OH MY GOD THE SKY IS FALLING

And now we hear an allegation of 300 bird flu deaths in China, where seven cases were caused by human-to-human transmission:

But Masato Tashiro, head of virology at Tokyo’s National Institute of Infectious Disease – a WHO-collaborating centre for bird flu – told the meeting of virologists in Marburg, Germany, on 19 November that “we have been systematically deceived”. His comments were reported in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

He told the stunned meeting, called to mark the retirement of a senior German virologist, that there have been “several dozen” outbreaks in people, 300 confirmed deaths and 3000 people placed in isolation with suspected cases.

Seeing what happened with SARS doesn’t, sadly, make this completely implausible.

“These rumours have been investigated, and we’ve been told by the Chinese Ministry of Health that there’s no foundation to them,” Dick Thompson, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, told New Scientist.

Once again, SARS! We were systematically deceived only 2.5 years ago!! Has the WHO not learned that China has not learned??!!

Virologists consider the relative absence of human cases of bird flu in China unusual, given its widespread infection in birds. China has reported poultry outbreaks in twenty counties all across the country since mid-October, the latest being on Thursday.

AAAAUUUUGGGHHHH!!!!! We are, like, totally doomed.

Update: a comment from Will worth promoting to the front page — a post on ESWN tackling the story with a little more research: The Masato Tashiro Statement.

What happened the new openness after SARS?

After pledging openness about SARS to prevent another mass outbreak a couple of years ago, Beijing is now pledging renewed openness about H5N1 infections:

Bird flu outbreaks have to be reported to the State Council, or cabinet, within four hours of being discovered by regional governments, and fines of up to 5,000 yuan ($620) can be levied for obstructing prevention work or refusing to comply.

Expect more candid reports and discussions of politically-sensitive topics as the Chinese government opens up.

(I jest, of course.)

And in the ‘No shit, Sherlock’ category, Sian Griffiths, director of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health at the Chinese University, dispenses common sense advice to those panicking and stockpiling Tamiflu: cover your nose and mouth when you sneeze, and remember to wash your hands thoroughly. It’s called hygiene, people.

SARS discovery

Scientists may have found a key to treating SARS and other acute respiratory illnesses.

SARS? What SARS?

SARS victims in Beijing are left to cover the crippling costs of medical care, with the government doing nothing to help.

Pure as the driven snow

The doctor who blew the whistle on China’s SARS epidemic has been detained for writing a letter to the party leadership, urging them to admit that what they did at Tiananmen in 1989 was wrong:

The security officials have forced Jiang to write daily statements and watch videotapes as part of the indoctrination process, sources familiar with the situation said, and they have scrutinized his datebook and other materials for information to use against him. One source described the process as a milder version of the high-pressure, sometimes violent tactics that Chinese security agents have successfully used to force members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement to give up their beliefs.

On June 15, several hours after CNN broadcast a telephone interview with the couple’s daughter, Jiang Rui, and the Associated Press moved an interview with their son, Jiang Qing, the authorities released Hua. She immediately urged both children to stop talking to reporters, saying she had been told that Jiang’s fate would depend in part on their silence, sources close to the family said.

Hua did not return phone calls to her home. One person close to the family said the 72-year-old retired research doctor is terrified and appears to have been traumatized by her experience. Military officials visit her every day to remind her not to speak to reporters, the person said.

Yesterday, I linked to a rant claiming China’s faboo and all the bad press it receives is out of jealousy. I find it hard to locate a motivation for making this up. Maybe the evil West is jealous that China attempts brainwashing with a better success rate.

(From The Agonist.)

A SARS vaccine?

It’s going under testing in China. So they get to be first if it’s successful. Which is good, since they let the disease get so far out of hand in the first place. And if it isn’t successful and the ‘dead’ version wakes up, they’ve infected their own citizens with SARS.

Goll-y.