bird flu coming to the U.S.

Well, if you don't believe me when I tell you
to stock up on food items, will you believe
the Secretary of Health and Human Services?

In a remarkably frank speech over the
weekend, Michael Leavitt recommends Americans
store cans of tuna and powdered milk:

store food for bird flu

We're tracking the migrations of wild birds by
satellite -- but obviously we can't stop them
from flying into the United States.

So much for the extreme "conservatives" who
think the best way to protect America is to
bring all the soldiers back to the U.S. and
station them on the borders.

The latest death count is 98 -- includes a
few recent deaths in Indonesia.

A/H5N1 has also been found in birds in Myanmar / Burma
(one of the few remaining countries in SouthEast
Asia that had escaped it), Cameroon (the 4
country in Africa, after Nigeria, Niger and
Egypt) and Afghanistan.

The only good news is that these countries have
not (yet) reported any new human deaths. But
how confident are we that Nigeria, Cameroon and
Burma are fully aware of the diseases in their
countries, especially the rural areas?

How much would you bet that some farmer or
his children in one or more of those
countries is already infected?