Comments on Be Afraid

Ban birds from restaurants now!

I'm terrified.

Your "stockpile" is just a bottle of Jim Beam. And it's in your desk.

broken link to the first article?

We need a good virus to wipe out half the human population. That's the only real way to save this planet.

fixed the links.

I haven't been this terrified since it was December 1999 and we all knew for sure that in a month's time the power grid was going to go haywire and riots and looting would result.

So is it okay for people to let their cats back outside now?

lol @ Jonah (3)

A highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 was identified at a poultry farm in Germany on Saturday. They had to slaughter 160,000 birds to prevent contamination. Only a matter of time.

This is one of the few things I agree with you on Erica. We are long overdue for a major epidemic or pandemic. My girlfriend and I also have stockpiled food etc. in case this or an earthquake happens.

@5 is correct. We don't need Al Gore to solve our problems. Mother Nature will fix herself.

list of things to be paranoid about:
sars
mad cow
killer bees
bird flu
terrorists
pit bulls

the whole bird flu thang is a conspiracy theory made up by the pork industry.

I agree with commentor #5. It is about time half the population is taken out.

Mongo,

You forgot:

Stray GOPers in airport bathrooms

The numbers of cases only reflect those officially confirmed by the WHO (not the band). Some countries, oh let's say China, like to skew the numbers to show on paper how effective their government is. Others, let's say Indonesia, like to downplay things so it won't deter tourism. Still others, let's say most of Africa, have little healthcare to speak of and a horrible death wouldn't be newsworthy.
The situation in Dafur may be worse than we know for all we know.
Read John Barry's the Great Influenza.

That's why spitting is so gross. Gee, how do you think SARS got spread around Hong Kong so easily. All of that loogie hawking. It's really gross. Bet you anything that Vancouver, BC gets hit a lot harder with any kind of bird flu thing than Seattle. All of that nasty spitting.

It's important to keep this in perspective. Flu epidemics just aren't huge killers anymore. In 1968 the "Hong Kong" epidemic killed 34,000 people in the U.S. Sounds like a lot, until you consider that on average 36,000 people die of the flu when there *isn't* an epidemic.

LOL, @19.

If indeed it has altered to a mutated form with a lethality in the 20 to 40 percent range, it will most likely behave like the 1918 influenza.

And, the joy of that is, it targets mostly the healthy young individuals with good immune systems.

If this spreads, stay home if you get the flu, but in the interim ... wash your hands with soap and water EVERY time.

That is the perspective.

In 1918 they barely understood what *caused* the flu, much less how to treat it. A modern epidemic would be different, as demonstrated by the fact that the 1957 and 1968 epidemics killed far fewer people.

I tend to agree with @21, and point to the successful containment of SARS as an example of how things are different today. Which is not to say that bird flu is a non-problem, of course, but I'm skeptical of the doomsday scenario.

Too tired to comment...must sleep...slog attached to my eyeballs...you forgot coyotes...

That was last year's flu, and it's stopped. This year's flu is going to be a different strain -- it always is. If THAT strain mutates so that it can pass from human to human, we'll have problems. But all this proves is that it's POSSIBLE -- and we already knew that.

If it happens, a ton of poor Asians are going to die, but it's not going to affect rich westerners that much. I'm much, much more worried about the effects of bird flu panic than I am bird flu.

First, the bold statement:

Local researchers have now proven[!?] that bird flu has finally mutated and can be transmitted from person to person. The outbreak occurred in 2006 in Indonesia.

Now, for a little reading and comprehension.

Experts at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research center in Seattle used statistical analysis and a computerized disease-transmission model to show the disease spread between a small number of people in one family.

Read: all they've got is some very wishful thinking.

The chain of infection involved a 10-year-old boy who likely caught the virus from his 37-year-old aunt who had been exposed to dead poultry and chicken feces (doesn't sound like a good idea, "H5N1" or not).

Researchers say the boy then probably passed the virus to his father. Hmm. Sounds rock-solid to me!

Researchers also say another bird flu case in eastern Turkey in 2006 that killed four people was probably spread person-to-person, but there wasn't enough statistical data to support the theory.

At least they're honest enough this time to tell us that they're full of shit.

We've gone from "proven" to "probably" and "likely". In other words, utter bullshit.

Some people just enjoy fearmongering.

Experts at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research center in Seattle used statistical analysis and a computerized disease-transmission model to show the disease spread between a small number of people in one family.

The chain of infection involved a 10-year-old boy who likely caught the virus from his 37-year-old aunt who had been exposed to dead poultry and chicken feces.

Researchers say the boy then probably passed the virus to his father.

... did you at least smoke some good shit before reading that?

They haven't got squat, Gomez.

"Bird Flu" is a lark (no pun intended).

@21 - yes, it would be different.

It would be worse.

In 1918 it took weeks for troops to ship from country to country.

Now it takes people hours to fly to cities around the world and spread it.