Everything I Know Is Wrong: The Truth About Avian Flu

Everything I Know Is Wrong: The Truth About Avian Flu: "The Truth About Avian Flu
Michael Fumento has written an excellent article about the 'avian flu':
'Race to Prevent World Epidemic of Lethal 'Bird Flu,'' and 'Hong Kong 'Bird Flu' Could be the Next Big Outbreak,' blare the headlines. Former Washington Post reporter and author of a book on viruses, Robin Marantz Henig, penned an essay called 'Danger in the Air: Why Hong Kong's 'Bird Flu' Signals a Serious Threat,' chock full of scary 'what-ifs.'
Meanwhile, 'What is frightening about this flu strain is that it is unlike any that has infected people before,' NBC News tells us. We repeatedly hear of this new 'deadly flu,' or 'killer flu,' or to cite one headline: 'Mutant Killer Virus.'
Now, for a reality vaccination.
All influenzas are 'mutant killer viruses.' Flu always mutates at least slightly each year. That's why you need a flu shot each year, because the antibodies that you got from the last one (or the bout of flu you caught last year) will no longer afford you full protection from the new strain.
A flu that didn't kill would never be noticed. It would just be one of zillions of viruses we carry around that do us little or no harm. Each year on average, about 20,000 Americans die of flu.
Finally flu, of course, is always a virus.
Indeed, all flu is probably also 'avian.' Its 'reservoir' is generally ducks, and sometimes geese and chickens. They usually suffer little from it or not at all. But when their feces infects a water supply (or domesticated animals, usually pigs), they can transfer it to humans.
Oh, by the way, this isn't a recent article. Fumento wrote this in 1998 about an altogether different--yet all to familiar--'avain flu'. So why all the hubbub? I"