Indonesia: Tin Foil hat Time?

I posted this on my blog yesterday in response to a fellow flubie who wanted to know if this was "IT." I felt that his question deserved a whole post, as there are people who are wondering that same thing.

(cottontop puts her tin foil hat on, takes a drink of her favorite beverage, and sights)

So we all want to know what is going on in Indonesia. I’ve had a fellow flubie ask me in his comment if I think this is “IT?”

The first thing I want to say to everyone is stay calm. We have too. I know it isn’t easy to do that. If you want to make a prep run in order to settle yourself down, than by all means do so. Sometimes that helps me.

O.K. we first need to know what little facts we have here:

1. a nurse tipped off a reporter.

2. chickens die

3. pidgeons die

4. three people die

5. 13 people are admitted to hospital

6. 2 of the13 are transfered to another hospital (the critical cases)

7. villagers start to flee, getting their children to a safe place

8. Air Batu villagers, Kecamatan Air Batu Kabupaten Asahan fled because they were worried they world be attacked by the bird flu, it they worried it was spreading in the village.

9. Two weeks before three residents in the village died from serious fever.

10. Gradually even more of the villagers were sick.

This is a description of a gradually spreading illness, one which has caused death already so the people are fleeing. The only surprising thing is that the child in critical condition has apparently been ill for one week.

11. Not all the villagers had contact with the poultry.

So this is where we’re at. Something is unfolding there, I don’t think this is “IT” at the present moment. It certainly makes things that more interesting being the Olympics start Friday. This situation is so serious that villagers are fleeing in fear. Now this is unusual in a village where chickens have died, at least that we know of. I believe it’s happened once or twice before since I’ve starting tracking this virus going on two years. We have seen this before.

I’m being very cautious. This is the largest possible cluster of H5N1 yet. Perhaps, just perhaps, we’ll get the results of these tests after the pandemic!

This might be overwhelming for some of you, especially if your new to tracking this virus. There is going to be many emotional rollercoasters that you’ll going to be on. Heaven knows I’ve been there to many times. This is a very tense news development, and we must not get carried away. I’m willing to bet that we will not here much after today. I hope I’m wrong. If you are feeling “carried away” by this news, take a break and spend sometime with your family, go for a walk, make a prep run, read a book, whatever it is that you do to relax. You don’t want to burnout. We can’t do anything about this, even if it is “IT.” We can only lay in our preps, and watch. That’s it. So don’t get too worked up about this at the moment.

One last thought here: this is a good time to review your preps, your SIP plan if you have one, if you don’t you should think about one. Doing something constructive like this always helps my anxiety. I suddenly don’t feel so helpless, when I’ve done some pandemic planning. Hang in there!

For updates concerning this situation, please go to the Pandemic Flu Central Blog:
http://cottontopssandbox.wordpress.com/