ITS ALMOST LIKE ITS ... UM ... WINTER!!!!!

 So the CDC is putting out warnings again for "Respitory Illness"

There has been an uptick in hospitalizations/ER trips for coughs & fever ... but they do not break it down into how many of these were simply people panicking after the C-19 lockdown ... or if these were actual cases of the Big 3 issues they say we should look out for.

C-19 ... while there are a MULTITUDE of varients ou there, you never know which you might get ... if you get it ... when the hoopla was going on, I found that the death rate from the disease was less than 1% of the US population.  And, yes, my family did get hit - my husband and my youngest daughter caught it.  She had more of the "cold" type symptoms (nasally stuff) while hubby had more of the "flu" type symptoms (out both ends) ... but both had the yucky food taste symptom.

Flu - Still a "crap shoot" (pardon the pun) as to which strain will hit.  Since so many doses have to be prepared, hey have to GUESS if the strain will be Flu A, B, or C ... btw, "Swine Flu" or H1N1 is a varient of Flu A - it got to the point where many states (mine included) simply called ALL Flu A cases "Swine Flu" and reported those numbers, very little lab work went on to designate which were/weren't actually Swine Flu.  I remember when they first started worrying about this in the 70's -- clearly they knew it wasn't going to be too bad.

RSV - many people have never heard of this before ... because it has been faily UNcommon .... usually it hit the very young or those with underlying conditions.  One of my nieces caught this shrtly after being sent home after being born. It was described as bacsically being a bad cold but neither pnuemonia nor bronchitis ... It can be deadly for those with poor lung development.  But why has it suddenly seen such an UPRISE in contangibility? Now that's the question that needs to be answered.  I've got my ideas, but I have no proof.

So ... this winter when every one is abou to catch COLDS, COUGHS, SORE THROATS, ETC. please

DO NOT

PANIC!!!

Chances are - its will simply run its course - if you have a concern, wait and see your regular physician unless you are having an obvious emergency -- lets not plug ERs and/or thow off the statistics.

NatGeo Preppers Facts

(better late than never)

Episode 8
School buses can support 1 1/2 times their weight - they cost less than $300 second hand

Any shower will help with the removal of radiated particles - experts recommend removing all clothing and washing off right away if you are exposed

The US Army recommends that decontamination showers release water at a minimum pressure of 60 psi, about the same as a fire hose

After the disaster at Fukushima Nuclear Plant, some retailers saw the sales of radiation devices increase by as much as 1500%

The worlds largest shelter in Sonnenberg, Switzerland can handle 20,000 people

A 1.4 megaton bomb detonated 250 miles above Kansas would destroy most of the electronics in the United States (ginger adds: and many parts of Canada as well)

Ham radios work only on Radio waves that occur NATURALLY and work independently from "the grid" (it can run off batteries which are charged via solar chargers)

"Peak Oil" = eventual decline in the Oil Reserves

The United States consumes 20 MILLION barrels of oil A DAY (ginger says: that sounds a bit high - I have heard other estimates that have it down to "only" 2 million barrels and as high as 50 million barrels, you would think it would be easier to find this kind of information)

GLOBAL demand for oil is projected to grow to 125% of current levels by 2030 (ginger notes: they do not say if this is taking into consideration the developing countries which have begun to "boom" or if it is just current levels for the major 8-16 countries consuming the most now)

86% of Americans commute to work by car (ginger notes: no stats given for how many of this number are part of a car POOL situation - just that they use a Car to get to where they are going... Note2 at end)

A hot tub, which holds 450 gallons of water, will hydrate a family of three for about 8 months (once properly filtered)

80% of the ingredients in American pharmacy drugs comes from overseas

Most of the antibiotics now produced in the world are used on farm animals (many Preppers will get their antibiotic supplies from animal sources such as online pet pharmacies or pet stores - they are just sold under a different name) NOTE3

M35 military truck: can carry 5,000 lbs of cargo off-road/10,000 on-road; it runs on nearly any liquid fuel (diesel, gasoline, kerosene, jet fuel, used motor oil - even that taken straight from other vehicles and not strained, etc)

According to a recent study, 28% of Americans say they can "bug out" in 30-59 minutes

N95 face masks filter out 95% of air particles (these are not the blue paper masks you see during flu season, they are deep blue)

When fitted PROPERLY N95 masks are 75% effective against flu germs

some glass manufacturers are making "one way" bullet-proof glass - dubbed Ballistic glass - allowing for return fire at the exterior threat (ginger asks: but wouldn't returning fire then destroy the glass leaving you vulnerable to the enemies return fire?) NOTE 1

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NOTE1: even though this was the last story I felt it was worth putting first. In the recent Swine Flu/H1N1 scare in the US and around the world - it MUST be noted that they only tested for the actual H1N1 virus in flu cases which required hospital treatment, otherwise ANY flu which tested positive for TYPE-A flu was counted into the CDCs numbers of Swine Flu cases, even those NOT caused by the Swine Flu specific virus ... It never reached "pandemic" levels as predicted either

NOTE2: because the statistic mentioned did not mention car pooling, you have to wonder if the question asked was simply "do you use a car?" or if it was "do you use public transportation?" ... On the 2010 census it simply asked what the distance was between your residence and where you worked, which makes you wonder if they didn't make assumptions based on those answers.
There is also the issue of "car pooling" - if people were asked "do you car pool?" and they said yes, did it then ask for the number of people in that pool? I mean if the answer was "4" then they then take four people pooled and say " there's one vehicle" OR (and I think MORE likely) did they them count each answer individually such that if they interviewed everyone in the same carpool they said that was 16 car passengers instead of just the four that they really were ... Remember people, stats can be made to LIE to any result the study wants it to (often in favor of those who paid for the study)

NOTE3: animal antibiotics -- the Prepper in the show uses fish antibiotics, but they do not say if you have a fish allergy (now ranked in the top 5 of food allergies nationwide) if you should AVOID such antibiotics for fear of an allergic reaction

Presidential Grade

Bio-Attack: F

Obama Adm not done enough to prevent and attack in a report by a bipartisan committee.

But it also chastized the three previous adm (Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2) for simularly not taking it serious enough and being too slow at implimenting procedures to defend.

They went on to predict a bio-attack by the end of 2013 (most likely the second half)

They based it also on the lack of stockpiled antidotes, and the way that the H1N1 virus situation was handled ... in fact the Vice-Chair of the WMD commision (Jim Talent) said that the CDC can't give anyone updated numbers on current cases or outbreaks because they had no real way to measure it. (see previous posts for H1N1 statistic issues, key words H1N1, Swine Flu, or Illness)

another problems was that there was no real, is no real, way to effectively distribute the meds even if they had them ... again look to the Swine Flu -- you never knew who was going to get it when or who was going to be allowed to get the actual shot when there was meds there.

The House is Fighting Back

I am so sore .... and I have learned several different things in about 2 seconds...

1. Rubber feet on step stools do not assure that they will not move


2. Time slows down if floors are coming up to meet you


3. Concrete does not give (alright, I already figured but now I have 'concrete' proof)


4. You will not bounce back up if you have big boobs


5. Tears will well up faster if someone is around to give you compassion

As some of you may recall from an earlier post, my son is recovering from Type A flu (same strand as H1N1) and one of the things I did to make him feel better was to sick next to the cot he sleeps on when sick - that way we can isolate him from the floor where all the kids sleep (even though he has his own room now since his sister loves to play in his mostly empty room now) ...

Well he was feeling a bit bored yesterday so while the other kids were in school and it was just the two of us at home, I turned his cot so he could watch the tv in our room w/o having to get the bed full of germs ... so today, once the kids got off to school I did it again - hey it worked so well.

But I forgot to slide the step stool I sit on under the new position of the cot = dumb move.

I was talking to my husband tonight and not walking were I was putting my foot and stepped down on the stool by accident and my momentum took over.

SPLAT!

As Maxwell Smart would say - I missed it by that much, whacking my head on the concrete wall that is. Instead I took out a knee and a forearm, screwed up my hip and jarred every muscle down the left side of my body ... somehow I managed to bang up the toes on the right foot too.

The house must be getting jealous -- I haven't spent enough time with it lately between the eye surgery and the flu ... I'm just glad it didn't decide to take it out on the kid.

(just so you understand - I'm joking about the house ... right?)

My We Have been busy

Minnesota certainly has been in the news a lot lately ...

First those stupid pilots who want us to believe that they were on their laptops and that's why they didn't hear the air-traffic-controllers calling ~or~ the buzzers going off ~or~ the screens flashing at them ....

Yeah right -- time to check where the flight attendants were at the time. Oh yeah sure - for over an hour and a half they didn't hear any of this ... to the point to where they were getting ready to send up the military planes to shoot the f---er out of the sky and kill everyone on board.

Yeah right -- if they were on their laptops .... it wasn't to look at "scheduling procedures" ... no way. For that amount of time, I doubt they were even IN the cockpit ... its just hard to believe that they wouldn't have heard the claxons otherwise.

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Then there is the H1N1 vaccine fiasco that caused a clinic in MN to shut its doors.

Word got out that this clinic in St. Louis Park (hey isn't that where Franken is from? ... just something to go 'hmmm' about ... Mr. 60th Vote) had some vaccines.

In 4 hours they got 120.000 phone calls for the 17,000 doses that it had.

Why did one clinic get so many of the vaccine? a SINGLE clinic got that many ... hmmm.

Kris Ehresmann, Director of the Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention and Control Division of the MDH, says "We had providers let us know what their needs are. Then we randomized them using random numbers. And so we started allocating vaccine, then, based on those random numbers in order to be ethical."

The health department also set up the lottery so vaccine would be distributed more evenly geographically. That means vaccine is randomly showing up at providers across the state. The state does not have a vaccine warehouse. It's being shipped directly to providers as it becomes available. Kare11.com

Oh yeah completely ethical there:

With just 300,000 doses of H1N1 vaccine on its way, or in, Minnesota, and with
2.4 million Minnesotans considered high risk

This means that a little less than 6% of the vaccines for the entire state went to a single location at a time when there are so many people who need the vaccine in the most concentrated part of the state (they have closed a couple of schools already because of 'flu like symptoms' or FLS).

You can't tell me that the distribution wasn't influenced by either (a) average income, (b) most often used type of insurance, (c) political influence. One or more of those factors have to be at play here.

Although I will say that Park-Nicollet is one of the more used hospitals ... its the upper crust version of 'General Hospital' which some communities might have. So in that respect I can see them getting quite a bit ... but still so many doses in one area - especially those earmarked for pregnant women & children.

Only other thing I can think of ... is that the hospital staff is taking their doese "off the top" before distributing it to the public.

Swine Flu 101

Okay so the CDC is reporting more than 21,000 cases of Swine Flu on college campuses ... most of which I guess are at the University of Illinios (Fox reports they get 30 new cases a day).

Note: to re-iderate, H1N1 tests the same as type A I've been told by someone in the field of testing for the flu which is why the cases are so high ... so the positives they are getting may not be the actual H1N1 virus only a more extensive (ie expensive) test is req to tell, but since most ins. companies won't pay for it they just test for type A.

but here's what I love:

Fox went on to report what action the UofI is handling it ....

The kids get sent to the med center there ... if they have a cough they get a mask and are sent into a seperate area they are calling a "Cough Clinic" ... students who get a positive on their flu test get a 'Hydration Packet' and are sent away until someone can come get them off campus or they can get them admitted in their own room.

So what's in this "Hydration Packet" you may ask?
2 cans each Sprite & Gatorade
2 cans Campbell's soup
Tea bags
Hand sanitizers
a travel sized packet of Kleenex (they hold all of 8 tissue, btw)
a disposable themometer - just one

Okay - who amongst them has figured this packet out? I'm sorry but if you have the flu you are not going to be able to last on that. I wonder how many students there are living away from home ... how many don't have relatives close by to come get them ... how many of them have insurance that will pay for that room?

You thing that if the Health Care bill passes it will cover a stay for the flu?? Oh heck no ... you will be lucky if you don't get sent home the same day as having a baby or after major surgery - much less be able to stay there for Swine Flu.

Thank goodness for private care

Litigical society at its "best" ...

Widow of First New York City Man to Die From H1N1 Flu Plans to Sue City for $40 Million:

"Wiener was the assistant principal of Intermediate School 236 in Hollis in the New York borough of Queens. The school was one of several city schools to be shuttered after the illness afflicted students and staff members.

In a notice of claim filed on Tuesday, Wiener's widow, Bonnie Wiener, accused the city of failing to adequately control the H1N1 outbreak and failing to inform Wiener that he had come in contact with individuals who tested positive for the H1N1 flu."

Somebody explain how its the city's fault that this guy got the flu? I'm not going to say that she doesn't have a case - because i don't know all the wherefore's and as-to's .... but how can you blame the city because the guy got hit by a pandemic?

I mean - he was in a position where personale are exposed to diseases all the time ... and it is part of the risk of the job ... and its not like they hadn't had warning that it could happen.

I just don't see where she has a case ... and if she wins - it will open a whole kettle of fish!

My plans? First reported case of swine flu will have my kids staying at home, and I'm afraid of the shot - I think they are pushing thru these shots too fast these days. I'm afraid they haven't done a thorough enough research study on it all.

I even heard that the shots we got from the last mass hysteria aren't even good anymore ... I just hope the school system doesn't require it, then i don't know what I'll do.

Page of importance - kind of

Swine Flu interactive.foxnews.com

this is an 'interactive' map of where the Swine Flu H1N1 virus is at now .... but it doesn't give you any idea where or how close cases are to getting to you.

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The news that ticks me off is the new move by the CDC to allow schools to stay open if they want to if there's a case in staff or students.

The original guidelines were that if there was a suspected case the schools involved (not the whole district needed to shut down until the tests came back -- then if there was a confirmed case the school needed to be shut down from 7-14 days to eliminate the incubation perio and keep the virus from spreading.

I can totally understand the pressure from people who need to have two incomes - and in todays cutbacks even more families need two incomes -- and I can understand that people need to pay their bills and they just can't take 2 weeks off in most cases and that the people who would really be hurt would be the lowest income families .... BUT ....

the interest of public safety needs to come first!!

There is no reason that the government (you know the big interferrers) can't pass some moritorium to make it illegal to fire some one because they need to take time off due to an illness .... or force creditors to allow an extended 'grace period' during a CDC 'confinement' ... etc.

then these people wouldn't have an issue staying home with their kids.

If you have ever had your child go to public school (I don't know maybe its the same in the private schools as well) you will notice that there are quite a few parents who send their kids sick -- don't go first thing in the morning, wait a couple of hours....

this is something I found at the daycare - parents are very good at giving their kids the medicine (tylenol, dimetapp, sinubid, etc) about 1/2 hr before its time for school ... giving it just enough time to kick in ... but wait until it wears off and suddenly you've got a kid who's coughing, sneezing, and miserable with fever.

I underestand the 'why' of it all .... I just can't stand it!

Then there are the businesses who expect their people to be there, even if they are sick. Even at the daycare we were expected to show up for our shift until the director could get a replacement for you .... when I first started they gave the workers a list of names and you were expected to get your own substitute or work...

If you are sick --- STAY HOME!!! Don't infect my husband to brind it to our house ... don't bring it to work an ruin my plans for later in the week because you can't afford to take the time off - neither can I.

CDC -- I strongly urge (like I will have an effect) to CLOSE school where there is a confirmed case ....

Lets not forget the lessons we have learned over the years with other epidemics, just because people can't afford to take the time off ....

Public Safety first!!!