Important News!

[Andreea]

Feeling sick lately?

Here you can find the answer :

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/influ...2005_04_12/en/

[Leonid]

Now what we should do about the situation:

1 – contact biologists as soon as possible, asking to clarify the situation and give opinions.

2 – contact World Health Organization, asking more information and the list of laboratories where the virus was sent.

3 - Ministries of Health in these countries:
Bermuda
Belgium
Brazil
Chile
France
Germany
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China
Israel
Italy
Japan
Lebanon
Mexico
The Republic of Korea
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Taiwan, China


4 – if we get the list of laboratories from WHO, contact each of them.

Questions to address to all of the above:

What is being done to fix the problem caused, and what is being done to avoid it in the future?

What else needs to be done to lower the risks of spreading the virus in this particular case?

What needs to be done to make sure that this does not happen in the future?

[Andreea]

This meesage is for all the members and not only . I put together a letter that serves as a template, a draft which i think everyone should have a look at . The purpose of the letter is to contact scientists and valuable individuals that can make a difference.
I would like to ask everyone to take the matter in a serious manner and have a look at the letter and I expect you to express ideas or make a contribution to the letter or have at least a comment about it. We have to make the letter as strong as possible in order for them to take us seriously. We need to build our credibility out there and it's time to get out there.So I suggest we work on this letter together, united since that is what we are promoting and expect from everyone else.
So without any further comments ( you all know what you have to do or needs to be done), the letter is attached here.
I am looking forward to your comments.

P.S. This particular letter is in response to the article posted yesterday (H2N2 virus - WHO, but if you take out the dates and some small modifications it should serve as a draft.

[Leonid]

Today, Monday, Apr. 18, 2005 Andreea sent the above letter (changing dates and names) to these scientists:

Carolyn Kapron
Hugh Burton
Dave Lasenby
Dennis Murray
Brad White
Michael Berrill
Joe Cebek
Jane Mackie
Erica Nol
Paul Wilson
Ingrid Brenner
Neil Emery
Terry Matthews
Jim Schaefer
Marguerite Xenopoulos
Craig Brunetti
Michael Fox
Christine Maxwell
Jim Sutcliffe
Janet Yee
Gary Burness
Leslie Kerr
George Mitchell
Shaun Watmough
Dale Buelow
Wayne Wilson
Jason Allen
Susan Chow
Alexis Armit
Percival Powles
Ian Sandeman
Roger Jones

Trent Biology Department

[Andreea]

Greetings to everyone!
I just want to keep things up to date in terms of contacting the scientists.

April 12th, 2005 - article released by WHO on H2N2 virus
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/infl..._2005_04_12/en/
April 14th, 2005 - put together a letter with the purpose of
contacting scientists - and in this particular case
bilogists since the article relates to that field.
(letter attached)
April 18th,2005 - the letter was sent out to all the faculty in the
biology department at Trent University
April 19th, 2005 - put together a slight modification of the first letter
and sent it to WHO Headquarters by fax and e-
mail (letter attached to this message ) I took the
liberty of setting an imaginary headquarters of iHUB
under my address just to make it more official.
I am sure you know what i mean.

These are the developments so far in this matter. I will keep you updated on any changes, developments.
Just as an aside , we still have to work on the letter (the draft that was put together for contacting scientists) so please do your best to have a look at it.However, since this matter was at hand i took the liberty of using the letter at its current stage with some minor changes. But we still need to reach or at least aim for its perfection.

Andreea
P.S. Do not hesitate to make use of the letter in order to reach out and contact people whom you think are worthy.

[COCO]

First of all, congratulation to Andreea for his involvement in the life of the organization. Your work is highly valuable!

I had a look at the letter, and as far as the improvement of it is concerned, I only have a few remarks to make (only about slight details) :

- I'm not sure, but I think that the adress of the sender should be put not below the adress of WHO but on the top right-hand corner of the letter (I'm not sure about the canadian conventional way of writing letters though, but in my country we do it this way) --> just a minor detail (it's just from an aesthetic point-of-view, so that there would not be a big void zone on the top right part)

- I'd put the iHUB logo (though the current logo seen on the website might not be the final one, it would still look more official and professional with a logo, I think)

- as for the ***********************************, the explanations of the aims of iHUB are very well stated, but it may be a little bit long - if the reader doesn't understand the point of the letter near the first few lines, he/she may not wish to finish reading it or may be less attentive. Maybe it would be good to make a slight shift of the ***********************************, like keeping the introductory part and then, immediately after, putting the part dealing with the questions asked to WHO, and finally including other details about iHUB in the end of the letter

That's it, I don't see what else could be done in order to improve it...

[Leonid]

Originally Posted by COCO

- I'd put the iHUB logo (though the current logo seen on the website might not be the final one, it would still look more official and professional with a logo, I think)

I'm ready to take this one

At this point, I agree with you.

But I wanted to let everyone know, that we are at the stage of designing so-called brand-book. It will have all kinds of designs for souvenirs, we will produce, letter templates, etc.

It's coming soon, but first - design of the web site.

[Leonid]

The discussion continues here