Bird Flu

[AceMentor]

What would happen if the bird flu hit the U.S. and what impact would it have on Nashville?

Would having a huge healthcare economy help us or would the disease move too quickly?

[satalac]

i think the whole bird flu thing has been blown out of proportion. it's just something else that the news has grabbed hold to pull in viewers. if you keep the viewers scared, then they will keep watching to see what happens next. kind of like the whole y2k and antrax scare.

[Onyte9]

Around 30,000 Americans a year die from the regular flu so I don't think I'm going to be worried to much about the Bird Flu. I remember not too long ago the Tennessean has some ridiculous article about how the Bird Flu may claim more lives than Katrina, well Katrina only claimed around 1500 lives which doesnt look like such a big number sitting next to 30,000.

[GaTechGuy]

I'm not so sure how it would impact the Nashville or Tennessee area but I'm sure the impact wouldn't be very good. I do take the bird flu fairly seriously. The last bird flu outbreak was in 1918 and killed 30-40 million people. Who knows how it would play out today...there are a lot more people in the world and it would probably spread much faster because of airplanes and the like but we also are much better with diseases today. One interesting thing about the last bird flu is that it usually killed healthy middle aged people and didn't effect the young and old as much. I don't think it would be as bad as the last one but I think it would be pretty bad if it starts to spread human to human.

Isn't this more of a Coffee House thing?

[Rural King]

Yes it is. I will move it on over there.

[smeagolsfree]

The one thing I have noticed about the media is that they love to scare the hell out of us. If its not terrorism, sex, murder, west nile, or whatever the media has to play it up big. They love FEAR. The bird flu can be a very serious thing. But if it happens then a lot of people will die all over the world. There is no vacine yet and it may not even mutate into a human to human virus. I do not know if there is anything we can do to be ready other than to have quaranteen plans ready and then the ACLU will challenge them as being unconstitutional because they will have top use the military to enforce it.

[rosen108]

At first I felt - like some of ya'll - that the bird flu 'pandemic' was just a way for the media to scare us into reading and watching more. But since then I've talked to several science & biology professors at vanderbilt and belmont and they all seem to think that its definitley going to happen. They say there is no question that the bird flu virus will spread from bird to human (i think there are already 4 or 5 cases of this in china) and then from human to human. What they did disagree with the media on though, is how it will effect us. While it will definitley prove deadly, the only ones who will seriously be in risk would be young children, the elderly, and those who have poor immune systems. I think that it will probably be more deadly than the common flu, but not much more than that.

I really think its just gonna be one of those things that we aren't going to know enough about until its already here.

[it's just dave]

Middle-aged people? I'm doomed.

This is something to take seriously by mostly paying attention to credible sources. If there's truly a threat and we can be empowered to do something about it from a personal standpoint, we'll know.

Otherwise, the media loves to scare people. I would think most of us have other concerns until we're notified otherwise. But stay tuned.

[smeagolsfree]

I really think its just gonna be one of those things that we aren't going to know enough about until its already here.

I know what you are saying and it will be a disaster if this strikes. With the advent of jet travel, a lot more people will be infected faster than the last pandemic.