Pandemic News/Awareness.

Nurses General Nursing

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I had to close the other panflu thread as it was way too long, and becoming unreadable. I am starting this one with info on the agenda of this meeting tomorrow in Congress. I am linking to Flutrackers because all of the info is right there and easily readable from this post: http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=61735&postcount=1

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Taiwan and Thailand working on their own vaccines:

http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2007/01/taiwan-and-thailand-working-on-their.html

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White Washing with the Flu - Effect Measure:

http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2007/01/whitewashing_with_the_flu.php#more

CRNI-ICU20

I for one am very glad that all these flu bloggers exist. I have tried toggletext, it`s tough. have you tried it? It`s a program that allows one to translate from Indonesian to english or Arabic/english. The very ,very dedicated bloggers spend many hours a day translating news from other countries.News that we in English speaking countries would otherwise never hear about.

I am hoping ( and I know that hope is not a plan) that their hard work will give us a short heads up before the bodies start piling up in our ERs.

All the news that Bluette has shared the sources are listed, so whats the problem?

If you go to fluwiki between 9a and 5 p Mon thru Fri and hit the stats box I think you will be surprised one of the IPs is the sargent at arms of the United States Senate apparently they think the site is reliable enough to keep the senate informed. Numerous readers of that particular site have gov. addresses showing on the IPs. The site is maintained by a doctor in Conn. Who BTW has been activly involved in public policy planning, as well as more than a few of the poster there.

Effect Measures is run by doctors in public health and is well respected in the online community.

Blogs if sourced have a good track record of sniffing out news that the MSM doesnt bother covering. Apparently they are way to buzy with the latest celebrity news scandal to cover real news.

Id ask you have you bothered to check the sources that the blogs are using? I know of no flu blog that allows nonsourced material on them. do you?

Specializes in Too many to list.

Actually, I seldom use any translated info. Most of the information sited by the forums and blogs that I am using is straight from the English speaking news sources, and the links are provided to those sources. This is not to say that I have never used any translated information, but rather that it is not often that I do. Sometimes though, there is no other way to know what is happening in the countries where H5N1 is occurring. If it is a translation, the blog or forum will state this so that you know what you are getting. The translations are difficult, and we do owe a great debt to those who do this important work in providing additional sources of information that we might not otherwise have.

Specializes in ICU;CCU;Telemetry;L&D;Hospice;ER/Trauma;.

My concern is this:

This WHOLE thread is a constant daily blog sourced tally of ALLEDGED and supposed flu victims....the problem I have with this is that there is no way to REALLY know for sure if this is the truth....and medicine and public health needs to be based on truth, esp. when we start talking about mass vaccinations, and public health policy. How do you know for sure who the bloggers are, who do they represent...etc. Even the White House has been caught with it's britches down for quoting bloggers....I think as professionals and health care workers, we have to be very careful who we quote and promote.....jmo.

Specializes in Too many to list.

Good point, Janetn about who reads these flu blogs and forums.

Flutrackers is monitored 24 hr/7 by the WHO. They keep a monitor on that forum at all times just to get that information. Maybe they think that this is important.

Specializes in Too many to list.
My concern is this:

This WHOLE thread is a constant daily blog sourced tally of ALLEDGED and supposed flu victims....the problem I have with this is that there is no way to REALLY know for sure if this is the truth....and medicine and public health needs to be based on truth, esp. when we start talking about mass vaccinations, and public health policy. How do you know for sure who the bloggers are, who do they represent...etc. Even the White House has been caught with it's britches down for quoting bloggers....I think as professionals and health care workers, we have to be very careful who we quote and promote.....jmo.

Checked the WHO website lately?

I did and I posted this already. Maybe you missed it.

http://www.emro.who.int/csr/ai_303132_1_04_07.htm

I am careful with my sources, very careful. This information is too important not to be.

You won't find me posting conspiracy theory here or unsourced blogs such as lamecherry, and then expecting readers to take this seriously.

Specializes in Too many to list.

And while we were sleeping two more Indonesian deaths were reported by the English speaking press. Nothing to worry about, of course. The Indonesians are now giving us the information that they had been witholding.

Preferring not to believe the media? That's an option. Meanwhile the cases and deaths are increasing.

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/asiapac/programs/s1886901.htm

Specializes in ICU;CCU;Telemetry;L&D;Hospice;ER/Trauma;.

Again, I digress.

How do you know for sure that the "media" sources you are tapping into are not agenda driven entities.....much like the agenda that Merck is pushing on all young girls in every state of the union here? This is no different. The WHO has been NOTORIOUSLY on the side of drug companies FOR YEARS! And they have been woefully inadequate and wrong, esp. in SubSahara Africa. I have missionary friends on the ground there, and what we were told by WHO and what REALLY happened with Ebola, AIDS, and some of the laboratories in Africa were not the same story. All I am saying is, before you spend countless hours counting alledged dead bodies, attributing it to alledged avian strained flu, consider your sources. The World Health Organization is a highly politicized organization who is largely funded by silent firms...ie drug companies.....anything they say should be highly suspect. If you want proof of this, let me know, I have it.

Specializes in Too many to list.

Obviously we have differing opinions about this issue.

As I have said before that my concern about H5N1 is regarding the changes in the virus itself, and the disturbing acquisitions that it has made. Because you have never even addressed this I have to believe that you are not very knowledgeable about pandemics and influenza.

Negation of the very real deaths of so many young people, and lab confirmed cases of H5N1 victims is troubling, and that denial appears not to be based on the reality of what is actually happening right now.

NAMRU 3 is a U.S. Naval lab based in Cairo. NAMRU 2 is a U.S. Naval lab based in Indonesia. There is nothing alledged about the very real viral sequences released by GenBank which are readily available to the public. These are some of my sources. This is the real science of avian flu. It is absurd to disregard the information from these sources.

Specializes in ICU;CCU;Telemetry;L&D;Hospice;ER/Trauma;.

Indigo Girl, why are you being so defensive?

As a nurse, I would think you would want to learn all you can...and accept truth about things...and be careful of your sources...this is the basis of all scientific study....if you want to go after me for blogs, then don't you have to include yourself in that same criticism??

It would seem to me that if you are so secure in your sources, and the truth of those sources, that you wouldn't need to be this defensive.

If you want serious INTELLIGENT discussion of the true scientifc research and study of avian flu not taken from blog sites, I would be glad to provide those for you.

Accusing me of "bringing paranoia here" is amusing, since nearly every entry by you is just one more death after another of people dropping like flies all over Asia, for crying out loud...WHO'S SPREADING PARANOIA HERE????

Go back and re-read your whole thread....every one of these is about someone somewhere dying of alledged avian flu.....all the while, it's based on blogs and WHO which is dubious information at best....so who's REALLY spreading speculation here???

You have a moral and ethical responsibility to BE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT WHAT YOU QUOTE, RELAY, ETC. as a nurse....

It is irresponsible to not rely on sources that are provable....AS A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL, you have a duty to tell the truth. You can't hide behind someone's blog, and say, "well, I just didn't know better," because as a nurse, you do know better. So, before you get your feathers in a fluff over this, PLEASE!! CONSIDER WHAT YOU ARE REALLY SAYING HERE AND WHAT INFORMATION YOU ARE REGURGITATING AND WHERE IT REALLY COMES FROM....and how it is affecting the reading audience....every one of your entries screams FEAR!!! How is that helpful? While I can appreciate concern about viruses, and epidemics and pandemics, I think it is an irresponsible stance to shout this kind of fear driven blog sourced information at people, and label it as truth....when it isn't entirely the truth!

As for LAMECHERRY.....I do have provable documentation about the GuongDong Province in China, and the military bioterrorism installation there....and our own government actually involved themselves via the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations for investigating the lack of security in that laboratory.....

but...again, I am sure that you, being so passionate about this, that it seems you are unwilling to see something that may counter your colossal time and energy here.

Good luck with your research.

Specializes in Too many to list.

Calling me defensive is a sorry tactic.

Again, we shall have to agree to disagree on the topic of pandemic flu, or at least that is the

topic that I am discussing. Providing speculation and innunendo does not fall into the realm

of " serious and intelligent infomation based on scientific facts". The ad hominem attack in

the last post speaks volumes as do some of the other misleading tactics in the previous posts.

Preaching to me about my moralistic responsibility while hijacking a thread regarding a very

serious subject, and interjecting conspiracy theory speaks for itself.

The death count is real. The changes that H5N1 is making are real. That is REAL science. I'll

stick to govt sources, the English speaking media, scientific abstracts, and the forums/blogs that

provide readily available links to their sources, thanks.

There is a tremendous difference between informing people and alarming them. The purpose of

all of the panflu threads is for our colleagues to be informed in order to make personal and

professional decisions, and to take responsibility for their own safety. Not to inform them of the

possibility of a cat 5 event based on what our leading virologists are telling us, now THAT

would be irresponsible.

The message here is still about preparing for the next pandemic that will be coming at some

point in the future as these naturally occurring events always do.

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