2008 Woodie Awards
Scare Tactics Can Make You Sick
Get a grip on the reality of avian flu.
Brian Dean
Issue date: 11/16/05 Section: Opinion
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It's inescapable. It's in newspapers, magazines, television and radio.
It would cost billions to promote any other product to such an extent. They're selling fear, and publicity comes relatively cheap for the avian flu virus.
It is endemic among wild birds. It lives in their intestines and usually causes them no harm. But every so often, outbreaks occur in populations of domestic birds with less hardy immune systems, typically livestock like ducks and chickens.
The highly contagious virus spreads quickly within flocks, killing more than 50 percent of those infected. When this happens, great sacrifices are made to avoid the possibility of spreading the disease to humans.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, during a Southeast Asian outbreak of avian flu in late 2003 to early 2004, approximately 100 million birds died from the disease or were intentionally destroyed.
Though cases of human infection have been documented in the recent past, the intense hype over a worldwide epidemic is brand new.
This year "the experts" are using the media to present information which may make the public believe that an epidemic is right around the corner: "It's not a matter of 'if' but a matter of 'when,'" the experts like to say; "... just like the pandemic of 1918," the media willingly reports.
More than 25 million people died worldwide (up to 675,000 in the United States) in 1918 and 1919 as a result of rapid infection by a virus similar to today's bird flu.
In its current state, the deadly variety of the avian influenza virus, hemagglutinin type 5, neuraminidase type 1, better known as the H5N1 strain, is infrequently transmitted from bird to human.
If another rare occurrence takes place, the virus mutating into a form that can be transmitted from person to person, it is possible that thousands of people could become infected, and certainly many would die.
But this is not 1918. Scientists have a much greater understanding of how viruses operate and how diseases spread than they did 87 years ago. We know what measures to take to protect ourselves, partially because of the lessons learned from past outbreaks.
It would cost billions to promote any other product to such an extent. They're selling fear, and publicity comes relatively cheap for the avian flu virus.
It is endemic among wild birds. It lives in their intestines and usually causes them no harm. But every so often, outbreaks occur in populations of domestic birds with less hardy immune systems, typically livestock like ducks and chickens.
The highly contagious virus spreads quickly within flocks, killing more than 50 percent of those infected. When this happens, great sacrifices are made to avoid the possibility of spreading the disease to humans.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, during a Southeast Asian outbreak of avian flu in late 2003 to early 2004, approximately 100 million birds died from the disease or were intentionally destroyed.
Though cases of human infection have been documented in the recent past, the intense hype over a worldwide epidemic is brand new.
This year "the experts" are using the media to present information which may make the public believe that an epidemic is right around the corner: "It's not a matter of 'if' but a matter of 'when,'" the experts like to say; "... just like the pandemic of 1918," the media willingly reports.
More than 25 million people died worldwide (up to 675,000 in the United States) in 1918 and 1919 as a result of rapid infection by a virus similar to today's bird flu.
In its current state, the deadly variety of the avian influenza virus, hemagglutinin type 5, neuraminidase type 1, better known as the H5N1 strain, is infrequently transmitted from bird to human.
If another rare occurrence takes place, the virus mutating into a form that can be transmitted from person to person, it is possible that thousands of people could become infected, and certainly many would die.
But this is not 1918. Scientists have a much greater understanding of how viruses operate and how diseases spread than they did 87 years ago. We know what measures to take to protect ourselves, partially because of the lessons learned from past outbreaks.
