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Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America [LIVE THREAD]
ABC.com ^ | Tuesday, May 9, 2006 | ABC.com

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).


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abc; avian; avianflu; bird; birdflu; consultantdenounces; contact; disasterfilm; disease; doomed; fatal; flu; h5n1; influenza; jamesmbarry; pandemic; quarantine; ratingssweep; sensationalism; virus
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To: Momaw Nadon
Why are these people at the movie's FEMA meeting only learning about Avian Flu now?

This movie says that if the Avian flu hits the US it will be like like having a Hurricane Katrina in every city. Remember when Michael Chertoff was mocked for attending a meeting about Avian Flu shortly after Katrina hit?

21 posted on 05/09/2006 5:27:37 PM PDT by syriacus (WHERE has Geo. Clooney been for ALL the years that Franklin Graham has been helping the Sudanese?)
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To: syriacus

This is not very good filmmaking. They've skipped ahead to week four already.

Also, there's been an anti-conservative dig already: "this administration believes those (precautions) are better handled at the local level."


22 posted on 05/09/2006 5:35:14 PM PDT by Petronski (I just love that woman.)
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To: Petronski

"You're cutting them off from their humanity which is the one thing that's gonna get us through this pandemic."

Good grief.


23 posted on 05/09/2006 5:37:41 PM PDT by Petronski (I just love that woman.)
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To: nothingnew

You forgot to mention Y2K and SARS! I'm still holed up in my dank, filthy apartment, afraid to leave for fear of more such unspeakable calamities.</sarc>


24 posted on 05/09/2006 5:40:59 PM PDT by lesser_satan (EKTHELTHIOR!!!)
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To: lesser_satan

Russians poured into the streets to protest a ban on public gatherings. LOL

This is dreadful filmmaking.


I haven't watched ABC in a long long time....now I remember why.


25 posted on 05/09/2006 5:43:17 PM PDT by Petronski (I just love that woman.)
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To: Petronski
Also, there's been an anti-conservative dig already: "this administration believes those (precautions) are better handled at the local level."

I noticed that, too.

Thank heavens there's a webpage which presents some facts.

ABC TV Movie: Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America

On Tuesday, May 9 at 8 p.m., the ABC television network will air a made-for-TV movie titled "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America." The movie follows an outbreak of the H5N1 avian flu virus from its origins in a Hong Kong market through its mutation into a pandemic virus that becomes easily transmittable from human to human and spreads rapidly around the world.

The Department of Health and Human Services has prepared a Viewer's Guide and some anticipated Questions and Answers to provide factual information for viewers of the movie.


26 posted on 05/09/2006 5:49:29 PM PDT by syriacus (WHERE has Geo. Clooney been for ALL the years that Franklin Graham has been helping the Sudanese?)
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To: syriacus; All

From what I have read about the potential for this particular flu to go human-to-human, which it hasn't done yet.... this movie is pretty accurate, trying to cover how it actually could be.

Anyone who isn't prepared, in the event that it does, is counting on hope. Just my humble opinion, of course.


27 posted on 05/09/2006 5:53:27 PM PDT by jacquej
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To: syriacus

I too have some information for viewers of the movie:

The writer was not given time to revise his first draft.


28 posted on 05/09/2006 5:53:39 PM PDT by Petronski (I just love that woman.)
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To: Petronski

Yeah, I think I'll miss this one.


29 posted on 05/09/2006 5:54:00 PM PDT by lesser_satan (EKTHELTHIOR!!!)
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To: Momaw Nadon

Note to self: start stockpiling liquor and cigarettes in case they fence up neigborhood...


30 posted on 05/09/2006 5:56:15 PM PDT by Solamente (Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out...)
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To: Solamente

They should have hired the BBC. Nobody does apocalypse telepics better.


31 posted on 05/09/2006 5:57:57 PM PDT by Petronski (I just love that woman.)
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To: jacquej
This movie is pretty accurate, trying to cover how it actually could be.

I hope they consider one or two optimistic possibilities. Here's one...

In reconstructing the 1918 influenza virus, researchers learned which genes were responsible for making the virus so harmful. This is an important advance for preparedness efforts because knowing which genes are responsible for causing severe illness helps scientists develop new drugs and vaccines (e.g., they can focus their research on those genes).
October 6, 2005: Researchers Reconstruct 1918 Pandemic Influenza Virus; Effort Designed To Advance Preparedness
32 posted on 05/09/2006 6:00:49 PM PDT by syriacus (WHERE has Geo. Clooney been for ALL the years that Franklin Graham has been helping the Sudanese?)
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To: syriacus

perhaps you do not how how difficult it would be to manufacture a vaccine in the quantity needed in time to protect everyone.... there is no way they can figure out what exact vaccine will work until it goes pandemic, alas...


33 posted on 05/09/2006 6:08:32 PM PDT by jacquej
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To: jacquej
erhaps you do not how how difficult it would be to manufacture a vaccine in the quantity needed in time to protect everyone.... there is no way they can figure out what exact vaccine will work until it goes pandemic, alas...

Who says it needs to be pandemic before we determine which vaccine to develop?

34 posted on 05/09/2006 6:14:46 PM PDT by syriacus (WHERE has Geo. Clooney been for ALL the years that Franklin Graham has been helping the Sudanese?)
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To: jacquej
quantity needed in time to protect everyone

Not everyone needs to be vaccinated in order to help control the spread.

35 posted on 05/09/2006 6:16:17 PM PDT by syriacus (WHERE has Geo. Clooney been for ALL the years that Franklin Graham has been helping the Sudanese?)
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To: syriacus

because they will need the exact virus as it mutates into a human to human form in order to make a vaccine that will protect people. It is not pandemic yet, so making a vaccine for the "bird" form of the virus will not protect people.

There are some good websites on this, I will look up the links for you, and post them in a few minutes...


36 posted on 05/09/2006 6:17:32 PM PDT by jacquej
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To: syriacus

http://www.curevents.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=40

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/index.php

http://www.recombinomics.com/whats_new.html

http://www.fluwikie.com/index.php?n=Forum.Forum

http://www.avianflutalk.com/default.asp


37 posted on 05/09/2006 6:19:50 PM PDT by jacquej
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To: Petronski

You're probably right.............however not in the manner in which you think.

When this virus hits the US - and it will the first casualty is going to be the economy. It will start small, first where local economies rely on the poultry industry, like where I live, and then it will start to spread.

Even if it never mutates to a H2H strain, the economic impacts will be widespread........but alas no one around here seems to give a hoot about that.

Wake up people - it has to hit birds first........the first line of defense against this going H2H is the commercial poultry industry.

I suggest if you enjoy chicken on a regular basis and have the room that you start stocking up now. When avian flu hits the US huge numbers of chickens are going to be destroyed.......initially the price will drop and then it will skyrocket because supply will be so low.

I have no financial ties to the poultry industry, but live in an area where many people, including some very close friends, rely on it for their livelihoods. We don't take this threat as a joke around here.


38 posted on 05/09/2006 6:21:06 PM PDT by Gabz (Smokers are the beta version)
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To: jacquej
You needen't bother looking up the webpages. I read a good paper on this (2X) over the weekend and you probably noticed I posted a link to a good website, up above
39 posted on 05/09/2006 6:23:11 PM PDT by syriacus (WHERE has Geo. Clooney been for ALL the years that Franklin Graham has been helping the Sudanese?)
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To: Gabz
You're probably right.............however not in the manner in which you think.

I'm right about the BBC, but not the way I think I am? I'm confused.

40 posted on 05/09/2006 6:25:06 PM PDT by Petronski (I just love that woman.)
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