# 447
Suddenly, those of us in flubogia are in pretty good company. Respected scientists, educators, and political leaders are voicing concerns today that many of us in the blogosphere have raised for months, or even years.
Some of this, of course, is a knee-jerk reaction to the Suffolk turkey farm outbreak, as the issue is front and center in the news. But the tone is changing both in the UK, and other countries. The level of concern in government is heightened, and slowly the message is getting out.
This from metro.co.uk
Bird flu could bring Britain 'to its knees'
by AIDAN RADNEDGE - Monday, February 12, 2007Britain could be ' brought to its knees' by a bird flu pandemic because it is illprepared for an outbreak, experts have warned.
The warning came as Tony Blair ordered an inquiry into the cases of bird flu reported at a Suffolk turkey farm last week. The experts said ministers were not doing enough to protect the public if bird flu mutated to affect humans.
Schools, businesses and shops would have to be shut and travel restrictions would need to be imposed because vaccinations and isolation wards were unlikely to be ready, said Prof Sir Roy Anderson, an expert in infectious diseases from Imperial College, London.
He told the Royal Society of Medicine that combating the Sars virus was 'a doddle' by comparison and that people did not realise the seriousness of the disease.
'We need to urge people to go back to the books to learn from a previous pandemic in 1918,' said Prof Anderson.
'Britain is a small country with a high density of people. Everything would go “whoosh” very quickly.'
