dispatches from the new world of work

H5N1 Redux. New Orleans Redux?

The avian flu reportage volume is increasing exponentially, with WHO releasing on Friday some grim probable death #s, as high as 150 million worldwide. Personally (and professionally), I think it's appropriate to more or less scare the shit out of people—the expected timeframe in the U.S. is roughly a year from now. (Incidentally, the 1919 pandemic was unexpectedly as brutal to the 18-40 demographic as to the old and young.) Susan said she listened to a brief H5N1 interview with the new FDA chief, whom she described as "sounding as clueless as [former FEMA Director] Brown." That's encouraging.

Tom Peters posted this on 10/01/05.

Comments

Amazing - thanks for the advance warning - people must learn best practices to avoid flu carriers and keep their environment extremely clean. I remember reading how 1 flu ridden passenger on a tarmac [2 hour] stalled plane infected 70% of fellow passengers! Time to radically buff up the olde immune system!

Posted by Sean at October 1, 2005 9:52 AM

Im glad to hear you all are finaly getting some coverage of this. Here in Thailand (likely epicenter of a pandemic) its been nonstop doom and alarm. Im not qualified to judge the scientific fine print... but when so many immunologists and public health experts raise this kind of alarm.. its madness to ignore it.

Good to know yet another clueless Bush crony is looking out for the public welfare in America !

Posted by AJ Hoge at October 2, 2005 6:56 AM

I saw in the paper today that W is asking for an extra 50 billion for disaster prep, and specifically mentioned the Avian flu. Must have b een your blog Tom. Thanks for keeping this on the radar.

Posted by Paul Davidson at October 2, 2005 8:44 PM

That clueless Bush crony is on a mission to install religion over science, and on that score he's succeeding, as is Bush. The second coming is policy. And, this disaster is right there in Revelations, so it must be so, or made so, as if Bush can tell God when to show up again.

Posted by David Locke at October 3, 2005 4:26 AM