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‘Against all scientific prudence and normal public health procedure, the world population is being whipped up into a fear frenzy by irresponsible public health officials from the US Administration to WHO to the United States Centers for Disease Control. They all warn about the imminent danger that a malicious viral strain might spread from infected birds, primarily in Vietnam and other Asian centers, to contaminate the entire human species in pandemic proportions. Often the flu pandemic of 1918 which is said to have killed 18 million worldwide, is cited as an example of what ‘might’ lie in store for us.  

 

On November 1, appropriately enough the day after Halloween, President Bush is scheduled to visit the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda Maryland to announce his Administration’s strategy of how it will prepare for the next flu epidemic, whether from Bird Flu or some other strain. The plan has been a year in the making. On October 28 the Senate passed an $8 billion emergency funding bill to address the growing Avian Flu panic. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, in a moment of candor during the debate on the Senate bill told the press, ‘If it isn’t the current H5N1 virus that leads to an influenza pandemic, at some point in our nation’s future, another virus will.’ In the meantime taxpayer billions will have gone to a handful of pharmaceutical giants positioned to profit. None stands to reap more lucre than the Swiss-US pharmaceutical giant Roche Holdings of Basle.  

 

The only medicine we are told which reduce the symptoms of general or seasonal influenza and ‘possibly’ might reduce symptoms also of Avian Flu, is a drug called Tamiflu. Today the giant Swiss pharmaceutical firm, Roche, holds the sole license to manufacture Tamiflu. Due to the media panic, the order books at Roche today are filled to overflowing. Roche recently refused a request from the US Congress to lift its exclusive patent rights to allow other drug manufacturers to produce Tamiflu with the improbable excuse that it was in effect, too complex for others to rapidly produce.’ 

 

Is Avian Flu another Pentagon Hoax?

man of the hour .....

"The emphasis of all my work has changed to dealing with this madness," Butcher said Friday, while briefly back at his office on the UF campus in Gainesville. "Realistically, avian influenza is not a threat to people, but everywhere you go, it has turned into a circus." 

 

Experts Dismiss Scare Over Bird Flu

purveyors of fear .....

‘Lately, since the media had whipped up fear of a world wide epidemic, dozens of patients visited the clinic because they were worried about SARS. The health department had issued a SARS bulletin to all doctors, which listed only 3 criteria for making the diagnosis of SARS; cough, fever and a recent trip overseas.  

 

That could include almost anyone, and I immediately became suspicious.  

 

It troubled me that authorities did not list a specific disease profile for a brand new illness that seemed to one minute reside exclusively inside biohazard laboratories and the next minute allegedly spread into human populations.  

 

I’d also noticed drug company shares rise from the sale of drugs for respiratory illness. In our practice we found very few drugs were in fact necessary for healing and disease prevention. Our patients who had taken regular doses of vitamins, minerals, omega oils, antioxidants and other natural supplements had rarely come down with colds, flu, and other infections. I hadn’t had a cold or flu for over ten years since I had started taking regular supplements. After much illness and many attempts at personal healing, I finally realised the fact that the only thing that would keep me healthy was a functional immune system.’  

 

Bird Flu Or Cash Cow?

 

 

 

The frighteners...

From the Independent
Human version of bird flu is unlikely says chief scientist
By Geneviève Roberts and Thair Shaikh
Published: 10 April 2006
The chances of the avian flu virus mutating into a form that spreads between people is "very low", the Government's chief scientific adviser said yesterday.

Professor Sir David King made the statement as an increasingly worried public reported thousands of sightings of dead birds over the weekend.

Almost 3,500 people called the Department of Rural Affairs last Friday and Saturday and tensions among the public also increased after details of a leaked government contingency plan warned that a pandemic could kill 100,000 children in the UK.

Sir David, speaking on ITV1's Jonathan Dimbleby programme, said that the Government was preparing for it as a "very low possibility".

Read more at the Independent

Now that the cash has been raked, the fluked flu evaporates

From tthe NYT
\
Avian Flu Wanes in Asian Nations It First Hit Hard

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Published: May 14, 2006
Even as it crops up in the far corners of Europe and Africa, the virulent bird flu that raised fears of a human pandemic has been largely snuffed out in the parts of Southeast Asia where it claimed its first and most numerous victims...
read more at the NYT