2004-01-24 - 5:06 p.m.
This quote from Medscape this week, courtesy of an interview with the Chair of Microbiology at the University of Phillipines regarding the Avian Flu:
"There is no protection from that new strain of influenza virus, so it's going to cause a big epidemic. The pandemics that occurred in the previous century, the 20th century, were really devastating, especially the Spanish flu. We had that in 1918 and 40 million died of that. We should worry. It kills. It kills."
This made us laugh a lot at work, picturing her overturning the table and running shrieking from the room. I think we can safely assume that someone missed the media training day at work.
If we'd had to issue that statement, the vast number of checks and bureaucratic filters it would have to pass through would probably have rendered it something like:
"Given the lack of certainty regarding prophylactic solutions, the potential exists for the current influenza strain to have serious implications. Historic precendent exists for incidence of such flus to have significant negative impact. The situation warrants monitoring, as undesirable outcomes, up to and including mortality, are possible."
This is my job. The removal of content, opinion, and any actual commitment to action from any situation that comes to the government's attention. Sigh.
