Re: List of countries with bird flu?

[Guest guest]

List of countries with H5N1-infected (domestic and/or wild) avians as of the 15-03-06:

Albania, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Bosnia & Herzegovina Cambodia, Cameroon, China, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea (Rep. of), Laos, Malaysia (peninsular), Mongolia, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Vietnam.

http://www.offlu.net/

[Guest guest]

Musings on the Coming Plague

BY

JAMES LILEKS

c.2006 Newhouse News Service

Should

you be worried about bird flu? Yes. No. And maybe; it depends. Like the

creatures who might bring the plague, it's all up in the air. What matters is

how you respond today. Should you:

-- Study the scenarios, lay in supplies, then get on with your life. If we

panic, the birds have won!

-- Content yourself with the comforting certainty that FEMA is on the case! Men

in hazmat suits will jump out of helicopters and impose order while dramatic

music swells in the background, just like in the movies. (Note: For this

scenario to work, on Ford must be president.)

Option No. 1 may be your best choice.

Of course, the bird flu will not cause a breakdown in civil order; we will not

someday speak of the DayQuil Riots of '06, when the National Guard mowed down

desperate, congested looters. But if millions of Americans suddenly sit in the

corner all huffed and snuffling like sick parakeets, and hospitals are

overwhelmed by desperately ill people just looking for a bright clean place to

die, everything's going to change for a while.

You're going to want face masks, for example, for those times when you have to

leave the house. You won't find any. They'll have been bought up by the people

who cleaned out the store the day Patient Zero kicked the cuttlebone. By the

time you realize you'd better get ready, it might be too late.

So stock up on tuna and powdered milk; that's the advice of Secretary of Health

and Human Services Leavitt. This suggestion will mutate into a form

transmissible from official to comedian, and in the days to come we'll hear

hardy-har remarks about buying " Duck tape " and other forms of

inefficacious protection.

The foodies will remark that a life sustained by Chicken of the Sea and

reconstituted cow lactations is not worth living. Democrats will insist that Iraq was a

distraction from the real search for WMDs in the guts of wild fowl, and

conservatives will want to build a wall extending to the troposphere.

Actually, this last reaction was anticipated by the Bush administration:

" There's no way you can protect the United States by building a big

cage around it and preventing wild birds from flying in and out, " said

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Johanns. To the relief of many, he did

not propose a " Guest Infector " program under which alien birds can

migrate for a specified period, as long as they register with the local zoo.

Then again, we might not need a cage. Or a secret tuna cache. All the disaster

scenarios are predicated on something that has not happened. (See also Katrina,

levees, breaching of.)

ABC News noted, " The bird flu virus, to date, is still not easily

transmitted to humans. There have been lots of dead birds on three continents,

but so far fewer than 100 reported human deaths. But should that change, the

spread could be rapid. "

Well, yes. And if oxygen suddenly became toxic to human beings, the mortality

rate would be horrifying.

But the virus is mutating; it can attack cats now. Surely theater majors are next.

The fatal mutation of some sort of flu is like the acquisition of nukes by Iran: a matter

of when, not if.

And then what? Don't count on the Israelis to knock down the infected flocks.

They're good, but not that good. No, there's nothing wrong with setting aside

some canned goods and cling peaches and a bushel of cereal. (Note to men: This

may be the crisis that forces science to invent powdered beer.)

Of course, some will insist this is just more fearmongering from an

administration that requires a population to vibrate 24-7 in a state of

tremulous dread, so they can cover up the REAL issues, such as whether a White

House official had an evil twin who was a discount-store kleptomaniac.

Perhaps. But when the government implies it won't be driving the Free Tuna Van

down your street, you might want to take heed.

March 15, 2006

From:

Flu [mailto:Flu ] On Behalf Of sterten@...

Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2006

9:46 AM

Flu

Subject: Re: [Flu] List

of countries with bird flu?

List of countries with H5N1-infected (domestic

and/or wild) avians as of the 15-03-06:

Albania, Austria,

Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Bosnia & Herzegovina Cambodia, Cameroon, China,

Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary,

India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea (Rep. of), Laos,

Malaysia (peninsular), Mongolia, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan,

Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia,

Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Vietnam.

http://www.offlu.net/

[Guest guest]

Thank you.

List of countries with H5N1-infected (domestic and/or wild) avians as of the 15-03-06: