Bird flu? Pshaw! Unseen pandemic is scarier

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/steinberg/cst-nws-stein24.html

The human being is a perverse beast. And one of the more twisted truths is, the greater the risk of something, the less we worry about it, while the more unlikely a risk, the more it obsesses us.

Picture a 300-pound man driving to the airport to fly to Singapore and not wearing his seatbelt. Is he worried about heart attack or traffic death, his two most likely perils? Of course not. He's worried about flying -- who knows who that pilot is? -- and avian flu.

Worrying about bird flu is dumb and we should stop immediately. We will certainly have an international pandemic someday, but it won't be avian flu and I'll tell you why: we're worrying about it far too much. There is an inverse relationship between the alarm raised over some possibility and its actual occurrence.

We spent years fretting over Soviet attack, building bomb shelters and ducking and covering. Never happened, while Pearl Harbor caught us napping.

Remember the Y2K "crisis"? Months of buildup and anxiety leading to a big fat nothing, while Sept. 11 hit out of a clear blue sky with no warning at all.

You never see the one that gets you.

[WindRavenX]

1. The bird flu hype is just hype-- so far

Until it mutates into a H2H form and, this is key, RETAINS its virulence, then it is nothing more than an economic plague in the poultry industries in the world.

[Swamp Rat]

2. Well, I did "see" Katrina coming, and I knew Bushler is incompetent

but I didn't think that we'd be abandoned by the U.S. Government in our time of need.

Bird flu? What bird flu? :shrug: Hell, hurricane season starts in a few days and I still don't even have a new roof. :scared:

If bird flu truly hits us in a devastating way, be sure the U.S. Government WILL ABANDON YOU AND YOUR FAMILY TO CERTAIN DEATH!

[TallahasseeGrannie]

3. I've always lived by that motto

which is why I am a worrier. If I worry, it won't happen.

[Generic Other]

4. Excellent observation

No more anxiety attacks. Thanks.

[Dead_Parrot]

5. Well, up to a point.

I wouldn't describe Y2K as "Months of buildup and anxiety leading to a big fat nothing" - I work in IT, and it was about 2 years of replacing every damn widget and bit of code that wouldn't work with stuff that did: But we knew exactly what the problems would be, and how to fix them, so it was just hard work. There was no need for any fear.

Since we don't know what a H2H mutation of bird flu' would look like - or when it will happen, or where, or even if - it's not really subject to the same rules. The only way we would catch it is by keeping the health organisations on thier toes: And the only way that'll happen is if everyone is so batshit with fear, the politicians have to look like they're doing something by kicking them.

Fear is good, in this case. :)

[mcscajun]

6. You took the words outta my...

...I also worked in IT in the years leading up to the Y2K deadline, and worked that New Year's Eve along with lot of other people rather than partying as we would have liked. We were there to make sure that all our hard work hadn't overlooked something. We insured that our systems were all in order for the turnover.

The Non-Event was a Non-Event because of the hard work of thousands upon thousands of IT workers around the world, not because it was Nothing in the first place.

And the Avian Flu, if it become a Non-Event, well, I'll be as happy as anyone, but I'm not going to ignore it until that happens. I don't fear, I don't worry. I am concerned, and I stay informed, and I prepare, because I know my government is useless in a crisis. (Hell, it's useless most Mondays to Fridays...and alternate Saturdays, and 3 out of 4 Sundays.)

I look at this like the nun in grade school who, so long as she carried her umbrella, it didn't rain. :)
The day she forgot it, look out! :)

[Ready4Change]

8. I agree. Y2K would have been a sh*tfan.

But many, many IT people, myself included, kicked ass and made it a non-issue.

I can guarantee the systems I worked on would have crashed, had we not gotten to work well in advance.

[Gabi Hayes]

7. you realize what a hateful, RW ahole Steinberg is?

wifebeater to boot?

think I'm making it up?

check it out

you found this....find the other stuff; it's there

[NNN0LHI]

9. All of that may be true but it doesn't mean he isn't right about this

I think he is a drinker too.

Don

[Taxloss]

10. Like the horrific death toll from AIDS in Africa?

Millions upon millions, whole families and villages wiped out, whole countries decimated and more ... but for us in the West it's mostly "unseen".

[MercutioATC]

11. Let's not worry about global warming or government corruption either.

After all, we see them coming....

:eyes:

A pandemic (H5N1 is one of the present candidates) will statistically happen again. That's reason for concern.

H5N1 has a couple of especially scary traits that make it worth watching. The same three rules apply to an H5N1 pandemic that apply to EVERY possible threat:

Don't panic.
Stay informed.
Be prepared.


To say "We will certainly have an international pandemic someday, but it won't be avian flu and I'll tell you why: we're worrying about it far too much." is moronic.