Are you factoring avian flu into your travel plans?
Nov 2nd, 2005, 08:51 AM
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 19,000
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Are you factoring avian flu into your travel plans?
Whether you think a pandemic is a real possibility or hype contrived by the media, there may be some dislocations caused by business and government responding to the threat. These include: curtailment of flights, moratoria on immigration, quarantines, etc.
Are you completely disregarding the possibility, hedging your bets with changeable tickets and trip insurance, or paralyzed with fear? Or some combination of the three?
Are you completely disregarding the possibility, hedging your bets with changeable tickets and trip insurance, or paralyzed with fear? Or some combination of the three?
Not to make light of this, though, because I am concerned but not changing any plans.
Nov 2nd, 2005, 09:20 AM
#3
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 359
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
We are going to London in a few weeks, and I am not factoring the flu into that trip (granted, London isn't the most rural of travel destinations).
I ride the subway in NYC on an almost daily basis, so I figure I'm probably safer somewhere else anyway!
There are so many possibilities of so many things going wrong in so many ways in life that I just can't worry about this until something definite happens. (And I hope it doesn't!)
I ride the subway in NYC on an almost daily basis, so I figure I'm probably safer somewhere else anyway!
There are so many possibilities of so many things going wrong in so many ways in life that I just can't worry about this until something definite happens. (And I hope it doesn't!)
Nov 2nd, 2005, 09:20 AM
#4
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 5,601
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
In the normal life cycle of these things, there will probably be some preventive over-kill AND some idiots who are dangerously imprudent.
For me, making or changing plans will be infinitedly complicated by the probability that not all governments are telling all the truth or sharing all the info.
It's a little early to become paralyzed, since right now it's more of a threat if you're a chicken than a person BUT it's certainly worth watching and staying as current as possible.
For me, making or changing plans will be infinitedly complicated by the probability that not all governments are telling all the truth or sharing all the info.
It's a little early to become paralyzed, since right now it's more of a threat if you're a chicken than a person BUT it's certainly worth watching and staying as current as possible.
Nov 2nd, 2005, 09:31 AM
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 19,000
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I think it's interesting that the government has been contemplating the eventuality of a biological attack for four years, but the infrastructure to respond to pandemic is only just <u>now</u> being funded.
Nov 2nd, 2005, 10:23 AM
#8
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 1,418
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I am leaving for Southeast Asia on Christmas Day and have been following the reports on the cdc website with some interest, although trying hard to keep it all in perspective.
At this point I am mildly concerned about it, but no more so that contracting something like West Nile in our own country.
But for the first time in my life, I bought trip insurance and it's making me feel like I'm turning into a paranoid person. Nothing though, will help me if I get over there and then they start shutting down some borders. If they do, I hope I'm enjoying my stay and have plenty of "room on my Amex"!
In the end, I'd say "no where in the world is safe". But neither terrorist acts nor the threat of pandemics shall keep me from seeing this world.
At this point I am mildly concerned about it, but no more so that contracting something like West Nile in our own country.
But for the first time in my life, I bought trip insurance and it's making me feel like I'm turning into a paranoid person. Nothing though, will help me if I get over there and then they start shutting down some borders. If they do, I hope I'm enjoying my stay and have plenty of "room on my Amex"!
In the end, I'd say "no where in the world is safe". But neither terrorist acts nor the threat of pandemics shall keep me from seeing this world.
Nov 2nd, 2005, 02:19 PM
#9
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 6,098
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Actually the government has been contemplating the eventuality of a biological attack for decades.
But you must have budgetary priorities--how can pandemics and biological attacks compete against such worthy expenditures as the developing the Mariachi Music Study Curriculum in Nevada or the Dr. Seuss Memorial or the National Preschool Anger Project.
But you must have budgetary priorities--how can pandemics and biological attacks compete against such worthy expenditures as the developing the Mariachi Music Study Curriculum in Nevada or the Dr. Seuss Memorial or the National Preschool Anger Project.
Nov 2nd, 2005, 03:29 PM
#10
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,460
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
"... how can pandemics and biological attacks compete against such worthy expenditures as the developing the Mariachi Music Study Curriculum in Nevada or the Dr. Seuss Memorial or the National Preschool Anger Project ..."
Or a $223 million bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island ...
Anselm
Or a $223 million bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island ...
Anselm
Nov 3rd, 2005, 05:38 AM
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 19,000
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My question wasn't really concerned so much with fear of contracting the flu as with how you are dealing with the possible side effects of a pandemic - such as getting caught on the wrong side of a ocean by travel embargoes.
Nov 3rd, 2005, 05:57 AM
#12
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,132
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I can’t catch bird flu – I’m a bloke.
In all seriousness though I think this is just another one of the scare stories that come along periodically, and we will look back at and laugh. You know like those other great worries; killer African bees; Y2K bug; Ebola; Malthus’ projections; BSE; global warming; SARS etc etc etc.
I think we quite like being scared.
Also there are real risks out there but we’re quite blasé about them eg TB; Malaria.
In any case who travels without insurance?
In all seriousness though I think this is just another one of the scare stories that come along periodically, and we will look back at and laugh. You know like those other great worries; killer African bees; Y2K bug; Ebola; Malthus’ projections; BSE; global warming; SARS etc etc etc.
I think we quite like being scared.
Also there are real risks out there but we’re quite blasé about them eg TB; Malaria.
In any case who travels without insurance?
Nov 3rd, 2005, 06:02 AM
#13
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 5,228
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
When SARS became big news it was enough to scare my OCD challenged father inlaw into canceling a trip from FL to IN to visit us. Nevermind that there were no cases of SARS in the US. His wife came anyway but he bought her a box of surgical masks and insisted she wear one on the plane. She didn't but we all wore them in the car on the way home from the airport.
With all the media coverage of bird flu I'm pretty sure I'll never have to host him at my house again. He's become a prisoner of his own house (and mind).
With all the media coverage of bird flu I'm pretty sure I'll never have to host him at my house again. He's become a prisoner of his own house (and mind).
Nov 3rd, 2005, 06:08 AM
#14
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 383
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Unfortunately, even the CDC site, as good as it is, does not, IMO, give a good description of the one thing people need to know about any "contagious" disease entity and that is, "How does it <b>move</b>?"
Although we can indivdiually do a great deal to prevent hand-to-mucous membrane transmission by not touching possibly infected animales, etc., there is probably little we can do to stop the spread of unnecessary measures such as embargoes which might be employed by people who haven't botherd to find out the answer to this very question.
Although we can indivdiually do a great deal to prevent hand-to-mucous membrane transmission by not touching possibly infected animales, etc., there is probably little we can do to stop the spread of unnecessary measures such as embargoes which might be employed by people who haven't botherd to find out the answer to this very question.
Nov 3rd, 2005, 06:21 AM
#16
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 13,614
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Yes, as well as Black Plague, Bubonic Plague and the Mask of the Red Death (or was that merely a book title? I read so much, it's hard to keep track!.
When your number is up, it's up. That's pretty much it, and that won't stop me from being where I want to be when I want to be there.
BC
When your number is up, it's up. That's pretty much it, and that won't stop me from being where I want to be when I want to be there.
BC
Nov 3rd, 2005, 06:53 AM
#19
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 19,000
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I was more interested in measures people were taking to preclude flu-induced travel dislocations. But as long as the thread has been hijacked, allow me to dispel a few myths -
The catastrophic effects of the Y2K bug were averted by the thousands of dedicated IT professionals who worked millions of overtime hours fixing the code in the years leading up to 2000.
The planet <u>is</u> warming, and the effect on global climate will be devastating. The only disagreement now is <i>why</i> it's happening and whether it's irreversible.
Fifty million people died of influenza in 1918, and there is little in the way of effective therapy for it today. The only <u>real</u> difference is that now it can travel by jet airliner instead of train and steamship.
BetaMAX was a superior technology to VHS by any measure.
The catastrophic effects of the Y2K bug were averted by the thousands of dedicated IT professionals who worked millions of overtime hours fixing the code in the years leading up to 2000.
The planet <u>is</u> warming, and the effect on global climate will be devastating. The only disagreement now is <i>why</i> it's happening and whether it's irreversible.
Fifty million people died of influenza in 1918, and there is little in the way of effective therapy for it today. The only <u>real</u> difference is that now it can travel by jet airliner instead of train and steamship.
BetaMAX was a superior technology to VHS by any measure.
