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Hi Mike, thanks for posting.

I'm not too concerned about an Avian Flu vaccine ever being produced in time to do any good if there is a pandemic, especially by the Canadians. As far as I know, NO vaccine against SARS was ever produced until this year, when it is now in the trial phase, and it was produced in China.

Since H5N1 is now in the process of mutating (it can pass freely between cats, ducks, geese, and chickens) a recognizable virus capable of human-to-human transmission hasn't yet made an appearance and been isolated, except possibly in Viet Nam.

WHO is on the watch, meaning the statistics are unreliable, the research isn't monitored, and the cases are in doubt. Current theory about case presentation of H5N1 includes respiratory, gastrointestinal, and possibly meningeal.

Since Tamiflu takes a year to manufacture, if we didn't order enough to help the US six months ago, there won't be enough to do any good.

That's IF H5N1 becomes easily transmissible human-to-human. WHO wants the US to cough up (get it?) more money for research to save the world from Avian flu, but I think China and Viet Nam ought to finance it, since it's their bug to begin with (as all flu is). Vietnamese who ate raw duck blood soup during the Tet holiday represent the index cases in that country. Nobody in the US that I know of did that using infected birds.

Anyone--if my facts are wrong, please feel free to correct me. This is just what I've gleaned from keeping up as well as I can on the subject.