Conspiracy or coincidence?

[sugilite:Me]

I had a read of Hitchers link.
My feeling still is, that birds have had this virus for many many years.
While it does have the potential to become a real problem, I do feel it is being hyped big time.
Independent studies DO question how effective tami flu is.

[Hitcher]

1. There are several forms of Avian influenza. Most are low pathogenic forms that only affect birds. H5N1 is but one form of Avian influenza, but one with a proven history of affecting people, particularly those who live amongst affected birds. It has killed several hundred people around that world -- deaths that have been reported to the WHO. There may be more that have not been diagnosed or reported.

2. Other human influenza pandemics have previously had their origins with Avian influenza (not H5N1). Most notably the 1918 pandemic.

3. An Avian flu requires several things to happen before it can become a virulent strain that affects people. Given the high propensity for all flu viruses to mutate, this is the biggest area of uncertainty. H5N1 may become a virulent human flu. It may not.

4. Governments, including ours, are asking the question about what New Zealand would/should do if a flu pandemic struck here, just like they plan for major natural disasters such as earthquakes. Talk of death tolls up to 90,000 after the second wave of infection are speculative, and are based on scenarios modeled on the impacts of the 1918 pandemic. These scenarios may be worst case. They may not be.

5. Governments have responsibilities to provide for the welfare of their people. Tamiflu is untested against pandemic influenza by definition, because we have not had a pandemic to test it against. But if it can assist front-line personnel involved in managing the pandemic response, then it has potential benefits that should not be ignored. There are other similar products that may have value for prolonging people's health during a pandemic.

6. Whatever else people may believe, they should pause to consider how they would cope in a world where they were prevented from going to work, meeting with groups of other people, and where friends and family members were significantly debilitated or died as a consequence of influenza. For a period of up to six months.

[Pixie]

You will be surprised at the amount of zombies who believe everything their wonderful goverment says. A few have known this birdflu is a load of crock and I personally believe that my immune system is strong enough to handle birdflu.

Your immune system needs exposure to develop resistence to any attack.If you are exposed to a new pathogen,your survival is dependent on the severity of the new pathogen's attack on your system and your general health.
If you are exposed to Ebola,your immune system is as much use as the immune systems of the australian aborigines',when they were exposed to rhinoviruses (common cold) for the first time.

The 1918 'flu' killed lots of strong healthy people.

Good Luck!

[Pixie]

its a load of crap, no offence to anyone but i think its the foreigners that bring viruses into our country.../and/or spread it to others.
you can only get bird flu by eating RAW chicken..or so ive heard..

Yeah,that's why NZ has it's own strain of meningococcal bacteria,that's unlike the strain common in the rest of the world.Which needed it's own vaccine to be developed.

If you don't know how pathogens can mutate frequently and unpredictably,you can live happily in blissful ignorance.

[Sniper]

Your immune system needs exposure to develop resistence to any attack.If you are exposed to a new pathogen,your survival is dependent on the severity of the new pathogen's attack on your system and your general health.
If you are exposed to Ebola,your immune system is as much use as the immune systems of the australian aborigines',when they were exposed to rhinoviruses (common cold) for the first time.

The 1918 'flu' killed lots of strong healthy people.

Good Luck!

I believe you can only get as sick as you allow your body. I have seen someone one their deathbed play rugby 4 days after getting out of bed. Trick is to not stop moving.

Thats my hippie opinion.

[Hitcher]

I believe you can only get as sick as you allow your body. I have seen someone one their deathbed play rugby 4 days after getting out of bed. Trick is to not stop moving.

Thats my hippie opinion.

We are not talking about the common cold or flu. I have several words for your "hippie" body. But one is probably enough. Ebola.

[Sniper]

We are not talking about the common cold or flu. I have several words for your "hippie" body. But one is probably enough. Ebola.

Touche'

[R6_kid:Me]

'Uncensored' magazine/journal has a large article on it at the moment, mainly outlining the fact that the US Government have been trying to engineer other strains of the disease "for research" purposes, and it is believed by some that they originally created it in the first place.

Will get some photocopies from it at work and put them up. Personally im into all the conspiracy theory shit, it makes you a more open minded person and i'd rather go through life 'knowing' certain things than just being another ant.

[Hitcher]

'Uncensored' magazine/journal has a large article on it at the moment, mainly outlining the fact that the US Government have been trying to engineer other strains of the disease "for research" purposes, and it is believed by some that they originally created it in the first place.

This is something of a perennial conspiracy theory. It has been previously famously used for HIV-AIDS and Ebola. The developers are probably based in Area 51 and are assassins retrained after successfully exterminating the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King.

[Paul in NZ]

This is something of a perennial conspiracy theory. It has been previously famously used for HIV-AIDS and Ebola. The developers are probably based in Area 51 and are assassins retrained after successfully exterminating the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King.

Man - they never died OK - They are running a trucking business in Otaki.

[Street Gerbil]

...fair warnings is actually a scare mongering smokescreen ordered by unpopular government trying to hide something, but when the sh*t hits the fan, they bitch and moan that the government didn't warn them enough. I coin the term "Katrina mindset".
The truth is the year is 2006 and we know about viral infections about as much as we knew in 1918. And however ineffective tamuflu may be, if it has a potential of saving 1 person out of 10, I say it is worth it.

[WRT]

6. Whatever else people may believe, they should pause to consider how they would cope in a world where they were prevented from going to work, meeting with groups of other people, and where friends and family members were significantly debilitated or died as a consequence of influenza. For a period of up to six months.

We need to get SpankMe on that Tamiflu shit just in case - how else are we gonna survive 6 months of forced isolation if KB goes down?

[Maha]

Man on the moon, supersonic jets etc, and they cant come up with a cure for a snotty nose?......... maybe cos its a multi billion dollar industry and they just dont want to........ ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh choo, wheres a fucken tissue when you need one............

[XP@]

So if it is true or false this is irrelevant.

The fact is that it is not killing that many people at the moment.

What I can't understan is that MILLIONS of people are dying from malaria every year. This is a real disease yet nothing is being done about it. There are also major other health issues that are not being properly addressed because those with the power can't be arsed or don't have the balls to stand up to business.

[Street Gerbil]

So if it is true or false this is irrelevant.

The fact is that it is not killing that many people at the moment.

What I can't understan is that MILLIONS of people are dying from malaria every year. This is a real disease yet nothing is being done about it. There are also major other health issues that are not being properly addressed because those with the power can't be arsed or don't have the balls to stand up to business.

Malaria can be cured therefore it is not an existential threat. We are in control. The vaccine is efficient and can be mass produced if needed. Spaceflights or not, if bird flu pandemic will take place, we’ll be just as helpless, as folks were back in 1918. We are not in control, hence all the attention.