Bird Flu Hype

COMMENT: Culling is treating a symptom.....politicians need to look deeper, particularly in Vietnam.

August 26, 2006: Bird flu detected once more in Vietnam This month Vietnam saw another instance of a duck carrying the H5N1 avian flu virus, which led to large numbers of poultry being culled. There is now panic regarding the resurgence of the disease after a year of relative calm with no such incidents. This report is particularly worrisome since it coincides with detected bird flu cases in the neighboring countries of China and Thailand.

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COMMENT: Authorities in Vietnam should be encouraged to read my book, FOWL! Bird Flu: It's Not What You Think and then investigate the possible connections dioxin (Agent Orange) toxicity and the increased incidence of bird flu in humans and chickens throughout their country. They are culling chickens but not cleaning up the environmental disaster that will keep people sick for decades to come.

August 24, 2006: Vietnam to establish anti-bird flu task forces Vietnam will form anti-bird flu task forces at both central and local levels to stamp out any disease outbreaks timely and comprehensively, according to local newspaper People's Army on Thursday.

Vietnam is planning to establish hotlines at both central and local levels to quickly receive any bird flu-related information, and offer 500,000 Vietnamese dong (31.4 U.S. dollars) to those who report outbreaks, the newspaper said.

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COMMENT: This is contributing to the bird flu outbreaks in chickens and humans alike in Vietnam.

July 14, 2006: VietNamNet Bridge Board members met in Hanoi on Wednesday to discuss the issue of contaminated hot spots. Agent Orange/Dioxin, which is harmful to human health and the environment, is still found in areas in central and southern Vietnam even though the American War ended 31 years ago.The board estimated that decontamination costs for some hot spots would cost hundreds of billions of dong. In addition, the board said further support was needed for the victims of Agent Orange, particularly in providing rehabilitation to almost 200,000 children with inborn disabilities due to contamination.

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COMMENT: Tyson needs a new public relations manager. They are perfectly poised for a wider marketshare in China and SE Asia. Certainly they can see this...wonder what they are up to?

April 22, 2006: CHICAGO, April 19 (Reuters) - Tyson Foods Inc. on Wednesday reported a much wider-than-expected quarterly loss, based on preliminary results, and slashed its full-year outlook, as chicken exports fell due to the bird flu crisis overseas.

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COMMENT: Vietnam will continue to have outbreaks due to high levels of dioxin from Agent Orange, particularly in the Mekong Delta.Putting new birds in sick places won't stop the out break of ever-more-aggressive viruses. Just as importantly: vaccination is NOT the same as "immunity."

April 22, 2006: Xinhua - English HANOI, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam is encountering high risk of bird flu return, partly because only 40 percent of ducks and 60 percent of chickens in the country's southern Mekong Delta have immunity to the disease after being vaccinated, local media reported Wednesday

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COMMENT: Because of agent orange, the Vietnamese have the highest number of deaths from influenza....including H5N1.

April 10, 2006: GLW articles on dioxin in Vietnam Even though the Vietnam War ended 30 years ago, the US's saturation chemical bombing is still wreaking havoc on millions, including the newly born making them third-generation victims. Nobody knows when the congenital deformities, one of many horrific health consequences of the toxic chemicals, will end.

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COMMENT: The connection between Agent Orange and bird flu is fully described my book FOWL!! Bird flu...it's not what you think.

April 10, 2006: Vietnam: war and the environment Agent Orange contains quantities of the dioxin TCDD as an impurity from the manufacturing process, and a great controversy has raged in scientific circles over the effects of this on living organisms. It is said to be both teratogenic and carcinogenic (i.e. to induce deformities in fetuses, and to cause cancer).

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COMMENT: The Governments of Vietnam and Cambodia need to follow up on this, forcing Dow and Monsanto to fund the project to clean up their soil.

March 2, 2006: Korean Soldiers & Vietnamese Civilians Sue Dow & Monsanto for Poisoning Them with Herbicide Agent Orange According to U.S. government records, the American army used more than 19 million gallons of Agent Orange to spray around Vietnam¹s battlegrounds from 1962 to 1971, hoping to destroy forest cover and undergrowth that shielded

enemy troops from view. In a landmark decision last month, the Seoul High Court ruled two U.S. makers of Agent Orange, Dow Chemical and Monsanto, to pay 63 billion won ($62 million) to a group of 6,700 Korean war veterans who first filed lawsuits against the U.S. companies in 1999.

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COMMENT: THEY ARE NOT ASKING THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION: WHY ARE THESE BIRDS SICK? Humans get sick from a weakened immune system. Birds are no different. Toxic load analysis needs to be done on these birds by examining their fat for dioxin and other chemicals.

February 26, 2006: MercuryNews.com | 02/26/2006 | Bird-flu expansion confounds experts - For years after its appearance in 1997 in Hong Kong, the current bird flu virus seemed corralled in a few East Asian countries. But in the past four months, it has spread across Europe and into Africa, bringing to 31 the number of countries with sick birds.