bird flu, angola, red tide, shark bait and airport security

Ahhh, how the time does fly.
I just found a to-do list from two months ago. To my great non-surprise I found that only two items had been completed.

well, then. Lets get this done quickly and get back to work, which is the important thing between the hours of 7:30am and 4:30pm.

When they made airport security a federal job, it was supposed to raise the level of expertise and increase security. Well we can see the effects here (and here) which is to say that it has had no (good) effect on security what-so-ever.


Avian Flu.

First off another person has died from it, this time its a 17-year-old girl. That means it has begun attacking (and killing) people who should normally be able to withstand a bout of flu. On top of that it seems that its possible many more people have/had it then was really reported.

In related news a group of opinionated scientists think that the US's attempts at a flu vaccine for the H5N1 strain, while admirable, are misguided. They suggest that even if a vaccine is created there will not be enough time to mass produce it in order to avoid a pandemic. hmmm.... not doing enough..... not doing the right thing.... and not doing it in a timely fashion. Yup, I think I agree.

Moving to other nasty destructive biological catastrophes in the making. Canada has decided to help Angola with its Marburg virus outbreak. Thank god. That stuff makes H5N1 look like a walk in the park. For the record my knowledge of hemorrhagic fevers comes almost exclusively from a book I read "LEVEL 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC" which was actually more about hemorrhagic fevers than anything else. A great read, I do suggest it. One of the major items that the author speaks about is that many of these outbreaks can be easily contained if appropriate barrier nursing techniques are used. This is not high-tech stuff. This means using gowns, masks and gloves. Never coming into direct contact with bodily fluids, and washing everything down with home made bleach. Marburg (like lassa and ebola and crimean hemorrhagic fever) is transfered by bodily fluids, not through the air and not from a simple sneeze (though by no means should you personally test that). Instead of following these simple rules, medical people the world over do one of two things: 1) get the blood of the infected person all over themselves or 2) assume the infected person will infect others by breathing near them and therefore refuse to get close enough to treat them. Both are stupid. The second is a more western response.

anyway, enough of that.

Here is an op-ed about one (actually two) guy's opinion on how to fix healthcare in America.

Don't believe everything you read on a product's website. for instance, this shark repellent has been shown to be nearly useless. More than a few people wearing it have been eaten or killed by sharks. There is however a shark repellent that does work, its made from the essence of a dead, decaying shark body. Its still being tested though so far it has shown great effectiveness.

Last but not least we have an effect of farming runoff that is directly affecting the health of millions of US citizens in an immediate and important manner. Not to mention what it might do to the Florida Tourist industry. Now maybe something will be done about it all.