Why We All Need To Store Food And Water
Sun Feb 18, 2007 at 10:26:43 AM PDT
A public service announcement from CDC
click to play video
What a funny concept at Daily Kos. Is this a Bushism "scaremonger" concept to increase funding for Homeland security? Is it a flyer from the Idaho Secession Society or the flying saucer cult-of-the week? Uh, no. It's a message from the AFL-CIO's NYSUT teacher's union (which also represents nurses). The message from the unions and the professional societies will resemble this (see link):
Start now so you have a week or two supply of water and food. Get a few items every time you go to the grocery store and buy food that is:
- nonperishable
- easy to prepare
- requires little or no water so you can preserve water for drinking
And why? because the possibility of a flu pandemic is very real. As Greg Poland from the Mayo Clinic (and a world expert on the topic) writes in this month's issue of Vaccine (something we will not have enough of for 6-8 months):
"...the question we must all ask is: "do we believe that an influenza pandemic will occur?" The answer based on biology and history is a clear and compelling "Yes"! We absolutely will have another influenza pandemic. However, what we do not know is when, with what virus, how severe it will be, and perhaps most importantly, how prepared we will be when it occurs. In the last 88 years, three such influenza pandemics have occurred (1918, 1957, 1968).To those who find it difficult to believe that an influenza pandemic will occur, one would ask; "what makes this current generation so special that what has always happened throughout history - influenza pandemics - somehow will not occur?" The consequences of denying biologic reality are dire, [emphasis added] and well outlined in a recent book, The Great Influenza. The 1918 influenza pandemic is now estimated to have killed 50-100 million people . Although the 1957 and 1968 pandemics were much milder, killing an estimated 70,000 and 40,000 persons, respectively, they still overwhelmed the medical capacity to respond to them. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt stated that the virus that causes bird flu "could become one of the most terrible threats to life that this world has ever faced" (HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, December 2005). This raises the question of whether we have been irrationally worried, or irrationally complacent. [emphasis added]
And, keep in mind Daily Kos is a community. We owe the community a discussion about this. So what to do...
This is actually something that's been talked about in depth here. AlphaGeek has an excellent series of disaster prep diaries from Daily Kos.
And at the Flu Wiki, we have collected information both for personal preparedness and for community preparedness. You'll find businesses and schools and colleges all are on the same page... much to do and more work to be done.
But here's where the on line community comes in. Many feel that if the schools close for up to 3 months, 2 weeks of food and water may not be sufficient. Can a case be made for more? while folks here might dismiss the whole thing, there are enormous efforts being made to plan for the worst in case such a thing happens. Poland, again, from the Vaccine article:
The H5N1 virus is close to meeting the criteria for a pandemic virus-a novel virus, the ability to cause human illness, and human-to-human transmission [13-15], and we are now in at least the third of the six WHO pandemic phases (Table 2). That we have not yet experienced pandemic H5N1 influenza relates to a singular issue-the inefficiency of human-to-human transmission. Once efficient and sustained human-to-human transmission occurs, and presuming even an approximation of the current 50% mortality from this virus, time may well be marked, by those surviving, as "before" and "after" the pandemic.
This is just one of many serious articles by serious students of influenza (here's another by virologist Robert Webster in the NEJM:
H5N1 Influenza — Continuing Evolution and Spread
Robert G. Webster, Ph.D., and Elena A. Govorkova, M.D., Ph.D.
Clearly, we must prepare for the possibility of an influenza pandemic. If H5N1 influenza achieves pandemic status in humans -- and we have no way to know whether it will -- the results could be catastrophic.
and here is an excellent summary from Donald McNeill in the IHT:
Bird flu's risk far from over, experts warn
Alarm over pandemic has faded, but scientists urge vigilance
Ain't that the truth. Flu in birds is now present near Moscow and in UK poultry. So, it's not just that screw-ups from Bernard Matthews might put virus into the environment. it's that natural hazards like flu pandemics happen.
Posters here have asked what they can do to prepare. The answer may well be coming from your employer or your union. And if you need more, there's always reliable sources you can turn to, from CDC to CIDRAP to Flu Wiki. The internet is the future, and we are the people that will put the "public" back into "public health".
Update [2007-2-19 8:29:17 by DemFromCT]::Now, remember this is a political site.
"As you all know, the threat of pandemic flu has not abated. It may have fallen briefly from the headlines, but the problem remains. Bird populations across Asia have been infected by the H5N1 strain of avian influenza and the virus has spread as far as Eastern Europe. Hundreds of people have died and it may be only a matter of time before the virus mutates and sustained human-to-human transmission occurs. If the virus is able to achieve this, millions of people may die worldwide, rivaling the Spanish Influenza outbreak in 1918-1919. The CDC estimates that a ‘medium-level pandemic’ could kill over 200,000 Americans and sicken one-third of the US population.
Who said it? Click to find out.
And who is going to need political support? People who think like him.
From NYSUT:
