NBC Nightly News

[Mother]

Finally, if people miss this they are really ostriches.

 

It seems the media met with cabinet heads and were told to relay this message to the public. Brian Williams, on the Nightly News, NBC broadcast, came right out and said that every person and family needed to stock up for at least several days and perhaps weeks. They stated unequivically that we could be without electricity, that forty percent of the work force could be out, that businesses, schools and organizations needed to be prepared. Hospitals would be turning away patients and etc. They said this was like a category 5 hurricane standing off our coast with no knowning where it was going to hit. Again, they said that the government would not be coming to help and etc etc etc.......

 

This was the most direct and most forceful announcement that I've seen from the media and the government. In essence they have said "GET READY NOW"!

 

Now that said, they also made an announcement that a new vaccine was being perfected that seemed to be effective against the bird flu and common ones also. It is supposed to be effective for two of the bird flu strains. Said that they had used it on rats and it was effective BUT....I ask, how can they have a vaccine for a virus that hasn't evolved yet. What I had read about it was that they were making one for both of the older strains that have been around for years but that there was now FOUR strains of it, the later ones the one's that was causing the most death's.

 

Question.....why would they talk about a vaccine that's supposed to be so great, then immediately tell everyone that they needed to go out and get prepared? Is it a scare tactic to get everyone to take the vaccine when it does come out? Is it a way of keeping the panic down some? Why am I so skeptical?

 

Whatever, it seems that NOW we will not be alone with our prepping. Now things will get more scarce and more expensive. everyone, we all need them.

[kaseyb (Supermom!)]

Mother, which evening (date) did you hear this broadcast? It must have been incredibly interesting. I can't find anything in the online news so far. If anyone here can, then please post it.

 

I'm checking online and I'm getting confused messages. On one hand MSNBC has this: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4067116/

 

Bird flu expert warns about bird smuggling

Virus not likely to arrive in U.S. this year via migration, says top virologist

3/11/2006. Migratory birds on radar for bird flu.

Adam Roundtree / Gamma Press file

Migratory birds that enter the US from Alaska and Canada could carry the Bird Flu H5N1 virus and pass it onto domestic birds through droppings, feathers, and stagnant waters, some experts say.

 

Updated: 2:21 p.m. ET May 2, 2006

 

SINGAPORE - A top bird flu expert predicted Tuesday that the H5N1 virus will not reach the U.S. this year via migratory birds, and warned bird smuggling poses a bigger threat for transmitting the deadly disease.

 

Robert G. Webster, a virologist at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., said the virus will eventually arrive in the U.S., possibly carried by infected birds illegally brought into the country.

 

“While wildlife people in the United States are watching for the appearance of this virus, I would suspect that it may not come this year,” he told The Associated Press, adding it has been historically rare for bird flu viruses to reach the Americas from Europe.

Story continues below ↓ advertisement

 

“If it doesn’t come this year, don’t relax, because it will eventually come,” said Webster, in Singapore for a two-day conference that is expected to draw leading bird flu experts.

 

The H5N1 virus began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003 and has killed at least 113 people worldwide. Most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds.

 

Experts fear the virus will mutate into a form that easily spreads from person to person, potentially sparking a global pandemic.

 

Webster said he is most concerned about H5N1 becoming established in the world’s wild bird populations because most highly pathogenic bird flu viruses usually do not last long in nature. They typically start in wild birds, infect domestic birds and eventually die out.

 

“This one has broken the rules and gone back from the domestics into the wild birds. Is it going to be perpetuated there as a killer? That’s the million dollar question,” he said. “Will that virus go to the breeding grounds in Siberia and Africa and come back again? If it does, then the chances are eventually it will learn to go human to human.”

 

Webster’s laboratory has been conducting animal research to help predict how much of the anti-bird flu drug, Tamiflu, people would need to take and for how long if a pandemic strain emerges, said David Reddy, Tamiflu task force leader for the Swiss-based drug maker Roche Holding AG.

 

“We don’t have a pandemic strain yet, so you can’t say, are you going to need a high dose or a low dose?” he said. “What we can do is construct models so as soon as a pandemic strain arises, we can very rapidly determine what the best approach is with the drug.”

 

A Tamiflu study is also being carried out on humans to determine the proper dosage and duration for people infected by the current strain. But the results could take a long time to gather because of the relatively few number of human cases, Reddy said.

 

Webster, who has researched bird flu for decades, said the spread of the virus to Africa is especially worrying because of the lack of infrastructure as well as political instability and a health system already overrun by diseases like AIDS.

 

With “all of those things going on in Africa, you could get human-to-human transmission started and not have the opportunity to do anything about it until it’s out of hand,” he said.

 

And on the other hand they have this: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12584149/

 

U.S. bird flu plan outlines worst-case scenario

Draft forecasts 40 percent work-force disruption but no border shutdown

 

Updated: 8:37 p.m. ET May 2, 2006

 

WASHINGTON - A medical reality is complicating federal preparations for the next pandemic: Flu spreads in ways that make it extremely unlikely the U.S. could avoid being hit.

 

Even shutting U.S. borders against outbreaks abroad offers little reassurance, because people can spread flu a full day before they show symptoms. With 1.1 million people legally entering the country every day, that means a super-strain would probably be incubating here by the time it was diagnosed abroad.

 

The government’s latest national response plan, obtained by The Associated Press, acknowledges the difficulty as it warns that states, cities and businesses shouldn’t count on a federal rescue if a super-strain of influenza strikes — and that people may have to rely on creative if not scientifically proven ideas such as staying 3 feet away from co-workers and not shaking anyone’s possibly contaminated hand.

 

President Bush last fall announced a $7.1 billion strategy to fight the next flu pandemic, focusing largely on public health preparations such as how to rapidly produce a vaccine once the next super-flu strikes. On Wednesday, the White House will formally release Step 2 of that strategy — a list of actions that different branches of government need to take to prepare.

 

“This would really be a road map,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday. “It will cover both the government and non-government actions that are being taken to plan and prepare for any potential pandemic.”

 

It’s an incremental step, one already drawing political attacks that the Bush administration isn’t moving fast enough.

 

'Needless delays'

“Other nations have been implementing their plans for years, but we’re reading ours for the first time now. These needless delays have put Americans at risk,” Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said.

 

But infectious disease experts hope the new details being released Wednesday will help businesses and local governments better determine exactly what they should be doing — and what aid they can expect from the federal government if a pandemic strikes.

 

“Everybody is asking, 'Well, we want to do something. How do we do it?”’ says former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, who heard those questions Tuesday while addressing pandemic preparations at a Michigan law-enforcement conference. “We’ve got to be much more specific.”

 

Influenza pandemics strike every few decades when a never-before-seen strain arises. It’s impossible to predict when the next will occur, although concern is rising that the Asian bird flu, called the H5N1 strain, might lead to one if it eventually starts spreading easily from person to person.

 

Regardless of what causes the next pandemic, the 228-page draft version of the government’s plan outlines a set of steps federal officials will take at different stages.

 

We’re currently in Stage 0 — worrisome flu strains are circulating in birds. Stage 5 would be widespread U.S. cases. In between, U.S. health officials would help world authorities try to detect and contain any potential pandemic-triggering outbreaks abroad.

 

Screening travelers

The main defense: Screening travelers from affected countries and diverting or quarantining flights that arrive with possibly ill patients aboard.

 

But many travelers will seem healthy even as they shed virus, warn flu specialists.

 

Trying to meet and quarantine lots of planes, “I’m dubious, No. 1, that just physically that’s feasible. And, No. 2, I frankly wonder exactly what degree of effectiveness can be expected by that,” said Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University, an adviser to the government on flu vaccine.

 

A pandemic wouldn’t shut down the country at once. Instead, the document paints a picture of communities battling active infections for six to eight weeks, before the flu spreads to the next area.

 

Each ill person is expected to infect two others. Symptoms should appear within two days. Flu spreads most among school-age children — expect a 40 percent attack rate among them compared to 20 percent among working adults. But, with caring for sick relatives and stay-at-home precautions to avoid infection, 40 percent of the workforce could be absent for weeks at a time.

 

To minimize workplace infection, the report gives the most in-depth advice yet for businesses to take such steps as cleaning offices — flu can live on hard surfaces for 48 hours — and minimize employee contact by not shaking hands and staying 3 feet from co-workers.

 

But the 3-feet advice assumes flu only spreads in the large droplets of coughs and sneezes; tiny droplets that stay suspended in the air for long periods can spread it, too.

 

“Those are the kinds of uncertainties that make it hard to be very dogmatic” about health tips, cautioned Dr. John Treanor, a University of Rochester flu specialist.

[nativeMama]

I must have missed something. Is there a link Mother? I went the Nightly News site, and managed to get lost! LOL

[gardnmom]

There is a story there, The story is in the video at:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12584149/

[nativeMama]

[Guest Guest]

Fox News @9:40am, Wednesday...

 

Dr. Manny said... we are going to have to take precautions.. gloves, masks, washing hands, think about buying books and school supplies in case children can't go to school. And the usual stuff we know..

 

The newscaster asked "come on is the BF gonna hit? yes or no?"

 

Dr. Manny responded 'comparing it to a tsunami today, we are watching to see what is going to happen.. there was an earthquake and now we take a watch and see but prepare... the bird flue is like that.. it is out there.. will it happen.. um, er.. YES!'

 

so the bottom line.. "Yes or No?" was Yes!

 

 

[Guest Guest]

We also saw this bit of information on NBC last night - interesting, but as we were driving to a meeting this morning DH and I discussing the possibility of any of the friends we were meeting preparing the answer was a resounding"no". We still have a way to go but at least we are trying to get a handle on prepping. This "head in the sand" mentality boggles the mind.

[kaseyb (Supermom!)]

Mother caught the story early on.

 

I heard this on my mudstream news today as well as on the 700 Club. The government is trying to let everyone know they're on their own apparently.

[twilap]

Well, the message is starting to hit home with my dad. He started to tell me a couple days ago that we need to get prepared for the bird flu. LOL! I told him, what do you think I have been trying to do? Today he handed me $100.00 to go and buy stuff to stock up. We were going to go and spend $100.00 this next week anyways....so now I have $200.00 to get water, canned goods, TP, kleenex, etc. He said that he would try to get me some more money to help! I think he is actually very concerned....finally! When I talked to him about it before, he kind of rolled his eyes. He lives with us, so I have always considered him in our preps. I have other family that will probably show up on my doorstep too! I am not close to being as prepped as I want, but this sure will help!