Confused About the Latest Noise About Bird Flu?

Facts about Bird Flu Outbreak in Asia

The recent outbreak in Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, have shaken Asia's poultry industry. Thailand, which produces about one billion chickens a year and exports mainly to Japan and Europe, said it was free of bird flu but was battling an outbreak of poultry cholera.

Here are the main facts about the disease.

What is Bird Flu?

The outbreaks in Thailand, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam have been caused by the H5N1 strain of avian influenza viruses. Avian influenza can range from a mild disease that has only minor effects to a highly infectious fatal version. It spreads in the air and in manure.

It can also be transmitted by contaminated feed, water, equipment and clothing. Clinically normal waterfowl and sea birds may introduce the virus into flocks. Broken contaminated eggs may infect chicks in incubators.

Bird flu is no worse than a bad cold for an animal, which also sees the animal fully recover, if tended to with appropriate housing, bedding, basic, inexpensive medical care and proper nutrition.  Slaughtering these animals is as absurd as murdering our seven-year-olds for having a runny nose, because we have decided we're not going to live with the common cold.

Is Bird Flu Harmful To Humans?

Human fatalities from avian influenza are very rare and were unknown before 1997, when six people in Hong Kong died after being infected with the H5N1 strain.

In early 2002, a 33-year-old Hong Kong man contracted the H5N1 virus and died of pneumonia.

In April 2003, a veterinarian who had been working on a Dutch farm infected with bird flu became ill with an H7 strain of the disease and died of pneumonia. The vet did not take medication against avian and human flu. Rules have been tightened to ensure anyone who comes in contact with infected farms does so.

Only two deaths in Thailand have been confirmed to have resulted from bird flu and as of January 28, 2004, only 10 deaths have been attributed to bird flu.

Could Bird Flu Become a Human Epidemic?

Although avian flu is very infectious in birds, it does not spread easily among humans.

There is a danger, however, that an avian virus mixes with a human influenza and forms a new disease. The new virus could share genetic material from both viruses, being highly infectious like human flu and dangerously fatal like the avian variety. Humans would have no natural defence against it.

However, to put things in perspective - the current 'bird flu crisis' is hardly a crisis.

The pandemic of 1918-19, known as the Spanish flu, sickened an estimated 20 percent to 40 percent of the worldwide population, with a death toll believed to exceed 20 million. In the United States alone, some 500,000 people died.

The next pandemic, the Asian flu of 1957-58, killed about 70,000 in the United States, while the 1968-69 Hong Kong flu led to about 34,000 deaths in the United States.

Bird Flu Compared to Mad Cow Disease

In 2001 the Blair Government forced the slaughter of about 2 million cattle simply because less than 1,500 were diagnosed with Foot and Mouth Disease, a relatively benign disease from which two-thirds of afflicted animals survive, and which poses no threat to humans.  In the process, Britain forced many farmers out of business and ruined the land upon which the farmers and ranchers were dependent, thus forcing the land to lie fallow while it gradually recovered from the deliberate poisoning brought on by the chemicals added to the carcasses of the animals so as to start the fire of the open-field funeral pyres.

Many independent investigations have been conducted and it is now widely believed that the crisis was contrived by the British Government.

One such researcher, Steven Ransom, published a book called 'Plague, Pestilence and the Pursuit of Power'.  In it he says the following:

"Whilst intentional entrenched error and scientific bungling are themselves a serious matter, my team believes these factors are overshadowed by evidence of a far more serious nature - the existence of a covert and dangerously harmful European federalist agenda:

"Our farming heritage is seen as a threat to those wishing to dismantle British national sovereignty in favour of interdependent European union. Our evidence suggests that behind closed doors, decisions have been made to rid an independent Britain and other independent nations of their livestock industry by any means necessary. Swine fever, BSE, more BSE and now foot and mouth? These so-called 'outbreaks' have provided the perfect reason to
slaughter thousands upon thousands of completely healthy cattle, sheep and pigs over the years. And it appears the goal to break the back of UK farming is being achieved. The facts in our report reveal the British and other governments are colluding in the most abhorrent actions. Most definitely, there are issues of criminality and treason to answer in the light of the crippling damage that has been wilfully inflicted upon the British people and their nation's economic infrastructure."

Steven Ransom, Plague, Pestilence and the Pursuit of Power.

The same thing is more than likely happening in Asia with the current bird flu scares.  Only time will tell.

Finally, all of the 'talking points' constantly discussed and reported on in the corporate media, and which unfortunately is so pervasive, are nothing more than political propaganda weapons of mass distraction. They have been purposefully sewn into the national debate, in this instance to reinforce the false belief that there is indeed a bird flu virus, and that it has been rampaging across Asia.

Nothing could be further from the truth. That their disinformation campaign is working, is adequately demonstrated by the average populace response. For more information on this subject, please read the following excerpt on the control of freedom of speech at  whatareweswallowing.co.uk.

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