Bird Flu Revives, government warns of Social Disruption

[Guest guest]

Wednesday January 17, 2007 07:45 CDT

 

http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm

 

Bird Flu Revives

While Indonesia has been fighting Bird Flu, we read this morning that

authorities in Japan now have their hands full with what they hope won't be a

full-scale outbreak.

 

Besides being able to kill people there's a report out from the Financial

Times this week that a 60-country outbreak of bird flu could knock as much as

10% off the Dow Industrials, and similar (or greater) amounts off other global

indicators.

 

Once again, if you haven't read the links, our own government warns that:

Social Disruption May Be Widespread

 

Plan for the possibility that usual services may be disrupted. These could

include services provided by hospitals and other health care facilities, banks,

stores, restaurants, government offices, and post offices.

Prepare backup plans in case public gatherings, such as volunteer meetings

and worship services, are canceled.

Consider how to care for people with special needs in case the services they

rely on are not available. top of page

Something that will be interesting to watch will be the testing of a new

approach to vaccines to fight this flu: The National Institutes of Health is

testing a DNA-vaccine in human trials that started this month.

 

So far this year, four new cases have been reported (116 cases were reported

last year) and 3 have died, compared with 80 last year. The odds of dying if you

get bird flu? 60% over the long term.

 

So, if there's a non-military problem that might justify at least a little

" head time " being spent on preparations and building some redundancy into your

life, bird flu is one. Want another?

 

Comet Watch

Folks all over Australia (with clear skies) could get a look at the brightest

comet in decades. By reports, it was really spectacular...and red, as in Red

Kachina although there are lots of folks who thing that had already happened.

Nevertheless, something out of the blue (pun intended) from space, could be

another reason to consider your personal redundancy plans.

 

Want more?

 

Doomsday Two Minutes Closer

With all the talk about Pakistan having bombs pointed at India, Iran being on

the verge of developing nuclear weapons, and with a hundred (or so) suitcase

nuclear weapons missing from the fall of the Soviet Empire, the Bulletin of

Atomic Scientists today will be moving their so-called " Doomsday Clock " ahead

2-minutes.

 

You might have thought that when the walls came down around the Soviet Union,

that humans would have been able to chart some kind of course for peace. But,

what most folks forget is that over the long term, wars are fought over both

religious and economic issues, not types of government. Besides, as the little

planet runs out of resources, there's more pressure by the day for corporatists

to exploit third world resource, and more resistance from indigenous people's

who, although not as comfortable as the USA's version of urban cave-dwellers in

high rises, figure that their lives might not be improved by waiting in line for

fast food, and living a " mental game " .

 

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists makes the official announcement at 9:30

Eastern this morning, and while they likely won't get into the drivers too

deeply, they're obvious to the three or four of us rational humans left.

 

Border War Update

The latest in the three-way low-intensity conflict between the US

Constitution-supporting public, the corporatist powers maneuver things toward a

freedom-busting, Constitution-burning " North American Union " , and the Mexican

invasion plan has a debate going on over who should perform inspections of

trains of goods coming into the US from Mexico. If you haven't figured out our

position on this, you need more coffee.

 

 

 

 

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