Pandemic flu

==Background==
A real, almost certain risk of pandemic flu will touch our world rather soon. 
==Insights==
The bird flu being covered in the media will naturally mutate until it can easily spread from human to human. Flu spreads easily.
Pandemic flu is different, new, and can kill more.
A "small" pandemic delivers 1 million deaths. A "giant" pandemic can mean more than 100 million deaths.
===Think again===
As independent thinkers, pandemic flu presents one more opportunity to "care about thinking." In this case, to think ahead. What seems most useful is to deal with the worst possibilities, and the most distant possibilities, because that's where our thinking can have the most real effect. 
If people know basic information about pandemic flu, it can make a life or death difference:
* most of the sick people survive if they can get enough fluids
* they will be too weak to take the fluids themselves, and they will need a friend to drip the fluids for them into their mouth
* people should avoid contact with each other during a pandemic, and 
* be prepared to scatter in smaller groups
* The vast majority of people will NOT get bird flu from birds! They will get it from people.
The impact on Africa, which seems to get most neglected, is important.
Poultry farmers are naturally interested in having the best information regarding bird flu and not be victims of superstition. Poultry farmers have an interest to spread good information.
Make sure that people have essentials for a two month period or so. Perhaps there is a way that outsiders could invest in such stores?
Mathematicians can easily prove that even a small slow of the spread of a disease (by taking care to avoid contagion) can cut down dramatically on the overall number of people who get sick and also on the shock to our social services. Every bit we do can make a dramatic difference. We could save 1,000 lives.
==Links==
* Vaccination - Lone Star State's Gov. Rick Perry signed an executive order to require all girls entering sixth grade to be vaccinated against HPV. 
category:wellness