Media coverage of Bird Flu has just been awful...

[SaveElmer]

First, every day we are treated to alarmist headlines, only to find that the articles contain almost no new information...just rehashing what has gone before...

Rarely are all sides presented...just the same "if" the flu mutates it could do this, or "if" the flu mutates it could do that.

No discussion of the different points of view on how likely that is of occurring, or if they do it is always on the alarmist side. There are a number of well respected scientists, virologists, and doctors who do not believe a mutation, or pandemic is imminent.

And last...they can't even agree on the most basic of information..

Here is the last line of an article on abcnews.com

"There is no vaccine to protect against bird flu, but experts believe the standard flu vaccine could help."

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1211542&page=2

And here is CBS...

"A vaccine made from the exact strain of bird flu virus that is causing human deaths could be one of the world's only defenses.

So far trials show the vaccine will work. The question is whether we will be able to produce enough of it in a hurry in a worst case scenario. "

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/13/health/main943374.shtml


Well which is it...will the standard vaccine offer some protection as ABC implies, or won't it as CBS implies. Is there a vaccine in the works as CBS implies, or isn't there as ABC implies?

Just bad, bad, reporting IMO!!!

[graywarrior]

1. The media is wise to America's newly created addiction.

Terror. It sells.

[PassingFair]

2. Dontcha just LOVE how they waited until we are smack

in the middle of flu season to hype this stuff?

[SaveElmer]

3. It;s an endless source of headlines for them...

What is going to happen can only be speculated, so the media can come up with anything.

"Millions COULD die in pandemic"

"Flu COULD spread quickly in jet age"

"Flu COULD spread through Europe now that the flu has been detected in..."

You can make anything out of it. Of course when you read the articles it is all the same information dressed up differently!!!

[tk2kewl]

4. the coverage has been fowl

[graywarrior]

5. LOL

[Mojorabbit]

6. I am getting the news from

http://www.iflu.org
Stories from all over the world as they come in.

[rfkrfk]

7. Bird Flu Alert Level --> Orange, avoid air travel n/t

[meti57b]

8. Isn't it just as likely to mutate to a milder, less lethal form?

I would think that the more those little viruses are able to spread, the more laid back they would get, confident in their ability to survive.

[SaveElmer]

9. That is actually the likeliest scenario...

If it mutates at all. But it isn't scary enough so usually goes unmentioned.

[Silverhair]

10. There is no evolutionary pressure either way.

Normally, a disease has a strong evolutionary pressure to become less damaging to the host. If it is too lethal, it can kill the supply of hosts before it gets a chance to spread very far.

In humanity's hunter-gatherer days, the small size and isolation of the tribes acted as a natural quarantine. If a super bad bug did pop up, it killed one tribe and then died from lack of new victims.

But that barrier is now gone. A bad bug has 6 billion potential meals in front of it before it starts to starve. There is very little selective pressure toward mildness, at this time.

[SaveElmer]

11. There is no evidence for that...

The 1918 bug grew in the trenches of WWI, with weak, hungry, immune compromised soldier packed together literally like sardines as their breeding ground. There is no place, even in Asia like that today...The flu has been festering for 8 years in the most populated area on earth and still has not mutated. There are scientists who believe it cannot.

Some even believe in its current form it is becoming less virulent. The death rate has dropped from more than 75% to about 50%.

There were three pandemics in the 20th century, each progressively less severe than the prior one, despite population increases.

[bigwillq]

12. I think some people are overreacting

I hope so anyway.

I look at it like this. They say if it ever went to the US, millions would die. From what I know, only those in contact with infected birdds have become ill, no human-to-human contact yet.

So they think it will eventually spread from human to human?

If it does spread human to human, why aren't millions projected to die in the Far East?