Bird Flu
Just seen on the local Fox affiliate news:
Local authorities today went through an exercise on local response to an outbreak of Bird Flu (yep, these newscasters couldn't even refer to it as H5N1) among the human population.
I didn't catch the whole thing, but they don't sound too prepared.
According to one "Security Expert", approx. 75% of schoolkids in Dallas County get their strongest meal of the day at school. Closing schools to limit the spread of an outbreak (Avian Flu or otherwise) would thus result in another problem with widespread malnutrition amongst children.
Somehow that doesn't seem right to me. I can't find stats on what % of kids in Dallas County are on the school lunch program, but 75% seems high. On top of that, SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT OF KIDS IN DALLAS COUNTY don't get as nutritious a dinner at home as they get for free at school? When report cards for the Dallas school lunch program only give it a C+?
I'm not buying this. Somebody's gonna have to show me hard numbers, from credible sources.
IF it is true, that's just one more reason I'm glad I live in Fort Worth, and not Dallas.
Part of the same story was a poll that said 52% of people don't think the gov't is prepared for an outbreak of H5N1. Hey, only 48% of the people still have their heads in the sand!
Be Prepared - it's good for the Boy Scouts, and for the rest of us, too. The Gov't won't be able to protect you from any massive disease outbreak. Be Prepared to take care of yourself and your family.
If you need help, here's two good resources.
Local authorities today went through an exercise on local response to an outbreak of Bird Flu (yep, these newscasters couldn't even refer to it as H5N1) among the human population.
I didn't catch the whole thing, but they don't sound too prepared.
According to one "Security Expert", approx. 75% of schoolkids in Dallas County get their strongest meal of the day at school. Closing schools to limit the spread of an outbreak (Avian Flu or otherwise) would thus result in another problem with widespread malnutrition amongst children.
Somehow that doesn't seem right to me. I can't find stats on what % of kids in Dallas County are on the school lunch program, but 75% seems high. On top of that, SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT OF KIDS IN DALLAS COUNTY don't get as nutritious a dinner at home as they get for free at school? When report cards for the Dallas school lunch program only give it a C+?
I'm not buying this. Somebody's gonna have to show me hard numbers, from credible sources.
IF it is true, that's just one more reason I'm glad I live in Fort Worth, and not Dallas.
Part of the same story was a poll that said 52% of people don't think the gov't is prepared for an outbreak of H5N1. Hey, only 48% of the people still have their heads in the sand!
Be Prepared - it's good for the Boy Scouts, and for the rest of us, too. The Gov't won't be able to protect you from any massive disease outbreak. Be Prepared to take care of yourself and your family.
If you need help, here's two good resources.
posted by Aaron Neal at 7:26 PM
6 Comments:
Your reference to the Rivrdog blog is appreciated, but the average person referred will not want to thrash about and look for the flu prep articles I wrote.
This article summarizes most of the posts, but they go on to November 8, 2005. Just click on the months in the right sidebar to navigate them.
http://rivrdog.typepad.com/rivrdog/2005/10/from_epidemic_t.html
Your reference to the Rivrdog blog is appreciated, but the average person referred will not want to thrash about and look for the flu prep articles I wrote.
This article summarizes most of the posts, but they go on to November 8, 2005. Just click on the months in the right sidebar to navigate them.
http://rivrdog.typepad.com/rivrdog/2005/10/from_epidemic_t.html
Or, in the alternative, you can just go to the "Health" sub-section. Most of the articles there are about Bird Flu.
Rivrdog, maybe you don't want the "average person" thrashing about looking for bird flu articles...
But maybe I do. The more they have to look around your site, the more they're likely to learn.
As you've said before, you want your site to teach people. If they have to EXPLORE your site to find what they want, they're going to learn a lot more in the process. Or just give up and go away.
Either one's ok with me - the ones interested in learning will learn more than they came looking for, and the willfully ignorant will quit wasting bandwidth before long.
I know who I want on my side when the SHTF - and if they came from a link here, they'll know my name, and know I'm worth at least talking to, if not joining forces and resources with.
Good point, Aaron. Probably the chief reason I just told the corporate wannabe Carnival-minder to go piss up a rope.
Read me for what I write, not because some hosenose puts his "stamp" on it and "schedules" it.
I dunno much about Carnivals, or any politics surrounding them.
I'm kinda happy when I make the "underage Curmudgeon" list though :)
But... yeah. As I said, you set your site up as a teaching tool, and Paratus even more so.
The more people read, on both sites, the better we're all going to be prepared for whatever comes next.
I don't remember exactly how I wrote it before, and right now I'm too tired to go look it up, but I stand by the statement "Rivrdog's worth listening too, or reading. Go do so".
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