Bird Flu A Worry Or Not.

[padi56]

All the indicators seem to point toward the fact that Bird Flu has landed our way here in the UK. As we sit here scratching our ars#s it is probably being carried out of Russia right now, by migrating shyte hawks and all manner of other winged vermin.

‘Experts’ are being quoted in the Press as saying that it’s not a case of if, rather it’s a case of bloody when.

The world Health Organisation were warning of this possibility back in February.

Last week the Dutch and the Germans announced that they were taking these warnings seriously, they intend to keep all their flocks indoors.

Today the French announced that they are laying in enough anti-viral drugs to treat everyone in France.

So, what the hell are the UK Government doing to protect us poor people,well not a lot.First they will have 29 meetings,first,to agree on where the meeting to take place?,and so on.


This seems set to play out just like the foot and mouth epidemic, a total balls up. This time, however,and if they get it wrong up to 50,000 people might die here in the UK,so some experts say.

Last Friday the Food Standards Agency issued this cop out statement,

Quote:
The Food Standards Agency considers that the outbreak of avian (bird) flu does not pose a food safety risk for UK consumers.

For people, the risk of catching the disease comes from being in close contact with live poultry that have the disease, and not through eating poultry.

There have been no reports of people handling poultry meat getting infected.

Bloody Idiots. Complete boswellocks – for people the risk seems to come from catching the flu, from other people, who may have become infected by being in close contact with live poultry.

Last Thursday DEFRA issued their own equally useless non-statement,

Quote:
Defra yesterday (13/4/06) issued a new statement on Avian Influenza.

“The statement follows the meeting of a working group of veterinary experts from European member states with the European Commission in Brussels.

The experts agreed that the recent outbreaks of avian influenza in Russia are a cause for concern, but that the risk of the virus spreading into the EU via migrating birds is remote or low. They concluded that it would not be proportionate to the current risk of disease to introduce a general ban on keeping poultry outdoors”

Presumably ‘experts’ from Holland, Germany and France attended this Brussels cake and ars# party.

A human case has also been diagnosed in Finland in the last few days.

I read somewhere that some bird psychologist reckons that keeping birds indoors tends to ‘stress’ the little buggers. It seems like the Government prefer to keep us in the dark rather than the bleeding birds.

Over the weekend the Washington Post carried a piece saying,

Quote:
In Britain, officials are taking the threat very seriously, spending over $180 million for 14.6 million treatments of Tamiflu. The drug is thought to be the only known vaccine for the virus.


Later, in that same piece we see this happy little evaluation ,

Quote:
Dr. Nigel Higson, chairman of the primary care virology group, said that although there is no indication H5N1 is contagious through air, he expects it to become pandemic.

"If we do get human-to-human transmission, millions will die," he said.
14.6 million doses for a population of some 60 million plus. ?
The government HAS already produced a list of those who require the vaccine first and yes, all the labour government cabinet, then Adam and eve it, or not, a large amount of BBC staff!!!

We now have warnings this disease could, like the Spanish Flu virus, that purportedly killed more people in the 1920's/30's than died in WW1?about 50 million world wide.I'm surprised they noticed, mind you, they didn't have "The X-Factor" "big brother" and "Coronation Street" or Eastenders in those days to take their minds off it.

But to be fair, it’s a massive problem; nobody knows which way the mop is going to flop and, I suppose, they need to be cautious before committing to any one particular course of action. Remember this Flu virus ‘changes’ more frequently than a book of fairy stories.

Traditionally Governments have always fought shy of spending public money on ‘speculative’ ventures. Projects which spring immediately to mind are the bloody Useless Millennium Dome, Educashun, Afghanistan, Iraq, Nuclear deterrence, the CSA, Tax Credits, NHS Computers and bureaucracy, the PM's hair and Mrs PMs Blair's make-up etc………….

I don’t think it’s a simple matter of scaremongering by the Press. The United Nations, World Health Organisation, some overseas Governments and scores of ‘experts around the globe, have got their ars#holes cracking walnuts over bird flu.Viruses are nasty little buggers and a flu virus is one of the nastiest little buggers of all.Normally when you ‘catch’ a virus you become ill, and your body builds its defences by producing antibodies. Generally speaking, next time that the virus comes your way, your body ‘identifies’ it, produces antibodies to defeat it and you probably won’t even know that you were infected.

Unfortunately flu viruses mutate on a very regular basis, they’re also carried around by all manner of other animals and they can jump suddenly from species to species. A few years ago, I think in America, colonies of seals were found to have died as a result of catching a flu virus which had previously only affected horses! More recently pigs in Java became infected with bird flu.Bird flu has been around for some time without presenting any appreciable danger to humans. If it only kills birds, so they say.Now it seems that the virus may have found a way around that. The big question is whether or not those Asian people who caught bird flu caught it from birds, (bad) or caught it from other Asian people (potentially catastrophic).If the virus does mutate, or has already mutated, to the point where it can spread between humans then we are in deep shit. What makes this particular strain worse is the fact that it has a high mortality rate, anything between 50 & 60%.

Remember the paddling through the disinfectant foot-baths at airports during the SARs scare? This is a lot different, you’d have to hold your breath for 18 months, in total isolation to stand a chance of avoiding bird flu virus. If it all goes to rat-shit it’ll make famines, floods, Xfactor and Big Brother seem like very attractive alternatives.

This is a global problem requiring global solutions and shrewd Government action. Our feking useless lot will probably still be scratching their ars#s and advising us to take Beechams Powders when the bird-sh!t eventually hits the fan.The Department of Health announced today that they intend to buy enough vaccine for everyone in the country – that’s 2 doses per person, 120 million, or thereabouts.Well that's sorted that out then, nothing for us worry about then.Conveniently they play down the fact that no vaccine can be developed until the precise strain of Flu is identified. In effect there is currently NO bloody vaccine, let alone 120 million doses earmarked for the UK.


Good job Sheep flu hasn't hit New Zealand, Cornwall, and Parts of Wales yet.