by GJ Zukow
in humans. No biggie really. It's not the end of the world.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
The "Great Rat Death" and the "Rat Flu" have reached Orlando simultaneously. It seems as if everybody is sick except me. There's a lot of sniffles, sneezes and runny noses. Other symptoms include itchy, watery eyes, a headache and some coughing. The symptoms are generally mild, in most cases, and resemble an allergic reaction more than a virus.
Both my mother and my sister have gotten the flu. My little sister wanted to stay home from school as soon as she felt the first symptoms of the illness. All she has is a case of the "sniffles" (as my mom calls any minor cold), so my mom told her she still needs to go to school. It's not like Lucy is going to spread the disease to anybody else, because everybody else already has it.
"If I have to go to work then you have to go to school." Is, and always has been, my mother's mantra about staying home from school.
Besides, whenever Lucy runs a fever and has to stay home, that means I have to stay home from school also. Somebody has to watch her after my mom leaves for work around eleven in the morning to work the afternoon shift at the hospital. That somebody means me. Even on regular days Lucy gets home from elementary school before I do, but she spends the hour before I get home at old Mrs. Hoffner's house next door.
I think Mrs. Hoffner, who's in her late seventies, enjoys having some youthful company. None of her relatives visit her much, as most of her family lives on the west coast. I like the old lady but her house smells like the six cats she owns. The cats are what Lucy likes the most about staying there. An old shoestring is all it takes to keep the cats, and Lucy, playing happily until I come home. Lucy runs around, dragging and wriggling the shoestring, while the cats jump and try to catch it. Even Mrs. Hoffner is entertained by the antics. I sometimes wish I could be so content with such a simple thing as a glorified piece of string.
On the news the main stories are all about the flu. They talk about productivity being way down worldwide due to people taking their sick days off all at once. The stock markets are also down slightly, no surprise there. An interesting, slightly scary, news bit talked of how the vast majority of the lab rats (used for research) have died in their cages. Only those mice in highly secure and protected facilities (those with state of the art air and water filtration systems) have survived. The rats that have survived are those used specifically for research on highly communicable diseases (or military research into bio-weapons some say). The extreme safe-guards used to protect the outside world from them is the only thing that kept the outside world from killing them. Needless to say this may slow down the research into a cure.
My mother told me there's a lot of doubt amongst the doctors as to this being a virus. Some things just don't add up and every road to find the virus responsible for the outbreak has hit a dead end.
The CDC hasn't made much headway either, remaining quiet about what they have found.
The only silver lining to this dark cloud is being reaped by the big drug companies. Cold and allergy medicines are flying off the shelves. Drug stores, even the huge retailers like Wal-Mart and Kmart, can't keep anything on the shelves. Everything from aspirin to vitamins are sold out almost as soon as they get stocked.
The hospitals worldwide are stressed to overflowing with this non-life threatening epidemic. My mother used to get home around ten or so at night, but lately she's been getting home around midnight. One of her pet peeves about people doing this is that they should go to their doctor for stuff like this and not overflow the ER (which is meant for real emergencies, not a case of the "sniffles").
I'm just glad I haven't caught the flu bug yet. I'm knocking on wood hoping I don't catch it either.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Everybody and everything, it seems, in the greater Orlando area is sick. In people the sickness is actually mild, with some variance (some people do seem to get hit harder, of course, running a fever and feeling extreme fatigue). There are some few of us that are naturally immune for one reason or another. The news programs state that less than ten percent of the population has escaped this virulent disease.
There's an underlying scent on the wind. There are literally billions upon billions (maybe trillions) of dead rodent corpses rotting around the planet. Where everybody was wearing masks to try and ward off the coming sickness before, now they wear them doused in colognes and perfumes to cover-up or overwhelm the stink. The smell taints people’s view of reality, as if it's some kind of horrible omen of things yet to come. In a certain way it's true, this near extinction event for the rodents and their ilk will most certainly lead to further deaths. With rats, mice, moles and the rest of the food removed from many animals’ diets, there will be another round of starvation and death. This cycle of death may continue for many rounds until the food chain sorts itself out again. For some animals it's a boon. Flies and insects who feed and breed in corpses are going to see their populations increase dramatically. It's also a feast for vultures and all those eaters of carrion.
To see just how widespread this horrible thing is, all one has to do is visit the local zoo. This contagion has hit the mammals hard. In people it's generally mild as I stated before, but in animals it's has a twenty percent death rate. Dogs and the canine family (and this includes foxes, wolves, coyotes, etc.), are immune as are all fish and reptiles. Primates, chimpanzees, monkeys and apes seem to be affected in much the same way as we humans.
In school so many students and teachers have called in sick that many of our classes have "doubled-up". Many of the same classes have been rolled into one, creating a slight bit of chaos. There's some talk of just cancelling school for the next week, which will cause an extension of the school year. I won't know if this happens until Sunday night, if the school board decides to do it, the local news will broadcast what schools are going to be affected (like they do with snow days up north).
On the bright side, and I'm sure there was a global sigh of relief with the news, the people who had gotten sick first (in the Korea's, China and most of Asia) are recovering. Thank the Gods that this thing only lasts about a week. With unknown diseases like this nobody knows what to expect. Now people's fears are greatly relieved, for the most part, knowing that this will soon pass. The animal deaths are sad but nature has seen this before. In a few days, at the most, people will have recovered and then we can get back to our normal, boring lives.
The CDC's latest report on the global epidemic was less than informative. They stated that this was not due to any virus. They have ruled out the origin of this modern plague as being due to any bacterial, mold, fungus or environmental cause. If they can rule out all those things, doesn't that leave the culprit to stand out by itself? It seems that they know what it is but are keeping silent for some reason. Surely there's a plethora of cadavers to dissect and examine. The general consensus is that the cause is disturbing and they want to wait until this has passed to release the news. The "internuts" and conspiracy idiots have proposed everything from aliens using bio-warfare as a preliminary attack to science gone awry and everything in between (including religious fanatics maintaining that this is a sign of the end times).
My mother (who works as a nurse) has told me that the doctors have quietly started treating this as some sort of parasitic infection. That news sounds unsettling to me. If this is true, that it's due to a parasite, then I can kind of understand why the CDC won't release this fact until it has passed. Just the thought of miniscule insects swimming through my bloodstream gives me the "willies". It's weird but my mother has informed me that our bodies are already host to a multitude of other foreign bacteria's and whatnot, symbiotically living in most cases, within us. Even though the doctors are treating this differently now, they still report no progress in stopping it.
Whatever the cause, I'm just happy that this thing, whatever it happens to be, is soon going to be over.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Finally my little sister, Lucy, has gotten o
ver her illness. It's about time too, her constant whining and complaining was seriously getting on my nerves. Almost everyone has either gotten over, or has almost fully recovered from the disease. The animals on the other hand, seem to have only gotten sicker.
School has returned to its normal routine, with any chance of cancellation being quickly squashed. Production is almost back up to normal in businesses around the world and even the finicky stock markets are up.
There's almost a celebratory feeling in the air now. When this new and unheard of pestilence swept the globe there was a feeling of fear and uncertainty. Nobody knew if this would be a death dealing disease or the mild annoyance it turned out to be. People are acting as if they just dodged a bullet. Maybe we have. All one has to do is breathe to realize just what this thing was capable of. The smell of death blows on the wind. The scent of all those unlucky victims rotting away is a constant reminder of what could have been, had the disease mutated.
The CDC released its findings this afternoon. It turned out to be just like my mother told me. The world just saw the birth of a new microbe. A single celled parasite never before seen. The Center for Disease
