As far as we know, Chicken Little never contracted bird flu. But history’s most enduring purveyor of doom might pop its pinfeathers over the current scare involving a disease being touted as the next great pandemic.
America’s infatuation with avian influenza reached its zenith last week with the ballyhooed showing of an original ABC movie, “Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America.”
Diligently promoted by the network and discussed raptly by affiliate talking heads as if it were an actual news event, the fictitious flick represented a blatant play for ratings during Sweeps Week. Instead, it failed to move many viewers past the first commercial break.
Poor scripting, the absence of name actors and just plain bad acting in general were the most common reasons given for this flop. But we would like to think there’s another explanation, one that speaks more directly to the actual facts of what remains a serious concern.
Despite a seemingly endless fascination with death and destruction ranging from killer asteroids to invaders from Mars, most Americans simply aren’t buying into the panic over bird flu – at least not until they find real reason to do so. Thus far, Armageddon hasn’t made much of a splash dressed in a feather boa.
This includes bird hunters who otherwise might be spooked by the threat of infected birds in the bag. Wild birds, particularly far-ranging ducks and geese, might be viewed as primary agents in the spread of the disease, at least among fellow fowl. Thus far, this simply hasn’t happened.
Despite attempts by certain elements of the media to make it appear so, avian influenza has fallen far short of the dire original forecasts. Bird hunters are advised to keep an eye on developments and take precautions when and if warranted. But there’s no reason to sell your shotgun.
As the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (UFWS), the agency that has taken the lead in monitoring migratory birds, points out, the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus has not appeared in North or South America. And while it seems likely the virus will spread among birds and the possibility always exist for transmission to humans, the risk of the latter is extremely low.
In an opinion piece prepared for an American Medical Association publication, Michael Fumento, a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., makes several telling points.
One is that this virus has been known since 1959 – detected in Scottish chickens almost 40 years before its celebrated appearance in Hong Kong. If it hasn’t become pandemic in nearly half a century of human contact, Fumento reasoned, it isn’t certain, or even likely, that it will.
The mere fact that only 125 fatalities have occurred since that 1997 discovery in southeast Asia – where population density and sanitary conditions might be considered prime – could be taken as further evidence against international outbreak.
The UFWS makes plain that it expects transmission among wild fowl to continue and that it will be there to keep close watch. The agency this year will concentrate on Alaska, the natural crossroad between Asia and North America, in surveillance efforts that include both live birds and those killed by native subsistence hunters.
Federal officials also will work with state wildlife agencies this fall to collect samples from hunter check stations. Hunters are advised to use protective gloves when handling waterfowl and to cook the meat thoroughly, but otherwise not worry unless given actual cause.
Meanwhile, the sky is not falling, nor are any of the wild birds flying in it.
