I saw this amazing news item, in the The Standard, a Hong Kong newspaper, (via http://crofsblogs.typepad.com).

It described a visit by three senior Indonesian Ministers, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono and Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie, to a site of a planned "Cull" of birds owned by the locals.

Apparently, instead of enjoying the experience of a nice Mass Killing of birds,- which is known as a Cull - the Ministers had to run for their very lives!

It seems that the locals, who stood to loose their livelihoods as a result of the above mentioned Cull, strongly objected to the said mass destruction of their flocks and "tried to rip off the protective masks, being worn by the three Ministers, who eventually were forced to take off the white protective suits they were wearing, and the planned cull was called off as the army restored order."

Later, Anton Apriyantono, the Minister of Agriculture, who must have been shaken by his unexpected experience, had this to say ,"This is the first time that we have had a rejection of bird culling."

Ya right!

I suppose that the villagers are normally happy to have their only source of income "Culled" by the Government.

Now I know that this is a very serious matter, but I just can not get out of my mind, the image of the three well fed Government Ministers, sweating profusely, under their thick heavily embroidered silk clothing, being forced to take off their protective masks and "the white protective suits they were wearing"..!

After their protective masks were removed, I can see the three Ministers, with a fixed smile on their faces, as they beat a hasty retreat, while holding their breath, in order to avoid breathing in any Bird Flu germs, until they could get in to their official limo!

I suppose that the local villagers, having temporarily won their battle to save their chickens and ducks, no doubt gathered all of the "Un-Culled" birds, each of them taking his flock of birds, back in to his small and cramped one room home, shared by his family, along with the chickens and the ducks.

I found this news item, by Peter Aldhous, who writes with great erudition, at the New Scientist.

There was this great big headline, "Bird Flu Mixed With Human Flu Lacks Punch".

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) scientists have apparently tried to infect ferrets, with genes from the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, mixed with those from a common human flu virus and have failed to infect the healthy ferrets with the hybrid virus.

Great news!

This means that the Human Bird Flu virus will not prove deadly for all of us.

Well, not really :(

Because, the same news item, tells you some thing totally different, from the message conveyed by the HEADLINE, a bit later in the news item.

However this important and very relevant fact, is provided only to the reader, who bothers to go all the way down to the bottom of the news item.

I suppose you do need a bit of suspense in your news items!

You are told in the last two lines of this news item, that:

"the virus that caused the 1918 pandemic, which killed more than 40 million people, PROBABLY EVOLVED BY THE MUTATION OF A BIRD FLU STRAIN rather than RECOMBINATION WITH A HUMAN VIRUS."

WHAT was that?

Well, the ferrets may not have caught the virus at the hands of the scientists at the CDC, but there are plenty of Humans in Indonesia and now in Thailand, who seem to be going down, with the plain old slowly mutating via natural evolution, Bird Flu virus.

Do you think this will help those who believe in EVOLUTION as opposed to CREATION???


Here is the above mentioned news item:

Bird flu mixed with human flu lacks punch
18:04 01 August 2006 NewScientist.com news service
Peter Aldhous


Combining genes from the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus with those from a common human flu virus does not seem to create strains with instant pandemic potential, researchers have found.

H5N1 meets two of three requirements for a pandemic strain: it is highly pathogenic and unfamiliar to most people’s immune systems. If it also acquired the ability to transmit easily from person to person, H5N1 would threaten millions of lives. One way this could happen is if the virus swapped genes with human flu.

A team at the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, engineered flu viruses that contained genes for the external “coat” proteins of H5N1 and the internal proteins of H3N2, the most common variety of human flu in circulation.

They then inoculated ferrets with these “reassortant” viruses. When ferrets are in adjacent cages, H3N2 passes readily from one cage to the next. But neither H5N1, nor the new viruses, could be transmitted in this way, and the engineered strains were much less pathogenic than H5N1.

This suggests it may take more than a simple exchange of genes to turn H5N1 into a global killer, although the team has yet to explore other possible reassortants.

Mutation not recombination

However, the virus that caused the 1918 pandemic, which killed more than 40 million people, probably evolved by the mutation of a bird flu strain rather than recombination with a human virus.

(From the Bangkok Post, Via www.birdflubreakingnews.com)
The number of patients suspected to have bird flu has reached 113 across the country and all are being kept under strict surveillance, the Public Health Ministry said. The results of laboratory tests are still awaited and until then health workers cannot say for sure how many, if any, have picked up the disease.

Here is the conversation I had, with this friend of mine from Thailand, regarding the above news item:

ME- Did you see that news item? How many patients with possible Bird Flu?

HIM- Well, 113 patients actually, but according to the Thai Public Health Ministry, the patients' condition was not worrisome.

ME- What do you mean by that? How can the condition of the patients with suspected Bird Flu, NOT be worrisome?

HIM- It is their own fault any way, because they had apparently failed to disclose the information about having close contact with fowl carcasses.

ME- Was Thailand not free of Bird Flu though?

HIM- Every one thought that it was. We had not had any human cases of the Bird Flu for a more than eight months, so we were all a bit relaxed.

ME- But the Birds can just fly over the borders, in to any country! How can any country believe it self to be free of the Bird Flu, while there are still birds out there, in the rest of the world, infected with this virus?

HIM- The authorities are doing all they can. After the 17-year-old man died of bird flu last Monday, in the northern province of Phichit, they Culled over 300,000 of birds.

ME- That is lot "Culling"! How were so many birds destroyed? Did they gass them like the Irish do?

HIM- I do not know how the 300,000 birds were killed.

ME- Do you think that "Culling" all those birds, will make Thailand Bird Flu free again?

HIM- I hope so.

ME- I hear that India is also "Bird Flu free" now.

I see that the Irish have decided on gassing their chickens to death.

The Irish Government has apparently destroyed 4,000 chickens, in a DUMMY RUN of its plans for curbing the spread of bird flu in Ulster.

Curbing the spread of Bird Flu?????

I Did not know that Bird Flu was already spreading in Ulster!

I suppose that is, well, kind of a humane way to kill the poor creatures, as opposed to burning them alive, as some other countries have been doing.

Over 300 million bird from around the world have been killed over the last year or so.

Vast majority of these birds (over 99%) had nothing to do with the bird flu virus, were completely healthy and were minding their own business, doing what birds do.

They were killed "just-in-case"!

Any way, here is the Irish Way to do it:

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Belfast Telegraph Home > News



4,000 Ulster hens gassed to death in bird flu dry run


By Linda McKee

27 July 2006
The Government has destroyed 4,000 chickens in a dummy run of its plans for curbing the spread of bird flu in Ulster.

The hens, which had reached the end of their laying life, were destroyed near Cookstown by Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) staff testing a gas-based method of killing the birds.

Under European law, DARD staff are required to develop a contingency plan to tackle any outbreak of avian influenza and carry out real-time exercises to assure its effectiveness.

This week's test was carried out under controlled conditions and was followed by a debrief at Loughry Campus of the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise.

A spokesman said: "This structured rehearsal was held after the trial to evaluate the efficacy of this methodology.

"Almost 40 DARD staff and observers from industry, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department of Agriculture and Food participated in this operational trial.

"It was one of a series of such trials held on an ongoing basis to test all aspects of the Epizootic Disease Contingency Plan and ensure Northern Ireland's readiness to handle any future outbreaks of epizootic disease."

Health chiefs in Ulster have already carried out a number of dummy runs to test the healthcare system's readiness for any outbreak.

One high-level test, dubbed Operation Spring Chicken, was based on a nightmare scenario involving poultry workers contracting the H5N1 virus.

The exercise, organised by the Southern and Western Health Boards, involved setting up a special anti-viral treatment area with the help of doctors, nurses and communicable disease specialists.
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All around the world people are rejoicing today!

It seems that an inexpensive and effective vaccine has been developed by a British company.

According to MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said this about the new vaccine:

"The data are really very impressive," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, "It changes the whole complexion of the issue that we have to face of getting enough vaccine for people who might need it in a pandemic."

But hold on here!

What is this at the end of the same article?

I mean, right at the bottom of the article and certainly not in the form of a headline?

"Creating a prototype pandemic vaccine, however, does not guarantee that countries will be protected in the event of a flu pandemic."

"This vaccine will only give protection against this particular H5N1 strain and possibly other H5N1 strains," said Osterhaus.

Thus, if the next influenza pandemic is sparked by a subtype other than H5, much of this vaccine may prove of little use" reads the same article. .

" Because it is impossible to predict which influenza strain will spark the next pandemic, it is equally impossible to produce a vaccine that will be completely effective."

What!!

So we have this great new vaccine, which er.. "may prove of little use".

I see.

Well...

Not sure what to think now.