All this news about the bird flu is scaring the shit out of me. I want to know, first of all, is this another case of people being all worked up about something that’s not really that dangerous (like SARS and BSE?) I really hope it is, because there are a lot of people saying a lot of scary things in the news regarding this flu.
Second of all, what can an ordinary person do to protect against getting the bird flu? I read that it is not easily spread between humans, and that those who died (60 people - this sounds low) were infected from handling birds who were themselves infected. I’m not in the habit of messing with dead birds to begin with, but what about the chicken and turkey that we eat? Are commercial poultry birds at risk for this virus now? What should I do?
Well, it is hard to figure. The worst-case scenario would be 1918 all over again. History shows us that this sort of thing does happen, but not often. More likely is a less-deadly bug. We get those every year, in varying degrees.
Of course we do have better healthcare and nutrition nowadays. No viral disease can be cured, but we can keep people alive long enough for their systems to recover. So with proper medical care, most basically healthy people ought to do OK.
Still, folks with ‘Compromised Immune Systems,’ the elderly and other high-risk groups would be mowed down I guess. This would be even worse if the medical system was overwhelmed. It would take a lot of effort to save a high-risk person, effort that could be better used to save three or four stronger people.
Also we have a pretty good idea how to avoid getting sick. If it comes down to it, stay at home for two weeks and watch pay-per-view. You might still get sick, but the number of cases would be spread over a number of weeks, and so the medical system might not be so strained. Also, by then the virus may have mutated to a less deadly form.
End of the world? Not really. No worse that a bad hurricane hitting your town, except it would hit all the rest of the world in the same month or so.