gesundheit

It's no secret that I'm skeptical about the veracity of our media and the agenda of the man in the Oval Office.

It's hard to separate the spin from the truth. Is the bird flu scare more smoke and mirrors to deflect attention from the aftermath of Katrina, the failed war in Iraq, and Harriet Miers' all-but-certain Supreme Court confirmation? Now that the BBC and New York Times are running regular stories on the subject, I'm thinking that it's not all a case of Chicken Little.

After reading Sandra's posting on the topic, I know I'm not alone in my skepticism.

With headlines shouting louder day by day, warning of an impending bird-flu pandemic projected to kill 50-150 million homo sapiens (not to mention what it would do to chickens and cockatiels), it's been a real relief to learn that the U.S. government is already on the case. In fact, President Bush himself has studied the threat and delegated our protection from the deadly H5N1 virus to that peerless team of civil servants at the Department of Homeland Security.
You know, the same bunch that did such a stellar job in the Gulf States during the recent hurricanes. Washington's defense squad has hit the field just in time. According to this morning's news, H5N1 has now traveled from Asia to Turkey and perhaps Romania. From there it's only a sneeze or two away from Western Europe, where it's likely to hop a redeye from Heathrow, de Gaulle or Frankfurt to JFK, Dulles or O'Hare. Thank goodness DHS is standing guard. Otherwise, I don't think I'd be able to sleep at night.