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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
 Posted - 09/12/2006 : 05:22:45
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http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060911-103340-7169r.htm
You had better sit down for this one. (Or stand up than sit down again) It appears by this "Study" that, shocking as it may seem, air travel is linked to the spread of the flu!!!
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"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 09/12/2006 : 06:27:42 [Permalink]
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A-hah! Yet another reason for me to avoid airplanes -- as if I needed one! 
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/12/2006 : 13:03:26 [Permalink]
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Say the avian flu mutates and goes pandemic somewhere in the Old World, spreading from human to human. What would be the value of simply slowing down its arrival on the American shores by a couple of weeks? I can only think of one possible answer: Giving more time for production of, and inoculation with, an effective vaccine (assuming one existed), or for the crash production and distribution of Tamiflu. Only if that particular timing occurred, would delaying the pandemic be of any value. Otherwise, now or later, the flu would take its deadly course.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 09/13/2006 : 01:27:50 [Permalink]
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First, in defense of the study, while knowing the traveling public spreads the flu may be a no brainer, and knowing air travel speeds things up is again not a surprise, had the results been negative one could avoid wasting time on efforts to quarantine air travelers if it wasn't going to matter.
As for slowing the spread, there is another very important reason to slow the spread, that is resources. Hospital beds could become quite in demand should the pandemic flu peak rapidly. While if the curve is wider with a lower peak, you can have the bed someone else is no longer in. Less absenteeism would occur as the people who do survive recover and return to work while the next guy gets ill. And as much as we've prepared, there's nothing like the arrival of the threat to get those final plans up and running. A rapid arrival would catch people off guard despite the planning.
So it is more than just time to build up your stockpiles of antivirals and vaccine. You want a lower wider pandemic peak if at all possible. |
| Edited by - beskeptigal on 09/13/2006 01:28:20 |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/13/2006 : 01:40:01 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by beskeptigal
First, in defense of the study, while knowing the traveling public spreads the flu may be a no brainer, and knowing air travel speeds things up is again not a surprise, had the results been negative one could avoid wasting time on efforts to quarantine air travelers if it wasn't going to matter.
As for slowing the spread, there is another very important reason to slow the spread, that is resources. Hospital beds could become quite in demand should the pandemic flu peak rapidly. While if the curve is wider with a lower peak, you can have the bed someone else is no longer in. Less absenteeism would occur as the people who do survive recover and return to work while the next guy gets ill. And as much as we've prepared, there's nothing like the arrival of the threat to get those final plans up and running. A rapid arrival would catch people off guard despite the planning.
So it is more than just time to build up your stockpiles of antivirals and vaccine. You want a lower wider pandemic peak if at all possible.
Ah, that makes good sense!
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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