Bird Flu In Perspective - Public Fears Exaggerated
CategoriesIn an article on Lew Rockwell's site, Charley Reese comments on the excesses of propaganda we get dosed with daily about the epidemic or even pandemic that is - according to some of the government "experts" - inevitable. With 60 human deaths so far and no confirmed human-to-human transmission of the bird virus, there is really no cause for such exaggerated alarm.
It seems that what is now called the avian flu has been around for several decades and that it may just be a natural consequence of our growing birds for food - keeping them in cramped quarters, filling them full of antibiotics and other pharmaceutical goodies - in ideal conditions for illnesses to breed and develop.
The "deadly virus" that is being hyped as the new boogeyman - H5N1 - has been around for decades. For those with a short memory, the SARS scare of recent memory was about the same virus, and several of the earliest SARS cases originated in bio-research laboratories, killing researchers who were tweaking the virus to find a way to suppress it while keeping the chicken pens filled to the brim. "Patient Zero", as he was called at the time, was a researcher working in a Chinese government laboratory doing vaccine research.
But SARS did fade away - only to re-appear under a new name. This time it is called the bid flu or, sometimes, the avian flu. Same virus, same scary prospects - or are they?
Let's start with Charley Reese's take as published on LewRockwell.com.
Don't Worry About Bird Flu
by Charley Reese
October 18, 2005As of now, so far as we know, on Planet Earth about 60 people out of 6 billion have died of bird flu. All were involved in handling sick birds. There is, as of now, no recorded case of bird flu being transmitted from one human to another - something that is necessary before even an epidemic, much less a pandemic, could occur.
An epidemic is a widespread outbreak of a disease in a particular community at a particular time. A pandemic is an outbreak of disease in a whole country or in several countries. Pandemics occur, on the average, every 30 to 40 years.
What I'm trying to do is add some perspective to the current semihysteria being whipped up by politicians and the media. Certainly the virus that causes bird flu could mutate so that it could be transmitted from human to human. Such mutations, while typical of viruses, ordinarily occur over a period of years, not overnight.
If you are inclined toward hypochondria, reading an article on viruses in a good encyclopedia will give you the creeps. There are zillions of them, but fortunately most of them are harmless. They are not really critters, but parasitic bits of protein that have to attach themselves to living cells. They are so small, they can only be seen by an electron microscope, which was invented in the 1940s. A Russian in 1892 and a Dutchman in 1898 began to suspect that there was some kind of infectious agent that was not a bacterium or a microorganism. Whatever it was, it was small enough to pass through a porcelain filter that stopped bacteria. That fact, by the way, should limit one's faith in latex as protection against viral infections.
So, before you let politicians, the media, the pharmaceutical companies and the grant hogs at the National Institutes of Health scare you with stories about being wiped out by a bird-flu pandemic, consider the following: If you are more than 50 years old, you've already lived through two pandemics of flu and probably didn't even know it.
At any moment, some new virus might appear that would cause mankind big problems. Earth is a hazardous environment. Humans are all mortal. The only people who have ever gotten off the planet alive are astronauts and cosmonauts.
If the bird-flu virus should mutate so that it can travel human to human, there is no vaccine for it. It would have to be treated with the old methods of trying to isolate those infected with it. The only thing individuals could do to protect themselves would be to avoid crowds, stop picking their noses or using their fingers as toothpicks, and wash their hands several times a day.
At any rate, pandemics - even the bad one in 1918/1919 - run their course and stop on their own, usually in a year or two. Even the 1918 one killed only about 550,000 Americans, and so it is well to keep in mind for perspective purposes that, on average, 2 million of us die every year from one cause or another.
I'm just trying to say keep a stiff upper lip and don't let the new phenomenon of 24/7 television tie your knickers in a knot. It is the nature of that business to be in a continuing state of fretting about something. It was one of Shakespeare's characters, I think, who put the matter so well: We all owe God a death, so if we pay today we are quit for tomorrow.
For the sake of your mental health, turn off your TV, then practice good personal hygiene, go about your daily life and enjoy, as the old pioneers used to say, every day you have above ground. Our Earth may be hazardous to our health, but it is one beautiful place to live.
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This recent article about the development of a better vaccine in China might just show that there is indeed a solution that can buy us some time - before we decide to feed those birds properly and to liberate them from their cramped existence in the factory farms...
China says it has better bird flu vaccineSaturday, October 15, 2005.
China has developed a new and better vaccine for use on birds against the avian influenza strain that scientists fear could cause a global pandemic among humans, state media said.
The vaccine had the advantage of fighting another common bird disease, as well as the H5N1 influenza strain that has spread from Asia to Europe, state television reported.
It identified this as avulavirus APMV-1, also known as Newcastle disease.
"What's more, the new vaccine is safer, more convenient to use and cannot kill new born chicks," it said, listing attributes that made it more attractive to farmers than a vaccine they were already using.
For example, the new vaccine could be applied by spraying.
"In addition, the cost of the new vaccine in mass production is only one fifth of that of the previous vaccine."
The country was preparing to put the vaccine into mass production, Xinhua new agency reported.
The H5N1 bird flu strain emerged in Hong Kong in 1997, resurfaced in 2003 in South Korea and has since spread to other Asian countries and Europe. It was confirmed on Saturday in Romania.
The disease has infected 117 people and killed 60, according to the World Health Organisation, which believes it is only a matter of time before it develops the ability to pass easily from human to human, possibly causing a catastrophic pandemic.
- - -French Daily Le Monde, in a recent editorial, says the virus is a natural consequence of how we treat chickens, adding that the West has practically refused to treat the source point of this possible epidemic - chickens and other fowl raised for human consumption in the Asian countries.
The H5N1 Equation
Le Monde | EditorialFriday 14 October 2005
We've known everything about avian flu for a long time. Here's a "documented" disease that presents no enigma to specialists, unlike the disease called "mad cow." That could be a very reassuring factor had the international community not demonstrated a confusing lack of solidarity the last two years when it failed to bring a resolute assistance to bear on the poor countries of Asia and South-East Asia that were the first affected.
Let us summarize: the virus in question is the sub-type H5N1, a highly pathological virus, clearly discovered and identified for the first time several decades ago among wild birds. The epizootic in question today broke out at the end of 2003. At first, it principally affected Vietnam, Thailand and South Korea, then China, Taiwan, Japan, Cambodia, and Laos. In this geographic zone, about 150 people have been infected while plucking poultry and 60 of them have died. In parallel, the authorities in the affected countries have proceeded to slaughter over 100 million chickens, ducks, and geese.
At that stage, the H5N1 equation was rather easy to resolve. A vaccination to immunize poultry exists. Rich countries should have reacted immediately by freeing up the financial resources to arrest this bird plague where it came from. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that investments over the next three years for that purpose would come to 100 million dollars. But up to now, only 20 million dollars have been promised, while, according to the British daily "Financial Times," the United States alone is getting ready to place an order for antiviral medicine of over a billion dollars.
Suddenly, the equation begins to change its nature. At first localized and circumscribed, the epidemic prospers and globalizes. It was discovered in Russia and Kazakhstan in August; in Turkey and Romania today. Once imaginary, the risk of a pandemic striking Europe has become palpable. And, in fact, the European Commission's tone abruptly changed on Thursday, October 13. It had been distractedly attentive. Now it is mobilized.
Paris also intends to increase its communications. The Prime Minister tries to reassure by declaring: "We now already have an operational apparatus." Happy news. France is one of the most affected countries because it is the premier producer of poultry in the European Union and number three in the world after the United States and Brazil. This situation imposes a very specific vigilance on it.
By virtue of traveling and dispersion, even slowly, the H5N1 equation has, in fact, become an equation of an unknown. As in Asia, the risk exists that the virus will infect people here also. Panic is a poor counselor. One the other hand, respect for a serious hygiene policy is desirable.
- - -
Patrick Sabatier writing in "Liberation", takes a similar view. Vigilance will - probably - overcome any prospect of a pandemic, he says.
Anxieties
By Patrick Sabatier
LibérationFriday 14 October 2005
Between the desire not to panic the people and the desire to let it know that the Republic watches over its security by preparing for the worst, there is barely the thickness of a feather of a flu-infected chicken. Now that the H5N1 invader has landed in Europe (Turkey seems to have all of a sudden been integrated into the Union) and established a bridgehead here, the authorities' fever, in Paris, Brussels, and other European capitals, has climbed up several degrees on the thermometer of declarations, meetings, and mobilizations of all sorts. Just about everywhere, Tamiflu stock is rising on the exchanges of popular anxieties, and the quest for a magic potion that will protect against avian flu has become feverish.
Only two months ago, the authorities attempted to be reassuring - the dirty beasts took wing from the Indonesian archipelago to the Siberian lakes. Today, they're less sure of themselves. Commissioner Kipryanou foresees "a large number of deaths," Villepin mobilizes to the bugle call of patriotic hygiene. After all, the 1918 flu pandemic with its 40 million deaths killed more people than the Great War, without even mentioning 1348 and the black plague.
The big difference between these plagues of the past is that today the virus cannot take people by surprise. The alert is general and the surveillance international.
Globalization conjugates itself along with the principle of precaution. Which will (perhaps) avert science fiction scenarios - in which masked citizens wander around inside paralyzed cities, pharmacies are defended by the army and peasants placed in quarantine in the midst of pyramids of chicken carcasses - from one day becoming a real horror movie in which we are all involuntary extras.
- - -See also:
How to Stop Bird Flu - Instead of the Vaccine-Antiviral Model
We've had twenty years of the same vaccine-antiviral model for the current AIDS pandemic, with little sign of progress. The multibillion-dollar global initiative to combat AIDS has created expensive patented drugs with very toxic side effects that poor countries cannot afford anyways, and vaccines that are ineffective at best and at worst, unsafe. The policy is not working because the root causes of the pandemic, indeed any pandemic - poverty and malnutrition - have not been addressed. There have been serious abuses of this flawed approach that have come to light...The Bird Flu Breakdown Part 1: Two Children in Vietnam
The much anticipated bird-flu plague has yet to emerge, despite much hue and cry. This comes as no surprise to those of us who are familiar with the machinations of the WHO (World Health Organization), CDC and NIH, and their pharmaceutical partners. But, for those more trusting of public health authorities who wish to know more about the making of public health policy, I thought I’d review some of the bright and shiny inconsistencies that have come into view on the bird flu.Is Avian Flu another Pentagon Hoax?
by F. William Engdahl - October 30, 2005
GlobalResearch.ca
Against all scientific prudence and normal public health procedure, the world population is being whipped up into a fear frenzy by irresponsible public health officials from the US Administration to WHO to the United States Centers for Disease Control. They all warn about the imminent danger that a malicious viral strain might spread from infected birds, primarily in Vietnam and other Asian centers, to contaminate the entire human species in pandemic proportions. Often the flu pandemic of 1918 which is said to have killed 18 million worldwide, is cited as an example of what ‘might’ lie in store for us.If, like myself, you don't think getting a vaccine will help much, here is how to prepare for the avian influenza by some simple hygiene actions and some natural (nutrition-centered) measures to shore up immune defenses.
Indonesian researcher finds herbal formula to curb bird flu
Experts Dismiss Scare over Bird Flu
Bush's Fowl Play
by Jeffrey Tucker
[Posted on Wednesday, November 09, 2005]
In a classic case of News of the Weird, President Bush gave a press conference the other day to announce yet another central plan to deal with yet another disaster — this time an impending disaster, or so he claimed. It seems that some birds are catching a flu called Avian Influenza or, more commonly, the bird flu. It causes ruffled feathers and a drop in egg production. It can kill a chicken in two days flat. Scary.ELIMINATING BIRD FLU FEARS
Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, DO - December 7, 2005
A level-headed examination of 10 important facts shows that the prevailing alarmist point of view is inaccurate, irresponsible and self-serving.Is bird flu a conspiracy?
Is there a link between Donald Rumsfeld and Gilead the company which invented Tamiflu and licensed it to Roche?No Panic - Dr. Stephan Lanka on Bird Flu, AIDS and the Corruption of Medicine
Bird flu not a public threat?
As the bird flu spreads through Europe, the British government's chief scientist said the chance of a British person getting bird flu is 1 in 100 million.FOWL! Bird flu - What it's really all about
Dr. Sherri Tenpenny
We've all been hearing the news about bird flu. Daily reports tell us that this "so-called" deadly and dangerous strain of influenza is going to jump the species barrier and cause millions of people around the world to get sick and possibly die. In this enlightening interview, Dr. Sherri Tenpenny will forever change the way you view environmental policy, the pharmaceutical industry and the government's role in the dissemination of public health information. Dr. Tenpenny looks beyond the hysteria and exposes the vested interests poised to exploit the fear being generated about bird flu.Risk of human flu outbreak 'low'
BBC - April 2006: The chances of bird flu virus mutating into a form that spreads between humans are "very low", the government's chief scientific adviser has said. Sir David King said any suggestion a global flu pandemic in humans was inevitable was "totally misleading".
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Wednesday October 19 2005
updated on Thursday October 2 2008URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2005/10/19/bird_flu_in_perspective_public_fears_exaggerated.htm
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