when the hypothetical happens
friday afternoon. i was preparing for 2 things. the first being trish's wedding, the rehearsal dinner of which was going on that evening and with me being in the bridal party i was going to feel bad not being able to make the dinner. anyhow, an escape to tulsa as fast as possible was in order. and the second thing was a presentation on a hypothetical avian flu epidemic in which it transfers into being sustained person-to-person transmission and about 100 people are initially exposed to it in tulsa, oklahoma. The presentation was for a class on public health preparedness and practices dealing mainly with threats of rapid infection spread or bioterrorism.
Prior to this class period i did NOT have much informtion on swine flu. During the middle of the class, my professor got called out of class due to necessity of being on a conference call dealing with the rising situation. considering his background, obviously this makes a lot of sense. He came back into the class and discussed the situation with us. The entire thing was terribly ironic considering the presentation project assignment that we were working on at the exact present time. our hypothetical situation seemed pretty ironic considering the exact event was going on now with swine flu. on friday the count was 2 confirmed cases in texas, 6 in california, and about 100 exposed people in mexico. We began to do research as a class effort and figure out what we could. only i couldn't stay around to see when i could find out because i had a wedding to get to. i tried to catch a CDC statement on NPR on the way to tulsa but all i could do at this point was to watch it unfold.
Sunday afternoon. I had not had internet access in a few days due to being away for a gorgeous wedding. (Congrats Trishy) As soon as i get back and begin my research I see the situation has escalated immensely. After being in the middle of it friday and studying in class exactly what COULD happen and then watching the first steps happening within just a few days, of course i began freaking out. I have seen where this situation can go, i've studied it continually and aside from that was taking a class BASED on this situation. (and watching toooooo many outbreak movies)
The point of this is that this flu is an immeadiate threat and should be taken seriously. the arguement of "the regular flu kills people every year" is null and void in my opinion. people survived the plague too... stupidity kills people too. the flu kills people by changing to a case of pneumonia and combining with other factors in one's body and environment. this flu does NOT have a vaccine and is resistant to two of the 4 antivirals we have. if it continues to evolve, it could be as bad as past epidemics where millions die or it could just scare the hell out of us all, which is what it should do. If borders start closing and supplies can't get in we'll be in an exponential amount of trouble. please understand the severity of how fast it is spreading. Understand that as soon as there is one case in a state, many are to follow. it IS that contagious but once a person contracts the virus he has no idea for at least a day and every person he has come into contact with in that day are now exposed.
A virus is an amazing thing. I'm dedicating a portion of my life to respecting and understanding them. They are defined as not living things, but they are able to adapt and change with their environments far better than we as humans are. In my opinion viruses are natures way of keeping populations in check--we've already far surpassed the population of the planet that we should have and this only will account for further spreading. please just be careful. don't take a threat like this lightly. Its already in many countries. I'll never understand how people will duct-tape windows for the year 2000 but will laugh at an infection spreading over the land.
Prior to this class period i did NOT have much informtion on swine flu. During the middle of the class, my professor got called out of class due to necessity of being on a conference call dealing with the rising situation. considering his background, obviously this makes a lot of sense. He came back into the class and discussed the situation with us. The entire thing was terribly ironic considering the presentation project assignment that we were working on at the exact present time. our hypothetical situation seemed pretty ironic considering the exact event was going on now with swine flu. on friday the count was 2 confirmed cases in texas, 6 in california, and about 100 exposed people in mexico. We began to do research as a class effort and figure out what we could. only i couldn't stay around to see when i could find out because i had a wedding to get to. i tried to catch a CDC statement on NPR on the way to tulsa but all i could do at this point was to watch it unfold.
Sunday afternoon. I had not had internet access in a few days due to being away for a gorgeous wedding. (Congrats Trishy) As soon as i get back and begin my research I see the situation has escalated immensely. After being in the middle of it friday and studying in class exactly what COULD happen and then watching the first steps happening within just a few days, of course i began freaking out. I have seen where this situation can go, i've studied it continually and aside from that was taking a class BASED on this situation. (and watching toooooo many outbreak movies)
The point of this is that this flu is an immeadiate threat and should be taken seriously. the arguement of "the regular flu kills people every year" is null and void in my opinion. people survived the plague too... stupidity kills people too. the flu kills people by changing to a case of pneumonia and combining with other factors in one's body and environment. this flu does NOT have a vaccine and is resistant to two of the 4 antivirals we have. if it continues to evolve, it could be as bad as past epidemics where millions die or it could just scare the hell out of us all, which is what it should do. If borders start closing and supplies can't get in we'll be in an exponential amount of trouble. please understand the severity of how fast it is spreading. Understand that as soon as there is one case in a state, many are to follow. it IS that contagious but once a person contracts the virus he has no idea for at least a day and every person he has come into contact with in that day are now exposed.
A virus is an amazing thing. I'm dedicating a portion of my life to respecting and understanding them. They are defined as not living things, but they are able to adapt and change with their environments far better than we as humans are. In my opinion viruses are natures way of keeping populations in check--we've already far surpassed the population of the planet that we should have and this only will account for further spreading. please just be careful. don't take a threat like this lightly. Its already in many countries. I'll never understand how people will duct-tape windows for the year 2000 but will laugh at an infection spreading over the land.
posted by bitterhoney at 11:20 AM
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