TheFluMaster
Resident
Pandemic would impact more than health
Terry Organ
Miner Staff Writer
3/27/2007 9:48:00 AM
There have been stories for more than a year concerning how many people would die in a worldwide bird flu pandemic as pharmaceutical manufacturers strive to find a vaccine that would protect most people.
I have done past stories locally about what efforts are being taken to deal with a possible pandemic here by the Mohave County Department of Public Health.
I found it refreshing last week to see pandemic analyzed from a different perspective in an Associated Press story.
According to the Trust for America's Health, the U.S. economy would take a financial hit estimated at $683 billion if pandemic should reach America. That represents roughly 5.5 percent of all goods and services produced in this country.
The tourism industry would be especially hard hit with neighboring Nevada (8 percent economy decline) and Hawaii (6.6 percent) at the top of the list for a financial impact. Alaska, Wyoming, Nebraska and Louisiana would lose more than 6 percent of their gross domestic product.
"In a pandemic, we will see people avoiding discretionary travel and avoiding large gatherings for legitimate fear of contagion," said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust of America's Health. "It's a natural reaction not to want to be in large groups when there is an easily transmittable disease afoot."
It's unfortunate that so many people do not avoid dangers they can see, as one the eye can't perceive as in the case of pandemic.
I saw several television stories this past winter of multi-vehicle pileups on Interstate 70 from eastern Colorado to the Kansas state line, an area highly susceptible to blizzards.
Truckers evidently were determined to keep on schedule, so they would not pull over and wait out a storm. Motorists in private vehicles would not hold still for a disruption in their travel plans, so many continued in whiteout conditions. They gambled their driving skills could handle whatever Mother Nature dished out, and they lost, their travel plans ruined by a crash.
Getting back to the pandemic, estimates are the transportation and warehousing sectors of the economy would experience a 67-percent decline in demand.
Economies in Virginia and Maryland would fare best among the states with respective declines of 5.13 and 5.06.
Demand for health care and social services would jump by 15 percent.
It's very sobering, even to someone who does not indulge.
http://www.kingmandailyminer.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=11667
Terry Organ
Miner Staff Writer
3/27/2007 9:48:00 AM
There have been stories for more than a year concerning how many people would die in a worldwide bird flu pandemic as pharmaceutical manufacturers strive to find a vaccine that would protect most people.
I have done past stories locally about what efforts are being taken to deal with a possible pandemic here by the Mohave County Department of Public Health.
I found it refreshing last week to see pandemic analyzed from a different perspective in an Associated Press story.
According to the Trust for America's Health, the U.S. economy would take a financial hit estimated at $683 billion if pandemic should reach America. That represents roughly 5.5 percent of all goods and services produced in this country.
The tourism industry would be especially hard hit with neighboring Nevada (8 percent economy decline) and Hawaii (6.6 percent) at the top of the list for a financial impact. Alaska, Wyoming, Nebraska and Louisiana would lose more than 6 percent of their gross domestic product.
"In a pandemic, we will see people avoiding discretionary travel and avoiding large gatherings for legitimate fear of contagion," said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust of America's Health. "It's a natural reaction not to want to be in large groups when there is an easily transmittable disease afoot."
It's unfortunate that so many people do not avoid dangers they can see, as one the eye can't perceive as in the case of pandemic.
I saw several television stories this past winter of multi-vehicle pileups on Interstate 70 from eastern Colorado to the Kansas state line, an area highly susceptible to blizzards.
Truckers evidently were determined to keep on schedule, so they would not pull over and wait out a storm. Motorists in private vehicles would not hold still for a disruption in their travel plans, so many continued in whiteout conditions. They gambled their driving skills could handle whatever Mother Nature dished out, and they lost, their travel plans ruined by a crash.
Getting back to the pandemic, estimates are the transportation and warehousing sectors of the economy would experience a 67-percent decline in demand.
Economies in Virginia and Maryland would fare best among the states with respective declines of 5.13 and 5.06.
Demand for health care and social services would jump by 15 percent.
It's very sobering, even to someone who does not indulge.
http://www.kingmandailyminer.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=11667