Ooo, let's get one of those cinnamon buns while we're here

Recently, as you may have read, terrorists in North Africa died from having been exposed to a biological poison they'd been cooking up.

Oh.  Darn.

So anyway; somewhere out in some desert we can probably find a number of terrorists who are willing to take the chance they'll die a horrible,  slow death for the specific cause of inflicting that same death on us.

The hell I say? Read this. 

And if there are some in the sand who are willing, then it is an entirely reasonable extrapolation that there could be untold numbers of brothers and sisters also willing to do so, in the city.  

City.  European.  Australian.  American.  Perhaps where you live.  And those you love.

I can't see myself crying crocodile tears over any terrorist who suffers from his or her self-inflicted wounds, illness, or stupidity so I won't describe the symptoms of poisoning they'll be experiencing.

But here's what you can expect if you're infected with plague, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Signs and symptoms of bubonic plague include:

• Sudden onset of fever and chills
• Headache
• Fatigue or malaise
• Muscle aches 
• Buboes — swollen, painful, warm lymph nodes

  

Septicemic plague occurs when plague bacteria multiply in your bloodstream. If septicemic plague occurs as a complication of bubonic plague, buboes may be present.

Signs and symptoms include:

• Fever and chills
• Abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomiting
• Bleeding from your mouth, nose or rectum, or under your skin
• Shock
• Blackening and death of tissue (gangrene) in your extremities, most commonly your fingers, toes and nose

 

 

Pneumonic plague — which can occur as a complication of another type of plague or by inhaling infectious droplets coughed into the air by a person or animal or sprayed there intentionally — is the least common form of plague.  But it's also the most rapidly fatal. Early signs and symptoms, which generally occur within a few hours to a few days after inhaling contaminated droplets, include:

• High fever
• Weakness
• Nausea and vomiting
• Signs of pneumonia, including chest pain, difficulty breathing and a cough with bloody sputum

 
Pneumonic plague progresses rapidly and may cause respiratory failure and shock within two days of infection. If antibiotic treatment isn't initiated within a day after signs and symptoms first appear, the infection is likely to be fatal. As noted here, Pneumonic plague can be intentionally spread in aerosol form. 

So, it appears to me from what I'm reading that terrorists can cook up some bubonic plague slurry by using toxins found on wild rodents and their fleas.  Um ~ rodent fleas, not terrorist's fleas.  This substance can be weaponized and used in aerosol form to kill many people, whether by coughing all over them by "accident" or by spreading it somehow, let's say... onto their door handles. 

An attack of this sort may look like this:

• Someone, perhaps with symptoms seen above
• Maybe in unseasonably warm clothing to cover their symptoms 
• Spraying or wiping what appears to be a liquid onto objects a/o surfaces that others touch

Remember; they'll want to expend as little energy as needed to kill as many people as possible.  So they will pick targets where lots and lots of people go: 

• Door handles and push panels at the mall, theater, grocery store, school, church 
• Benches at the mall, the park, the sports stadium, the concert hall
• Bus and train seats, maybe even airplanes

You don't have to ingest if for it to be fatal, mere touch can transmit the poison to you. It can be put into an innocent-looking aerosol bottle, taken into your neighborhood grocery store and sprayed onto:

• Vegetables and fruits the need not necessarily be washed/cooked before you eat them at home
• Bread and pastries in cabinets
  • It's already been done ~ read it all here, including the links.  
• Bulk food and candy in bins, covered or un
• Popular items, stored at room temperature: soda, chips, packaged bread, wine, etc 

I'd find these things suspicious:

• A person spraying fruit/veggies when they're under a sprinkler system already and are automatically sprayed
• Someone wearing not quite the right store uniform who is spraying packaged food, and not wiping it down.  My first job ever, way back in Green Bay, 'sconsin, was wiping shelves in a small grocery.  To clean the shelves, every item had to be removed and then the shelf sprayed with cleaner and then wiped.  Then the items were returned to the shelf. Any package that had spray cleaner on it was wiped before being put back.  Hey, I know.  I'm a professional.  
• Someone in the produce section handling fruits and vegetables as though she wants to touch as many things as she can ~ doesn't appear to be thumping melons or looking for bruises on apples.
• If I saw a janitorial worker who didn't have the same uniform on as the others in the mall, and didn't have all the equipment they usually push around but was wearing gloves, a dust mask and carrying a rag and spray bottle, I'd call security right away.  And I'd watch to see if this guy just walked down the mall, spraying "cleaner" on all sorts of surfaces but not touching it with his rag. 
• If I saw signs of diseased hands or neck or face, as pictured above, I'd say something to people around me.  Hey, that guy looks like he's got the plague.  Stay away from him.  And then I'd call 911.  And I would not let some sensitive, tolerant police dispatcher shine me on and tell me she'll see if she can find a patrol to send my way and then hang up on me.

 Some What to Do Options:

• If you see suspicious people like this, keep an eye on them and notify store management immediately but discreetly.
• Stay away from the person and the items he or she may have been carrying or may have contaminated. 
• Calmly and quietly let other shoppers who may be in the area know they need to stay away until store management clears the area.
• Call the police even if the store managment says it's been done.
• Put a wet cloth over your nose and mouth to prevent inhalation/iungestion of stray particulate.
• If the suspicious person leaves the building before security or police arrive, perhaps you may choose to follow him out of the store, without touching anything he touched, sprayed or wiped.
• Provide descriptive information to police ASAP. 
• Do not approach the person or touch anything he or she touches. 
• If he turns and confronts you, I'd say that would be a time to get out of Dodge.

Or you can ignore the situation, knowing it will never happen here, and, after all, it's more important for you to find that perfect gift than to possibly embarrass yourself by reporting that perfectly innocent guy who's just got the flu and is confused and will make it home aaaaaallllll by himself if everyone just leeeeeeaves him alone. 
 
As always, your choice.  

And take a look here for more vital information.