To my family: I know that you all think that I am half-crazy at times and there may be more truth to that than I like to admit. None-the-less, I would like each of you to at least load the following URL and read “What do I need to know?”
http://fluwikie.com/index.php?n=Main.HomePage
While you may think that the bird flu is some far off strange disease that will not harm you or your family, this is not the case.
If the flu mutates (and that is likely within the next 2 - 6 months) people who are infected will show no signs of it for 2–14 days. That means they will be infecting other people as they get off an airplane and will not know that they are carriers. Some very high percentage of people who get the flu will die. Current estimates range from 5 - 60%. There is no vaccine or effective medication once you have the flu. Meds that might work are not and will not be available for most of us. There are current on-going attempts to make a vaccine but nothing has succeeded yet and it is unlikely that anything will be available. Once a vaccine is created it will take 6 months to produce a limited supply.
Currently the best recommendation is to isolate yourself (schools, business, and all public gatherings will be closed by local authorities) according to federal pandemic plan recommendations. Cities may be quarantined by federal troops and hospital facilities will not be able to accommodate the load within the first few days.
While you may think that all of this is simply talk, please believe me when I tell you that people who know about this stuff are taking it very very seriously. M. Osterholm, Ph.D., Assoc. Director of Homeland Security National Center for Food Protection and Defense was quoted on PRNewswire speaking at the ORC Worldwide Occupational Safety and Health Physicians Meeting in Wash., DC last week stated, “…preparation now is critical because a flu pandemic is certain to occur.” This comon theme is stated by many other sources that are equally as credible.
As recommended by many international, federal, local and professional sources, Kay and I are preparing now. We already have some supplies on hand and we expect that you will be coming home when (not if) this hits. There will be little warning and those of you some distance away will have to move quickly by car. Bring whatever food and clothing you have and come home with a full tank of gas. The best (perhaps only) place to be is away from other people if you want your family to survive for the three months to two years this pandemic will sweep the world in waves. We estimate that we can accommodate no more than 20 - 25 people.
If you come home after a pandemic has started in your area and there are people in the house I will not be able to allow your family into the house for two weeks — they will have to stay in the camper to insure they are not contaminated.
Nobody wants to be wrong about this more than I do. I do not want any of this to happen and would prefer that it was all a bad dream. None-the-less, I would rather have you think I am nuts, and LISTEN, than pay the consequences of losing 1/3 of my family.
Here are two additional links that will keep you up to date on the flu
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/newsfeed/?name=Bird+Flu
Place them in a flu subfolder and check every few days
— Love Joe / Dad (as the case may be) Joseph Waldron, Ph.D., Psychologist (retired) copy, edit or comment as needed. I already sent this one.
BTW I trust I do not need to openly express my apreciation to FluWiki. Well maybe I do THANKS
Joe I think your sharing that is great. It’s excellent and I sincerely hope you get the attention of your loved ones. Thanks. Terry
For the past two days I’ve been working on the following letter which I had planned on posting here when I was done. JoeW’s letter to his family has motivated me to finish it.
The letter is to a friend. Actually more a friend of my husband. My husband is an E.R. nurse, and Paul (not his real name) is one of the doctors he works with - a brilliant man, a passionate, compassionate man.
My husband has spoken repeatedly to Paul about the potential pandemic, but Paul has always shrugged it off. Ain’t gonna happen. And besides, he’s way too busy.
But now, as witness to a monstrous, gathering force, I feel I, too, must attempt to reach Paul and, for that matter, everyone else I can think of.
So here is my letter. (And, so as not to offend, feel free to mentally substitute “Clinton” for “Bush.”)
Dear Paul,
I know Jack has spoken to you about the avian flu and I know thus far you’ve dismissed it, but as I closely watch (and I mean it; I am obsessed) this terrible thing unfolding, I feel compelled to reach out one more time to the people Jack and I care about.
I urge you to dismiss the bird flu no longer. I urge you, no, I beg you to - right now - get on the internet and do some research on your own. Check out any one of a number of sites dedicated to the subject - Flu Wiki’s (fluwikie.com) best, but H5N1 is good as are Recombinomics and CurEvents. (And there are many others.) Any one, just get on - no stay on - the internet and start reading. Do not take my word for it. Listen to the words of people who have devoted their lives to the study of a science that makes my head hurt after reading just one sentence.
And these people are saying the pandemic is inevitable and might well be imminent. They say many people would die, no, now they’re saying many people WILL die and not just from sickness. Supply chains will be broken. Even if you dared to venture from your home, you wouldn’t find a store with any food. There may be no gas. Utilities might be down. Water will not be assured. Once a pandemic begins, you will be completely on your own. ON. YOUR. OWN. (I don’t mean to be rude with the caps; I have a lot of respect for you; I just feel so desperate.)
My hands are shaking as I write this. The threat is so real and so close and most people - even super smart ones like you are not paying serious attention.
Please, Paul, pay attention. As it stands now (and there’s no reason to think it will improve), the case fatality rate is approximately 50 percent, and perhaps even higher - TPTB would never tell the truth about the way it looks right now; it’s too fucking awful (excuse my language; we usually save such obscenities for Bush; I’m afraid he’ll soon be irrelevant) - but we’ll never know exactly because the WHO is being shifty with their data: they’re testing in a way that increases false negatives; they’re not sharing viral sequences; they’re not saying who’s received Tamiflu; and they’re not revealing the relationships between cases: in Turkey, several of the families were related - cousins, mostly. And this is how human to human transmission is established: the clusters are more frequent, and they are more sustained.
This virus may be on the verge of exploding.
And when it does, we will be on our own. Bush has already said that. There will be no FEMA deliveries of food and/or water. There will be no Tamiflu. There will not be enough ventilators, nurses, or beds. If you get sick you will be sent home to die a horrible death, and dammit, Paul, don’t take chances with this. Even if you think I’m totally full of crap, I beg you - and I know you can afford it, and I know you can use it even if there is no pandemic - to go out in the next 2 days and spend a couple thousand dollars - MINIMUM - on water, beans, rice, pasta, sauce, canned fruits and veggies, gloves (at Costco), hand sanitizer, bleach, toothpaste, shampoo, toilet paper, whatever you might need if you couldn’t get to the store for a long, long time. Don’t forget candles and matches, and a camp stove and propane bottles. N-95 masks if you can get them (they might even have them at Lowe’s or Home Depot). Flashlights. Batteries. Maybe seeds.
Because there’s no time to waste; if you wait to prepare until pandemic is certain, it will be too late.
Thank you, Paul, for listening. Now go read and prepare. Please.
Your friend,
Scaredy Cat
I did something similar but rather than referring family to FluWiki initially (Information overload!) I recorded one of the Bird Flu reports on TV (National Geographic?) to show them and sent them to http://www.arielco.us/page3.html for more info. It has the best comprehensive summary I’ve found so far and the links are great. I especially like their news update as at they seem to pull out the most salient news from all the news avalable. BTW: I don’t have any idea of what they are selling - it has been that way for 3 months.
I really wish I could get a copy of that darn National Geographic special. I’d take it to every person I know & make them watch it! That would probably get through to them.
Anybody also see the Fox report? I was out so missed it. I need to check if it is to be rebroadcast.
Well the indications are that it’s going to be worse than even the most negative of us were thinking a month or two ago. There will be many final letters written as the human heart reaches out before the dark hours arrive and the winds blow at our flames. I have said so many times special words unheard from the depths of my heart to distant ears; now I wonder who will write who when the message of the final hours sinks in and the games that blind hearts play are revealed as so much folly.
Just found this and added some to the original letter at the top of the page, and with the erupting thing in Indonisia seems like a good time to at least send to friends and relatives. The situation is getting worse overseas so keep watch on what is happening closely.
Old thread - Closed to increase Forum speed.