Submitted by YOUR NEW REALITY

Britain pandemic response planners are expecting a death toll of about 60,000 deaths from swine flu and a nationwide infection rate of about 30%. Before the virus further mutates further, that is, as it swaps genes with other influenza viruses it comes into contact with :

About 55,000 people reported flu symptoms last week. The number of patients in hospital with swine flu has doubled to 652, of whom 53 are in intensive care.

The surge prompted officials to announce the launch next week of the National Pandemic Flu Service….

Children under 14 are being hit hardest and the NHS was told to plan for a worst-case scenario of up to half of all children being infected during a first pandemic wave.

There may be three or four or more pandemic waves.

…up to 12 per cent of the workforce (may) be off sick.

Some years there can be as many as 20,000 extra deaths in the winter that are linked with influenza.

To try and lower the number of ’scared sick’ people who show up at hospitals and the local doctor’s office, The National Pandemic Service will see people being encouraged to fill in internet questionnaires instead. If your symptoms list match the most common swine flu symptoms, you can get a friend to go and pick up anti-virals on your behalf.

That’s a surprise to me. The plans made by the British government back in 2006, when the pandemic they were planning for was swine flu, discussed free phone lines where you could call and check your symptoms with a nurse, or hastily trained medical aide.

The government is clearly expecting a far greater number of people trying to contact medical authorities than they planned for previously. Hundreds of thousands of sick people dispatching friends and relatives to pick up anti-virals, from an already dwindling supply, has the potential for great chaos. If you were worried, and wanted anti-virals to ease your mind about your and your family’s safety, why wouldn’t you complete the internet questionnaire listing all the worst symptoms of having just become infected with swine flu?

Not having a steady supply of nurses or medical aides to answer phones from those who either don’t have internet access, or who have lost internet access during expected black outs, will do little to calm the worried.

Is it really that hard to have a call centre so sick people can speak to an actual living person?

Insight into that question might be found in this excerpt from a London Times story of October, 1918, when the Spanish Flu began ravaging England :

And how many of these British MPs, about to start an 82 day long break from the capital, will be taking extended holidays outside of the UK? Say, for a couple of months?

The more of them that leave, or flee, taking their whole families with them, the more serious you know the swine flu pandemic has become.

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