11/30/2005

Growth of the bird flu

I’m sure that everyone has heard of the bird flu and its progression around the world. In a Wall Street Journal article the Bush administration, along with many other countries, is campaigning to get people to prepare for an outbreak. A WHO official warned that there are "black holes" in the international network for monitoring the spread of bird flu. Alan Hay, the director of the WHO's influenza-reference center, said some countries lack adequate monitoring systems while others are reluctant to share information, the Scotsman reported. I certainly hope that with a world cooperation this and the next possible pandemic will turn out like the sars cases several years ago.

4 comments:

pramahaphil said...

I've got a joke for you:

What are the major symptoms of Bird flu?

Fever, body aches, and an uncontrolable urge to crap on a windsheild.

I just though that I'd make a lame conribution to the discussion.

Dr. Tufte said...

-1 on Frank's comment - since this could have been included in the post (for which you did get credit).

Dr. Tufte said...

Phil: what a way to end the semester.

Have you ever heard the one ...

P.S. Phil is still posting a year after he took ECON 3010

Dr. Tufte said...

-1 on Frank's post for not capitalizing an acronym.

Avian flu is something that can be very problematic for an economy to deal with.

Disasters that might occur but do so on a schedule are usually appropriately dealt with - think Y2K.

But disasters that don't occur on a timetable cause trouble, because they can't be fully prepared for.

On top of this, there is a public good problem here. Poor countries can't be excluded from the benefits of rich countries fighting avian flu. This means that it isn't in the best interest of the rich countries to provide full protection.

On the whole, this is a problem to be very worried about.