Bird Flu Hysteria: Bush's Billion-dollar witch hunt

Cheryl Seal

Bird Flu Hysteria: Bush's Billion-dollar witch hunt

Thu Dec 1, 2005 15:09

Bird Flu Hysteria: The Latest Billion-Dollar Witch Hunt

By Cheryl Seal
http://cherylsealreports.com/birdfluhysteria.html

It's embarrassing how easily the American public can be duped into diving off hysteria's deep end and asking questions later. Remember back in 2001 when even people who should have known better got caught up in the throes of the anthrax scare. In the weeks after six people died in a "still under investigation" bioterror attack, thousands of good citizens popped Cipro like Tic Tacs, rushed out to buy duct tape and plastic so they could seal their homes against anthrax spores, and became hysterical at the sight of talcum powder. You may also recall that the only casualties from the "anthrax threat" (aside from the six in the initial incident) were the people who died of suffocation in their duct-taped houses or "panic rooms" or from toxic reactions to too much Cipro. But the pharmaceutical companies who got the anthrax vaccine contracts and the makers of Cipro (not to mention duct tape) sure made out like bandits, didn't they?

Now we have bird-flue hysteria. All based on the as-yet-completely-undetermined chance that avian flu virus may - MAY - mutate into a form that could spread among humans easily. This hysteria has so far led to the slaughter of 150 million chickens, the pledge of $7 billion by Bush to research (which, in Bush world, amounts to a transfer of funds to the pharmaceutical industry), and to a rising crescendo of mindless panic that some wildlife experts fear may lead to the pointless slaughter of wild birds.

Of course, as with any form of hysteria, there is not even the most diaphanous shred of logic in all of this. Logic tells us that we should be most concerned about diseases that pose likely and imminent threats to our safety, not those which may or may not someday threaten us. While fewer than 100 people world wide have died from bird flu in two years, at least 90,000 people in the US alone will die this year from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections whose reality and risks have been clearly determined. That hospitals are key culprits in the spread of these infections is a known and well-established fact. And yet we don't see officials from the government storming the hospitals and ordering all bedding, towels, slippers, curtains and johnnies to be rounded up and burned by the millions. We don't hear reports of people living near hospitals rushing out to stockpile duct tape and Cipro. And while we don't hear of many people being so terrified of hospitals that they will never set foot in one, there were many folk across the US this Thanksgiving terrified to so much as touch turkey for fear of being infected by bird flu!

Worse, while bird flu is slurping up billions of dollars, there is no commensurate flood of new research funding being poured into combatting killer hospital infections. In fact, as of April, 2005, the Centers for Disease Control was receiving just $25 million for
for the whole of its antimicrobial resistance programits entire anti-microbial resistance program - pathetic! But then, funding for any disease that is known to be actively slaughtering humankind by the millions in the here and now has been tepid at best. Researchers must plead to keep current funding adequate, let alone receive needed increases. In fact, this situation, inadvertently, led to bird flu hysteria.

Researchers in any field, from medicine to electronics, have discovered that the only way to get the attention of the Bush administration is through fear mongering - a language the Bushies understand so well. So, in an attempt to squeeze more funding out of the administration for ALL infectious disease research and treatment, a coalition of researchers calling themselves the Infectious Disease Society submitted a paper that hyped the bird flu threat. Alas, with the Bush administration and US media being what they are, it was like crying "Fire!" in a crowded theater. And, instead of having funds distributed across the board for infectious disease research - the outcome the group had hoped for - Bush earmarked $7.1 billion just for bird flu. Meanwhile AIDS research (for comparison sake) gets $2.1 billion.

So, once again, the US is shelling out billions for "coulda, woulda, shoulda." Billions because we could prevent some terrorist attacks - that is if they don't use scissors, target nuclear or chemical plants and use only a certain strain of anthrax. Billions more because we would win in Iraq if we just wait long enough or bomb hard enough. Billions more because we should have done more to secure New Orleans from major hurricanes.

Meanwhile, here's what's happening here and now in the real world of killer diseases.

Tuberculosis will, worldwide, kill at least 2.4 million people THIS YEAR. At present, an estimated 54 million people are infected with the disease. Yet the only tools now widely available to combat this disease were developed over 80- years ago and are woefully inadequate.

Malaria will kill over 1 million people this year.

Respiratory infection- the number one killer of children under 5 worldwide - will claim 4 million children this year. Another 3 million will die from diarrheal disease, while measles will claim another 1.2 million. Research into childhood disease vaccines is so far behind that it has been only recently that vaccines containing mercury were replaced.

"Regular" Flu: kills 36,000 Americans each year - yet for the past two years, vaccine supplies have been inadequate

Meanwhile, bioterror anthrax and bird flu - killers between them of under 200 people worldwide in 4 years - merit daily news headlines and billions of dollars.

Now THAT is truly scary.

Bird flu hysteria
http://enn.com/today.html?id=9341

Tuberculosis: Global burden
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/publications/blueprint/page2.htm

world health report: fifty facts
http://www.fauxpress.com/kimball/med/50.html#Heading2

Malaria Death Toll Outrageously High
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0612_030612_malaria.html

Infectious Disease Society's Plea for Increased Funding
http://www.idsociety.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&CONTENTID=14650&TEMPLATE=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm