(SCI) Is this true? -Avian Flu Death Toll in 'Hundreds of Millions' of Earths Animals

February 21, 2005

Avian Flu Death Toll in 'Hundreds of Millions' of Earths Animals

By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Russian Subscribers

From the American news magazine, The New Yorker, their writer, Michael
Specter has said,

"The vicious avian flu that has killed dozens of
people in Vietnam, Thailand, and elsewhere in the region "has caused the
deaths of hundreds of millions of animals in nearly a dozen Asian
countries" in the past two years and could kill millions of people if it
becomes capable of spreading efficiently among humans."

Click to expand...

When asked in an interview the question, "Is anyone in charge of global
health? Are there treaties, for instance, that can force a government to
take action regarding the health of its citizens?" Mr. Specter
responded, "Nobody is in charge-and, in an age of global illness, we
desperately need that to change."

The truth of this assertion by Mr. Specter was just yesterday verified
by the British newspaper, The Independent, in an article titled "Risk of
deadly global epidemic as bid to halt spread of bird flu is foiled" and
which says, "Thailand, one of two countries at the centre of the bird
flu outbreak, is refusing to act against its spread, scuppering attempts
to stop a devastating pandemic expected to kill tens of millions of
people around the globe."


As seen by the events of the last century when in a 3 year time period
through war (World War I) and flu pandemic (Spanish Flu), the face of
the world was changed forever. No more were the empires of Czarist
Russia, Austria Hungry, Great Brittan and the Ottoman Turks. In their
place arouse the communists, the fascists and the capitalists.... (more at the link)
--
Sorcha Faal

http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index685.htm

*************
Is there any way these numbers can be confirmed???

If it is true and it crosses over to humans in a big way, we are doomed!
Jack

Well, it depends on your deffinitions.

There have been culls of poultry in several countries because of this, which HAVE resulted in the deaths of some number of millions of ducks and chickens, over the past 2 or so years.

A MAJOR problem as to avian flu is that it doesn't kill its bird hosts... they get the sniffles, and move on with life, acting as a recombination reservoir.

IMO, the articles AS REFERENCED don't support the hyperventilation of the current reporter.

NOW, if someone wants to start pushing for a global health board with the power to "force countries to "DO SOMETHING" about the health of the people living in them", I will be happy to help the people trying to force this to a discovery of the Hemlock Society, as anyone who wants to push this agenda desparately needs a membership, short term, fast acting.

c

Yeah, I think some sort of pandemic will be the cause of the next 'die off,' and yes, it could be the avian flu.


Rage

I think the term, caused the death of, means that governments ordered the killing of these animals for fear of the disease spreading.

In another article, a doctor/scientist stated that this strain was making that transition to humans and wasn't H2 or H3 like recent strains, but H1 known for the mass epidemics of the past....that's why they are 'concerned'.

One of the folks that follows this REALLY closely has suggested to me that there is some "stuff" going on in WHO as to info dissemination (or lack thereof) and that things are not as rosy as we might think from what has hit the public wires.

Watch this subject VERY closely.

Jumping the species can well happen......pigs are renowned in China to crossing species as well as birds.......all due to close proximity......in CHINA.......they all live TOGETHER.

This is the article Sorcha took this statement from and it reads thus:

MAG: Avian Flu, On the Verge of an Epidemic
Sun Feb 20 2005 11:30:41 ET

The vicious avian flu that has killed dozens of people in Vietnam, Thailand, and elsewhere in the region "has caused the deaths of hundreds of millions of animals in nearly a dozen Asian countries" in the past two years and could kill millions of people if it becomes capable of spreading efficiently among humans, Michael Specter reports in "Nature's Bioterrorist" (p.50), in the February 28, 2005, issue of The New Yorker.

"No such virus has ever spread so quickly over such a wide geographical area," Specter notes, and, unlike most viruses, "this one has already affected a more diverse group than any other type of flu, and it has killed many animals previously thought to be resistant." One farmer whose chickens were killed by the virus says, "It's damn hard to watch. One day, they're all alive and healthy-the vets were here the week before to check them-and the next day they're dying by the thousand. It happened so quickly. They started shivering, thousands of them at once. And then they started to fall. Every one of them. They just fell over, dead." Scott Dowell, the director of the Centers for Disease Control's Thailand office, tells Specter, "The world just has no idea what it's going to see if this thing comes. When, really. It's when. I don't think we can afford the luxury of the word 'if' anymore.... The clock is ticking. We just don't know what time it is."

Robert Webster, a virologist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, in Memphis, who has been studying avian influenza for decades, is even more stark. "This is the worst flu virus I have ever seen or worked with or read about," he says. "We have to prepare as if we were going to war-and the public needs to understand that clearly. This virus is playing its role as a natural bioterrorist. The politicians are going to say Chicken Little is at it again. And, if I'm wrong, then thank God. But if it does happen, and I fully expect that it will, there will be no place for any of us to hide. Not in the United States or in Europe or in a bunker somewhere. The virus is a very promiscuous and effective killer."

Not all politicians have ignored the threat; when Tommy Thompson, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, announced his resignation, last December, he cited an avian- influenza epidemic as one of the greatest dangers the United States faces. The World Health Organization's conservative estimate of the number of deaths that an epidemic would cause is seven million worldwide. Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, calculates that a pandemic on the scale of the devastating global influenza epidemic of 1918 would kill at least a hundred and eighty million people today. Specter reports on the efforts of health officials in the United States, Thailand, and other countries to contain the virus as best they can.

Thailand and Vietnam have ordered the slaughter of millions of chickens and the alteration of centuries-old farming methods, with mixed results. There is no vaccine, but, even if one could be produced to fight the constantly evolving strains of the virus, it would be impossible to meet the overwhelming demand. "Vigilance," Specter writes, "is one of the few weapons available." As one senior official at the Thai Ministry of Public Health says, "We are certainly better than we ever were at detecting viruses. But we are also much better at spreading them."

Developing...

Pandemics are part of nature. Always have been.

The West Nile Virus thing was supposed to have killed off zillions of animals by now. While I do not doubt a bit that many have died from this disease, many have also survived, built up the immunity and will carry on.