Friday, October 14, 2005

This website, which hawks avian flu protection gear, features some rather eerie photos of workers in protection garb rounding up infected specimens and "disposing" of them.

Upon first take, they look for all the world like stills from a low-budget science fiction fright film. Then suddenly you remember that the year is 2005. The ice caps are melting. The oceans are turning to acid. The US just lost a major city to a turbo-charged hurricane.

Just as suddenly, those images start to look pretty damned quaint.
Posted by Mac at 10:14 PM

3 comments:

W.M. Bear said...

Flu viruses spread in respiratory droplets caused by coughing and sneezing. They usually spread from person to person, though sometimes people become infected by touching something with flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose. Most healthy adults may be able to infect others beginning 1 day before symptoms develop and up to 5 days after becoming sick. That means that you can pass on the flu to someone else before you know you are sick, as well as while you are sick.

I would just point this out in response to jonfen's putting down of my reliance on surgical masks for protection. Almost everything advertised on this site for protection is some kind of surgical masks, and workers disposing of large, infected fowls are all shown wearing these masks. If they provide no protection, then why are they wearing them? The site also recommends flu shots (even though they're not specific for avian flu) which I also plan to receive. Nothing is a guarantee, of course, but trying EVERYTHING (including hygeine) will decrease yours chances of infection. For those of us who have a lot of contact with people in the course of our work, doing everything possible is the best bet.

BTW, Bush is talking about imposing martial law with federal troops to enforce quarentines if a bird flu epidemic breaks out in the U.S. Typical Bush mob response to anything. Don't prepare by stockpiling vaccine and educating people how to behave, just send in the troops and shoot to kill.

12:03 AM
Ken said...

Martial law: God save us, but it's a possibility. While I don't EVEN approve, if a serious epidemic did break out, such might be a very unpalatable necessity. What an awful thought. Well, I sure hope that boogey_man is right, and not much comes of this. I myself misdoubt the efficacy of martial law. I mean, we just don't control the birds of the air, now do we? This is one time when I'd just LOVE to be wrong, in just about every way imaginable!

I have to agree with you about those blockheads of the Bush Administration: first thought is to send in the troops. Second thought - well, they don't seem to have any. They are SO pathetically incompetent. :-{

One truly frightening possibility is that, once declared, martial law might remain long past the need, if indeed there ever WAS truly a need! Might remain for generations ....

The whole concept depresses. Sure hope boogers is right, and me wrong.

8:35 PM
W.M. Bear said...

I hope so too. Honestly, I think Bush is just looking for some convenient EXCUSE to impose martial law -- to my way of thinking likely for good, meaning we'll basically end up with a President for Life and a distinctly third-world political mentality.

12:26 AM