My understanding is that there is no effective vaccine yet for bird flu. But it is not a big problem because the only people who are catching the disease so far are people who were in close proximity to poultry that had the disease.
The big fear is that the virus will mutate and acquire the ability to transmit human to human. If this occurs, we have a BIG problem that might kill thousands of people before it can be gotten under control with a vaccine.
So the big question is whether or not the virus will mutate to a form that is capable of human-to-human transmission. Nobody has the answer to that question. It may never happen or it may happen tomorrow. Beware of anybody who speculates on the probability.
Well there is no current vaccine for H5N1 from bird to human and I would doubt that doctors are rushing to find a cure. However doctors and scientists and pharmaceutical have constantly said that if the virus mutates to infect human to human all they would need is a sample of that virus and they could instantly create a vaccine, the pharmaceutical groups have also agreed the in the case of human to human transmission and a vaccine being created they would all work together to get as much vaccine as possible to the public.
lodgebo said this in post #32 : However doctors and scientists and pharmaceutical have constantly said that if the virus mutates to infect human to human all they would need is a sample of that virus and they could instantly create a vaccine,
That may be true. I simply don't know. However, I think that I have heard over and over that if it jumps to human-to-human transmission, it will take months to develop a vaccine. This would be the doomsday scenario precisely because a vaccine would not be available to stop it.
Russia is a member of G8 because it supplies many european countries with natural gas. Western leaders have to disregard many troubling signals coming from Russia, especially when it comes to democracy in terms of freedom of speech, personal safety, political freedom, as well as corruption and ongoing war, in the name of own energy security. However, Russia poses no threat whatsoever to US or EU or any other country at the moment. Economically it's still very under-developed and militarily they stand on their knees, frankly. They do have a lot of nukes and they have developed new nuclear bombs in the last few years. Those bombs and missiles used with them are able to penetrate the newest american missile defense systems, because one missile breaks into several smaller ones, each of them carrying a warhead and confusing defense systems. Building new warheads after losing in Cold War is kinda stupid but it really is not, if we take certain military officials' personal needs into account. Reforming the military means losing the stable flow of illegal income, which is made possible by current situation. Any positive development is against the wishes of generals, who, for example, want to use the soldiers, who are basically deprived of all rights for 2 years, as a free labour force and source of bribes from parents who dont want their children to go thru hell. It is easier to blame america for this and that (note: "america" is not capitalised because i am referring to an abstract entity representing an enemy, chief among which is US itself) than admitting problems and trying to deal with them. Thanks to "enemies", these generals keep asking more money from the government, which is ofcourse stolen. Note: i heard about Pentagon not being able to provide proof of payment for a lot of expenses it has incurred, i have read an article somewhere, i think it was CNN. Bush has increased the military spending to record highs in the name of terrorism, for example, US has recently started using it's 12th seacarrier, which as far as i know is absolutely NOT needed to fight Osama Bin Laden, rather destroy whole armies, and even in that sense it backfired, because China has announced it's plans to build it's own carriers as a response to ongoing news from Pentagon.
Back to Russia: in short, there is something to worry about but not in the area of national security of western countries.
MrJukoVette said this in post #34 : Russia is a member of G8 because it supplies many european countries with natural gas. Western leaders have to disregard many troubling signals coming from Russia, especially when it comes to democracy in terms of freedom of speech, personal safety, political freedom, as well as corruption and ongoing war, in the name of own energy security. However, Russia poses no threat whatsoever to US or EU or any other country at the moment. Economically it's still very under-developed and militarily they stand on their knees, frankly. They do have a lot of nukes and they have developed new nuclear bombs in the last few years. Those bombs and missiles used with them are able to penetrate the newest american missile defense systems, because one missile breaks into several smaller ones, each of them carrying a warhead and confusing defense systems. Building new warheads after losing in Cold War is kinda stupid but it really is not, if we take certain military officials' personal needs into account. Reforming the military means losing the stable flow of illegal income, which is made possible by current situation. Any positive development is against the wishes of generals, who, for example, want to use the soldiers, who are basically deprived of all rights for 2 years, as a free labour force and source of bribes from parents who dont want their children to go thru hell. It is easier to blame america for this and that (note: "america" is not capitalised because i am referring to an abstract entity representing an enemy, chief among which is US itself) than admitting problems and trying to deal with them. Thanks to "enemies", these generals keep asking more money from the government, which is ofcourse stolen. Note: i heard about Pentagon not being able to provide proof of payment for a lot of expenses it has incurred, i have read an article somewhere, i think it was CNN. Bush has increased the military spending to record highs in the name of terrorism, for example, US has recently started using it's 12th seacarrier, which as far as i know is absolutely NOT needed to fight Osama Bin Laden, rather destroy whole armies, and even in that sense it backfired, because China has announced it's plans to build it's own carriers as a response to ongoing news from Pentagon.
Back to Russia: in short, there is something to worry about but not in the area of national security of western countries.
***Yes but why put out that the USA is behind avian flu? That would be global biological warfare and quite honestly any nation caught doing something like that could get nuked in retaliation. And I would support that.
*** I've never really feared nukes from third world dictators... they're too cheap to spend the money. It's germ warfare and the Anthrax attack after 9/11 should have us looking hard at the origins of bird flu strains.
***That Russian leaders would publicly blame the USA for releasing germ warfare is astonishing.
Well I have laready said that IMO it is just the mindset that older Russians have, I would be shocked if the majority of Russians even paid any attention to this claim.
We should remember that this guy is not a " Leader of Russia" just an opposition MP I mean if Putin or Putins party had said it that would be a diffrent case completly.
Hi Sayzak, hi all. I have been busy for the past few months, not much free time to browse the net. I did read thru Inreview a few times but never had a chance to post.
I agree with logdebo, the communists are desperately trying to gain political support and their idiotic claims dont affect Russia-US relations in any way.
lodgebo said this in post #37 : Well I have laready said that IMO it is just the mindset that older Russians have, I would be shocked if the majority of Russians even paid any attention to this claim.
***And I have already said that it is not Russians that are supposed to believe "The Lie"
We should remember that this guy is not a " Leader of Russia" just an opposition MP I mean if Putin or Putins party had said it that would be a diffrent case completly.
***Oh... Sorry I thought it was a member of the Russian government. Just what is an MP? military police or what?
Well we know an MP is a member of Parliment but being an MP does not make you a leader of the country the job is the PM. You see you appeared to be getting your MP's and PM's mixed when you typed this:
03-21-2006 07:59 PM
