The Frog in the Pot
There is an old story that says if you throw a live frog into a pot of boiling water, he will immediately jump out. If you throw a frog into a pot of cool water, and gradually bring it to a simmer, he will stay and happily cook himself to death.
Over the past couple of years, 6 Billion frog-surrogates have been happily oblivious as the temperature of our water has slowly, inexorably, been rising. Only a precious few have noticed anything amiss. Today, we are seeing bubbles starting to rise from the bottom of the pan, and it's getting damned uncomfortable.
Avian Flu has suddenly appeared in a dozen or more countries over the past few weeks. Undoubtedly, the virus has been slowly infiltrating these nations for months, but only over the past 20 days have their governments acknowledged its presence.
In 1997, when bird flu first appeared in Hong Kong, quick decisive action by officials stopped the spread. ALL Poultry was culled in the city. It was expensive. But it worked. Bird flu disappeared for 6 years.
Today, instead of acting quickly, governments are denying they have a problem. They are refusing to test birds until massive die offs occur, and by the time they admit a problem exists, the virus has become endemic in the wild. It’s one thing to eradicate the virus in a city like Hong Kong, quite another to remove it from a country the size of India.
A week ago, Indian Officials were still saying that bird flu could not enter their country. That sick birds couldn’t fly over the Himalayas Mountains. They were protected by this natural barrier. Today, they are frantically culling hundreds of thousands of birds, and desperately trying to locate anyone who might be infected.
And so it goes. Germany, France, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Nigeria . . .
As of today, 30 countries admit to having, or having had, avian flu detected within their borders.
While they slept, while some scoffed at bird flu as `science fiction’, the virus has crept in and has infected their nations.
How many other countries are hiding the true facts? How many more will, due to an inability to conceal the truth, come forth over the next few weeks and admit they have the virus?
How many incubators can we have running full tilt before a pandemic begins?
Fasten your seatbelts. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.
