Preparedness for when

danih

I heard on the southern Irish news this afternoon that someone was tested for Ebola in Altnagelvin (the main hospital in Londonderry, Northern Ireland's second city). Thankfully the tests came back negative.

I haven't heard why they felt the need to test her.

I work in Londonderry, share my office with the children's disability social worker who deals with new referrals from hospitals, mainly Altnagelvin, and visits regularly, as do my teams 2 nurses in the next room, and apparently me next week - seeing a child who will by then have had a big operation.

Must stock up on anti bac gel (and research effectiveness on ebola).

(slightly want to hide at home - an hour away from Altnagelvin - for a few months)

Perplexed_Pineapple

Evening all. Just a few thoughts from the last few pages of lurking. I found ZTD's posts thought provoking and contrarian in mostly a good way, not every online communication is nuanced and I didn't think it was trolling.

GreyQueen wrote: »

Better than pitchy blackness, which is what I encountered when leaving the archery venue. Discovered that my keyring maglite solitaire really wasn't up to the job required, so will have the bigger maglite in my bag next time. The smaller one is fine for finding things in confined areas, but was a bit outgunned tonight. I had been to that place several times before at this time of the year, but there must have been something different tonight, as it was never as dark as that before.

I wants me one of those 6 Cell D ones - if not needed for lighting, can be used as a cosh.......:rotfl:

I have one of those! With an LED bulb it's like a searchlight, the light output is amazing (but I know not unusual for modern torches).. The cosh potential is not so good with rechargeable batteries that seem to be a lot lighter than Duracells. Still it's a reassuring thing to have to hand.

ZTD wrote: »

What would be "normal" life? Events which are life-changing to that degree, tend to be small (like strokes) rather than large (like an earthquake).



How would the grid ever be down permanently? The UK started from fresh air and went to a national grid from 1901-1937. There is no natural event that could take the grid back down to fresh air which wouldn't also wipe life clean from these islands.

Even if the grids were stolen overnight, there's no reason why we couldn't reconstruct in the same or less time than people 100 years ago.



Let's say we have a pandemic which would kill (for example) 3 billion people. That would mean the world population would go down to 4 billion - a level not seen since the grim and distant past of 1974. I suppose we would then have to live like the primitive people used to live then - which would involve sideburns, kipper ties and flares.



There would be no reason why batteries of some description would not be available. You can make batteries from stacks of two pieces of dissimilar metal - which are widely available.



Now you're talking from going from our current "division of labour" lifestyle, to a hunter-gatherer-scavanger kind of lifestyle. Seems a bit much to throw away at least 30,000 years of what's worked just to cope with the National Grid being off.

We could just get people off the dole and make them work in pylon/transformer/battery factories (for example).

I've had a good think about this and I think s/he is right. We would need a "Survivors" style loss of >90% of the population to lose the progress made over the last couple of centuries. On the other hand, a loss of a more modest 30-50% of the population (quite possible with ebola) would knock the infrastructure for a few years, and even temporary loss of power and clean water supplies would kill off a substantial minority of the remaining population. More so for the elderly or frail, if it were a particularly cold winter or hot dry summer.
I overheard a conversation the other day about flu, someone was talking about the flu jabs on offer to vulnerable people at this time of year and said "I don't know what the fuss is about,it's not as if people die from flu". Obviously not aware of rhe 1918 Spanish flu epidemic that killed more people than WW1. Ebola may be a concern, but flu hasn't gone away. I'm going to get my flu vaccination next week - best to deal with the thing we can prevent, not the things we can't. :eek:

Perplexed_Pineapple

danih wrote: »

I heard on the southern Irish news this afternoon that someone was tested for Ebola in Altnagelvin (the main hospital in Londonderry, Northern Ireland's second city). Thankfully the tests came back negative.

I haven't heard why they felt the need to test her.

I work in Londonderry, share my office with the children's disability social worker who deals with new referrals from hospitals, mainly Altnagelvin, and visits regularly, as do my teams 2 nurses in the next room, and apparently me next week - seeing a child who will by then have had a big operation.

Must stock up on anti bac gel (and research effectiveness on ebola).

(slightly want to hide at home - an hour away from Altnagelvin - for a few months)

Danih, I don;t think anti-bac gel is effective against ebola, because it isn't bacterial. You need barrier protection, and a healthy immune system (the death rate is apparently much higher in poorly nourished children in West Africa).

Nargleblast

I would love to make the SHTF for those barbarians trying to take over Iraq and Syria by getting some planes to drop a load of Ebola on their camps.....(Bad Nargle!)

danih

mmmm lots of soap and water then.

Hoping this has been a case of an over anxious patient, news reports suggest there isn't much to worry about.

daz378

shoulders getting a bit better....getting more sleep at night.....still not confident using it though......my sicknote only lasts till monday, see how i am sunday.....been watching the apprentice ....darwinian selection at its finest....... you alll take care

Butterfly_Brain

I think this is the thing that we need to watch 181 dop in FTSE shares today

http://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2014/oct/15/uk-unemployment-wages-china-inflation-shire-business-live

The financial house of cards is definitely wobbling

twiglet98

ZTD wrote: »

No problem. I'm gone.

I very much hope that ZTD will continue to post here. Offering articulate and alternative perspectives that may challenge another's theme does not consitute trolling, and I have not sensed any unkindness or malice in ZTD's posts.

There are so many wonderful contributors to this (and other) forums and very rarely is there a genuinely cruel or destructive intent. Sarcasm that will make one reader wince might elicit a giggle from another, and the different perspectives are hard to gauge from the written word, without the benefit of intonation or expression. There are people who are thoughtful and insightful, some are very well informed and others frankly less interested, some are experienced in situations most of us will not ever face, some are keen for experiences that will stretch them, that will expose weaknesses so they can learn to strengthen those areas, most are incredibly generous with their time and their willingness to share their thoughts. Personal attacks or vindictiveness are completely unacceptable, here or elsewhere, but differing opinions and ways of expressing them make for a more interesting community, surely?

[Deleted User]

Perplexed_Pineapple wrote: »

and said "I don't know what the fuss is about,it's not as if people die from flu". Obviously not aware of rhe 1918 Spanish flu epidemic that killed more people than WW1.

Even without something like the Spanish Flu epidemic, in an average year, in the US alone, 36,000 people die, and more than 200,000 are hospitalized, because of Flu.

[Deleted User]

Perplexed_Pineapple wrote: »

Evening all. Just a few thoughts from the last few pages of lurking. I found ZTD's posts thought provoking and contrarian in mostly a good way, not every online communication is nuanced and I didn't think it was trolling.
:[/QUOTE

same here. I found his/her posts very interesting and not at all frivolous or flippant. A bit like looking outside the box. I am sorry that he has been `sent away like a troll` and understand him being upset/offended