So the BBC has a have your say item about the one case of Bird Flu that has hit the UK, or Scotland to be more precise.
Here is the question the BBC askes:
Source
- Have you been affected by the Scottish alert?
- Have you stopped buying chicken?
- Are you a poultry farmer?
- What actions are you taking as a result of the news?
- What action should be taken to prevent the spread of the bird flu virus?
- What are your concerns?
Here's what I think...
- No, it was only one swan, could have been infected anywhere, but decided that it would be lovely to pops it's clogs in a small harbour of a scotish village would be a nice place, or it got ill, landed out in sea and died there and ended up being washed ashore.
- No, one case of Bird Flu is not enough, come on?! If others don't buy it, woot makes it cheaper for me!
- Err Nope, I live in London, no room for a huge warehouse full of chicks.
- None. Not much I can do is there?
- Come on be serious, you don't expect me, an IT professional to be able to give a qualified answer to that kind of question do you? Leave it to the experts, if they mess up, we can easily blame Tony for not keepin' an eye on the birds.
- Err non at the momet, I think some people are making a mountain out of a mole hill, yep it sells papers, get people off the ball of what's really happening.
Also, why do the media still call it a 'possible' Pandemic ? How many have died of Avian Flu? check
here and you'll find that so far it's only 195! and most have been in China and Vietnam, where people do tend to live in very close proximity to their farm animals, so the contamination risk is much higher.
If one looks at past 'pandemics' like say SARS. the total death rate there was 813 Globally.If one excludes China and Hong Kong, then then number is 167. Check
here for the numbers (a PDF file)
The main reason why both of these diseases didn't become Pancemic, is that they both didn't posses that exta element that is required to make that leap from being a non contagious illness to a seriously contagious one.
For more serious and authortive information of Avian Flu . Check
here at the centre of disease control and prevention.
As I often say, Never believe the headlines, do the googling, look around for the correct answers yourself.
