Pandemic threat is real

[Tony617]

That reminds me, I had chickenpox as a kid.... gotta get that shingles vac, myself!

Thanks for reminding me since I need to get a shingles shot as well. I had chickenpox late when I was 13 years old. Did not get too many bumps on my face an arms but I did on my legs. Had to sleep without a blank for week though. My bother in law got chickenpox in college so he had it really bad.

 

[billdeserthills]

Thanks for reminding me since I need to get a shingles shot as well. I had chickenpox late when I was 13 years old. Did not get too many bumps on my face an arms but I did on my legs. Had to sleep without a blank for week though. My bother in law got chickenpox in college so he had it really bad.

I had a client who had received the shingles shot, told me he had 2-3 days of horrible reaction to it but he felt that was better than it could have been

Far as getting sick goes I like to take a pro-biotic--the sooner your stomach is working properly the sooner you'll feel better

 

[The Heretic]

I had a client who had received the shingles shot, told me he had 2-3 days of horrible reaction to it but he felt that was better than it could have been

Far as getting sick goes I like to take a pro-biotic--the sooner your stomach is working properly the sooner you'll feel better

The reaction would still be better than getting shingles itself - I am told that it can be bad and that for some people it can last a while, and later they are still prone to recurrences?

 

[billdeserthills]

The reaction would still be better than getting shingles itself - I am told that it can be bad and that for some people it can last a while, and later they are still prone to recurrences?

I understand the reaction is actually shingles
albeit for a shorter amount of time--

 

[Stomper]

All I remember from when I was a kid, that Grandpa had the Shingles, for a LONG time.... it made him a bigger, meaner, more eviler bastige than he normally was.... on a good day.

 

[Capn Jack]

My wife has me get all of the shots.

So she gets a discount on the groceries.

 

[CountryGent]

This isn't far off from the casualties that Brushfire Plague is based on!

A leading medical institution created a simulation that shows how a new disease could kill 900 million people — and it reveals how unprepared we are

Interesting read, thanks for posting the link. I will do some more reading on this simulation when I have time. Other than the terrorist angle of the simulation, the scenario sounds a bit like that was depicted in the fictional thriller Contagion (2011). I recall the film was praised for being realistic from the medical aspect.

 

[JRuby]

I remember some on here playing chicken little about the Ebola virus that was supposed to cause massive death and destruction but never materialized. If this happens so be it it is z natural occurrence. You guys actually think.your getting out of this game we call life alive.

 

[HB of CJ]

Pandemics may be naturally occurring events? What does not kill you makes you stronger? What might be horrible beyond belief for the human race might in fact be what is best for the ecosystems of the planet? We have almost 8 billion souls already. Would we be better off in the long term if we had only 1 billion instead? Or 100 million? Dunno that. Not my call. Yikes!

Edited for speellling, sintax, grammour, punch u ation, wong word, danglings part a cycles.

 

[slimmer13]

If I make it, I got dibs on 100 miles in every direction from my present location

 

[The Heretic]

Pandemics often are natural events.

What doesn't kill you may make you stronger - or weaker - it depends on the context. I injured by spin 45+ years ago and it did not kill me (the event came close though) but it did make me weaker, as did crushing my foot.

Would we (as a species) be better off overall with much less of us? Probably.

Unfortunately, sometime later this century, probably in about 3-5 decades, we will learn the answer when we come to the logical conclusion of our current behavior. Even if we stopped all population growth tomorrow, we are most likely going to experience a die off because we are already past the tipping point - and if we go on as we are it will just happen that much sooner.

We each have a say in this, but unfortunately too many people are ignoring what others say, and our leaders are corrupted and the people that control them don't care what will happen in the future as they will either be dead by then and/or their children will have the resources to weather it. We may be the most intelligent species on earth, but we lack the necessary wisdom to even try to escape the conclusion to our unwise behavior.

The best we can do as individuals is prepare for what is coming - we, as individuals, cannot prevent it.

 

[NCW_Robert]

"God's will and he is just going to press the reset button?"

If I where the leader of china and I wanted to invade/take over the USA, I would just mix up some H5N1 bird flu and make sure is was delivered here and set back and wait.

After the USA was softened up, I'd then invade and expect not much resistance. In fact, I'd land on the shores under the auspices of a humanitarian effort, then just ramp it up until I was in total control. Probably not even have to fire more then a few shots at what was left of the resistance, that would be people like us dug in out in the hills with plenty of guns/ammo and supplies.

So.... you guys who are saying it will be God's will and he is just going to press the reset button, keep on thinking that, I hope if it does happen GOD is responsible and not china in a effort to soften us up pre-invasion.

~

 

[Decoy]

No bubblegums given to what that anti gun pos says.



Just saying.

 

[justcuz]

1918 Spanish flu, besides the chicken little cry of influenza every year, was the last major world wide pandemic the humanoids on this planet endured, some say 100 million, others say 50 million, still others say 20 million souls succumbed due to the virus. It was quite discriminating mainly only affecting younger and older souls around the world.

Think for a moment if a resurgence of the spanish flu or the black death or the plague were to return in our modern society with today's air/auto/sea transportation capabilities ...that is why Ebola treatment centers should be watched very closely and communities and areas quarantined sooner rather than later!

Get the prophylactic shingle shot, especially if you know you had the chicken pox. Do not wait till you are 'older' e.g. 60ish as recommended by GPs.

 

[etrain16]

My great-grandfather died of the Spanish Flu in 1918. My great-grandmother was just pregnant with my grandfather at the time. If he had died a few months earlier, I wouldn't be here today. Close call for my whole family line. He was only 25 when he died and, by family accounts, a very strong, hard-working young man. Didn't matter though. Strong, weak, all can be taken out. Thank goodness for the vaccines we have today. Not a cure-all, but certainly has helped. And I'm probably going to be due for the shingles vac somewhere here down the road too.

 

[Motomom34]

This isn't far off from the casualties that Brushfire Plague is based on!

A leading medical institution created a simulation that shows how a new disease could kill 900 million people — and it reveals how unprepared we are

@unionguy should link your book unless it is against the CoC here. I just finished Jakarta Pandemic and have moved onto the Zulu series by Steven Konoly. Many people do not believe we will ever face a pandemic, they have extreme faith in modern medicine. I do think that one of these days, something will mutate and we as a planet will face a pandemic that would be devastating. Some people fear Yellowstone, some fear nuclear war, I fear pandemic. Already reports are coming out of Africa that the Ebola virus has mutated. One of these times it will be unstoppable.

 

[HB of CJ]

My grandmothers first husband died at the end of or shortly after WW1 in Europe. USMC. She had to remarry. My dad was born in about 1924. Me in about 1946. We were never told how my grandmother's first husband died. Spanish Flu?

Many nasty diseases. The problem with artificially acquired immunity, (inoculations) is that once a nasty disease is conquered very few folks today get the shots. All of us Norther European People may have a little resistance to Plague?

Dunno. Maybe a little. We are descended from the survivors.

I remember lining up in grade school, (5th grade?) and getting all the shots in the arm. Didn't really hurt. Good nurses. I have had most of the disease inoculations. Off shore. Most kids today do or do not? Living in an isolated area works?

Boy am I glad I am no longer a RN. Daily quinine dose.

 

[bbbass]

The reaction would still be better than getting shingles itself - I am told that it can be bad and that for some people it can last a while, and later they are still prone to recurrences?

Shingles is a virus that lives in the nerve sheath... it never leaves. Instead, the population of virus blooms from time to time... so yes there can be recurrences.

I understand the reaction is actually shingles
albeit for a shorter amount of time--

Depends on what shingle vaccine is administered: Zostavax is a weakened live virus... therefore the person being vaccinated is getting "shingles" the disease. The body is usually able to fight off the weakened virus and no other symptoms are noted beyond mild discomfort. Shinvax is a recombinant vaccine... the virus is not a live virus and symptoms are the body's reaction via the immune system. Both vaccines may produce immune response symptoms.

 

[bbbass]

Unfortunately, sometime later this century, probably in about 3-5 decades, we will learn the answer when we come to the logical conclusion of our current behavior. Even if we stopped all population growth tomorrow, we are most likely going to experience a die off because we are already past the tipping point - and if we go on as we are it will just happen that much sooner.

We each have a say in this, but unfortunately too many people are ignoring what others say, and our leaders are corrupted and the people that control them don't care what will happen in the future as they will either be dead by then and/or their children will have the resources to weather it. We may be the most intelligent species on earth, but we lack the necessary wisdom to even try to escape the conclusion to our unwise behavior.

The best we can do as individuals is prepare for what is coming - we, as individuals, cannot prevent it.

Is the sky really falling?

Hmmm, very few people are still spouting the tenets of Paul Ehrlich's "Population Bomb" despite many debunkings. He first postulated his theories in 1968, six years after Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring".

"We haven't starved, we haven't run out of resources, and we're better off than we've ever been."

"Stewart Brand, a former disciple of Ehrlich's, asks: "How many years do you have to not have the world end to decide that it didn't end because that reasoning was wrong?""

Julian L. Simon, an economist who established himself as the anti-Ehrlich, arguing that "humanity's condition will improve in just about every material way." In 1997, a year before he died, Mr. Simon told Wired magazine that "whatever the rate of population growth is, historically it has been that the food supply increases at least as fast, if not faster."

"The basic issue involved: are human beings any good? Is a new person just another mouth to feed—or does he have the potential to become someone who discovers how to feed the world? Do more humans just cause more problems—or do we solve them? Do we only destroy, or do we create? Are human beings good, and if so, shouldn't we want more of them?"

What the NYT Didn't Learn from Paul Ehrlich's Failure