Castro Says Anthrax Less Serious Than a Cold

[illflem]

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Fidel Castro says anthrax, the germ warfare agent which has killed three people and spread panic in the United States over recent weeks, is less worrying than a common cold.



"Anthrax is less serious than a cold," he said in a speech Wednesday in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba. "There are appropriate medicines to make the bacteria disappear very quickly. "



Castro said the current anthrax scare in the United States, in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, was being exaggerated.



"The intentional use of any product of this sort ... is an unacceptable crime," he said. "But they shouldn't allow this to become an instrument of panic. "



Must say I have to agree with him

 

[Papa Joe]

Yup. The media is playing into the hands of the terrorists by spreading... ... ... ... . uh, you got it t e r r o r.

Next will come the blithering idiot copycats, who I think should be publicly horse whipped.



G' morning, Bill.

 

[DieselDoghouse]

Wow, as a cold-war kid this is the FIRST time I could agree with Uncle Fidel!! The media is treating this like a novel new disease. While I know we have a generation that may think beef magically arrives in styrofoam or a bottle, I was reminded by dear ol' Mom that ~20 years ago when there was a plan to demolish old mills in Manchester, NH there was public outcry over the health risks—they had to work on calm days, project was overseen by federal infectious disease specialists. All because these mills had been condemned due of anthrax decades before!! The delivery system is new, the enemy is very,very old.

 

[swamp rat]

If any of you have seen the stock video footage of the guy in the Haz-mat spill cleanup suit coming from the contaminated building and subsequently getting sprayed down by the fireman with a small handheld tank sprayer, you might be encouraged to know what is in that tank sprayer. It is pretty much a clorox/bleach water solution to kill the anthrax bacteria that may have attached itself to the outside of the suit and equipment before removing the bio-gear. Also the suit itself is not much more than the same material from which a Federal Express Courier pack envelope is made.



Most etiologic spills can be cleaned up simply by applying a bleach water solution of between 2-10% with a mist sprayer of some sort. Fully saturate the area with the solution and have some sort of breathing apparatus handy similar to what farmers use when mixing ag-chemicals but be sure the filter cartridges are rated for etiologics.



In my 10+ years of spill cleanup experience, flammable oil based paint by far has proven to be the worst pain in the posterior to thoroughly clean up. White I & Yellow II & III RAM's not included. I'd rather cleanup an etiologic or Dangerous When Wet spill rather than a paint spill anyday! LOL

 

[illflem]

One thing I have an extremely hard time believing is that they can go into a building and find five anthrax spores. Sure it could be done at great expense but why do it when it takes thousands of spores to cause an infection? I think someone is BSing us about the authorities ability to detect anthrax. I liked the old Texas rancher I saw on Discovery who said, "folk's hereabouts get anthrax sometimes, never thought about getting a nose swab for it though. "

 

[Steve M]

Fidel is right. And I take the threat seriously. I also take flu season seriously so I get a flu shot every year. But it's not the end of the world. Go to the DOT website and look at vehicle accident deaths and then look at how people drive. Over 40,000 people died last year on the roads and people still drive like maniacs. We see it on the news and snub our noses. Yet we see a case of anthrax and we're all shook up. We don't make much sense of things.