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Originally Posted by dissipate
I've got a degree in biochemistry - but it doesnt take that to figure out that this is very, very true. US vaccine production would not be able to meet demand for a large scale flu epidemic such as this. The worst hit would be children and the elderly - with very large scale mortality rates.
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There you go. Right on.
Such pathogens are unpredictable and can go in any direction. It could well be that by the time it goes from one species to another it mutates into something harmless to humans. On the other hand the worse case scenario.
Due to the huge human population, a mutated form transmissable by sneezing or contact would spread like wildfire due to our intercontinental travel. In bygone eras when the population was well below a billion and limited travel by ship only such pathogens might take centuries to reach the far ends of the Earth. Nowadays it only takes one plane, or one refugee in a rubber raft.
The U.S. is not capable of meeting this menace if it does become a menace. It's now in cats and that's not a good sign at all. We need to really be concerned if it passes to mice and rats or can become transmissable via mosquito.
Look at the potential disaster:
Malaria. Every year over 300 million people get malaria. 3 million die. If it weren't for the readily available round the clock medicine we would lose 3 billion people in a decade. If the Bird Flu is transmissable by mosquito and no treatments available we're talking Biblical proportion fuck up.
Considering the Bush Administrations lonnng history of 'We were misinformed' or 'The data provided to this administration was inaccurate', it's better than even money that should a disaster occur we will be no where near prepared. The rich won't care because that means more room for them.