Virgin Blue, Hong Kong, and the Flu!

[amos2]

I trust Virgin are sending their pilots to places other than honkers at the moment for their sim work?
What better way to spread a virus of this nature than to send half a dozen pilots there twice a month, bring them home and then send them off all around Oz!

[amos2]

C'mon guys...why the conspiratorial silence? Are you going to HK at the moment or not? And if you are, how do you feel about that?

[Keg]

Why the dig at VB amos? Last I knew, QF was still sending a 744 and three-ish 767s to HKG every day! Thats a lot more crews than the half dozen per month that VB might send.

That said, lots of info to crews about how to be 'alert but not alarmed' (to coin the PMs phrase). According to all the media I've read on the part, you have to have had contact with someone who is symptomatic to get it and mostly, that means family, doctors, carers etc. I would think that crew are relatively low risk for the time being. Besides, I would have thought the average alcoholic intake of a slip crew would kill the thing anytimei up to 8 hours before departure!!

[Kaptin M]

The means of transmission has been revised, Keg. According to info played on CNN today (besides the propaganda on Iraq), SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) is spread by;
[i] Direct contact with an infected person;
[ii] An infected person coughing or sneezing onto a surface (or food) into which a non-infected person comes in contact*;
[iii] An infected person who touches his mouth or nose and then touches eg. an elevator button, door handle, etc, that is subsequently touched by a non-infected person*;
[iv] Airborne. Which to my non-medical mind, would make centrally air-conditioned Hotels, restaurants, and even airports PRIME areas - not to forget aircraft with their recirculated air coinditioning.
* This means there would be subsequent hand to mouth/nose contact to facilitate the introduction of the germ/virus.

They found one block of apartments in Hong Kong that housed some 1,000 people, had 220 SARS-infected residents.

Apparently this severe pneumonia type germ appears to have originated in China and has affected thousands there, but the authorities had not notified WHO.

China and Hong Kong would appear to be the HOT SPOTS, and THE places to avoid.

[Snowballs]

Amos, give a dog a bone, QF must have about 100 crew per day (Including cabin) on average in Hong Kong, compared to perhaps two VB crew, some days. Being fair mined and concerned about the health of ALL crew, are you also calling for Qantas to cancel all flights to Vietnam, China, Singapore and Hong Kong until this SARS problem is sorted out ?

[amos2]

There's a big difference between a 24 or 36 hr stopover compared to a 5 day stay, or longer for the checkies! Besides, you're all missing the main point here...the sim work can be done elsewhere short term until the situation improves. Why put your head in a noose if you don't have to?

[404 Titan]

While in Australia yesterday it was quoted by a doctor on one of the news channels that about 2000 Australians die of the flue each year out of a total infection base of 4,000,000. This relates to a mortality rate of 0.05%. While the current number of SARS is only 1600 world wide and 60 deaths this equates to a mortality rate of 3.75%. If the flue had the same mortality rate in Australia alone, 150,000 people a year would die or 37,500,000 worldwide. I think this is why the WHO is just a little concerned about this thing.

[Borneo Wild Man]

yep and if the panic dont stop soon,Dragon will almost certainly fold while Cathay teeters on the edge of disaster hemoraging 3 mill. US a day with 19 aircraft grounded.(13/4).