I clipped something from AP Pakistan last week but didn't use it because of interruptions. It turns out that Crof at H5N1 noted it at the time but I have a few observations to add, even at this late date. First, here's the gist:
Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock, Prince Esa Jan Baloch here on Wednesday asked the journalists to focus on factual, objective and positive reporting to check spread of misconceptions and misinformation regarding the outbreak of bird flu in the country.Addressing a press conference, following the coordination meeting between Ministry of Food Agriculture and Livestock (MINFAL), Ministry of Health and Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination here, the minister stressed upon the mediapersons to join hands with the government in spreading factual and correct information about the bird flu issue.
[snip]
He said that there was not a single case in the world where a person was reported to have died after touching the affected poultry meat. There is no possibility of bird flu outbreak and the prevailing rumours about the spread of disease are only based on incomplete information, he added.
He said the government was closely monitoring the situation and had taken appropriate steps to ensure timely containment of any human cases of Avian Influenza (if any), adding that government had cordoned three square kilometer area of the suspected chicken-farm in Karachi and culled birds there.
The minister said that all the concerned departments of the provinces have been put on high alert to deal with any untoward situation. (AP Pakistan)
How can anyone object to accurate, factual reporting? Here's how. Take a look at the article itself. Assuming for the moment the Minister is accurately quoted, it certainly fits the description of accurate and factual. The reporter is literally a reporter, doing nothing more than play the role of a stenographer. Of course the Minister wants only accurate and "factual" reporting on bird flu. He wants to use the news media to relay whatever message the government wants to transmit. The "facts" are whatever he said.
Maybe that's reporting. It's certainly not journalism. I'd like to see more accurate, factual journalism, probing the "facts" from the reported source, comparing it with other sources and examining the discrepancies. For a subject like bird flu this takes some specialist knowledge. There are some excellent, even superior, flu reporters out there and I was going to start naming them but then decided not to. When you do that you run the risk of leaving deserving names off, something that isn't exactly positive feedback.
And positive feedback is important. We flu bloggers should be thinking about how to encourage and acknowledge good reporting on a subject so important to us. That means not only skewering particularly bad examples but more importantly recognizing good reporting.
Most bloggers (myself included) don't do much, if any, original reporting. We depend on the media to be our eyes and ears and then we try to add value. Reporting on what is happening in the world of pandemic flu is a diffuse collaboration. We are blessed with some talented and expert journalist collaborators, even if they don't see us as their partners. We could do little without them.
Tip of the hat.
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All Hail Helen Branswell ! ! !
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Wahoo Jason Gale.
And our little Indian buddies are telling them its okay to eat the H5N1 infected birds. Just cook them really good....Forget those feathers man, who needs them.
I get the feeling that we are just so screwed with this stuff that when it happens everyone will go "What happened? Where?" Then a week later it shows up in the UK and the US and its already out of control before anyone even turns symptomatic. Kind of like the first whoosh of a gasoline fire.
Sounds like they have too many journalists in Pakistan. Not under controlled by government like the corporate media is in the US.
Helen Branswell is of course reporting from Canada.
There are 76 million of cases of food poisoning in the US each year causing 5000 deaths, or almost two 9/11 events, and people worry that the chickens people eat in India might give them the flu. LOL.
The funny thing is, those people eating H5N1 tainted chickens are probably building up an immunity so when the H5N1 goes pandemic, they will be just fine.
You might note that this is the same ministry of health who confirmed at least one death in Pakistan and now is crying foul because bloggers and the Internet are exaggerating the problem in Pakistan and hurting sales of poultry. This is not about accuracy, it is about economics.
http://www.avianinfluenza.org/index.php/site/pakistan-confirms-bird-flu…
There have been confirmed deaths from Avian in Pakistan since December 2007.
note:
http://www.pakistantimes.net/2008/02/02/top5.htm
ISLAMABAD: Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Livestock Friday high alerted all the concerned departments after confirmation of Bird Flus presence in Karachi while a radius of one kilometer area around the affected poultry farm in the city has been quarantined.
There is an Avian problem in Pakistan in birds and in people. It is not convenient, it is in the midst of political chaos, and no amount of denial will change the reality. Avian continues to spread and that is another reality no amount of denial will change.
Medclinician
[snip]
The funny thing is, those people eating H5N1 tainted chickens are probably building up an immunity so when the H5N1 goes pandemic, they will be just fine.
Posted by: PFT | February 12, 2008 1:49 AM
[snip]
I am too new here to know why no one challenged this obviously facetious and false assumption. But just to keep the stream a little less muddy, I would like to share something with this person.
No, eating infected and undercooked chicken does not give you immunity-it gives you dire illness or more likely, death. Plucking infected birds has given the plucker dire illness or more often, death. There are virtually no cases of infection with little or no symptoms.
Your agenda obviously is one of immediacy and to hell with preparation and prevention of any future catastrophe. I will assume your numbers are correct that there are 5000 deaths in this country due to food poisoning. When we have the next pandemic it means the deaths of millions world-wide. One third of the worlds population will be infected and even if the virus is no worse than that of 1918, it will mean that a minimum of 3% of them will die. Lets put both of those numbers on a scale and see which one tips the lowest, shall we? Now do you really think ignoring an emerging flu virus is still a good idea and a misplaced priority?
Revere/Tom/Grace/Dem-First of all I aint drunk and you know I dont do drugs, but I want you guys to think of something. I have been pondering something for a while and its really bounced back and forth all over my head for about a month and its the WHY?
Why on Gods green Earth would the governments of the world not prepare more adequately for what is "inevitable"? It is like Revere says all about the money. For one million a day going to each individual state and 52 weeks we would have 52 million spent on beefing up the infrastructure inside that time. We could easily pump that up to 5 mllion a month and still not bust the budget. 250 million say in one year and then send a million a month after that until it happens? Is the President and Congress that stupid not to see it. Stupid GWB and Stupid Congress thats controlled by the Dems. Boys and girls, it hasnt been mentioned for two years.
Here we sit and watch whats happening now at the 4000 mile marker on the march into Hell. Especially with in the numbers that even at the 5% would be astronomical in anyones estimates and result in the tumbling of economies around the world to damned near neolithic era survival. 40% for sure would do it.
I refer back to M. Pezzulli's who is a contributor tabletop exercise and its been buzzing around my head since he sent me what they did. It was nearly identical to the one in Atlanta and the one here in Memphis. At NLT the two week mark we are and would be up to our necks in disaster. Starvation, power outages at about the month mark, obviously hundreds of thousands of corpses and they called their tabletops a success. I am still reading that shit in the papers. I dont call 100,000 in the Tri-State dead in under a week a success and that is one thing we can all agree upon. So what did the tabletops do? Was it to confirm that we needed more assistance? Or was to confirm what they needed to ensure?
Then I added in current events. You recall Frists visit to Memphis and how he won the Republican Caucus two years ago and then suddenly, he opted out of government. He just quit. Did he know of something? Did he get wind of it? Remember the story about Frist going to see Webster and coming back looking like someone had knocked the shit out of him? All of this is in the face of what clearly is a mutating virus and all they tell us to do is not worry.
Lets fast forward just a bit.
We head to the vaccine arena. Suddenly late in 06, Supari starts blustering and posturing that we aint getting squat until we IN WRITING pony up basically all of the vaccine that doesnt even exist if we use their data, samples and sequences in any way. Cutting off the nose to spite ones face? Or is it to ensure that no vaccine is made at all? Cant make vaccine unless you have something to make it out of. But going to the other side of the fence, remember the comments about the corruption with the money that was sent in there? "Its only 20%". Well if you are paying someone off I would think that 800 million spread across a bunch of bureaucrats would do it dont you? Pay them to fuck up?
Lets talk about testing. Niman and many others talk about the use of blood tests for H5. If they give them Tamiflu they know damned well its not going to give a valid reading as a rule. How long does it take to do a throat, nose swab BEFORE you start pumping the antivirals into someone that has bird bug?
Move over into the suppression of information that bird bug was in China for years and that is at least two, maybe four more earlier than they lied about initially. Then take suppression of the evidence all the way across the board. Romania had sixty thousand sequestered in their homes last year...The media didnt blip on that at all.
Then there is the death of the previous WHO DG. His death was very Kennedy in its manner. It does happen but my eyebrows were raised by it. How about the the election of probably the consensus of just about everyone worst candidate out there. If thats how Margaret Chan was put in-election or a nod of the head?
Remember there is no information and no BF in China, especially if the woman or person in charge is Chinese. A WHO Manchurian Candidate? To me, its just starting to stack up. It wouldnt be Bush or Cheney even though the latter is smart enough to get it rolling, they couldnt keep it quiet long enough even if they threw illegal dollars at the mouthy ones.
Now we have our conspiracy theorists here of course and I kind of roll my eyes at the detention camps crap and how Bush is going to retain power and the like. But we are heavily armed here in the country and that would last about fifteen minutes after they gave the order to shoot civilians. But, lets take a look at this objectively and the THIS just doesnt make any sense. The UK is cutting DEFRA and their public health services (UHC). Bush and you are quick to Bash is pulling back on the infrastructure that might be able to help out in a pandemic in the budget, even as it looms. Forget Iraq in this equation unless you are diverting resources (money) to ensure the survival of the government and its politico's and that nagging thing about the "shadow government" is out there too.
Now government in this respect means Dems too because there would be no way to pull it off without them.
You put this all together and we either have a world wide fuck up going on or something really IS going on. I read the Indon papers every day and their people were all over the government in a loud and vocal way about BF in a highly suppressed society and they didnt arrest them this time out. My question is do we have a legitmate bunch of worldwide idiots in charge and I dont cut GWB out of this at all, OR do we have a worldwide coordinated effort to keep the public in the dark?
Too many coincidences folks and I want the medical side to weigh in and without bashing anyone. Just keep it on the tone of the above and just tell me what you guys think. Is there concerted effort to keep us uninformed about it until the last possible second when it will be too late? Revere you get pissed that cuts are being made and they are. Some in my opinion are needed to clear it out and start over. Tom in Canada has people on the UHC bent, but thats in the face of rising costs and PMs that want to prosecute people for seeking outside care. If you are able to get outside care, then they might diagnose you with BF before the party starts. If you control the healthcare and thats all the way to the top (Margaret) and not the UHC rant here, its not BF unless the WHO says so, its not a pandemic unless she says so. Grace is in research and all of the people who could be making independent assessments are getting squeezed not just in the US but in the world. Is it really cutting all around the world and if so WHY? The Huns are doing it too Revere.
Its either the most blatant I cant believe it, or we might just have to start redefining beliefs. I dont know but I can tell you that its been bothering me for almost a week. Like the man says, "But does it make any sense?" Dont they understand that by cutting they almost ensure that it will be runaway on the first day or two after a full blown extending H2H event? SURE THEY DO!
"But does it make any sense?"
No.........
Randolph, interesting stream of conscious monologue you have there. I don't think it is a conspiracy. My votes go to expedience, incompetence and fatalism. Bush couldn't get any traction after reading the pandemic book so he abandoned the whole idea. We also have people like Vallet telling us the virus is stable so we don't need to worry about it any longer. In short F.U.B.A.R.
The Chinese, are far more interested in saving face than saving your backside. Supari, is paranoid and righteously pissed off. Indians and Bangla's are simply overwhelmed and not up to the task. They are also hampered by graft. Bush's funds are running lower than his approval rating. His priorities are war and protecting his cronies. Unfortunately, an amorphous threat like avian flu doesn't meet his threshold for funding. Dr. Chan, well she is Chinese and, this wouldn't be the first time she capitulated to a Chinese cover-up. The bottom line is we fail to learn from the past and now must repeat it. I hope you have prepped adequately.