posted
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration, battered by criticism over its hurricane response, is getting the nation prepared for a possible travel ban and other restrictions in the event of a worldwide flu outbreak.
Improving vaccines is expected to take center stage as President Bush announces his strategy Tuesday to battle the next flu pandemic, whether it is caused by the worrisome Asian bird flu or some other super-strain of influenza. Preparations are expected to cost at least $6.5 billion.
States and cities are awaiting their first specific instructions on such things as who should get limited doses of vaccines and the antiviral medications Tamiflu or Relenza.
Topping that list are workers involved in manufacturing flu vaccine, health workers caring for the ill, and other first responders such as police and ambulance drivers, said a public health specialist shown a recent version of the plan.
The principal goal of Bush's plan, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said Tuesday, "is the capacity for every American to have a vaccine in the case of a pandemic, no matter what the virus is."
"There is no reason to believe that in the next day or two or week or month that that's going to occur," Leavitt said on CBS's "The Early Show." But he added that "we do need to be ready in case it begins to mutate into a human transmissable disease."
In his speech Tuesday at the National Institutes of Health, Bush will first note that it will take more than the federal government to battle a super-flu, said White House spokesman Trent Duffy.
"America has this tough-it-out strategy when you get sick," Duffy said. "You aren't helping yourself or the country going to work when you get ill. You are potentially threatening a greater health issue if you send children to school when they are sick."
Pandemics strike when the easy-to-mutate influenza virus shifts to a strain that people have never experienced before, something that has happened three times in the last century. While it is impossible to say when the next super-flu will strike, concern is growing that the bird flu strain known as H5N1 could trigger one if it mutates to start spreading easily among people. Since 2003, at least 62 people in Southeast Asia have died from H5N1; most regularly handled poultry.
The nation's strategy starts with attempting to spot an outbreak abroad early and working to contain it before it reaches the United States.
International cooperation "represents a best hope of stopping the lightning spread of a pandemic," Duffy said.
There is a possibility that a pandemic would force restrictions of international travel and commerce, he said — one reason the plan will stress improved vaccine manufacturing here.
Today, most of the world's vaccine against regular winter flu, including much of that used by Americans each flu season, is manufactured in factories in Britain and Europe.
The government already has ordered $162.5 million worth of vaccine to be made and stockpiled against the Asian bird flu, more than half to be made in a U.S. factory.
But the administration plan, to be released in more detail on Wednesday, calls for more than stockpiling shots. It will stress a new method of manufacturing flu vaccines — growing the virus to make them in easy-to-handle cell cultures instead of today's cumbersome process that uses millions of chicken eggs — as well as incentives for new U.S.-based vaccine factories to open.
Such steps will take several years to implement, but the hope is that eventually they could allow production of enough vaccine to go around within six months of a pandemic's start.
"The notion is that prevention beats therapy," said Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University, an influenza specialist who advises the government on vaccination and has received some information about the plan.
Hoping to spur the long-awaited pandemic plan, the Senate last week passed $8 billion in emergency funding for Bush to spend on the preparations.
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Beware of penny stocks that from oil to hurricane relief to what ever is hot, shift. If you get in early enough you can make money.
If you did hear the $7.1 billion dollar outlined to fight Avian Flu check out real companies that fight the Avian, those companies will sky rocket in the near future and today
-------------------- Looking for easy cash, I work for cash
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Rshn has been selling Ginseng products for some time now. Check their Online store: http://www.enjoytherush.com/
Now they plan to add Ginseng Viral Care to their product line in early 2006 accorrding to press release. They probably planned this a long time ago before the bird flu scare. imho
posted
I agree, Joe - RUSH is going to be Huge, but I don't believe daytraders see a lot of potential in RSHN - they want a quick pop-up b4 the DUMP - Long-term investors want a slow and steady rise.
I have a few million of rshn and, unless if flies very fast UP (which I will take profits and wait for retracement) I am Holding
posted
Hey Joe, Some of these folks can't wait, they wanna make money overnight. I have been waiting a while for the big bang on this puppy and I think it's coming near soon. Next year will be our year.
-------------------- GBAGL----God Bless and Good luck
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Scientists explain why viruses thrive during winter Thu Nov 3, 2005 12:22 AM ET165
By Tan Ee Lyn
HONG KONG (Reuters) - The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus thrives in the cooler months between October and March, matching the seasonal peak for common human influenza viruses.
This fact is not lost on health experts, who fear the two will marry in a "mixing host", such as a human or a pig, resulting in a lethal hybrid that not only spreads easily between humans, but is packed with the power to kill millions of people.
One question is why influenza peaks at this time each year. Scientists suggest a plethora of likely explanations, from viruses surviving better in cooler and wetter environments to people crowding together in the festive season, creating the perfect setting for viruses to proliferate.
"The survival of the virus in the environment is partly involved, and the stress (occuring in both humans and animals) in these temperatures," said Alan Hampson, an influenza expert and former deputy director of the WHO's Collaborating Center for Reference and Research on Influenza in Melbourne.
A team of scientists in Asia published a paper in Nature magazine last year saying that H5N1 viruses have been circulating in China since 2001 with a seasonal pattern, peaking from October to March when the average temperature is below 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit).
And the lower the temperature, the better it can survive.
Thursday, November 3, 2005; Posted: 5:19 a.m. EST (10:19 GMT)
INGAPORE (Reuters) -- The World Bank highlighted the potentially huge human and economic costs from any bird flu pandemic, while the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said such an outbreak could push the world economy into recession.
The ADB said a year-long shock from bird flu in humans would cost Asian economies as much as $283 billion and would reduce the region's gross domestic product by 6.5 percentage points, hitting Hong Kong and Singapore the most.
Robert Corr, president of RushNet, Inc., said, "The scientific confirmation of ginseng's powerful anti-viral properties will support our launch, in early 2006, of a highly profitable line of all-natural Ginseng Viral Care(TM) products. We have combined pure Wisconsin-grown American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) with other quality ingredients known to enhance immune function and overall health. The result is a product which is very timely given the likelihood of raging influenza epidemics going forward."
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At a time when headlines trumpet the potential dangers of "bird flu," Gary Butcher is the man of the hour.
Butcher has been an extension veterinarian at the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine since 1988. He was trained as a veterinarian specializing in avian diseases, and has a Ph.D. in poultry virology.
As the only poultry veterinarian in the state, Butcher fields phone calls and e-mails about avian flu every day.
Lately, he's been traveling the world, speaking to alarmed government officials and industry groups dispelling the myths and reinforcing the realities of avian influenza or so-called "bird flu."
Gary Butcher begins his presentation with a slide that shows a "news flash" from the British press agency Reuters reporting that avian flu "poses the single biggest threat to the world right now."
The H5N1 avian flu virus has led to the death of 150 million birds, either through infection or culling to prevent the virus from spreading. So far, however, the number of people who have become infected remains small, with 121 confirmed illnesses and 62 reported fatalities as of Monday. No one has yet been proven to have given avian influenza to someone else.
The World Health Organization continues to warn that a human pandemic may occur and has advised national governments to make contingency plans. President Bush is expected to announce today the White House strategy for handling a potential pandemic during a visit to the National Institutes of Health.
"The emphasis of all my work has changed to dealing with this madness," Butcher said Friday, while briefly back at his office on the UF campus in Gainesville. "Realistically, avian influenza is not a threat to people, but everywhere you go, it has turned into a circus."
He's been to Indonesia and Thailand, Hong Kong and Mexico, and a few days from now, he will be in Russia.
The poultry industries in those countries have been greatly disrupted because of the public's flu fear. In countries where poultry consumption has dropped by 75 percent, it's a real crisis, Butcher said. So from an economic perspective, bird flu is a big issue.
Millions of chickens and waterfowl have been slaughtered in Asia in an attempt to halt the spread of the bird virus known as H5N1, but Butcher said that of the billions of people who have probably been exposed, only about 120 have been reported to have fallen ill with avian flu. They were people who worked closely with chickens and came into contact with the birds' blood and feces.
Butcher also said that there has yet to be a proven case in which one person is known to have passed the illness on to another.
Bird flu viruses have been around throughout history, he said. What is unique about the H5N1 strain is that, on rare occasions, it has shown the ability to infect humans.
"It is very inefficient, but it does manage," Butcher said.
That same inefficiency makes it much more likely that the virus can't replicate itself rapidly enough to spread from that first infected human to another, he said. Could happen, but not likely. That's his view.
But the virus can go from poultry to the wild bird population, which will carry it to other locales along their migration routes.
If and when it comes to this part of the world, Butcher predicts, it will get here via migratory shorebirds or waterfowl coming from Russia, through Siberia, across the Bering Strait, down through Alaska and Canada.
"That's how it is probably going to come in, and it is of very little relevance," he said, because the poultry industry in this part of the world is so different than in the parts of the world that have been affected so far.
Not all health officials are sounding a warning about avian influenza, either.
Dr. Marc Siegel, a practicing internist and associate professor of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine, is one physician who isn't buying into the scare scenario.
"If anything is contagious right now, it's judgment clouded by fear," Siegel said.
And if Americans are scared of avian flu now, Siegel continues, "imagine what will happen if a single scrawny, flu-ridden migratory bird somehow manages to reach our shores."
That, he maintains, is how the fear epidemic - as opposed to a flu pandemic - spreads.
Back to the unlikely scenario of those migratory birds carrying avian flu to a poultry house somewhere in Kansas.
"Only once in every blue moon do you get infection in a poultry house, and the government has a system of monitoring and eradication that means it is quickly wiped out," Butcher said. "So it can happen, but it is rare and it is not allowed to spread."
Because the United States exports about one-third of the 9 billion poultry produced, if potentially dangerous disease turns up, there is a policy of zero tolerance.
"Other countries would not accept poultry from anywhere in the United States if there was any question of infection," Butcher said.
He said that although there is a potential that the virus could mutate, as it exists, it could not become an important disease in humans.
"For it to become dangerous to humans, it has to go through a pretty significant genetic change. If you put this in perspective, it's not going to happen. For a person to be infected now, it appears that the exposure level has to be astronomical," Butcher said.
"While we are putting all our attention on this avian influenza, another virus is going to come up and bite us in the bottom," he said.
posted
Joe, what many people do not understand is that the death tallies given for large areas in China and Asia are most probably a lot higher than on paper; there are so many small provinces and rural areas that IMO these countries and continents have swept their true mortality stats under a rug.
Another point to be made is the very distinct possibility that the "bird flu" will mutate and that humans will be able to pass it on to other humans - MAN will be the next 'Patient Zero'.
Once it mutates, then we will have a pandemic virus on our hands - that is a scenario reminiscent of Stephen Kings' "Captain Trips" from his novel "The Stand". Of course, that Flu Virus was man-made in a government Lab and was entirely "fictional".
In these times of human history, when antibiotics are no longer as effective as they once were (and we have only been using antibiotics for less than 90 years and already statistics are showing many viruses and infections are no longer treatable with these antibiotics), I believe once the Avian Bird Flu jumps to humans in a more metropolitan area that we may see an ugly reminder of how just fragile we all are.
We don't control nature and only the strong survive; the same will be true if this virus becomes mutatable.
Louie
quote:Originally posted by JoeMillion: Welcome bashers,
A good sign indeed.
How can you down play the bird flu? Lots of people died already.
« RSHN Message list | Reply to msg. | Post new msg. « Older | Newer » By: sirtemp0 03 Nov 2005, 02:53 PM EST Msg. 10611 of 10612 (This msg. is a reply to 10608 by cordog13560.) Jump to msg. # Received an interesting package, that is all in which Rushnet is selling, cola's, water, and a great cap. I really like the taste of RushGensing, haven't tried RushXXX because I want to wait until the weekend. Having raced bicycles, and sometimes used a few uppers, [Mai Hung], I know how these can keep you awake so I want to be sure. Never know, I might be up for days... . But no doubt, great stuff. I tried the e-water, fantastic!
Anyone that's tried Dasani, eat your heart out, this one is a million times better in both taste and smell. The e-water outside all the purities one would expect including electrolites, has a very soothing taste [much like evian] jmo, and a wonderful smell.
If Bob can get this product out, unlike Coke who own most of the market in soft drinks, this product will truly sell itself. If I saw e-water in a quick stop such as Seven-Eleven, I'd try it if the price was competitive. I wrote Bob in hopes I'll find out what a bottle might cost if someone saw it in a quick stop.
I think all is well... I too asked about any reverse anytime soon and hope to have more later.
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I have Multiple Sclerosis and my immune system is already shot.
I did get a flu shot this year; I also have Tamiflu which I purchased 3 months ago just in case - one of my online businesses is a pharmacy - I set my own prices, so right b4 I ordered the tamiflu I lowered the price to a penny above the 'base price'. I also gave myself free shipping. I also had family & friends who lived in other states order from my site so that they could get it cheap (and for their friends as well) - I didn't make a dime. After everyone ordered I set the prices back to where they were but kept the free shipping - especially for a medication like that
Never hurts to think ahead.
Last year (I live in Florida) 3 hurricanes did damage in my area. No power, nada, zip.
Luckily (well, luck had nothing to do with it really) I have a 7500 kw diesel generator with a manual transfer switch already installed. All I had to do was shut everything off at the breaker box, then flip the manual transfer switch to "ON' and then go back and turn the breaker back on. I also have a 200 gallon tank with diesel fuel already hooked up with proper assemblage,; I had oil for the generator itself.
I was the only house with power for 5 days - I let my neighbors store their food in my spare fridge/freezer - we had cookouts - they had showers and iced tea and cold beer, they did their laundry, and they came in to watch TV and sit in air conditioning.
Now, whenever any of my neighbors think I need something - they just do it and I thank them. They know I will be ready again - and not just for me. One of my neighbors just completely reshingled my roof for free - that includes parts and labor. My roof looks fantastic...
Louie
quote:Originally posted by ACKCANE: If you are so afraid of the bird flu, why would you wait until 2006 when there are so many other products out there?
A pandemic isn't going to happen with the bird flu . . . now if it ever crosses over to swine, then we are in trouble.
China Reports Fourth Bird Flu Outbreak JOE McDONALD : Associated Press Writer Nov 3, 2005 : 8:14 pm ET
BEIJING -- China reported its fourth bird flu outbreak in three weeks Thursday, saying the virus killed nearly 9,000 chickens in a northeastern village, prompting authorities to destroy 369,900 other birds.
The outbreak occurred Oct. 26 in Badaohao, a village in Liaoning province, east of Beijing, the Agriculture Ministry said in a report posted late Thursday on the Web site of the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health.
The report came despite Chinese government efforts to tighten controls on the country's vast poultry flocks and vaccinate millions of birds.
Authorities also found 20 dead magpies and other wild birds, said the report by the ministry's Veterinary Bureau.
China, Vietnam, Japan Report Flu Outbreaks Posted: Friday, Nov 04, 2005 - 05:51:28 am PST By JOE McDONALD
BEIJING, China - China and Vietnam on Friday each confirmed new bird flu outbreaks, while Japanese authorities said 180,000 chickens would be killed after signs of the virus were found at a farm.
Adding to global jitters about bird flu, the Asian Development Bank warned in a report that a flu pandemic could kill up to 3 million people in Asia, cost the region billions and plunge the world into recession.
posted
I'm sorry that you take offense, but to post ad nauseum without any relevant news is pumping to me. To try and equate or relate news about a possible bird flu and a product from RSHN is laughable. BUT!!! If you want to go down that road and you are so sure about this bird flu, then I would suggest to all people who read this that if you want to save yourself from the bird flu, I wouldn't wait until 2006 for RSHN's product, because it might be too late for you . . . I would go to any number of websites, say this one, Herbalremedies.com . They have about what appears to be dozens, maybe hundreds of Ginseng products. Save yourself now.
If you wish to discuss financials and contracts then you might be on the right track as I think this stock is. But if I were a casual observer and came across this thread and saw the ramblings going on here, I would avoid the stock at all costs because there is very little basis in facts. BOOOYYYYYAAAA
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Looks to me ACKCANE wants in bad and posting here with a purpose. He wants your shares cheap,. He knows rshn will fly due to the bird flu scare. imho
You must have no life bashing a .0009 subpenny stock.
ACKCANE, you may get some weaks to sell, but you will never get my shares. Good Luck.
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