Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

cjj wrote:I'm going to make sure I have some room in the freezer for the inevitable upcoming sale on pork...

That was my feeling tonight as I watched our state capital report on the H1N1 virus and the negative impact on the pork industry - the head of the Michigan pork producers was explaining it has not a thing to do with the meat marketed as the illness is passed human to human and the swine growers test, monitor their animals, and have taken isolation steps to protect their animals. Still, people will react, and pork will go on sale to move the meat. Yum yum, fire up the grill!

From today's Houston Chroncile:

So is going to turn out to be another one of those false panics that we've seen so many times?

relatively mild
Genetic data indicate this outbreak won't be as deadly as that of 1918, or even the average winter.
By Karen Kaplan and Alan Zarembo
April 30, 2009
As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked to swine flu inside U.S. borders, scientists studying the virus are coming to the consensus that this hybrid strain of influenza -- at least in its current form -- isn't shaping up to be as fatal as the strains that caused some previous pandemics.

In fact, the current outbreak of the H1N1 virus, which emerged in San Diego and southern Mexico late last month, may not even do as much damage as the run-of-the-mill flu outbreaks that occur each winter without much fanfare.

Good quote, Kent ... I think that people lose perspective too easily. By boss here at work went immediately into a 'the sky is falling' mode when the news hit; there was a planned trip to Austin for next week, which is now canceled for other reasons, but was up in the air (no pun intended) about the 'dangers of traveling during a pandemic" ... give me a break!

wmthor wrote:From today's Houston Chroncile:

Great cartoon, Richard!

BTW, your twin (or is that your other job? ) has been quoted in the news:

Cold-case detective Richard Bengston said serial killers frequently select victims of a different ethnicity.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090501/ap_ ... layings_18

Just to be clear... I'm not saying that it's not potentially serious, but we've seen so many "scares" that it's hard to get me all worked up (Alar anyone?).

Flu is a serious thing. LOTS of peoploe die from the flu every year. My question is --- every year there is a flu, and every year it kills a bunch of people:

Flu spreads around the world in seasonal epidemics, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands annually — millions in pandemic years. Three influenza pandemics occurred in the 20th century and killed tens of millions of people, with each of these pandemics being caused by the appearance of a new strain of the virus in humans. Often, these new strains result from the spread of an existing flu virus to humans from other animal species. An avian strain named H5N1 raised the concern of a new influenza pandemic, after it emerged in Asia in the 1990s, but it has not mutated to a form that spreads easily between people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza

... and this flu if OFF SEASON. If it were ON SEASON (fall-winter) wouldn't it be treated as simply this years flu? What is different about this one that is causing such a panic?

Let's not lose sight of the fact it is Nielson ratings period right now, the important one that sets the rates for the majority of the year, and also there might be a little media sleight-of-hand involved too.

This appears to be a mild flu. As was stated, tens of thousands die annually of the regular ol' flu. Primarily the elderly and very young. The victims in Mexico were not of "normal" flu dying age. They were something like 30 - 50 years old. Very likely pre-existing factors at play. Most others have gotten sick and recovered, quite normally. Of course it's spreading, world travel makes that possible.

Just being out in public, and specially working in the airport as I often do, you can see how careless people are when they sneeze, rub their nose, etc. I've have people try to give me papers and documents from their mouths, where they had been carrying them, arms laden with baggage. Yuck.

I believe the gov. has to show it is reacting and concerned in a big way because the media is really playing this up. My gosh, it's brought up every few minutes on news channels.

So take normal precautions, but really, it seems not to be a killer virus.

Pork ain't gonna kill ya ('cept clogging your arteries).

Avian flu it more worrisome, but it's not spreading rapidly (thanks, USDA!!!!).

brammy wrote:... What is different about this one that is causing such a panic?

It's probably because this is a strain that is a blend of porcine and avian variants that also is infectious to humans.

.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

One would think that there would a big downside to these things..... that the next time there is a legitimate emergency the public would not respond because of the doubt previously sewn. SARS, Alar, Swine Flu #1, Anthrax, vaccine shortages, global cooling, global warming, over-population, acid rain, spotted owls..... I think you get my point (even those of you devoted to worrying about "climate change" ).

But no, it seems that we never get cynical about the latest scare to come down the pike. Amazingly enough there seems to be no end to our "sky is falling" susceptibility. Who knows, maybe that is a good thing.


Earth Day predictions of 1970
----------------------------------------

“We have about five more years at the outside to do something.”
• Kenneth Watt, ecologist

“Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”
• George Wald, Harvard Biologist

“We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation.”
• Barry Commoner, Washington University biologist

“Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction.”
• New York Times editorial, the day after the first Earth Day

“Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

“By…[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

“It is already too late to avoid mass starvation.”
• Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day

“Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions….By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.”
• Peter Gunter, professor, North Texas State University

“Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support…the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution…by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half….”
• Life Magazine, January 1970

“At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it’s only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable.”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

“Air pollution…is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

“We are prospecting for the very last of our resources and using up the nonrenewable things many times faster than we are finding new ones.”
• Martin Litton, Sierra Club director

“By the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate…that there won’t be any more crude oil. You’ll drive up to the pump and say, `Fill ‘er up, buddy,’ and he’ll say, `I am very sorry, there isn’t any.’”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

“Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.”
• Sen. Gaylord Nelson

“The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

Kent,Prepare yourself i predict a RAS flu epidemic. Symptoms are horrendous.

Im actually fizzing mad i typed in Rockingbetter to google to get a pic and clicks on google images and its showing my 620 as a rockingbetter.How offensive
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en ... a=N&tab=wi

that's libel, Scotty. There goes your reputation JH will be in touch soon.

Rockinworser gives me flu-like symptoms, thats for sure.

I realized that we all could have been real wise guys by doing this to the thread at the start:

WHO raises Swine Flu alert to Level 5

Okay, I give up ... who?