Bird Flu Fading. Bird-Brain Pandemic Ending Also?

[Meta Blog]

Forbes says that bird flu is waning:

It may be too early to arrive at a conclusion, but the region where the deadly avian bird flu first erupted in 2003 has had no new human cases reported this year, leading health officials speculate that the virus may indeed have an end point.

But the bird brain pandemic rolls on...

Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America, a made-for-TV film that experts say played fast and loose with both biology and reality, has prompted U.S. health officials to note that the production was little more than a flight of fancy in the Hollywood tradition.

According to ABC, which broadcast the movie Tuesday night, it was a dramatization of a worst-case scenario. "It is a Hollywood account that exaggerates and condenses events to create an exciting story", the network said in a statement. Scenes of dead bodies heaped in trucks as terrified survivors huddled together under quarantine undoubtedly alarmed many viewers. [progressive U]

The good news is that the movie had no effect on those who can think. The following is a live graph from InTrade on the Bird flu (H5N1) to be confirmed in the USA ON/BEFORE 31st December 2006 contract.

That is what they call a downtrend -- from 80% to 50%. And it is going to keep on going.

As I said back on March 29:

I am totally unconcerned about bird flu. I am not denying its existence or that it has in fact killed some people. I am just not buying into the pandemic hysteria.

I lump bird flu (or avian flu) right in with Alar, global warming, DDT, and other baseless, unscientific scare stories. Claton attempts to invoke fear by alluding to the plague, the 1918 flu, scarce groceries, and battles over food. But he offers no evidence that a pandemic may occur.

That was very close to the peak. I obviously can't take credit for the peak. But I think a lot of credit goes to the International Herald Tribune articles I quoted which appeared at the peak.

UPDATE: Bird flu spin.

http://ObjectivismOnline.com/blog/archives/000872.html