Welp, it’s finally happened. Human transmission of avian influenza has been confirmed. The article (and perhaps WHO) are downplaying the significance of this, but other people have been trying to sound the alarm for a while now. This virus is active and mutating, and it’s probably not too long (at least, in mutation terms) before it finds a more effective human to human tranmission means.
Will this be our great flu epidemic? I think that’s still hard to say. But what I do know is that our ability to handle massive epidemics is not good, and there are few plans in place for how to effectively do it. I mean, can you imagine what would happen if the government attempted to quarantine, say, Seattle? Yeah.
Whether we want to admit it or not, another flu pandemic is going to happen, and it’s not as though the virus is going to say “oh, look, they have their heads in the sand! we’ll just ignore them, then…”