More Than a Dozen People Quarantined in Downtown Hagerstown Posted by sabraham on 2006/10/11 17:01:42 (2329 reads)
Updated at 6:35 p.m. on 10/11/2006 HAGERSTOWN, MD — At this hour, 16 people are under quarantine as a result of a hazmat situation on Franklin Street.
Firefighters say 16 people are being held inside yellow tents outside of a three-story apartment building at 25 1/2 West Franklin Street. Of those 16 people, firefighters say four are from Somalia. They are reportedly suffering from flu-like symptoms such as nausea and vomiting.
Three police officers were also exposed to the flu-like symptoms and have been treated and released from the yellow tents.
It is still unclear what caused the people to become ill. To avoid any possible exposure, hazmat teams are advising the public to steer clear of the area completely. If you absolutely need to be there, firefighters are providing masks for your safety.
West Franklin Street is closed from Potomac Street to at least Jonathan Street in the downtown area. Traffic is being diverted. Police are asking motorists to avoid the area if possible to avoid major traffic delays.
Stay tuned to NBC25 News for updates to this breaking story.
Reported by Amie McLain
??????? So many questions here I can’t even begin to start.
Ok, first question- Can we panic now?
what hazmat situation?
…. My PPF just spiked. I have been predicting October 18th for “The Day”. This better not be it…..
OK. This is only a test, right?!?!…..
Green Mom – at 22:29
Can we panic now?
No. First, even if this was the start of the pandemic with a high CFR, Fluwikians don’t panic, we lead.
Second, lot’s of things cause flu-like symptoms, we need more information.
>uh oh< gonna go suck down a beer and hit reload every 5 secounds
Whatever it is, it offers us a window into how the arrival of pandemic flu will be handled.
Ladybug. PROVIDE A LINK!!!
http://www.nbc25.com/main/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3596
Miscommunication between some tenants and local law enforcement ultimately led to an emergency response that turned out to be a false alarm.
After all the chaos, officials said it was a huge false alarm.
Residents said a local police officer found a woman suffering from morning sickness inside an apartment building.
“The only thing I saw was when he came in. I saw the woman laying there and I heard her throwing up,” said Shelley Radcliff, resident in the apartment.
There was miscommunication between local law enforcement and the 16 residents in the building because of a language barrier. The residents were quarantined and then escorted into tents for evaluation.
Miscommunication between some tenants and local law enforcement ultimately led to an emergency response that turned out to be a false alarm.
Everyone chill out could be E-Coli.
LadyBug – at 22:17 Can you call the TV Station and get any additional information.
Until we know what this is there is no reason to panic. Just stay calm and wait for the facts. Remember that the local news may hype something just for ratings.
IT”S ALL A FALSE ALARM! Here’s a snip from the latest update from NBC25 News
Miscommunication between some tenants and local law enforcement ultimately led to an emergency response that turned out to be a false alarm.
After all the chaos, officials said it was a huge false alarm.
“We’ve determined that there’s no public health threat. There’s no public health emergency. There’s follow-up that needs to be coordinated with the local health department and the state health department,” said Earl Stoner, Washington County Health Department.
Residents said a local police officer found a woman suffering from morning sickness inside an apartment building.
“The only thing I saw was when he came in. I saw the woman laying there and I heard her throwing up,” said Shelley Radcliff, resident in the apartment.
There was miscommunication between local law enforcement and the 16 residents in the building because of a language barrier. The residents were quarantined and then escorted into tents for evaluation.
Firefighters inspected the building while health officials inspected the residents, but nobody had any type of infectious illness.
“There’s no infectious diseases of any kind. This was just blown out of proportion largely to the fact that there was a language barrier,” said Serhiy Dutchak, Virginia Council of Churches.
http://www.nbc25.com/main/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3596
1) Take 3 deep breaths.
2) Say a prayer.
3) Don’t Panic. (Thanks Monotreme).
My guess is that local health officials were afraid it might be Ebola. Turned out to morning sickness. Oh well.
Carrey in VA – at 22:33
LOL!
Panicking is not allowed. Since it is a “breaking” story perhaps more details will be available tomorrow morning. I don’t know why they pointed out that 4 of the people were from Somalia. There is an illness called Chikungunya (caused by mosquitos) symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, muscle and joint pain and rash. It bothers me that the story doesn’t mention if the remaining 12 are local people. Hazmat situation is where the guys rush in to contain a situation wearing the full gear. The article had a tiny picture of the scene, with the yellow tube-like tents. Weird to me that these people weren’t taken to a hospital…the tents are set up outside the apartment building on the street in Hagerstown MD. That bothers me a lot, but it’s good to see that extreme precautions are being taken until they are sure what is causing the sickness. I’m sure it will be on the news in the morning…I’ll be tuned in.
Ok, well I’m a bit lit, I have a brain freeze from downing an ice cold beer, but the good news it was a false alarm LOL
Ok, no panic here, (definatly a ppf spike though!) very edgy today though. Not much sleep last night and then the plane crash in NYC. I’ll take a chill pill and go to bed early
I’m sorry, but I have my tinfoil hat on and I’m on the paranoid train.
“Nothing to see here folks! Just move along”
The better news was that it was caught quickly (both the breaking news, and the false alarm.)
Had this been an actual emergency, you would have been told where to tune for further details.
Good job finding and fixing the news.
Ok, I feel lots better now too. I was shocked at the number of posts that showed up before I posted my last item. I’m happy to see it was a false alarm and also happy to see that the people in MD are clearly on high alert.
Now we see just how high the alert really is.
Can I ask a maybe dumb question? Can somebody tell me what the reference to “tinfoil hat” means? I see it written from time to time and I don’t get what it refers to.
InKy – at 22:34 Whatever it is, it offers us a window into how the arrival of pandemic flu will be handled.
I agree 100%. This is interesting and instructive, even though a false alarm (thankfully!).
or did it keep them from probing ya? I can’t remember, my brain still hurts LOL
I swear I posted before this last one that the tinfoil hat kept the aliens from reading your mind, but it disappeared. Or they intercepted it.
No, Carrey, the tinfoil hat keeps the CIA from being able to read your mind.
For aliens, you use plastic wrap.
Don’t ask me how I know that.
LadyBug – at 22:50 You put your “Tin Hat” on when you want to talk to aliens (outer space type) or conspiracy theories.
Haze-Mat set up the tents because they wouldn’t want to contaminate/infect an entire hospital, IF it had been something nasty.
Oh dear, I think its time for me to go too bed, that is just TOOO D*MN FUNNY!!!!
haha…thanks for the explanation. I must have missed whatever sci-fi movie that came from.
LadyBug – at 22:50
Can I ask a maybe dumb question? Can somebody tell me what the reference to “tinfoil hat” means?
It is from the movie “Signs”. Probably one of the few funny scences in the movie where Mel Gibson walks in on his family during an alien invasion and they are all wearing tinfoil hats like Hershey kisses to keep the aliens from reading their minds.
In other words, “I’m paranoid and don’t believe what is happening”.
With that said, I taking mine off because it’s making my head sweat and it’s late.
I’m gonna play it safe and use tin foil AND plastic wrap just in case!! LOL
And then there’s the rival group that swears by wax paper.
I prefer the biodegradable with non-toxic soy ink newspaper hats myself.;-)
I’m soooooo close to getting my ticket punched for that paranoid train-ride.
ok, so
tin foil, plastic wrap, waxed paper, and now newspaper? Whats next? I”m not gonna be able to hold my head up with all my hats on! LOL
green mom, just cause your paranoid doesn’t mean their not out to get you. Here, have a hat! LOL
As someone very wise once said (JWB ;o))
1) Take 3 deep breaths.
2) Say a prayer.
3) Kick a Chicken
Carrey in VA – at 23:27
just cause your paranoid doesn’t mean their not out to get you I love the sign in Kate Jackson’s dressing room- Help the paranoids are chasing me!
OK, time to let my true identity out. I am with the CIA and I feel I just have to be a whistleblower. We here at the CIA have figured out how to work around the tin foil, wax paper and Saran wrap. The only material we haven’t figured out yet is……. mayonnaise. So, go to your ice box now and let the slathering begin!
hmmm mayonnaise?
Now we have to think, is OTFAL telling us this cause its true? or because acually the CIA WANTS us to put mayo on our heads because it makes it EASIER for them to scan us????
hmmm maybe I’ll try mustard instead.
Hint: If you do try the ‘Defense Using Mayonnaise As Security System’, or DUM ASS, don’t throw out the Saran Wrap. You will need it to cover your key board.
“Fluwikians don’t panic, we lead.”
I thought we prepped like mad.;)
I get the tin foil hat idea but we just bought a house in which the entire attic ceiling is covered with tin foil. no insulation just tin foil. It is like being in a low budget sci fi movie up there. Any thoughts…
Nice to know abou the efforts to control it…I take that if this happened and it was confirmed H2H H5N1 then all air craft will be grounded!!?
Does anyone know if that was a possibility just waiting for the confirmation of such bad news?
the three policeman that were exposed to the “flu-like symptoms”, that were treated and released, what where they treated with I wonder? Tsmiflu?(ha Ha)
I believe this is exactly what we were talking about, the media causing panic. they didn’t have all the facts, and reported it anyway. Bad journalism.
OK — so this morning I was stil thinking about this situation.
Are nausea and vomiting generally considered “flu-like symptoms”?
I think of flu-like symptoms being “fever, respiratory distress (sneezing, coughing and difficulty breathing) aches, pains and chills.”
Or do you think they mean “stomach-flu like symptoms”?
And I’m trying to imagine the situation — a woman apparently was having a very bad bout of emesis (vomiting) and someone called for an ambulance — they arrived, saw her throwing up everywhere — and starting interviewing everyone in the building? And people didn’t speak English, so they all just nodded their heads to the question “Are you throwing up?” (Actually, that is a distinct possibility….” So they ordered up a haz-mat tent?
OK, this thread really is a drag on the speed of the wiki at this point…
InKy – at 22:49 “Now we see just how high the alert really is.”
A bit of profiling, since evidently they didn’t speak english and were from (mostly unmonitored) Africa? At least the hospital wouldn’t have been contaminated, but, bet they would have contaminated health care workers if the sick had been locals who spoke english, (and maybe thought they had food poisoning?) but had been on mass transit or for some other innocuous reason turned out to be the index case of pandemic in their state.
Now, would this be a good time to ask the public in Hagerstown if they were ready to meet their own needs during illness or quarantine, “if that had been an actual emergency”?
Green Mom, there’s never a good time to panic. Not on the top ten list.
(That poor woman now has a doozy of a pregnancy nausea story.)
Save the mayo and plastic wrap in case you need to treat a case of head lice.
katherine, is it aluminum foil, or is it Reflectix® in your attic ?
so many good thoughts already on this thread- we don’t panic we lead-that is a quoteable quote Monotreme…..hoping of course this is a drill-I’m happy to see a quick and publicly-known response.
I’m proud of myself- I’m at work and actually calm-sih…
Oh, c’mon, this one thread can’t be THAT big a drag.
My comment last night, “Can we panic now” was meant partially as a joke-ok, I admit a bad one. But, hey, We are all under a tremendous amount of stress here. Ive noticed several “Snappish” remarks lately.
I don’t know anything about haz-mat teams-other than the obvious. Are they called out often? It seems odd to me that they went into such high gear over over a woman throwing up-yeah I understand the language problem, but still. I’m wondering if first-responders, haz-mat teams, infectious control people are ALSO as edgy as Wikians? For the same reasons? Or do they have even MORE reasons? A lot of speculation to pull out of one event, I know, but I can’t help but wonder.
I wonder if Reynolds Aluminum offers a discount on bulk buying? Maybe we could all go in together……
Green Mom, I forgot to ;-) at you; was trying to drink my caffeine.
(Try a restaurant supply store; unless I decide to do my attic, I may never need to buy aluminum foil again.)
crfullmoon-I probably have enough tin foil stashed in my preps to do my attic! :-)
The tin-foil attic is weird! Ive seen old punched tin ceilings which is rather beautiful, but tin foil? Maybe the former resident was going for a punched tin look but couldn’t afford it? I lived in an apartment once that had the most ghastly poster paint stenciling. Actually, though, it sounds like something my 15 year old computer geek/sci-fi fanatic son would do.
Green Mom - as I am almost always ready to ask the “can I panic now” question….well, I just wanted you to know that you’re not alone;-)
Monotreme - regarding your “we don’t panic, we lead” comment, which was wonderful BTW - um…can I volunteer to lead the panic brigade?
I’ll admit, for a brief moment this morning when I read the headline, my heart skipped a few beats, because one morning we will wake up to a headline very real, and very true. And I think we are all waiting for this headline. However, everyone, in my opinion did good, trying to decipher exactly what was going on. We want to be sure, we need to be sure, before we panic. Personally, I was waiting for Monotreme or TomDVM to say PANIC!
If I read that, first, I’d think some identity theft had gone on, cottontop.
;-)
I don’t think there will be a panic call from FluWiki. It will be more like a SIP call.
I prefer copper foil over aluminum - at least after labor day.
Mods PLEASE close this thread already – at 08:20 --- No, it’s not. One thread does not a slow-down make!
“Personally, I was waiting for Monotreme or TomDVM to say PANIC!”
cottontop.
Did you ever see a dog waiting for a groundhog to come out of his hole…
…I am watching China and North Korea and Pigs…because that is the metaphorical hole I believe that H5N1 is going to come out of.
I do not thing that we are going to get a fast call on the start of a pandmeic…if you follow the World Health Organization, they are usually paralyzed in making decisions for several weeks at a time…
…so they will do the testing under their narrow parameters which will take probably 10–14 days…and then they will have to discuss things at nauseum with Governments…dance on the head of a pin for another few weeks at which time they will give a ‘could be’, ‘might be’.
I read a prediction last night that H5N1 pandeic could be around the world in 21 days…therefore the World Health Organization will be announcing it officially about 21 days after H5N1 does it unofficially.
With ‘all hands on deck at flu wiki’…and with the alert level we have currently in place…we might be albe to ‘witch’ the start in a week or so…
…and I fully expect that each of us will have that moment of panic…Thanks.
We’re all going to panic. everybody panics on different levels. In my opinion, the SIP will be a panic call. If someone suggests a SIP, even the most rational, and level headed of us, will say,”OMG”, and will proceed to make last minute preps at home, ect. I am no exception. If a newsbreak comes on t.v., or the radio, or here, your going to panic on some level. We’ve discussed this before. My hubby is one of those, who is calm, but panic is right under that calm. My belief is that there will be a general consensus among us as to when we should start executing our prep plans, or as I call it, Emergency Mode (EM). Although we did good, there was a low key panic in the air at first.
I just read the threat (I caught the Freudian slip when reading over my post again, left it, because it’s so true. [thread]) this morning, and what stuck is
Monotreme’s “Fluwikians don’t panic, we lead.”
I think there will be fear, panic, confusion in all of us, the so called “stress-response” is not just a psychological, but a physiological response of the human brain to perceived or actual stress. There is a ton of info out in the literature, and a while ago I wrote a page or two about this topic.
Do you think it might be worth posting? Would you be interested? I never created a new thread, but maybe this one would be worthwhile; adding knowledge, which in turn helps to cope. Any feedback?
cottontop – at 10:04
Although we did good, there was a low key panic in the air at first.
Your right as I sat there hitting refresh every 5 seconds trying to stay calm, these thoughts were flying through my head.
Ok, Sam’s club is closed// What time does it open?// How early can I get there in the morning?// Why am I not done prepping already?? (kick, kick)// I shouldn’t be worrying about a run to Sams right now (kick kick)// Ok, if Sams opens at 8, and I leave the house at 7…..// I should have been done by now// (kick kick)// D*mn I hope this isn’t “it”
We will all feel panic when it starts and I do believe we will have a heads up by our ability to collect and analyze the news on this site.
What is more important is how we handle the panic. While others may be frozen in a state of shock, most of here will have our list of last things to shop for ready to take action on. We will be able to head out to the stores right away and purchase the final things on our list to SIP.
The ability to mentally prepare for a pandemic that we have practiced here on the wiki will allow us to control our feelings and direct our adreniline flow in a positive way.
It would be a good idea for us all to practice this scenerio at least once. Plan an “emergency day” for your family in which you actually run a drill. Use the lists you have hopefully made up with names, numbers of people to contact, and visit the stores you need to go to purchase. Run a full drill and then do an assessment of how things went.
Knowledge and practice will help us transition smoothly.
ok, so my returns didn’t work. forgive the formatting
Maybe we should look at these “false alarms” as somewhat positive. First and foremost, they are FALSE alarms, which gives us one more day or one more month or one more year to prepare.
Mostly though, all false alarms provide for “practice drills”. Practice makes perfect and hopefully by the time the real thing happens, most of us will be calm and prepared and ready and able to help others who will truly be in a panic.
Look at it as an opportunity to practice and let’s not beat ourselves up if we allow ourselves to panic just a little bit! I have this warped sensation that it is helping me to condition myself a little bit at a time. Not sure if anyone else feels this way. If it all comes at me at once, it may be truly overwhelming and I might fall apart.
Science Teacher – at 10:32 It would be a good idea for us all to practice this scenerio at least once. Plan an “emergency day” for your family in which you actually run a drill. Use the lists you have hopefully made up with names, numbers of people to contact, and visit the stores you need to go to purchase. Run a full drill and then do an assessment of how things went.
Yes. It’s kind of like a pregnant woman packing a bag for the hospital as she nears her due date. You don’t know when labor will start. You don’t know how long it will last. But you know that it WILL start, and you have a good idea of what you will need to do when it does. That doesn’t mean you’ll be thinking clearly at that particular moment, so better to ready your bag in advance.
Great analogy, Edna! : )
The other thing to keep in mind in terms of top off runs…
If you live in an area that is entering the winter season and prone to snow storms, you really shouldn’t wait to do your top offs. What’s to say it won’t be a Nor’Easter when the hive mind says it’s time to SIP? Do you want to be out on the roads and then lugging grains and flour from store to car to house in a snow or sleet storm? If your kids are home from school, do you want to drag them out? Sometimes the focus is so intense on our preps we lose sight of the fact that the real world will march on despite our best laid plans.
There IS a physical reaction that takes place when your brain percieves stress. For one the brain is flooded with all kinds of chemicals, but there are other reactions as well-the most common, probably is “that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach” that I think all of us have felt. Some people will have a heat flush, others will get cold. Some peoples hands shake, some break out in a cold sweat. Another classic example is when people are taken to the hospital thinking they are having a heart attack-chest feels real tight, they can’t breathe, break out in a sweat, etc etc, and its actually a anxiety attack.
I have, myself had real panic attacks (Not last night;-))I now know what they feel like and sometimes I can head them off, at least I can lesson their effects. But if you have never had one, they can be very scary, and yeah, I think we are going to see a LOT o’ panic attacks!
I think a thread on panic attacks/ stress responses is an excellent idea.
Carrey in VA -at 10:31
LOL- geez you are something else! I like your honesty.
Everybody- well done with your responses. and unless they start selling Prozac over the counter, mentally, I don’t know. I went through 13 days of a disaster and there is nothing you can do to prepare for the stress. It will get to you. I drink chamomile tea. It’s an excellant commative, and it’s mild. My 13 year old drinks it as well. Passion flower is another one, but it’s more potient, and it didn’t agree with me. Alot of that herbal stuff doesn’t agree with me. So I stay with the chamomile tea. A warm milk is also very effective, but may not have the milk later.
I actually feel kind of reassured by this story. I get the feeling that cops and EMT people might actually be paying attention and are inclined to err on the safe side in cases that could be dangerous. And of course I am glad the Wiki is on top of things as well. It’s good to get an occasional false alarm so I can test out my semi-panic coping skills.
Carrey at 10;31- I was thinking the same thing LOL Except I thinking- hmmm, theres a 24 hour Super Wal-MArt open its about an hours drive from here, If I left RIGHT NOW I could get there, shop, and get home before this hits MSM, I wonder how much I have in the checking…. where’s that prep list?
You know what impressed me the most concerning this “trial run”? Is how everone came together.
Does anyone else think that calling the hazmat team for a woman vomiting is a proportionate response? There is a big difference between one a woman with morning sickness and 16 people with flu like illness. Seems odd to misdiagnose this much.
fredness – at 17:21
I wouldn’t second guess them. I can imagine how the conversation went….
Cop — Are you OK ma’am? Woman — (nodding) Sick, very sick. <Blech> Cop — How long have you been sick? Woman — (nodding) Many days not feeling well. Cop — Have you seen a doctor? Woman — No doctor. <Blech> Cop — Is anyone else in your family experiencing these symptoms? Woman — (nodding) — My family? Inside. Cop — And some have these symptoms? Woman — (nodding) My English is not good. My cousin came from Somalia last week. <Blech> Cop — Somalia? That’s in Africa? Any Ebola over there? In Somalia? Woman — (nodding) Somalia. Everyone… my whole family is inside.
You get the idea…..
I think the report that it was miscommunication sounds about right.
It’s probable that it’s a miscommunication and an over-reaction.
Yet there’s a small part of me, the cynical part, that says what if it was something else and the followup story was meant to keep the masses docile and non-panicky. But that’s just me.
cottontop, Prozac’s no Instant-Pollyanna-pill, nope.
After their recent “pandemic drill” in Hagerstown (See under “Other Business”) (…”Fire and Emergency Services Director John Latimer commented on the Health Department Pandemic Flu drill held on August 21st. The Emergency Operations Center was partially activated and the event was a good learning exercise for those involved, Latimer said.”…)
maybe the first responders learned H5N1 has been loose in Africa for a while, and, there is so little health monitoring possible there, and, who knows how it will mutate/shed in people with HIV, that they might have wanted to err on the side of caution with sick people from Somalia they couldn’t communicate clearly with.
“The masses” should be preparing for a pandemic year; it will not be possible to do so once it starts. “Learning excercise” would have been if a 10k circle had to be drawn around the neighborhood for a week or two. (Ugh. That’d be an unwelcome surprise. And might not have stopped spread, since people and their contacts would have been contagious for a couple of days before showing illness.)
annonymous ~ 18:21
I actually feel encouraged by all of this, it shows the cops were thinking and added it all together and decided “This may be what the training was for…”
crfullmoon- at 19:27
teasing about the prozac. I’m just concerned abot myself, my ability to deal with what could possibly be what up to three months of this? Two? I”m think that getting the family into a regular routine as soon as possible, it would greatly help the stress factor, and that is where homeschooling will come into play. At least that is my theory.
Mods PLEASE close this thread already – at 08:20 OK, this thread really is a drag on the speed of the wiki at this point…
OK, I just have to say it… There have been some real ‘downers’ on here lately. I have seen this wiki go through some of the most outlandish conversations in the past and they went on and on. Not only were they NOT closed, they were encouraged by others. The other night there was a thread started about N. Korea. It’s true, the thread wasn’t as important to the wiki as other flu related items, discussions about getting a dog, legal problems for a member’s family, etc. but it was something coming from that corner of the world. Granted there are other places on the web for such geo-political conversations but I think this is all connected. You never know what developments in today’s news will impact tomorrow’ bird flu news. And if the pressure starts to build and some light hearted banter starts up to relieve the strain, so what. The wiki has a way of regulating its conversation. If someone says something too off topic, they get ignored. If a thread is not important, it dies a natural death… usually.
I think it is important to distinguish between fear and panic. It’s OK to be afraid of a pandemic with a high CFR. Not being afraid of this would be irrational. However, panic is blind, unreasoning, counterproductive and gets people killed in survival situations. That’s why I say it’s never OK to panic, especially in a dangerous situation.
In the book “Deep Survival”, the first people to die are the people with no fear. The second people to die are the ones who panic. People who survive are appropriately fearful of dangerous situations, but use that fear to take appropriate actions. They wrestle with their fear and make sure it doesn’t turn into panic or dispair. They also separate themselves from people who panic. In one chapter, a group of people are in a boat that becomes damaged and starts to sink. They get into a lifeboat. Two of the people panic. Although it takes a while, both end up doing stupid things and getting eaten by sharks. The two fearful, but non-panicking, people make a pact to watch each others back and separate themselves from the two panickers.
I know some people use the word panic to mean highly alert or very fearful, but we need to clamp down hard on any sign of real panic. This will be especially important in “real” life. Every lifeguard knows that you can’t save a drowning person who is panicking. They’ll take you down with them.
Here is another article about the Hagerstown incident
‘Sickness’ in building ties up city
The most interesting about the article is the two pictures in the left hand panel. You can enlarge them by clicking on them. They clearly thought this was something serious. I’m not sure why they just don’t come out and say what they thought it was.
Carrey in VA:
re:”Ok, Sam’s club is closed// What time does it open?// How early can I get there in the morning?// Why am I not done prepping already?? (kick, kick)// I shouldn’t be worrying about a run to Sams right now (kick kick)// Ok, if Sams opens at 8, and I leave the house at 7…..// I should have been done by now// (kick kick)//….
sounds like the script for ‘Fluwikie2-the Musical’
we’ve been talking about dealing with the stress should this hit. When I hear SIP, to my mind, I think of staying locked inside our houses. Then I started wondering, surely we can still go outside, on our property? I would like to think that the fam and I can still sit on our patio, or tend to the garden(if it’s summer), play in the snow(if it’s winter). Would this be drawing attention to us if we did so? I live in a rural area, on a major rural route going past my driveway. Being able to go outside would greatly reduce the stress factor for my family and myself.
Someone already started a thread about that very thing. (cottontop: going outside during SIP) I can’t recall what/where it was though. I don’t recall but I think that there was something said about flu being everywhere due to animals passing through on your property. Can you imagine playing outside during the BF and a swan flies overhead and drops a ‘package’ on you!? TomDVM also wrote something yesterday about a very rare disease he researched some time ago. It showed up on a farm and then it spread all over a region. The cattle didn’t intermingle. They were all on different farms but it hit all of them in a large geographic area. Just something to think about.
on the fence-
feel like I’m gonna be in a Dawn of the Dead kind of movie. Sitting outside and the squirrels attack us! (mad with bird flu) I’m just teasing to all the squirrels out there.
The emergency response folks might not be as well trained as you’d think. I did a presentation for first responders recently and no one had been given any info or training - medics, ICU nurses, flight medic,etc. I hope this is a very isolated case, and first responders everywhere else are trained.
Also our local planning person is well meaning but seems to think that an all-hazards plan will cover pandemic flu. (It won’t.)
I’m courting the planning person and the guy from our district health dept - can’t get anyone from the state health dept to take me seriously. They are insulted that I even wanted to talk to them because, of course, they know everything.
Grace RN - I hear they’re already holding casting calls for “Flu Wikie2 - The Musical”. I’m going to audition for the part of the woman with three cats who runs around (in an NPR mask, latex gloves and a tinfoil hat of course) screaming “Get that bird out of your mouth!” This will be followed by a perky musical song and dance - “Keep on Prepping’.”
I’ll bring the rubber chickens.
Woops, I mean N95 masks. These producers can’t get anything right.
Aurora - I know how you feel. Been there, been patronized.
aurora – at 16:15, just don’t think they’ve been given all the science all the way along.
They also don’t seem to know the current virus clades, h-h-h cases (-“oh, those people had sick chickens, anyway”), continents, crf, nor mortality by age. Having bosses quoting “enron-ed” spreadsheets saying how it is going to be hasn’t helped. Could have been handled a lot differently; these past 12 months.
Couldn’t convince a responder today that a pandemic influneza would have to be anything to be more concerned about home to their families beyond how they already take precautions to not bring hepatitis, AIDS, ect. (That’s what I get for buttonholing passing responders. Hope they get to the Flu Wiki tutorials anyway.)
History Lover - at 16:25
So funny!!! I wanna part in the musical too!! LOL
Ok so the big opening number will be the CDC chorus with a Dr. Marc Siegal solo-“What me worry”
This will be followed by a can-can chicken kick.
Will the musical include a rousing singalong of REM’s “The End of the World As We Know It”? LOL
Carrey in VA – at 17:54 How about just before the big CDC number you do “Send in the Clowns”?
Anon_451 - at 18:44
LMFAO
By all means we should do the REM thing-I’m a huge fan.
Anon 451-I happen to re-read your post waaaaaay back up at the top, when you said “chill it could be E-Coli.” Who would have thought we would get at a point where an E-Coli outbreak would be considered a reason to “chill out” that E-Coli would be good news.
It reminds me of a couple of years ago when I was quite surprised when my young daughter came home from school and said the teacher told them to wash their hands because there was an EBOLA outbreak in the county! It was actually E-Coli found in a traveling Circus-exotic animal manure.
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