Letters to the Editor
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One sentence sums it up:
"Conservatives tend to change their attitudes quickly when their own lives and families might be endangered." From abortion to drug laws to clean government, this has always been the right wing attitude: OK for "those people" but not for me and mine. Very well said, Joe.
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Avian Flu
Is the focus on avian flu a right-wing conspiracy?
I know that a flu pandemic would/could be horrible, but it hasn't happened. The tricky thing about the flu virus is that it constantly mutates. If the virus mutated so that it easily jumped from human to human AND mutated so that it was a fatal virus like the 1918 epidemic THEN we would be in trouble. But, this requires two separate mutations. What is the chance? Are we just being distracted from Iraq, Plame, Rove, Libby, the economy, fuel prices, Katrina, DeLay, Frist, Meirs, global warming, etc., etc.? How many headlines have we had on a flu that hasn't happened yet? I smell media manipulation!
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For goodness sake
Just have to day to Tommie46:
If the virus mutated so that it easily jumped from human to human AND mutated so that it was a fatal virus like the 1918 epidemic THEN we would be in trouble. But, this requires two separate mutations. What is the chance?
Dude, have you been paying any attention at all? The whole point of the current concern is that one of those two types of mutations -- being fatal like 1918 -- has already happend. This virulent strain is spreading globally among the bird population right now, and has demonstrated in many instances an ability to cross over into humans, and kill humans (with possibly a 50% mortality rate). We're just one more mutation away from the pandemic: a version that can spread easily from human to humamn. As you admit, the flu virus is constantly mutates, so we could be mere months away from ignition.
"It hasn't happened yet" is a disgustingly poor line of reasoning. If it's happening, it's already too late! Get it?!
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We need to do more
The British tried the free market approach during the Irish famine. While people were starving, Ireland, then a British colony, was exporting grain to the highest bidder. Face it, free markets are not altruistic nor are they efficient when it come to dealing with disasters. Then as always in the free market it is every man/woman for themselves.
If we really think a pandemic is likely, or even possible, the US should nationalize the vaccine industry and put it on a war footing--a move similar to the Manhatten project. We should also abrogate patent on drugs effective agains flu and assure an adequate supply is available as quickly as possible.
We did the same in WW II when there was only a possibility that someone else would develop a nuclear weapon. Now there is a possibility that millions will die from the flu.
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While I agree whole-heartedly with Joe on
the irony of conservatives suddenly becoming supportive of public health when they're personally threatened, I have to say tommy46's point is one with which I also agree whole-heartedly. Bird flu epidemics happen frequently; nearly annually. There was a major bird flu epidemic on the northeast, especially Pennsylvania, in the, ummmm, early 80s I believe, that did a lot of damage to poultry farmers but very little else. These are common events. There're a couple of differences from the past. One is the speed with which we hear about problems - and the problems we tend to play up. There're major problems in India with cholera and Japanese B encephalitis right now, and they keep having bubonic plague bubbling along. Those a scary diseases with very high fatality rates, and Japanese B nearly always leaves the victims with residual neurologic deficits. However in the normal course of things flu spreads so much more easily and quickly that the sheer numbers of ill are overwhelming and can mean large numbers of hospitalized or dead people. So for a world-wide outbreak, flu is the big scary. So why now? Well, perhaps the flu types are indeed shifting to something scary - after all, look at the high death rate from people who do catch what the chickenc have. However, that's usually the case with a virus whose usual host is not human - the disease has a much higher mortality rate than normal human illnesses. Second, I'm going into tinfoil hat mode here and hypothesize that some people are making hay out of warning us about scary disease outbreaks. Some of these people are epidemiologists who have a name in infectious diseases, and should really know better. But I smell at least a hint of career self-promotion with some of these folks, and the media are always happy to find a scientist or two willing to help them out. Maybe they're actually believing what they're saying, but some of the noisier parties in this circus I've had personal experience with, and I harbor serious doubts. I think there's a heavy aroma of an agenda about all this.
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Avian flu means profits for Rumsfeld
As reported elsewhere, Donald Rumsfeld stands to make millions from the potential Pandemic. It's just another Hallburton-style manipulation designed to line the pockets of Bush's pals. It's a win-win situation for the administration. Create a news story that distracts from actual, ongoing threats; pretend they care about the health of anyone but their immediate families; create a demand for the vaccine that drives the stock up; pour billions of federal dollars into Gilead, whose tamiflu vaccine is suspect at best, and keep us all too scared to question them.
If I thought they were capable of planning anything bigger than lunch, I'd presume they intentionally didn't stock enough vaccine for US citizens in order to maximize profits
Maybe I've just become numb from a dozen doomsday scenarios a year; asteroids, SARS, mad cow, flu vaccine shortages, swine flu, you name it - I just don't beleive that avian flu is gling to end the world as we know it, either. The free market won't save us - it will simply profit from our panic.
http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=1443
http://www.mercola.com/2005/oct/25/rumsfeld_to_profit_from_avian_flu_hoax.htm#