Is bird flu being hyped? Of course it is. The media loves
these kinds of stories. Politicians love to use them as
distractors.

But just because the issue is being over-hyped by the media
doesn't mean we shouldn't be concerned. The great flu epidemic
that happened after WWI was a "bird" flu and it spread because
the virus mutated AND human were moving all over the planet
spreading the virus. It may have originated in birds, but
people caused the pandemic.

Avian influenzas are a class of viruses that begin in birds.
Humans who spend a lot of time working with poultry are suceptible
to bird to human tranfers, but unless the virus changes (mutates)
human to human transfer doesn't happen (or at least rarely happens).
Being prepared by having the capaicity to produce vaccines makes
sense. Being prepared by having plans in place for managing
outbreaks with an orderly stratgy of containment rather than a
"me first" mob scene would be useful, too.

My advice. Turn Fox News off (I have it v-chipped on my TV).
If you must watch TV news set limits or just watch PBS. Read
print articles on the subject and make sure you get all the way
to the 10th or 12th paragraph where the real information is.
This works with political stuff also.

Subject: Bird Flu
From: "Nancy" <nelrjb AT comcast.net>
Date: Tue, 8 Nov 2005 05:46:00 -0800

Hello Tweets,
Will someone please clarify this issue for me. I read the article that Dennis
sent and it is a bit technical for me to grasp.


What I do not understand is how this virus is becoming such a worry that it
could kill millions of humans if they say it does not pose a threat now. I have
heard reports on NPR for weeks and now that GWB is involved it is even more in
our face. Why should we spend billions to research this? Is this sensationalism
by the press or a real problem when the virus mutates? If it has only killed a
few people in China, how do they extrapolate to possibly killing millions?

Nancy Lander
Renton, WA._______________________________________________
Tweeters mailing list
Tweeters AT u.washington.edu
http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters


--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
celata at pacifier.com

Book Review: _Rare Bird_ by Maria Mudd Ruth
http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/003190.html