Is Bird Flu For Bird Brains?

This may ruffle a few feathers, but is Bird Flu meant just for Bird Brains?

Separating the hype & scare tactics from the facts is crucial in evaluating the true potential for an Avian Flu pandemic..... or should that be a Planed-emic?

How is pandemic influenza different from seasonal or avian influenza?

Seasonal influenza ~ generally occurs yearly from November through April, peaking in January and February. Viruses need to have a warm environment in which to thrive. You will not get the flu if you live outside in a cold environment, as an extreme example. These times frames are consistent with more time spent indoors, with warmer temperatures and a poorer air quality.

You can not “catch” the flu if you have a robust immune system. I have never had the flu.

“The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) states, “Every year in the United States, on average, 36,000 people die from flu.” http://www.cdc.gov/flu/keyfacts.htm Everyone seems to parrot off these numbers as fact. But are they?

Hidden within their own statistics is a much different picture.

The CDC has 4 categories of deaths due to influenza. Here are the statistics for 2002
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/mortfinal2002_workipt2.pdf

Influenza due to identified influenza virus: 99
Influenza with pneumonia, influenza virus identified: 38
Influenza with other respiratory manifestations, influenza identified: 59
Influenza with other manifestations, influenza identified: 2

That's 99 total influenza deaths for 2002 or 198 influenza plus other diseases deaths for 2002. Not even close to the widely accepted and reported yearly 36,000 deaths due to flu..

The CDC also lists the number of people who die from something that is loosely called influenza but was not actually identified as such. Doctors who don’t test to see if the patient died from influenza but think that influenza was the cause. These numbers are irresponsible & irrelevant, they needed something for the death certificate and thought influenza might fit the ticket. Here are those numbers for 2002:

Influenza, virus not identified: 628
Influenza with pneumonia, virus not identified: 291
Influenza with other respiratory manifestations, influenza not identified: 323
Influenza with other manifestations, influenza not identified: 14
Total unconfirmed but “suspected” influenza deaths for 2002 was 1,256.

Combing these numbers still doesn't begin to approach the mythical 36,000 annual influenza deaths. Most of the confirmed influenza and suspected influenza deaths occurred in the ages between 80-94. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/datawh/statab/unpubd/mortabs/gmwki10.htm

Statistics are magical, they can be massaged to “prove” almost anything. How does the CDC extrapolate 198 confirmed influenza deaths in 2002, into it's above mentioned statement of some 36,000 yearly flu deaths? Your guess is as good as theirs.

In order to massage 198 deaths into 36,000 deaths, the CDC uses their magical math and exaggerates by about 182 times the true numbers. Some health professionals may attempt to justify the numbers by claiming that influenza leads to pneumonia, subsequent diseases and eventual death. But this is a broad misstatement and not factual. Obviously not everyone with influenza gets pneumonia. The American Lung Association claims that pneumonia has more than 30 causes, only one of which is the influenza virus, that means there are at least 29 other possible causes.

A CDC spokesman, Mr. Curtis Allen told Insight Magazine,

“There are a couple problems with determining the number of deaths related to the flu because most people don't die from influenza - they die from “complications” of influenza - so the numbers [of deaths] are based on mathematical formulas.

We don't know exactly how many people get the flu each year because it's not a reportable disease and most physicians don't do the test [nasal swab] to indicate whether [the symptoms are caused by] influenza.”

So that massaged “36,000 deaths nationwide” starts with a factual “we don't know” and grows into from “complications” which is often Big Pharma speak for pharmaceutical interventions, and results in a computer generated, gross misrepresentation, wild-pulled-from-the-sky-guess.....created out of thin air “fact”..... garbage in, garbage out, rather than an actual number.

Pandemic Flu - Can occur at any time during the year and is the result of a new influenza strain to which there is no developed viral immunity and for which a “protective” vaccine has yet to be created. It rapidly spreads from person to person ( not from pig to person, chicken to person, seal to person, whale to person, horse to person or cat to person) until large regions are infected.

Before a Pandemic can occur there must be sustained person to person transmission of the infection. All cases to date of Avian flu have occurred via animal to human transmission. With only one case of potential human to human transmission and my personal guess on that was that the poultry worker took home an infected chicken which infected another family member, but to admit that would cause him to be fired.

There is no substantiated evidence that “sooner or later” the H5N1 strain will mutate into a strain that can be easily passed between humans. That's as irresponsible and scientifically unsupported as saying “sooner or later” humans will grow wings so they can avoid standing in long lines at the airport.

There have been three flu pandemics in the 1900s:

The Spanish Flu in 1918 which killed 55,000 in the U.S.
The Asian Flu in 1957 which killed 69,800 in the U.S.
The Hong Kong Flu in 1969 which resulted in 33,800 deaths in the U.S.

There is substantial data supporting all of these pandemics were vaccine induced. And of course the actual numbers for influenza deaths without other complications would be much significantly lower as in the CDC's example.

Avian Flu - Infects birds.

Millions of poultry and other foul have been slaughtered because of it. Could this really be about commerce? The death rate from H5N1 infection is highly overstated.

According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAQ), the avian influenza virus is easier to destroy than other influenza viruses. It appears that it is very sensitive to detergents — i.e., soap — which destroy the outer fat-containing layer of the virus. This layer is needed to enter cells of animals and, therefore, destroys the infectivity. So wash your hands before touching your face always, but especially if you happen to work on a poultry factory-farm.

How many confirmed deaths from Human “Bird Flu” have been reported to date?

“Although avian influenza A viruses usually do not infect humans, more than 200 confirmed cases (not deaths) of human infection with avian influenza viruses have been reported since 1997. To date, human infections with avian influenza A viruses detected since 1997 have not resulted in sustained human-to-human transmission.” excerpted from: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/gen-info/avian-flu-humans.htm

Reported by the World Health Organization from Dec 26, 1997 to October 24, 2005 there were 121 confirmed H5N1 infections with 62 deaths, for an apparent death rate of 52 percent.

So all of this fear mongering for 62 world wide deaths in almost a six year period? Recent Internet World Stats (Usage and Population Statistics), the population of Asia is 3,622,994,130. If you divide 65 alleged deaths of “bird flu” into the total population of 3,622,994,130 that is about ONE DEATH FOR EVERY 54 MILLION PEOPLE.

Pandemic or propaganda? And why? Qui bono?

Using those same numbers it would be similar to a epidemic of “bird flu” in the united States with only 5-6 deaths. Is that rational? Is that responsible or mere speculation? Could there be some behind the scenes agendas? To see who might benefit, follow the money.

To add another comparative perspective.

According to American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, each year in the US skateboarding injuries cause about 50,000 visits to emergency departments. In addition, more than 1500 children need to be hospitalized for head injuries or disabilities that frequently result in loss of vision, hearing or speech, as well as changes in thinking and behavior. So there are 50,000 skateboard emergency room visits yearly and a potential for 5-6 bird flu deaths. Which could be considered more probable, dangerous or risky? Skateboarding accidents or “catching” bird flu and dying from it?

What are the symptoms of bird flu in humans?

According to (WHO) World Health Organization (www.who.int/csr/don/2004_01_15/en/), the symptoms of avian influenza (Type H5N1) are:

* Fever
* Sore throat
* Cough
possibly, viral pneumonia

According to the (CDC) Centers for Disease Control (www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/gen-info/facts.htm) gives the following symptoms for avian flu:

* Fever
* Cough
* Sore throat and muscle aches

Do you find these symptoms alarmingly vague and non specific? Are they the same symptoms for seasonal influenza? Potential martial law and quarantines for these symptoms? Slaughtering thousands of marketable & edible poultry for these symptoms?

A healthy person can have a temperature over 100 degrees on a hot day and not have influenza. A cough can be triggered from allergies, asthma, pollution, bronchitis, pneumonia, chemtrails, medications, smoking, dust, pet dander, mold, a cold or dozens of other imbalances, since it didn't define what type of cough, dry, chronic, acute, productive etc would be associated with bird flu. Muscle aches can also be from numerous other reasons other than Avian flu.

Is There a Avian Flu Vaccine Available?

If there were would you want to risk your life taking it?

The CDC states: “Yearly, adults can average one to three and children three to six influenza-like illnesses (ILIs). The vaccine does not prevent influenza-like illnesses caused by infectious agents other than influenza [strains found in the shot], and many persons vaccinated against influenza will still get the flu.” Translated that means a vaccine can ONLY have the potential to be effective against a particular strain and there are over 800 strains.

As for me, no vaccinations thank you!