linnugripiblog

This means that a bird flu outbreak in humans can be expected to cause massive infrastructure disruptions as the people who keep the national infrastructure running stop coming to work. Imagine the chaos that would ensue if 2/3rds of the truck drivers and train conductors across the country just stayed home. Think about it: no deliveries of fuel, food, car parts, industrial chemicals, livestock feed or even coal for power plants. The situation could be far worse than most people realize. The virus isn't the only threat: It's the infrastructure failures that are also a huge concern.

Just this week, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt warned that the bird flu virus infecting U.S. birds was, "only a matter of time." It's unusual for the U.S. government to so blatantly acknowledge such a threat, but perhaps the reason is because Washington knows it can't possibly rescue the entire population from a pandemic. Individuals and families are on their own, according to the U.S. government's document, "National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza" (NSPI), which encourages people to start preparing for infrastructure disruptions. That same document also deliberately says that you should not rely on the government to save you. Most of the U.S. public, of course, has done nothing to prepare. When an outbreak is actually reported in the mainstream media, this lack of preparedness will inevitably lead to panic runs on face masks, antiviral medicines (including herbal tinctures), and even basic supplies like water and sleeping bags (to keep warm when the heat is gone).