Request for comments, etc, before I distribute the accompanying letters:
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Author: Sosh O’Leet, Fairview, Dublin, Ireland e-mail: tlhslobus@yahoo.co.uk
Date: 07th of December, 2006
Subject: Worldwide Need to distribute Cheap Face Masks before Bird Flu goes pandemic
I plan to distribute the attached Long and Shorter letters about the above subject at many locations around the Internet in a few days’ time. But I’m sending it to a small number of acquaintances and Internet locations now, because I can’t help worrying that I’m missing some obvious point that gives a valid reason why seemingly nothing has been done about this topic already. So if you have the answer to that, or if you have any other comment that you wish to make, please let me know verbally or by e-mail or by posting a reply at the Internet sites, on or before Sunday 17 December, 2006, though I can’t guarantee I’ll heed any advice that I’m offered. Incidentally, if your advice is that distributing Face Masks now is too costly, I’d appreciate some details (because I would expect whatever it costs should be excellent value for money compared to the alternative of potentially millions of unnecessary deaths from pandemic flu). If I decide I’ve made a mistake, I intend to say so some time between Monday 18 and Wednesday 21, so if you don’t see an apology by Thursday 21 December 2006, feel free to assume that I want to go ahead. Of course it’s a free world, and if you feel the 2 week delay until Thursday 21 is dangerously unjustified when millions of lives are potentially at risk from pandemic flu, please feel free to start taking the actions recommended in the letters as soon as you want to.
Regards
Frank
Accompanying Letters
1)Shorter Version (for letters to newspapers, etc)
Author: Sosh O’Leet, Fairview, Dublin, Ireland e-mail: tlhslobus@yahoo.co.uk
Date: 07th of December, 2006
Subject: Worldwide Need to distribute Cheap Face Masks before Bird Flu goes pandemic
There is every reason to fear that the current worldwide failure to distribute cheap face masks may unnecessarily cost millions of lives when (not `if’, according to most experts) the H5N1 Bird Flu virus mutates to a form that can trigger a pandemic. And there are some cheap and simple things that each of us could be doing to help fix the problem.
Unlike anti-viral drugs, face masks are a cheap and reliable way of slowing the spread of a pandemic, and possibly even preventing it altogether. And, unlike vaccines (which can only become widely available 6 months too late, at best), they can be made available right now.
Despite about 8 years’ warning since H5N1 first appeared, my local pharmacy (probably like most others) currently has no masks in stock. Fixing this takes time, needing up to billions of masks worldwide. And once a flu pandemic starts, unmasked people have good reason to fear approaching mask distributors and distribution points. Which is why the distribution should be done now, while there is still time.
So what can you do to help?
Firstly, you can try to pass this message on: - you can e-mail it to your friends (asking them to pass it on to their friends, and so on) - you can pass it on to strangers, by posting it to internet discussion groups, Myspace.com, Bebo.com, etc, or as a letter to newspapers, or by raising the issue on radio and TV phone-in programs, or with your elected representatives, and so on.
And secondly, you can enquire about how to obtain face masks for yourself, your loved ones, and the community at large, from your local doctor, pharmacist, health clinic, hospital, elected representatives, etc, while suitably indicating your dissatisfaction if enough are not available.
Please don’t leave it to others to do your bit for you. As many people as possible may be needed to counter the influence of a number of vested interests who benefit financially or otherwise if nothing gets done (which may be why nothing has got done so far). Details of these vested interests and other matters can be found in the original longer version of this letter at the following internet address: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tensenmaryushi/message/25
Yours etc,
Sosh O’Leet Fairview, Dublin, Ireland, 07th of December 2006 e-mail: tlhslobus@yahoo.co.uk Relevant Website: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tensenmaryushi/message/25
2) Original Longer More Detailed Version
Author: Sosh O’Leet, Fairview, Dublin, Ireland e-mail: tlhslobus@yahoo.co.uk
Date: 07th of December, 2006
Subject: Worldwide Need to distribute Cheap Face Masks before Bird Flu goes pandemic
There is every reason to fear that the current worldwide failure to distribute cheap face masks may unnecessarily cost millions of lives when (not `if’, according to most experts) the H5N1 Bird Flu virus mutates to a form that can trigger a pandemic. And there are some cheap and simple things that each of us could be doing to help fix the problem.
Unlike anti-viral drugs, face masks are a cheap and reliable way of slowing the spread of a pandemic, and possibly even preventing it altogether (as they arguably at least helped to do with the SARS outbreak a few years ago, mainly in East Asia and Canada). And they can be made available right now (unlike vaccines which take nearly 6 months after the pandemic starts to begin to become widely available, and even then probably only in insufficient quantities).
Of course, face masks do have some disadvantages. Unlike antivirals and vaccines, they don’t promise multi-billion dollar profits for pharmaceutical and/or biotech companies. And various other groups may fear that public or private money spent on face masks is money that might otherwise be coming to them. And unlike a pandemic, face masks won’t boost religious contributions by panicking us all back to our churches, mosques, temples, etc. And of course the poultry industry is terrified of anything that might remind customers of the existence of bird flu. (And all that’s before we even get to the real loonies who might see a really big pandemic as solving global overpopulation, or helping to bring about the Rapture and/or the Second Coming of Christ through being Pestilence, one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in St John’s Book of Revelations). Some or all of the above vested interests may or may not help to explain the scandalous and arguably criminal negligence that has ensured that little or nothing has yet been done about distributing face masks, despite about 8 years’ warning since H5N1 first appeared. And they may or may not also lead to all sorts of continued discouragement, delay, and obstruction, such as dubious or nonsensical arguments for continuing to do nothing, or for leaving it to others to do their bit instead of you. (However please note that I don’t wish to discourage any criticism of this message that is honest, well-meaning, well- reasoned, and reasonably well-informed).
So please don’t leave it to others to do your bit for you. As many people as possible may be needed to counter the influence of the above vested interests.
Waiting until the pandemic strikes may well be too late (it arguably worked with SARS, but we can’t always get lucky). Despite about 8 years’ warning since H5N1 first appeared, my local pharmacy (probably like most others) currently has no masks in stock. Fixing this takes time. Worldwide, giving at least 2 to each person (one to wear while the other is being washed) would need about 13 billion masks, and these can’t all be produced and distributed overnight. And during a flu pandemic people who are not already masked have good reason to fear approaching a pharmacy (or any other distribution point such as a supermarket, or anybody given the task of distributing masks). Which is why the distribution should be done now, while there is still time.
So what can you do to help? Basically two things:
Firstly, you can try to pass this message on: - you can e-mail it to your friends (asking them to pass it on to their friends, and so on) - you can pass it on to strangers, by posting it to internet discussion groups and places such as Myspace.com, Bebo.com, etc, by sending the accompanying shorter version as a letter to newspapers, by raising the issue on radio and TV phone-in programs, and with your elected representatives, and so on.
Secondly, you can enquire about obtaining face masks for yourself and your loved ones from your local doctor, pharmacist, health clinic, hospital, elected representatives, etc, also asking whether they will have or be able to quickly obtain an adequate supply for the wider community should a pandemic break out tomorrow morning, and, if not, you can ask whether, when, and how they intend to try to rectify the matter (and if they don’t intend to do anything, you can ask them why not).
Should you encounter unreasonable attempts by vested interests or others to discourage or obstruct your efforts to get this message across, you might perhaps consider warning some of those people, especially any rather powerful ones among them, that after a pandemic they may risk prosecution for crimes against humanity. Should they claim that they are doing nothing illegal, you can point out that similar delusions are common among those convicted of crimes against humanity. For instance, many Germans and Japanese discovered that seemingly legally following orders before 1945 got them jailed or hanged after 1945, when the law got interpreted by the representatives of their angry victims. Various similar unpleasant discoveries presumably continue to be made today by assorted accused Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Rwandan Hutus, Iraqis, etc¡ And should you be considering indulging in some unreasonable obstruction yourself, please don’t complain later that you were never warned.
Should enough of us make the above diverse kinds of minor fuss, then there should seemingly be an excellent chance that at least a large part of the problem will get solved fairly quickly and at fairly minimal cost (especially compared to the alternative of possibly millions of unnecessary deaths from pandemic flu).
There are some more debatable, controversial or eccentric aspects of all this which I may or may not get round to writing up eventually. If I do, a link to them will be created at the following internet address: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tensenmaryushi/message/25
Yours etc,
Sosh O’Leet Fairview, Dublin, Ireland, 07th of December 2006 e-mail: tlhslobus@yahoo.co.uk Relevant Website: http://groups.yahoo.co/group/tensenmaryushi/message/25
Feel free to reply directly to the sender.
There are some factual errors in the letters.
Firstly, while experts all agree there is an ‘when not if’ to flu pandemics, that’s not the case with an H5N1 pandemic. There is no agreement or consensus amongst experts that H5N1 will ever go pandemic or be ‘the one’ of the different flu viruses that does. The worry is that it might be the one, but it’s nowhere near guaranteed to be.
Secondly facemasks (simple masks) are not a guaranteed way to slow down a pandemic. The transmission of flu is by aerosol, large droplet and contact. Simple masks may slow down large droplet spread but would not be expected to slow down aerosols. Also, they don’t work at all when wet and therefore cannot be worn indefinitely.
It is frustrating for all of us that these ‘simple facts’ are not nailed down with certainty, but that’s the current state of the art.
See Review of Aerosol Transmission of Influenza A Virus and the IOM report on Reusability of Face Masks during an Influenza Pandemic.
The tone of this letter is not one I wish to engage here. Please feel free to write the author about your concerns. I would avoid sentences like:
Given the above links, that’s a tad overdone.
Thank you.