Sunday, September 23, 2007

September 22 Flu Update

There's a new suspected death in Indonesia.

A Chinese official is perhaps more candid than he intended. Note that only one outbreak has been reported recently (italics added)

We are still seeing epidemic outbreaks in certain places, but there are problems in some areas with unworkable bird flu control measures, vaccinations not being in place, and untimely monitoring,' Vice Agriculture Minister Yin Chengjie said.


In South Dakota, hunters are going to help the bird flu fight.

Fear of bird flu is supposedly effecting tourism in Turkey.

Africa has seen funding for bird flu fall.

1 Comments:

At 7:02 PM, Blogger Wulfgang said...

Orange;

Interesting news reports coming out about that 30 year old woman that most recently died in Indonesia. Several of them report that she supposedly caught the virus from her pet bird.

Regarding your China article, are you or anyone surprised about the reference to outbreaks in “certain other places” and their “unworkable bird flu control measures, vaccinations and untimely monitoring” ? We, as in the public and MSM, are only getting a fraction of real situation going on with the PRRS and bird flu situation there, and don’t ever think otherwise. Between the communist regime censorship, run by the ROC Ministry of Police, the Zhonghua Minguo Xianbing, and the Ministry of State Security, the Guojia Anquan Bu, and the threat of becoming an organ donor – they have effectively kept wraps on the animal problems quite effectively.

Don’t be surprise if we don’t hear from Yin Chengjie ever again. I am quite pretty certain he received a visit from the state security for his loose statement.

When I read the article about the South Dakota hunters participating in testing of ducks, I immediately thought of a local article which hasn’t made it in the national news headlines. Apparently, a Mexican national was stopped on the border of the US and Mexico yesterday, and he had over 400 wild birds that he intended to deliver to the US for sale on the black market. It seems we may be not recognizing the real problem here, or even the correct geographical location.

I really chuckled when I read your piece about the tourism industry in Turkey falling in the dumper due to bird flu and terrorism. I don’t know about anyone else, but I stay within the US these days. The thought of getting blown away by an idiot religious fanatic with a second grade formal education and aspirations of martyrdom with about seventy virgins, just doesn’t appeal to me. Now if we were allowed to carry equalizers on our person, I might be, but until that happens – nah, no thanks, I’ll just fish a little in the back pond.

Finally, the quote from the chairman of the World Organization for Animal Health, Bernard Vallat, in your African article really got me laughing. He said, “$ 500 M dollars is a small amount when you look at what is at stake”. I don’t know about anyone else, but I need a little more convincing that it’s a small amount and shoveling our hard earned money into these countries is even worth it. Better to build our own internal vaccine and production capability, in my view, rather than feed these corrupt regimes and governments.

We need to figure out a way to get in on this lucrative action, Orange ! We’re missing out on something big here.

Wulfgang

 

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