I am sick of scrolling see here we go No. 6…
woohoo!
Ah Woodstock you are so easy to please! are you getting BF BO thats bird flu burn out? I am checking in less now, going to bed earlier than before - I was getting a little wikie-afflicted didnt help when my partner called it Flu-Hickie instead of Wiki!
Woodstock, What happened at one of your beach towns several months ago. I recall gangs of white australians and men of arab decent beating the shit out each other. Pretty violent reaction. This is true? Stones and glass houses don’t mix.
Yes i am easy to please. Sad but true :) In case you hadnt already figured out i’m a medicated OCD person…explains a lot eh? Thank god for Prozac i say! ;)
So, the games finish this weekend and I notice these two stories on news.com.au today.
BF spreads to Jordan http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18593437-23109,00.html
Village quarantined in Cambodia http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18587655-23109,00.html
There is something missing out of all of this……..we Australians!
The sooner our MSM and government wakes up the better - we are just so far behind in awareness its an embarrassment.
Bird flu fears have Canadians stockpiling for pandemic
poll: Majority supports mandatory quarantine of those infected
One million Canadians are stockpiling food, water, medicine and cash in preparation for a bird flu pandemic and nearly all citizens support court-ordered quarantines for those exposed to the virus, a new survey revealed.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=7c78aa0a-f5c6-4f2d-adb6-346528a87655
NZ is shaming us in the prep race. Still nothing reported in the media here in Oz apart from outbreaks in other places. Nothing saying people should prepare or how we’ll handle a pandemic. *Sigh*
Woodstock, I really think they’re going to wait till after the games are over to start sending those kinds of messages. If ever…
Azi: Do you think so? How depressingly short sighted. My preps are in a holding pattern until we get the results from hubbys tests on monday…might be a whole new round of grocery shopping due to allergies. All the money i’ve spent!! I could weep..
I hope the results aren’t too bad! Do you have some close family? Perhaps you could put the things you’ve already purchased aside as “bird flu packs” for them?
I have made such a pack for one of my siblings who doesn’t make much money, but who is concerned about a possible pandemic. It’s only around a month of food, but it’s a start at least :-)
i knew you sounded like a kindhearted soul! It looks like hubby has coeliac disease..poor bugger. At least its fixable if life-long.
Oh, well I’m glad to hear it’s treatable. I just looked it up - gluten free diet. Does that mean rice is ok at least?
hehe, yeah, I’m a softie at heart - there is even a month of food for her cats in there! I’ll keep adding to it as time (and money) permit.
yeah rice is ok. i’m just staggered by what has gluten in it. Today i was making baked beans! i mean wtf? who has to make their own baked beans??!! Even ice cream has it added.
Some interesting news re Sydney.
Had dinner last night with a hospital administration staff member from Liverpool Hospital.
I did not mention bird flu, he freely mentioned how concerned he was and that last week the South Western Area Health Service and Liverpool Hospital had a meeting to discuss plans for a pandemic.
Plan is that infected BF patients will be taken to Canterbury and Campbelltown Hospitals and put in isolation. These two hospitals will be themain BF receiving hospitals. Should suspected cases turn up at Liverpool Hospital they will be isolated in a tent city at a park across the road from the hospital.
Of course the old TB hospitals have closed down. They’d have been ideal.
Well, it sounds like there is planning going on, just no communication to the public. I still have my fingers crossed this will happen once the games are over.
i think all the americans are asleep…shhhh.
Just spent the arvo at the pub with some friends, one of whom is an MD - just your standard family doctor. She says they were receiving alot of info from the govt at surgeries until a month or so ago, it’s kind of dried up now. But they have been well versed in how to isolate patients that they think are suspect - that may be based partly on travel history also.
She also believes it’s coming, though “when” is the big unknown. On the plus side, I now have a script for tamiflu, though I don’t fancy my chances of finding somewhere that can fill it :-(
azi: let me know how you get on yes? i still cant get my script filled :(
I’ll let you know! Of course I’m in WA so that may not be much help to you anyways… I read recently that NZ have gotten another shipment of it, does that mean we will soon also? Wish I had another friend who ran a pharmacy :-)
you and me both!
I just this afternoon got the last needful items to complete my twelve-week full-range prep goal. Water only for two weeks or so, admittedly, though I ‘expect’ (read ‘hope’) utilities will most largely stay on through the first wave.
And that is my biggest question: Do others expect the radio, telly, lights, sewage, water supply, rubbish collection etc to stay operational for, say, eight weeks…or ten?
I see so many Americans prepping with electricity generators and swimming-pool size water storage, etc. Is is just a blissful ignorance that I don’t see things getting that bad here? Or am I underestimating the DURATION of a pandemic?
I am also planning to re-stock between waves… Foolish or practical? I have some masks….
Nikolai: i think partly the US folks have more to worry about becasue their population is so much greater re: water etc
Nikolai,
It’s a crap shoot as to what will stay working and what will go down. The support chain is so thin in so many places that about anything could happen. My biggest worry is not losing water but losing the chlorination of it. My area only has supplies of chlorine on hand for about two weeks. I’ve lived in boil water areas and it’s no fun, lots of hard work! You have bleach on hand?
You also have to understand that some of us are techno junkies and see part of this as a challenge to our ingenuity! In my case it’s a double whammy as I’m also an ardent traveler and do a lot of boondocking in undeveloped areas in an RV, toys work for that also. Nothing like being a 100 miles from anywhere with Sat TV, Sat Radio, Sat Internet, a hot shower and a soft bed!
I too think we will have our utilities at least for the first month or so……….and if the first wave lasts between 3–4 months, then I suspect they will be on and off for 2–3 months. This at least gives me time to work through the frozen and refigerated food first before hitting the tined and packaged supplies. I too am looking at stocking up again after the first wave hits….and have ordered masks. At present I am aiming at a 12 week supply. I also had a surprise from one of my friends…….I had previously talked to her about BF. She listened and took it all in……so much so that she mentioned it to another of her friends and was told by this friend …..” I have been stocking up food in the garage for months now incase BF hit”. Makes me wonder how many preppers are out there and we just don’t know.
Corky52: Are you ever set up great! I’ll think of you if this hits, you living in near-luxury! Yes, I do have bleach for anti-viral use and purifying water—thanks to this forum! I’ll pay more attention to electricity failures, though I do have some candles…
jenny1967: We seem to be pretty much on the same page. I do think I’ll up my water if I can—space problems—and add a few candles, etc. Good news on your friends. It all helps.
Nikolai,
We were hoping to get to your neck of the woods next year and rent a “Caravan” to travel around in in the next year or two, not sure that will happen now.
From what you’ve described of you environment the only techno toy that might really serve you well is one of the windup radios. Keeping track of what’s going on if the power is off may be critical to your well being! You wouldn’t want to miss a boil water warning and end up with the running trots or worse.
i wonder what it will be like to be on one of the big outback stations if TSHTF. They’re like soooo far from anyone and anything. Anyone know of stories regarding this in 1918?
Tamiflu availability - I’ve now been laughed at by several chemists here who say it hasn’t been available since September last year. I’ve tried in the city, several suburbs and then cos I got really curious, a country town.
Who’s bought it all? The MDs?
So I bought some more rice and tinned soup :-)
I don’t have any medical or technical background, but I am very uneasy at things I have heard on this Forum AND read in articles by the few recognised and trusted ‘experts’ on Tamiflu.
There are grave reservations how it may perform against a panflu H5N1, but no doubt whatever about how it shapes up to seasonal flu: ‘shortens the symptoms by a day and a half’ at the best.
Please, anyone who has more information and judgement than I, can you give all of us more guidance!
If only to know what we are—or are not—missing out on.
I’m not considering the Tamiflu as my main line of defense - I’m prepping to stay home. But since I now have a script I figured I might as well try and fill it.
Absolutely! Half your luck would do ME! Also, with a script, can you now order from N Z?
I hadn’t thought of that - I wonder if they’d fill it or if it’s still scarce there even with their resupply?
I’m still a bit dubious about ordering drugs from overseas somehow, NZ is a looooong way from West Oz!
dang - that was me in the last post.
i’m going to be in nz next week. will ask what the story is
In NQ the supplies of Tamiflu were scooped up very quickly (well before Xmas) I did not aim for Tamiflu but went for Relenza instead, based on the fact that it goes straight to the lungs and starts working there immediately (had to buy some in from England and got some here locally from a friend who is a chemist) (The supply line from England for Relenza has now dried up as all stocks are sold out.)
I doubt if either of the drugs will be available to the general public again until governmment stock piles are fully supplied.(how they intend to distribute the anti-virals I do not know, in the event of a Pandemic hitting, as they should, ideally, be administered within 48 hrs of onset)
Arbidol is still available from Russia and it is stated as being effective against H5N1 (I have a small shipment on its way at the moment from Pharmacy 10/10 as a back up) SB
another shameless attempt to prompt other Antipodeans to post this afternoon :)
Australians ‘not ready for disaster’ March 28, 2006 - 5:14PM
Australians are not ready for a disaster such as a terrorist attack or spread of bird flu to humans and should undergo their own emergency training so as not to be reliant on authorities, experts say.
Victoria’s emergency services commissioner Bruce Esplin says the community should not rely solely on emergency services in a disaster.
Authorities had so capably handled emergencies in recent decades that the public had a false impression the work was best left to “the professionals”, he said in a statement.
“Communities today should not be passive recipients of services, but should be active participants in determining their own safety outcomes,” Mr Esplin said.
“Being aware and alert by having personal plans in place can be the difference between experiencing a scare and being part of a tragedy.”
Meanwhile, Western Australia’s Fire and Emergency Services Authority director Kevin Cuneo said many emergency services had a lack of understanding of what they were dealing with when they were called out to emergencies.
In a statement, Mr Cuneo said the “fear of the unknown” was hampering emergency services personnel from doing the job properly when they were called out to incidents involving explosives, chemicals or biological agents.
“During responses to … incidents, some emergency service personnel are unwilling to commit in times of uncertainty due to the lack of understanding of what they are dealing with and the recognition of acceptable risk.
“This has also been demonstrated a number of times during the national counter-terrorism exercise program.
“It is a major issue facing all of those involved in emergency response.”
RMIT University science, engineering and technology lecturer Neville Betts said the government and private sectors were ill-prepared for a disaster such as a terror attack or bird flu, which could cost lives.
“Many of the areas where the public routinely assembles, such as trains, shipping and high-rise buildings, have not yet addressed the need to ensure that their organisational arrangements do not fall short of what is required by the Victorian DISPLAN (disaster plan) arrangements,” he said.
“Most tend to rely on the emergency services to pick up the slack.
“The emergency services are generally well-prepared but local staff (private and government non-emergency services workers) are not always properly trained.
“That could lead to tragedy because the first few minutes before the emergency services arrive are vital.”
oh ouch. Thats a tad scary
Hooray - Fluwikie is back!
It seems that my idea that we’d get more media on BF in Australia once the games were over was wrong. I guess the latest round of cyclones have not only been more immediately newsworthy, but have also demonstrated how important it is to be prepared for anything.
At least bushfire season is pretty much over!
AussieOne at 02:56
“Australians ‘Not ready for disaster…’” Good post, thanks for sharing!
Downside, for me, is that I still don’t feel like I’m ready, even with 12 weeks! Downside for everybody hereabouts, if I—and all of you—are not fully ready, what does that say for the mass of our society! Scarey, huh? It takes so long and so much money to prep-up! How can very many, starting now, make it in six months?
And I’m only talking about a mere 12 weeks…!
Older thread, closing for speed purposes.
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