Avian flu. A virus most fowl?
Writer Amy Ephron asks today in Huff Po if the media is checking the science behind the Great Pandemic Scare. It is something I would also like to know.
I am neither a doctor nor do I play one on TV, so forgive me for not knowing whether President Bush and the media need be scaring the bejesus out of the public right now about a bird flu pandemic. The World Health Organization’s FAQ page on avian flu is probably the best explainer I have seen so far of the flu’s seriousness and its ability to develop into a pandemic. But it does not seem to make a case that stealthy mallard ducks are just waiting quietly by the pond, ready to kill us at the drop of a bread crumb. I also can’t help but be a little skeptical over GW’s obsessive pandemic preparedness frenzy. Here are some reasons for my skepticism:
1. When the going gets tough, the tough changes the subject. If Frank Sinatra was still alive he might be singing for GW Bush and associates: “It was a very bad year.” Sheehan. Katrina. Plamegate. Brownie. Harriet. Iraq. Plamegate. Iraq. Plamegate. Take your pick. We all are sophisticated enough to know that politicians look for every chance they can to get the upper PR hand. And one way to do that is to set a new agenda.
2. Donald Rumsfeld has a great financial stake in the company that makes Tamiflu. Fortune magazine says Rumsfeld served as Gilead (Research)’s chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld.
3. It just so happens that more flu vaccine can be produced only if we stop those pesky trial lawyers and their lawsuits. A Bush tort reform jihad appears at an opportune moment.
So I would really like to know whether I should “go Howard,” (as in Howard Hughes)and keep myself as far away from humanity, chickens, ducks, geese, and other disease-carrying sources as is possible. Or are we getting a little bit of the business here? I’m sure the answer lies somewhere there in the spectrum. But it would be nice to know a little bit more about whether all the pandemic talk and spend hoopla is justified.