BIRD FLU - WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT... AGAIN

Hey. That estimate of how many people got bird flu in the 2003 Netherlands outbreak? It was off the mark. Turns out bird flu is thirty times more dangerous than previously suspected.

Before, they reported 69 cases. But a new Dutch investigation shows it was closer to 2,000 people, meaning that this flu is much more contagious than we had understood it to be. "Even more ominous is the finding that person-to-person spread was vastly more efficient than ever before seen with bird flu. Nearly 60 percent of infected poultry workers' household contacts showed signs of infection."

Are those poultry workers lives, in addition to those of the poultry, really so worthless that an impulse buy of crispy fried chicken is more important? Then what about all the lives globally that are being put at risk? When does the obvious correlation become important enough to do act upon?