Raise an alarm or hope for the best?

by Uzzah 8 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Uzzah

  I am in an unique position. Do I make a difference by sounding an alarm or encouraging balance and hope for the best?? H1N1 related.

  Thoughts??
• 

  John Doe

  Depends on the situation. If you see a fire, you pull the fire alarm. If, however, you are talking about people making personal decisions that have to be personally made, I'd stay quiet.
• 

  cognizant dissident

  Do a cost/benefit analysis. What are the gains from raising an alarm? What possible harm can come from raising an alarm? What are the possible gains of doing nothing and hoping for the best? What are the cons of doing nothing. If you write out each scenario in a grid you can often see whether the benefits outweigh the harms. If you have some ideas of proabilities of each scenario that is also helpful.

  As far as encouraging balance, the approach with the greatest benefits versus the least harms, IS the most balanced approach, imo. Balance and compromise are not always synonomous.
• 

  cameo-d

  http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2006/10/dr-levy-on-vitamin-c.html

  and don't forget this harbinger which was passed off as a freudian slip.....

  "Precautions are being taken to protect travelers and border personnel. Anyone exhibiting symptoms is being referred to an isolation room where they can be evaluated by a public health official before proceeding to their destruction.
  
  ....................
  
  ...........
  
  *corrected typo; changed destruction to destination

  excerpt from: http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1241056994692.shtm
• 

  purplesofa

  Are we going to Phase 6?
• 

  Midget-Sasquatch

  Tough to say with the current strain H1N1. From what I've seen with all the number crunching, the percentage of infected people who die from it appears to be lower than those who die from the usual flu. So if you're concerned about another repeat of the SARS scare, just make those numbers known as well and people should be less worried.
• 

  Uzzah

  Thanks all.

  purple: The WHO phases are simply a gauge of the spread of a possible pandemic not the severity in each country. But no there isn't any current talk of going to 6.

  This recent H1N1 outbreak has been the best possible "first pandemic' since the alert was raised about a potential avian flu 5 years ago. Limited mortality but very easily spread. It has exposed a lot of holes in planning.

  This thing will in all likelihood be back this fall with a higher mortality rate and people and organizations are not ready. For example most school boards do not have any kind of pandemic plan or protocol.

  I think I am just a little gun shy after years of claiming the world is going to end 'real soon' so am very wary of being a 'chicken little'

  Uzzah

  Speaking of Chicken Little, one day a teacher was reading the story of Chicken Little to her class. She got to the part where Chicken Little ran up to the Farmer and announced "the sky is falling, the sky is falling" The teacher paused and asked her class, "How do you think the Farmer reacted to such a dire warning?

  One little girl put up her hand. The teacher asked again, "Okay Susie, how do you think the farmer racted?"

  Little Susie responded "He probably said, holy sh1t a talking chicken!!"
• 

  dinah

  Tough call, Uzzah. At least now you won't be proclaiming that God is killing everyone with Swine Flu.

  The problem is people tend to panic. If you can raise an alarm coupled with common sense, it would be good. Of course you know common sense is a rare commodity these days. The schools really should get some policies in place to deal with an epidemic. Like you said the other day, this scare has been good because it has pointed out flaws in the system.

  I would think you could raise the awareness level of H1N1 without being a "Chicken Little"
• 

  purplesofa

  ?

  WHO declares swine flu pandemic

  (CNN) -- The World Health Organization raised the swine flu alert Thursday to its highest level, saying H1N1 has spread to enough countries to be considered a global pandemic.

  Increasing the alert to Level 6 does not mean that the disease is deadlier or more dangerous than before, just that it has spread to more countries, the WHO said.

  As of Wednesday evening, the virus had spread to 72 countries, the health agency said. There were 25,288 confirmed cases and 139 deaths. The United States had 13,217 cases and 27 deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

  Also Thursday, authorities in Hong Kong ordered the closure of all elementary schools, kindergartens and day care centers in the city after 12 students were found to be infected with the virus.

  Authorities have not determined the source of theinfection, said Hong Kong's Chief Executive Donald Tsang. This makes it the first cluster of swine flu cases in the city without a link to someone who had traveled overseas.

  The number of cases continues to grow in Britain, Japan and Australia -- all of them outside the Americas, where the virus was first detected in April.

  Thursday's declaration of a pandemic by the WHO made this the first flu pandemic in 41 years.

  In Hong Kong, the schools and day care centers were told to close for 14 days as investigators tried to identify the source of the infection, said Tsang, the chief executive.

  The health department will decide after two weeks whether or not to continue the shutdown.

  A month ago, Hong Kong quarantined about 300 hotel guests for a week after the first case of the virus was confirmed there.

  Hong Kong's abundance of caution stems from the government's unwillingness to see a repeat of the SARS epidemic in 2004, which killed nearly 300 people.

  Also on Thursday, Israel's health ministry announced that the number of people diagnosed with swine flu there was 68.

  Health officials have begun using the virus' clinical name -- H1N1 -- to reflect that it's actually a combination of several different types of flu and to reduce confusion about whether eating pork can spread the virus. It cannot.