BART Cop Smashes Drunk Dude's Head Through Glass
Asm. Tom Ammiano On Glass Breaking BART Cop
Don't Dump Unwanted Stuff On City Sidewalks
Daisy Does the 49ers: Green Bay Tops SF
Help Children Have a Merry Xmas While Receiving a Lap Dance
Following on the heels of yesterday's East Bay flu fatality, making it the third reported H1N1-related casualty in the Bay Area, the World Health Organization upgraded the swine flu to pandemic status today. "The world is now at the start of the 2009 influenza pandemic," WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, MD, warned at a news conference, going on to say, "Countries should prepare to see cases, or the further spread of cases, in the near future. Countries where outbreaks appear to have peaked should prepare for a second wave of infection."
But don't fret; the virus isn't any stronger or more rampant than it was a few weeks ago. Until virgin sacrifices are called for, just be sure to keep those hands washed and coughing / sneezing mouths covered.
California confirmed 796 cases of the swine flu as of June 4. Oh, and The New York Times, by the way, has a decent article on pandemics.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
The lede of this post is terribly misleading. Casualty is implied between the WHO's actions and that poor mans death.
that's funny.
thank you, my dear asperger case.
wink.
Hence the Purell stands at BART, I guess. That was weird to see this morning.
Were they selling Purell or handing it out for free?
Free out of public-bathroom-type dispensers situated at the top of the escalators in the station. At least at Embarcadero.
I love Purell. Or I have a problem with it. I'm not sure which yet. I use it too much.
Thanks. I'll have to check that out. It's a good idea to have those out all the time actually.
Hopefully they are also making people aware that the Purell alone will do nothing to keep you from catching a virus.
There was signage behind the dispensers, but I didn't read it. One thing I'd bet money on that they don't mention is how overuse of these kill-all-bugs cleansers help breed stronger, more resistant ones.
I don't think there are too many bugs that can develop a resistance to ethyl alcohol. Non-alcohol antibiotics will do that though.
I suppose I'm confusing my hysteria points. It's possible.
It's not that ethyl alcohol does not kill everything on contact, on the contrary, it's that in the process it also kills the "good" bacteria that protect us. Hence, zero bacterium on the skin to be of any use - good or bad - increasing the chances of a more virulent strain of "bad" bacteria being allowed to propogate.
I get a giggle out of people who lather up in the Purell because they are only opening themselves up to increased chance of pandemic. Kind of like the geniuses who drop antibiotics every time they get a sniffle. It works great in the short term but when you really need it, it just won't work.
Go ask your local epidemiologist for confirmation and occasionally lick that big metal pole on MUNI just to introduce a few new bacteria into your arsenal of immunological weaponry. Test frequently.
Are there really good bacteria on your hands whose job is to fight the bad bacteria? I'm assuming people aren't bathing in Purell or drinking it, though that might not be a bad use for a public supply of the stuff.