Medclinician - to my friends at AFT

Having left a few messages to the moderators which for some reason are not getting through, I am posting this here.  You can relocate it wherever you think is best.

I will be starting a few new threads as well as commenting on some old ones, but after maybe - ten years here - or close to it - world events and the whole area of disease reporting and response is at an all time low.

Personally, I lost my fiance Rainy - to Flu on January 28th 2018 and nearly died from it myself shortly after as the virus apparently spread to my heart which failed.

I have been in and out of ICU 4 times - had heart procedures and a pulse of 30 and several times I was told I had days left and not much more.

Like Arnold (I'll be back and then I'm back) I'm back and who knows how long I have.

Thank you all for what has been an amazing adventure - Albert you especially and others here - as we tracked diseases, the Pandemic, Ebola and so many others in the world. This is the best site I have found ever despite many attempts by others to imitate it.

This flu season we have a mutated virus and in reality perhaps a 10% effectiveness from a vaccine which was created with eggs that literally caused it to mutate again after it left Australia. It continues to mutate and the reports of flu from CDC are less than accurate or meaningful. No deaths of adults - no effective reporting of flu especially in people over 65 and a medical system that could not handle any severe virus of the flu effectively.

It is less prepared than ever and the few working anti-virals are stockpiled for the military and .gov where the average person will never get them.

We have seen a government change of massive impact.  We had little or no response to an effective threat of Ebola here in the U.S. and there were cases.  Things continue to mutate in China and yes - the U.S. Russia and North Korea are genetically engineering super-viruses which could be used as biological weapons. It is that simple.  They justify this with well - if they have it we must have it. The bottom line is the security at are top level labs is bad and any one of these bad guys once out will start a real Pandemic - The Stand.

So - what to do?  Curse the darkness?  No - better to light a single candle and that would be my friends - Prepare.

I know people who are digging holes and putting box cars in them for shelter and stocking food and buying weapons and ammo because it will be - a mess.

I know that people in high places say the fear of an outbreak can be more damaging than the outbreak so even if they know - it will be a month or more before we are told.

My dad died on December 26, 1999. He didn't want to continue in a world that was coming. I know that. He said "Son, this will be my last Christmas". It was.

So - I don't like much of what the world has become.  Yet we Americans are starting to find our way back and respect of other nations for the first time in decades. Maybe the gremlins which have hounded me for so long have lost their funding. I hope so.

The best 2018 to you all.  And for now - I'm back.

Medclinician

Thanks for the updates, Med!  I've always enjoyed your honesty and banter, even on the few times when we didn't agree.  

Technophobe wrote: I can add another couple of risks to that list. Yellowstone is overdue and Etna/Vesuvius are awake.  Both yours and ours are supervolcanoes whose erruption will alter the climate drastically. And my biggest fear - something from left field we just don't see coming. Be safe friends,  Nice to have you back to argue with, Med.

Nice to be posting again. Yes, the ring of fire is long overdue and just yesterday they said we are on a time bomb for an earthquake on the San Andreas fault.  Time to get back on the net and start monitoring what is happening - and I said it first - the  real news.

Medclinician