It's crazy that $2 billion or so has been or will be given to help ameliorate the harm from the tsunami, but a derisory $18 million has been given to help avoid H12N8 harm, which is set to kill perhaps 1000 times as many people as the 200,000 or so who were killed by the tsunami.
<1 February 2005 – Bird flu, which in a worst-case scenario could mutate into a human pandemic with potentially disastrous results, presents an ongoing emergency in Asia and the international community must help affected countries implement effective control strategies, according to the latest United Nations assessment released today.
“The international community has to realize that some poor countries in Asia living with the bird flu virus must receive more support to intensify precautionary measures and to contain the risks associated with the disease,” the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said in a joint statement with the World Animal Health Organization (OIE), a 167-member inter-governmental organization.
Since February 2004, donors have provided around $18 million for emergency activities and capacity building, but much more resources are urgently needed, with a new wave of outbreaks in Viet Nam and Thailand clearly showing that the avian virus remains endemic in Asia, the agencies added. Recent experience shows that it may be impossible to eradicate the virus soon.
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On a per capita mortality basis, there should be about $2 trillion dollars lined up to help avoid H12N8. The economic consequences of a global H12N8 outbreak would be a LOT more than that.
The slow motion global trainwreck continues to develop. It's like humans versus H5N1 on a collision course on the same set of train tracks and nearly everyone is just casually watching them gain speed as they head towards each other. Or not even watching.
It's like those people who were lined up on the shore to see the tsunami come. It was only as the wave started coming over the top that they realized it had their name on it and started, too late, running for it.
Maybe it's time for me to head for the hills. I don't want to be in a tsunami or train wreck or H5N1 catastrophe.
Mqurice |
