Bird Flu In Perspective - Public Fears Exaggerated

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19 Oct 2005 10:02:22 -0000

Health Supreme Update: Bird Flu In Perspective - Public Fears

Exaggerated

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http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2005/10/19/bird_flu_in_perspective_public_f\

ears_exaggerated.htm

 

 

 

Health Supreme Update: Bird Flu In Perspective - Public Fears

Exaggerated

 

2005.10.19 12:02:22

 

 

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In 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, 2005

 

As 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.

 

- - -

 

 

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 vaccine

 

Saturday, October 15, 2005.

 

(see original)

 

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 | Editorial

 

Friday 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

Libération

 

Friday 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:

 

Avian Flu Epidemic Scare is a Hoax

http://www.mercola.com/blog/2005/oct/18/avian_flu_epidemic_scare_is_a_hoax

 

 

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.

http://www.cqs.com/influenza.htm

 

 

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