One more thing to stress about...

[Tia]

Did anyone catch Oprah the last couple of days? For those who didn't, she talked to experts about the possibility of another terrorist attack and today's show was about the possibility of a flu pandemic.

Let me just say that the terrorism thing isn't nearly as scary as the flu pandemic. Basically what the expert said was that we're on our own. I didn't find that terribly comforting.

[homesteadmamma]

I watched it today and although it was stressful to watch I think to dwell on it only makes it worse. If it's going to happen, its going to happen. We need to be as prepared as we can be and then get on with living.

One thing they did mention is the economy and the affects this would have on it. I think if we want to do anything to help ourselves, we had better make sure we are financially sound (no debt if at all possible), along with a good stockpile.

[Englishlady]

Teena,

They have been banging on about this for months in the UK!

This "Bird Flu" has only ( so far) affected people who have had DIRECT contact with SICK birds.

Two teenage children recently died of it in Turkey so it is on the European mainland. However, this is unusual it has so far ( up till then) only affected Asia, China, Thailand, India etc.)

BUT, these children were picking up sick and dead birds, they were dirt poor peasants and their standards of cleanliness are not the norm.
( A UK reporter went to the area where these two children were from and they are not very educated and have little or no resources).

So far you can ONLY get it from handling a dead or sick bird!
At the moment it is not contagious.

The only people who have caught it have ALL handled dead and sick birds.

The problem will arise WHEN the virus mutates within a human and THEN passes by human to human contact, in the same way as regular flu.

These sort of things happen every 30- 40 years ( there was a very serious flu epidemic when I was a child and my Dad got sick, but he survived.)

They are working on a vaccine but UNTIL it has mutated into the human to human version, the stuff they are working on now, well it's probably their best educated guess.

When it's a "Slow news day" they will trot this out, just to keep everyone scared ( bad news "sells", good news doesn't! )

As cj said you just have to get on with your life, I would keep up with the stockpiling though, because when it comes ( and we might be talking a few years yet!) there will be a bit of mass hysteria and of course that goes hand in hand with "panic buying"

So just carry on being frugal and hope for the best but prepare your pantry for that possibility!

Hope that helps put it into perspective?

[Mamaw]

English Lady, very good points. I do think this is encouragement for us all to keep the stockpile in place, rotate it for freshness, pay off as much debt as possible and keep on putting one foot in front of the other