Discussion
At the moment there is only one known case where the disease may have passed from human to human out of the 120ish known cases (according to a bloke on the radio). As a result, you have to have a lot of direct contact with infected birds to be at any risk at all. If the virus were to mutate so that it could pass from human to human, the situation would be much more serious.
los angeles said:
The Spanish Flu epidemic of the eighties killed some 100 million worldwide.
yeah but thats only a small percentage of the population,obivously it didn't wipe out the human race, just the weak ones. As no doubt will the new strain. Darwinism at work, survival of the fittest and luckiest and all that.
Not really worth worrying about though is it, if the flu doesn't get you something else will.
54 people killed? Big deal. SARS was over-hyped nonsense too, and how many people got BSE after all the fracas? You'd think these things were Plague, which wiped out a third of Europe's population and really was something worth worrying about.
If you keep things in perspective then it's just the media needing another panic story. Asteroids, global warming etc.
If you keep things in perspective then it's just the media needing another panic story. Asteroids, global warming etc.
The thing with virus's is they often mutate of their own accord into different strains. One of these slightly modified versions may well find it very easy to jump from person to person. It really is only a matter of time before this happens. And it will reach the UK naturally anyway, due to the migrating birds (not the ground restricted chickens).
The only long term hope is if Labour actually pay for the millions of vaccinations NOW, as it will take many years to manufacture enough for everybody. Clearly this isn't going to happen. Besides, the current know vaccines don't even cure it properly, they merely reduce the effects slightly.
Many millions have died in the past from similar situations.
>> Edited by 4WD on Friday 14th October 08:16
The only long term hope is if Labour actually pay for the millions of vaccinations NOW, as it will take many years to manufacture enough for everybody. Clearly this isn't going to happen. Besides, the current know vaccines don't even cure it properly, they merely reduce the effects slightly.
Many millions have died in the past from similar situations.
>> Edited by 4WD on Friday 14th October 08:16
The real impact of this will be economic, while the disease will probably never be as big as some of the more sensational predictions the economic effects could be huge.
I work in the airline industry and quite simply we could be looking at a shutdown in international air travel, that is how this will really affect us all.
SARS may have been hype but it almost put two of the best airlines in the industry out of business (Singapore air and Cathay) and cost SE Asia billions.
I work in the airline industry and quite simply we could be looking at a shutdown in international air travel, that is how this will really affect us all.
SARS may have been hype but it almost put two of the best airlines in the industry out of business (Singapore air and Cathay) and cost SE Asia billions.
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