Discouraging News

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2616595&page=1

There is a new strain now resistant to fowl vaccines. This whole game is like playing Whack-a-Mole and hoping that all of a sudden the More does not find a way to leave his hole in the wooden box.

More whining

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review.php?ID=24635
Here is the attitude that worries me. There has been scientific warning for years now on possible pandemic, but when it actually catches the mainline press and raises consciousness, then everyone thinks it must happen on schedule, sooner rather than later, or it is just a joke. It doesn't happen in a few months and Oh well........

This is what happened in New Orleans. There was always a possibility of an intense hurricane, but because people were warned so many times, they got used to it, and did not take precaution.

Scientists tell us pandemic will come. Tomorrow or in a decade. Individual preparation is all that is needed. Put away a little food, Prepare for being home a lot. Back up your energy needs. Plan.

We all wait for the emergency. Then it is too late. I have seen the inconvenience, shock, and fear that just 9 days of power loss and a little storm caused in Buffalo and that was when all surroundings areas could rally to help, when neighbors could help neighbors and when no one was dying of the trouble.

Listen, the World Health Organization may not get top news billing every day, but they say this is a huge world wide danger. People need to prepare for it just like they do for a house fire. Our houses that have never burned in 100 years still have smoke detectors, electrical inspections, fire extinquishers. Larger buildings install sprinkle systems.

This kind of whining is very irresponsible. It suggests that there is a plot to put people in panic for no reason when actually there is a panic that dysfunctional families and communities will be at a total loss if this hits and people ought to at least know the danger.

And it isn't like there is no news. There is news every day of folks attempting to make vaccine, making plans, testing wild birds, it just does not get in the daily news on the top of the page. And it won't. Every day someone has their car inspected too and problems corrected, but it is the car crashes that get the media attention.

Remember the joke about the farmer with the leaky roof. On sunny days he noticed nothing, but when it rained and roof leaked, well, who could fix the roof in the rain?

All the farmer with the leaky roof ended up was wet. The farmer with pandemic roof leaks may end up dead or worse yet, with dead children.

Bird Flu Vaccine might be a very good one

This is the best vaccine news I have read in a long while:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061018/ap_on_he_me/pandemic_vaccine

Another attempt at a good spin

Anything to calm the public. In Iraq we won the war and lost the peace. In Bird Flu we are state of the art in control of the chickens who might get it, but if it becomes a people disease, our government says we are unprepared, that like Katrina this is a job for local and state government, that we are individually responsible for protecting ourselves, and that we ought to be weekly putting a can of tuna and some powdered milk under the bed as a hedge against starvation. Hardly seems like a "state of the art" plan to me. Unless you are a chicken.

http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=N05401262