Reply #12: getting facts straight [View All]

[nodehopper]

the part about the WHO stepping away from its initial statement that the virus wasn't passed between humans was due to lack of information, rather than evidence to the contrary.

originally, the question was w/r/t two sisters in Vietnam. first the WHO released information showing that the virus from both sisters had been sequenced and was strictly avian in nature, showing no human genes.

Then it modified its statement, because it turned that the second sequencing was not of the second sister, but of another Vietnamese person and they were still awaiting the results of the second sequencing.

Earlier yesterday they completed the second sequencing, and it was still all avian in nature.

they have updates about it every day on who.org, and I follow them carefully.

I don't automatically dismiss information from someone who says they can't reveal their sources, but when they start posting about The Stand and airborne AIDS it does smack a bit of fear-mongering.

Also, what exactly did that poster predict? that there would be stories in the press about it? Well, considering that there have been outbreaks in several countries, anyone could have predicted that. It would be like if someone said, ominously, at the beginning of SARS that within weeks it would show up in the US. It did, as it was expected.

Don't get me wrong. I think the avian flu is scary stuff, and has potential to overload the health care system if, God forbid, it jumps species and gets out of hand. But I think it's a little irresponsible to go around preaching total death and destruction and the end of society.

Be informed. Wash your hands. Stock up on some tami-flu just in case (tami-flu is NOT one of the drugs the stain is resistant to). Read the WHO updates, if you are concerned, and make your own judgements.