Wild Ducks: The Newest Terror Threat

[Koliedrus]

So I'm looking at headlines and obligingly reading about H5N1 when I learn that wild ducks are the bad guys, Australia is scared shitless that the Olypics will be ruined, the Phase 0 Level 2 issued in 2004 by 1999 WHO standards is now considered a Phase 4 out of 6 (which means that it's probably a 5 by now)...

Ah, what the hell.

Here's some reading material. Enjoy:

http://www.hhs.gov/nvpo/pandemics/flu2.htm

http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/influenza/WHO_CDS_CSR_GIP_2005_5.pdf


http://www.who.int/infectious-disease-news/IDocs/whocds200528/whocds200528en.pdf

http://www.eiss.org/news.cgi

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,16892681%255E661,00.html

http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/influenza/WHO_CDS_CSR_GIP_05_8-EN.pdf

[SimpleSimon]

The NCDC has it's own severity scale, a 1 to 10 scale for rating epidemics. It essentially begins where the WHO standards leave off. It doesn't get publicized much, as the implications of the escalating levels are pretty god dammed frightening.

Suffice it to say, the only paper model of a Level Ten response I've ever read projected national martial law, the emergency return to the US of every soldier or sailor we have, to guarantine camps, then transfer into enforcement patrols. All civilian air traffic ceases. All non-necessary (by the militaries judgment) road and rail traffic ceases. All ports of entry and egress are closed, by armed forces with authorization to shoot to kill. At the culmination of the ecercise, the worst epicenter of infection in the country receives a full scale Level Ten response - 18 10 megaton airbursts in concentric rings designed to generate a firestorm of 3,000 degrees or more and cauterize it completely. In the exercise, that was the city of Phoenix, AZ. Projected deaths nationwide from the diease were 9-10 million. Projected deaths from the treatment were estimated at 1 to 3 times that number.

[Koliedrus]

Halloween is gonna be scarier than ever this year, hey?

Simon, see if you can find some reference material (online or off) that makes your statement less of a frightening campfire story and more of the "transparency" suggested in the WHO's guidelines for communication to the public. They already know that leakage of information will happen.

I'm sure I'm not the only one interested in seeing details about this 10-point scale. Now that it's mentioned, it will have to be confirmed or denied as fact.

Any online links for starters?

[SimpleSimon]

I did a cursory look around the net today. Didn't find any links, but then almost all of the NCDC's epidemiological studies and projected responses links have been pulled these last 4 years, as have the NIH ones and the DoD ones. I read the study in 91, after a brief summary of it in the NCDC Bulletin in about August of that year. I requested a copy, and recieved it in about 30 days. After reading it it went into the companies library, where it remains as far as I know. Wish I had a copy, but all copies of the Bulletin and all papers received from various sources back then were company property.