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Avian flu

Submitted by Blog - Henriette on 15 December, 2005 - 10:00
Blog categories: 
Holistics

Introducing some sanity into the proceedings.

Michael Fumento of the Hudson think tank has put it much better than I ever could, so I'll just give you the link:
Fuss and Feathers: Pandemic Panic over the Avian Flu.

A few excerpts:

"Indeed, one of the arguments against a human outbreak of H5N1 is that sick birds have been mixing with humans for years now without producing a pandemic."
"It's practically a state secret that the discovery of H5N1 in poultry dates back not to 1997 but rather to 1959, when it was identified in Scottish chickens." (that link goes to the WHO site, where they talk about avian flu viruses. It's dated March 2004.)
"So H5N1 has been flying around the globe for over four decades and hasn't done a number on us yet."

That WHO page includes a handy table:

Year Country/area      Domestic birds affected Strain
1959 Scotland          chicken                 H5N1
1991 England           turkey                  H5N1
1997 Hong Kong (China) chicken                 H5N1
2002 Hong Kong (China) chicken                 H5N1

So there's major fearmongering about something which has been around for decades, right along with major hyping of tamiflu, a vaccine which will not work, if this avian flu decides to mutate into human flu.

It's enough to make you go "hmmm".

Let's jump off the bandwagon. Let's stop the hype, stop the panic, stop the fearmongering, and above all, let's stop the useless buying frenzy of a vaccine which will never work for avian flu.

Comments

Submitted by jim mcdonald (not verified) on 15 December, 2005 - 17:21.

Let’s jump off the bandwagon. Let’s stop the hype, stop the panic, stop the fearmongering, and above all, let’s stop the useless buying frenzy of a vaccine which will never work for avian flu.

I'd add: let's, as well, not make fat the wallets of opportunistic "natural remedies" for the bird flu. Its not only the Meds trying to make a profit from spreading fear.

Submitted by Rebecca (not verified) on 19 December, 2005 - 19:15.

I agree with your assessment of the situation. One small correction, though -- tamiflu is not a vaccine, but an antiviral drug. (Works by preventing the virus from replicating, something that studies have shown elderberry does too.)

Submitted by Henriette on 20 December, 2005 - 09:10.

Thanks for that, Rebecca!