Bird flu likely in US this year: Norton / Prepare to die

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REUTERS TODAY:

Bird flu likely in US this year: Norton

Mon Mar 20, 2006 18:05

64.140.159.111

 

 

Bird flu likely in US this year: Norton

Mon Mar 20, 2006 1:29 PM ET

SOURCE: REUTERS TODAY:

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton said on

Monday said that it was " increasingly likely " that bird flu would be

detected in the United States as early as this year.

 

Speaking to reporters, Norton and Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns

unveiled a plan to increase monitoring of migratory birds that are

likely to bring the bird flu virus to U.S. shores.

 

Norton said bird flu would likely first be detected in the Pacific

islands in Alaska, where testing for the disease will be a priority.

 

Norton stressed that detecting the disease in birds in the United

States would not signal the start of a human pandemic.

 

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Prepare to die

 

SOURCE W/LINKS:

http://www.sploid.com/news/2006/03/prepare_to_die.php

 

 

Across the country, Americans are being warned this week to prepare

for something terrible.

 

From San Diego to Seattle, nervous newscasters are repeating the dire

warnings issued by local governments:

 

It's going to be bad. Stock up on water and batteries and medicine.

You'll be alone, and there won't any electricity or heating fuel.

Phones, the Internet and TV will be as useless as the dry water

faucets. Nobody will save your family.

 

Those living in rural Pennsylvania and Colombus, Ohio, are being

pounded with the same vague yet terrifying message.

 

And in Minneapolis, bureaucrats trotted out their most morbid

instructions of all: " How to bury your dead. "

 

Don't put your loved ones too close to the septic tank.

 

That was some of the advice offered Wednesday at a Minneapolis

" business conference on preparing for a potentially lethal bird flu

pandemic, " according to the Reuters news service.

 

In San Francisco on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human

Services Mike Leavitt had a similarly grim warning for Americans.

 

" Any community that fails to prepare with the expectation that the

federal government will step in and rescue them will be sadly

disappointed, " Leavitt said at a meeting of the elitist Commonwealth

Club. " Not because we lack a will, not because we lack a wallet, but

because we lack a way. "

 

On Sunday, Leavitt made it even plainer. Americans need to stock up on

" tuna fish and powdered milk, " he said. Now.

 

All week long, ABC News has battered viewers with pre-disaster

reports, starting in the mornings on its popular nationally-broadcast

" Good Morning America " program.

 

The " Be Ready " report makes it clear something absolutely awful is

about to happen:

 

" It may feel odd or uncomfortable to talk to family members and loved

ones about the worst-case pandemic scenario. But if that scenario

strikes, you'll all be much better off if you have a plan decided on

and ready. "

 

On Tuesday night, World News Tonight provided the most chilling

prediction: Half of us will die from the Bird Flu.

 

Robert G. Webster, " the first scientist to find the link between human

flu and bird flu, " delivered the hellish prophecy.

 

" I personally believe it will happen, " said Webster, who apparently

believes it enough to have a three-month stock of food and water

hidden at his house.

 

" Society just can't accept the idea that 50% of the population could

die. And I think we have to face that possibility, " Webster said.

 

" I'm sorry if I'm making people a little frightened, but I feel it's

my role. "

 

Keeping to his 50% routine, Webster said there's an even chance the

H5N1 avian flu will make a full migration to humans and begin the killing.

 

Meanwhile, Time Magazine posted an alarming front-page story on its

website on Wednesday.

 

" A little bit of panic helps folks prepare emotionally for what the

future may hold, " the magazine reported.

 

Killer flu, or something worse?

 

Many of the warnings are related to the Avian Flu scare. But almost as

many of this week's doomsayers are being noticeably vague about the

apocalypse at hand.

 

Around Seattle, they seem to be talking about natural disasters like

earthquakes -- even though damaging earthquakes rare in the region. In

the Appalachian backwoods of Eastern Maryland, they're convinced Arab

terrorists are about to attack the local diner. In San Diego,

fearmongers use Hurricane Katrina as the example of the coming

disaster -- even though earthquakes and wildfires are the only

expected natural disasters.

 

Few people attend County Board of Supervisors' meetings, so San Diego

officials decided to repeatedly broadcast the scare session on

prime-time television beginning last night.

 

When whatever it is hits, " You need to stay home, " Supervisor Bill

Horn commanded at the Wednesday meeting.

 

" Really, there aren't any evacuation routes out of San Diego. We have

two freeways to the north and one to the east, and they don't really

handle traffic that well on a daily basis. What we would like is to

have people be secure in their homes, and not to have runs on grocery

stores and those kinds of things. "

 

In Athens, Ohio, residents are being told to expect closed schools,

collapsed local government and brutal quarantines.

 

But it gets worse. This week, Americans are being told they " know " a

disaster is about to destroy the United States -- along with the rest

of the world -- because that's the plot of a popular horror novel

first published a quarter-century ago.

 

ABC News took the bizarre step on Tuesday of describing Stephen King's

pandemic thriller, The Stand ... and then claiming King's fictional

scenario is what Americans believe is actually happening right now:

 

" We've all heard the doomsday scenarios of what could happen if an

avian flu pandemic takes a grip on the United States: millions dead,

millions more sick, basic utilities and services unavailable,

hospitals overrun and unable to cope, communities reduced to

devastation like something out of Stephen King's The Stand. "

 

Why this week?

 

The tsunami of impending-disaster news might be easier to ignore if it

was part of a " cause month, " such as the awkward appearance of

positive stories about black Americans during " Black History Month. "

 

But the Department of Homeland Security's " National Preparedness

Month " doesn't come again until September.

http://www.thismodernworld.com/weblog/mtarchives/week_2004_08_08.html#001686