SRART OFF WITH A QUESTION:
 

has anyone read the fed's avian flu plan ? lot's of acronyms run through a blender and served over cruched ice with a little pink umbrella. nothing i could use, just what we've heard from the general media pertaining to 1 to 2 months provisions. BTW, it's a PDF so download it and it reads faster.

I have read thru it. The only acronym that comes to mind from it is SOL.
The states will be on their own for the most part.
I am prepared to stay at home for at least 1 month. Its not food and water that worries me as much as the financial aspect.
One of the main plans is to close the schools to slow the spread of any virus outbreak (actually a good idea). I don't have the financial means right now to be out for 2 months. I don't know how they would work salaries and such.
There is approzimately 14,000 employees for all the school districts in the El Paso area. That would be a big impact on the economy. I would imagine they would jsut extend the school year into the summer to cover the time missed.

It's not just the schools.....everything will shut down to one degree or another. A pandemic would be a HUGE problem, not just medically. It would bring a whole new meaning to the phrase "economic disaster".
The economy would grind to a halt while everybody who could stayed home. Only those desperate, brave, or foolish enough to be out among people will report to work, to maintain
-YOUR waterworks
-YOUR power company
-YOUR gas company
-YOUR food and fuel stores
-YOUR Social Services (fire, police, ect)
Not just the economy, but our whole society will simply *stop* while our Government dithers and the illness burns through our country.
By the way, the Government report you are seeing? Those figures? Those are best case scenarios, put out by your government because the actual numbers are pretty frightening.
The mortality figures sited in that report are based on people in Asia who contracted H5N1 (Bird) influenza. These people recieved the best possible care in modern hospitals and still between 505 and 80% died anyway!

A true Global Pandemic would be a very grim event. I don't know what to make of the constant concern over Bird Flu. Is it a preparedness attempt by our Government to minimize a "Real & Present Danger"? I can't see anything to be gained from the alarms other than minimizing the impact that it would have on society.

they launched the "food lifeboat" concept in Oz late last year - advocating each person store 10 weeks of food - it was based on the assumption of total social lock down, and continuation of utility services (water, sewage and power)

Have any of you ever watched the movie "V for Vendetta" ?
What a great movie that parallels the day and age in which we live.
The govenment uses the peoples fear to create a police state, justifying the almost total militarization of the government into a dictatorship.

I believe that the avian flu is real, do I believe that it is a threat-no.
Do you think that the world 150 years ago was this frought with fear over smallpox, polio and TB?
Fear keeps peoples heads down.
I believe that many of the things that we are told to be afraid of are manufactured by the authorities or the media.
hanta virus, SARS remember these all VERY SCARY and virulent and we should all be afraid!!!!
well, I still have'nt gotten SARS or the Hanta virus yet.Yes they are probably real, no they are probably not a threat to the majority of us. No-this will likely not kill anyone that we know.
Avian flu-manufactured to keep people scared. Scientists and govt agencies have been telling us that it will jump the species gap for years.
These are the same people that have us scared of the "africanized bees" from mexico.....
Lunacy.