Panorama last night - bird flu The doctors and evidence from Vietnam suggest it's only a matter of time (in the next 5 years) before a global pandemic hits the world. Anyone see this? I know there is a lot of opinion about scare mongering but history has a habit of repeating itself. Most people reckon the infrastructure for coping with such problems is a lot better than say the pandemic of 1914-15 but there appears to be no vaccine yet, added to that the amount of people travelling the globe each day. Follow up is on next Sunday night - Q & A's.
I still have an s10 respirator from the army plus a spare filter Should be able to hold out for a few days
I honestly think this is just another example of mass hysteria being used to control people along with the millenium bug, the fear of terror and killer african bees. No doubt there is something called bird flu, and im sure its mildly dangerous - but all the panic so far is based on the slim assumption that bird flu mutates into a human form or whatever (but its all based on ASSUMPTIONS) blah blah blah. Only a few years back we had governments stockpiling smallpox drugs in case terrorists decided to unleash some kind of bio weapon attack on us .... what happened to that one eh. In times of fear, people are less likely to want regieme changes - and you could argue that Blair and Bush have their respective positions as head of government in mind - especially when public approval seems to be in terminal decline for both of them. I dont believe a word of it.
Bird flu has struck before... Granted, it's unusual for flu to mutate in this way but it's not unheard of. I don't buy the mass hysteria bit - if that was the case then it would be featuring far more heavily in political debate than it currently is.... I'm not sure whats happening over the pond but I'd imagine it's similar there.
5 years to mutate/take hold - plenty of time for glaxo to develop a vaccine and how did it finish in 1918? it'll be the poor & infirm most at risk while you're watching the right hand, you don't see what the left is doing ...
Conway - Why would you need political discussion of bird flu when the media are doing a fine job of whipping everyone into a frenzy over the issue perfectly well? Add the fact that Tony Blair seems to have spent his entire time at number 10 pandering to Rupert Murdoch so as not to cheese him off and hence affect public opinions with his newspapers and tv channels and what you have is a stinking case for media/politics being intertwined in a 'you watch my back, ill watch yours' relationship. The fact is, that people LOVE to discuss fear and paranoia moreso than they do about the fact that taxes keep going up, society is in decline, and the economy is on a knife edge while our 'leader' seems to be suffering the most incredible image problem since he came to power..... So if you can keep a load of people obsessed with a pandemic that probably wont happen, as well as what madonna won at last weeks award ceremonies and grant from eastenders being beaten up by his real life wife..... then perhaps they might not realise that our governments are writing cheques we cant cash, planning to spend billions on 'defence' from an enemy we seem to be creating ourselves.... and corrupt cronies who seem to lose one job and come back with another one only months later. I cry bullsh*t
I'm sorry brid but I don't buy the conspiracy theory (at least as far as bird flu being a smokescreen). The truth is that flu mutates very quickly (in relation to other organisms and diseases on this planet) and it is only a matter of time before another pandemic strikes, there were 3 in the last century, with the H1N1 'Spanish' strain being the worst of them. My point about lack of political debate with regards to this issue is that other governments 'seem' to be far more worried about it than ours... As for a political obsession, I'd say the current 'war' on terror comes pretty close as a diversion... "We need to be able to lock people up for 3 months without charge"... why isn't anyone standing up and going "Hey, isn't that even just slightly wrong?" I'm sorry, but if you can't form a case against someone after 14 days you're not going to be able to do it after 90... And as for the mitchell brothers, they were both beaten up by their partners (but Ross Kemp's humiliation wasn't covered in the Murdoch-owned press because his 'partner' is editor of that fine bastion of reportive journalism known as The Sun
It doesnt have to be a 'conspiracy theory' at all, which has become a term to debunk any kind of rumour that the powers that be arent exactly whiter than white. All it takes is for a few slight nods and agreements between a few people that they will cover a certain issue to death before it ends up on everyones minds and becomes part of our collective thinking. It would be interesting to see JUST how big an issue things like bird flu are in other countries (who are in just as much risk as we are) so you can see just how important this REALLY is in the grand scheme of things. As much as the old evidence of previous strains of flu's were - That was before the the industrial revolution and in a time when things were vastly different than they are today.... Or what about places like Africa where Diohhrea (bad spelling) kills tens of thousands - yet its something we dont care about over here. Its just panic and hype designed to sell newspapers. I would say the past 6 years will be something we look back on as text book examples of mass population control. The war on iraq, terrorism, the millenium bug..... George Orwell must be turning in his grave.
A Prime Minister that thinks for himself and doesn't just go along with what he's told to say .... Surely it could never happen ??
There'd be no pandering to the states if i was in charge like.... Its going to take alot of work to reverse the damage we have done with doing anything that the USA tells us to. Worryingly, Blair has even started putting those seeds in place for an Iran war now.... Just like it happened with Iraq
This worries me. We should have tackled iraq back in the gulf war when we had crushed the army and had saddam at his knees, when we would have had the support of the iraqi people, not when George 'Dubya' decided it was time to settle 'pops' old scores. I'm not sure they can justify any legitimacy for war against Iran but it won't stop them from trying to.
