Guest guest Posted February 10, 2007 Report Share Posted February 10, 2007 I know this is far from a debunking of Mercola, but I wrote this review of his The Great Bird Flu Hoax on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Great-Bird-Flu-Hoax-Pandemic/dp/0785221875/): <The Title is the Hoax I dove into reading Dr. Mercola's The Great Bird Flu Hoax expecting a thorough treatment of the science behind the bird flu laid out in such a way that it would show why we don't have to worry about bird flu. This was not the case. In fact, there was little sicence in the book and even less dealt with why Dr. Mercola felt bird flu was a hoax. What became apparent was how little Mercola knew about this highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 strain. The only two reasons he seems to have for believing the flu won't surface as a threat in the US are that it hasn't shown up in chickens in the US and that the human infection rates of bird flu are on the decline. Unfortunatley, neither of these reasons are correct. H5N1 doesn't need to appear in US flocks, nor does it need to enter via any non-human animal. Once the H5N1 mutates into a form that is highly contagious for humans, it will go global from human to human - airline flights will deliver it everywhere. Similarly, Mercola is oblivious to the fact that the bird flue is constantly mutating, again incorrectly trying to support his hypothesis with the current H5N1's inability to transmit easily to humans. Once it gets the right mutation - and it's only a matter of time - it will spread like a wildfire. As for the rate of human bird flu infections, not only are they not on the decline, but 2006 was the deadliest year so far for humans (granted, the book came out prior to the year's end)(World Health Organization. 2007. Avian Influenza Update Number 76. January 2. (.......). Mercola again seems to be lacking in his understanding of disease rates when he tries to reason away the lethality of this flu strain. Just like the 1918 bird flu that passed to humans and killed more people than any single war, death rates are based on reported incidents. So, not only is the lethality rate valid based on this, but his hypothesis of lots of unreported cases has been disproven. In the Cambodian province of Kampot, an outbreak of H5N1 killed dozens of chicken flocks and only one young farmer. Researchers swept in and tried to take blood from every family in the area to determine the actual human infection rate. They analyzed blood work from 351 area villagers. Not one person showed evidence of present or past infection. (Vong S, Coghlan B, Mardy S, et al. 2006. Low frequency of poultry-to-human H5N1 virus transmission, southern Cambodia, 2005. Emerging Infectious Disease 12(10). (...........). The focus of the book deals with his nutrition and health recommendations, and even here, he can't keep his facts straight. For example, he claims that only ..003% of eggs are infected with salmonella (p. 171), so that people shouldn't be afraid of eating raw eggs even if they can't get the " healthier " eggs. Yet, he goes to great lengths to show how dirty and contaminated chickens and eggs are from the intensive farming practices of factory farms earlier in the book. The Great Bird Flu Hoax is not without its good points. Mercola questions the benefits of Tamiflu based on its risks, although I'm hesitant to believe what he states because of his shoddy research on the flu itself. He points out the problems with vaccines and dangers of legislation that could take away our rights not to vaccinate in an emergency. And, he rightly accuses factory farms for being the source of the HPAI H5N1. Oh, I did appreciate being reminded about the benefits of naturally-fermented sauerkraut in fighting bird flu. > I never actually had a chance to finish writing the review, as you can tell from the abrupt ending, but I wanted to get it out there. Feel free to click " yes " to " was this review helpful. " :-) --Allison Posted by: " robin koloms " rkoloms rkoloms\ Fri Feb 9, 2007 5:53 am (PST) will you please debunk mercola, too? Need Mail bonding? Go to the Mail Q & A for great tips from Answers users. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 10, 2007 Report Share Posted February 10, 2007 oooooh! that review is great! I just voted! i think it is really important for people to give feedback like that on these book as i, for one, always check out the reviews before i purchase a book on amazon. it has always been one of my goals to leave reviews on amazon for all the books written/published by the WAPFers... sigh, if only there were enough hours in the day! karen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 11, 2007 Report Share Posted February 11, 2007 Reviewing books on Amazaon is a great way to get kids enthused about reading and writing. " k.beauford " <karen wrote: oooooh! that review is great! I just voted! i think it is really important for people to give feedback like that on these book as i, for one, always check out the reviews before i purchase a book on amazon. it has always been one of my goals to leave reviews on amazon for all the books written/published by the WAPFers... sigh, if only there were enough hours in the day! karen Food fight? Enjoy some healthy debate in the Answers Food & Drink Q & A. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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