Reports of Memes And Counter-Memes...
Amidst the "official" buzz of a potentially disastrous worldwide epidemic is a counter-buzz that the whole thing is a manufactured crisis to keep politicians and the military complex busy. It has been pointed out that most of the 60 deaths attributed to the virus were caused by direct contact with infected birds and not human-to-human transmission, as would be the most likely scenario in an epidemic. According to Dr. Leonard Horowitz, D.M.D., M.A., M.P.H., author of the 1998 bestseller "Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola - Nature, Accident or Intentional?",
"I suppose we should overlook the fact that the current frightening strain of H5N1 avian flu virus has never readily jumped from human to human, and not commonly from birds to humans either. Thus, an effective vaccine can only be prepared by mutating this virus, thus creating what the world fears most. Let me explain. . . .
"To make the human vaccine specific for the H5N1 mutant virus, you must start with the human virus which does not yet exist, except in perhaps military-biomedical-pharmaceutical laboratories. In fact, this is precisely what is being prepared based on news reports. To produce the human pathogen, the avian virus must be cultured for lengthy periods of time in human cell cultures, then injected into monkey and ultimately humans to see if these experimental subjects get the same feared flu. Thus, the flu virus the world currently fears most is either: 1) now being prepared in labs paid by industrialists with massive wealth-building incentives to “accidentally” release the virus; or 2) has already been prepared in such labs to take advantage of this current fright and future sales following the virus’s release."
(Remember SARS?)
Some speculate that it is for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to profit from. (Rumsfeld owns major portions of stock in a company which manufactures the anti-flu drug Tamiflu.)
The illness is currently on the Epidemic and Pandemic Response List of the World Health Organization (WHO). According to WHO, although risk of even bird-to-human transmission is low,
"...All prerequisites for the start of a pandemic have therefore been met save one: the establishment of efficient and sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus. The risk that the H5N1 virus will acquire this ability will persist as long as opportunities for human infections occur. These opportunities, in turn, will persist as long as the virus continues to circulate in birds, and this situation could endure for some years to come."
Whatever the case may be, bird flu could signify disastrous consequences for poultry and native birds, necessitating the idea of quarantines and control if only to to protect a country's industries and natural resources.
Further reading:
Dr. Len Horowitz Debunks Avian Flu Hysteria Campaign
N. Ireland Bird Flu Measures "Advanced"
When Fake Blogs Attack
Bird Flu Risk Hinges on Computation, Mutation
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