Swine Flu Pandemic - Preparation

[Witchiepoo]

I'm tellin ya, the germ-o-phobes will be the first to croak. Besides, flu viruses don't just live in bathrooms. They're everywhere. Paper towels don't stop the transmission of pathogens either.

On a serious note, if people are really concerned, my suggestion is to avoid touching any part of your face when you're out in public, and as soon as you get home wash your hands with soap and water. But personally, I'd rather get exposed to the stuff now, especially in the summer when your body can fight it better.

[John]

From Bloomberg:

> Swine Flu Is Spreading Wider Than Official Data Show

> May 25 (Bloomberg) -- Swine flu is spreading more widely than
> official figures indicate, with outbreaks in Europe and Asia
> showing it’s gained a foothold in at least three regions.

> One in 20 cases is being officially reported in the U.S., meaning
> more than 100,000 people have probably been infected nationwide
> with the new H1N1 flu strain, according to the Centers for Disease
> Control and Prevention. In the U.K., the virus may be 300 times
> more widespread than health authorities have said, the Independent
> on Sunday reported yesterday.

> http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... LZw0YSTTiI

According to the article, the virus has been spreading rapidly around
the world, but the symptoms have been relatively mild for most
people. It's already a worldwide pandemic, according to the article,
but officials don't want to call it a pandemic, for fear of causing
panic.

The following is a graph of the spread of Spanish flu in 1918, that I
posted a few weeks ago:



I had thought that it was surprising the Spanish flu kept spreading
so late in the season, but the same thing appears to be happening
today.

Sincerely,

John

[Samir]

Interesting, the acceleration in the number of deaths seems to mimic the 1918 trend. Most of the victims having "prior health complications" my father is starting to get nervous. The nightly news doesn't seem to be giving regular updates like they used to.

[jrs]

I haven't seen any discussion of Vitamin D. The best way I know of to prepare for a flu pandemic is to get enough Vitamin D3.

I take 10,000 IU of Vitamin D per day (in the form of liquid droplets), which is about right for an adult male. It is important to take Vitamin D3 (not D2), and to take it dissolved in oil (e.g. as gelcaps or droplets). Vitamin D in tablet/solid form is not absorbed into the bloodstream, nor is Vitamin D2.

It's wise to start supplementing before you get the virus. Most people are deficient in Vitamin D, especially in northern climates, and humanity has been since we started covering our bodies in clothes and living in houses. In the flu pandemic graph John posted, you'll notice the flu tends to disappear in the summer; that's because people have more Vitamin D in their bloodstreams then. Watch out in October, when blood levels fall quickly.

For more information:
http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/2009/ ... e-flu.html
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/medi ... swine-flu/

As a bonus, Vitamin D also reduces rates of heart disease and cancer too.

[John]

Great cartoon in that last linked article:



http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/medi ... swine-flu/

John

[Centuron]

Vitamin D is actually one of the few vitamins our body makes on its own. The skin, I believe, synthesizes it to help things like calcium absorption.

The body makes Vitamin D when we're in sunlight. One of the reasons Vitamin D probably drops for people in the winter and people up north is because they don't get adequate sunlight exposure. There's less sun, and during the winter people stay indoors (which is also what spreads disease).
That said, regularly the body doesn't require a lot of Vitamin D. Generally, if you get up to about 15 minutes of sun a day anywhere on your skin, that's sufficient. No need to go burning oneself.

I haven't heard anything on the relation between the flu and VItamin D. I'll have to look that up.

[The Grey Badger]

And when you stock up on food, be sure to stock up on what I call "flu food" - stuff you can keep down that will keep you fed and hydrated without too much labor. I learned that in the winter of 2006-7 in Albuquerque when we had a weeklong snowstorm and I had the flu simultaneously.

So far your best bet is those cups of soup where you add tap water and stick in the microwave. Not much in the way of vegetables or meat, but they'll keep you going. Pitch the flavor packets and add a bouillon cube instead.

If you have cut-up onions, peppers, etc frozen in baggies, you can add those as well.

Pat, who has tried it.

[Martha Washington]

Hi everyone,
Just thought I would give you some links to help you get prepared and to keep up with information on the pandemic.

The first is for preparation:
http://www.emergencyhomepreparation.org/
Excellent information if you are just now starting out or if you have been prepping for a while.

This is a general information site:
http://www.fluwikie.com/
They have links to just about everything flu related and keep up with all the latest news. I find this site hard to maneuver, but they have flu related threads galore.

This is another general information site:
http://tinyurl.com/nslx28
I lurk at this site almost everyday. They are awesome. Being prepared is the number one theme here and they are all about showing you why. They have news threads, prep threads, and even a financial thread - to show how a pandemic will affect the just-in-time economy. You will soon see from them how to wade thru the bull being dished out from mainstream media. Be careful, it may overwhelm you at first.

I find it psychologically peaceful to know and understand as much about it as possible. The only "panic" I see coming is when people realize how much they've been lied to.

I wish you all to "live long and prosper"

[greghaught]

Fact: The annual human flu (common flu) in the U.S. "results in approximately 36,000 deaths and more than 200,000 hospitalizations each year". source whitehouse.gov National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza

Fact: "Worldwide, these annual epidemics [common flu] result in about three to five million cases of severe illness, and about 250,000 to 500,000 deaths." source WHO

Fact: Malaria causes about 250 million cases of fever and approximately one million deaths annually. source WHO

Q: How many worldwide confirmed swine flu deaths as of now? 100 or so?

Q: How is the WHO funded.

A: the pharmaceutical industry and the medical technology industry
http://stanford.edu/class/humbio129s/cg ... -interest/

i guess it's obvious where i'm going with this. whenever the WHO and CDC try to tune our fear to a pitch, it should be a big red flag. i'm more worried that our president intends to restrict the public's malpractice recourse as a part of his health "reform". if he reduces or eliminates the penalties, the malpractice will get much much worse.

[Amon]

And you chose the wrong place to be defiant, my dear. The virus is mild right now, but unless it decided to shift its path recently, it's still following the same path the 1918 pandemic did, and we know how that one turned out.

Samir stated on another site that apparently honesty and reassurance are the new fearmongering. That belief seems to be becoming increasingly more common - the reality, at least the way I see it, is that the ones who shut their minds out to the possibility of real danger from this thing tend to be the ones who behave the least rationally. Not to say that I am blind to the possibility of actual fearmongering, but it's never a bad thing to be ready for the worst in advance.