Comments on: Overhyping the flu

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 21:26:49 +0000

“It wasn’t the actual damage that mattered, but what people thought the damage was.”

I.T. staff in large corporations spend less time dealing with problems caused by malfunctioning software and hardware than they do with the problems caused by blatant, widespread, stupidity on the part of computer users.

By: lrC

lrC — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 16:55:28 +0000

Of course any outbreak is going to overwhelm the “medical infrastructure”. We don’t have enough “medical infrastructure” to meet all our routine needs right now. Treatment and hospitalization aren’t the keys to fighting an epidemic. Containment is the key.

By: JM

JM — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 12:13:44 +0000

Of course, the tightest quarantine cannot guard against wilful stupidity.

http://tinyurl.com/damg4

It’s in German, but the headline reads “Live pigeons from Turkey in carry-on luggage”

By: Aaron

Aaron — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 02:18:43 +0000

However, as we saw with the SARS outbreak in Toronto, it does not take many severe respiratory cases to overwhelm or come close to overwhelming that medical infrastructure.

Jay, you are absolutely right on this point. Paranoia clogs infrastructure.

In Brazil there was a cannister from an MRI machine that leaked radioactive powder. People flocked to the hospital and demanded to be checked with a geiger counter.

It wasn’t the actual damage that mattered, but what people thought the damage was.

A flu outbreak would mean that everyone with a sniffle would be at the emergency ward.