Why aren’t more people
concerned about bird flu? I see news stories about it from time to time, but
they don’t seem to generate much buzz. This is a scary bug and the world isn’t ready
to deal with it.
Once upon a time, influenza was a potentially deadly disease. It came and went like
the monsoon season, leaving devastation in its wake. Eventually, medical science
found a way to beat it. Now, for developed countries, it’s merely a nuisance. Few
people live in fear of flu season.
The time may be coming when we will fear again. Let’s hope we don’t have to tell
our grandchildren sad stories of how we survived the Great Bird Flu Pandemic and
of the friends and loved ones who didn’t.
Report: Flu pandemic could kill half million in U.S
U.N.: Bird flu at tipping point
“The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but cannot do, at all, or cannot, so well do, for themselves–in their separate, and individual capacities.” – Abraham Lincoln
And how many conservative Republicans think Lincoln was a bleeding heart liberal who interfered with the states rights and abused the Constitution?
I don’t know. Ask one. I consider myself independent.
I suppose I could be concerned about the bird flu, but why? I’m not a researcher or a doctor and I can’t do anything more substantial than blog about it, or spread fear and alarm amongst the people I know. What would be the point of that?
It’s like all those folks who live down in Florida and the other Gulf states where hurricanes keep blowing through. Last year those poor folks were hit with a mighty wallop of destructive natural forces. But still I turned on my TV and heard people say things like, “Well, we know the risks and we want to live here anyway.”
I mean, if people were going to be rational about the destructive forces of nature, nobody would be living down there, nobody here in California would be living on the San Andreas fault line, and so on. But we can’t stop those things, and most of us aren’t capable of stopping the bird flu either. It’s just a risk of being alive. That’s probably why just about every religion and philosophy-for-living includes some version of the maxim that the wise person is always prepared for death.
That said, I would hope that the CDC, other appropriate researchers, and doctors are doing what they can, since they have the ability to solve the problem or alleviate its effects.
I suppose my implicit (though apparently obscure) argument was for the idea that “what we don’t know CAN hurt us”. IOW, if more people are concerned, more pressure gets put on politicians to put money into research. I may not be able to stop a viscious dog from attacking and biting me, but perhaps I can wear padding and have rabies vaccine on hand. The inevitability of an unfortunate event doesn’t remove culpability for intentionally or negligently failing to properly prepare for it.
More people aren’t concerned (or at least I’m not concerned) because the worrywarts cry wolf every year about the bird flu. They also cry but-this-year-is-different every year.
There are things we can do. Unfortunately, most of them involve getting our politicians to do things that aren’t specifically required of the Federal Government in the Constitution.
One could, I suppose, make the argument that controlling the Avian Flu is in defense of the country.