1) There is a pile of news out there about "Avian Flu" and a new pandemic. Today on CNN, they had clips from the 1918 flu pandemic all day long on TV. Google news reports over 8,000 stories matching the keyword "avian flu"
2) The current administration has stated that they will use military force in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 to enforce quarantines for "bird flu".
(Update April 2009: Dead links. Heres a Google search for Bush Bird Flu Military - do your own reading...)
SO, you have the administration with the military poised to attack the US of A, and the media banging the drums of war.
You draw your own conclusion.
By the way, a flu pandemic is just about impossible these days. The 1918 pandemic was only possible because you had umpteen thousand people stuffed in trenches in France under the most impossible sanitary conditions, sharing viruses back and forth, allowing it to mutate into the most virulent possible virus. (a virulent virus. Hmmm).
Anyway, once out of the trenches, the virus basically died off.
SO,
A) we don't have trenches today, and
B) we have medicine, communication and technology to see and stop outbreaks of the flu.
Ex: in 1917, in Fort Riley, KS, the entire fort became sick with a flu-like virus. After folks started to get better, they were sent over to fight in WWI trenches. Over 500 died at Fort Riley alone. No one knew they were sick, no one cared, and no one talked about it. Today, 6 (six!) people died on a small island in the pacific from Avian Flu. It's front page news.
You draw your own conclusion.
By the way, a flu pandemic is just about impossible these days. The 1918 pandemic was only possible because you had umpteen thousand people stuffed in trenches in France under the most impossible sanitary conditions, sharing viruses back and forth, allowing it to mutate into the most virulent possible virus. (a virulent virus. Hmmm).
Anyway, once out of the trenches, the virus basically died off.
SO,
A) we don't have trenches today, and
B) we have medicine, communication and technology to see and stop outbreaks of the flu.
Ex: in 1917, in Fort Riley, KS, the entire fort became sick with a flu-like virus. After folks started to get better, they were sent over to fight in WWI trenches. Over 500 died at Fort Riley alone. No one knew they were sick, no one cared, and no one talked about it. Today, 6 (six!) people died on a small island in the pacific from Avian Flu. It's front page news.
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