As I watched my DVD of Alfred Hitchcock's "The
Birds," I was reminded of the current fear of avian
bird flu. The so-called impending epidemic has taken
over as a major health priority, even though it has
caused few documented human deaths.
Does this constitute a pandemic? Hardly. But you
would never know that from the daily headlines about the
killing of thousands of chickens and other poultry when
one or two birds test positive for the H5N1 avian
influenza virus.
The result of this media frenzy has shoved more
important, and more dangerous, pandemics down the list,
resulting in funding cuts. Malnutrition, malaria and
HIV/AIDS have suddenly become things of the past,
despite the fact that deaths and infections from those
have reached every part of the globe.
In 2005, President Bush approved more than $3 billion
for the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The World Health
Organization was to provide the remaining funding, more
than $5 billion. But the WHO failed to reach its goal of
treating 3 billion people in 2005. Only a little more
than a million people are being treated.
What happened?
Avian flu and bioterrorism have taken a front seat.
Bush approved more than $1 billion in contracts to
vaccine manufacturers to upgrade flu vaccine technology
over the next five years.
Bush has also proposed to cut HIV/AIDS research by
$15 million, while increasing funding for the study of
bird flu and maintaining Project Bioshield, a $5.6
billion anti-terrorism project that is supposed to
provide medical countermeasures against a chemical,
biological, radiological or nuclear attack. This
wasteful project spent more than $1 billion on the
manufacture of 75 million doses of anthrax vaccine,
despite the fact that anthrax is not contagious and has
not recurred since the 22 cases in 2001, thought to be
linked to terrorism.
This leaves little emphasis on the health conditions
that such funding dollars could address. Malnutrition
and a lack of clean water and proper public sewage feed
diseases such as malaria and schistosomiasis - also
known as snail fever - which could be wiped out
globally. The funding that is being wasted on the bird
flu has yet to even prove human-to-human transmission of
the disease.
Additionally, there's the issue of the need for
widespread immunizations for childhood diseases in Third
World countries. This has been taken over by Bill Gates,
the private computer magnate, because of complete lack
of government interest and funding. Without the
generosity of Gates, there would be millions of
unnecessary child deaths.
Instead of throwing money at what-ifs, America should
be staying the course with real health issues that have
proven their deadliness if they aren't given top
priority.
There's enough to panic about in this world. Why add
more?
McKee, a wheelchair user, is a freelance writer
and producer. You can e-mail her at chairgrrl@chairgrrl.com.
