Financial Times Highlights Pandemic Concerns

Well, it appears that the media frenzy is just beginning. This morning, the FinancialTimes.com published an article on the growing concern for an avian flu pandemic. They quoted the director of the Center for Disease Control, who stated that more needs to be done to prepare the world for this potential pandemic, and that the risk for a pandemic is unusually high.

With the announcement made by U.S. President Bush last week, this is, I’m sure, the first of many more statements by science, business, government, and public policy leaders, as well as the first of many media articles.

If you are interested in reading the full text of the article, please click this link: World 'unprepared' for flu pandemic

If you are concerned by what you’ve read and what you’ve been hearing, please let us know your thoughts.

– Dan Sharp, President, RiSci (Flu Preparedness Team)

Popular Media Taking Note of Potential for Avian Flu Pandemic

With Thursday's episode of ABC's popular news show "Primetime Report," we are finally beginning to see mainstream media coverage of the growing threat of the avian flu pandemic. And, as strange as it may seem to say, it was heartening. Not heartening that we are facing a potential humanitarian and economic disaster, but that both the head of the World Health Organization and U.S. President Bush warned of the danger -- meaning that governments and public policy makers may finally do something about it and begin taking the needed steps to lessen the effects of the coming danger. After all, our worst enemy is an uninformed public, and, as a result, a complacent world.

If you want to read a little bit more about what ABC News had to say, I invite you to check out this link: Avian Flu: Is the Government Ready for an Epidemic?

– Norma Owen, President, Avadon (Flu Preparedness Team)