Not long ago, the following frantic post appeared on www.birdfluforums.com,
a website dedicated to the avian flu rumour mill: How
long do you have to stay in your bunker, so that when
you join the community again the virus is gone and you
cannot catch the flu?
Yes, that's right, Americans are
preparing to dust off their Cold War-era bomb shelters
in readiness for the coming bird flu pandemic. Turkey
today, New York City tomorrow, runs the logic. And as
usual, the US's entrepreneurs aren't far behind. One
enterprising website, www.birdfluprotection.com, is
doing a brisk trade in "bird flu Nano Masks," in 5 colours
for $11 each. People are reportedly stockpiling foodstuffs
and whatever meds they can get their hands on.
It hardly needs mentioning that
the media has been all over the avian flu story ever
since they realized it had legs — or should I say
wings. The CBC has even got in on the act. Last month
their normally-staid flagship documentary show, the
Fifth Estate, ran a (melo)dramatization of a
hypothetical bird flu pandemic. Its stark tagline said
it all: "What if we had to store our dead in ice rinks?"
It left me wondering: Wherever will they park the Zamboni?
But probably the most worrying
is that governments are just as guilty by failing to
assuage peoples' fears and bring the dialogue down to
less 'red alert'.
Physicians and other healthcare
workers have a reason to fear a twenty-first century
flu pandemic, but too many others — politicians,
pundits and profiteers — have a vested interest
in exaggerating the threat. They tell us to brace ourselves
for a replay of the tragic 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.
We're expected to believe nearly a century of medical
progress doesn't amount to a hill of beans. If their
grim predictions don't come to pass physicians and the
public will be both outraged and relieved. We do need
to take the risk of bird flu seriously, but we should
also heed the warning of another, much older, bird story
— the fable of Chicken Little.
— Peter Woodford, contributing
editor
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