NEWS: Mild Bird Flu Found In North Carolina

Bird flu has been discovered at a Turkey Farm in North Carolina. The bird flu found is a mild, low-pathogenic strain of bird flu (H3N2) and poses no risk to humans. Bird flu is as common among birds as regular flu is to humans. Its the highly deadly strain (H5N1) which poses a serious health risk to humans.



Whilst I originally opened this story because I expected it to be a gloss-over of an H5N1 outbreak in the United States, I was relieved to find out that that was not the case. What is interesting, however, is that the occurance of "bird flu" is widespread worldwide, including the United States. The media therefore should be more specific when reporting outbreaks of "bird flu'.

Panic is easily sparked, as Orson Welles would of attested, so maybe our media should refer to bird flu by its scientific denotions, "H3N2" and "H5N1" instead. Education will prevent mass panic, not sensational and loaded terms such as "bird flu".

Well it is the bird flu... and the media is in the business of selling stories... and I am sure mass panic won't happen over news story's of case of the bird flu, people need to start dying first... then.. maybe people will react.

I think the article you linked to did a pretty good job at reporting the facts, if anyone is hyping this story it's you

Anyway, I don't really consider "bird flu" in and of itself to be a "loaded" term, and a headline of "H3N2 As Opposed to H5N1 Found in North Carolina" would be both unintelligible and uninteresting to most people.

Still, the story is relevant -- who knows, maybe this innocuous H3N2 could turn into some virulent H3N3 or something that could kill us all

Originally posted by rmatrem
Well it is the bird flu... and the media is in the business of selling stories... and I am sure mass panic won't happen over news story's of case of the bird flu, people need to start dying first... then.. maybe people will react.

Panic is not rational. If you're a North Carolinian on your way home from work and see the headline "Bird flu in North Carolina" and you've been hearing of this deadly bird flu capable of killing billions of people worldwide, your heart would likely jump into your throat. Multiply that response by millions and the likelihood of a panic starting is very real.

After all, what is the purpose of broadcasting the fact that a non-lethal to human strain of bird flu that is extremely common in the United States has been found in poultry in North Carolina? I cant see any good reason to write a news article about that other than to scare the casual observer and sell newspapers. That, to me, is irresponsible and it should be looked into.

Newspapers are by and large owned by corporations. Lets say a newspapers owners also own stock in pharmaceutical companies that make anti-retrovirals. What's to stop a newspaper printing "Bird Flu Strikes North Carolina" as its headline? Surely it would increase demand for preventative medicine irrespective of the story. Since when has mob mentality been rational or grounded in the facts?

Perhaps educating the general public in the difference between H3N2 and H5N1 should be mandatory to avert panic? It might be unintelligible for the general public now, but that's only through lack of motivation to rectify ignorance from those who wish to sell newspapers based on fear, corporations that prey on our health fears, and governments who legislate increased personal powers based on our fears.

[edit on 1/12/05 by subz]

Originally posted by djohnsto77
I think the article you linked to did a pretty good job at reporting the facts, if anyone is hyping this story it's you

Anyway, I don't really consider "bird flu" in and of itself to be a "loaded" term, and a headline of "H3N2 As Opposed to H5N1 Found in North Carolina" would be both unintelligible and uninteresting to most people.

Still, the story is relevant -- who knows, maybe this innocuous H3N2 could turn into some virulent H3N3 or something that could kill us all

... nuff said...

Originally posted by subz
Newspapers are by and large owned by corporations. Lets say a newspapers owners also own stock in pharmaceutical companies that make anti-retrovirals. What's to stop a newspaper printing "Bird Flu Strikes North Carolina" as its headline? Surely it would increase demand for preventative medicine irrespective of the story. Since when has mob mentality been rational or grounded in the facts?

[edit on 1/12/05 by subz]

Preventative medicine that in 16% of one study group (albeit very small numbers but its the only research we have to go on) didn't actually work...

Originally posted by subz

After all, what is the purpose of broadcasting the fact that a non-lethal to human strain of bird flu that is extremely common in the United States has been found in poultry in North Carolina? I cant see any good reason to write a news article about that other than to scare the casual observer and sell newspapers. That, to me, is irresponsible and it should be looked into.

Nothing to look into at all. Our media is not tabloid journalism as in other countries they are telling it the way it is. The have stressed the point there is no need to fear since it is a non-lethal strain that does not endanger humans.

Seems like the only ones wanting to throw a scare into anyone are those that believe their foreign (cough) tabloids

do not believe me watch what MSNBC had to say on the matter and make sure you pay attention as to the number of times they mention the fact that it is very common and nothing to worry about. Not in those exact words but you do not have to be a rocket scientist to get the meanings of what they are getting at.

msnbc.msn.com...

[edit on 12/3/2005 by shots]