RE: Re: Bird 'Flu Has Advanced One More Step

[Guest guest]

I am as guilty or more than most of straying. I recognize that

my assessment of the avian flu reportage is opinionated.

I am tempted to ask what if any specific activity you suggest

we undertake after learning that migratory birds, being avian

can carry the flu?

There are smarter folks than me already working on this at a

systemic level so I feel I have little to contribute to the

greater good by worrying about this. Personally I'm not going

to start wearing a face mask just yet, IMO this is still a

chicken little scenario. Yes, I'm aware of past pandemics and

how many people die of the flu du jour in a normal year.

My apologies to any I may have upset, my intent was to help

the readers of the post not police the poster. I learned long ago

its easier to manage how I deal with my perception of undesirable

behavior than to change the behavior of others. This is especially

true if I am alone in finding the post of such little value.

Be well//

JR

-----Original Message-----

From:

[mailto: ]On Behalf Of Rodney

Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2005 6:06 AM

Subject: [ ] Re: Bird 'Flu Has Advanced One More Step

Hi folks:

An excerpt from the description of this site on the home page:

" ......................... to share state-of-the-art information for

a healthier, longer life. "

So this site is not, as I read it, confined solely to a discusion of

the benefits of CR in promoting " a healthier, longer life " , but also

any other information that is likely to be important in furthering

that objective. So Avian flu, imo, is not off topic. Quite the

contrary, it is highly relevant.

If people here, because a lack of awareness of, or preparedness for

this potentially serious problem end up getting Avian Flu, it will

appreciably detract from their chances of living a longer life. The

fatality rate among humans who have had it is huge.

Those who do not wish to read information on Avian Flu are not

obligated by membership here to click on contributions with the

words " Bird Flu " in the subject line.

jmo

Rodney.

-- In , " " <crjohnr@b...>

wrote:

> We are once again streaking wildly divergent from CR.

> Flu happens, and avian flu which is obviously

> transmitted avian to avian happens. Whether this

> successfully jumps to mammals and mutates into a more

> virulent form that passes to and between humans, leading

> to the next great pandemic is still a matter for

> speculation by public health professionals, governments,

> and farmers breeding or exposed to things " avian " .

> There is quite a bit of activity thankfully below the

> radar of the " what will we scare them with tonight

> news " . To me that tidbit screams of inflammatory

> fear mongering.

>

> To get back on topic and perhaps personally useful,

> CRAN appears to up regulate our body's defense systems

> although there may be some conflict with appearance of

> low imunological vigor from blood counts our

> experience suggests we don't get sick as often as

> non-restricted peers.

>

> This may also be a good reason to not allow our BMI to

> range so low that our energy reserves are challenged

> should we become too sick to feed for several days (Al).

>

> In general, spending any of our attention span or

> mental effort worrying about things that have no

> immediate or even mid-term impact on our personal well

> being is energy that IMO could be better spent managing

> our nutrition or searching for ways to improve our

> physical and mental well being.

>

> It is the work or business of popular news sources

> to try to garner our attention. Their most effective

> tool is to scare us. In cases where the scare is

> real, no matter how remote, our caveman wiring will

> draw us to it, like a moth to a flame. You will be

> happier and better able to tone down your response

> once you realize how the news is trying to

> manipulate you.

>

> Save your precious focus for things important to you.

> If you are a chicken farmer in Viet Nam be very

> concerned now. If you're a chicken farmer in Australia,

> pay attention. For me in Hickory, MS, I guess you

> can just put me in the group with a minimal interest at

> this time.

>

> That avian flu can jump from bird to bird does not seem

> like a huge " stop the presses " revelation to me, or

> evidence that the risk is any more imminent.

>

> I don't mean to be critical of the OP. There has been

> interest here in the past. I offer my post as perhaps

> a less stressful way to view this reportage.

>

> Be well...

>

> JR

>

>

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From:

> [mailto: ]On Behalf Of Rodney

> Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2005 7:27 PM

>

> Subject: [ ] Bird 'Flu Has Advanced One More Step

>

>

> Hi folks:

>

> I realize that not everyone is interested in this topic. But it

has

> been determined that bird flu is now being communicated between

> MIGRATORY birds in China.

>

> These birds, at the appropriate time of year, can migrate as far as

> one thousand miles in a twenty-four hour period. So bird

populations

> as far afield as India and Australia appear to be in danger of

> becoming infected in the not too far distant future.

>

> Just one more step, perhaps, on the way to human-to-human

> communication eventually. A large percentage (35%???) of humans so

> far infected with this disease have died from it.

>

> http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,161740,00.html

>

> Rodney.

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Again I apologize to all for wasting bandwidth on this.

My intent was more to point out the inflammatory nature

of general news reportage than to debate the significance

of migratory birds as a transmission vector for this flu.

I am hopeful that the people responsible for working this

are aware and reacting.

I found SARS of far more personal interest since even I

living in a small town in MS have traveled to Hong Kong

and mainland China. I suspect we would all be surprised by

the amount of such travel and thus wide exposure that

occurs almost everywhere. Should this avian strain mutate

to a virulent human to human form, then it will be very

deserving of wider attention.

With or without this hypothetical risk of avian flu

pandemic we should always follow a personal hygiene regimen

of washing our hands and being aware of common infection

vectors.

I fear it is the human condition to disproportionately react

to even distant threats, no doubt a successful characteristic

in our caveman forbears. These days it can distract from less

exciting but more personally significant considerations.

I participate on a number of lists and get my news from

news sources. I appreciate a more disciplined focus on a

given subject or topic, but also understand the human need

for community. In a field where new research is not exactly

flooding in and what is known has been well hashed out there

can be some pretty slow news days.

Again IMO the vast majority of general health " news " is so

flawed to be suspect. If this is of general interest, it should

also be of interest to review and dissect for personal

relevance. We respectfully disagree on the latter.

We need some more newbies to chime in with questions they surely

have so we can get back to " CR SUPPORT " and stop wrestling over

minutiae.

JR

-----Original Message-----

From:

[mailto: ]On Behalf Of Rodney

Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2005 9:51 AM

Subject: [ ] Re: Bird 'Flu Has Advanced One More Step

Hi JR:

I doubt you upset anyone. But it seems to me that you have some

astonishingly strong, and to me inexplicable, motivation to sweep

this particular issue under the rug.

Specific activities? I suggest that we all may be able to benefit by

getting to understand as much as we can about this disease, so that

IF AND WHEN it strikes we do not have to go scurrying around at the

last minute trying to figure out what we should do about it.

The first thing I believe we need to understand is that this is no

ordinary, 'flu d'année'. Its fatality rate among birds and humans is

remarkably high. The potential toll is orders of magnitude higher

than for other versions of the flu we have experienced in recent

decades.

How it is communicated and how to prevent its communication are

obviously the issues we need to to take very seriously. Appropriate

hygeine precautions - masks and hand-sterilizing methods - will be

important if things evolve as eventually they are likely to according

to very serious scientists. Yes, if I didn't have face masks left

over from the SARS epidemic I would be buying them now before the

drug stores are empty of them. I might also be buying those hand-

sterilizing lotions if I hadn't heard that they are close to useless.

Perhaps I am more alert to this issue because I was three face-to-

face conversations distant from a fatal case of SARS. As it happened

none of the intervening subjects, nor me, caught the disease. But

SARS was highly contagious, had a high fatality rate, and once it

appeared was only eradicated by very stringent precautions. (I

wonder if some the patients who died may have been scared to death

when they saw the space-suit type of garb the nurses treating them

started wearing in the hospitals!)

Certainly we do not know whether Avian Flu will mutate so as to

become highly contagious in human-to-human contact. Although many

experts believe it is only a matter of time before it does. And this

assessment is based on the ways in which other versions of the flu

have developed over the years, probably all of which emerged in SE

Asia, like this one, and via the intermediaries of birds and pigs.

I agree there is little point in needlessly repeating information we

are all familiar with. But new information on this I certainly would

wish to be kept up to date about. If the majority here were to

declare Avian Flu OT I would abide by it. I certainly wouldn't wish

to incur the wrath of Mother Francesca as she patrols the corridor

with ruler in hand ; ^ )))

Rodney.

> > We are once again streaking wildly divergent from CR.

> > Flu happens, and avian flu which is obviously

> > transmitted avian to avian happens. Whether this

> > successfully jumps to mammals and mutates into a more

> > virulent form that passes to and between humans, leading

> > to the next great pandemic is still a matter for

> > speculation by public health professionals, governments,

> > and farmers breeding or exposed to things " avian " .

> > There is quite a bit of activity thankfully below the

> > radar of the " what will we scare them with tonight

> > news " . To me that tidbit screams of inflammatory

> > fear mongering.

> >

> > To get back on topic and perhaps personally useful,

> > CRAN appears to up regulate our body's defense systems

> > although there may be some conflict with appearance of

> > low imunological vigor from blood counts our

> > experience suggests we don't get sick as often as

> > non-restricted peers.

> >

> > This may also be a good reason to not allow our BMI to

> > range so low that our energy reserves are challenged

> > should we become too sick to feed for several days (Al).

> >

> > In general, spending any of our attention span or

> > mental effort worrying about things that have no

> > immediate or even mid-term impact on our personal well

> > being is energy that IMO could be better spent managing

> > our nutrition or searching for ways to improve our

> > physical and mental well being.

> >

> > It is the work or business of popular news sources

> > to try to garner our attention. Their most effective

> > tool is to scare us. In cases where the scare is

> > real, no matter how remote, our caveman wiring will

> > draw us to it, like a moth to a flame. You will be

> > happier and better able to tone down your response

> > once you realize how the news is trying to

> > manipulate you.

> >

> > Save your precious focus for things important to you.

> > If you are a chicken farmer in Viet Nam be very

> > concerned now. If you're a chicken farmer in Australia,

> > pay attention. For me in Hickory, MS, I guess you

> > can just put me in the group with a minimal interest at

> > this time.

> >

> > That avian flu can jump from bird to bird does not seem

> > like a huge " stop the presses " revelation to me, or

> > evidence that the risk is any more imminent.

> >

> > I don't mean to be critical of the OP. There has been

> > interest here in the past. I offer my post as perhaps

> > a less stressful way to view this reportage.

> >

> > Be well...

> >

> > JR

> >

> >

> >

> > -----Original Message-----

> > From:

> > [mailto: ]On Behalf Of Rodney

> > Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2005 7:27 PM

> >

> > Subject: [ ] Bird 'Flu Has Advanced One More Step

> >

> >

> > Hi folks:

> >

> > I realize that not everyone is interested in this topic. But it

> has

> > been determined that bird flu is now being communicated between

> > MIGRATORY birds in China.

> >

> > These birds, at the appropriate time of year, can migrate as far

as

> > one thousand miles in a twenty-four hour period. So bird

> populations

> > as far afield as India and Australia appear to be in danger of

> > becoming infected in the not too far distant future.

> >

> > Just one more step, perhaps, on the way to human-to-human

> > communication eventually. A large percentage (35%???) of humans

so

> > far infected with this disease have died from it.

> >

> > http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,161740,00.html

> >

> > Rodney.

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >