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An unexpected bio attack happens.
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
the World Health Organization on Wednesday urged against travel to Beijing, China’s Shanxi province and Toronto, Canada’s business capital because of threats from SARS.
So while the world is fighting over religion, an unexpected bio attack happens. We've sent professionals from the Center for Disease Control into Tornoto to help.
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Comments
'bio-attack'?
from who and why target China?
surely nothing has been confirmed at this stage
Wearing a mask doesn't seem such a silly idea after all.
I've got a men in black one from Halloween. Wonder if that would work?:eek:
Sorry to be a pedant, but penicillin has little or no effect against viruses anyway, if I recall correctly. Most antibiotics only really effect bacteria, which is why you can't take them to get over cold or 'flu.
Officials in Toronto were almost screaming that it's a safe city and the WHO shouldn't have discouraged travel to the city. My friend's mom had to fly up there...there were only 11 people on the flight...the flights are always booked. The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta agreed with Toronto about the ban.
On a lighter note, if you want to wind people up the next time you're queuing up at the bank or post office, simply sneeze and say aloud: "I haven't quite been myself since I came back from Hong Kong".
I'm not denying that penicillin and its derivatives made a big impact; before their discovery, there was, as far as I'm aware, very little doctors could do for anyone with a disease like tuberculosis, meningitis and one of the hepatitis strains (All of which are highly lethal). But they have their limits, two of the biggest being little impact on viral infections and that bacteria quickly become resistant.
Doctor's in TB wards have been dealing with this resistance for years, because people apparently don't complete their antibiotics course (because the side effects of the drugs are supposed to be horrific). The surviving bacteria (the ones with the highest resistance) multiply, and we have a new resistant strain. Apparently, the standard response is to use a cocktail of several antibiotics, the logic being that they can't possibly be resistant to all of them.
As for winding people up by faking SARS, well... you can probably be arrested for that these days, so consult with a competent solicitor first.
You said to the wrong guy. I'll use it. I already used the idea you said about some guy who flies the Union Jack...wonder he knows what country he's in.
So I was riding my bike and this guy was just raising the stars and stripes and I yelled out: are you flying that to remind you what country you're in? He said: "Come here you skinny brat. People are dying defending your country for you."
I would have said I know but the skinny brat part pissed me off.
Aladdin you're right about the priorities. That's basically what the WHO said and made it worst today saying there's a uncontrolled risk in Toronto.
Infections are caused by bacteria, viruses are not. Its why antibiotics dont cure viruses like cold.
The trouble is that a) people dont complete their courses and b) people demand antibiotics for colds and snuffles, meaning the powers run out. Bacteria become resistant, even if they arent causing a problem.
As for Toronot, I agree with them, the WHO have horrendously over-reacted as all the cases have come from one guy who went to Hong Kong spreading it. You cant take chances, mind, but Toronot has been unfairly singled out.
That and the fact that farmers have been pumping our foods full of antibiotics for years, thus inadvertently increasing our threshold so that when we need then it takes stronger doses to achieve their goal...
It's one of the reasons that it is harder to get antiobiotics from a GP these days...
I feel the US is being irresponsible. We should do what Taiwan has done: anyone traveling to Canada or China get quaranteened for 10 days when they return to Taiwan. Toronto, in fact, has done a crappy job in containing this disease...including allowing infected people to travel on their subway system, and the virus is alive on surfaces for 24 hours, to a funeral. In comparison, Vancover isolated its victims and has no big problem today. Many Canadian companies aren't allowing their employees to travel to Toronto.
Except they still have less than 300 infected people.
More people than that will die this year by falling down stairs in the UK alone...
Hard to trust countries when there's so much money involved in saying "it's fine here."