Post by cjm on Jun 13, 2015 19:15:34 GMT
Although most people are (probably) unaware of the fact, this diseases basically destroyed the ostrich industry in SA - to the glee of the government who regarded the industry as one dominated by white, wealthy, racist farmers. In fact, those in charge said that they didn't care if not a single ostrich remained.
www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-arent-we-more-scared-of-the-bird-flu
Which epidemic has caused Americans greater anxiety: the Ebola outbreak, which began last year in Africa and has killed thousands of people there, or the strain of influenza that has now infected poultry in twenty-one states?
The answer is obvious. Ebola, which was responsible for two deaths in the United States, caused a level of unfettered hysteria hardly seen here since Senator Joseph McCarthy accused half the country’s creative class of holding membership in the Communist Party. The bird flu, although it has now caused the deaths of more than forty-five million chickens, devastated the American poultry industry, doubled the price of most eggs, and is by far the worst such outbreak in U.S. history, somehow doesn’t seem as menacing to people in this country. No doubt that is in part because the virus has not killed a single person. It doesn’t even infect humans. We can only hope that those facts remain unchanged. But we shouldn’t bet millions of lives on it.
Which epidemic has caused Americans greater anxiety: the Ebola outbreak, which began last year in Africa and has killed thousands of people there, or the strain of influenza that has now infected poultry in twenty-one states?
The answer is obvious. Ebola, which was responsible for two deaths in the United States, caused a level of unfettered hysteria hardly seen here since Senator Joseph McCarthy accused half the country’s creative class of holding membership in the Communist Party. The bird flu, although it has now caused the deaths of more than forty-five million chickens, devastated the American poultry industry, doubled the price of most eggs, and is by far the worst such outbreak in U.S. history, somehow doesn’t seem as menacing to people in this country. No doubt that is in part because the virus has not killed a single person. It doesn’t even infect humans. We can only hope that those facts remain unchanged. But we shouldn’t bet millions of lives on it.