coming crisis hints: bubble boys, bankruptcy, and bird flu

The Bird Flu one isn't as scary as Kos makes it sound. The original NY Times article says: 1. The most disturbing point is that the Indonesian government is supressing the real numbers, but this isn't evidence of a pandemic -- It's yet the latest evidence that Indonesia's government is seriously corrupt and (the scarier point) inefficient. 2. The tests for all Avian Flu turn back false negatives, not just the strain in Indonesia, was the NY Times' point. This is 'Bird Flu is scary', not 'Indonesia's cases are unusual'. 3. This is the biggest furfy. The NY Times article clearly states, "On June 6, the World Health Organization reported that tests on four such nurses had convincingly ruled out A(H5N1), the avian flu, and indicated that one had a seasonal flu, A(H1N1), instead." Mind you, there are bad points here too. 1. There's not proper culling of flocks. This is bad, as it dramatically increases the risk of Avian Flu spreading and thus mutating. 2. "Mr. Thompson, who recently returned from Indonesia, said that he did not know how the nurses had been tested" -- This is hardly reassuring. The only good point to remember is that the standard vector for bird related illnesses mutating to become human based illnesses is pigs, since they do a good job of being vulnerable to both our diseases and birds's diseases. And Indonesia, of course, is the largest muslim population on the planet -- No pigs. That being said, I think the consensus is pretty clear this avian flu is an exception to that rule.

I don't suppose it helps matters to point out that diabetics aren't exactly encouraged to eat a lot of corn of any variety.

From everything I've read, the media has tended to worry too much about the danger of Avian flu to humans, and not enough about the more obvious danger - to poultry. Losing a huge number of chickens in a country like Nigeria is a big deal for a variety of reasons. The major source of protein where people aren't getting an optimal amount to start with. And valuable livestock, making farmers reluctant to culling or reporting cases of avian flu in the first place. My guess is that first-world humans will not suffer much from H5N1, but third-world humans will, chiefly because third-world [i]birds[/i] will. I dearly wish we could junk *all* our ridiculous agricultural subsidies, whose only saving graces are that they're less awful than the EU's. Basically, the reason we don't use sugar in sodas (and a lot of other things) is that the small U.S. sugar industry demanded high sugar tariffs to protect them from Latin American sugar. Which made sugar too expensive by comparison with cheap corn syrup, which is cheap because we give that powerful industry massive subsidies! All of which is in service of "protecting the family farm," and mainly benefits, oh, the Cargill family, I suppose....

"I don't suppose it helps matters to point out that diabetics aren't exactly encouraged to eat a lot of corn of any variety." Yeah, but how many undiagnosed diabetics are there in the U.S. alone? One third, perhaps: http://www.bestsyndication.com/Articles/2006/dan_wilson/health/05/052606_undiagnosed_diabetes_nih_cdc.htm And how many diagnosed diabetics are actually diligent about their diets? And THEN there's this: How many cases of diabetes are caused by all the shit people are eating without even realizing how bad it is for them?

"My guess is that first-world humans will not suffer much from H5N1, but third-world humans will, chiefly because third-world [i]birds[/i] will." AIDS started in the third world, too...

Point(s) taken, MaryAnn.