From
Bush's speech today on the potential flu pandemic
While avian flu has not yet acquired the ability to spread easily from human to human, there is still cause for vigilance. The virus has developed some characteristics needed to cause a pandemic: It has demonstrated the ability to infect human beings, and it has produced a fatal illness in humans. If the virus were to develop the capacity for sustained human-to-human transmission, it could spread quickly across the globe.
so....over sucessive generations an organism develops a new capacity as a result of genetic variation
ev·o·lu·tion, n. : Change in the genetic composition of a population during successive generations, as a result of natural selection acting on the genetic variation among individuals, and resulting in the development of new species.
more below the fold
From
NYT Aug 31, 2005
President Bush joined the debate on Aug. 2, telling reporters that both evolution and the theory of intelligent design should be taught in schools ''so people can understand what the debate is about.''
Intelligent design, a descendant of creationism, is the belief that life is so intricate that only a supreme being could have designed it.
So Bush seems to be saying we need to prepare because the supreme being may just say "Hey that flu thing worked so well with the chickens how about I give it a try in the humans"
But perhaps I am too jaded because to me his statements regarding the flu pandemic appear all too familiar
First the mushroom cloud prediction:
Our country has been given fair warning of this danger to our homeland -- and time to prepare. It's my responsibility as President to take measures now to protect the American people...
Fight it over there so we don't have to sneeze here:
The first part of our strategy is to detect outbreaks before they spread across the world. In the fight against avian and pandemic flu, early detection is our first line of defense..... So we're taking immediate steps to ensure early warning of an avian or pandemic flu outbreak among animals or humans anywhere in the world.
A coalition of the willing:
A flu pandemic would have global consequences, so no nation can afford to ignore this threat, and every nation has responsibilities to detect and stop its spread.
Here comes a new Homeland Security:
Here in the United States, we're doing our part. To strengthen domestic surveillance, my administration is launching the National Bio-surveillance Initiative.
Get out your duct tape:
To respond to a pandemic, the American people need to have information to protect themselves and others. In a pandemic, an infection carried by one person can be transmitted to many other people, and so every American must take personal responsibility for stopping the spread of the virus. To provide Americans with more information about pandemics, we're launching a new website, pandemicflu.gov.
What about the no bid Halliburton contracts you ask...wait for it:
...I am asking Congress for a billion dollars to stockpile additional antiviral medications, so that we have enough on hand to help treat first responders and those on the front lines, as well as populations most at risk in the first stages of a pandemic.
CIA leak? What CIA leak....Fluie your doing a heck of a job...now let's raise that pandemic terror level to red!