Travel restrictions if Bird Flu hits the US?

[kage genin]

Got the following short news blip just minutes ago (came as financial news, watching the markets daily). There have already been two recorded cases in Thailand of person-to-person trasmission of bird flu. If the SHTF over this flu thing, bug-outters may want to consider the potential hassles/difficulty/headaches/impossibility of bugging out of a major population center. Hate to look like I'm fanning the 'ohmigod ITEOTWAWKI' bird flu embers, but for what it's worth

DJ US Admin To Mull Travel Curbs If Bird Flu Jumps To Humans

WASHINGTON -AP---Sustained person-to-person spread of the bird flu or any other super-influenza strain anywhere in the world could prompt the U.S. to implement travel restrictions or other steps to block a brewing pandemic, say federal plans released Wednesday.

If a super-flu begins spreading here, states and cities will have to ration scarce medications and triage panicked patients to prevent them from overwhelming hospitals and spreading infection inside emergency rooms, the plan says.

It provides long-awaited guidance to the front-line local officials urging them to figure out now how they would take steps to prevent such a crisis scenario - and exhorts officials to rehearse their own plans to make sure they'll work.


-END- Dow Jones Newswires
11-02-05 1004ET
Copyright -c- 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

 

[Joejojoba111]

Ya know, it's obviously not an excuse to impose martial law and further a police state. Because quarantines are effective. Against people.

The operative word is BIRD flu. BIRD. Birds fly, bird crap on your quarantine signs.

There are stupid people in gvt, but not that stupid. If you see them talking about miltary enforcing quarantines for this, realize they are using bird flu and an excuse.

 

[AirForceShooter]

you have to love the politics of FEAR!!!!

AFS

 

[Nathaniel Firethorn]

The operative word is BIRD flu. BIRD. Birds fly, bird crap on your quarantine signs.

Airplanes are nearly perfect as virus delivery devices. If some strain jumps species (i.e., humans can infect other humans), and an infected ticketed organism starts sneezing all over he place, everyone in the winged Petri dish is going to get exposed for several hours.

- NF

 

[Hawken50]

so what would be worse, quarintine or forced evacuation? i think i'd take quarintine.

 

[rick_reno]

I don't care if they restrict travel, there isn't anywhere I want to go anyway. Anyone care to wager if the border with our southern neighbor is included in these "restricted travel" plans?

Does this have anything to do with the upcoming (Nov 4th) release of the film "Chicken Little"? Let's examine this - Chicken Little is a bird, birds catch flu, sometimes people catch the same flu and die and let us not forget - THE SKY IS FALLING.

I can hear Karl Rove now "Get em worried George, real worried. They're easier to manage when they're scared"

 

[El Tejon]

That's why I've started shooting every bird I see.

Look out, an eagle with a hacking cough!

 

[sumpnz]

Well, if they stopped all flights into the USA from New Zealand shortly before Jan 3 I won't complain too much (so long as I don't get sick). Extra vacation time for me.

 

[bjbarron]

It's getting pretty bad when the president sets policy by reacting to alarmist news reports...how long before the bird flu is just another non-story. As of yesterday 42 people (who lived with chickens) MAY have died of bird flu...getting a bit ahead with a worldwide death wracked pandemic, aren't we?

If they stop travel, does that mean I don't have to drive 1 1/2 hours to the train, spend 20 minutes packed like a sardine on the PATH, and then walk another 15 minutes to work...huh? huh? An honest excuse to stay in bed?

I would be surprised that people still listen to this stuff, but I'm always getting calls from friends and neighbors about the latest flu, computer virus, toiletpaper shortage, republican outrage, etc. I can't get chuffed over this crud.

If it's in the news it's a lie. If it ain't a lie, they're lying.

 

[TheEgg]

.S. to implement travel restrictions or other steps to block a brewing pandemic, say federal plans released Wednesday.

Totally useless. The flu is so contagious, and spreads so fast, that any efforts at quarantine will be futile. That is, of course, if your goal is to stop the spread of the flu ---

 

[dracphelan]

1. There are no recorded cases of person-to-person transmission of "bird flu."
2. If it does mutate into something that can be transmitted from person-to-person, flu incubation times make quarantines useless.
3. Every year flu viruses mutate into something new, and we haven't seen a pandemic since about WW1. Medicine has just gotten that good.
4. I think to many people have read (and believe) Stephen King's The Stand.

 

[Camp David]

1. There are no recorded cases of person-to-person transmission of "bird flu."

Should we wait until there are cases before we prepare?

I support the President here; advance prep is probably the best course of action... if it costs a few bucks then so be it... no sense waiting until we have the transmission here, for by then, it is too late to address...

 

[Carlos]

1. There are no recorded cases of person-to-person transmission of "bird flu."

That is NOT true.

And, medicine hasn't gotten that good relative the last pandemic being pre WWII. We've drowned disease with antibiotics, and disease is now resistant to these very same solutions.

This is big time stuff, and lots of people are going to die.

I could care less about travel restrictions, although other folks will care.

I do care about being manhandled by the military, my guns being confiscated, my home being raided ....

 

[TallPine]

The "War on Flu" - coming soon to a neighborhood near you...

I guess this is how Bush deals with failed foreign policy - just get everybody all worked up over another so-called emergency. I feel like I am living in some weird novel or movie everytime I read the news

I do care about being manhandled by the military, my guns being confiscated, my home being raided ....

Perhaps "bird flu" is a way to export the New Orleans atrocities to the rest of the USA

 

[Carlos]

Ya, I'm "so" looking forward to that.

 

[Beethoven]

I don't see any problem with temporary restrictions on travel should a serious epidemic take root.

I'm not talking OK-ing military checkpoints and the latter, but asking people to stay home and whatnot, fine.

Heck, I wish they'd suspend car travel so that I would be unable to commute to work!!!

 

[c_yeager]

As far as I know this disease is not yet able to transmit from person to person. One has to wonder what would be the purpose of such travel restrictions.

 

[pmcbooks]

It's getting pretty bad when the president sets policy by reacting to alarmist news reports

He's not reacting to it, he's driving it. The executive order adding pandemic flu or anything that might possibly turn into pandemic flu to the quarantinable disease list was signed in April.

Besides the whole quarantine nightmare and request for repeal of posse comitatus, it makes a really convenient way to interrogate anyone the administration wants.

The CDC has the power to stop any "conveyance" and interview all travelers. Anyone who doesn't answer questions or submit to testing (read as entering your DNA into a database) can be detained and isolated for at least 4 days (incubation period of flu). It's a real convenient way to pick up anyone entering or moving about the country and conduct interrogations without attorneys present and without the public spectacle of JBT's carrying it out.

It's for your own safety, you know. Are you trying to hide the fact that you're spreading a disease that doesn't even exist yet?

 

[Standing Wolf]

I was planning to stay home, anyway.

That said™, I think Bush is trying to pose as an emergency activist these days. If he were half as smart as he'd like me to believe, he'd simply ignore the snivelling and whining of the representatives of the Democratic (sic) party. He's not an actor, but a reactor.

 

[Gun Geezer]

Maybe it's something else?

Maybe, just maybe all this is really prep for what the terrorists might let out of a vial?

Preping for the bird flu would be a good table top exercise for a terrorist bug attack.

 

[c_yeager]

Preping for the bird flu would be a good table top exercise for a terrorist bug attack.

Im sure thats the back-up explanation just in case this flu thing doesnt work out the way they seem to want it to.

 

[BenW]

This is getting to be Y2K deja vu.

Like any other natural disaster or emergency, there are common sense preparations everyone should make, and some inconveniences everyone should be ready for. But this is really getting blown out of proportion by the media. I can't wait for the "bird flu geodesic dome survival shelter" and "bird flu survival property for sale" websites to start popping up.

 

[bogie]

Influenza usually starts in animals, then goes to humans... That's the way it is every year.

Old news.

This year, however, they've spotted some nasty stuff.

My advice: If you don't already do so, make sure you've got about a month's worth of food and some good books handy. If the nasty stuff starts spreading, stay home. Don't "bug out," because your home is probably just as good a place to spend a few weeks as any place. If it is not allowed to spread via human contact, it'll burn out fast.

 

[mcg-doc]

During the time of Spanish Flu there were no commercial airlines. Nevertheless, the pandemic spread around the world and killed millions of people. So, wash your hands, wear a surgical mask, and stock up on Tamiflue.

 

[JJpdxpinkpistols]

During the time of Spanish Flu there were no commercial airlines. Nevertheless, the pandemic spread around the world and killed millions of people. So, wash your hands, wear a surgical mask, and stock up on Tamiflue.

Tamiflu is essentially worthless against the bird flu flue itself, however, it might help you stay away from the other flu virii that will also weaken your immune system allowing bird flu easy access.

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/flu_virus_reported_to_resist_drug_envisioned_for_pandemic_9089

Actually, it would appear that Kimchi is more effective than tamiflu, and you can easily make it at home.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4347443.stm

As for travel restrictions...you are better off INDOORS, away from other people, IF this hits.

Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds, and remember to NOT chew your fingernails, rub your eyes, or futz with your face. Masks aren't a bad idea, but the better place for masks is on the face of those infected with any communicable illness in public.

Gloves aren't a bad idea if someone gets sick in the house, either.

Stock up on food now, so when those restrictions hit, you aren't surprised.