Reply #24: He's trying to lower expectations

[achtung_circus]

From an animal health clipping service to which I subscribe:

Bird flu could hit Americas within a year: UN
March 8, 2006
Reuters
Irwin Arieff
UNITED NATIONS - Dr. David Nabarro, coordinator of the U.N. drive to contain the pandemic in birds and prepare for its possible jump to humans, was cited as saying that bird flu, already spreading across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, is expected to jump across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas within a year, adding, "It is certainly within the next six to 12 months. And who knows, we've been wrong on other things, it could be earlier."
Nabarro was cited as predicting the leap across the Atlantic Ocean would take place in two stages, carried in the next few months by wild birds flying from West Africa to the Arctic region, and then brought southward to North and South America six months later, adding, "I just think that every country in the world now needs to have its veterinary services on high alert for H5N1, to try to make sure that they don't get caught unawares and find that it gets into their poultry populations without knowing. And I will bet you that many countries in the Western Hemisphere are doing just that."
The story says that for the immediate future, the spread of the disease among birds in Africa is the main focus of the U.N. team -- which includes the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health.