Bird Flu Profiteering Alive and Well
Can you believe all the hype surrounding so-called "bird flu"? It is quite a phenomenon. In a while it will be studied ad nauseam. Just imagine, people will probably get PhDs with such titles as "Media without bounds: An alalysis of the bird flu hype of 2005" or worse, "Bird flu hype: A postmodern analysis" or even "Bird Flu: A feminist perspective".
Yuk! I've had enough already.
The level of hype and plainly ridiculous speculation is astonishing. Make no mistake, we are witnessing a global phenomenon. It has little to do with avian influenza however. It is about money and power, but mainly money.
The vast sums of money being ripped from other needs to fund the retirements of drug company executives and their stock holders is amazing, and probably just beginning. This "bird flu" thing has done so well, it will be milked for a lot more yet. No doubt we will next see the sequel: Bird Flu 2.
What disgusts me though, is all the hangers on who are profiteering from this mess. We have the doomsday, chicken-little-sky-is-falling crowd feverishly running blogs and publishers frantically rushing utter rubbish to press.
Then there's all the people writing blogs and web pages so they can cash in on the profusion of Google adsense advertisements. And of course, every one of those ads reflects someone else attempting to profiteer from the pending disaster.
The only good thing about this is that at least some people seem to be able to recognize the over-hyped bird flu nonsense for what it is. Otherwise, why try to squeeze a fortune from the situation, if the flu is going to kill you anyway?
Time to wake up people. Birds may be facing an avian influenza pandemic but humans certainly are not.
Yuk! I've had enough already.
The level of hype and plainly ridiculous speculation is astonishing. Make no mistake, we are witnessing a global phenomenon. It has little to do with avian influenza however. It is about money and power, but mainly money.
The vast sums of money being ripped from other needs to fund the retirements of drug company executives and their stock holders is amazing, and probably just beginning. This "bird flu" thing has done so well, it will be milked for a lot more yet. No doubt we will next see the sequel: Bird Flu 2.
What disgusts me though, is all the hangers on who are profiteering from this mess. We have the doomsday, chicken-little-sky-is-falling crowd feverishly running blogs and publishers frantically rushing utter rubbish to press.
Then there's all the people writing blogs and web pages so they can cash in on the profusion of Google adsense advertisements. And of course, every one of those ads reflects someone else attempting to profiteer from the pending disaster.
The only good thing about this is that at least some people seem to be able to recognize the over-hyped bird flu nonsense for what it is. Otherwise, why try to squeeze a fortune from the situation, if the flu is going to kill you anyway?
Time to wake up people. Birds may be facing an avian influenza pandemic but humans certainly are not.
posted by Dr Peter Tylee at
11:59 am
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