be tied up trying to escort interstate food and medicine shipments and trying to prevent looting in local stores. And don't forget that a good number of our National Guard is overseas at the moment...

So really, a panicky quarantine would suck the most for the first few cities to be hit, while there's still the manpower and the will to enforce it. After that, it's everyone for themselves.
posted by Asparagirl at 11:35 PM on June 20, 2005

Congratulation! You are the tenth PandemicFilter!! poster to bring avian flu panic to the Blue in the last 12 months!

I was number 3 in that list, woohoo! Hey, at least I made the podium.
posted by Meridian at 3:57 AM on June 21, 2005