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Internet Probably Couldn't Handle a Flu Pandemic
Several readers including mikael and gclef noted a report from the General Accountability Office suggesting that it should be Homeland Security's job to make sure the nation's business can flow during a pandemic. In particular, if H1N1 sends workers and schoolchildren home in large numbers, GAO thinks it might be a good idea for ISPs to prioritize traffic (favoring commerce over games, say), to reduce network speeds, and possibly to shut down high-traffic Web sites. DHS retorts that not only isn't it their job to control the Internet in this way, but the GAO is naive to believe it's even possible: "An expectation of unlimited Internet access during a pandemic is not realistic." "[DHS] does not even have a plan to start work on the issue, the General Accountability Office said. But the Homeland Security Department accused the GAO of having unrealistic expectations of how the Internet could be managed if millions began to telework from home at the same time as bored or sick schoolchildren were playing online, sucking up valuable bandwidth. Experts have for years pointed to the potential problem of Internet access during a severe pandemic, which would be a unique kind of emergency. It would be global, affecting many areas at once, and would last for weeks or months... Many companies and government offices hope to keep operations going as much as possible with teleworking using the Internet. Among the many problems posed by this idea, however, is the issue of bandwidth..."
I drove drunk once. I made it home fine. HOW DARE YOU tell me when I can and cant drive. YOURE the terrorist! Pull over!!@@? PULL yourself over! I never killd anyone! YOURE ALL terrorists!!! I have the RIGHT to DRIVE whenever I WANT however I WANT TIL I KILL SOMEONE then you can lock me up BUT TIL THEN i'm gonna DRIVE HOW I WANT!
How your body reacted to it may have been "laughably mild cold, without the annoyance of a stuffy nose", it is very serious.
More children have died from it in the last 3 months then die all year from seasonal flu. That's 'off season' We ahve a flu the is spreading very fast into a mostly none vaccinated populaces.
WHen you consider 32 thousand die from seasonal flu in a vaccinated populaces, you begin to get the picture of how large the risk is.
As an anecdote* I know 3 people that have died from H1N1, 2 of which where healthy.
The mortality rate, last I checks was 1% and rising. It's over 2% in India.
For the inexperienced, that's very high for a H1N1 Flu.
This is serious, and we are lucky we have people that can figure that out ahead of time.
*AKA Not data
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on