Posted on 05/09/2006 4:51:12 PM PDT by Momaw Nadon
Tuesday, May 9 at 8/7c
To date, there have been no cases of the H5N1 virus in the United States nor has there been a human transmission of the disease in a form that could fuel a pandemic. However, experts around the world are monitoring the Avian Flu situation closely and are preparing for the possibility that the virus could begin to spread from person to person. For information on the virus log onto pandemicflu.gov.
There are times that test humanity and challenge the soul of a community or a nation. News images and headlines tell stories of rising waters, quaking ground and tragic acts by man himself. But the real story, the human story, is found in the lives changed forever, in the strength of the survivors, and the resilient hope that gives them the courage to recover.
Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America follows an outbreak of an Avian Flu from its origins in a Hong Kong market through its mutation into a virus transmittable from human to human around the world. The meticulously researched film stars Joely Richardson (Nip/Tuck), Stacy Keach (Prison Break, Blackbeard), Ann Cusack (Grey's Anatomy, Ghost Whisperer), Justina Machado (Six Feet Under), Scott Cohen (Street Time, Law & Order: Trial by Jury) and David Ramsey (All of Us).
John M. Barry, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Tulane University and writer of the New York Times bestseller, The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, served as a consultant on the project. Barry's book, which includes a new afterword on today's Avian Flu, focuses on the 1918 Spanish Flu which killed between 50-100 million people.
[Editors Note: The film deals with the current threat of the Avian Flu virus (H5N1). Scientists continue to debate the degree to which the virus can mutate and be easily passed among human beings.]
The movie opens with an American businessman flying to Hong Kong to meet with his Asian manufacturers. After 11 meetings in three countries in six days, he starts his return to Virginia. But before he returns home, the Chinese government has informed the World Health Organization that a new strain of the Avian Flu virus was discovered in a local marketplace. Over 1.2 million infected birds were killed in an attempt to eradicate this strain. Dr. Iris Varnack (Richardson) of the Epidemic Intelligence Service receives an emergency summons to China, where she discovers these efforts may have come too late. Despite the early warning, the H5N1 virus has mutated into a version that can spread from human to human -- shown in eye-opening detail whenever the microbes start to permeate the atmosphere - across races, nationalities, genders and ages.
The story is seen through the eyes of other key characters, including Collin Reed (Keach), Secretary of Health and Human Services, who is the primary go-between for Dr. Varnack with the state and local leaders back in America; Denise Connelly (Cusack), wife of the American businessman, as she deals with his illness and then helps to support other infected people; Governor Mike Newsome (Cohen) of Virginia, who, upon learning of this deadly virus, puts his city in quarantine and then breaks down the state into communities that can nurture each other; Alma Ansen (Machado), a hospital nurse in New York City who suddenly finds herself in the midst of escalating chaos working at a new and hastily constructed flu facility; and Curtis Ansen (Ramsey), Alma's husband in the National Guard who was brought back to New York.
Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America is executive-produced by Diana Kerew (Surrender Dorothy) and Judith Verno (The Hunt for the BTK Killer) for Sony Pictures Television. The movie was written by Ron McGee (Atomic Twister) and directed by Richard Pearce (Academy Award winner for Hearts and Minds, Peabody Award winner for Nothing Sacred).
chicken little reporting...
Oh, please. Another media attempt to scare the socks off of everyone.
you might be interested in this....
Run for your very lives!
Denethor
"The Day After, Part Deux."
I've read a number of reviews of the movie, some good, some bad.
Thanks for the ping to the thread, but this is apparently too volatile a subject for some, and I have no desire to be drawn into a conversation with such posters.
There is supposed to be a question and answer, or something like that, on after the film, on Nightline.
I don't have a lot of respect for MSM, but it would be interesting to see how factual the film is, vs how sensational.
Avian flu is probably not the one to bring us down.
But with bio-technology spreading so rapidly today, it is only a matter of time before an engineered virus is deliberately or accidently released and then movie fiction becomes fact.
In my mind, this is the most important reason why it is time to kick out the dictators and for democracy to be "installed" in every country.
Well....at this point....I'm just observing and thinking....not buying into panic....but not buying into absolute safety (from H to H spread) either.....and yes, I know what you mean about the "volatile" subject matter....
Hope all is well with you.
There have been no cases of Manbearpig attacks in Central Park but ALGORE and his little green minions will continue to patrol and monitor the situation.
I remember when SARS was supposed to kill us all a couple of years ago. This whole thing is a total joke.
Turn left.
Don't crash.
Unless there was a ballgame or somesuch thing, I can't remember the last time I tuned into anything on ABC, but I do plan on taking a look at this tonight........particularly because of much of it taking place in Virginia, which is where I live.
I also in live in a part of Virginia that is heavily dependent upon the poultry industry. Just yesterday 170,000 chickens where taken for processing from the 5 chicken houses across the road from me.
I'm not buying into the panic, either, but that does not mean I am not paying attention. Even a mild outbreak of Avian Influenza that only hits the birds will have a devastating impact on the economy of this area - that is my main reason for paying attention.
More people have been killed by Teddy Kennedy in an Oldsmobile than this ...
"You're comin' down with somethin'..."
I thought this was a commercial for "The Stand part 2"
It could happen this year or six years from now or sixty years from now, but in the very long run, it's not a joke.
This movie might be a joke, but flu pandemics are not.
What? You didn't think Sunday was a lot of fun?
This guy is going to puke blood! Kewl!
Ahhh...we've got the "experts" again talking about something that hasn't even happened yet. (I bet they all read "The Stand" by King and base all their "excellence" on the movie version...).
Besides, I can't worry about some bird flu that will sweep the world with decimation and death....I'm too freaking worried about "Global Warming"!!!!!!
Crock after crock after crock.......Just another ploy for world government to protect us from a false and "scary" bunch of BS, put forward for the "scare tactic" for the uneducated (read: Pubic skool poor chillun') that have attended Pubic skools in the last 30-40 years.
Oh yeah, we're all gonna die from AIDS too!
Feh!
FMCDH(BITS)
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