Be honest, airline passengers with rabies – spasms, foaming at the mouth, biting, shouting in fevered gibberish. Would anyone notice? I don’t think so!
About a year ago, flew a local flight in Borneo. There was a small bat on that flight. Nobody got excited and the bat settled down somewhere. Even the cabin crew paid it no attention. Heck, for all I know, it may have been a frequent flier!
I did not watch the video (got a slow cell phone connection right now) but I did read this story yesterday. To the best of my knowledge, it attacked no one. Nobody bitten, nobody scratched. Yet, I hear the Health Department is going to check each passenger because the bat got away and they don’t know if it had rabies! Excuse me? What a waste of money. You could eat a roast rabid bat and bathe in it’s urine but, unless it bites you, you ain’t gonna get rabies. I hope they don’t vaccinate all those people.
[I am NOT an epidemiologist but I play one in real life - so please eat no bats, roasted or otherwise, and leave the urine for painting caves.]
A friend of mine was a rabies epidemiologist. Rabies is fatal, and bats often carry it. It’s not something to make jokes about. Someone who is bitten by a bat (or by a dog or other animal behaving strangely) needs to contact the local health department–now–so the animal can be tested.
# 11 Floyd : Almost right. Rabies is USUALLY fatal, and bats ARE KNOWN TO carry it. Most of the rest of your statement is correct. But no one was bitten in this incident. So why so serious?
As for no joking matter … poop. Practically every thing is worth a chuckle or two. Once in central Africa, I had to take off a guy’s leg after he lost an argument with a landmine. The only anesthesia I had was four strong men. A month or so later, I went into the village to check on him and found him hopping around on his crutches playing soccer. While examining him, I told him I never expected to see him playing football. He said the major problem for him was to remember which foot to kick the ball with…
I picture a sequel to AirPlane with ringers for Nielsen and that other white haired guy and they look at each other with confidence until they recognize they both had the bat for lunch. How long will the airplane stay airborne?
How much we are but savages fearful of everything the least bit out of the ordinary.
I think there have been a few case of people entering caves containing large colonies of bats and contracting the disease without being bitten however I don’t see that level of risk here.
Silly people, bats belong in a belfry, snakes belong on a plane…
Considering how processed the chicken must be (and the FDA says it must be) I’ll take the bat, thank you.
BTW… Never sit next to Ozzie Osborne on a plane. You learn a lot but you feel really dirty for days.
So what? It’s like you guys never few coach on US Airways or something.
Congress is on vacation. Pelosi had to take a commercial plane, apparently.
Transylvania World Airways
I hope the TSA gave that bat a full body search before allowing it on the plane…it could be a terrorist!
fvly the fvendly skies of Transylvania Air – The Count, sesame street
Be honest, airline passengers with rabies – spasms, foaming at the mouth, biting, shouting in fevered gibberish. Would anyone notice? I don’t think so!
I take it NOBODY used the bathroom during the flight !!!
Great excuse to use the First Class lavatory.
About a year ago, flew a local flight in Borneo. There was a small bat on that flight. Nobody got excited and the bat settled down somewhere. Even the cabin crew paid it no attention. Heck, for all I know, it may have been a frequent flier!
I did not watch the video (got a slow cell phone connection right now) but I did read this story yesterday. To the best of my knowledge, it attacked no one. Nobody bitten, nobody scratched. Yet, I hear the Health Department is going to check each passenger because the bat got away and they don’t know if it had rabies! Excuse me? What a waste of money. You could eat a roast rabid bat and bathe in it’s urine but, unless it bites you, you ain’t gonna get rabies. I hope they don’t vaccinate all those people.
[I am NOT an epidemiologist but I play one in real life - so please eat no bats, roasted or otherwise, and leave the urine for painting caves.]
A friend of mine was a rabies epidemiologist. Rabies is fatal, and bats often carry it. It’s not something to make jokes about. Someone who is bitten by a bat (or by a dog or other animal behaving strangely) needs to contact the local health department–now–so the animal can be tested.
#11 You must be loads of fun at a party.
# 11 Floyd : Almost right. Rabies is USUALLY fatal, and bats ARE KNOWN TO carry it. Most of the rest of your statement is correct. But no one was bitten in this incident. So why so serious?
As for no joking matter … poop. Practically every thing is worth a chuckle or two. Once in central Africa, I had to take off a guy’s leg after he lost an argument with a landmine. The only anesthesia I had was four strong men. A month or so later, I went into the village to check on him and found him hopping around on his crutches playing soccer. While examining him, I told him I never expected to see him playing football. He said the major problem for him was to remember which foot to kick the ball with…
Laughs are good. Rabies or not.
I picture a sequel to AirPlane with ringers for Nielsen and that other white haired guy and they look at each other with confidence until they recognize they both had the bat for lunch. How long will the airplane stay airborne?
How much we are but savages fearful of everything the least bit out of the ordinary.
Funny… this was on CNN last week as a Bird on a flight. Hard to tell.
I think there have been a few case of people entering caves containing large colonies of bats and contracting the disease without being bitten however I don’t see that level of risk here.
#9 Oh yeah they used it alright, They just did not get up to do it.
Anyone no where to get SpyEye from http://ow.ly/69GLq?e=730l25