North American Plague Update

Actually, I think they were briefly calling it the North American flu, because, while it started in Mexico, Mexico is a downtrodden third world nation, and it was probably all our fault anyway.  I am waiting to hear it blamed on George Bush, somehow.  Stay tuned.

Anyway.  The H1N1 Flu Tracker Google Map is no longer being updated, go here instead.  Same guy, his company's web site.

The offical name of the current pandemic is now 2009 H1N1 A, or some combination of that.  The problem with calling it H1N1 is that that is the "standard" (or maybe "basic") swine flu, and when they analyzed cultures of this in the lab they realized it had components of at least three, maybe four, differant influenza strains, including avian and human versions.  

Right now it's looking like this will be another Chicken Little Moment.    Still, Public Health is one of those things that just about everybody expects the government to be involved in, even if they argue about the extent, cost, etc.  The reason the pandemic of 1918 is called "The Spanish Flu" is that Spain was the only government that didn't try to cover it up.  Public Health organizations have the specter of tens of millions of people dying around the world in 1918-19, and wondering how many might have lived if there had been no concerted effort to conceal the extent of the disease.

The Spanish Flu was unique in that those who got sickest and died, were young, healthy adults.  They died because their immune systems went into overdrive.   What really alarmed authorities about the current flu, was that those who were getting sickest were young, healthy adults...

So one of the gravest dangers right now may very well be that the whole thing fizzles, like SARS or the last Bird Flu, or Y2K, and next time no one will take the warning seriously.  (It is also noted that a major epidemic is often preceeded by a "minor" outbreak of the same disease...)

In the meantime, Mrs. Drang takes the bus to work, so I suggested she dig into the "volcano kit" I put together and take some face masks with her.  I went to Lowes, and found that they actually had a healthy (sorry) supply of N95 resperators and face masks, so I bought a box of 20 AOSafety masks; what I had before was a 10 pack of 3M masks, with a little inlet valve.  On the assumption that the valved masks would be more useful in the great dust raised/spewed out by a volcano, we replaced those she had taken, to save for the greater need of the volcano.  

Hopefully, ten years from now we will still have 30 masks...

(Note that N95 masks are all rated the same, whether they are labled "dust" or "paint", whether they are a simple mask or a resperator with detachable/replacable filters.  NONE of them are rated for surgical or medical usage; they are simply not tested for it.)

We also visited most if not all the grocery and drug stores in the area and got about the last hand sanitizer on town.   Again, I wil not be surprised if we are still stocking the same containers ten years from now...

(And, I inadvertantly bought a large "refill" container of anti-bacterial hand soap, not realizing that it was soap, not hand sanitizer.  We needed a refill of hand soap anyway...)

Brigid is always worth reading--moreso than my blatherings here--but her post on the subject is, well, well worth the time. 

Someone pointed out--I believe in a comment to a post by Tamara in her blog--to the effect that "You can't spell 'pandemic' without 'panic'--and what you have left is 'dem'."  A lot of folks are waiting to see if this crisis will result in any curtailment of liberties or a major power grab.  some feel that the attention paid to it is misdirection, to distract us from, well, a power grab.   ("Government Motors", anyone?) If it gets as bad as was originally feared, some public health measures--quarentines, etc.--may be justified.  Unfortunately, a lot of folks have absolutely no faith whatsoever in the intentions of The Powers That Be...  Which, frankly, has been earned by irresponsible, oportunistic behavior, and statements like "Don't let a crisis go to waste."

Come to think of it, distrust of the authorities is not necessarily a bad thing, so scratch that "unfortunately."  "Constant vigilance", and all that.

While much of the above is my opinion, it was all developed through reading various sites, including Wikipedia, the Rhiza Labs site, various news sources, and by consulting my old Military Intelligence-issue crystal ball.