Not exactly firearms-related (oaky, not at all) but thought it’d be of interest to CBP guys, cops in border states, potential travellers etc.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090424/ap_on_he_me/med_swine_flu
I’ve been hearing more about this lately. Sounds like a hybridized virus containing DNA elements from swine, avian species, and humans. It IS passed via human contact. Not good. I am not much of an alarmist about this kind of thing but this one sounds a bit worse than average.
At Mexico City’s international airport, passengers were questioned to try to prevent anyone with flu symptoms from boarding airplanes and spreading the disease.
airport lackey: Excuse me, sir. There has been an outbreak of a deadly plague in the city and we have to force you to stay here if you have a stuffy nose or sore throat. Do you have a stuffy nose or sore throat?
everyone with a 3-digit IQ: Uh (cough) No, not at all. (sniffle)
No kidding. I live in LA, dude. If this dz goes critical, how long before we see cases of this at County/USC? Weeks?
Throughout the past several centuries, an influenza pandemic in humans has occurred every 10-50 years causing alarming mortality and morbidity rates as well as economic woes. Considering the last pandemic occurred in 1968, the global population is now ripe for another to ensue.
Lets hope this can be contained.
My agency has been prepping pandemic contingency plans for 2 years now. We are WAY overdue.
I have some respirators with HEPA filters.
Please tell me this will significantly reduce the risk of contracting it.
Yes, I am extremely paranoid when it comes to this.
Especially since the last influenza pandemic infected 1 in 5 and killed about 40 million people across the world in 1918-1919.
I eat ham but its as close to a pig that I get :D.
Scary its being transmitted from person to person.
Michael
The respirators help.
“Social distancing” is a key during the event (i.e. less population density = less transmittal)
Other than that, stringent hygiene regimens, and quarantining victims…
Listening to the late night talk radio at work last I heard the tale of how two ways to handle the out breakout of flu turned out so different.
The island in the middle of San Francisco Bay was military and the brass in charge put an early quarantine. The result was no deaths.
The City of San Francisco city council voted to not require facemasks and the result was people dying at the rate of 50 a day until they voted again to require masks and shut down the city.
Sometimes we have a little too much democracy.
80 dead in Mexico thus far.
There are also two confirmed cases in Kansas now.
Its now in Texas, California, and Kansas.
Ruh-roh shaggy – it’s just about got me surrounded.
Honestly the only thing that really worries me about this is that i have a pregnant wife due next month and a 2 1/2 year old. I’ve got the immune system of a buzzard but they’re germ sponges 
It seems like it is hitting middle aged people from reports I’ve seen? Great, just when the economy was starting to show signs of life.
The good news is that seven of the confirmed cases in the U.S. have now fully recovered. Also, I read a CDC report and it claims that the virus is susceptible to two different drugs.
Here is the latest advisory…http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/pdf/HAN_042509.pdf
WIth good comms, a vibrant and (fairly) smart CDC, and known hygiene protocols, this outbreak should not be nearly so bad as the 1918 go-round. IOW, hopefully we won’t see anything like millions of casualties. Still, it could be quite bad. Maybe let’s oughta quarantine Mexico?
It DOES seem to be a big story, now.
I dont think it will be as bad either but the scary thing is that this swine flu is of the H1N1 subtype which was the same subtype as the 1918 influenza.
I seem to remember a swine flu scare in the 1970. IIRC the shots they were giving were making people sick.
Now there are some suspected cases in New Zealand.
HHS declared a public health emergency today.
8 cases in New York and 1 in Ohio now bringing the total to 20 cases in the U.S.
The real danger with it striking the age group it seems to hitting is that we do not tend to go to the doctor. If your child get sick, you haul them off; if your elderly parents get sick, same thing. I get sick, I go "to hell with it, I will feel better in the morning. "