The World Health Organization has raised its global pandemic alert level to Level 4, meaning that the virus can easily transmit between people and cause “community-level outbreaks.” According to WHO, “The ability to cause sustained disease outbreaks in a community marks a significant upwards shift in the risk for a pandemic … but does not necessarily mean that a pandemic is a forgone conclusion.” The next phase, Phase 5, means that “a pandemic is imminent.”
Level 4
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YIPEE!!!!
(this will go the way of the bird flu that was supposed to kill us all awhile back)
At what level does Dustin Hoffman put on his bio-hazard suit?
At what level can we start looting from the QFC on Broadway?
This is so frightening that I think I need a drink… Guess I’ll go fail to pay for a bottle of wine at QFC tonight.
I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s just a phase.
When there are cases in Washington, then I’ll worry. For now, I’m just stocking up on canned food and beer. (King County recommends one gallon per person per day, after all.)
By the time you find out about it, it will be too late, actually.
My guess is they’re cranking up the shots though – takes a while to get them made and distributed.
Great to know our own government likes to do “trial runs” of their lab-created virus scares, so they know how to truly scare us when they release the real shit. Practice makes perfecto.
I (HEART) EUGENICS!
People (@1, @5), there is a place between skepticism and panic where you can reside. It’s called “caution.” Dismissing this as nothing at all can get you and others around you sick, just as panicking can cause undue stress on everyone. Real people in the cities around you are getting sick from this (Vancouver, BC, among others), and it could turn into something bad if we’re not careful. There is no harm in taking moderate precautions.
Eugenics won’t save your butt, CC. In fact, it’s the healthy people who are at highest risk from both swine and avian flu.
Captain Trips? Is that you, Captain Trips?
See this is the problem with crying wolf – bird flu not scary – swine flu – happening.
This will not be like bird flu
does anyone realize that 36,000 people die from flu related illnesses in the US every year? Washington State alone is equipped and stockpiled with hella tamiflu and has ordered an additional 236,000 doses to deal with a potential outbreak and of the 149 reported flu deaths in mexico only 28 have been confirmed ‘swine flu’ deaths. sure swine flu is happening, but how long can we build up this sort of “12 monkeys” hype again and again and again? man isn’t robert wise’s the andromeda strain bitchin! with those split screens and the mod contamination suits and shit! but fuck it, i am taking a second here to knock on wood.
isn’t swine flu, um, not very lethal? and treatable with several types of antibiotics? so isn’t it kind of not as scary as viral meningitis or other stuff that is already around? and i live in the city in the US with the most confirmed cases, AND i have to ride the subway with all these people. and i’m still just gonna wash my hands and get a good night’s sleep, you know?
@13 – you had me at “hella tamiflu”
@14 – no form of influenza is treatable with antibiotics, nor is any other viral illness treatable with antibiotics.
#11 You’re awesome!! I love that book/movie!!