Look Ma, panicked lemmings!!

There have been several stories this week about how Americans (individuals and corporations) are stockpiling Tamiflu in case of a bird flu pandemic. What is scary about this are some of these people are health professionals. Then of course, there's the panicked soccer moms.

First of all, I haven't heard anything that said that Tamiflu is safe for children. Second of all, if you try and keep up with the major developments of bird flu, you might have noticed that there has already been one case of a person who contracted the bird flu from her brother that didn't respond to Tamiflu due to a change in one of the viral protiens that Tamiflu targets.

Sure it's scary to imagine a scenario where people start getting sick (and dying) from flu. Responses at the government level are ineffective. And you want to try and do something to save yourself if you start feeling ill.

What if you just caught a cold? You just wasted your Tamiflu.

Stop saving Tamiflu for a bird flu pandemic that may or may not come. Let people who are coming down with regular flu (like my mother) get Tamiflu so she can get better quicker and go back to work. Go back to building your fallout shelter from the bird flu pandemic.

The concept of a fallout shelter for a pandemic does sound interesting actually. Pressurized dual door entryway, decontamination showers, food for a year. Guess I better make a trip to Home Depot this weekend *lol*