This article
http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=000DCB5A-9CC7-134E-9CC783414B7F0000
indicates that armageddon is on the way and soon if authorities don't muster all their priorities towards protecting populations against the inevitable flu epidemic. The market system is reluctant to expend capital to build facilities for a protective cover to the human race so it seems that non-profit systems similar to armed forces maintenance and radical science such as operated to create the first atomic bomb is in order to deter a catastrophe that will make the last tsunami look insignificant. A great deal needs to be done and done quickly and efforts in the USA are, at the moment, totally inadequate.
I agree
No opinion
I disagree![[SPAM]](http://www.whynot.net/images/flagasspam.png)
Flag as spam
Add your comment
I'm not sure about this, it's being hyped 24/7 on TV and the virology professor who is on the news all the time saying that there is going to be a bird flu pandemic also gets a large amount of money for research from the drug company who make the popular anti-flu drugs.
Seems like there might be a conflict of interest here. People are buying this stuff like crazy and the drug company project that they will have sold 300 million doses by 2007, very profitable indeed for them.They dont know for certain if this particular anti-viral will block the hemagluttenin 'key' on the bird flu virus and prevent it from binding to human cell protein receptors so people may be wasting their money and giving themselves a false sense of security.
It is of small consequence whether or not a drug company is making profit out of panic. The threat is not mere hype and could seriously damage all world economic activity aside from the basic horror of millions of deaths from the disease itself. There is no way that the developed countries can provide a defense for most of their citizens under present technology. The undeveloped countries will suffer frightful losses. This is not my opinion. It is that of world health experts. Something radically new will have to be worked out if the world is to be saved. And, at present, little is being done. The billions now being expended on the terrorist threats will be meaningless if this plague occurs. The plague threat is far greater.
Armageddon?I don't think so. Look at the numbers, instead of the hype.Last time I heard only about 60 people had ever died of Avian flu. And nearly all of them in China. In rural areas where people had immediate contact with birds.Last I checked there had NEVER been a case of Avian flu transmitted between humans.So the media keeps saying "The sky is falling!" and we keep panicking. Well, I'll hold off on moving to the cabin in the woods until someone in THIS country gets it from some other person in this country. IF that ever happens.
I have heard interviews with people who deal with the regular pandemics that hit humanity. These people are not prejudiced by economic connections. They say the avian flu is on the threshold of a final mutation for human to human contagion such as occured in the 1918 disaster that killed millions very quickly. It is inevitable. It may take months or years or even decades to make that final transition but it will come.