April 16 Flu Update
Wendy Orent in the Washington Post with a must-read article on the flu and the risk of pandemic. Her theory is that messing around trying to recreate the bird flu is what is putting people at risk.Here's a quote.
Evolutionary biologist Paul Ewald of the University of Louisville points out that influenza is normally a relatively mild disease: It keeps its hosts up and moving in order for it to spread. But the precise conditions of the Western Front allowed the virus to evolve unprecedented virulence. Without those conditions, lethal pandemic flu cannot evolve. Says Byerly, "The 1918 flu epidemic most likely will not happen again because we won't construct the Western Front again."
WHO concerns that bird flu pandemic is drawing closer.
Scotland article on ducks and their role in flu.
posted by Orange @ 11:34 PM
1 Comments:
Gooddeed: Interesting thoughts. Of course, my objective here it to provide the information, and let people think for themselves, as you have done--and as she did.
I will say this. I have said here that what interests me on the flu is the fact that it tracks human behavior so closely. How we deal with it reveals things about us.
With that in mind, if WHO and the scientific community were reacting to the flu to avoid being blamed for "doing nothing," that would reveal something about human nature as well.
And it wouldn't be the first time humans did more damage fixing a problem than the original problem would have done. Call it the Tim Taylor syndrome :-).
By the way, your point that nature is working constantly is very insightful. Its like having a water leak in your house. It won't stop until it finds a way out.
Anyhow, keep the ideas coming. Watching what is happening, determining what it means is extremely interesting....
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