Lando 
Posted on 09/29/2005 2:03:05 PM PDT by Lando Lincoln
The avian flu virus is a pathogen invisible to the human eye which poses an immense potential threat to American civilization. In the past several months, it has become clear to me that we remain dangerously unprepared to defend ourselves against it.
At a glance, some may dismiss the avian flu virus: Only 59 people have died from it over the past two years and fewer than 120 have become infected. So far, humans infected with the avian flu have not transmitted it to other humans. Thus far all known human cases have happened far away.
But the avian flu may not remain trivial for long. The virus — known as H5N1 — changes very quickly. Humans have no natural immunity to it. And infected birds may be able to transit it before they show symptoms. Any virus with these characteristics could devastate the human population while causing massive economic and social chaos.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Lando
I think we discussed this last night; Frist is discussing avian flu.
A 50% fatality rate? Yikes!
We're not all doctors, Senator, but we're also not idiots.
Well, I agree this is a serious threat. I would like to see Frist use his political clout to undo Hillary clinton's meddling in the flu vaccine business, which has put most American companies out of business and probably greatly extended the time it would take to come up with a vaccine.
We saw a little of that last fall, although naturally the media blamed the shortage on Bush.
There's no way a vaccine could be developed to prevent a serious epidemic, but it could be the difference between, let's say, 5 million dead and 10 million dead.
"We're not all doctors, Senator, but we're also not idiots."
But there sure are a lot of Americans Dumbed Down by the NEA teachers who can't read, write, or do simple arithmetic.
He HAS to be specific.
You forget that almost 50% of those who voted chose Kerry...
Talking to us like the last Botox candidate?
His speaking style has change as well - kinda sounds like he and George Pataki have the same speech coach, ramping up for '08.
At least human to human transmission is very rare. Most of the humans infected get it directly from the birds. In the rare cases of human to human transmission, it has yet to jump to another human. That's good news and it is gives us time to develop a vaccine before it starts to spread.
Why dont you worry about "spinelessrepublicanism" that you and your cohorts are infectied with?
"The virus — known as H5N1 — changes very quickly."
Before anyone looks to a vaccine as a panacea, we should keep in mind that if it changes this quickly then it could be virtually impossible to keep ahead of it with a vaccine. That's why the most current flu vaccines are usually months late and may be useless against the current strain.
Ping to article and post #8
Yeppers....and I think I heard Reid ask for like 4 BILLION attached to the defense spending bill to be used for this...
Not gonna happen....IMHO
Links in #8 are great, thank you!
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