Avian influenza (“bird flu")
Maybe I'm a conspiracy nut. I don't go crazy over everything I see and hear. But I'm always leery of government and how they handle information - just can't get past the idea of thinking they share or don't share information for no reason.
Avian influenza is an infectious disease of birds caused by type A strains of the influenza virus has spread to to humans. The disease, which was first identified in Italy and has spread worldwide. Since 2003, 65 people have died after contracting the bird flu in Southeast Asia. The most potent strain of the virus is known as “highly pathogenic avian influenza”. This form is characterized by sudden onset, severe illness, and rapid death, with a mortality that can approach 100%. Such was the case in 1918, 40 million people died from the flu. so far this flu season over 17 million birds have been destroyed.
So, naturally, I'm getting real leery about how much they are beating this drum. Is it simply being prudent? Or do they already know something maybe we don't? Ever feel that way? Or am I a full fledged conspiracy nut and never realized it? ; ) The likelihood of a human flu pandemic is very high, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt warned Monday as he sought Southeast Asian cooperation to combat the spread of bird flu.
So I bet you reading wondering how I am doing to relate this to liberals and conservatives! Oh trust me I am. I read today about the presidents plan to combat Avian Flu. He said he had weighed whether to quarantine parts of the country and also whether to employ the military for the difficult task of enforcing a quarantine.
Still feeling the burn from the Katrina backlash bush said "It's one thing to shut down your airplanes, it's another thing to prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu," he said. Doing so, Mr. Bush said, might even involve using "a military that's able to plan and move."
Don’t you think that in such a large, diverse and mobile country like the United States, the Army would if anything spread the flu? They barely have enough kelvar vests and armored humvees in Iraq, I doubt the National Guard has enough protective has mat gear to effectively quarantine half the country. And what exactly will happen to the people in the quarantined area.
We need to be proactive not reactive. Avian Flu commands respect. I think we need be lobbying the drug companies and offering subsidies to make it profitable for them to mass produce vaccinations. But I think we are learning that you can not plan a response to a major disaster in advance. The same goes for earthquakes, terrorist attacks, storms and pandemics. Good solid institutions need to be in place to protect and serve the affected. Personally I don’t think homeland security, which I believe is with out a director, cuts it.
What do you we will have an Avian Flu epidemic in the US and what should be done?
posted by Patrick @ 8:35 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Well, personally I believe myself to be a conspiracy crazy... the government has definitely been hiding alien remains from us for years I know! And as for the avian flu, it's been enough of a scare for me to seriously think about giving up eating chicken! I agree with your suggestions, we need to be focusing on a vaccine more so than worrying about quaranteeing certain parts of the country. The problem with quaranteeing is that with the way our transportation is these days, any deadly virus is a merely plane ride away from anywhere else in the world (that's a few hours) and I don't know how we would be able to pinpoint who had traveled recently and had or hadn't spread/contracted this flu. TO me, more focus needs to be placed on combatting the further spread by finding a way to wipe out the virus, not hide people away who have already caught it.
Of coarse the government is always hiding something, sometimes I think its necessary to prevent havoc but I am sure most of the time it’s not. I don’t really understand how government conspiracies play into the Avian Flu? However I think the Avian Flu does have a chance to spread to the US, I mean it’s a virus it can go anywhere it has no boundaries. I think that you are right and we need to be proactive and not reactive. We should definitely be focusing on mass producing a vaccine. There is definitely no efficient way to quarantine this mobile nation.
Not yet in my life have I come into contact with an organization that has been completely open and honest with the public. If you find one, call me. Why do drug companies need to stop all current R&D and commit all their resources to finding a cure to the bird flu? I am pretty sure there are more prevalent diseases and viruses out there. Has anyone heard of cancer? I think finding a cure for it would be a little more beneficial to society than a cure for the bird flu. Sixty-five people have died in southeast Asia since 2003 from this flu. There have probably been more than 65 executions in Texas during the same time period. So really, how is this a conspiracy?
I love the cartoon. It ties in perfectly into your post about the bird flu. I do not know about you, but I never heard about the bird flu until a month ago when everyone started getting scared about an outbreak. This actually reminds me of mad cow disease. When I went to France, there was a scare of mad cow there, so my mom and I would not eat any red meat while we were there. Actually, people in Europe told us that mad cow was not prevalent there and most people would eat the red meat. It was more about Americans being afraid to eat the red meat because of ignoring the base rate information making us think that mad cow cases were more prevalent than they really were.
About the bird flu, it could be the same thing with people blowing it out of proportion or it the government can be withholding important information from the public so they do not induce a public outcry. I guess we will just have to wait to find out. I do believe though that the government does withhold information from the public, but it could be for our own protection. Because, sometimes, knowing all the information can be a bad thing. I also think that the government’s tactics under Bush are absurd. Do they honestly think that they can quarantine half of the nation? It is very ridiculous, and as Laura said, the bird flu can spread from so many different ways. We need to concentrate on finding a vaccination for this and ways to prevent it from spreading. However, quarantining half the nation is not the answer.
Hey,
I think this was one of your best posts thus far. The avian flu worries me as well. You don't really hear too much about it, but apparently if this flu catches on, the risk would be tremendous.
I think Bush is doing a decent job with this. I hope he realizes the full extent of what could happen, and gets the drug companies moving on creating vaccines.
Bush sometimes worries me when there is potential for disaster. Whether it be 9/11, or the tsunami, or Katrina, it is almost as if Bush doesn't realize the extent of how bad things really are. I hope the avian flu isn't the next thing to go wrong for our nation.
Thanks,
Joe
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