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Asian Bird Flu

stosh

Darth Bailer
Jul 20, 2001
22,238
393
NY
I agree with the fact that precautions need to be made to help fight it should it reach the US shores. However isn't it more important for it to be fought now in the countries where it is actually a problem?
Wouldn't it be less costly and more efficient for Bush to head it off at the pass?

Seems to me his costly plan it more smoke and mirrors to take the public's eyes off his failing war in Iraq and his vice president's chief of staff being indicted, his Republican majority leader being indicted, his pick for the supreme court being shot down by his own party. It's hard to believe he hasn't accepted defeat yet.
 

N8 v2.0

Not the sharpest tool in the shed
Oct 18, 2002
11,003
149
The Cleft of Venus
stosh said:
Seems to me his [Bush's] costly plan it more smoke and mirrors to take the public's eyes off his failing war in Iraq and his vice president's chief of staff being indicted, his Republican majority leader being indicted, his pick for the supreme court being shot down by his own party. It's hard to believe he hasn't accepted defeat yet.

Winner never quit...
 

Andyman_1970

Turbo Monkey
Apr 4, 2003
3,105
5
The Natural State
Hey Chang is NZ doing anything proactive right now to prepare?

A co-worker of mine just got back from Australia and said that at the international airports there they are constructing barracks there to quarrantine anyone they suspect having the bird flu.
 

Andyman_1970

Turbo Monkey
Apr 4, 2003
3,105
5
The Natural State
Flu Proposal Misguided

Thursday, November 03, 2005

By Steven Milloy

Faced with growing frenzy about the possibility of pandemic flu, President Bush reached back into the politician's bag of traditional "solutions" this week and proposed that taxpayers pay an additional $7.1 billion to prepare for the possibility of an outbreak.

The president attempted to justify his proposal in large part by raising the specter of the 1918 influenza pandemic, which he noted "killed over half-a-million Americans and more than 20 million people across the globe."

Spending that kind of money to avert that kind of catastrophe may sound reasonable, but in this case, it's misguided.

First, it's quite possible, if not likely, that no pandemic will occur any time soon by the current bird virus-of-interest, called H5N1. The virus has remained largely confined to birds for years. Only about 120 people in Asia have been hospitalized due to the virus. Although 60 deaths have been attributed to the virus, infectious disease experts know that no pandemic is likely to result from a virus that apparently kills such a high percentage of its hosts since the hosts will have less opportunity to spread the disease.

There is much unknown about H5N1. Given that uncounted numbers of Asian poultry and other birds have harbored the virus, it's quite likely that many people have been exposed to H5N1 but haven't been made ill or at least haven't required hospitalization. It doesn't appear that mere exposure to the virus necessarily leads to illness. No one knows why some people are sickened after handling diseased birds but others aren't.

The virus is not known to be transmitted human-to-human — a requirement for pandemic status. H5N1 would have to acquire significant genetic mutations before that could become a possibility.

Only much more scientific research will unravel the mystery of H5N1. Without better understanding of the virus, public health officials ought to be cautious so they don't waste limited resources.

Next, let's take a deep breath before we draw parallels to the 1918 pandemic. That tragedy came on the heels of World War I. Much of the world was starving and physiologically stressed at that time, thereby making the world's population much more vulnerable to illness.

Even if a pandemic strikes now, it's unlikely to be anywhere near as tragic, since today's standard of medical care far exceeds that of 1918.

As pointed out in a Nov. 1 letter to the Wall Street Journal by Dr. Edward H. Livingston, chairman of Gastrointestinal and Endocrine Surgery at the University of Texas- Southwestern School of Medicine, "In 1918 care of the flu patient was limited to rest, providing aspirin, oxygen and other supportive measures. The primary cause of death was pneumonia resulting from bacterial infection of lungs injured as a result of the flu. Lacking antibiotics, there was no effective way of treating the pneumonia ... Today's antibiotics allow for the successful treatment of all but the most resistant bacteria causing pneumonia."

"Modern hospitals have far greater bed capacity than they did at the turn of the century, are climate controlled and have intensive care units allowing for the care of the sickest patients. Replacing lost fluids with intravenous therapy is performed as routine today, but was virtually nonexistent in 1918," added Dr. Livingston.

Dr. Livingston urged the avoidance of panic about the flu, since "There is little likelihood that the flu will have the same impact on the population that it did in 1918.

Avoiding panic ought to include not simply throwing more taxpayer money into the federal bureaucracy.

The federal government has budgeted about $67 billion in discretionary spending in 2006 for the Department of Health and Human Services, including about $7.5 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal agency responsible for managing disease outbreaks, and another $28 billion the National Institutes of Health, the federal agency in charge of medical research.

It would seem the federal government already has enough money at its disposal to address the flu threat without hitting up taxpayers for more. Sure agency budgets might need to go back to the drawing board, but shouldn't that be the first option rather than simply resorting to milking taxpayers?

Protecting the public against infectious disease like the flu is already part of the mandate of the federal public health establishment. Despite recent media attention, the flu pandemic threat is not new. Why should taxpayers pay more for protection that should already exist or, at least, have long been under development?

Public health bureaucracies, of course, will resist a reallocation of funds from pet programs to the sort of flu protection that President Bush says we need right now. But perhaps less important programs should be put on hold to prepare for a flu pandemic.

Virtually all individuals, families and organizations have to prioritize how they spend their limited resources. Why shouldn't the government be held to a similar standard?

The president has called for stockpiling $1.5 billion in influenza vaccines. But because we don't know the precise strain of virus that might cause a pandemic, it's quite possible that stockpiled vaccines would be entirely useless. Resources would be better spent developing technology to rapidly produce vaccines – a longstanding bottleneck in vaccine production that should have been addressed years back rather than now in the heat of the newly sparked flu frenzy.

Panic spending to stem a hyped, but so-far hypothetical disease outbreak is dubious public policy. So is asking taxpayers to pay for protection they should already have.
 

BurlyShirley

Rex Grossman Will Rise Again
Jul 4, 2002
19,180
17
TN
Lets just put an end to this.

THERE IS NO ****ing BIRD FLU!!!!!!!! Quit watching goddam TV for once in your lives.
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,232
20,016
Sleazattle
BurlyShirley said:
Lets just put an end to this.

THERE IS NO ****ing BIRD FLU!!!!!!!! Quit watching goddam TV for once in your lives.

But the president told us to be afraid??
 

Inclag

Turbo Monkey
Sep 9, 2001
2,750
439
MA
Andyman_1970 said:
Flu Proposal Misguided

Thursday, November 03, 2005

By Steven Milloy

Faced with growing frenzy about the possibility of pandemic flu, President Bush reached back into the politician's bag of traditional "solutions" this week and proposed that taxpayers pay an additional $7.1 billion to prepare for the possibility of an outbreak.

The president attempted to justify his proposal in large part by raising the specter of the 1918 influenza pandemic, which he noted "killed over half-a-million Americans and more than 20 million people across the globe."

Spending that kind of money to avert that kind of catastrophe may sound reasonable, but in this case, it's misguided.

First, it's quite possible, if not likely, that no pandemic will occur any time soon by the current bird virus-of-interest, called H5N1. The virus has remained largely confined to birds for years. Only about 120 people in Asia have been hospitalized due to the virus. Although 60 deaths have been attributed to the virus, infectious disease experts know that no pandemic is likely to result from a virus that apparently kills such a high percentage of its hosts since the hosts will have less opportunity to spread the disease.

There is much unknown about H5N1. Given that uncounted numbers of Asian poultry and other birds have harbored the virus, it's quite likely that many people have been exposed to H5N1 but haven't been made ill or at least haven't required hospitalization. It doesn't appear that mere exposure to the virus necessarily leads to illness. No one knows why some people are sickened after handling diseased birds but others aren't.

The virus is not known to be transmitted human-to-human — a requirement for pandemic status. H5N1 would have to acquire significant genetic mutations before that could become a possibility.

Only much more scientific research will unravel the mystery of H5N1. Without better understanding of the virus, public health officials ought to be cautious so they don't waste limited resources.

Next, let's take a deep breath before we draw parallels to the 1918 pandemic. That tragedy came on the heels of World War I. Much of the world was starving and physiologically stressed at that time, thereby making the world's population much more vulnerable to illness.

Even if a pandemic strikes now, it's unlikely to be anywhere near as tragic, since today's standard of medical care far exceeds that of 1918.

As pointed out in a Nov. 1 letter to the Wall Street Journal by Dr. Edward H. Livingston, chairman of Gastrointestinal and Endocrine Surgery at the University of Texas- Southwestern School of Medicine, "In 1918 care of the flu patient was limited to rest, providing aspirin, oxygen and other supportive measures. The primary cause of death was pneumonia resulting from bacterial infection of lungs injured as a result of the flu. Lacking antibiotics, there was no effective way of treating the pneumonia ... Today's antibiotics allow for the successful treatment of all but the most resistant bacteria causing pneumonia."

"Modern hospitals have far greater bed capacity than they did at the turn of the century, are climate controlled and have intensive care units allowing for the care of the sickest patients. Replacing lost fluids with intravenous therapy is performed as routine today, but was virtually nonexistent in 1918," added Dr. Livingston.

Dr. Livingston urged the avoidance of panic about the flu, since "There is little likelihood that the flu will have the same impact on the population that it did in 1918.

Avoiding panic ought to include not simply throwing more taxpayer money into the federal bureaucracy.

The federal government has budgeted about $67 billion in discretionary spending in 2006 for the Department of Health and Human Services, including about $7.5 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal agency responsible for managing disease outbreaks, and another $28 billion the National Institutes of Health, the federal agency in charge of medical research.

It would seem the federal government already has enough money at its disposal to address the flu threat without hitting up taxpayers for more. Sure agency budgets might need to go back to the drawing board, but shouldn't that be the first option rather than simply resorting to milking taxpayers?

Protecting the public against infectious disease like the flu is already part of the mandate of the federal public health establishment. Despite recent media attention, the flu pandemic threat is not new. Why should taxpayers pay more for protection that should already exist or, at least, have long been under development?

Public health bureaucracies, of course, will resist a reallocation of funds from pet programs to the sort of flu protection that President Bush says we need right now. But perhaps less important programs should be put on hold to prepare for a flu pandemic.

Virtually all individuals, families and organizations have to prioritize how they spend their limited resources. Why shouldn't the government be held to a similar standard?

The president has called for stockpiling $1.5 billion in influenza vaccines. But because we don't know the precise strain of virus that might cause a pandemic, it's quite possible that stockpiled vaccines would be entirely useless. Resources would be better spent developing technology to rapidly produce vaccines – a longstanding bottleneck in vaccine production that should have been addressed years back rather than now in the heat of the newly sparked flu frenzy.

Panic spending to stem a hyped, but so-far hypothetical disease outbreak is dubious public policy. So is asking taxpayers to pay for protection they should already have.

I can't take that article too seriously. Seems more like the guy just wants to put down Bush. He is making alot of guess-work, assumptions, and contradicts himself. He makes the notion that we are more advanced medically in this day of age and we don't know if a human strain would be as deadly. Then later he goes to say that the current influenza vaccine would be useless (which I believe it is) and that we don't know how bad the strain could be.

I'm not agreeing with this plan at all, and I think Bush is as poor a leader and as bad a failure as most intillegent folk think, but the author of that article is a dope and has no idea hat he is talking about with respect to the bird flu and past pandemics.
 

BurlyShirley

Rex Grossman Will Rise Again
Jul 4, 2002
19,180
17
TN
Andyman_1970 said:
How come you're not on the "this administration sucks" thread???
I really dont think it sucks that bad. Sure, there's been some bonehead moves, but i think the scrutiny this admin is facing goes WAY beyond what any before it has seen. This admin has more of a PR issue than anything. Losing Arie (sp?) Fleischer was its biggest mistake yet, IMO.
 

Andyman_1970

Turbo Monkey
Apr 4, 2003
3,105
5
The Natural State
BurlyShirley said:
I really dont think it sucks that bad. Sure, there's been some bonehead moves, but i think the scrutiny this admin is facing goes WAY beyond what any before it has seen. This admin has more of a PR issue than anything. Losing Arie (sp?) Fleischer was its biggest mistake yet, IMO.
Dude so go chime in.........threads get lame when they are a totally one sided bash fest.................
 

BurlyShirley

Rex Grossman Will Rise Again
Jul 4, 2002
19,180
17
TN
Andyman_1970 said:
Dude so go chime in.........threads get lame when they are a totally one sided bash fest.................
Meh.
Theyre so busy wanking each other off in there, getting a word in edgewise, this late in the argument, seems pointless. Its not as if you can convince people out of irrational hatred. And of course, thats exactly what it is. Irrational hatred. He might not be a great or even good president, but he's nowhere near the monster/retard he's made out to be.
Also, when you think of the "Average" american...can you think of a better guy to represent them?
 

ALEXIS_DH

Tirelessly Awesome
Jan 30, 2003
6,147
796
Lima, Peru, Peru
BurlyShirley said:
I really dont think it sucks that bad. Sure, there's been some bonehead moves, but i think the scrutiny this admin is facing goes WAY beyond what any before it has seen. This admin has more of a PR issue than anything. Losing Arie (sp?) Fleischer was its biggest mistake yet, IMO.

lol..
dude, the last president got his sex life under scrutiny to levels that not even a shrink would ask....

the scrutiny i see with W is of the relevant kind. like "why did we go to war", or "wtf is going on with the bugdet" and that kinda of things....
i dont think its just a PR issue....