Writing About:Max Hammond Photography » Blog Archive » Difficult Employment Decisions

And it’s looking good… should have a definite answer soon but I think it’s going to work out.

deep breath :-)

Writing About: BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Bird flu fears grip Europe press

As usual, the european press have for the most part failed to appreciate the issues with avian flu. They seem to have finally accepted that avian flu is not the immediate terrible risk that they were all going on about a few months ago, but sadly this means that they have generally decided that therefore it’s no danger;

It is important to bear in mind that the illness only passes from animal to human in extreme circumstances… The population’s anxiety stems from ignorance.

And that statement itself stems from ignorance. Most viruses are very adept at mutating to take advantage of the host that they find themselves in. It’s already clear that Influenza A H5N1 is capable of infecting humans, and every time it does is a new opportunity for the virus to learn how to become easily transmissible.

The risk of humans in europe becoming infected directly from animals is currently extremely small – this is true. The problem is what happens once H5N1 becomes established in the human population, and this is going to happen eventually. We need to prepare for when it [or any other new influenza genotype] does.