US population

F

foxxtrot

Joined
Aug 21, 2006
Messages
91
The higher it gets, it makes me worry of pandemic type virus, plague type scenario. Anyone else?

http://www.censusscope.org/us/chart_popl.html


1870 38,558,371
1890 62,979,766
1900 76,212,168
1910 92,228,496
1920 106,021,537
1930 123,202,624
1940 132,164,569
1950 151,325,798
1960 179,323,175
1970 203,211,926
1980 226,545,805
1990 248,709,873
2000 281,421,906
2007 301,139,947
2010 309,162,581
2020 336,031,546
2030 363,811,435
2040 392,172,658
2050 420,080,580
 
The authorities keep bringing up the Flu epidemic of 1918. With a little critical thinking skills one should realize this was before antibiotics and modern medical care. If the same flu appeared today the death toll would not be any more than the usual yearly rate. I have seen Swine Flu, SARS, Avian Flu, and many other media hyped diseases of the day never materialize. Don't worry.
 
A more likely situation would be because of population growth causing lack of resources for majority of people. People can't afford to go to hospital etc.. and diseases like resistant strain of TB spreads like wild fire. With international travel virus such as ebola virus coming into the country probably would only kill off people living in the cities though. If I was a terrorist that would be my weapon of choice, it spreads quickly causing u.s. military to shut down entire entire cities till everyone dies .
 
Just because someone can't afford a hospital visit doesn't mean that they don't go. If there were a serious outbreak, I can guarantee that those without health insurance would receive some sort of treatment soon after the CDC found out about the outbreak.
 
storl said:
Just because someone can't afford a hospital visit doesn't mean that they don't go. If there were a serious outbreak, I can guarantee that those without health insurance would receive some sort of treatment soon after the CDC found out about the outbreak.
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That's right.

Current doctrine (for emergency care) already seems to be 'treat now, handle payment later'. Arguably, that's part of the reason why medical costs are so high- because even after payment plans are put together and judgements are obtained many people can't and don't pay- thus the hospital has to bill other folks more to make up. As long as everything didn't collapse nationally, there would still be (likely) plastic payment options. If folks didn't squander plastic on non-necessary junk- it would be available for real emergancies. Going into debt isn't optimal, but it is better than being dead. I also have to tyhink that if the situationwas bad enough to warrant a CDC or FEMA or (other alphabet soup) response, the likliehood is that there would be a lot of fedral dolars floating around and the emphasis would be on handling the situation- not can these folks pay? In fact, if the government did limit treatment because of means pandemic situation, it would be even more disasterous.
 
Flu = virus. Antibiotics do nothing for the flu. The Spanish Flu was odd because most of its victims were young healthy people and they died quickly when they got it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu

Scientists have used tissue samples from frozen victims to reproduce the virus for study. Given the strain's extreme virulence there has been controversy regarding the wisdom of such research. Among the conclusions of this research is that the virus kills via a cytokine storm, which explains its unusually severe nature and the unusual age profile of its victims (the virus caused an overreaction of the body's immune system—the strong immune systems of young adults ravaged the body, while the weaker immune systems of children and middle-aged adults caused fewer deaths).
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I don't worry about it.

The Washington Post reported that beer is a health food and I take some periodically as a health precaution.

Additionally the Koreans have reported that sauerkraut cures Bird Flu and I normally spread some 'kraut and mustard on my hotdogs.

Someplace on the www. I saw a report dealing with federal plans for a pandemic. Pretty boring reading.
 
Statistically you're far more at risk of dying from regular flu.

Didja get a flu shot recently?​
You're far more at risk of dying in a high-speed car crash.

Do you drive at at or below the limit?​
Far more at risk of dying in a home fire.

Change the batteries in your smoke detector last weekend?​
It's sometimes tough, but you gotta focus on the immediate threats first.
 
I don't worry about it, but then I live in the middle of nowhere. :D

zman308 said:
The authorities keep bringing up the Flu epidemic of 1918. With a little critical thinking skills one should realize this was before antibiotics and modern medical care. If the same flu appeared today the death toll would not be any more than the usual yearly rate. I have seen Swine Flu, SARS, Avian Flu, and many other media hyped diseases of the day never materialize. Don't worry.
Click to expand...

There were a number of reasons the epidemic of 1918 was as widespread as it was. Not to turn this political, but one big reason was that because of the Sedation Act newspapers were reluctant to print stories that might cause panic so the public was less informed about the problem than they could have been. Obviously that would be a lot different today.
 
I think that over population is a big issue, many problems come from it: over fishing, deforestation, pollution and water, energy, land and food shortages. I think it is something to worry about.

(We have a comfy 3 square km per person up here though) :D
 
i worry about it a lot, i think most people both underestimate it and don't understand it. education and a plan are key....and geographic isolation.
 
the world is overpopulated, PERIOD. There seems to be (at least in the Western World) this need to spawn more mouths to feed. Everyone has baby rabies.

STOP BREEDING!

rant off.
 
If there was an outbreak of bird flu in the U.S. why would anybody in their right mind go to a hospital? All of the masses will be waiting in line unknowingly sharing their germs with each other and the hospital staff. I worked as a nurse in hospitals long enough to know it is a great place to catch whatever new illness is out there. The one that will depopulate the earth will come as a complete surprise and the authorities as usual will be dumbfounded about how to deal with it. As long as rural Asians live in close proximity to their ducks and pigs there will be new, even deadlier flu viruses to challenge the immune systems of humanity.
 
storl said:
Just because someone can't afford a hospital visit doesn't mean that they don't go. If there were a serious outbreak, I can guarantee that those without health insurance would receive some sort of treatment soon after the CDC found out about the outbreak.
Click to expand...

People who don't have insurance or tend to be less educated tend to wait and pro long things till the disease is in later stages. Disease like TB, can go undetected for sometime at which point you are a carrier. TB treatment can take up to a year, many people will stop taking their medication once they start to feel better, so the cycle starts all over again. In a massive outbreak. How many hospitals do you think can handle that sort of emergency. There a huge shortage of nurses, which are the front line soldiers in a hospital, there no way to treat everyone. Lets say New York gets ebola virus first few days 10 people get sick but the virus is growing exponentially. These 10 people each come in contact with 10 more.. and so on... in a weeks time you may get into the 10 of thousands.. in a month time who knows.. In Spanish influenza it killed something like 50 million people. Lets say that the common rhinovirus aka common cold proved to be deadly or HIV was airborne . At some point you run out of space and resources to handle everyone.
 
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sawyersam said:
If there was an outbreak of bird flu in the U.S. why would anybody in their right mind go to a hospital? All of the masses will be waiting in line unknowingly sharing their germs with each other and the hospital staff. I worked as a nurse in hospitals long enough to know it is a great place to catch whatever new illness is out there. The one that will depopulate the earth will come as a complete surprise and the authorities as usual will be dumbfounded about how to deal with it. As long as rural Asians live in close proximity to their ducks and pigs there will be new, even deadlier flu viruses to challenge the immune systems of humanity.
Click to expand...


Non medical profession don't realize that there such a thing as Nosocomial infection, nor do many people understand that most of our antibiotics are outdated and mrsa is becoming more dangerous everyday.
 
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