Given Bush's incompetence to act in any capacity to avert disaster, except to say afterward "I didn't know about it until yesterday", I shudder to think what Americans will go through if bird flu goes pandemic and it's bad.
IMO, we'll have the same experience as any other 3rd world country. Lots of dead people, and we're on our own in trying to respond.
"GENEVA - For years after its appearance in 1997 in Hong Kong, the current bird flu virus seemed corralled in a few east Asian countries. But in the past four months, it has spread across Europe and into Africa, bringing to 31 the number of countries with sick birds.
People have caught it in a quarter of those, and just six people outside east Asia have died. The virus is still not easily caught by humans.
Even so, its sudden sweep across continents on the wings of birds has stunned public health officials. And most say they cannot predict where or when this disturbing germ might mutate into a form that could unleash a deadly flu epidemic.
"Anywhere the virus lands," said Dr. Mike Perdue of the global influenza program for the World Health Organization."
Yahoo linkIt will be here soon. Bush has put Chertoff in charge of the bird flu response. IMO, that basically means cities would be sealed off by the military and the people within would be left to die - the same strategy used after Katrina. Could this have been a test case to guage public reaction to a panic situation the government fails to respond to?
Given the possibility that a pandemic could be far more widespread than the Katrina disaster, I shudder to think of what the Bush response would be. Bomb infected towns to contain the threat? Go down into the bunker to wait it out? One thing I am certain of - Bush won't be among the unlucky Americans who don't get a vaccine. Nor, I'm sure, will his cronies. If I've learned anything from the madman at the top, it's that he takes care of himself and his cronies no matter what the cost to our country.
Added to Bush's general, overall incompetence in responding to crises, there's his penchant for absolute power. I have no doubt Bush would use the distruption of a pandemic to declare martial law, and declare himself permanent despot in chief. I shudder to think of what draconian executive orders would issue from his office. His reaction could be far worse than the pandemic itself.
Current death rates for bird flu infection are 50%. How much worse would they be if Bush sits on his hands and does nothing, which he SO likes to do? Personally, I hope a pandemic holds off until Bush is out of power. American lives depend on it.
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