What will happen if the level of pandemic is raised to 6?

Yes, you’d need bottled/canned goods. School’s would be closed & most likely air travel would be limited.

Dont be paranoid.

The government will require us to get a verichip.

“Partners believe that unique intellectual property can lead to chemical isolation and detection of certain biological threats including, but not limited to, Swine Flu”

Scott R. Silverman, Chairman of VeriChip, said, “When VeriChip purchased certain intellectual property from Digital Angel Corporation in November 2008, we already envisioned the evolution of our RFID technology from identification to biological applications. This vision began in January 2008, when we first partnered with RECEPTORS to develop a glucose-sensing RFID microchip. Now, with RECEPTORS’ new patents for Methods of Making Arrays and Artificial Receptors and Sensors Employing Combinatorial Artificial Receptors, we believe we can broadly expand these sensor applications to many biological agents and the environment.”

i’m waiting for it to go to 11.

wait – wasn’t this essentially the “myth arc” of The X-Files? A major catastrophe, martial law, etc etc. Watch out for the black oil, people!

I’m holding out for lucky level 7 myself but I probably won’t panic until level 10. I was mildly nervous at level 3 if that’s any consolation.

2late2be, I’d guess a level 6 in the USA would be the same as Mexico is now.

That’s why as a mom, If I were you, I’d stock up on enough of the necessities to get you through one month.

You ought to have a supply of food and water on hand anyway.

Phase 6 just means that there are multiple outbreaks in multiple regions of the world. People who are prone to panic over stupid things are not going to wait for a criterion like that that they cannot see themselves; they’re going to panic when they hear the first report of an American death, or when they know someone who knows someone who died from it.

@SpatzieLover Do you already have all the needs?

I doubt this will get that bad. But it is never a bad idea to stock up on a few days worth of supplies. Other stuff can happen too.

{glares at 40 gallons of Y2K water sitting in the corner.}

@2late2be I live in an area the “can” flood. So, I keep a pantry full of dry goods. I have a few gallons of water, but I will be going out tonight to get milk (including boxed cases of individual milks for my son), eggs, and a few other perishables I’m low on.

I always keep a case or two of V-8 on hand and lots of canned veggies and soups for those “just in case of bad weather” times & I have two freezers stocked with fruits and “meal” food.

I understand people w/out kids making light of this situation, but I have a young ‘un here at home and must put his needs at the forefront of my thoughts.

I know it is always a good idea to keep more than what you really need…

@2late2be That link doesn’t work.

If there is a quaranteen recommended for all of us, there will still be people running around delivering essentials to sick people. I think we are way overestimating the impact this will have. Only a very small proportion of the population will be hurt or killed (although if it’s one percent, that’s thirty or forty million people. Things will be tense, but it won’t be the end of the world as we know it.

Take a look at this. It is compiled from data from the WHO. It isn’t duct tape and saran wrap time yet.

edit :: grammar

So why are people dieing from this exactly? Is it because people aren’t seeking medical attention when they have flu symptoms? Is there no treatment for it? Does it kill you in a day?

I really don’t know the answers.

I am thinking, if you get sick with flu symptoms, go to the doctor, they treat you, you’re fine. No big panic. Anyone care to explain?

Why is this different from any other type of deadly illness?

And I have read articles on it but I haven’t been satisfied by the answers.
I don’t follow the television news because they like to dramatize everything.

i read that in mexico many of the deaths are attributed to folks waiting too long to get treatment. also, very young and elderly are more likely to have a more difficult time due to less effective immune systems.

and one reason it’s more a threat than seasonal flu is that it’s a combination of three viruses and current vaccines are either not effective or not yet assessed versus this new strain. it’s supposed to take several months to develop an effective vaccine.

it’s what happens in the meantime that’s of concern.

My question is, has anyone caught this from someone who has not picked it up in Mexico? Until I hear that news, I am not too worried. Once it begins spreading from others, then I think the general bright red panic button will be pushed by lots of pushers.

as of yesterday, there are a few cases that had not yet been nailed down in terms of source. that may have changed though. dont want to be a fear monger…i think we still have to wait this one out for the moment. and the pandemic scale ranges from 1–6 so no lucky 7 or perfect 10.

@avalmez True. And, we’re at level 5 now.

For me, my concern lies more with how other people are going to make sure they aren’t spreading this, and what all of this means for next year’s flu control.

“paranoic”???

@2late2be You have to remember that you have a new born and that sometimes puts them in a higher risk category when catching things. So, if there were a major outbreak, you wouldn’t want to expose yourself or your child unless necessary, so having back up stuff at home is a great idea. Better safe than sorry.

I personally won’t be taking my daughter out unless I have to and I won’t be going out as much unless I have to. We will be practicing lots of hand washing also. You can only do so much, but I do think being more cautious at this point is wise for my family and others with kids, or other high risk related issues.

@miasmom We are planning on playing in the garden a lot over the next few months.
We have a big dance recital coming up, though, with lots of wee ones in tight proximity. I’ll be utilizing my surpls of wipes, gels and foams to keep the germs at bay.
(hopefully no one coughs on us ;)

@miasmom Yes, I know, i will not go out these day with my kids, im seriously thinking on going out ang get another can of formula and maybe 2 more water packages, some cans, i dont want to be outside if the panic comes…

I’m with you both on this, we can’t stop living, but we can be cautious. :)

The other thing is that I live in CA, so if I lived somewhere else where it hasn’t hit yet, I might be slightly less concerned, but it’s a reality here already.

@2late2be Definitely get the things you need now. I’ll be getting extra milk tonight too.

I too am in California and of 4 kids two of ours are asthmatic.

No panic here at all- just careful watching. If it enters our county we may take precautions that we normally would not bother with if not for the asthma.

We are of course washing our hands a great deal.

Perhaps I will research SARS and see if it educates me a bit more. I find researching very reassuring.

It is also my thoughts that there will be a vaccine to address next flu season.

@Dog It is real close to our county already, so just trying to be as aware as possible, I’m curious, like @SpatzieLover mentioned above, is it going to become a worse bug in the fall/spring or is that only on rare occassions? Because I imagine if we got sick now, we would just have to get through it like any other flu, but will that not be the case later? I guess no one really knows right now.

@miasmom I have been thinking on that. In the smallpox outbreak of 1796 Dr. Edward Jenner noted that those who had suffered from the mild virus cowpox showed a certain amount of immunity to smallpox.
I do not know anything about the mutation this H1N1 flu but would like to assume that if one was affected by the milder strain that they might have resistance to a possibly more virulent strain in the fall.

@dog, I think that’s the case, that resistance would help, unless the virus would mutate further. I wish I could get the shot for it now :)

Sounds like a level 6 is imminent within the next week, due to the amount of countries (currently at 9) the flu has traveled to & the spead at which the flu is being transmitted.

BTW- here in my area, 4 Milwaukee Public schools are closed until the Health Dept allows them to reopen due to what they think is a flu transmission.

@RedPowerLady: basically, there are two things contributing to the uncertainty here.

One, this is a variant of flu that most people aren’t exposed to often. It’s an H1N1 variant, where the flu that comes around each winter is something else—my memory says H2N3, but I’m not sure that’s accurate. So it’s likely to hit people harder than the annual flu.

Second, it’s at a time of year where the flu doesn’t usually hit, so people won’t be ready for it and it will probably spread in different patterns than the flu usually does.

The flu itself doesn’t kill people, but it weakens people, and they die from things like pneumonia or dehydration, especially if they are frail to begin with. Beyond that, this is likely to be a severe flu (because most people don’t have any resistance to H1N1 strains), and so it’s likely to take people out of commission for a week. So while there’s a lot of panic about deaths from flu, the real logistical problems that governments are worried about is going to be 25% to 50% of the population all being sick and staying home from work at the same time.

What happens when 25% to 50% of a city’s busdrivers are out sick simultaneously? Or police officers? Or supermarket cashiers?

We now have two cases here in our town, one confirmed and one possible. As a result, one of our high schools has been ordered closed by the governor. The confirmed case was a Coastie (a member of the Coast Guard) and the possible was a student. However, no info has been released about their possible connections to Mexico (we are in South Texas and so are almost a part of Mexico. I am surprised we haven’t seen more cases sooner).

My daughter and I both had a flu bug two weeks ago – wonder if it was this one? It went around our church congregation like wildfire for several weeks and then died out. Dehydration was the biggest risk, but the fever and chills (and the nausea, etc.) were most unpleasant. We were burning up but just couldn’t get warm.

We have plenty of water, charcoal and food stuffs left over from last year’s hurricane supplies (we re-up in May each year) so we should be good if we have to stay home for a while.

@cwilbur Thank You. Makes Sense.

We have to take this very seriously, but we should not be scared. The definition of the levels (phases) are quite formal and not directly tied to the virus’s actually potency:

“Phase 5 is characterized by human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region.”

Yes, human-to-human spread, but most cases so far are mild. We have to observe the progress in particular how the virus mutates.

This is 2009 and not 1918 which means we have the media to raise awareness and we have a very good scientific understanding.

Let’s stay alert, but let’s not panic. Listen to all serious advice, but please ignore the doom mongers.