Is it a coincidence that Bird Flu is in Iraq???

[gWbush is Mabus]

1. Rumsfeld buys Tamiflu stock
2. Training exercises in the U.S. south for an outbreak/ containment
3. Bird flu "discovered" in Iraq

[LSparkle]

1. I doubt it -- Why did they make fighting this a priority before outbreak?

It's kind of like * saying that certain things could only happen in a time of "war" during the '00 election and -- voila, we have a "war" ...

[laruemtt]

2. so are they going to

quarantine those soldiers and not allow them to come home?!

[kurth]

3. Are there flights there from China Air Lines?

[Warpy]

4. Oh, please

It's been detected in birds in Turkey and eastern Europe. Kids have died from it in Turkey.

Wild birds are the H5N1 reservoir, and they don't give a shit where national borders are. This thing is spreading along migratory routes, and human politics don't have a damned thing to do with it.

Right now, the risk is to poultry workers and farmers in close proxminity to sick birds. The species jump to swine hasn't happened (pigs have gotten it but haven't transmitted it to each other), and that pretty much has to happen before it jumps species again to humans. That's been the pattern in the past.

Because it's a particularly virulent strain, it has to be watched closely. However, it's far too soon for anyone who isn't in daily contact with poultry or wild birds to be concerned at all. It's certainly inappropriate to work up some sort of wild conspiracy theory over it.

It's a DISEASE, not anything else.

[gkhouston]

5. Actually, it could indeed be a coincidence.

It's been gradually spreading out of Asia and has been in Turkey for a while. Not surprising we'd see some in Iraq. The only odd thing is that there have been reports of human cases, but not reports of cases in birds. Then again, Iraq is such a mess right now that anything approaching an organized reporting system just ain't gonna happen.

[mike_c]

6. oh for pity's sake....

Birds MIGRATE.

[FreedomAngel82]

7. You got it

[Sadie5]

8. Bird Flu??

It sounded laughable when I first heard of it, then Rummy bought stock in Tami flu, it was blazoned across the CNN screen all day, all the time. It was then I began to get the whole picture. Rummy wanted to sell the vaccine and make another billion off the backs of the hard working American folks. What better way to do that than to create an artificial epidemic. Give it to a few in Iraq and look at what happens, the public goes wild.