The following article is for historical interest -- it was written in 1998 about the outbreak of bird flu that occurred in Hong Kong in 1997. It's frightening that people did perceive the danger in this virus back then -- but the world ignored it.
The dates and figures have changed, but the danger this article outlines is still real.
Isn't it true that H5N1 has yet to mutate into a strain that passes easily from person to person?
Nobody really knows that. Personally, I believe it's made such a mutation quite often -- but the mutation occured in a victim that failed to transmit that mutation, and so it died with its host.
There's also the significance of where I found this article -- on the Junk Science site. If its editor, Steven J. Milloy, thought that its basis was unscientific -- he is not shy about expressing his opinions, no matter how politically incorrect it may be. (His home page is currently full of attacks on Al Gore's movie on global warming, which he obviously does believe is junk science.)
I can't speak for Mr. Milloy's current opinions, and haven't yet found a wait to search his archives directly for more info on the science behind bird flu.
bird flu diseaseBird flu disease
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