US Looking Sideways: Bird Flu
By J. Grant Swank Jr. (10/06/05)
"In respect of human mortality, for the sake of your own families and children, for the honor and satisfaction of doing right, I bid you join in this effort."
What effort? Fighting the bird flu epidemic.
Who was speaking those words? US Senate Majority Leader William H. Frist, M.D., as he delivered his speech to the audience at the Nantucket Atheneum. He was referring to the worldwide threat of infectious diseases.
The Washington Post headlines today read: "Indonesia Warns of Bird Flu Epidemic."
According to reporter Alan Sipress messaging from Jakarta, Indonesia, that nation "could be on the brink of a bird flu epidemic if the virus continues to accelerate, the country's health minister warned Wednesday as the number of suspected cases in the capital continued to mount."
If such a bird flu attack occurred in North America, the United States would not be prepared. That is why Frist was speaking out. Yet candidly Frist admitted that "like everyone else, politicians tend to look away from danger, to hope for the best, and pray that disaster will not arrive on their watch even as they sleep through it. This is so much a part of human nature that it often goes unchallenged."
But looking sideways when one should be looking head-on cannot be tolerated in these troubled times. Therefore, enough of procrastination.
Frist goes on: "But we will not be able to sleep through what is likely coming soon -- a front of unchecked and virulent epidemics, the potential of which should rise above your every other concern. For what the world now faces, it has not seen even in the most harrowing episodes of the Middle Ages or the great wars of the last century.
"We are unprepared for rampant epidemics. And even worse, we haven’t taken sufficient note of the fact that though individually each might be devastating, they are susceptible of either purposeful or accidental combination, in which case they could be devastating almost beyond imagination."
Even with this stark warning, checking the Internet for sites focusing on America’s lack of preparedness regarding the bird flu epidemic, the sites are slim. Instead, the sites calmly recite the mantra of the definition of bird flu, how the flu has impacted past history, what an individual can do to ward off that flu, and so forth. It’s like reading how to ward of a sore throat.
Yes, there is much on the government’s mind today with New Iraq, New Orleans and Rita, not to mention the routine pressures. But the bird flu epidemic is no joke. And it may not be relegated only to nations other than those in the Western Hemisphere. It could very well attack the United States. That’s why Frist’s caution signals have to be taken dead seriously.
The Washington Post report continues: "United Nations health experts warn the virus could either mutate or obtain new genetic material allowing it to spread more easily among humans, sparking a global pandemic and killing tens of millions of people."
Frist stated: "Never have we had to fight such a battle, to protect so many people against so many threats that are so silent and so lethal."
Copyright © 2005 by J. Grant Swank, Jr.
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