The Panic Continues

[Todd]

I swear .. if I was a terrorist in the Middle East, or one of their supporters, I would be laughing my ass off at the antics of Americans right now. Mashed potatoes, confetti, crumbled sheetrock, coffee creamer, sand, sugar, talcum powder, chocolate ---- you name it and some scared-mindless American has called it in as anthrax.

Montgomery County, Maryland. Rescue workers called when someone finds a few granules of Sweet ‘n Low on the hood of their car.
A team rushes to the Department of Agriculture in DC --- anthrax in the bathroom! Turns out to be particles of drywall.
Charlottesville, Virginia. Pink dust on the steps to Madison Hall at the University of Virginia. Chalk dust.
Baltimore Harbor tunnel --- closed in both directions yesterday for more than an hour. A motorist reports white power on the roadway. Turns out to be salt.
Hell, the terrorists don’t HAVE to launch any more attacks against Americans … we’re crippled by our own fear. Post offices are closing down; radio studios are being evacuated; passengers are being stranded on airliners sitting for hours on the tarmac.

Tom Brokaw solemnly declares “I may have been exposed.” Well, big deal, Tom. Thousands of workers who sort sheep’s wool for a living are exposed every day of their working lives --- and for a lot less money than you make. Let’s alert the media.

Caution? Sure. But this has gone way beyond caution. We’re on the verge of a full scale panic of such a scale that a man with a particularly bad case of dandruff might be mistaken for a terrorist and assaulted on the streets.

 

[Todd]

LOOK – ONLY ONE PERSON HAS DIED. COMPARE THAT TO 400,000

I want to know --- both of those positive anthrax cases in Boca Raton --- were both of those guys smokers? Word is that smokers are more likely to get anthrax from inhalation than are smokers. And that is as it should be. You spend your life engaged in a conscious and willful attempt to destroy your lungs … and you end up more susceptible to anthrax. Go figure.

Now that we’ve brought up smoking …. Could someone please tell me why all of America is so overwrought about 12 people who have tested positive for exposure to anthrax? OK – so someone out there is sending little envelopes full of anthrax to various people. You’re right, they ought to be caught and charged with murder. But while we gnash our teeth over this unknown person or persons mailing out this anthrax powder, we completely ignore, and in some case celebrate, a few huge corporations who are filling the shelves of the nation’s convenience stores with a deadly drug that is going to kill more people this year than died in the Vietnam war. So – one person has died of anthrax? How about 400,000 dying from nicotine.. from cigarettes!

You’re right. The people sending out the anthrax know that they are going to harm people. Well, so do the people selling the cigarettes.

OK --- you want to tell me that anthrax is target randomly while cigarettes only wipe out those who chose to smoke them? Fine, then I’ll ask you about second hand smoke.

All I’m trying to do is put some things into perspective and maybe raise an eyebrow or two. There seems to be something a bit odd about some cigarette smoker somewhere worrying about exposure to anthrax. Goes with the territory, I guess.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

You're applying peace-time complaceny to war-time wariness. Do you really need this explained to you?

 

[Calamity Jane]

Tom Brokaw solemnly declares “I may have been exposed.” Well, big deal, Tom. Thousands of workers who sort sheep’s wool for a living are exposed every day of their working lives --- and for a lot less money than you make. Let’s alert the media.

Just a small, insignificant point here... those 'workers' have probably received the anthrax vaccine since they're in a high risk group. just like vets and butchers.

And the smoking point in the other post is just stupid. People CHOOSE to smoke. How is that the corporation's fault? People don't CHOOSE to get anthrax.

 

[SexyChele]

Re: LOOK – ONLY ONE PERSON HAS DIED. COMPARE THAT TO 400,000

I want to know --- both of those positive anthrax cases in Boca Raton --- were both of those guys smokers? Word is that smokers are more likely to get anthrax from inhalation than are smokers. And that is as it should be. You spend your life engaged in a conscious and willful attempt to destroy your lungs … and you end up more susceptible to anthrax. Go figure.

So....what you are saying is - if you smoke, you deserve to be infected by the Anthrax bacteria?

Stupid, just plain stupid.

I'm glad I quit years ago, maybe I'll be "protected" now.

NOT!

 

[OUTSIDER]

Now come on Todd stop trying to out asshole KR1, you'll never do it

 

[BlondeBeauty]

Better to be safe than sorry in my book.

 

[Guest]

Outsider, you certainly like to mention KR1 a lot.

Hmmm, is he a homoerotic fantasy for you?

And Todd is right, it's exactly what the terrorists had in mind - panic.

 

[OUTSIDER]

Outsider, you certainly like to mention KR1 a lot.

Hmmm, is he a homoerotic fantasy for you?

And Todd is right, it's exactly what the terrorists had in mind - panic.

LMAO, another gutless wonder to afraid to post under their own name.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

And Todd is right, it's exactly what the terrorists had in mind - panic.

Again--it's war. We're wary. It's a wary war. Who cares "what the terrotists want"? Are we trying to win a war, or a pissing match? Talk to me in two years when Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq look like the surface of the moon, then you can tell me how much the terorists are winning.

 

[Myrrdin]

When the sex an' drugs an rock an' roll boys start to worry then.......

Rockers Anthrax consider name change

Rock band Anthrax are thinking of changing their name.

They are worried about the threat of a biological terrorist attack in the US.

Vocalist Scott Ian says the band's name has become completely inappropriate.

He told The Sun: "It's as though it's 1937 and I'm a bandleader called Freddie Hitler. Maybe we should change the name now.


Ian has stocked up on Cipro, an antibiotic used in America as an antidote to anthrax.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_421541.html?menu=news.quirkies.showbizquirkies

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

I'm with Todd on this one

We are overreacting - badly.

Yes I know we need to be wary and careful, but we could also use some common sense (whatever that is). Not every powder/dust we see is a terrorist attack and people need to stop panicking so badly. We are running around like chickens with our heads cutoff. If the terrorists weren't busy dodging bombs and bullets right now they would be laughing their asses off.

The media is not helping any with their tendency towards sensationalizing everything. We are not even sure the Anthrax scare is truly an attack. We are letting it paralyze us in fear on the one hand, letting it panic us into ridiculous reactions on the other. Our emergency personnel are getting worn out reacting to false alarms.

Are we being careful? No. Panicking? Yes.

We have gone from being complacent to the other end of the spectrum of being afraid of our own shadows - in an almost literal sense.

 

[Gilly Bean]

Yes, people are over-reacting. But come on.. people of all sorts over-react in situations that are far less threatening then this one.

Now, one thing I notice, Todd, is that these are all about the American's who are panicing.

Let me post a few of my own, that deal with Canadians doing the very same thing.

Parts of Canada's Parliament were sealed off on Monday after two separate incidents in which women reported rashes after handling a magazine and an envelope. Authorities said anthrax was not suspected.

In Toronto, a post office, a fire station and a local newspaper were evacuated on Monday while a police officer was put in quarantine after Canada Post reported finding a suspicious white powder among commercial brochures.


Now, I know you are enjoying pointing out to us American's just how badly we are over-reacting, but so what. We are apparently not the only ones.

 

[Todd]

Parts of Canada's Parliament were sealed off on Monday after two separate incidents in which women reported rashes after handling a magazine and an envelope. Authorities said anthrax was not suspected.

In Toronto, a post office, a fire station and a local newspaper were evacuated on Monday while a police officer was put in quarantine after Canada Post reported finding a suspicious white powder among commercial brochures.

Now, I know you are enjoying pointing out to us American's just how badly we are over-reacting, but so what. We are apparently not the only ones.

I believe I pointed out the parliment building one yesterdayd, they did it again today, twice actually two different parts

The post office was just our postal workers looking for yet another excuse to not work

People need the real anthrax education both sides of the border not the leftist propaganda education that we are getting now.

Thank goodness there are some small radio stations in canada starting to properly educate on anthrax.

You don't get a rash from just touching it, although leftist propaganda says otherwise.

You don't die from just looking at it, although leftist propaganda says otherwise.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

The book of stupidest things ever said by you is just getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger...

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

You don't get a rash from just touching it, although leftist propaganda says otherwise.

You don't die from just looking at it, although leftist propaganda says otherwise.

Umm Todd, is everything that is wrong "leftist" and "propaganda"? Come on, it is not all a leftist plot - there are just a lot of freaked out people out there right and left (clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you ), and the nature of the news media is to sensationalize everything. Biased or not, that is how they make ratings and money.

 

[nasty]

I'm starting to wonder about you, Todd. Do we need to panic SO MUCH??????? NO!!!!!!!!!! Should we be wary? HELL YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOW!!!!!!!! RIGHT HERE!!!!!!!!!!! You talk of Anthrax. Why should people be worried of that, however. It's all propaganda. Or, so you said. I'm beginning to think you have a death wish.

 

[Oliver Clozoff]

Is this the same Todd...

who refers to the pharmaceutical industry as the "pharma-cartel", a shadowy conspiracy attempting to exploit us by marketing dangerous drugs that don't work and will actually harm us?

So we should be worried about legally prescribed drugs but we shouldn't be worried about anthrax?

My knee-jerk reaction is that we're overreacting to the threat too, but there have been several legit reported cases of anthrax in the mail along with many hoaxes. Cranks and misanthropes are obviously exploiting the fear to play practical jokes and spread fear. Still, you have to apply sort of a Pascal's wager to the situation: treating every potential bio-attack as a bioattack yields lots of false alarms and hassling people unnecessarily, but the alternative is disregarding potential health threats with the potential cost of lives lost.

I know what I would want to happen if I'd been potentially exposed.

 

[Todd]

Umm Todd, is everything that is wrong "leftist" and "propaganda"? Come on, it is not all a leftist plot - there are just a lot of freaked out people out there right and left (clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you ), and the nature of the news media is to sensationalize everything. Biased or not, that is how they make ratings and money.

Your right Shy Tall Guy, there are people on the left and right that are freaked out about this. It seems they have the loudest mouth peices.

I should expect the media to sensationalize everything.

But to be truthful they should somewhere being giving a better education on it, and informing of of much more deadly biohazards like Small Pox.

It just seems the media loves to take the smallest risk and blow it out of proportion and take the largest risk and minisculize it.

Powder form Anthrax you can sit it in a room with you wide open all day and not get Anthrax contamination from it. small pox your contaminated within the hour.

We know they have small pox we know they have Anthrax. they have us focusing all efforts on Anthrax. Hardly any labs are working on the smallpox solutions.

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

But to be truthful they should somewhere being giving a better education on it, and informing of of much more deadly biohazards like Small Pox.

"They"?

Hmm... my philosophy is that education is each person's in-duh-vidual responsibility - but then I guess that might be too much to expect of people who are always saying "why don't they do something?"

 

[Todd]

"They"?

Hmm... my philosophy is that education is each person's in-duh-vidual responsibility - but then I guess that might be too much to expect of people who are always saying "why don't they do something?"

I try to educate my self about stuff like this at times like theese, but how much of the general population does? how many cares? how many would rather be told what to believe? how many would rather panic? those numbers are who the "they " cater to

 

[Gilly Bean]

Q: In what form does anthrax come?

A: In nature, it's found in spores in soil around the world. In order to be used as a weapon, it would most likely be sprayed in the form of a fine liquid mist. It can also be dried and mixed with powder, but would not cause illness unless the powder were sniffed or inhaled. In the laboratory, scientists grow the anthrax-causing bacteria, Bacillus anthracis, in a liquid. "There are various recipes but it's essentially a beef broth with a couple of other nutrients," says microbiologist Ronald Atlas of the University of Louisville.

Q: How can people be infected with anthrax?

A: Three ways, and all can be fatal. By eating undercooked meat from infected animals, you can get a gastrointestinal form of anthrax. It's very rare, at least in the United States, and it is almost always fatal. Contact through scrapes or cuts with spores that may cling to animal hides or wool can cause cutaneous, or skin anthrax, which produces lesions and swelling. It's usually easily detected and successfully treated with antibiotics, but if untreated proves fatal in about 20% of cases. Inhaled anthrax, the most likely form for use in bioterrorism, is fatal in 80%-90% of cases unless treatment begins before the first symptoms occur.

Q: How can you tell if someone has inhaled anthrax?

A: Symptoms can begin as long as 60 days after exposure, but usually appear within 7-10 days. They include fever, malaise, fatigue and sometimes a dry cough. Then, there's often a period of improvement that lasts from a few hours to two or three days. That's followed by a crash — trouble breathing, sweating, bluish discoloration of the skin. The patient usually goes into shock and dies 24-36 hours after the severe symptoms begin.

Q: Can anthrax be sent through the mail?

A: Yes. Anthrax spores could survive in powder, which could be put in an envelope and mailed, says microbiologist Atlas. "It might not be the most efficient way of doing things, but it could be done," he says. "If it was on particles, like a talcum powder, and you opened it and whiffed in some," it could cause disease, he says. But the mixture would have to be inhaled to cause harm, he says. "It would not do it while sitting in the envelope."

Q: How else could it be disseminated?

A: By air. The Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies says that, given the right weather and wind conditions, about 110 pounds of anthrax released from an aircraft could spread nearly 12 miles downwind. The cloud would be colorless, odorless and invisible. There currently are no warning systems to detect an aerosol cloud of anthrax spores — the attack would most likely not be discovered until patients showed up in hospitals.

Q: Why aren't the two anthrax-exposed, co-workers of the man who died getting sick?

A: Because their exposure was very slight. "It takes a certain dose," to kill, says veterinary specialist Will Hueston of the University of Minnesota. "One spore or a small exposure is not enough to cause disease." Some studies estimate the number at between 2,500 to 55,000 spores, he says. "You're talking about a pretty good exposure."

Q: Is anthrax contagious?

A: No, anthrax is not passed through the air from person to person or from animal to person.

Q: What antibiotics work against anthrax?

A: Most natural strains of anthrax are sensitive to penicillin. But because it might be possible to create a genetically engineered form of anthrax that resists penicillin, doctors usually treat patients potentially exposed to anthrax with either doxycycline or ciprofloxacin.

Q: Why can't we get vaccinated against anthrax?

A: The only company in the USA licensed to make anthrax vaccine, BioPort Corp. of Lansing, Mich., has not yet received Food and Drug Administration clearance for its renovated manufacturing facility, reportedly because of problems relating to packaging standards. Even when it does receive approval, the stock is only going to be available to the military.

Q: How do you test ventilation systems for anthrax?

A: Swabs taken from humans, animals or from surfaces — keyboards, ventilation systems, telephones — can be tested by several methods. They can be placed in petri dishes and the bacteria allowed to grow into identifiable colonies, or pieces of DNA can be cloned through a high-tech technique called polymerase chain reaction. Blanck says the military also has "surveillance devices that can be used in high-threat areas" that can within "a couple of hours" identify biological agents. Samples are added to antibodies that are specific to the organism, showing clearly whether it is present or not.



Now, I found this easily, as can anyone who has a computer. Incidently, this version was found at USA Today, the newspaper. No, since i am not completly 'up' on my political 'propeganda'. Would they be right or left?



Todd, not everything out there is a conspiracy, not everyone has the same level of comfort in the world, and not everyone is as informed as others. This is not because of mass propeganda. It is because people as a whole are dumb panicy animals. Someone says they see something. The next person see's it as well, and spreads the tale. Soon, you have 1500 people who have seen it, felt it, and just know it's the end of the world. What was it they saw? An acorn falling from a tree. It's a book. It describes human nature fabulously. Is it centered mainly around the US and it's politicians? No. It can be found in any country, any religion, any age, any sex, any government.

You keep grouping the US into being alone on this, but if it happened in the UK, we would be hearing the same stories. Same with China, Africa, Russia, Canada. Sorry, but the way you are spouting off on this, the less informed and educated you sound. Maybe you too should do some reading up on the matter.

 

[Guest]

You're an idiot, Todd. Stick your nose back in your Bible, start jacking off to internet porn again, and leave logic to those with half a brain on this board.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

LOL

Unregistered -- don't be on my side, okay?

 

[Nogard]

You said we know "THEY" have anthrax and we know "THEY have small pox. Maybe anthrax, but where in the hell did "THEY" get small pox. There are only two(2) know sourses in the world for the small pox virus, the Soviet Union and the United States, which one of us do you think gave/sold it to them? You need some prozac or whatever that shit is to calm you down. Beer works too