Think of it as a celebration of the life of Charles Darwin.
Or a damned good argument for bringing back mandatory quarantines.
Or forced sterilization of stupid people.
Think of it as a celebration of the life of Charles Darwin.
Or a damned good argument for bringing back mandatory quarantines.
Or forced sterilization of stupid people.
Indiana Homez at July 3, 2009 6:22 PM
You are quite right. When the nuimber oif immigrants is larger than the bnumberof locals, there is a transition of power and culture.
Indy – South Park? I raise you Simpsons (Comic Book Guy) – a society in which MENSA memebers set the rules: “Breeding will be permitted every 7 years. For many of you this will mean much less breeding. For me, much, much more!”
Don’t be play’n Mamba. If I didn’t know better I’d think you want me to play “Raider of the Lost Parts” with you. In that case I’m “all in”.
hey, not short-stack jokes!
That was:
Hey NO short-stack jokes!
Indy – it’s that Hatori Hanzo sword, isn’t it?
Okay, does your IQ test in at over 125? WELL over? Because otherwise, it may be a case of Indiana Homez and the Spayers of the Lost Parts.
Or Indiana Homez and The Last Dude Spayed.
Or Indiana Homez and The Sample of Whom?
Or Indiana Homez and The… Kingdom… doesn’t lend itself to anything…
old Lori at July 3, 2009 4:48 PM
“I am in the medical field…”
In what capacity? Nigerian witch-doctor?
“Being infected is far more effective than an immunization for prevention”
Very true. Those who contracted the Bubonic Plague and survived were pretty much immune afterward. Of course, that didn’t really help the other 70% of people who got it.
Seriously, if you’re serving in any official capacity as a medical professional, you need to have your license pulled. Of course, chances are you’re just a run-of-the-mill nurse, in which case your belief in any manner of woo wouldn’t be all that surprising.
Their is some pretty good logic to getting infected early on before the flu mutates to a more lethal strain. Certainly in the 1917 event it was indeed the case. The problem is the ragged circumstances under which this above event is doing it.
A vaccniation program is a far more controlled and safer way to go about it. And apparently this is planned for the early fall.
Sure Alex – We’ve had what… 4, 6 , 10 deaths from Swine Flu? From 10’s of thousands affected apparently?
Normal case fatality rate for ordinary garden variety flu every winter is 0.2 to 0.5%, usually due to pneumonia. This current flu is not more severe than that.
Bubonic plague indeed.
You know nothing about what I do for a living, nor would I waste my time discussing it with you.
Personally, I never thought playing Russian roulette with the lives of my kids would be a good idea.
But to each his own eh?
mred:
Despite the large amounts of money lavished by the Quebec government on people who have kids, white Quebec women have the lowest birth rate in Canada, not that white Canadian women in the rest of Canada are doing a whole lot better. Mark Steyn covered this extensively in his book “America Alone”. In the next 30 years, the “native” Europeans in Holland, France, Italy, and Portugal will be outnumbered by immigrant Muslims. It’s only a matter of time before they exert their power at the ballot box, just as the French did in Quebec with their revanche de la creche (revenge of the cradle). When my father worked summers at a farm in rural Quebec, it wasn’t unusual for the family to have 10-12 kids. Even in the 60’s and 70’s, when birth control was easily available, French families still had 5-6 kids where most English families stopped at three. When these kids grew up and got to vote, the PQ was an inevitable result.
“Sure Alex – We’ve had what… 4, 6 , 10 deaths from Swine Flu?”
25 confirmed deaths, and 538 hospitalizations (ie. severe cases).
“From 10’s of thousands affected apparently?”
7,983 confirmed.
“You know nothing about what I do for a living”
Apparently, neither do you. “In the medical field” indeed.
7983 confirmed as of June 30. This is a gross underestimate, as most cases are not severe enough to merit a doctor visit, or the doctors or hospital decline to test the patient because there is no fever at the time that patient is being assessed.
100,000 is the best estimate right now.
http://tinyurl.com/muk7zd
Total deaths 25.
Case fatality rate 0.025.
Even if the deaths increase 10 fold, case fatality rate is 0.25%
Garden variety flu range.
Every year 4000-8000 people die of seasonal flu in Canada
Sorry, not impressed by H1N1.
old lori
yup, I have had the flu 3 times were it damn near killed me, each time I caught the tail end of it, so get it at the front end and be done with it
Great idea. Catch the flu on purpose and risk being sick as a dog for one of the two good months in the whole f-ing year.
Plus, important safety tip kids, catching H1N1 Mexican Swine Flu -now- does not necessarily confer resistance to the Dr. Evil mutated version which may (or may not) come along later. Maybe.
Important safety tip number two, this person at the party you’re supposed to be catching swine flu from… you know this is swine flu how? Cousin Lester says it is? Oh well, that’s ok then!
It couldn’t be something else? Like drug resistant tuberculosis ferinstance, which there’s lots of around and kinda looks like the flu when you first catch it. Or mononucleosis? You got that Captain Marvel Diagnosis Kit you won in Cracker Jack handy?
Major Darwin award territory here, my friends.
Incidentally, I’d say the governments of the West lost their moral authority to impose quarantines with the advent of the HIV virus and subsequent (and ongoing!) AIDS epidemic.
As stated before, I did not go around recommending “flu parties” in part because of the issue you mention Phantom – most people can’t be certain what they are transmitting.
But really, it’s not that hard. This time of year there is nothing else going around which causes a febrile illness with upper respiratory tract symptoms which transmits thorough droplets from person to person within a few days. All you need is one proven case that transmitted, and you can track the spread through the family.
It’s not going to be TB or mono. They just don’t behave like that. TB has a very long incubation, while Mono (Epstein Barr virus) transmits through saliva.
And as for that vaccine that going to save us all? Maybe they will make it. Maybe it will block most or even all of the infections. Or maybe….
http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=177
Lori, “This time of year there is nothing else going around…”?
Jeez! Cavalier much? Nothing else going around -that you know of- this week. That being the point, eh?
Age of jet travel Lori. Bad news travels fast. I had the -normal- flu this winter and it put me in bed for two solid weeks. I was fried for like three more, and merely weak and watery for a further month.
100 day flu they were calling it around here. And people are having flu parties? Gawd!
If you believe the statistics coming out of England, Australia, and now the US, the rate of spread of the flu is so fast that a vaccine in October will be superflous. The majority of the population will have had it by the end of the summer.
Spread is exponential. Each person spreads it to several others, and so on…. By the time we have several thousand cases all across the country, the notion that quarantining a school here or a hospital ward there will have any effect is silly, especially when so many cases are mild and not diagnosed and people don’t stay home from work or school.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article6623554.ece
So, very many, probably most, people will probably be affected in the next month or two.
As for geting a nasty surprise from a new virus-du-jour… communication these days between public health bodies from different countries is excellent. Of course not 100%, but excellent. We find out within a few days if there is a single new case of Avian flu or new strains of Influenza, or strains with unusual drug resistance in various parts of the world. The risk that some new and undisclosed virus will be making the rounds with no one knowing it within a week or two approaches zero (which is about the time required for 2 cycles of transmission for most airborne viruses).
A much bigger risk is that H1N1 will mutate into a more virulent form in the next few weeks. And yes, if it mutates enough previous infection may not grant immunity, but usually an increase in virulence of a virus does not cause a sufficient change in its surface molecules to render previous immunity void.
And do you think the virus manufacturers can adapt fast enough to a changing virus?
If you believe the statistics coming out of England, Australia, and now the US, the rate of spread of the flu is so fast that a vaccine in October will be superflous. The majority of the population will have had it by the end of the summer.
Spread is exponential. Each person spreads it to several others, and so on…. By the time we have several thousand cases all across the country, the notion that quarantining a school here or a hospital ward there will have any effect is silly, especially when so many cases are mild and not diagnosed and people don’t stay home from work or school.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article6623554.ece
So, very many, probably most, people will probably be affected in the next month or two.
As for getting a surprise from a new virus-du-jour… communication these days between public health bodies from different countries is excellent. Of course not 100%, but excellent. We find out within a few days if there is a single new case of Avian flu or new strains of Influenza, or strains with unusual drug resistance in various parts of the world. The risk that some new and undisclosed virus will be making the rounds with no one knowing it within a week or two approaches zero (which is about the time required for 2 cycles of transmission for most airborne viruses).
A much bigger risk is that H1N1 will mutate into a more virulent form in the next few weeks. And yes, if it mutates enough previous infection may not grant immunity, but usually an increase in virulence of a virus does not cause a sufficient change in its surface molecules to render previous immunity void.
And do you think the virus manufacturers can adapt fast enough to a changing virus?
Given the rate at which the influenza virus mutates, there is no guarantee that being infected with the current instantiation of H1N1 will confer any immunity to the next version of influenza that comes around. Voluntarily being infected with influenza is not something that I’d want to do unless someone paid me very well to do this.
Antiviral drugs work for this current influenza strain but Relenza (my preferred influenza treatment) seems to be almost impossible to get. What people need to realize with viral infections is not to wait before seeking medical attention. If Relenza or Tamiflu is started within 24 hours of influenza symptoms there is a very good chance that one will terminate the influenza infection. Unfortunately people usually wait a few days before seeing a doctor at which point all that can be done is to treat the symptoms.
I’m sort of surprised at how many readers think the swine flu party is a grand idea. I wonder where you think these people are going after the event is over?
To the food court at your local mall? Hey, it’s seniors discount day!
Back to school to drop off their kids?
Back to work in the kitchen at your local fast food restaurant?
And if the little exercise goes horribly wrong and one of them ends up in intensive care…
are they going to cut a cheque to cover the costs?
And by the way, the last time I checked, a vaccination did not pose risk of transmission of the unaltered infectious agent to the general public. It’s not a vaccination. It’s outright infection, and if they’re not going to undergo strict quarantine, they ought to be charged with criminal negligence the moment they walk back out into the public.
The distinction between vaccination and infection is pretty significant.
“100,000 is the best estimate right now”
Are you retarded? Did you actually READ that article before throwing up a link? Do you ACTUALLY think that some random reporters clueless extrapolation based on US infection rates is in ANY way a reliable estimate of Canadian infection rates?
Please, let us all know in what capacity you’re “employed”, and in which location. I for one would like to give your facility a wide berth, especially since you seem keen on being a carrier for a virulent disease.
I’m sort of surprised at how many hear think the swine flu party is a grand idea. I wonder where you think these people are going after the event is over?
Eew, small infected animals.
Quarantining everyone who gets the flu is a fairly useless strategy for a condition that is infectious before it is symptomatic ( a day before) and up to a week after the fever is gone.
It’s done simply because there’s nothing else you can do. So public health officials push it. Except for vaccinations, and short of moving everyone to the countryside (the way things used to be done with polio outbreaks) public health in fact can do little about the spread of a flu – it has to run its course.
You can try to arrest all the people who have had the flu and go back to work or out in public place less than a week after illness began, but you’d end up putting the majority of people with the flu in jail. For no useful benefit.
Pretty aggressive reaction on this topic here. I’m not advocating people do this. I’m just pointing out that the majority of people are going to get this flu, no matter what anyone does about it, and given a choice between getting it now – when the virulence is low and the medical system is able to cope with the load, – versus getting it in 1-2 months when the virulence is unpredictable and god only knows what’s going on with the healthcare system, the option of getting it now may be preferable
By the way, I agree that it is theoretically possible that this virus will mutate enough so that previous infection may not grant immunity, but that’s extremely unlikely in the same flu season. Usually an increase in virulence of a virus does not cause a sufficient change in its surface molecules to render previous immunity void.
And if it does happen, do you think the vaccine manufacturers can adapt fast enough to a changing virus? October’s vaccine is based on July’s virus.
So, being from the lower 48, i’m having an Independence Day SF party.
Ya’ll invited now, ya hear?
BYOSF.
“Indy – it’s that Hatori Hanzo sword, isn’t it?”
Ouch!(literally)
“Bang Bang, you shot me down”