Democrats

Bird Flu Hits Great Britian, Is America Next?

February 8, 2007 ⋅  E-Mail Article ⋅ ⋅ Post a comment

While American politicians bicker about irrelevant non-binding resolutions and various other wastes of time a real danger to American lives is inching closer to the United States and if we continue to not pay attention to the approaching menace we may be devastated by it in a much worse fashion than the events of 9/11. H5N1 is now being found in Great Britain and not in a bird or two, we are talking mass numbers. Ironically, the only protection America still has against the Bird Flu and a potential pandemic outbreak is still a military quarantine. Imagine being told you cannot venture outside your city limits while staring down the barrel of a 90 MM cannon or a 60MM tri-pod mounted machine gun. As America worries itself sick over Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, we are inching ever closer to our first case of bird flu. You can go to almost any bird flu website and trace the virus as it moved from Asia to the far western parts of Europe and most feel the next big jump will be into the British Columbia area and parts of Canada. Dismiss this if you want but the smart ones will start asking, “How are we prepared?”

Reuters has advised that in England officials are investigating the cause of a deadly bird flu outbreak on a farm in eastern England. The outbreak has resulted in workers being asked to cull thousands of turkeys to help potentially stop the virus from spreading. Reportedly, Englands’ emergency planning committee, known as Cobra, was set to meet to coordinate a response. British Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt stated that the government was preparing very seriously for the risk of a bird flu pandemic. According to Reuters, Health workers wearing white protective suits, black gloves, and masks recently loaded turkeys into crates to be gassed on a huge farm and processing factory located on a former airfield.

Approximately 200,000 birds will be destroyed and incinerated in England based on the discovery of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian flu. The largest outbreak of the flu was reportedly found on a Turkey farm in Suffolk. The farm is run by Bernard Matthews.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the virus has been confined to a farm near Lowestoft. However, officials are trying to track how the virus was introduced to the birds in the area and if any infected birds had contact with other birds no longer in the area.

We can ignore this problem like we have with so many other dangers that ended up coming home to roost or we can prepare and be ready. Most likely our politicians will do the wrong thing and ignore the threat but hopefully a few smart ones will asses the danger and do the right thing. Let’s hope for the best but until then make sure you and your family are prepared because if this flu mutates and becomes humanly transferable it would be a pandemic ten times worse than the influenza outbreak of the early 1900’s. With mass travel and transit this potentially devastating virus would be a very speedy lethal traveler.

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