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Here's another good one! (At least they got the Webster quote right!)
COMMENTARY:
The World Organization for Animal Health based in Paris said on January 10 that earlier predictions of a bird flu pandemic originating from the H5N1 bird flu virus, or avian flu, were a bit overblown.
Bernard Vallat, director general of that organization said, "the risk was overestimated." The virus in question has proved extremely stable, despite earlier claims that it would mutate quickly and spread easily among humans.
In fact, said Vallat, "We have never seen such a stable strain." He admitted that concerns that a bird flu pandemic was imminent lacked scientific proof. "It was just nonscientific supposition," he told reporters.
Nevertheless, a good part of the medical community and mainstream media picked up the bird flu pandemic story and ran with it. Even governments were quick to act on the hysteria. At the UN, chief avian flu coordinator Dave Nabarro said in 2005 that he was "almost certain' a bird flu pandemic would strike, and predicted up to 150 million deaths. The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Mike Leavitt, advised Americans to stockpile cans of tuna fish and powdered milk under their beds in case of an outbreak. Renowned flu expert Robert Webster said society needed to face the possibility that half of the population could die in the bird flu pandemic. [Emphasis added] Based, in part, on such fears, the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States set up the Security and Prosperity Partnership as another step toward the integration of the three nations.
Nevertheless, fears of an avian flu were "ridiculous," scoffed Wendy Orent, an anthropologist and author of Plague: The Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World's Most Dangerous Disease. Orent said public health officials had vastly exaggerated the potential danger of bird flu.
Several factors made it unlikely that it would become a dangerous pandemic. According to Orent, "the virus, H5N1, is still several mutations away from being able to spread easily between people; and the virus generally attaches to the deepest part of the lungs, making it harder to transmit by coughing or breathing."
Most who have been infected and died ? worldwide, 212 dead with 340 sickened since 2003, mostly in Asia ? were infected through close contact with sick poultry. Examined objectively, the numbers are low. Since 2003, 42.4 per year have died from avian flu. Compare this to the death toll from malaria which, according to the Centers for Disease Control, infects 350-500 million people and causes one million deaths each year.
Maybe, instead of spreading fear about an unlikely bird flu pandemic in order to justify expansions of government power and integration of nations, our government and media could start promoting the use of DDT to stop the existing malaria pandemic.
COMMENTARY:
The World Organization for Animal Health based in Paris said on January 10 that earlier predictions of a bird flu pandemic originating from the H5N1 bird flu virus, or avian flu, were a bit overblown.Bernard Vallat, director general of that organization said, "the risk was overestimated." The virus in question has proved extremely stable, despite earlier claims that it would mutate quickly and spread easily among humans.
In fact, said Vallat, "We have never seen such a stable strain." He admitted that concerns that a bird flu pandemic was imminent lacked scientific proof. "It was just nonscientific supposition," he told reporters.
Nevertheless, a good part of the medical community and mainstream media picked up the bird flu pandemic story and ran with it. Even governments were quick to act on the hysteria. At the UN, chief avian flu coordinator Dave Nabarro said in 2005 that he was "almost certain' a bird flu pandemic would strike, and predicted up to 150 million deaths. The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Mike Leavitt, advised Americans to stockpile cans of tuna fish and powdered milk under their beds in case of an outbreak. Renowned flu expert Robert Webster said society needed to face the possibility that half of the population could die in the bird flu pandemic. [Emphasis added] Based, in part, on such fears, the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States set up the Security and Prosperity Partnership as another step toward the integration of the three nations.
Nevertheless, fears of an avian flu were "ridiculous," scoffed Wendy Orent, an anthropologist and author of Plague: The Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World's Most Dangerous Disease. Orent said public health officials had vastly exaggerated the potential danger of bird flu.
Several factors made it unlikely that it would become a dangerous pandemic. According to Orent, "the virus, H5N1, is still several mutations away from being able to spread easily between people; and the virus generally attaches to the deepest part of the lungs, making it harder to transmit by coughing or breathing."
Most who have been infected and died ? worldwide, 212 dead with 340 sickened since 2003, mostly in Asia ? were infected through close contact with sick poultry. Examined objectively, the numbers are low. Since 2003, 42.4 per year have died from avian flu. Compare this to the death toll from malaria which, according to the Centers for Disease Control, infects 350-500 million people and causes one million deaths each year.
Maybe, instead of spreading fear about an unlikely bird flu pandemic in order to justify expansions of government power and integration of nations, our government and media could start promoting the use of DDT to stop the existing malaria pandemic.
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