Please place all memorable quotes from Fluwikians here! There have been some truly great ones!
Monotreme: The worst case scenario is not being presented to people. The worst case scenario is that H5N1 will go pandemic with it’s current kill rate - over 50%
I find my brain going in two different direction. #1: as horrible as the 1918 pandemic flu was, it barely made the history books — folks moved on to the Great Depression, WWII and other events. Lots of folks survived.
I’m not prepping for the disease, I’m prepping for the collapse. Oremus
Medical Maven: There is something very special (or deviant) about us fluwikians in that we are able to look this “black beast” in the face and against very long odds decide to prepare.
Grace RN:
Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.
Ractoe:
We don’t need scientific sense to know that no contact means no transmission; common sense tells us that, and that some who avoided infection during previous pandemics must have done so by virtue of not having come in contact with anyone who was infected.
Medical Maven:
“Don’t marry your materials, make them work for you, and cast them aside, if it is advantageous for you.”
Average Concerned Mom:
H6P: You made your kid eat Alligator?!?!?!?!? (-: Wow, that’s hard-core!
Sorry at 9:01 I meant to type “Ractor”.
Ocean2 Thanks for helping! You have good search skills!
Enthusiasm? Well, maybe — I’m 95% slug so when the 5% energy kicks in, I’m really on…. (-:
(don’t quote me on that though.)
A gem thanks to “sn”
“As I read your post, I’m reminded of a line from an old movie, to the effect of ‘I know more, I can do more, *I’m* more.’
You are faced with a flower bed filled with weeds, and I have bags of dirty aging laundry to attend to. Confronted as we are with these things, it’s difficult to present a convincing claim that we might have become better people from all of this.
Nonetheless, as I look at it, I’m now reading news stories and medical-geek papers which a year ago would have been alien to me. I know more about the UN, WHO, CDC, Indonesia, Vietnam, and several African countries I hadn’t known existed - I know more of the world.
I’ve recertified in CPR and Basic First Aid. I can bring an unemployed neighbor to the local Big Lots and show him how to get enough basic food to live on for a month for under $20. I know a lot more about living without resources like running water or electricity. If someone broke into my apartment, or assaulted me on the city street I live on, I know what I would do.
I’ve learned many intangibles as well - I have a finer sense of the distinction between what is critical and what is not; I know more about prioritizing. I have a better sense of storage space efficiency. I’ve discovered the virtue that if one does a little bit each day, eventually everything gets done.
And yes, if there is an emergency, I can feed and mask myself and a couple of friends and my apartment house neighbors for a few months. And yes, if there is a pandemic and all I know are wandering about clueless, I might be able to give them calm reasonable answers to their panic questions.
But if none of that ever happens, it will not have been a foolish effort, because I now know more, I can do more, and *I’m* more.”
This talk of businesses having a plan to operate with 30% of their workforce out is simply ridiculous. If they could do that they would already be doing it!
(from JWB)
better to be a fool for preparing than a fool for not
NoFluingAround : “Flu me once, shame on me!!!!”
Olymom : Yeah, I may be Pollyanna-ish here, but I know my neighbors and like most of them. And, in a pinch, I’d even take some soup to the neighborhood’s righteous prXXX.
pugmom – at 00:11
It doesn’t matter what the tipping point is for each one of us, as singular people. What matters is that the tipping point, for all of us collectively, is drawing ever nearer and nearer. The latest sequence analysis shows the similarity between a recent Garut victim and other human sequences from West Java.
Average Concerned Mom at 12:59 -
I was just in a meeting and nearly the same quote was made by a non-Wikian!
The Sarge - Hmmmmm… are you SURE it was a non-Wikian??? I hear they are everywhere….
“You’re going to need a bigger boat!” Jaws 1975 , that I quoted when I realized just how big this problem was going to be 3 months ago. And now after Goju’s summary from the NYC conference, I think I may start singing “Far well, and ado, you sweet Spanish ladies…” before we start comparing scars.
Always Remember: If you are getting run out of town…Get in front and make it look like a parade. /;0)
Tom DVM
MaMa Thanks.
Here is my favorite from Racter.
Epidemiologists say: Thin out sick chickens.
Virus says: Thin out stupid people.
Average Concerned Mom. Thanks for starting the thread!!
From Lugon:
I honestly don’t know about probabilities. I find it difficult to assess probabilities in a highly “complex” (not simple like child’s board-games, not complicated like chess, but complex like “chess with neurotic pawns, and queens with their own shaky agendas”) situation.
“This is what scares me most. The moral dilema”
Thanks Goju for writing it…
…thanks Dennis in Colorado for picking it up.
“We live high up in the stratosphere perched on the peak of a technological pyramid. The view is breathtaking, but God forbid that a few key blocks become misplaced. And that is what Panflu threatens to do, no ifs, ands, or buts.”
From an orator with Churchillian-like prowess…Medical Maven.
“saw the Chinese “explanation.” The problem is that it could be partially true (I don’t underestimate the ability of US bureaucracy to screw things up) but it could be another falsehood and excuse — or a combination. That’s the problem with these two rogue countries when it comes to international public health.”
Posted by: revere | September 8, 2006 07:53 AM
Average Concerned Mom. Thanks This is fun and there are important messages in each of these quotes to. /:0)
KimT
“If its bird flu. I think all of us are in a similar boat, things may work or they wont. If the docs give me tamiflu I’ll use it and hope it works, but I would also use the nebulizer, lemon water, wheat juice and dance naked under a full moon if it would save my daughter. Better then doing nothing at all. “
Pandemics have shaped our past and will continue to shape our future. When the disaster strikes, the time for planning and preparation have passed…
Blue Ridge Mountain Mom
delphina —
“I feel I have a tremendous burden on my shoulders — I know about it, I know what could happen, and if I don’t prepare for my family to the very best of my ability, then I am guilty of gross negligence. I have no choice but to prepare.”
I’m still trying to get which anonymous is which.
Too confusing.
We need some way to tag them like sheep.
Bird Guano
Watch what they DO, not what they SAY
Painted on destroyed New Orleans homes as seen in Spike Lee’s film airing on HBO and I feel very fitting for why I am here and why I prep:
“Hope is not a plan”
Now pigs……when it comes to H5N1 Murphys Law seems too optomistic; more akin to trying to grasp hold of a nucleur reaction…..God help us.
that was econ101 above. Sorry folks, premature posting going on there!
Average Concerned Mom – at 21:45 Racter: at 16:56 “… the ideal thing would be if people would stay home if any of their family members had the flu. Most of those who catch it won’t catch it from somebody who looks sick, they’ll catch it from somebody who looks fine. “
‘People do sometimes comment on my “isolation.” I just tell them that I don’t hate people — I just feel so much better when they are not around.’
Dennis in Colorado
Saddle Tramp ~
“my experience is that a frightened horse will not stop to drink, no matter how thirsty it is.”
Monotreme-Dateline September 9, 2006
“There is no innocuous interpretation of what is going on in China right now”.
I’ve never heard a victim of Katrina complain that they had prepped too much.
We have moved from “High Impact, Low Probability” to “High Impact, Moderate Probability”.
Bird Guano
If I and the people I care about, which includes my fellow Fluwikians, survive the pandemic, that’s all the reward I need.
Monotreme
We have an ongoing deadly civilizational clash, a monumental demographical challenge, and a relentless virological tsunami building. Even one of these could obliterate our liberal western societites. Keep the jokes coming.
Medical Maven
Those of you who are prepped - you are as prepped as the houses around you. Total quarentine over an extended period will not work. I thought it would but in reality it won’t. You, who have the same knowledge i have need to step up your game. I have made the first step. Just today i made a key alliance that may make a world of difference to this nation. I am appealing to you - use your vision that only we seem to have. The difference between us and the non preppers is that vision. It is a gift that we must use and share with our fellow man.
Goju
If China in the past was the “perfect storm” for pandemics, it is now the incipient supernova of hothouse possibilities. My jaw drops on a regular basis on the reports of endemic pollution from the toxin-laden bottom of their shrinking water table to the sulfurous stench rising to the stratosphere. And then you throw human collusion into the equation. The Middle Kingdom is nothing more than a prideful petri dish. (And pride goeth before a fall).
Medical Maven
From TRay75
John Barry’s quote “After all, it was only influenza.”
What does WHO know and when did they know it?”
When WHO and the country in question decide to tell us.
Klatu
Klatu, good one! In other words, “Up Yours!” to the rest of the human race.
“…pigs aren’t just another cog on the way to our turf.
We occupy the same turf. Oink.
Medical Maven…you just keep tossing them up there and I will keep on catching them…Heheheheheheheheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
DAX COM – at 03:31
This isn’t good. No, not good at all.
not sure of the “original” poster, but the “viral asteroid”, has always been one of the ones that sticks in my brain. :)
And don’t forget Tom’s “closing the barn doors after the horses have already left.”
Oh my Gosh, don’t forget BB’s “red wine flu killer,” which also has its own shorthand. :)
I knew I should have been writing all of these down for the future book, “Fluwiki”. :)
From NauticalMan on the caveat emptor-pharmaceauticals thread:
In the last months there has been a major crackdown on prescription drugs available from Canada for instance. And I am sure that the people in Washington who are doing this are doing it just for our own good, and it has nothing to do with preserving the pharmacutical industrys profits. We have the highest drug prices in the world and I am shocked, shocked I tell you, that anyone would think our bought and paid for Congress would have any other reason to do this other than the fact that they are only thinking of you.
From TomDVM
I clicked on this because of your heading…’food without farming’ which is a bit of an oxymoron to me…at least it wasn’t ‘food without farmers’ because I believe farmers may be the ‘make it’ or ‘break it’ factor in a pandmic.
Made me think of Robert Webster’s statement that H5N1 is the most frightening virus he’s ever seen. And I kinda figure he’s seen alot of virii in his day…..
Grace RN
Proximity equals Opportunity
From NS1:
Lots of Chickens Next to Lots of Pigs Next to Lots of Humans
WHO’s next?
Hopscotch isn’t just a kid’s game anymore.
My mindset at this point is somewhat akin, I think, to that of the engineers on the Titanic watching the slope of the deck increase after the berg was struck.
“If this keeps on going this way, it will be bad!”
anonymouse
Oremus
05 September 2006 - My Wife is Driving Me Crazy About My Preps THREAD
To calm the wife buy cases of chocolate, to calm the husband buy cases of booze, and to calm the children…… heck the booze and chocolate should work. 8^)
Janet – at 10:37 It is ironic that each and every years millions of people purchase health and property insurance (just in case); has an annual physical (just in case); has their children vaccinated for a number of diseases (just in case); yet when we talk about storing up vital items to survive on their own for more than a couple of days, it is called “paranoia” instead of being smart.
nsthesia- Makes you realize…we aren’t really prepping just to survive the initial incident, we are prepping in order to RECOVER! Preparing is not an end to itself, it is just the means to an end, which is to return to a new sense of normalcy.
If you get enough people on the planet, crammed together with enough pigs, chickens, bats, cats etc., it seems like a recipe for density dependent limiting factors to me. Humans are spreading over the planet like bacteria on a petri dish. Something has to stop us.
ColdClimatePrepper
The Chinese premier also urged ASEM members to cooperate in preventing and controlling infectious diseases, especially bird flu.
What a comedian.
Monotreme…of course.
clink, cllink, clink…the sound of spurs as Bronco Bill walks down the dusty deserted street as posters and lurkers cower behind the saloon and boarding house windows……his fingers are twitching over the holster of his six shooters (okay, keyboard)….okay, I jest, it was just my visual image, thanks Bronco for vigilance. It is appreciated.
annony nonny
Let’s hope that the grids stay up and the future viral Einstein doesn’t get wiped out in the first wave. We may just end up defeating more than just H5N1.
JWB
Its alright though I have come to terms with either being the weird eccentric guy that thought the world was ending or that smart lonely guy thats the only one left alive.
Annoyed Max - Not mad yet.
ps. I don’t know if anyone else is having fun with this but thanks Average Concerned Mom…I am having a riot!!
I keep saying I will stop and give someone else a chance…and then along comes another one I can’t resist.
Don’t forget, God created economists to make weathermen look good.
econ 101
Remember the 5P’s. Prior planning prevents piss-poor performance! Well..ok…6.
anony mouse
Your moment of Zen.
This might be slightly off topic but in keeping with the spirit of things. Some of you may have seen this already.
http://video.lisarein.com/dailyshow/oct2005/10-06-05/10-6-05-avianflu.mov
Any resemblance that the above video may have to the actual CDC is purely coincidental.
Ruth @ 13;01 - “It’s not like we are afraid that aliens might come down from space to blow up our world. (No offense to anyone is is concerned about that.)”
Here is a collection I think of a lot, all by one man over 50 years ago. Somehow, they have never failed me.
1.The Earth is too fragile a basket to put all our eggs in.
2.Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done and why. Then do it.
3.In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.
4.Of course the game is rigged. Don’t let that stop you—if you don’t play, you can’t win.
5.One might define adulthood as the age at which a person learns he must die and accepts his sentence undismayed.
6.The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive.
7.Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
Robert Heinlein
Personally, I am sick of prepping. I am sick of thinking about prepping. I am sick of trying to figure out where to put stuff, how to put the stuff up, and where to get stuff. I am sick of the pandemic… and it isn’t even here. I am sick of feeling surrealistic when I am sitting at a red light, or at a restaurant, or whatever. I am sick of having “the light on”… there are times, so many times, I want to be in the dark. I am sick of trying to figure out how come I get this, and so many other people don’t. I’m sick of trying to figure out what it is I am suppose to do with this insight. I am sick of arguing… with people who think we are to technologically advanced to go through a pandemic. Or arguing with people about what a carbohydrate does or doesn’t do.
I want my life back. Bottom line.
No matter how hard I try… it just isn’t the same as it was before I “knew”…
EnoughAlready
No matter how hard I try… it just isn’t the same as it was before I “knew”…
EnoughAlready
That reminds me of a quote from the movie “The Matrix”:
Cypher: I know what you’re thinking, ‘cause right now I’m thinking the same thing. Actually, I’ve been thinking it ever since I got here: Why oh why didn’t I take the BLUE pill?
Security is not having everything you think you need. Security is knowing how much you can do without.
Brock
In helping school administrators determine how to think about pandemic flu, it would be best to point out how pandemic flu is different from regular flu and to point out that we’d like to take at least as good care of our children as we do of our chickens.
Inky
FrenchieGirl at 16:47-That is an excellent quote from Brock. A good companion to that quote that comes from the Taoist religion:
He who knows enough is enough will always have enough.
(I think I have reached that point at which “less is more”).
Quote by a (psychologist) friend who is not a fluwikian: I’m selling my Ferrari.
uh…. lugon? at 07:42? In what context did he say that?
Prisons may be to a modern-day pandemic what army camps were to the one in 1918.
Average Concerned Mom
Average Concerned Mom - He doesn’t have a Ferrari - it was a metaphor. He was talking about living a simpler life in order to have less to need and less to prep for.
TomDVM in response to efficacy of potential PF51 vaccine to disgruntled.
Another good one from Tom DVM…..A degree in medicine or veterinary medicine or any other kind of medicine for that matter…is not a degree in good sense or intelligence or a measure of common sense for that matter…
when people tell me I’m crazy for prepping and make fun of me or laugh, I just simply look them in the eye , wait for the laughter to die down a bit and then I calmly tell them, I’d rather have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it. think about that for a bit , it’s a sobering thought. usually shuts them up pretty fast.
Large parts of the WHO work are ideologically biased, they are neither the reflection of high morals nor of good science but just of political powers.
Dr. O Kloiber
WMJ (World Medical Journal)
vol 52 No 2 June 2006
from: Effect Measure
Tamiflu is not a solution it is a conundrum.
Medical Maven
WHO doesn’t need a compromise candidate, it needs a leader who knows that the Organization is there to serve the people of the world- and governments only if they do exactly the same.
Dr. O Kloiber
WMJ (World Medical Journal)
vol 52 No 2 June 2006
from: Effect Measure
Subject:!!! “I am ’Freakin Out’, WHO chief Nabarro
KUNA News ,Jan 24, 2006
“Not only I am ‘freaking out’, to use the correspondents expression, and not mine, not only is that worry or anxiety because of the impact of a possible pandemic, but there is also that worry and anxiety because so many people when I talk to them about getting prepared seem to imply that we have months ahead to get prepared,” he said.
However he added that,
Helen Branswell quoting Dr. Webster:
“Of all the virii we’ve ever seen, this is the one that scares us sh!#/@$$.”
Link to the video on Annoyed Max’s DOH conference thread, I believe.
Mother nature has been shooting Pandemic bullets at us for the past 5 years. We will not be able to side step them much longer.
ANON 451
from Tom DVM ……Truth is every time I start analyzing things….they just keep getting worse…
I once though that the Third World would be better off then the first world. I was wrong, the slums and sweat shops set up by the first world will do to them what the Army Camps in WWI did to the soldiers on both sides.
Anon 451
I think WHO’s numbers are all wrong. The intersting thing to me is that they do say it would be unstopable and unpredictable. (of course being unpredictable didn’t stop them from making predictions grgrgr)
DennisC
The problem is that to create a self-reliant culture we need self-reliant people, and over the last 75 years H. sap. has been organized to be *less* self-reliant, not more. See Kipling’s poem “the Gods of the copybook headings”
LMWatBullRun
One word -
Division
Division of Labor
Less self-reliance occurs in societies with a higher division of labor.
Without a shadow of a doubt…if the World Health Organization had a brain…they would eat it!!
Tom DVM
Tom DVM
I believe the probablities indicate that a pandemic is imminent…the problem is that imminent in nature’s time may not be imminent in our time.
Bronco Bill – at 21:59 I’m not much into guessing, I guess.
My prediction (short of absolute disaster): We will get by with a little preparation (by default), a little ingenuity (by necessity), and a LOT of luck (by God’s grace)
Medical Maven
EVERYone (who cares) feels the stress of being good enough to meet the challenge. The trick is to not let that stress immobilize you.
nsthesia
From Edna Mode: In fact, when pressed by friends/family, what I say to them is that all I can tell them is that we are nine months closer to pandemic than when I first brought it to their attention. Period.
I think many of us, have become a little too close to the situation to speak without bias. We are well informed, no doubt. We know the enemy better than anyone. But nobody knows the end game. It’s that simple.
Enjoy the day and live each, as if there is no tomorrow. And dance like nobody is watching.
Patch
Okay…time to continue this thread here due to speed.
Nothing copied over to new thread. We’ll open with new quotes!