I am sensing that Bushco

[TallahasseeGrannie]

is having success scaring the hell out of the population about the bird flu.

I just don't buy it. Yet.

[niyad]

1. nor do I--I treat it the same as I do the terror threat levels==yawwwnnnn

[Bluebear]

2. The only reason I buy it....

is that the WHO and international organizations have been talking about it for some time. Bush, as usual, seems late to the party where it concerns the actual safety of his own constituency.

[ken_g]

3. The threat is real, unfortunatley we have a village idiot for

president who wants EXPLOIT it rather than protect the American people. He wants to use the fear to receive authority to declare martial law. WORST PRESIDENT EVER!!

[Dogmudgeon]

4. Why it's backfiring

The news almost always goes out with the caveat that the vaccine is at least a year away from mass production -- and that very few of the ultra-rich pharmaceutical companies want to make vaccines because it is an expensive process.

People don't read this and cling to the ankles of our Savio(u)r George Bush -- they're much more inclined to cling to his neck as they try to strangle him.

--p!

[ClintonTyree]

5. What worries me most....

is that they might use it as a cover story for something more sinister of their own doing. I know that sounds a little tin-foil hattish :tinfoilhat: but I don't put anything past these criminals anymore.
It wouldn't take much for there to be an actual pandemic of the avian flu either. As soon as it mutates so it can be passed human to human, which shouldn't take long, all hell could break lose. Of course, our country is ill prepared, as always with the bushies in place, to handle an outbreak of such large proportions.

Either way, I bought a box of 50 N95 particulate respirators and am stocking up on canned goods. If the shit does hit the fan I'll be prepared.

[mike_c]

6. avian flu is FAR more threatening than "terra-ists...."

It's a ticking bomb-- and if this one doesn't go off, another one will, sooner or later. It's easy to lose sight of how dangerous influenza can be, but it's capable of apocolyptic death rates. Imagine people beginning to express the first symptoms in midmorning, and choking to death on their own body fluids before dinner, before they can even get to a hospital. Some strains have up to 70 percent mortality rates even with very good medical care, and the care delivery system will not be able to sustain that level in the face of a pandemic. This isn't dubya's fear machine talking-- I'm a biologist who knows enough about epidemiology and public health to take this very seriously. Public health officers have been pissing themselves in fear of avian flu for nearly two years now. It could go out with a whimper, but if it blows up, the global death toll could be catastrophic-- and that's not hyperbole.