FR what do you think a 2 percent loss of front line health workers and the police will mean for the country?
But there's also a two percent loss of the people they serve. The ratio of service providers to service users remains the same. From a purely mathematical standpoint, the effect should be minimal.
Thats not including the fact that it will be higher than that because a) they are front line workers and therfore more likly to be infected and b) even if they arnt killed they will still be out of action for a long time
Well, somebody gave the figure of two percent so that's what I'm using. If two percent die, then that probably means there's a rolling wave of fifteen or twenty percent who are sick at any one time. Yes it could be a strain but I think we can handle it.
This is besides the fact that the police, fire and ambulance will have to ALSO deal with the civil unrest caused by the food shortages and lack of treatment.
I've lived through enough riots in Los Angeles, I'm not worried about them.
Have you seen the TV show 24 where they are trying to contain the leathal virus?
Yes, but that was a 100% lethal virus that killed within a few hours. I don't think anyone would even try to contain an influenza virus. It would be impossible so that wouldn't be a rational strategy or a cost-effective use of resources.
You're a health care professional so you see this scenario from a particular perspective. I'm an organizational change management consultant so I'm looking for the best way to change the organization (in this case all of civilization) quickly and effectively enough to minimize the damage and keep civilization functioning. We'd unquestionably have to ration medical resources by the triage system and make sure every medication and other supply or technology is used where it has the greatest likelihood of causing the largest amount of healing. This is battlefield medicine that goes against the principles of civilian medical workers. They would probably need some very fast and very obnoxious training to be able to practice it.
Think about that across the whole WORLD but with longer kill times and lesser mortailty rate (so resorces will have to go into treating because you cant just assume the pt will die)
If resources are limited then in fact you have to do that very thing. Once again, this is battlefield medicine, not public health medicine.
Fortunately I won't have to worry about it because I'll be one of the first to die. I have allergy-induced asthma and my respiratory system will simply shut down if I get that sick. I'll let them give the oxygen to somebody younger.