Do you think media headlines make people panic, or would you say we're more sensible than that?

For instance:

PETROL BLOCKADES - PUMPS MAY RUN DRY

- causes panic buying when in fact there was no shortage at all, uintil everyone went crazy.

and now

BIRD FLU PANDEMIC - 50000 WILL DIE! (Daily Hate-Mail)

PUBLIC ARE TOLD NOT TO PANIC! (Govt statement)

People are already visiting GPs, worried they might catch bird flu


Or might it be that we secretly enjoy a crisis and a bit of panic, to alleviate the boredom of our 9-5 existence)

I think its a bit of both.

Certainly, the sensational headlines are bound to cause some people to (over)react to certain issues. There is often an assumption that the media have inside knowledge not available to the public at large, so some people may think there is a genuine need to panic.

However, I'm sure there are people who like all the drama to liven up a humdrum existence.

Plus, there are those people who just like to feel "prepared". My own mother is like this. I can recall a news item from my childhood which suggested that there may be a nuclear attack/ a strike / a freak of nature or something which would mean people would have to stockpile food. I can't remember the specific news item, but I do remember that my mother went out and bought about 3 years worth of non perishable food and store it in our cellar!!!!! When her neighbour suggested that she should wait until the facts (rather than the speculation) were confirmed, my mother just said "Ah, she'll be knocking on our door soon enough for supplies when the food runs out. Then we'll see who was right and who was wrong". :laugh:

The thing about the bird flu is that nobody has caught it from another person, and the only people to have caught it from birds are those living in Asia in close proximity to the animals, eg keeping them in their houses.

At the moment the only pandemic is among chickens in asia, so there's a huge jump that would have to be made before a human version came about. That doesn't seem to stop the scare-mongering though.

remember the SARS panic, and how that all quietly fizzled out?

Plus, there are those people who just like to feel "prepared". My own mother is like this. I can recall a news item from my childhood which suggested that there may be a nuclear attack/ a strike / a freak of nature or something which would mean people would have to stockpile food. I can't remember the specific news item, but I do remember that my mother went out and bought about 3 years worth of non perishable food and store it in our cellar!!!!! When her neighbour suggested that she should wait until the facts (rather than the speculation) were confirmed, my mother just said "Ah, she'll be knocking on our door soon enough for supplies when the food runs out. Then we'll see who was right and who was wrong". :laugh:

My mums like this, she always stock piles ... just incase. In the winter she always buys about 4 cartons of long life milk, even though she hates the stuff - Just incase she gets snowed in !!!!

I think a few years ago there was a threat of heavy snow, which would make deliveries to supermarkets difficult - so there might not be much bread. She filled her freezer up with the stuff. Also, when the Branston Pickle factory burnt down this year - she managed to grab about 50 jars ... just incase she would have to go without for a while - but she hates pickle :huh:

Im the total opposite. I never have anything stock piled.

I think the papers do cause sensationalism. They had the doctor on GMTV this morning trying to put things into perspective about bird flu. He said that, if it did come here its more likely to appear next winter, and not this winter.

The thing about the bird flu is that nobody has caught it from another person

I thought it had - but only one victim so far ? Or is that something else

I think a few years ago there was a threat of heavy snow, which would make deliveries to supermarkets difficult - so there might not be much bread. She filled her freezer up with the stuff. Also, when the Branston Pickle factory burnt down this year - she managed to grab about 50 jars ... just incase she would have to go without for a while - but she hates pickle :huh:

A lot of people do that, the trouble is it causes even more shortages when people stockpile.

We tend to be that same as you, and don't bother about it. On the rare occasion when something is temporarily in short supply, well, what the heck, it's not as if it's something you can't live without.

I thought it had - but only one victim so far ?

If that's the case I've got it wrong. Do you remember where you saw that?

If that's the case I've got it wrong. Do you remember where you saw that?

I thought the doctor said it on GMTV this morning.

As one who has lived in the sticks in snowy Scotland where you are very likely to be marooned for a couple of weeks, I have always had well stocked cupboards and freezers from habit. I reckon I could, at any given time last at least 4 weeks without needing to shop....there may be some odd meals near the end, but I wouldn't starve.


This bird flu thing, I don't know about it to be honest. How many have died worldwide so far? 60(ish)? I just feel it's over caution. An 'I told you so' if it does happen - or an 'Our emegency procedures were in place and proved to have worked' if it doesn't. Either way, the government can't lose.

I just feel it's over caution. An 'I told you so' if it does happen - or an 'Our emegency procedures were in place and proved to have worked' if it doesn't. Either way, the government can't lose.

that's what I thought too - a chief medical officer saying that 50000 will die souds like an overreaction to me, and not a wise statement to make unless like you say someone wants to cover their ar5e.

actually, even if what he says is true, set against the deaths from normal flu it's not too terrible - last year around 10000 people in the UK died from that.

One thing about talk about preparing vaccine - it's a load of tosh. You can't prepare a vaccine for something thatdoesn't exist yet, and as far as I know the virus hasn't mutated into a form that can be transmitted form human to human (although I didn't see Bonsai's doctor on GMTV)*.

* There is a case where a girl infected with bird flu in Asia may have passed it on to her aunt, and another similar case. However this isn't causing a great deal of concern as it seems only to have passed to a relative living in close proximity to the infected person. The main problem would be if a person had bird flu and normal flu, and the virus mutated into a form that could be easily passed on, as withnormal flu. But that doesn't seem to have happened.

SF, it will take at least 8 months before there is a vaccine for this, and that is after it has already mutated, so we are probably looking at being 'ready' for this next winter?

I am disgusted to read that anyone other than those qualifying for a flu jab can buy one now for between £20 and £40. How come as a tourist paying privately in New Zealand last December I could have bought one for about £5? I think last year the flu jabs would have cost £10-12 here...........someone's definitely doing rip offs here!

There's a fine line between keeing the public informed and over sensationalising things.

This topic reminds me of Micheal Moores 'Farenhiet 9/11' when he examines the media hype during the run up to the declaration of war...way O.T.T. and Americans were made to feel completely unsafe in their own homes....likewise he puts alot of the blame on the medias shoulders in his documentary 'Bowling for Columbine'. He highlights the difference in media approaches between Canada and America and how dispite having the same (in fat I think Canada have more) amount of guns Canadians still feel happy about leaving their front doors unlocked and the number of shootings in their country isn't even a pimple on the face of Americas.

I know if I beleived everything the media said about stuff I would never leave the house.....generally I approach life with the 'You could get hit by a bus tomorrow so live now!' - if bird flu gets here so be it....people will die...maybe I will die...but at the end of the day it's currently thousands of miles away and unless a chicken hitches a lift with a cross continent lorry driver or manages to sneak through customs and board a plane I'd say we're pretty safe for the time being.

I feel the media need to back down...one example.....there are just as many peadophiles around today as there was years ago but due to the medias constant hype on the subject kids are no longer allowed to walk to school or go and build dens in the woods etc.

remember the SARS panic, and how that all quietly fizzled out?
To be fair, SARS was a huge deal in Taiwan (and I daresay other Asian countries too). The number that died in the end was relatively small, but the fear and the disruption to people's lives was very significant.

I guess it's only natural for media types to hype up their stories to gain attention and sell themselves. Just imagine how many papers you'd sell with headlines like:

PETROL BLOCKADES - PROBABLY WON'T AFFECT YOU THOUGH

BIRD FLU - LIKELY TO JUST FIZZLE OUT

IMMIGRANTS - NOT CAUSING ANY TROUBLE RIGHT NOW

HURRICANE KATRINA - "JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS"

GLOBAL WARMING - LIKE YOU WE DON'T HAVE A CLUE REALLY

CHARLOTTE CHURCH - WE RESPECT HER RIGHT TO PRIVACY

etc, etc

You have more of getting knocked down or killed in a car accident than you have of catching bird flu, I don't see anyone trying to ban cars.

Of course this is the classic case of scare-mongering and many of the GBP fall for it and start demdanding answers and queuing to be first in line at their local surgeries.

My mum & dad believe every story-line going, my dad still refuses to eat more than 2 or 3 eggs (or whatever the guide-line quota was) a week in case he ends up with some dreadful disease!

Life for today - that's my motto!


Edited - Just saw this:
CHARLOTTE CHURCH - WE RESPECT HER RIGHT TO PRIVACY[/I]

etc, etc

Lol Mikado! :laugh: :laugh:

Dead right - you won't catch me panicking.

**** FOR SALE *****

Budgie, completely flu free at the moment.

Only selling him because we can't give him the attention he needs.

WE ARE DEFINITELY NOT SELLING HIM BECAUSE WE ARE WORRIED ABOUT BIRD FLU.

I dunno...as regards birdflu i'd rather know about it.
(not that I can do anything about it...)
60 people dead already..and either one or 2 people in Romania have contacted it throught direct contact with poultry.They were destroying them.I certainly WILL be reading all i can about it, but not in tabloids.
I am not panicking or living in fear of it or anything like that, but I just want to know about it......

Its Fact !!!!




http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/7064/birdflu3bm.jpg

I can't quite fathom the statistics Slipper - it looks like the world population is going down as the intake of LemSip is going up - does that mean that LemSip is more dangerous than bird flu?

"Britain is one of the best prepared countries to deal with a human pandemic of bird flu should one occur, the health secretary has told MPs.


Patricia Hewitt was confident enough was being done and stressed the disease was "no direct threat" to humans yet.

Patricia Hewitt told the House of Commons on Monday Britain was doing all it should be to prepare for any future outbreak.

Mrs Hewitt told the Commons: "I'm satisfied that we are making exactly the preparations that we need."

The UK has so far stockpiled 2.5m doses of anti-viral drugs.

Ms Hewitt said the government was also procuring two to three million doses of vaccine against H5N1 as "a precautionary measure".

Although this probably would not protect against a mutant strain that is able to spread easily between humans, it could be used in research and be given to priority groups, such as health service workers, until experts are able to make a more exact vaccine.

Conservative Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said France and Australia had already tended for the supply of a national stockpile of disposable gloves and masks to use to limit the spread of infection should an outbreak occur.

He recommended the UK do the same"


right - so basically we have a vaccine that won't protect agaist a human version of the disease, and we might get some rubber gloves. And that's 'one of the best prepared countries' for you!

LOL@SF It's good here innit! :bag:

Patricia Hewitt said that?

...We're dooommed...

Do you think media headlines make people panic, or would you say we're more sensible than that?

For instance:

PETROL BLOCKADES - PUMPS MAY RUN DRY

- causes panic buying when in fact there was no shortage at all, uintil everyone went crazy.

and now

BIRD FLU PANDEMIC - 50000 WILL DIE! (Daily Hate-Mail)

PUBLIC ARE TOLD NOT TO PANIC! (Govt statement)

People are already visiting GPs, worried they might catch bird flu


Or might it be that we secretly enjoy a crisis and a bit of panic, to alleviate the boredom of our 9-5 existence)

Hello ilovesurvivor

Whatever press you read, it is all doctored. By that i mean you only get to read what the press wants you to read. Often the press create sufficient media frenzy a debate exists which actually raises the issue of creating the news to sell newspapers.

Maureen
Northern angel

Hello ilovesurvivor


:unsure: Im sure that quote was from SF ...

They are still going on about this in every newspaper and news channel. By the time it finally reaches here, we with be bored sh*tless with it - and noone will care if they live or die.

:unsure: Im sure that quote was from SF ....

It was but you have to admit it's easy to confuse me with ILS.

Dont' panic everyone....
According to the experts...bird flu is totally 'tweetable'!!!

Dont' panic everyone....
According to the experts...bird flu is totally 'tweetable'!!!

I wouldn't count your chickens if I were you.

Ahhh...I thought it was 'eggcellent!'
Hope I did'nt ruffle anyones feathers...


(i'll stop now...)

I see the Daily Mail is still getting the blame for saying anything that the left might find uncomfortable.

And the uncomfortable facts are that this lazy, head in the clouds government, which is quite prepared to spend millions - perhaps billions - on a war with Iraq waited until this march - yes this march - before it placed an order for Tamiflu, the anti viral drugs which wil be the one and only initial defence (well, that and Relenza) against the symptoms of any mutant strain of bird flu.

This means there will only be enough for about a quarter of the population if bird flu waits until next Autumn (ie 2006) to mutate. If it hits us this winter, there will be just enough doses to administer to "front line staff" ie health workers, politicians, councillors, MPs etc.

Compare this to Canada, which already has 23 million doses stockpiled....to France..which has enough to treat most of its population. To the rest of the developed world really...who are all more prepared and have more antivirals stockpiled.

Why has our wonderful Government been so lax? Surprising, really, when many, many experts have been warning since 1997 - yes 1997 - that Governments should start to prepare for a pandemic. It is long overdue, and despite the cheery outlook of those who think life always carries on and we should all remain on-message and cheerful, the gloomy facts speak for themselves.

Now, a few quickies for you.

The H5N1 strain of avian flu is remarkably similar to that which caused the 1918 pandemic. This has faded from public memory now but it literally devastated an entire generation - causing at least 40 million deaths - and probably more - world wide. That's more deaths than bubonic plague, more deaths than the great war, in fact, more deaths than any disaster in living memory.

The virus was particularly aggressive, first hitting the young and old, then changing course and attacking perfectly healthy 20 - 40 year olds with devastating effect. As one health specialist put it: "You felt ill in the morning, went to bed at lunchtime, and were dead by evening."

Now, the current avian flu which is hitting birds can infect humans, but you almost have to live with the birds, cover yourself in their feathers, and drink their blood to get it.

However, what experts are really pooing themselves about is that if the avian flu virus combines with a human flu virus and swaps some genetic material, it will effectively learn to "unlock" human cells, and gain the ability to not only infect us easily, but also - and more frightening - to jump from human to human with the ease of a sneeze.

That is when we should really start our ring pieces a-twitching.

And as even the usually cautious Chief Medical Officer said: It's not a case of if......it's a case of when.

Of course mutations can be positive as well as negative and if it does mutate to a form of flu transferable from human to human it might also be weaker....you hope....

Sleep well.

Well, I'm still OK :thumbsup:

Me too but keep checking the Daily Mail for updates.

Well, I'm still OK :thumbsup:

Well you'd only be effected by the 'Old bird flu' strain of the virus anyway Fee! :laugh:

im still more worried about contracting MRSA than bird flu......and there is probably more chance of it!

I'm still amazed I wasn't struck down with Mad Cows disease...oh 'ang on a minute...:blink: MOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! :ohmy:

The truth about bird flu (http://www.thetruthaboutbirdflu.com/)