Have you seen the television shows lately on The Bird Flu Pandemic? You can’t miss them; they were running like gangbusters for a couple of weeks. Apparently people are going to wash-up on the shores of Hawaii when this bird flu reaches pandemic proportions. Whales look out, you’ve got competition from beached humans!
There have been past cases of apparent bird flu transmission from human to human. These cases have been investigated in Southeast Asia. In one case reported in a SCIENCE magazine article, a family member contracted the bird flu while caring for another family member who was sick, and eventually died from it. The other care-giving person in this case survived the evil and devastating bird flu infection. This was reported in 2005. Now, CNN reports a “cluster” of 7 family members all perishing at the wrath of H5N1. Guess what? The family was living in “very cramped quarters … many living in [sic] one room.”
To date there have been 124 deaths links to H5N1. How many people died from influenza A or B in the United States in 2005? Something like tens of thousands. That virus mutates all of the time, and is communicable as an aerosol. Are we scampering to get millions of dollars in flu vaccines out to the world? I didn’t think so. You can’t make any television movies about influenza A or B. What would it be called? “Human Flu – A Global Pandemic” Oh, wait, it already is a pandemic. Moving along…
Didn’t we see this with Ebola and West Nile virus so many years ago? Ebola was a vicious and deadly virus that passed from human to human quite easily. Last time I checked the news, there wasn’t any great pandemic scare of Ebola, and no millions of dollars for vaccines. I didn’t take an Ebola vaccine. The West Nile virus is very serious because it is transmitted by mosquito bites. When was the last time you got bit by a mosquito? Yeah, probably last night. Did you lick any chicken or duck feces lately? I didn’t think so. You might have drank some uncooked duck blood, though.
There are so many lethal viruses running amuck in this world, that it seems absurd to hyper focus on any particular one. HIV is still a global pandemic that is killing millions. The everyday flu that we brush off with Dayquil and reckless arrogance still kills tens of thousands each year. Why are we so obsessed with some off-beat poultry virus that has infected ONLY those people who are in close-proximity to infected bird waste products or blood. Why did this H5N1 virus suddenly appear in China anyway? How is it that it’s so lethal to humans? A common method for growing virus cultures is to use poultry eggs. Maybe there is more human engineering behind this H5N1 than we are lead to believe.
Oh yeah, blood, that’s a serious note, because duck blood is something of a delicacy in Southeast Asia. Do you think maybe these people should stop drinking raw duck blood knowing that H5N1 might be in that blood? Nah, it’s more fun to drink the blood.
There have been past cases of apparent bird flu transmission from human to human. These cases have been investigated in Southeast Asia. In one case reported in a SCIENCE magazine article, a family member contracted the bird flu while caring for another family member who was sick, and eventually died from it. The other care-giving person in this case survived the evil and devastating bird flu infection. This was reported in 2005. Now, CNN reports a “cluster” of 7 family members all perishing at the wrath of H5N1. Guess what? The family was living in “very cramped quarters … many living in [sic] one room.”
To date there have been 124 deaths links to H5N1. How many people died from influenza A or B in the United States in 2005? Something like tens of thousands. That virus mutates all of the time, and is communicable as an aerosol. Are we scampering to get millions of dollars in flu vaccines out to the world? I didn’t think so. You can’t make any television movies about influenza A or B. What would it be called? “Human Flu – A Global Pandemic” Oh, wait, it already is a pandemic. Moving along…
Didn’t we see this with Ebola and West Nile virus so many years ago? Ebola was a vicious and deadly virus that passed from human to human quite easily. Last time I checked the news, there wasn’t any great pandemic scare of Ebola, and no millions of dollars for vaccines. I didn’t take an Ebola vaccine. The West Nile virus is very serious because it is transmitted by mosquito bites. When was the last time you got bit by a mosquito? Yeah, probably last night. Did you lick any chicken or duck feces lately? I didn’t think so. You might have drank some uncooked duck blood, though.
There are so many lethal viruses running amuck in this world, that it seems absurd to hyper focus on any particular one. HIV is still a global pandemic that is killing millions. The everyday flu that we brush off with Dayquil and reckless arrogance still kills tens of thousands each year. Why are we so obsessed with some off-beat poultry virus that has infected ONLY those people who are in close-proximity to infected bird waste products or blood. Why did this H5N1 virus suddenly appear in China anyway? How is it that it’s so lethal to humans? A common method for growing virus cultures is to use poultry eggs. Maybe there is more human engineering behind this H5N1 than we are lead to believe.
Oh yeah, blood, that’s a serious note, because duck blood is something of a delicacy in Southeast Asia. Do you think maybe these people should stop drinking raw duck blood knowing that H5N1 might be in that blood? Nah, it’s more fun to drink the blood.