| Archive for Our Scotland - www.our-scotland.org Scottish Politics Discussion Forum / Messageboard - Dedicated to online discussion about Scottish Politics and an Independent Scotland, as well as Scottish Society today. We also have a section dedicated to Banter, Sport and Recommended Sites. |
| Lord Pitsligo |
Do we have a flu pandemic starting?Buy food, water & shotgun shells, civilisation is about to end!!!http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/24/swine.flu/index.html |
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| azzuri |
....bird flu anyone?! | ||||
| Lord Pitsligo |
Swine flu apparently. |
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| azzuri |
...people just love to think the entire world is going to come to an end, they must get a kick out of it or something! | ||||
| Lord Pitsligo |
I'm not normally one for tin foil hattery, but flu pandemics have an impressive reputation for delivering. Still, it'll probably all come to nothing! |
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| azzuri |
There have only been 2 deaths, and lets face it, if it's going to wipe us out, it'll do so whether we're scared stiff of it or not! | ||||
| Lord Pitsligo |
All the reports I've seen put the figure around 60. |
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| Holebender |
Maybe Mexicans don't count! | ||||
| azzuri |
Aye, now...  
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| Stevie |
No, this isn't the one(103 dead and counting) but there will come a virus that will be a modern day black death. Actually, the black death is still alive and kicking in some parts of the world(Africa I think).
What is worrying is the biochemist. About 15 years ago some biochemists applied for an experimental license to put the AIDS virus into the common cold virus - they thought it would be an interesting experiment. Fortunately, the authorities concerned stopped them. Scientists, the good the bad and the ugly. |
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| Lord Pitsligo |
That person just needs a selection of dead bodies and a stick to poke them with and he'll be happy. |
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| Holebender |
The BBC is reporting two Scots have returned from a holiday in Mexico and are displaying "flu-like" symptoms. | ||||
| Lord Pitsligo |
Jet-lag & a hangover?
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| Stevie |
CLIMATE OF FEARHere we go. The stock market takes a dive in reaction to the "potential pandemic"; people are not importing pork from Mexico; COBRA has increased the alert level from a 3 to 4; the news networks are hyper; the price of airline shares fell and oil demand has fallen.I'd just like to meet the pig responsible. COBRA know what they're doing(as much as anyone does at least). Do we WANT to live in a climate of fear or are we cajoled into it by the media who have a story to chase. 103 deaths is awful but we lose thousands of people to car accidents and many many more to malaria every day. President Obama has just said, "it's a cause for concern but not for alarm"; a change from Bush who would have probably declared a red alert, blamed it on terrorists and probably started a war with a nearby irritating South American "dictator". Of course I'll have egg on my face if I'm wrong and this becomes a worldwide pandemic, but then again I'll probably be dead anyway. So tonight we're going to live dangerously and eat pork and bugger the risk. Still, would think twice about eating British beef(that is living dangerously). |
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| Lord Pitsligo |
Those two cases in Scotland have been confirmed as positive according to the BBC. | ||||
| agentmancuso |
Don't we ever have epidemics anymore? | ||||
| Celtic Indian |
Re: CLIMATE OF FEAR
You did have to temp fate,didn't you ? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8020208.stm I'm off !!! 
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| Lord Pitsligo |
It seems so 
I'm not worried though. Given Scotland's rather terrible health record, I suspect cytokine storms won't be causing too many problems 
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| Stevie |
Ah yes, the good old days. Bring out your dead! We will, too many people settled in dense populations - inevitable. |
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| Holebender |
Oh no no! Epidemics are so last century; in the brave new 21st Century only a pandemic will do. | ||||
| Stevie |
Well, 30000 to 35000 people die of the flu in the USA, 12000 die in Britain, every year.
Still, it isn't nice to catch flu from a pig so don't go kissing pigs in Europe. No-one has yet died of this swine - avian flu(mmn... maybe pigs can fly). However, Goron has said he will do "all that is necessary to prevent an outbreak of swine flu"; since everything he touches dies through incompetence, I now begin to worry... Just leave the professionals alone, they're doing fine. |
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| Lord Pitsligo |
They're not usually aged 20-40. If they are, that's usually a good sign it might go pandemic. |
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| Holebender |
Are you another one who thinks Mexicans don't count? |
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| Stevie |
No-one has yet died(outside of Mexico). Oops, thought the context was clear but you're right.
Stll, on the bright side, Mexico's Mexigangs kill nearly 9000 people a year to protect their hash/cocaine markets, maybe the bad guys will stay indoors till the infection disappears. It is bizarre though that nobody outside of Mexico has died yet(I suppose they will). Non that Goron is getting in on the act we're all saved. You should be getting a leaflet soon telling you to wash your hands. Goron must be so happy he's no longer the centre of people's attentions but it doesn't take him long to screw up, so we'll see if he can drop to -20% behind the tories. |
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| Stevie |
So then, anybody die of swine flu?
Thought not, typical news frenzy to fill the vacuum of newzak they expunge day in day out. Autumn is a different story maybe. But look, the swine flew over the cuckoo nest at Westminster. This MPs expenses story seems to the definition of how to completely disgust the voting public. More people are falling sick from the shenanigans of the real pigs than from the imaginary pigs in cyberspace. |
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| Lord Pitsligo |
Do Americans count? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8042374.stm Ok, so only three, but that's how these things can get started. Didn't the 1918 pandemic start like this? |
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| Stevie |
5 - 10 % of those who caught the first swine flu died but those were in the days before the NHS and also a relative ignorance of the spread of disease. However, autumn is a time when it might pick up, then again it might not.
Fear not, with so many billions of people on the planet there will be a real killer virus which will produce a pandemic worth fretting about. |
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| QuirkDale |
Pandemic! Pandemic! |
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| Stevie |
Drole. | ||||
| agentmancuso |
I read somewhere the other day that 300,000 in the UK & Ireland die from smoking-related diseases every year. | ||||
| Holebender |
Maybe they should try unsmoked bacon. | ||||
| agentmancuso |
It doesn't roll so well. | ||||